A Stab in the Dark

by Lawrence Block

Page 16

 

  "Thats good. "

  "He had a good life, dont you think? And he was a good dog. He was such a clown. He could always break me up. "

  She talked for a few more minutes. The conversation just wore out, like the dog. She thanked me again for the check and I said again that I wished it could have been more. I told her to tell the boys Id be seeing them as soon as I was finished with my current case. She said shed be sure to tell them. I hung up the phone and went outside.

  The sun was screened by clouds and there was a chill wind blowing. Two doors down from the hotel is a bar called McGoverns. They open early.

  I went in. The place was empty except for two old men, one behind the bar, one in front of it. The bartenders hand trembled slightly as he poured me a double shot of Early Times and backed it up with a glass of water.

  I hoisted the glass, wondered at the wisdom of paying an early visit to Londons office with bourbon on my breath, then decided it was a pardonable eccentricity in an unofficial private detective. I thought about poor old Bandy, but of course I wasnt really thinking about the dog. For me, and probably for Anita, he was one of the few threads that had still linked us. Rather like the marriage, hed taken his sweet time dying.

  I drank the drink and got out of there.

  LONDONS office was on the sixteenth floor of a twenty-eight-story building on Pine Street. I shared the elevator with two men in forest-green work clothing. One carried a clipboard, the other a tool kit. Neither spoke, nor did I.

  I felt like a rat in a maze by the time I found Londons office. His name was the first of four lettered on the frosted glass door. Inside, a receptionist with a slight British accent invited me to have a seat, then spoke quietly into a telephone. I looked at a copy of Sports Illustrated until a door opened and Charles London beckoned me into his private office.

  It was a fair-sized room, comfortable without being luxurious. There was a view of the harbor from his window, only partially blocked by surrounding buildings. We stood on either side of his desk, and I sensed something in the air between us. For a moment I regretted that bourbon at McGoverns, then realized it had nothing to do with the screen that seemed to separate us.

  "I wish youd called," he said. "Youd have been able to save a trip down here. "

  "I called and they told me you hadnt come in yet. "

  "I got a message that you would call later. "

  "I thought Id save a call. "

  He nodded. His outfit looked the same as hed worn to Armstrongs, except that the tie was different. Im sure the suit and shirt were different, too. He probably had six identical suits, and two drawers of white shirts.

  He said, "Im going to have to ask you to drop the case, Mr. Scudder. "

  "Oh?"

  "You seem unsurprised. "

  "I picked up the vibration walking in here. Why?"

  "My reasons arent important. "

  "They are to me. "

  He shrugged. "I made a mistake," he said. "I sent you on a fools errand. It was a waste of money. "

  "You already wasted the money. You might as well let me give you something for it. I cant give it back because I already spent it. "

  "I wasnt expecting a refund. "

  "And I didnt come here to ask for any additional money. So what are you saving by telling me to drop the case?"

  The pale blue eyes blinked twice behind the rimless glasses. He asked me if I wouldnt sit down. I said I was comfortable standing. He remained standing himself.

  He said, "I behaved foolishly. Seeking vengeance, retribution. Troubling the waters. Either that man killed her or some other maniac did and theres probably no way well ever know for sure. I was wrong to set you to work raking up the past and disturbing the present. "

  "Is that what Ive been doing?"

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "Raking up the past and disturbing the present? Maybe thats a good definition of my role. When did you decide to call me off?"

  "Thats not important. "

  "Ettinger got to you, didnt he? It must have been yesterday. Saturdays a busy day at the store, they sell a lot of tennis rackets. He probably called you last night, didnt he?" When he hesitated I said, "Go ahead. Tell me its not important. "

  "Its not. More to the point, its not your business, Mr. Scudder. "

  "I got a wake-up call around one thirty last night from the second Mrs. Ettinger. Did she give you a call about the same time?"

  "I dont know what youre talking about. "

  "Shes got a distinctive voice. I heard it the day before when I called Ettinger at home and she told me he was at the Hicksville store. She called last night to tell me to let the dead stay buried. That seems to be what you want, too. "

  "Yes," he said. "Thats what I want. "

  I picked a paperweight from the top of his desk. An inch-long brass label identified it as a piece of petrified wood from the Arizona desert.

  "I can understand what Karen Ettingers afraid of. Her husband might turn out to be the killer, and that would really turn her world upside down. Youd think a woman in her position would want to know one way or the other. How comfortable could she be from here on in, living with a man she half-suspects of killing his first wife? But people are funny that way. They can push things out of their minds. Whatever happened was years ago and in Brooklyn. And the wench is dead, right? People move and their lives change, so theres nothing for her to worry about, is there?"

  He didnt say anything. His paperweight had a piece of black felt on its bottom to keep it from scratching his desk. I replaced it, felt-side down.

