The President's Daughter - Mariah Stewart [113]
Philip nodded. “Sarah drove her car to the White House on several occasions, just to tweak the Secret Service. It was a Chevrolet station wagon that had belonged to Carolyn’s grandmother.”
“Can we get in touch with her? With Carolyn? Think she’d remember if Sarah ever returned the car with damage to the front end?”
“I do have her father’s number somewhere—her mother died a few years back . . .” Philip muttered absently as he left the room, returning minutes later with a small green address book.
“We’ve pretty much agreed that deliberately running down a woman with a car is a reckless act,” Simon noted as Philip thumbed through his address book. “How reckless was Sarah Hayward as a teenager?”
“Sarah was a very unstable young woman. I take it you’re not aware that she’d been under treatment for mental illness for several years as a young girl? And, again, for a time, after her father’s death, she was an in-patient in a mental hospital.”
“What?! When was this?”
“Late high school—”
“Wait a minute. Sarah told me that she went to boarding school here in D.C.”
“She did. But she had had a breakdown and had to take a year off from school.”
“She told me she’d taken a year off to travel abroad with her parents.”
“That was the official line, but no, she spent a year or so in a private school for disturbed children in Switzerland. Sarah was a very troubled girl, Simon.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“Frankly, it never occurred to me that Sarah could have been behind this. Never.”
“Sarah could have borrowed the car from her friend,” Simon murmured. “But that means that she had to have known about Blythe. What are the chances that her father—or her mother—would have told her about her father’s affair?”
“As disturbed as Sarah was, there is no way that either of her parents would have wanted her to know until she had to know.” Norton shook his head adamantly. “She’d been pretty stable for most of her high school years, and Graham hoped that by the time his second term had expired Sarah would be out of school and her problems would be behind her.”
“Then how would Sarah have even known about Blythe?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who had the accident investigation closed down?”
“As I recall, it was Miles who cautioned Graham about pursuing Blythe’s killer, that any investigation involving Blythe would lead to Dina. His thinking was that if someone had wanted Blythe out of the way, they might next go after her daughter. Graham agreed—as much as he grieved and as hard as it was for him to let Blythe’s killer get away with her murder—and gave the order to stop the investigation so that no one would know of Dina’s existence. He just couldn’t take the chance that something could happen to Dina.”
“Miles . . .” Simon pondered aloud. “Miles, who mysteriously died of ‘natural causes’ within hours of telling me about Dina.”
“Simon, what are you thinking?”
“When did Sarah leave for Switzerland?”
“Several weeks after Blythe’s death, Sarah had an episode, the first she’d had in years. Her doctors felt she needed intensive treatment, which would not have been possible in this country if the press ever got on to the story. It was suggested that she be sent to this hospital in Switzerland. I remember how devastated Graham was when she left. He’d no sooner lost Blythe than he was losing Sarah as well. It was a very, very hard time for him.”
“But he never suspected his daughter?”
“Of killing his mistress? No, no, Graham never would have believed that his Sarah would be capable of such an act. No.” Norton shook his head. “Graham went to his grave not knowing who was responsible for Blythe’s death.”
“We have to confirm the dates with the school here in D.C....” Simon rose.
“You’ll never get into Beaumont’s records. They’ll be very protective of Sarah. As they should be.”
“Then we’ll speak with someone at the clinic in Switzerland—”
“You’ll find no record of Sarah Hayward ever having been enrolled there.”
“She was there under an assumed name.” Simon fell back in his chair.
“Yes,