Blood Passage by Michael J. McCann Page B

to be on his feet for extra leverage. Meredith Collier leaned back against a green filing cabinet, folded her arms and crossed her ankles. Hank’s pulse jumped again and he looked at Karen.
    She rolled her eyes at him. She looked at Meredith, decided that she didn’t like being below the eye level of the person she was interviewing, and stood up, sliding the little stool back out of the way with her foot.
    “ Thanks for taking the time to see us, Ms. Collier,” she began. “We’ll try not to take very long.”
    “ What’s this all about?” She looked at Hank. “You said on the phone you wanted to ask me questions about my late son.”
    “ That’s right,” Karen said. “We have a couple of questions about your son’s activities before his death.”
    “ Why? I mean, why now? Has something happened? Has new information come to light?”
    “ We’ll get to that in a moment,” Karen said. “We understand you met with a student from Memphis named Josh Duncan, is that correct?”
    “ Duncan?” Meredith frowned. “Yes, that’s right.”
    “ When was that, Ms. Collier?”
    “ This Saturday just gone by.”
    “ What did you talk to him about?”
    “ He explained the research he was doing, something related to reincarnation. He wanted to know how often I visited with my late husband’s cousin Grace and her family, if I’d spent much time with their little boy, Taylor.”
    “ And you said….”
    “ That I never see them. I’ve never seen the boy.” She glanced at Hank. “I don’t have anything at all to do with my late husband’s family. The last time I saw Grace was at Stephen’s funeral and that was for ten seconds while she expressed her condolences. The boy was at a babysitter’s, so I didn’t see him then. I was never very close to anyone in Stephen’s family, and once he was gone there was nothing there. I sold the house and let all the former connections drop.”
    Hank tore his eyes from a large colorful illustration of the autonomic nervous system on the wall behind Meredith. “Do you ever go by the name Merry?”
    “ Only with family and very close friends.”
    When I was Martin you didn’t like my mama because her name was Merry and she had blue eyes. And I had green eyes.
    Hank looked into those blue eyes now and tried to smile. “What else did you and Josh talk about?”
    “ He asked me if I’d be willing to meet with the child. He said the child seemed to be recalling memories associated with Martin. There was something about him saying his name was Martin, and this Josh wanted me to meet with Taylor and see whether it would spark any other memories.”
    “ What was your reaction to his request?”
    “ I refused.” She spread her hand flat on her thigh and arched it so that she could look at her nails. “I found the whole thing rather absurd and unpleasant. Frankly, I’m surprised that Michael Chan would go along with it.” She frowned at Hank. “Why are you interested in what I may or may not have said to this student?”
    “ He was assaulted in Chinatown on Monday,” Karen said. “Someone else didn’t like him poking around your son’s murder. You talk to anyone about Duncan’s visit afterwards? Maybe pass the word along that he was trying to stir things up?”
    Hank watched Meredith look at Karen quizzically, as though not understanding the reason for her aggressive tone, before a different set of emotions passed across her face that Hank could see in the softening of her eyes, the parting of her lips and the gradual disappearance of the little frown lines across her forehead.
    “ My circle of friends is very small, Detective, and I don’t discuss the past with them. No, I didn’t talk to anyone about his visit. I thought it would be better to try to forget about it. I’m very sorry he was assaulted. Was he badly hurt?”
    “ Concussion,” Karen said. “Some abrasions and contusions. He was kicked around by someone with cowboy boots.”
    Meredith winced.