Page 57 of The Lie Maker

So, today, while Knight would have preferred to have gotten into her car and had some chowder on the run before she went to her next stop, she was willing to make time for Lana.

“Hey,” she said.

“Got a sec?”

“Get in. I want to eat this while it’s hot.”

Lana circled to the passenger side as Knight got behind the wheel, resting the chowder atop the dash while she took a plastic spoon, some napkins, and a small packet of oyster crackers from a paper bag. She pried the lid off the chowder, poured the crackers in, stirred them around with the spoon. Lana didn’t say a word during the process. Knight appeared to be involved in a kind of sacred ritual.

Once she had put the first spoonful into her mouth, she looked at Lana and said, “Shoot.”

“You got called in on both of those drownings, right?” Lana asked. “The judge and the doctor.”

Knight had another bite of chowder. “Mm.”

“Your media people are giving the impression that those cases are officially closed. Suicide or misadventure in both cases. Am I right about that?”

Knight didn’t say anything for a moment, then gave a noncommittal shrug. “More or less.”

“More or less?”

“Yeah, more or less.”

“You don’t think it’s a coincidence? Two prominent people like that, both going into the harbor within a few days?”

“Happens.” Knight paused.

Suddenly, Lana sneezed.

“Shit, you nearly napalmed my chowder,” Knight said.

“Sorry, allergies. Anything about those two deaths seem strange to you? With Bentley, he had to stray a long ways from his neighborhood to end up in the water. And if that doctor wanted to kill herself, there were plenty of ways for her to do it that would have been a lot less painful.”

“I should have got more crackers. They never give you enough crackers.”

“I admit, it’s not much,” Lana said. “I hate coincidences, that’s all.”

“They happen all the time.”

“If there’s anyone I know who hates coincidences, it’s you.”

Knight shrugged.

“So you’d go on the record as saying there’s nothing in common about those two incidents.”

Knight shot her a look. “Is this an actual interview?”

“It is, starting now. You’re saying there’s nothing that links these two deaths?”

“No comment.”

Lana’s eyebrows popped up. “That sounds like a yes.”

“No, that sounds like a no comment.”

“So if I write a story, when I get to the part where I ask the police if they’re looking into this, the answer is no comment, which sounds like the police are looking into this.”

“Look, investigations take time to wrap up, that’s all.”