Quarry

by Collins, Max Allan

  There could be little doubt, however, that this was an important home: in a neighborhood crowded with would-be palaces, only the Springborn place had half a block to itself, sitting far back on a gentle hill of a lawn, graveled private drives on either side. The drive on the right led to a red-brick four-door garage large enough to barrack a hippie commune, and at present both drives were jammed with cars, as though the big old home were a way-station hotel filled with guests stranded during a storm.

  We parked in front, or so I thought; when I got out of the Ford and stood and got a good look I could see we were facing the ass-end of the house. Somehow I resented that, it seemed vaguely pompous to me, even though it made sense to take advantage of the river view. But it was sort of hypocritical for this “common man’s mansion” to turn its back on a public street.

  We stood at the big solid oak front door (or back door, depending on how you look at it) and Peg said, “Thanks for coming with me.”

  “I’m going to feel like a fool,” I said. “A stranger coming around at a time like this.”

  “You’re not a fool and you’re not a stranger, you’re my escort and shut up about it.”

  I was glad to shut up about it. Peg’s asking me along had saved me from having to fish for an invitation from her. So far I’d managed to pump her for a lot of information without making myself seem overly curious, and now I was getting inside the Springborn house, again without causing any suspicion on Peg’s part or hopefully on anyone else’s. What better way to get inside the Springborn place than to come with a friend of the family, with the rest of Albert Leroy’s mourners. It beat hell out of breaking-and-entering.

  My knock was answered by an attractive woman in her mid-forties. She was slender, her graying black hair pulled back in a neat bun; she wore a flowing but conservative black dress which came down to her knees in a straight and waistless line. Her face was smooth, the skin pulled almost tight, while her neck was heavily creped, indicating a probable face-lift. Her features were intelligent and well-formed, her eyes widespread and alert. She smiled at Peg and nodded, an artificial smile with pain in it, or the semblance of pain, as though she wanted to make sure we knew that she was distraught but in control.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said, her voice a steady contralto, and she reached for Peg’s hand, squeezed it and gave it back.

  Peg said, “I’m so sorry about all this, Linda Sue. This must be a horrible time for you and Ray.”

  She nodded gravely, then looked at me and arched an eyebrow. “I’m somewhat confused today, in the aftermath of this tragedy . . . I must admit I can’t seem to recall your friend, Peg . . . you’ll have to excuse my rudeness . . .”

  “This is Mr. Quarry. He’s not a native of Port City, but he’s a close friend of mine and was with me when I got the news about Albert. I didn’t think you’d mind if he accompanied me.”

  “Of course not,” she said. “I only wish we’d been able to meet under more pleasant circumstances, Mr. Quarry. Won’t the two of you come in, please.”

  We stepped inside and were standing in a hallway that could have been a ballroom, what with its empty impressive size, or perhaps a chapel for some strict Protestant sect, what with all its austere dark wood. The most striking thing in the otherwise vacant hallway was a deep polished wood stairway that curved down from a darkened second floor.

  “May I take your coat, Mr. Quarry?”

  I gave her the raincoat, having since removed the nine-millimeter automatic and left it in the trunk of the Ford. I felt somewhat naked in this house without the gun, not knowing precisely what kind of confrontations I might be having in here, but it seemed less than wise to tote around the murder weapon of Albert Leroy in the home of his mourning relatives. My uneasiness was amplified by the draftiness of the hallway; it was cool in here, centrally air-conditioned I supposed, an uncomfortable, morgue-like coolness.

  Linda Sue Springborn said, “Will you join us in the drawing room, Mr. Quarry?” She motioned to a doorless archway to her left. “Raymond’s in the den waiting for you, Peg.” She smiled and said, “I understand you’re going to discuss business matters. I’m glad you are, that will make things easier for Raymond, get his mind off this very depressing day.”

  Peg nodded, smiled at Mrs. Springborn, smiled apologetically at me, pressed my hand, and disappeared through the French doors opposite the archway.

  I followed Mrs. Springborn into the drawing room. She said, “Make yourself at home,” and left me to fend for myself. I found a chair in the corner and sat. I was sitting before I realized I was the only person doing so. The other twenty-some people in the room were standing around, trying to look mournful, none of them taking advantage of the chairs and several davenports. I looked around the room and understood.

  It was a nice room to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there. It was one of those rooms full of chairs you don’t sit in, tables you don’t set things down on or pick things up off, with bookcases full of leather-bound volumes you don’t read, and a fireplace you don’t burn wood in and a grand piano you don’t play. The walls in here, though, were not the cheerless dark wood of the hallway but a rather pleasant pastel green satin-paper; this was offset by deadly dull paintings stuck here and there, full of meadows where horses postured stiffly and trees seemed made of green and brown plaster.

  Mrs. Springborn circulated, like a hostess at a reception, and periodically remembered the occasion, alternating a sad sideways shake of her head with an up-anddown nod, both of which I took to represent her restrained sorrow. No one spoke above a whisper unless they were speaking with Mrs. Springborn and never once did I hear Albert Leroy’s name mentioned. I had the distinct feeling Albert Leroy could have walked into the room unnoticed. I had the odd notion that I was the only person in the room who had really known Albert Leroy, the only person who had played any meaningful part in his life, the only one who viewed Albert’s death with at least some importance.

