Answer as a Man

by Taylor Caldwell

  “Elise is going to send him a telegram and ask him to come back right away.” Flora fell against her pillows and wiped her eyes. “He’ll be so mad. It cost a fortune. My wedding gift three years ago. Made by Cartier’s.”

  “I’ll send the telegram myself,” said Jason, standing up. “In the meantime, you should look for it. You might have placed it somewhere else.”

  “We looked everywhere! Under the bed, in the bathroom, under the rugs, and on the windowsills. Everywhere! It’s gone!”

  “I think we should call the police,” said the maid.

  Flora sobbed. “We’ll wait till Mr. Bristol gets here and takes charge of things. He wouldn’t want trouble. The police are so nasty, so nosy.”

  “Yes, they do ask embarrassing questions, don’t they? Mrs. Bristol, what is your brother’s address?”

  She dropped her lace handkerchief, and now he definitely saw fear in her eyes. “My brother? His address? He … he’s just moved: I guess he put his new address on the book downstairs. When he checked in.”

  She moistened lips which had gone quite dry. “Mr. Garrity …” Her voice was pleading. “My husband doesn’t like Theo. You see … well, Daddy left a lot of money, and Theo doesn’t have to work, but he went on the stage. It’s in our blood, the stage. Ma worked with Lillian Russell, though she didn’t need to. Mr. Bristol don’t like stage people.”

  Jason smiled without humor. “He liked you, didn’t he, Flora?”

  “Well, yes.” The frightened eyes dropped demurely. “He insisted on taking me away from it, though. I was only seventeen. He … he met me at a party. Oh, Mr. Garrity, please don’t tell Mr. Bristol Theo was here! It would make him so mad!”

  “I thought you said your brother was a broker.”

  “I … well, he was. Then he went on the stage. Just for fun.”

  “But your brother is really a stockbroker?”

  “Yes, yes! He’s just on the stage, for fun, for a little while.”

  “What’s the name of the play in New York?”

  “It’s … well, it’s not in New York yet. Just trying out in Pittsburgh.”

  “What’s the theater?”

  “Oh, Jesus! What has that to do with it?”

  “Nothing, perhaps. And the jewelry was gone before he left?”

  “Yes! No. Oh, Jesus, you’ve got me all mixed up! Maybe it was before or afterward.”

  Jason fixed his sharp gray eyes on her. “Mrs. Bristol. The name of the theater, please, and the play. In Pittsburgh.”

  “I don’t know! Oh, God, get out of here! I thought you’d help, and have that Hattie and Herman arrested, with no fuss! But all you want to do is make trouble for me and Mr. Bristol and my brother! Get out! You just wait until my husband gets here, that’s all!”

  “What are you going to tell your husband?” Jason’s voice was inexorable.

  “Tell him? That one of your help took my jewelry, that’s what! Practically saw them do it myself!”

  The stupid thing isn’t the best of liars, thought Jason. He looked at Elise. She was enjoying herself. There’s no love lost there, thought Jason, again grimly amused. I wonder how much she bribed the woman to lie? The fool doesn’t know she’s laid herself open to blackmail for life.

  He said, “Mrs. Bristol, I’d like to talk to you alone, if you please. Alone.” He felt a little pity for the girl, married to a man old enough to be her grandfather. She had married him for money and position, of course, and it had been a bad bargain, perhaps. James Bristol was entirely too “fruity,” and there was sometimes a brutal glint in his eyes. At one time, it had been reported to Jason, he had literally dragged his young wife from the dance floor when she had been somewhat too provocative with her partner. But a hotel manager doesn’t interfere between husband and wife, unless matters became very suspicious and sinister.

  The girl was almost beside herself. “I don’t want to talk to you alone, for Christ’s sake! You don’t want to help, you bastard! All you want to do is save your damned hotel from trouble. Prig you, mister! Get the hell out of here! My husband will deal with you, and it’ll cost you a fortune!”

