Hope to Die

by Lawrence Block

Page 9

 

  He never gains an ounce, either.

  Lia started to say she was fine with the tea, then changed her mind and ordered the spinach pie, the appetizer, though, not the full dinner. The waitress left and she picked up her teacup and looked at it and put it down again.

  "Its ridiculous," I prompted.

  "Oh. Well, it really is. I dont think I should even say it out loud. "

  "Because its not fair even to think such things, and saying them is worse. "

  "Thats right. "

  "On the other hand," I said, "we came all the way uptown, and theres food coming, so well be here awhile. And we might as well talk about something. "

  "I wanted to call you- "

  "But you didnt," T J said, "and even if you did, we probably would have come anyway. "

  This surprised her. "Why?"

  "To make sure it was what you really wanted," I said, "and that nobody was holding a gun to your head. "

  "You think- "

  "I dont think anything. Id have come uptown to get some idea what to think. Thats generally worth an hour and a couple of subway tokens. But its beside the point, because you werent able to call us and here we are, and we might as well cut to the chase. You think your cousin set up your aunt and uncle. "

  "But I dont think that. I told you- "

  "I know. You dont think it, but you did, even if youd like to pretend you didnt. Its just a thought, Lia. Best thing you can do with it is bring it out into the open. "

  "Otherwise itll go bad," T J said.

  She took a breath and nodded and picked up her teacup, and this time she drank from it before setting it back in its saucer. "She inherits everything," she said.

  "Kristin. "

  She nodded. "That was the first thing I thought of. Not Poor Kristin, shes an orphan, shes alone in the world. The first thing I thought was shes a rich girl now. "

  "How rich?"

  "I dont know. But even if all there is is the house, its worth a fortune. A brownstone in the Seventies? There was one somebody was talking about the other day, West Eighty-fourth Street I think it was, and they were asking two-point-six. I dont know, maybe thats not a fortune anymore, maybe its pocket change if youre one of the dot-com people, but it still seems like a lot of money to me. "

  "Could be mortgaged," I said.

  "Uncle Byrne said it was free and clear. He was proud of that, how theyd paid the house off years ago, and now it was worth so much money. He said how much better an investment it turned out to be than any of his stocks, so that means there must be stocks, too, dont you think?"

  "But not very good ones. "

  "Still, theyd have to be worth something, wouldnt they?"

  "Sure. "

  "And Im sure there was insurance. And there were the things they owned, Aunt Susans jewelry, the silverware, the paintings. They took the jewelry and silver, but it was recovered, wasnt it?"

  "I believe so. "

  "And what wasnt would be covered by insurance. Oh, God, whats the matter with me, sitting here adding up their assets in my head like, I dont know, a vulture or something. I mean, theyre dead. What difference does the money make? Its not as if they got to keep it. They were murdered, theyre dead. "

  There was a silence, and it lasted awhile because the waitress turned up with the food. T J picked up a french fry and made a face at it, indicating it wasnt as well-done as hed hoped, but he didnt send anything back, or leave anything on his plate, so I guess it wasnt too bad. My cheeseburger tasted fine, and the coffee was better than the Morning Stars.

  Lia took one bite of her square of spinach pie and put her fork down. "I envied her," she said abruptly. "Kristin. Thats what it was. I envied her when they were alive, having two wonderful parents who loved her and loved each other. My parents- no, forget it, I dont want to go there. "

  "All right. "

  "Uncle Byrne and Aunt Susan kept inviting me over for dinner. I begged off about half the time because I didnt want to take advantage. And I couldnt help feeling like a poor relation, which I was right to feel, really, because thats what I was. Im on scholarship, otherwise I couldnt afford Columbia in a million years, and even with a scholarship its not easy. "

  Her hands were busy as she talked, gesturing, touching her hair, brushing away imaginary crumbs. When her nails caught the light I saw she was wearing colorless nail polish on them. I decided she was painstaking enough to protect her nails but disinclined to embellish them. She wasnt wearing lipstick, and I wondered if shed used colorless lip gloss. Was there a pattern here, and what could I make of it?

  "You envied Kristin," I prompted.

  "When they were alive. And when I heard what happened, after the initial shock wore off, or maybe it hadnt worn off, not really- " She paused for breath, looked away, then met my eyes. "I thought, well, now shes rich. And I envied her all over again. "

  "And you figure that makes you a horrible person. "

  "I dont think it makes me a candidate for sainthood. Do you?"

  "I havent met a lot of saints," I said, "but then Ive lived a sheltered life. I dont think less of you for envying your cousin, before or after the murder, and I certainly dont think less of you for owning up to it. But what I think of you isnt very important, either. How do you feel?"

  "How do I feel?"

