A Stab in the Dark

by Lawrence Block

Page 9

 

  Mrs. Pomerance answered the phone. I gave my name and said I was trying to reach the Corwins. She knew at once who I was talking about but had no idea how I could reach them.

  "We didnt keep in touch. He was a nice fellow, Eddie, and he used to bring the children over for dinner after she moved out, but then when he moved we lost contact. Its been so many years. Im sure we had his address at one point but I cant even remember the city he moved to. It was in California, I think Southern California. "

  "But she moved out first?"

  "You didnt know that? She left him, left him flat with the two kids. She closed the whatchamacallit, the day-care center, and the next thing you know hes got to find a day-care center for his own children. Im sorry, but I cant imagine a mother walking out on her own children. "

  "Do you know where she might have gone?"

  "Greenwich Village, I suppose. To pursue her art. Among other things. "

  "Her art?"

  "She fancied herself a sculptor. I never saw her work so for all I know she may have had some talent. Id be surprised if she did, though. There was a woman who had everything. A nice apartment, a husband who was an awfully sweet guy, two beautiful children, and she even had a business that wasnt doing too badly. And she walked away from it, turned her back and walked away. "

  I tried a long shot. "Did you happen to know a friend of hers named Barbara Ettinger?"

  "I didnt know her that well. What was that name? Ettinger? Why is that name familiar to me?"

  "A Barbara Ettinger was murdered down the block from where you lived. "

  "Just before we moved in. Of course. I remember now. I never knew her, naturally, because as I said it was just before we moved in. She was a friend of the Corwins?"

  "She worked for Mrs. Corwin. "

  "Were they that way?"

  "What way?"

  "There was a lot of talk about the murder. It made me nervous about moving in. My husband and I told each other we didnt have to worry about lightning striking twice in the same place, but privately I was still worried. Then those killings just stopped, didnt they?"

  "Yes. You never knew the Ettingers?"

  "No, I told you. "

  An artist in Greenwich Village. A sculptor. Of the J. Corwins Id been unable to reach, had any lived in the Village? I didnt think so.

  I said, "Would you happen to remember Mrs. Corwins maiden name?"

  "Remember it? I dont think I ever knew it in the first place. Why?"

  "I was thinking she might have resumed it if shes pursuing an artistic career. "

  "Im sure she did. Artistic career or not, shed want her own name back. But I couldnt tell you what it was. "

  "Of course she could have remarried by now-"

  "Oh, I wouldnt count on it. "

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "I dont think she remarried," Mrs. Pomerance said. There was a sharpness to her tone and I wondered at it. I asked her what made her say that.

  "Put it this way," she said. "Sculpture or no sculpture, shed probably live in Greenwich Village. "

  "I dont understand. "

  "You dont?" She clicked her tongue, impatient with my obtuseness. "She left her husband-and two children-but not to run off with another man. She left him for another woman. "

  JANICE Corwins maiden name was Keane. It took a subway ride to Chambers Street and a couple of hours in various offices of the Department of Records and Information Services to supply this kernel of information. Most of the time was spent getting clearance. I kept needing the permission of someone who didnt come in on Saturdays.

  I tried marriage licenses first, and when that failed to pan out I had a shot at birth certificates. Mrs. Pomerance had been a little hazy on the names and ages of the Corwin children, but she was pretty sure the youngests name was Kelly and that shed been five or six when her mother left. Shed been seven, it turned out; shed be around fifteen now. Her father was Edward Francis Corwin, her mother the former Janice Elizabeth Keane.

  I wrote the name in my notebook with a sense of triumph. Not that there was much likelihood that it would slip my mind, but as a symbol of accomplishment. I couldnt prove that I was an inch closer to Barbara Ettingers killer than Id been when Charles London sat down across from me at Armstrongs, but Id done some detecting and it felt good. It was plodding work, generally pointless work, but it let me use muscles I didnt get to use all that often and they tingled from the exertion.

  A couple of blocks from there I found a Blarney Stone with a steam table. I had a hot pastrami sandwich and drank a beer or two with it. There was a big color set mounted over the bar. It was tuned to one of those sports anthology shows they have on Saturday afternoons. A couple of guys were doing something with logs in a fast-moving stream. Riding them, I think. Nobody in the place was paying much attention to their efforts. By the time I was done with my sandwich the log-riders were through and a stock-car race had replaced them. Nobody paid any attention to the stock cars, either.

  I called Lynn London again. This time when her machine picked up I waited for the beep and left my name and number. Then I checked the phone book.

  No Janice Keanes in Manhattan. Half a dozen Keanes with the initial J. Plenty of other variations of the name-Keene, Keen, Kean. I thought of that old radio show, Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons. I couldnt remember how he spelled it.

  I tried all the J. Keanes. I got two that failed to answer, one persistent busy signal, and three people who denied knowing a Janice Keane. The busy signal lived on East Seventy-third Street and I decided that was no address for a lesbian sculptor from Boerum Hill. I dialed Directory Assistance, all set to go through my routine again for the other four boroughs, but something stopped me.

