Every Fifteen Minutes (44 page)

Eric also learned that Ren
é
e was close to her Uncle Pat, a slick-looking single lawyer in Philadelphia who practiced products liability law. He'd also seen that Ren
é
e seemed close to her parents, Margaret and Anthony Bevilacqua, particularly her father. Anthony Bevilacqua was reasonably active on Facebook, and his settings were public, concerning his fruit-importing business, the amateur running club he belonged to, and his activity in the Masons. He posted lots of photos of him and Ren
é
e, riding bicycles and running together, and Eric couldn't help identifying with the dad, as a suburban father who adored his daughter. Anthony was about Eric's height and had thick black hair, but he was more muscular, in bicycle shorts. Ren
é
e resembled her father in the nose and smile, as best as Eric could tell; many of the pictures of Anthony Bevilacqua were taken outside and he was wearing either sunglasses, a ball cap, or a bike helmet.

Eric went to Ren
é
e's mother Margaret's Facebook page, which was also privacy-protected, with far fewer friends than her father. The only group the mother belonged to was Knurses Who Knit, on the labor and delivery service at Lankenau Hospital, so Eric noted she was a nurse, though out of his system. He could only imagine that Ren
é
e's mother would probably die a little inside every time she helped deliver a new life. He thought of Leah Barry, his patient who had lost her child to stillbirth, agonizing every time HGH played their lullaby.

His landline rang again on his desk, bringing him out of his reverie, and he reached for the receiver. “Dr. Parrish here.”

“Dr. Parrish? This is Peg—”

“I have no comment.”

“I'm not a reporter and I need to speak with you.”

“I'm sorry, no, I can't—”

“Dr. Parrish, I'm Peg Bevilacqua. Ren
é
e Bevilacqua's mother.”

 

Chapter Fifty

Eric kept checking the window in his living room, to see when Stan from Enterprise Rent-A-Car came to pick him up and deliver his rental car. Ren
é
e's mother had wanted to meet him in person, but wouldn't say more. The press was camped out in front of the Bevilacqua house too, and they were going to meet at an out-of-the-way restaurant. He dreaded the prospect of facing her, but at the same time, hoped that he could get some information.

Eric spotted the beige Buick from Enterprise slowing in front of his house, so he hustled back through the house, headed for the office, and let himself out the back door. He locked it quickly and hurried down the driveway just as the Buick came to a stop at the curb. He sprinted for the car, but reporters realized what was going on and surged forward, cameras focused on him and shouting questions.

“Dr. Parrish, where are you going?” “Dr. Parrish, please give us a comment.” “Dr. Parrish, what happened inside the mall?” “Are you going to tell the police what you know about Max Jakubowski?” “What do you know about the Ren
é
e Bevilacqua murder?” “Do you want to give us a comment?” “Why did you take time off from HGH? How long are you taking off?” “Where are you going?”

“No comment!” Eric called to them, hustling down the driveway. Stan from Enterprise was already shifting into the passenger seat, as they had discussed, leaving the engine running. Some of the reporters turned around and ran to their cars, to give chase, but Eric made a beeline for the driver's seat, jumped in, slammed the door behind him, and sped off.

“Sweet!” Stan said, with a loopy grin. He was young, with spiky hair and diamond shaped earrings.

“Hold on.” Eric knew all the back roads, so he took a sharp left turn, then the first right turn, glancing into the rearview mirror. The reporters' cars hadn't caught up to him yet, so he took another sharp right turn into a random driveway and pulled all the way up to the house, hoping the hedges along the driveway would give cover for him.

“Nice!”

“Duck.” Eric slipped quickly out of view, and so did Stan, waiting. After a few moments, the reporters' cars sped down the street, passing the driveway.

“Bam! That was sick!”

“Thank you, I think.” Eric ascertained that no more reporters were following him, then pulled out of the driveway, and headed back to Enterprise. He dropped Stan off, thanked him, and made his way west, toward the suburbs farther from the city, passing into Downingtown, where he navigated the strip malls until he found the one he wanted, pulled into the parking lot, heading toward Tudy's, a small restaurant that served only breakfast and lunch.

