Fire Trap

12 - Elavil clues

The Santa Clara Police Department was second in size of the South Bay Cities, trailing only San Jose. The hundred and twenty-five officers and twenty-two detectives were housed just off Lincoln in a two-story, adobe-roofed structure built in the sixties. Sergeant Dale Andrews was the detective assigned to the Genetrix arson investigation, and I found him having a soda in the second-floor lunch room. He was a big man and he looked fit, with rounded biceps from pumping iron during his lunch hour no doubt. He had a sprinkle of gray in his sideburns and I guessed him to be in his early forties.

"Randy Justice," I said, "investigating the Genetrix fire for the Western Insurance Group. I was surprised when he shook my hand without crushing it. "I've read your preliminary report."

"You're the fellow who got Sam Roberts to re-order the autopsy on Gallagher," he said. "What do you expect the coroner to find?"

"Amitriptyline," I said, "The only question is how much?" He looked at me more closely. "Why amitriptyline?"

"I went to see his mother in Los Angeles. He had been on an anti-depressant called Elavil since he was in college."

"I wish I had your time and budget," he said with a snort of disgust.

I explained the five million payoff on the keyman policy and sympathized that most of his cases probably didn't have that span of coverage for expenses. He laughed.

He pointed west out the windows of the lunchroom, telling me how you could see the flames above the trees on the night of the fire. He had gone down to the scene with a couple of other officers. It was a dirty fire with chemical fumes and clouds of black smoke from burning ceiling tiles and other plastics. All the firemen wore masks. There was even a thin rim of soot on the roof of his police car the next day.

"I probably doubled my chances of getting lung cancer just watching that fire."

"Do you still have Gallagher's personal items?"

"Yeah," he said, "there are six boxes sitting down in the evidence room waiting to be forwarded to his mother. Not much to show for a lifetime dedicated to science."

"I'd like to see his apartment after I look through the boxes, if I could?"

"I'll take you out there," he volunteered. "It's not far."

"Has anyone been through his things?"

"Just Paul Maxwell, the investigator from Pacific Mutual." Damn, I thought, uncharitably, I'd like to get somewhere ahead of that little twit. He was probably snickering on the back porch at Mrs. Gallagher's while I was there.

Dale led me downstairs.

#

We checked out the 'Gallagher' boxes from Evidence and hauled them to a windowless interrogation room. Dale left me alone with the remains of Simon's life.

I briefly scanned the contents of the two boxes marked 'Kitchen'. One held a second plastic bag labeled 'Bath' which sat on top of a rolled up shower curtain, a rubber mat and a toilet brush. The bag held a soap dish, soap, two toothbrushes and another bag labeled

'Medicine Cabinet'. I was interested in that bag and opened it. Toothpaste, shaving gear, a bottle of Aspirin, Maalox, some Q-tips, scissors, Vitamin E, suppositories, Vaseline and Preparation-H. There is nothing as shockingly personal as your medicine cabinet, and I felt a moment of sympathy for this unlucky scientist.

The other four boxes said 'Bedroom', so the implied lack of a 'Living Room' box meant the living room had contained nothing personal. Pendeflex folders with taxes revealed Simon wasn't short of money. He'd earned nearly two hundred thousand last year and nearly that for the last five. There were safety deposit keys, but I didn't need to check them out immediately because a typed list of the contents accompanied them, will, stock certificates, patent agreements and the title to his car. Other folders held utility bills. I pulled out the most recent phone bill out of its envelope and ran through it. The envelope had already been opened, probably by Paul Maxwell. There was an Easter call to his mother in Palms, as she had indicated. No calls to brother Daniel in Chicago. Twice a week, calls to San Francisco. I made a note of the number and several others that appeared more than once.