  Jason studied her. Now all the sweetness and daintiness were gone, and a tough young harridan was there, full of obscenities as well as fear. He said, “Do you want me to talk to you in front of Elise, Mrs. Bristol, or would you prefer private interrogation? From me, or the police? If you won’t talk to me, then I’m calling the police immediately. Make up your mind. I want to help you, if you’ll let me. I want to save you from embarrassing questions by the police and stories in the newspapers. Your husband is a very prominent man, and I don’t think he’d like the publicity … and all the scandal.”

  “Scandal!” she yelled. She pushed her perfect legs from under the silken sheets, and Jason had a good look at them. The full white breast was almost bare now, and heaving. Her lovely face had lost all its color. “What do you mean, scandal?”

  “I’d like to discuss that alone with you.”

  She looked at Elise. “All right!” she screamed. “Get out! Don’t come back until I ring for you, dammit!”

  There was a charged silence while Elise, with visible regret, left the room and closed the door. Flora regarded Jason with fear and hatred. Then she said, “Well, go ahead. Ask me. Ask me anything, you … you …” And she called him an epithet Jason had heard only twice before, from rough and crude railroad men. He felt a little less sympathy for young Mrs. Bristol. He wondered where Mr. Ziegfeld had recruited her, or perhaps it had been one of his agents.

  “Has your husband ever met your … brother?” The pause was deliberate.

  “Yes! We went to a play a year ago in Boston. Why?”

  “And Mr. Bristol knew he was your … brother?”

  “I … I … Of course he did.”

  “And met him?”

  “Goddammit, yes! How many times—?”

  “Did he know him by the name of Carstairs?”

  Flora rolled up her eyes, beseeching the ceiling. “Hell, yes.”

  “Is that his real or stage name?”

  A long hesitation. “Well, if you want to know, it’s his stage name. Everybody knows him by that name.”

  Jason let a moment or two elapse. Flora looked at him imploringly, and genuine tears began to roll down her cheeks. She clasped her hands together, as if praying. “Mr. Garrity, please don’t tell my husband Theo was here! For God’s sake! Please, please.”

  “But he’ll have to know, won’t he, when he finds out about the jewelry? He’ll have to report it to the police first of all, then to the insurance company. Quite a mess. Your husband doesn’t look like a meek man. He might look for your … brother.”

  She licked her lips. Jason was disbelieving. Hadn’t she given the slightest thought to this at all? The girl was an idiot. Little Nicole was a genius in comparison. Nicole would have thought of all the consequences and made clever plans.

  “And the police will question your … brother too. Probably with your husband present.”

  Her whole face had shrunk as she began to realize all the ramifications.

  Jason let her think—if it was possible for her to think. Then he said almost gently, “I do want to help you. And I want to save the reputation of the hotel, too. And save your husband embarrassment. He isn’t the sort of man who’d stand for stories in the newspapers, is he? I need your help, Flora. And you need mine. So let’s help each other, and no more lies. What do you say?”

  She nodded, and gulped. He said, “Carstairs isn’t your brother, is he?”

  She started to nod again, then stopped. Then she whispered, “No. He’s a … chorus boy. I’ve known him four years. We … we were always good friends, the best. We wanted to get married, but there wasn’t no money, and Jimmy, he wants money, and so do I. His name ain’t really Theo …”

  “I didn’t think it was. Do you want to tell me his real name?”

  She moaned. She put her hands over her face. “No, I don’t. What good wo
uld it do? I … I love him, Mr. Garrity. We’ve always loved each other.”

  Jason reflected. Then he leaned to the bed and took one of her hands, and she clung to his fingers helplessly, like a child.

  “Is Theo in trouble, Flora?”

  She dropped her head, and her hair hid her face. She was crying silently. Then in a broken voice she whimpered, “He’s in trouble, yes. Gambling. When his play closed—two months ago, it wasn’t any good, and he only got twenty-five dollars a week in the chorus, anyway—he didn’t have a cent. I sent him some money. Mr. Bristol, he’s kind of cheap, Mr. Garrity. Doesn’t give me much to spend. All charge accounts. I … I bought some things and charged them, and then I sold them. I told Mr. Bristol maybe someone took the clothes, and he was so mad! He fired our housekeeper, but he couldn’t prove she’d taken them, so he couldn’t have her arrested, though he wanted to. And Theo—he gambled away what I gave him, hoping he could have some luck and pay it all off. He lost. And now they’re after him.”

