“Taverner and Bushnell’s most despicable legacy was to make people afraid to acknowledge they had ever supported progressive causes. Even successful, rich people, or perhaps most especially successful, rich people. Augustus actually wanted to know what I had told you about ComThought. I had to remind him all that happened while I was still in high school.”
The torn muscle in my shoulder began to ache from cold. “Did you know that Armand Pelletier left an unpublished manuscript in his papers describing where ComThought met, and who took part in the discussions? According to him, Mr. Bayard was prominently involved in those conversations at Flora’s-I thought he might have told you about it, especially since you were helping him when he was facing down Bushnell’s interrogation.”
“Armand was a sad case, a gifted man who frittered away his talents on drink, and on blaming others for his problems. He never forgave Calvin for the poor sales of his book Bleak Land, and he never forgave me for suggesting to Calvin that we not publish it. Armand had served prison time for his beliefs and Calvin felt we owed it to him to help him out. My husband tried to help a number of the ComThought people in ways like that, to show Olin and Walker Bushnell he didn’t care about their vulgar blacklist. That’s quite different from being the driving force behind an avowedly Communist group, which Olin and Congressman Bushnell hoped to pin on Calvin. I wouldn’t pay much attention to Armand’s unpublished manuscripts; he was a bitter man with an ax to grind. All of that past is long dead. I think it’s time for you to leave it to bury itself”
“Is that why Ms. Graham called you? To complain that I was resurrecting the past?”
Renee paused briefly. “I don’t know which of the two of you is more intrusive. She wanted to inquire after Calvin’s health, as if I didn’t know how to care for him. An impertinence I wouldn’t have received if you hadn’t first invaded my privacy in New Solway, and then discussed Mr. Bayard with Geraldine. Unless you have something useful to contribute, Ms. Warshawski, don’t bother my family further. You may not be an instigator, but you’re certainly not a bystander: you generate turmoil.”
When she cut the connection, I had an impulse to run up to Banks Street and hurl a bazooka rocket through her window, something that would make an explosion big enough to match my impotent fury. Instead I stomped over to Michigan and flagged a taxi to my car. Where I found yet another ticket. One more and I’d get booted. I kicked a piece of concrete savagely enough to hurt my toes. Damn it all, anyway.
At home, soaking in a hot bath, I tried to make sense of all the conversations I’d had today. Taverner’s secret was about sex, the complicated relations among Calvin and Geraldine, MacKenzie Graham and Laura Drummond. But it was also about money. There was the money Geraldine had given Calvin’s pet charity, presumably the Committee for Social Thought’s legal fund. And the money Calvin had loaned Llewellyn. Sex and money. They led to murder in the heat of the moment, but the heat from these moments surely had cooled in the last fifty years.
Still, something about that past was upsetting people so much they kept menacing me. Darraugh called it quicksand, Llewellyn a pond filled with some kind of rot. Darraugh himself had threatened me when he realized
what information I was starting to dig up, even though he was the one who brought me out to New Solway in the first place. He was strong, too, strong enough to overpower Marcus Whitby. But he was the person who’d brought me to New Solway to begin with. The hamster wheel began buzzing in my brain again.
I ran more hot water into the tub and sank deeper into it. My shoulder started to relax. My bones warmed up. I drifted away from Whitby and turmoil. My birthday last July, Lake Michigan warmer than this bathwater. Lying on an Indiana beach under the summer stars, the night air and Morrell’s long fingers caressing me.
The shrill bell to my front door jerked me awake. I sat up, splashing water onto the floor. When the bell sounded a second time I climbed out of the tub and padded to the front room, wrapping a bath sheet around me. It wasn’t cops, but a trio of boys on bikes doing wheelies on the walk. Pranksters. My lips tightened in annoyance. I walked back to my bedroom, to dress, but, when they rang for the third time, I suddenly remembered that Father Lou had said he would send messages by his kids on bikes.
“Be right with you,” I shouted through the intercom.