  This went on for an hour. Sometimes, the room had so little motion the whole thing could’ve been a painting, and as dull and lethargic a painting as the landscapes on the walls. I was getting thirsty, in spite of the coolness of the room, and must’ve swallowed several times, in a dry sort of way, because Linda Sue Springborn came over after a while and stage-whispered, “Could you use a drink of water?” And she winked.

  Suddenly I liked her better.

  I smiled and said, “Yes, I sure could use a drink of water.”

  I followed her out of the room and through the hallway into a room that was obviously used for living and not display, with a couch in front of a television and a soft lounge chair next to a table strewn with magazines and paperbacks. From there she led me through a smaller drawing room, not as lived in as the previous room but not as much a museum as the other drawing room, either. Off of that was a small overblown closet of a room, a small study with a desk and one wall of books and three walls of awards and photos relating to the Kitchen Korner radio program. “My den,” she said. “Not near so large as Raymond’s, but I need my privacy as much as he does. Maybe more.”

  She went to the bookcase where in the middle a space was reserved for a cluster of bottles and glasses, which made for a small but sufficient liquor supply. She said, “Sorry, no ice,” and poured me a shot of Scotch as though she knew that was what I wanted. It was. She made herself a hasty gin and tonic and had it down before I’d even sipped my Scotch.

  “You take that like it’s medicine,” I said.

  “Exactly what it is,” she said. “A transfusion for an anemic soul.” She smiled. She was rather pretty, in a plastic-surgery sort of way. Her eyes were hazel. “How glad I am for a stranger to talk to. Someone I don’t have to play games with.”

  “Oh?”

  “I didn’t love my brother, Mr. Quarry. He was a burden in life and he’s a burden in death.”

  “Those words sound cold even to a stranger’s ears, Mrs. Springborn.”

  “Well . . .” S
he made a face, and there was sadness in it somewhere. “It isn’t true to say I didn’t love my brother . . . I used to love him . . . I loved him before he became irrational . . . before he became a hermit . . . he was a bright man once, Mr. Quarry, maybe a genius, near it anyway . . . but he had a mental breakdown, was given shock treatment, which was maybe a mistake because afterwards . . . he was a vegetable. Tell me, Mr. Quarry, how do you mourn a potato?” She laughed, then abruptly the laughing turned to choking and her eyes teared. She brushed away the wetness and fixed herself another drink. She could mix a gin and tonic as fast as I’ve seen one made. She could down them with the best of us, too. “There’s something in your face that makes me feel I can be open like this with you, Mr. Quarry. And Peg, she’s a good girl, a smart girl. She’s a little wild sometimes, but I don’t think she’d bring one of her casual shack-ups along with her. She must think well of you to bring you along.”

  “Can I have another Scotch?”

  “Of course, certainly, let me have your glass. Where are you from, Mr. Quarry?”

  “Nowhere, really.”

  “What’s your trade?”

  “I’m a salesman.”

  “What do you sell?”

  “Myself, mostly. Like everybody else.”

  “How true, how true that is. We’re all prostitutes, Mr. Quarry, in one way or another. We pursue almighty buck, the great American pastime. But what happens when we get almighty buck, Mr. Quarry?”

  “I’ve never had that problem.”

  “Well, I’ve had it, I have it now. Once you get there, so what? What’s the point of it all?”

  “That’s a question I never ask myself.”

  “You just play your role and continue on, survival as an end in itself.”

  “You might say that.”

  “We have roles we play, Mr. Quarry, and sometimes playing them we forget who we really are.” She laughed, then said, “Do you know,” her voice slipping into a flat Midwestern nasal twang, “do you know I’ve made a pile of money being a homey, down-to-earth Ioway gal? Like to hear a recipe for chocolate marshmallow fudge? Some tips on jarring preserves?” She shook her head and began making her third gin and tonic. I touched her arm.

  I said, “Listen, it’s none of my business, especially since I don’t know how much you can hold, but you’ve got a role to play out there, with your friends and relatives, and a gutful of gin and tonic might not be the best thing for you to be riding on.”

  She made the drink anyway, and had it down before she answered. “Leeches,” she said. “None of those S.O.B.’s, none of ’em cared about Albert when he was alive. Why should they care now?”

  “You’re important business people in this town,” I said. “They come out of respect to you.”

  “Leeches,” she said.

  “You want to go back now?”

  “Yes.”

  I walked her back and she was a bit wobbly on the way, but once in the drawing room she straightened and resumed her role of stiff-upper-lipped bereaved sister. She was a good actress.

  24

  * * *

  * * *

  AFTER A WHILE I went out into the hallway and sat on the bottom step of the winding staircase. It was nice getting away from that drawing room full of ghouls; it was nice sitting alone. For half an hour I sat and watched the French doors to Springborn’s den and waited. Finally Peg came out and gave me a wry smile and said, “Having a good time?”