  She was in Manhattan. Damn it, I knew she was in Manhattan.

  I asked for a Janice Keane in Manhattan, spelled the last name, waited a minute, and was told the only listing in Manhattan under that name and with that spelling was unpublished. I hung up, called back again to get a different operator, and went through the little ritual that a cop uses to obtain an unlisted number. I identified myself as Detective Francis Fitzroy, of the Eighteenth Precinct. I called it the One-Eight Precinct because, although cops dont invariably talk that way, civilians invariably think they do.

  I got the address while I was at it. She was on Lispenard Street, and that was a perfectly logical place for a sculptor to be living, and not too long a walk from where I was.

  I had another dime in my hand. I put it back in my pocket and went back to the bar. The stock cars had given way to the feature of the program, a couple of black junior-middleweights topping a fight card in some unlikely place. Phoenix, I think it was. I dont know what a junior-middleweight is. Theyve added all these intermediate weight classes so that they can have more championship fights. Some of the patrons whod passed up the log-rollers and the stock cars were watching these two boys hit each other, which was something they werent doing very often. I sat through a few rounds and drank some coffee with bourbon in it.

  Because I thought it would help if I had some idea how I was going to approach this woman. Id been tracking her spoor through books and files and phone wires, as if she held the secret to the Ettinger murder, and for all I knew Barbara Ettinger was nothing to her beyond a faceless lump who put the alphabet blocks away when the kids were done playing with them.

  Or she was Barbaras best friend. Or her lover-I remembered Mrs. Pomerances questions: "She was a friend of the Corwins? Were they that way?"

  Maybe she had killed Barbara. Could they have both left the day-care center early? Was that even possible, let alone likely?

  I was spinning my wheels and I knew it but I let them spin for a while anyway. On the television screen, the kid with the white stripe on his trunks was finally beginning to use his jab to set up right hands to the body. It didnt look as though he was going to take his man out in the handful of rounds remaining, not like that, but he seemed a safe shot
for the decision. He was wearing his opponent down, grinding away at him. Jabbing with the left, hooking the right hand to the rib section. The other boy couldnt seem to find a defense that worked.

  I knew how both of them felt.

  I thought about Douglas Ettinger. I decided he didnt kill his wife, and I tried to figure out how I knew that, and I decided I knew it the same way Id known Janice Keane was in Manhattan. Chalk it up to divine inspiration.

  Ettinger was right, I decided. Louis Pinell killed Barbara Ettinger, just as hed killed the other seven women. Barbara had thought some nut was stalking her and she was right.

  Then whyd she let the nut into her apartment?

  In the tenth round, the kid whod been getting his ribs barbecued summoned up some reserve of strength and put a couple of combinations together. He had the kid with the stripe on his trunks reeling, but the flurry wasnt enough to end it and the kid with the stripe hung on and got the decision. The crowd booed. I dont know what fight they thought they were watching. The crowd in Phoenix, that is. My companions in the Blarney Stone werent that involved emotionally.

  The hell with it. I went and made my phone call.

  IT rang four or five times before she answered it. I said, "Janice Keane, please," and she said she was Janice Keane.

  I said, "My names Matthew Scudder, Ms. Keane. Id like to ask you some questions. "

  "Oh?"

  "About a woman named Barbara Ettinger. "

  "Jesus. " A pause. "What about her?"

  "Im investigating her death. Id like to come over and talk with you. "

  "Youre investigating her death? That was ages ago. It must have been ten years. "

  "Nine years. "

  "I thought it was the Mounties who never gave up. I never heard that about New Yorks Finest. Youre a policeman?"

  I was about to say yes, but heard myself say, "I used to be. "

  "What are you now?"

  "A private citizen. Im working for Charles London. Mrs. Ettingers father. "

  "Thats right, her maiden name was London. " She had a good telephone voice, low-pitched and throaty. "I cant make out why youre starting an investigation now. And what could I possibly contribute to it?"

  "Maybe I could explain that in person," I said. "Im just a few minutes away from you now. Would it be all right if I come over?"

  "Jesus. Whats today, Saturday? And what time is it? Ive been working and I tend to lose track of the time. Ive got six oclock. Is that right?"

  "Thats right. "

  "Id better fix something to eat. And I have to clean up. Give me an hour, okay?"

  "Ill be there at seven. "

  "You know the address?" I read it off as Id received it from Information. "Thats it. Thats between Church and Broadway, and you ring the bell and then stand at the curb so I can see you and Ill throw the key down. Ring two long and three short, okay?"

  "Two long and three short. "

  "Then Ill know its you. Not that youre anything to me but a voice on the phone. Howd you get this number? Its supposed to be unlisted. "

  "I used to be a cop. "

  "Right, so you said. So much for unlisted numbers, huh? Tell me your name again. "