I dried off fast, pulled on jeans and a heavy sweater, tucked my damp hair into a baseball cap and skittered down the stairs. Mr. Contreras and the dogs were already in the lobby, arguing with the boys, who were backing away from Mitch-by far the most vociferous of the group.
“‘S okay, I’ve got it.” I pushed past them out the front door.
One of the boys came forward, striking a determinedly aggressive posture. “You the detective lady?”
“Yep. You the guy from St. Remigio?”
He nodded, eyes slits, detective on a mission. “Father Lou said to tell you you wasn’t alone when you came to church this morning. Got it?” “Is that all he said? Did he want me to call?” I demanded.
“Uh, yeah. Yeah, you should try to call him.”
Mechanically, I thanked the boys. I gave them a five to share among themselves, and went back into the building.
“What was that about?” Mr. Contreras demanded. “You shouldn’t give punks like that money, only encourages them to come around begging for more.”
I shook my head. “They’re from Father Lou. Someone followed me to church this morning. Somehow, some way. But-damn, I made sure I was clear. I have to call him, see whether the Feds got Benji”
I sprinted back up the stairs, the dogs racing ahead of me while the old man followed more ponderously in the rear. By the time he got to my door, I had on my running shoes and a coat. Mr. Contreras offered to let me use his phone, but I couldn’t be sure that wasn’t tapped-if they were listening to me they would know to listen in on him, too.
The nearest pay phone I could think of was in the Belmont Diner, a couple of blocks south of us us. I ran down there and called the rectory. “No one was on my tail this morning; I triple-checked,” I said when the priest finally answered his phone. “What happened?”
“Had a federal marshal and a Chicago cop here this afternoon. They asked after you-told them you’re one of my parishioners, don’t come often enough:” He let out a rusty chuckle: I’m never sure whether he harbors secret fantasies of converting me. “They also thought I was hiding some runaway they want. Told them to be my guest, search the place, but it’s a big church, took them the better part of two hours, got me behind in catechism and boxing classes both.”
“Did they find anyone?” I asked.
“Boys playing hide-and-seek behind the altar was all, thinking it was a good joke to jump out on a cop. Gave them what for when I found them. But if you’re bringing cops into the church, you’d better find someplace else to worship-too disruptive of education here.”
Meaning, if I understood him right, that he’d put Benji in the crypt, which lies behind the altar, but that I’d better move him in case the Feds came again.
“Is this something I have to figure out tonight?” I asked. “You know I don’t go to church very often-1 don’t have a second one right at my fingertips.” He grunted. “Can wait until tomorrow. Maybe the next day, not much longer.”
The Feds might have gone to St. Remigio’s because they’d done so much research on me that they knew Father Lou was a friend of mine and Morrell’s. Or-they’d installed an electronic gadget on my car so they could follow me without putting manpower on the street. My stomach turned over.
I tried to remember if I’d gone anywhere else incriminating the last few days. The hospital, the university library, back up to the Loop, then home. Maybe agents would next be down at the University of Chicago, demanding to know what I’d read today. Under the Patriot Act, they didn’t need a warrant or probable cause to make the library tell them, but if the librarians told me the Feds had come around, the librarians would go to jail. So I’d never know-unles
s, of course, Pelletier’s archives disappeared.
I’d been tired all day, but now I felt completely exhausted. It was what I’d tried to tell Lotty last night: I didn’t know who frightened the more these days, radical Muslims, or radical Americans.
I hadn’t eaten dinner and I certainly didn’t have the energy to cook for myself. I went inside the diner and took a seat at the counter.
The diner is a gallant survivor from the days when Lakeview was a bluecollar neighborhood, from when Mr. Contreras and I had bought shares in our co-op. Now it’s become a neighborhood we can barely afford. The diner has changed, too-I guess it had to in order to survive. The Formica tables are gone, and the chicken-fried steak, replaced by polyurethaned wood and grilled salmon. I didn’t want modern trendy food tonight, but they still had some old diner standbys on the menu. I ordered a plate of macaroni and cheese. It wasn’t anything like what my mother used to make, with her hand-rolled pasta and homemade white sauce, but it was comfort food nonetheless.