  “Terrific,” I said. “Any progress?”

  She shook her head no; still a stalemate situation, she told me, probably best sorted out by lawyers. Ray was too good at business wheeling-and-dealing, she said, and she was too stubborn, for either of them to make any headway.

  Then she said, “Well, now, look . . . I suppose I ought to go pay my respects to Linda Sue, and make the rounds talking to the friends and relatives. What a pain in the ass. I suppose you’ve had your fill of all that? You want to wait out here for me?”

  “Sure. Take your time, I don’t mind the waiting at all.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  I watched as she disappeared into the drawing room, then I went in through the French doors.

  Raymond Springborn’s den was similar to his wife’s, but on a larger scale. One wall was a window that provided a no doubt breathtaking view of the Mississippi, a view blocked right now by drawn cream-color curtains. The room was full of dark wood, like the hallway but not so barren, with a nonfunctional fireplace across from the French doors, its mantel covered by trophy-style awards, and much wall space taken up by framed citations, plaques and photographs pertaining to the Kitchen Korner radio program and various other Springborn-Leroy family enterprises. The wall opposite the cream-curtained window was all but engulfed by a desk about the size of a small tank, a grooved, scarred desk stacked high with paperwork. The half of the back wall that wasn’t taken up by French doors was a bookcase and in front of the bookcase was a steel frame cart with a modest supply of liquor and glasses riding it. Raymond Springborn was standing with his back to me, replacing a bottle of bourbon on the stand, getting ready to chug down a healthy glass.

  Apparently he hadn’t heard me come in, his mind on the business dealings he’d discussed with Peg, perhaps, or maybe he was just anticipating the forthcoming jolt of bourbon.

  “I’d like to talk to you, Mr. Springborn,” I said.

  I startled him. I heard him choke on his swallow of bourbon and he swiveled, his face intensely surprised and angered; the moment was close to a comic one, as though he were a comedian doing a double take. Was there recognition in that look? Was this the man who earlier today had tried to take me apart with a wrench?

  “Who the hell are you?” His voice was an even baritone. He’d been edgy there at first, but he calmed down fast.

  I couldn’t be sure if this was the man with the wrench, couldn’t be sure at all: the struggle had been in near-dark, I’d been caught off guard and had been concerned with survival, not with remembering a detailed observation for later. A black T-shirt and a wrench, that was all I could clearly remember about my assailant. Springborn was wearing black, all right, a conservative gray-black suit, out of respect for the deceased, I assumed. That morning when Albert’s body was being hauled away, I’d seen Springborn from across the street and had pegged him as tall, but not this tall, not damn near six-four. And I couldn’t remember that man with the wrench as being so tall. But then I hadn’t stopped to weigh and measure him, either.

  I said, “My name’s Quarry.”

  If he recognized the name, he didn’t show it. If he was the man who’d hired me, and if the Broker had called him today to tell him about my staying around Port City, then Springborn might have gotten my name from Broker. At any rate, what he would have gotten for sure from Broker was a description, a good detailed description like the one I wished I had of the man with the wrench.

  As for Springborn’s description, well, he looked like what he was: a successful businessman, the proper lean, hard look of a man who got to the top and stayed there. His hair was the color of ashes, his eyes a similar gray. Otherwise his features were bland, ordinary. But those eyes, with shaggy, hawkish eyebrows, those translucent gray eyes seemed to take everything in let nothing out.

  “Have we met?” He finished his bourbon in one gulp, put the glass down on the cart top.

  “Maybe. That’s something I want to find out.”

  “Do you have any particular reason for talking in circles?”

  “I didn’t come to answer questions,” I said, “I came to ask.”

  “Now look, I don’t know who you are, or who you imagine yourself to be, Mr. whatever-the-hell-yousaid-your-name-was, but . . .”

  “Quarry.”

  “. . . but I suggest you and your goddamn overbearing manner leave immediately.”

  “I suggest we talk.”

  “You’re a madman,” he said, teetering between irritation and amusement.

&nbs
p; “I’m a businessman. Like yourself.”

  “We’ve had business in the past?”

  “That’s something else I intend to find out.”

  “People who talk in riddles annoy hell out of me.”

  “People who act like riddles annoy hell out of me.”

  “Your nerve is amazing, I’ll say that for you. Just how did you manage to get in here, anyway?”

  “I came with Peg Baker.”

  “Peg . . . ?”

  “You can forget trying to blame her for me. She’s just a little indiscriminate about who she sleeps with, that’s all.”

  “Oh, so you picked her up, got into her confidence and her pants, not necessarily in that order, and used her to get inside my house.”

  “Something like that.”

  “You must manipulate people well.”

  “As a successful businessman you should know all about that.”

  “I do. I know all the subtleties of the art. But with you I’ll dispense with subtlety. With you I’ll be blunt. Leave, Mr. Quarry. Leave my house. Now.”

  “We have business.”

  “I have an office for such matters. This is my home, and my brother-in-law died this morning and this is no time for business.”