  “Who?”

  She shrank. “Gamblers. He owes them.”

  “The Black Hand?”

  She nodded. Then she tossed back her damp hair and looked at Jason with anguish. “They’ll kill him, Mr. Garrity! You know what they are! He owes a lot of money …”

  “And he came to you and asked you to help him.”

  “Yes! And I only had two hundred dollars, and he owes thousands! He’s scared to death.”

  Jason thought. “How do you know he’s told you the truth?”

  “I know he did. This isn’t the first time. He’s always gambled. This time he promised to stop. To sell the jewelry and keep the rest of the money and get into some little business.”

  I wonder, thought Jason. Well, it was none of his affair. He had the hotel to protect. Still, his compassion for this beautiful imbecile was strong. “Don’t you think it’s time to stop helping Theo? For your own sake? Don’t you think you shouldn’t see him anymore?”

  “I suppose so,” she murmured. “I sure got a scare this time. But I love him, Mr. Garrity! What shall I do?”

  “You can do only one of two things. Never see Theo again. Perhaps when he knows he can’t come to you again, he will reform. That’s the best you can do for him. Or you can leave your husband right now, today, and join Theo. What good would that do either of you? You have only two hundred dollars …”

  She was shaking her head over and over, despairingly. “No. I gave that to Elise—to tell all those lies.”

  “I thought it was something like that.” Jason’s voice shook with rage. “Where did you find that woman?”

  “She answered an ad my, husband put in the papers.”

  “References?”

  “Well, in a way. That is, I liked her, and the others were awful. I gave her the reference, a false name. That is, I had a friend of mine give it. She’d married a man like Mr. Bristol, too. She never saw Elise. I just asked her.”

  Jason marveled at this naiveté. “Do you know if she was ever in trouble?”

  “No.” The blue eyes looked at him with fresh fear. “I didn’t ask. I just liked her. You should have seen the others!”

  “Did she ever steal anything from you?”

  “No. Never. I’m real good to her, Mr. Garrity. Even if she didn’t have any references. Said she’d just come over from France.”

  Jason shook his head slowly from side to side, again marveling. The girl was incredibly stupid. When she lost her stupendous beauty, Bristol would surely divorce her. Jason hoped she would be shrewd enough to find a good lawyer and get a sound settlement, unless she again embroiled herself with one such as “Theo” and was discovered. Then it would be the streets. She would be too old for the Mrs. Lindons.

  Women, he thought suddenly, aren’t the most fortunate creatures in the world, and we men have pretty much exploited them. And without pity. We want either our illusion of them, or their money. I wonder how often we really want the woman herself. Sometimes, perhaps, but not very often, dammit. It’s the rare man who’ll get himself in a mess like this one for a woman, but it’s quite common for a woman to do it for the man she loves.

  He said, almost gently, “Mrs. Bristol, I am going to give you some good advice. But first I want to ask you a question. Who was Mr. Bristol’s second wife? And his first one?”

  She stared at him openmouthed, wondering. “Well, his first wife—she had a lot of money, and he didn’t. He didn’t tell me. I just heard. She had two children, girls, and then she died, and she left him all her money. Then he married somebody like me—I heard. A chorus girl. I don’t know her name. She had a friend …” The blue eyes opened enormously, with shock and realization. “And … and … Mr. Bristol found out. He threw her out. Not a cent, either. Just the clothes on her back, and then he divorced her. And then … and then … three years ago he married me. Oh, my God.” Her voice fell to a whisper.

  “Yes,” said Jason.

  “And anyway, she wasn’t pretty anymore. And kind of old. Thirty.”

  “Yes,” said Jason.

  She was silent. He let his comments sink in. Then he said, “If Mr. Bristol … if you and he should part, it would be a good idea to have a smart lawyer, Flora. And keep your skirts clean in the meantime.”

  “Yes, yes!” she said passionately.

  “Well, now, what are you going to tell your husband about the jewelry?”

  She came back to the present with a start. “I’ll … I’ll tell him I put it down … somewhere and couldn’t find it again. In New York. We go to a lot of places. He’ll be mad, but it’ll be better than what I thought up, won’t it?”

