It was obvious at a glance that Hoyt had made no effort to coordinate his interior decor with the Italian influence of the Palladium. In fact, as far as Luke could tell, there was no particular design motif to the space at all, unless Workaholic Political Aide qualified as a decorating style.
Luke counted four lines on the landline phone. Hoyt had another phone clipped to his belt. There was a fax machine in one corner and a copier in another. Most of the walls were covered with newspaper and magazine clippings featuring shots of Webb with various VI Ps.
Irene came to a halt in the center of the cluttered living room and shoved her hands into the pockets of her trench coat.
“We want to know what you and Pamela argued about on the day before we found her body” she said.
Hoyt looked at her as though she had just turned into an alien life form before his very eyes. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“We know you went to see her in Dunsley.” Luke made his way to the nearest wall and studied a photo of Ryland Webb emerging from a museum. Alexa Douglass and a young girl of about nine accompanied Webb. He glanced back over his shoulder.
“We know you quarreled.”
Hoyt went rigid. Luke could almost see him running scenarios in his head, deciding how to deal with this unexpected problem.
“You can’t prove that,” Hoyt said.
“Dunsley is a very small town.” Irene smiled thinly. “Did you really think you could visit a member o he town’s most high-profile family in the middle of the day and not be seen by someone?”
“No one there knows me or my car,” he said automatically. It seemed to dawn on him that might not sound like the remark of an innocent man. “1 wasn’t trying to sneak around, damnit. All right, it’s non f your business, but I did drive up there to talk to her that day. You can’t make anything out of that.
I sure as hell wasn’t anywhere near Dunsley when she OD’d. She was fine when I left her.”
“What did you and Pamela argue about?” Irene asked.
Hoyt’s jaw flexed. “Why should I tell you?”
Luke looked at him. “Thing is, if you don’t tell us why you quarreled with her, we’re going to come t ur own conclusions and some of those conclusions may wind up in Irene’s newspaper. You reall ant that to happen?”
“You trying to scare me, Danner?”
Luke spread his hands. “Well, sure. Seems like the best way to get answers. Got a better idea?”
Irene scowled. “That’s enough, both of you. Hoyt, please, it’s important. I need to know what you and Pamela argued about.”
“Why? So you can try to pin her death on me? Forget it.”
She watched him thoughtfully. “You had an affair with her, didn’t you?”
Hoyt hesitated. Once again Luke could see him doing mental calculations.
“We were an item for a while,” he said slowly. “No more than a few weeks. It was no secret. Wha bout it?”
“Pamela called it off, didn’t she?” Irene said, her voice softening. “When she was a teen, it was always Pamela who ended things. I doubt that she changed much in that regard.”
Hoyt’s face turned a dull red. For a couple of seconds Luke thought he was going to explode. Instea e seemed to deflate.
“I guess I knew going in that it wouldn’t last long,” Hoyt said wearily. “Hell, I’ve worked for Webb for nearly two years. I’d seen Pamela in action. I knew the pattern.
But like every other man who go ulled into her orbit, I thought I was different.” He shook his head. “She was like a light fixture. Whe he wanted you, she turned herself on and glowed for you. When she got bored, she turned herself off. Left you standing in the dark wondering what had happened.”
“When did she end your relationship?” Irene asked.
“Couple of days before she went to Dunsley.” His mouth tightened. “She didn’t give me any warning.
We attended a fund-raiser together that evening. I took her home thinking that we were going to go to bed. She stopped at the door of her apartment and told me it had been fun but that it was over. Sai ood night and shut the door in my face. I was stunned, if you want to know the truth.”
“What did you do?” Luke asked.
“What does any man do in a situation like that? I came back here and poured myself a large glass of scotch. The next day I tried calling her. There was no answer at her home here in the city. I finally tried the lake house. She answered the phone, but she made it clear she wasn’t going to change her mind.”
“But you drove up to the lake to see her, anyway” Irene said.
“For all the good it did.” Hoyt went to the window and shoved his hands into his pockets. “She tol e to go back to San Francisco. Said she had things to do.”
“What kind of things?” Irene asked.
Hoyt grunted and turned away toward the window. “I suppose she was doing whatever people do when they plan to commit suicide.”
“You think the overdose was intentional, then?” Luke asked. “Not an accident?”
Hoyt shook his head. “How the hell should I know? I’m guessing it was intentional mostly because I can’t see Pamela making a mistake of that magnitude with the pills and the booze. She’d been managing her little addiction problem for years. Why screw up now?”
“Did you realize that she might be planning suicide when you left her that day?” Irene asked.
“Of course not.” Hoyt scowled. “If I’d had an inkling that she intended to take her own life, I woul ave done something.”
Irene studied him. “Such as?”
Hoyt took one hand out of his pocket and swept it to the side. “I would have called her father, for starters. Webb would have contacted Pamela’s doctor. I’m sure they would have worked out a schem o get Pamela into a private clinic. But I swear I didn’t realize that she was in a suicidal state of mind when I left her. I thought she’d grown tired of me and was getting ready to move on to someone else. Like I said, that was her pattern.”
Irene’s dark brows drew tightly together. “Did you ask her if she was seeing someone new?”
“Sure. She said she wasn’t. Said she was taking a little break. That’s it. I left and drove back here. Next thing I know, Webb is phoning me at three o’clock in the morning telling me that he’s just had a call from the chief of police in Dunsley. He told me that Pamela was dead and that we had to make arrangements to pick up the body, organize a funeral and meet with Chief McPherson.” Hoyt gave Irene an accusing glare. “After that I did my job; I focused one hundred percent on trying to keep Pamela’s death a private family matter.”