  "Right now. "

  She frowned, thinking about it. "I feel okay," she said, surprised.

  "Good. Howd you get from envy to suspicion?"

  "From envy to- oh, right. Suspicions an overstatement, really. I wouldnt call it suspicion. "

  "Well find something else to call it. Howd you get there?"

  "The burglar alarm," she said.

  "They had a burglar alarm?"

  "And it didnt go off. "

  "Maybe they forgot to set it. "

  "Thats what it said in the papers, that they owned a burglar alarm but neglected to set it that night. But they always set it. They had a break-in the first year they owned the house, someone came in through a window and took some cash and a portable TV, and after that they got the alarm system. It was connected to the front door and to all the windows on the first floor, and the store downstairs from them had its own alarm system, and that was set, too. "

  "Maybe they just set it most of the time. "

  She was shaking her head. "Both of them, Aunt Susan and Uncle Byrne, they would set it before they went down to the corner to mail a letter. It was automatic. On their way out they would key in the number to set it, and the minute they walked in the door they keyed it in again to turn it off. Theyd been doing it for twenty years. They wouldnt suddenly quit and get robbed the same night. "

  "If the keypad was by the front door- "

  "It wasnt. It was inside the coat closet. "

  "Thats better," I said, "but its still the first place a burglar would look. "

  "Why would he look anywhere?" T J wondered, and answered his own question. "The metal tape on the windows. Tip em off in a heartbeat. "

  "Tape on a window doesnt mean theres an alarm system, or that its set," I said. "But if I was breaking into a house it would be enough to make me take a quick look around. I might do that even if I didnt see tape on the windows. Especially if I spent a little time checking the place out first, in which case I might have known about the alarm system before I got anywhere near the front door. "

  Lia said, "But theyd need more than that, wouldnt they? Theres a four-digit number you have to enter in order to deactivate the alarm. "

  "There are other ways," I said, "if you happen to know them. You can rewire the system and bypass the alarm. But that would show up later on. What was the number, do you happen to know?"

  "Ten-seventeen," she said. "One-oh-one-seven. It was their wedding anniversary, they got married on the seventeenth of October. I forget the year. "

  "Well, you wouldnt need to know the year to deactivate the alarm. "

  "No," she said, and her eyes widened. "You dont thi
nk…"

  "That you were the set-up person? Why, were you?"

  "Of course not!"

  "Good, we can cross you off the list. And you can relax, because you were never on it. Howd you happen to know the number?"

  "Aunt Susan told me. "

  "So you would feel like a real member of the family?"

  Her eyes welled up, making her look that much more waiflike. "We went shopping," she said, "and she had her arms full of packages when we came home. She had me get the key from her purse and unlock the door, and then she told me to key in the number so we wouldnt have sirens going off. "

  "You knew where the keypad was. "

  "Of course. Id seen them use it to activate the system, and to deactivate it. "

  "And she told you the number?"

  "I couldnt just press buttons at random, could I? She told me the number, and later on she explained the significance, that it was their anniversary. "

  "And that helped you remember it. "

  "Actually, it was the other way around. Id never known the date of their anniversary, but the number stuck in my mind, and thats how come I know when their anniversary was. "

  "She didnt mind letting you know the number. "

  "Well, I dont think she thought I was likely to rob the place. "

  "No, of course not. But they had that alarm system for how long, twenty years? Something like that? And the odds are they picked that number early on, and never changed it. As a matter of fact, its probably not the only thing they used it for. I wouldnt be surprised if it turns out to be the PIN number for their bank accounts and credit cards. People arent supposed to do it that way, its a bad idea from a security standpoint, but lifes a lot easier when youve only got one number to remember. "

  "I use… well, the same number for everything. "

  "And its probably either your birthday or the last four digits of your Social Security number. "

  It was one or the other, from her reaction, but at least she didnt tell me which one. "Its my AOL password, too. I guess Id better change it. "

  "As far as your aunt and uncles alarm system was concerned," I said, "anybody could have let that slip. A burglar is as good as his research, and the smart ones learn to use people who dont even know theyre being used. Repairmen, delivery boys. Maybe they had someone doing work in their house, building bookshelves or rewiring the top floor, and he needed to be able to get in and out in their absence. They knew they could trust him. "

  "And he never told anybody," T J said, picking it up smoothly. "Only he mentioned to his wife that these people were so sentimental they used their wedding anniversary to get in and out of their house. And she told her son, so hed know that it wouldnt be a good idea to forget his parents wedding anniversary, and then the kid got into drugs and wound up on Rikers Island, and somebody brought up the subject of burglar alarms, and he knew these people who used their wedding anniversary as a password. If the right person heard it, all hed need to do was find out when those people got married, and how hard would it be to get that information?"