  Jason smiled. “And you’re still very pretty, Flora. And young.”

  “I know what you mean.” She actually smiled, and it was a wiser smile.

  “What are we going to do about Elise, Flora?”

  “What? I gave her two hundred dollars—she knew about Theo.”

  “That wasn’t very bright of you to let her know.”

  “She didn’t know—all the other times. Theo and I meet in New York, in his rooms. This is the very first time I let him come to my place—he just had to have money! He couldn’t wait.”

  “Did you ever hear of blackmail?”

  She turned a ghastly white, and her eyes seemed to fill her face.

  “You mean …?”

  “Yes. Elise could strip you, threaten to tell your husband about Theo being here, and the jewelry, and the bribe you gave her.”

  “Oh, Jesus, Jesus! What am I going to do?” She wrung her hands.

  “Will you let me take care of her, and not say one single word?”

  She was shivering. “Oh, yes, yes!”

  “Then ring the bell for her.”

  Elise came in, moving as silently as a shadow, and closed the door. She looked quickly from her mistress to Jason, then back to Flora. Jason said, “I have only a few words for you, Elise.”

  “What?” Her tone was impertinent.

  “When you came to work for Mrs. Bristol, you had no references. She falsified one for you, because she liked you. You must have worked somewhere before. How old are you? About thirty-five, forty? Where did you work before?”

  “None of your business.”

  He leaned toward her, implacable. “A crime has been committed here, and not the crime about the jewelry. I am going to have your background investigated, Elise. I am going to find out all about you—whether or not you have ever been in trouble, for instance.”

  She turned an ugly scarlet. “I never was in trouble! I kept house for my father until he died!”

  Jason nodded, as if he approved. “Good. But we’ll find out, anyway. We’ll find out where you and your father lived; all about you. Your old friends. Your reputation. Everything. Then, when it is all … clear, you and Mrs. Bristol will get along together very well.”

  The woman leaned toward him like a vicious cat, snarling. “Is that so, sir? Well, no, thank you. I’m quitting, and right now!”

/>   She turned to Flora. “And it’s all your doing, you little bitch! I’ll fix you!”

  Jason stood up and seized the woman’s black-clad arm and swung her around to face him. “No, you won’t. You’ve already blackmailed Mrs. Bristol. That’s a very serious crime. Have you blackmailed others, too? We’ll find out. You see, Mrs. Bristol has told me everything. She is going to tell her husband everything, too. Aren’t you, Mrs. Bristol?”

  Flora looked at him with horror. Then she saw him wink. “Yes,” she muttered. “Right away.”

  “And he’ll throw you out on the street!”

  “For what, Elise?” Jason asked. “Because Mrs. Bristol had a friend visit her? You saw nothing; you heard nothing. You weren’t here.”

  “I know she gave him her jewelry!”

  Oh, hell, thought Jason, did the little fool actually tell her? But Flora said, “How do you know? I never told you; you only know the jewelry is gone. I … I just gave you that money so you wouldn’t make a fuss about it and get Mr. Bristol madder than he’s going to be. I don’t know why I gave you that money in the first place! Maybe just to keep you from going to the police, as Mr. Garrity wanted me to. You never saw a thing!”

  So the little imbecile does have a few brains tucked away, thought Jason with relief. He said, “If you ever bother Mrs. Bristol, or try to cause her trouble, she will have you arrested. That money you received from Mrs. Bristol was in lieu of notice. Now, leave this hotel at once, or you’ll find yourself in prison. Judges don’t like blackmailers, and if you try anything anonymously, we’ll still find you. I promise we will.”

  The woman screamed, “Is that so! If everything was just dandy, why’d she give me that money?”

  Jason pretended impatience. “Because, somehow, the jewelry has disappeared. Carelessness, perhaps. And Mrs. Bristol didn’t want the police called.”

  “I saw that man in these rooms!”

  “What if you did?”

  “And he slept here!”

  “In Mr. Bristol’s room. He’s an old friend.” Then Jason added, “In the meantime, your background is going to be investigated. I have an idea you won’t like that. So get out, now.”