  I said, "You wouldnt be worried about Ettingers world, or his wifes world. Whats it to you if they get hassled a little? Unless Ettinger had a way to put pressure on you, but I dont think thats it. I dont think youd be all that easy to push around. "

  "Mr. Scudder-"

  "Its something else, but what? Not money, not a physical threat. Oh, hell, I know what it is. "

  He avoided my eyes.

  "Her reputation. Youre afraid of what Ill find in the grave with her. Ettinger must have told you she was having an affair. He told me she wasnt, but I dont think hes that deeply committed to the truth. As a matter of fact, it does look as though she was seeing a man. Maybe more than one man. That may go against the grain of your sense of propriety, but it doesnt weigh too much against the fact that she was murdered. She may have been killed by a lover. She may have been killed by her husband. There are all sorts of possibilities but you dont want to look at any of them because in the course of it the world might find out that your daughter wasnt a virgin. "

  For a moment I thought he was going to lose his temper. Then something went out of his eyes. "Im afraid Ill have to ask you to leave now," he said. "I have some calls to make and I have an appointment scheduled in fifteen minutes. "

  "I guess Mondays are busy in insurance. Like Saturdays in sporting goods. "

  "Im sorry that youre embittered. Perhaps later youll appreciate my position, but-"

  "Oh, I appreciate your position," I said. "Your daughter was killed for no reason by a madman and you adjusted to that reality. Then you had a new reality to adjust to, and that turned out to mean coming to grips with the possibility that someone had a reason to kill her, and that it might be a good reason. " I shook my head, impatient with myself for talking too much. "I came here to pick up a picture of your daughter," I said. "I dont suppose you happened to bring it. "

  "Why would you want it?"

  "Didnt I tell you the other day?"

  "But youre off the case now," he said. He might have been explaining something to a slow child. "I dont expect a refund, but I want you to discontinue your investigation. "

  "You want to fire me. "

  "If youd prefer to put it that way. "

  "But you never hired me in the first place. So how can you fire me?"

  "Mr. Scudder-"

  "When you open up a can of worms you cant just decide to stuff the w
orms back in the can. There are a lot of things set in motion and I want to see where they lead. Im not going to stop now. "

  He had an odd look on his face, as though he was a little bit afraid of me. Maybe Id raised my voice, or looked somehow menacing.

  "Relax," I told him. "I wont be disturbing the dead. The dead are beyond disturbance. You had a right to ask me to drop the case and Ive got the right to tell you to go to hell. Im a private citizen pursuing an unofficial investigation. I could do it more efficiently if I had your help, but I can get along without it. "

  "I wish youd let it go. "

  "And I wish youd back me up. And wishes arent horses, not for either of us. Im sorry this isnt turning out the way you wanted it to. I tried to tell you that might be the case. I guess you didnt want to listen. "

  ON the way down, the elevator stopped at almost every floor. I went out to the street. It was still overcast, and colder than I remembered it. I walked a block and a half until I found a bar. I had a quick double bourbon and left. A few blocks further along I stopped at another bar and had another drink.

  I found a subway, headed for the uptown platform, then changed my mind and waited for a train bound for Brooklyn. I got out at Jay Street and walked up one street and down another and wound up in Boerum Hill. I stopped at a Pentecostal church on Schermerhorn. The bulletin board was full of notices in Spanish. I sat there for a few minutes, hoping things would sort themselves out in my mind, but it didnt work. I found my thoughts bouncing back and forth among dead things-a dead dog, a dead marriage, a dead woman in her kitchen, a dead trail.

  A balding man wearing a sleeveless sweater over a maroon shirt asked me something in Spanish. I suppose he wanted to know if he could help me. I got up and left.

  I walked around some more. A curious thing, I thought, was that I felt somehow more committed to the pursuit of Barbara Ettingers killer than I had before her father fired me. It was still as hopeless a quest as it had ever been, doubly hopeless now that I wouldnt even have the cooperation of my client. And yet I seemed to believe what I had said to him about forces having been set in motion. The dead were indeed beyond disturbance, but I had set about disturbing the living and sensed that it would lead somewhere.

  I thought of poor old Bandersnatch, always game to chase a stick or go for a walk. Hed bring one of his toys to you to signal his eagerness to play. If you just stood there hed drop it at your feet, but if you tried to take it away from him hed set his jaw and hang on grimly.

  Maybe Id learned it from him.

  I went to the building on Wyckoff Street. I rang Donald Gilman and Rolfe Waggoners bell. They werent in. Neither was Judy Fairborn. I walked on past the building where Jan had lived with-what was his name? Edward. Eddie.

  I stopped at a bar and had a drink. Just a straight shot of bourbon, not a double. Just a little something, maintenance drinking against the chill in the air.

  I decided I was going to see Louis Pinell. For one thing, Id ask him if he used a different icepick each time he killed. The autopsies hadnt indicated anything one way or the other. Perhaps forensic medicine isnt that highly developed yet.