While I drank a cup of weak diner coffee, I tried to imagine where I could put Benji. I couldn’t bring him home, either to me or Mr. Contreras. I certainly couldn’t ask Lotty or Max to put him up. I hardly knew Amy Blount, and, anyway, she lived in a studio apartment. If I could get in to see Catherine Bayard in the morning, I’d see whether she had some fallback place. Maybe the family apartment in Hong Kong or London. No, that would mean getting him out of the country past a security screen. I gave up on it and went home to bed.
CHAPTER 47
Tough on a Rhino Hide
When I woke, the sun was out for the first time in days. Perhaps that was an omen. I had slept for nine hours, deeply, hardly stirring, despite the anxieties I’d taken to bed with me. Another good sign.
I dressed for the day in jeans and running shoes. Since the cops had trailed me to St. Remigio’s, I was going to leave my car at my office; I wanted to be able to move fast through the city. The dogs got the shortest of walks. I left them with Mr. Contreras, then drove to my office, where I went inside just long enough.to check my messages. No tox report. No messages that couldn’t wait. I put a fresh battery pack in my cell phone and took off.
On my way to the El, I turned abruptly into a bakery, then stuck my head out the door. No one had halted on the walk behind me. I bought a ginger scone and a bottle of orange juice, picked up the morning papers and hurried to the train.
The detective’s life is harder on public transport. The train was so packed I had to stand. I couldn’t eat or read and when I got out, I was still two miles from my destination, since the line to the Gold Coast is different from the one near my office. At Division, I flagged a cab to the corner of Banks and Astor. When I got out, a young woman swung into the backseat
before I finished paying-it was eight-ten, the time when aggressive young lawyers and financiers race to their desks.
I crossed the street to where I could see the Bayard apartment. With the Herald-Star in front of my face, I called up and asked for Renee. She was still inside; I hung up just as she came to the phone. I made a little eyehole in the Herald-Star; while I ate my scone, I watched nannies and mothers hurry their children to school. I also got to see a ferocious competition for cabs among the work-bound-including a shoving match between two women. The one I was silently betting on lost.
Renee Bayard could probably have won a battle for a taxi, but she didn’t have to fight: a dark sedan was waiting in front of the Banks Street apartment. At eight-forty-eight, the driver climbed out and stood by the rear door. At eight-fifty, Renee came through the front gate, a commanding figure in navy wool. Her son was with her. The driver tucked Renee into the backseat, but Edwards walked over to State Street and headed north.
He could be going anywhere, but the Vina Fields Academy lay in that direction. If he was going to pick up books or lesson plans for Catherine, Elsbetta would know about it, and I couldn’t use that as my pretext for getting into the building. I bit my lip in indecision, but finally crossed the street and rang the lower apartments, starting with the first floor. No one answered there, the second floor hung up on me, but the third floor buzzed me in as soon as I said I was from the Vina Fields Academy. They buzzed me again through the inner door. Just to minimize suspicions in the building, I rode to the third floor, said I was there for Catherine Bayard and was directed to five. So far, so good.
On the fifth floor, the entrance to the Bayard apartment stood openthey assumed the locks on the gate and lobby doors were enough protection. I shook my head disapprovingly: this is how ax murderers get into your home.
I slipped into the entry area, pausing to admire a Louise Nevelson bronze before passing through the arched doorway that led to the interior. I tried to remember how to find Catherine’s room. The path to Renee’s study lay to the left; I thought Catherine’s bedroom was in the opposite direction.
As I walked down the hall, a vacuum cleaner roared into life. I jumped, but moved boldly forward. A furtive glance showed me a cleaning crew in action. Elsbetta stood with her back to me, barking orders in Polish. Excellent.
At the end of the hall, I came to Catherine’s room. The door was shut. I gave a perfunctory knock and went in. The bedroom was empty, but an open door on the near wall led to a bathroom. When I peered around the door, I saw Catherine in front of a dressing table trying to button a man’s shirt with one hand. Her dark hair fell unbraided down her back. She didn’t look around at my entrance, but kept stubbornly trying to manage the buttons.
