“Just to get this straight, we don’t have to tell you jack shit,” barked Ekman.
“And how did you find out about that?” asked Shoemaker, leaning forward and drilling Devine with a hard stare.
“I got the name of the doctor from Mrs. Ewes. I called him. He told me.”
“And why would he do that?”
“Because he thought you guys were trying to pin the murder on me.”
Shoemaker sat back and said, “And we understand Stamos came to visit you at your place in Mount Kisco. You two had another argument.”
Shit, how could they have found that out? Helen Speers?
“She did come out to my place, but we didn’t have an argument. We just talked.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Sara.”
“What about Ewes?”
“Just chitchat.”
“Devine, you are one inch from being arrested for obstruction,” exclaimed Shoemaker. “So you better consider your next answer really carefully. What did you discuss about Ewes?”
“Stamos said that she also knew I wasn’t the father of Ewes’s baby. She didn’t come out and say it, but reading between the lines she knew that Ewes had gone the artificial insemination route.”
Ekman shot his partner a look. “Wait a minute, from all we learned those ladies were rivals at the firm. Why would they be talking about babies and such?”
Devine decided to just tell the truth. He could tell he was close to being put in jail, and he couldn’t very well do much from there.
“Stamos told me that she and Ewes . . . that they were in love.”
Devine expected both detectives to blow up at him.
Instead, Shoemaker cracked a smile. “Finally, we get some truth out of you.”
“What do you mean by that?” said Devine curiously. “Did you find something to back up what I just told you?”
“Stamos’s place has been searched. Electronics all gone. Phone and computer are probably at the bottom of the Hudson by now.”
“Did you find something online then? Instagram, Facebook?”
“No, we checked all that. There was nothing.”
“Not surprising,” said Devine. “There’re rules against employees seeing each other.”
He thought for a moment about Stamos and Cowl, but he really wasn’t an employee.
Shoemaker said, “But we talked to one of Stamos’s sisters. Apparently she’d confided in her.”
“So you know I’m telling the truth, then?”
“Just about that, Devine. But there’s a lot about you that neither one of us likes.”
“Well, when that becomes a crime, be sure to let me know.”
CHAPTER
62
DEVINE LEFT WORK AROUND EIGHT and headed to check in with the Eweses. They might go back to New Zealand anytime now. Ellen Ewes had made it clear that she loathed the city. And he wanted to find out if they knew about Stamos and their daughter. Or about Sara’s being artificially inseminated. Ellen Ewes hadn’t mentioned that fact. She hadn’t really said whether she knew her daughter was pregnant before the police had told her. She was just furious about the termination of that pregnancy. Devine wanted to ask her directly. She struck him as the sort that kept a lot back.
He got to the house and knocked, but there was no answer. He looked through the sidelight next to the door, but could see nothing.
“Mr. and Mrs. Ewes?” He knocked again, then tried the knob. It was unlocked.
Just like in the movies.
He pushed it open and poked his head in. “Hello, Ellen, Fred? It’s Travis Devine. I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.”
He went inside and closed the door behind him. “Hello? Anybody here?”
The place was dark, with the dim outside light being the only illumination.
He walked through the front room and peeked into the kitchen.
Nothing, although there were some dirty dishes in the sink and an empty coffee cup was on the table.
He walked toward the bedroom and looked in there. The bed was made and the bathroom was empty. His gaze lingered on the bed for a moment. It was there that he and Ewes had had sex. Once. And then she had broken it off. He thought she had found another guy.
But then to find out she and Stamos were in love? He shook his head. He’d had no inkling that Ewes had been gay or maybe bisexual. Yet she had obviously wanted a child. But then why go through all the steps necessary for artificial insemination and then terminate the pregnancy?
But now that he thought about it, the timing was off. The pregnancy had occurred before Devine had even met Ewes. If she and Stamos were going to have a baby together, why would Ewes sleep with him? They must have gotten together afterward.