He hurried to the restaurant, opened the glass door, and looked around. The walls were painted brown with white paneling, and the floors were of the same dark hardwood. It was tiny, maybe only fifteen tables, and few were occupied. He caught sight of Peg's curly red hair, a more strawberry-blonde shade than Ren
é
e's, skimming her shirt collar in back. She sat along the wall in a booth, facing away from the door, wearing a crisp white shirt and a pair of jeans.

Eric signaled to the approaching hostess that he was heading for a specific table, then walked over, stopping tableside before he sat down. “Hello, I'm Eric. You must be Peg.”

“Yes.” Peg glanced up, then gestured to the other side of the booth. “Please, sit down.”

“Thank you.” Eric slid into the booth and folded his hands in front of him. “I'm very, very sorry about the loss of your daughter. Please accept my deepest condolences.”

“Thank you.” Peg met his eye directly, though hers were puffy, bloodshot, and shot through with pain so deep that it seemed to dilute the otherwise pretty blue color of her irises to a paler hue, as if they'd been washed out by too many tears. Her nose was pert, turned up at the end, with just the faintest smattering of freckles, like Ren
é
e. Her skin was pale.

“Not at all, I'm glad you reached out to me.”

“I can't begin to tell you what a loss this is, for my husband and me.” Peg swallowed hard, and deep wrinkles bracketed her mouth, which formed a flat, tense line, like a rubber band stretched to the limit.

“I really am so sorry,” Eric said, speaking from the heart. He knew his voice carried the honest emotion he felt, so he just let it come.

“Are you a parent, Dr. Parrish?”

“Yes, I have a daughter, she's seven. And please, call me Eric.”

“Ren
é
e, is, was our only child. She was everything to us. My husband was especially close to her, she was a true daddy's girl.” Peg smiled just the slightest, bittersweet. “The two of them, they were two of a kind. They look so much alike, they acted so much alike. It's just too much for him, right now. I don't even know why I'm telling you this, maybe because I know you're a psychiatrist, you're used to listening to people. I know you work at HGH, I'm a nurse at Lankenau, so … we have that in common.”

“Yes, we do.” Eric didn't know exactly what to say, but just let her talk, knowing that she would find her way to the point.

“My husband is so upset, he's just beside himself. He won't get out of bed but he can't sleep. He cries so hard, its awful, awful. I had to call our doctor, we got him a sedative.” Peg shook her head slowly. “Anyway, he doesn't know I'm here. I told him I was going to spend some time with my sister. The reporters are out in front of our house, it's like they're camped there. The whole thing, it's a waking nightmare, it truly is. It's just beyond what anyone should ever bear.”

“I'm sure.” Eric didn't mention the press on his front lawn. His troubles were nothing compared to hers.

“We picked out Ren
é
e's casket, can you imagine. My daughter's casket. I will bury my beautiful daughter, and knowing what they do to her body in the autopsy, that makes it so much worse.”

“I'm sure.” Eric could feel her agony.

“Well.” Peg straightened in her chair, seeming to summon her strength. “I know you're wondering, I mean, I called you because I wanted to talk to you like a person, without lawyers or police, or anything like that. I'm not the kind of person to fall apart, or just do nothing, it's not my way. I feel as if it's a mother thing, maybe. Mothers, they take care. They act. They keep going, for Ren
é
e. You understand, as a dad.”

Eric nodded. “Yes.”

“So, I hoped that I could talk to you, parent to parent, and also with us both in the medical profession, I mean, I think we understand each other. We both want to help people, we take care of people, that's what we do, right?”

“Yes, right, exactly.” Eric managed a smile that he knew looked pained, because that was the way he felt.

“Anyway, I know I'm not that coherent, I'm just so tired out.” Peg rubbed her face with her index finger and thumb, leaving pinkish welts on her fair skin.

