Delusion in Death (In Death 35)

“This is bullshit.” Callaway jabbed a finger into the table. “As I’ve been telling Doctor Mira, you’ve obviously got me confused with someone else. I’ve never heard of this Menzini person. My maternal grandfather was a decorated military officer, Captain Edward Gregory Hubbard. I can verify that. I demand to contact my parents. It’s my right to have communication.”

“Not once you’re charged with terrorism.” Eve shrugged as she sat. “We can hold you for forty-eight hours without communication or representation. It sucks, but that’s how it plays.”

“If there’s been a mistake”—Mira lifted her hands—“it would save time, and any additional stress to Mr. Callaway if you arranged for his parents to come here. If you spoke with them to verify his parentage.”

“I won’t have my family subjected to interrogation by incompetent police and witch-hunting government agents.” Callaway folded his arms. “I’ll wait. I have nothing to say for the next forty-eight hours.”

“Okay. You can just listen. We can and will run DNA tests to prove Menzini’s your grandfather.”

“Go ahead! I welcome it.”

“And once we do that, you’re not just cooked, you’re served up with tasty side dishes. How did you know about Red Horse?”

Like a child, he turned his head away, stared at the wall.

“Because it’s interesting you’d bring up Red Horse in connection with the killings as Menzini headed one of the sects during the Urbans. Menzini was a chemist, more self-taught than educated. And completely bat-shit. He created a substance that caused violent delusions, extreme paranoia. The same substance you used at On the Rocks and Café West.”

She let it hang, said nothing. Silence ticked, ticked, ticked as she kept her gaze steady and cool on his averted face.

He shifted in his chair. “I’m not a damn chemist. I can’t make something like that even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

“How did you know about Red Horse?”

“My grandfather served during the Urbans. I’ve heard stories.”

“He died before you were born.”

“They’ve been passed down. And I’ve familiarized myself with some of the battles he was in. He fought this Red Horse cult. When you mentioned religious fanatics, that came to mind. It’s that simple.”

“But Menzini was never mentioned in this family history?”

“I’ve never heard the name before today.”

“That’s pretty strange, Lew, seeing as he’s your mother’s biological father.”

“That’s utter nonsense. If you had any brain at all, you’d have checked her birth records.”

“Oh, I had enough brain to do that. With enough left over to ask her face-to-face.”

Now his head came around, fast. “What did you say?”

“It’s really more what she said. I get you didn’t want us to speak to her or your father, but, hey, I’m just bullheaded that way.”

“Obviously you frightened and intimidated her. She’s not a strong woman. She’s frail, emotionally. You coerced her.”

“That would be your method. Here’s the thing—the break I’m going to give you right here and now. You can keep denying knowledge, figuring when the truth comes out, you stick to being unaware. Nobody ever told you.”

She waited a beat, gave him time to calculate. “That’s one way. Or you can admit you found out, discovered the documents your mother told me about. The shock of that sent you into a tailspin. Why, your family lied to you, and your grandfather, rather than being a decorated war hero turns out to be some homicidal lunatic mass murderer and child abductor. A religious looney on top of it. He might get mentally impaired out of that line, right, Doctor Mira?”

“The shock alone …” Shaking her head, Mira trailed off.

“It could work to your advantage.”

“I want to speak with my mother.”

“Not going to happen, Lew.”

“A mother testifying against a son,” Teasdale said quietly. “The weight of that testimony wi