“It’s easier if you don’t watch in the mirror,” I said.
She turned, startled. “Oh! It’s you. I thought it was Elsbetta. Why are you here? Is Benji okay?”
I pulled up a chair to face her. “I saw him yesterday. He seemed fine, he asked after you, but there are a couple of problems.”
Her eyes grew dark with dismay. “Like what?”
“Like the Chicago cops showed up late yesterday to look for him. Apparently, because I’d been there. So we need-“
“I thought you were a detective.” Her voice was scornful. “Don’t you know to watch for tails?”
“Check for tails! Now, you tell me. Gosh.” I slapped my forehead. “Listen, you little mutt, I drove in circles at six in the morning. The streets were empty. No one was behind me. One of two things happened: they put a tracer on my car so they can watch me on a screen instead of wasting gas. Or they have been tracking down every person I know and checking up on them. Father Lou had time to get Benji into a safe place inside the church, but the kid can’t stay there much longer. For obvious reasons, I can’t take him to any of my friends. I was hoping you could talk to your grandmother and get her to agree to let him stay at your New Solway house. She’s basically on the side-“
“No! She thinks I’m in love with Benji, or in love with Benji’s adventure. She wants him out of-the country. The only thing she and Daddy agree on is that Benji needs to go back to Egypt. If I tell her I know where he is, she’ll call the justice Department. But they won’t deport him, they’ll lock him up. You said I didn’t read any news, but I’ve been reading on this and reading on this and reading on this. It happens all the time, people are caught with their visas expired, and they can’t even go home. They get put in detention some place and held for months. I promised Benji, I won’t let him down.” She started to cry.
I patted her good hand. “It’s okay, babe: we’ll think of something else. You’re recovering from a bullet wound. Try to calm down: you need to save your strength for healing. I’m on your side in this, really, truly. If I wasn’t, I would have talked to your granny without consulting you, you know.”
She blew her nose. “I can’t even braid my own hair. I can’t play lacrosse or ride for months until this stupid arm heals. Everything takes forever, or I have to get people to do stuff for me. I hate it.”
“Speaking as one who’s been through the wars, I agree: it’s a pain. Want me to finish buttoning you? Just this once?”
She nodded,
her eyes still tearing a bit. Judging by the size and the cut, the shirt must have been filched from her father’s closet. It covered her tasted right arm with room to spare.
“Your dad off getting your lesson plans?”
“Yeah. He’s meeting with Ms. Milford to see what I can do online. It’s only a few days, I keep telling him not to be so anal.”
“And he says, `Young lady, where did you pick up that kind of language?”’ I suggested.
She gave a shaky laugh. “Something like that. And that it’s a competitive world and I need to learn that losers are not strivers. Then he adds he’s going to take me to Washington, to a school with my natural peers where I’ll learn how to behave with proper respect. Like, learning how to totally trash the environment or something while I’m pretending to protect it, that’s his idea of respect. Where can Benji go i? he has to leave St. Remigio’s?”
“I’ve only had one not very bright idea. I could put him up in a motel for a few days, while I try to find an immigration lawyer who can help him. It’s not the best idea-I hate for him to have keep skulking around, not to mention for him to have to be by himself. It’s not good for his spirits, and, anyway, as he himself says, there’s no point in his staying here if he can’t work. And he ought to be with kids his age-your age-and feel able to relax.”
“But he can’t do that as long as those racists are looking for him.” She
smacked the dressing table with her good hand. “I tried to get him to let me send his mom money, but he wouldn’t take it. No matter what Daddy and Granny are saying, he isn’t trying to exploit me.”
“I have a tiny idea about that, too. Last Sunday night, when Marcus Whitby drowned in the Larchmont pond, Benji was standing at the attic window watching for you. I’m almost certain Benji saw what happened. If Marcus Whitby didn’t go in on his own, Benji saw who pushed him in. Benji won’t tell me or Father Lou, but if you could get him to talk about it, I might be able to work out a deal with the Chicago police. Captain Mallory, who’s in charge of the city’s antiterrorism squad, could-“
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