“I saw you on TV, and they showed you in front of the police station, and we saw everything that happened at the mall last night.”

Eric didn't say anything, waiting for her to finish.

“And of course we followed everything else that the Upper Merion Police said, and Captain Newmire.” Peg hesitated. “Anyway, the more I think about it, it doesn't make sense to me that you would kill Ren
é
e.”

“No, of course not.” Eric felt a wave of relief. “I didn't, I promise you. I did not harm your daughter. I would never do such a thing. It's absolutely out of the question.”

“You didn't know her, did you?”

“No, I did not know her.” Eric looked over as a young waitress approached, at the least opportune moment. “I'll just have a Diet Coke, that's all.”

Peg looked over, unsmiling. “Me too, that's it.”

The waitress nodded, getting the message. “Thanks, folks. Sorry to interrupt. Be right back.”

Peg waited until the waitress was out of earshot, then picked up where she had left off. “Right, sure, that's what I thought. I mean, that would be the
least
likely conclusion to draw, that you killed her. I asked around about you, I talked to people at work. They've heard of you, they say you're very respected, a nice man, a good psychiatrist. You have no reason to kill Ren
é
e. Obviously, I think it's much more likely that it was Max, and you're Max's psychiatrist, and that you know information, he told you something about her.”

Eric listened to her talk, her voice deep and calm, and though he sensed where she was going, he didn't interrupt her. In any event, he knew that he wasn't going to be able to give her the answer she wanted, if she asked him directly. So he was in absolutely no hurry to get there. It was as if he had to break her heart, in person.

“I'm going to be totally honest with you. Ren
é
e told me, rather she told my husband while they were running, that she thought Max had a crush on her. She liked him, too. Not in that way, but she told her father that Max definitely had a crush on her, she knew it from the first time he tutored her.”

Eric said nothing, just told himself to listen, not react.

“She was never really worried about Max, she
never
thought he would do her any harm, but she was young, na
ï
ve. My husband and I, we're guessing he hid it pretty well. That all the time, he was planning to kill her.”

Eric forced himself not to respond.

The waitress approached with two Diet Cokes, which she set down on the table. “Here we go. Feel free to let me know if you want anything to eat. Thanks.”

Eric nodded at her. “Thank you, we will.”

After the waitress had left, Peg continued, “We heard Captain Newmire say that you have information about who killed Ren
é
e and that you are not giving them the information because you have to keep your patient-doctor privilege.” Peg paused, keeping her washed-out eyes on Eric and folding her hands in front of her. “I understand that that's the kind of concern you have in the hospital. I mean, I know, I'm employed by a system, too, but this is an exception. This isn't corporate or legal or anything like that. This is between us parents, and that's why I called you. I wanted to meet with you, and ask you, and really
beg
you,
beg
you, do you
understand what I'm saying
? I'm
begging
you, from one parent to another, to tell me what you know. You need to tell me what Max told you about Ren
é
e, and why he killed her. She didn't reject him, he never asked her out. She was nice to him, she was nice to everybody. She never did anything wrong. She didn't deserve to die like that, she was too young, too good.” Peg's eyes filmed. “I want to know all of it because I'm going to get justice for my child. Anthony says justice can't bring her back, and I know that. But justice can be an end in itself. I want Max to
pay
for what he did to my daughter, and my family.”

Eric sighed inwardly, not knowing where to begin. “Peg, I wish I could tell you what you want to know, but I can't. You know I can't. There's no way in the world I can tell you. But I will tell you something important, I will tell you that I'm not sure that Max killed Ren
é
e. You and the police could very well have the wrong suspect.”

“What are you talking about?” Peg's tone darkened, but she kept her anger in check. “I know that he had a crush on my daughter, and so do you. I believe that he was planning to kill Ren
é
e, and so do you. I know that the police found her phone in his bedroom. Respect me enough to be honest with me. I'm an adult, I see life and death every day. I can take it. Tell me what you know.”

“I can't tell you what I know, but I spent this morning—”