“What is it?”
“She was married and had kids.”
He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not surprised. A woman like that it would be more of a shock if she didn’t have anyone. You would have had to know her.” His eyes glazed over just a bit, as if he were remembering something.
We sat and watched him, waiting for the next question. He was almost pitiful, the way he sat there. His stained white chef’s apron hung round his neck over his blue work shirt. The working class stiff musing over the professional woman who had always been out of his reach.
“What do you know about them? Him?”
I reached into my purse and pulled out the family portrait and handed it to him. He took it and stared down at the smiling faces in the photograph for a moment and then raised his eyes to mine. “Nice family. She was a nice-looking woman even with brown hair.”
“Yes.”
“Two girls. I’ll bet they’re wondering where their mother is,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll bet he is, too.”
It was tough, sitting there like that with Carl. It was almost tragic to see him show concern for her family.
“Catherine, that’s the older girl,” I said and pointed to her face in the picture, “had been in touch with her mother.”
“She had?”
“Yes.” I reached back into my bag and pulled out the letters, handing him the long one. Then Margaret and I sat in silence again for a few minutes while he read it. We watched, as he glanced from the letter, to the photograph, to us.
“That’s really a tearjerker,” he said sincerely.
“Here’s another one. It’s a lot shorter.”
He took the second letter and read through it quickly. “Where were they postmarked?”
“There weren’t any envelopes. I don’t yet know where they live,” I said hesitantly. I never would if he didn’t pay us to do any more work. As curious as we were, we couldn’t afford to find out if we weren’t paid to do so.
“What else?”
“That’s about it. We found some rings; that’s how we know she was probably an attorney. Show them to him, Margaret.” Margaret reached into her purse and then handed the rings over to Carl. He examined them and handed them back. “That diamond’s a knockout,” he said.
“Yes. They apparently weren’t hurting for money. Did you look at the law school ring? The University of Texas was where she went,” I said.
“Then you should be able to find out what her real name was,” Carl said.
“Yes. If I go to Austin.” Mentally, I put on my business cap. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I didn’t know if you wanted us to go any further or not. After all, it is Friday.”
Much to my relief, Carl said, “You wouldn’t quit on me now, would you, Mavis? Could you go to Austin?”
“I’d be glad to if you’re willing to pay my expenses and my fee,” I said directly. Talking money was very difficult for me, so generally I just blurted it out and waited to get the person’s reaction.
“Well, we can’t quit now. This is great, Mavis. You’re terrific!”
I smiled demurely. I was secretly hoping he’d be pleased.
“Aren’t you excited, Mavis?” asked Carl.
I glanced at Margaret and we grinned at each other and then laughed at the same time. “Yeah, it’s really neat what we’ve found. We’ve practically been in hysterics all morning. We just didn’t know how you’d feel.”
“We didn’t know if you’d be willing to continue once you found out she was married,” Margaret said.
“We wanted to proceed, Carl, but business is business. If you didn’t care to go any further with the investigation, we didn’t know what we could do with it. We couldn’t tell the police everything we knew because of some of the means of getting the information. If, in the end, we find out who did it, then maybe there won’t be a problem, but right now there would be. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” I asked.
“Yeah. I can tell that you don’t know me very well. When I start something, I finish it. And with Doris, rather Elizabeth, I want to keep on going until I know what happened. You understand me, Mavis? I don’t care what it costs. I’ll borrow money if I run out. Whoever killed her deserves to be caught and her family deserves to know what happened to her.”
“We agree,” I said.
“When can you leave for Austin?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I lucked out. I have a friend who’s a doctor and lives over near the medical center with her mechanic husband. I called Alex on Saturday morning and begged and pleaded until he agreed to look at my air-conditioner that afternoon. He was able to rig it up temporarily with Freon and a patch, and he also gave me the bad news. For a permanent fix, I’d need many new parts. He offered to take the Mustang off my hands for $1500, but I couldn’t do it. She and I have been together since 1965. She’s been like my best friend. We’d been together too long and would stay together till death do us part.
Saturday night, I began packing. I hadn’t heard from Ben, who usually dropped by, or at least called, every Saturday even if we didn’t go out. It was just as well. All good things must come to an end. I’m not even sure it was a good thing. He wanted a wife and babies. Well, he’d had that and it didn’t work out and I didn’t want to end up writing out his child support checks for him each month while our kids went without. Not that I wanted kids. I mean, I like kids well enough, don’t get me wrong, but with Ben, well, he’d want me to stay home and take care of them.
I threw a pair of jeans in my suitcase, which lay open across my bed. As I packed, I was feeling down, and up, and down again. It was Saturday night and I had no place to go. It’s not healthy for people to be home alone on Saturday night. At least that’s my theory.
Not that Saturday nights had the same importance as fifteen or twenty years ago, but still I was getting into a real rut when the doorbell rang. I put my eye to the peephole. It was Ben, all six foot four inches of him. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but at least he’d fill the void in my evening.
I pulled open the door and cast my eyes down demurely.
“Why, Ben what a surprise.”
“Hi, Mavis,” his deep voice rumbled.
I closed the door behind him and we stood there staring at each other in a moment of silence. When my neck started getting a crick in it from looking up at him, I asked him to sit down.
“Want something to drink?”
“I want to talk.”
“Can’t talk and drink at the same time, huh?” I couldn’t help myself, it just slipped out.
“Don’t be flippant,” he said harshly.
“Gee, I’m sorry. What do you want me to be?”
“I want you to be serious for once and talk to me.” His face softened.
“Let’s start over then. May I offer you something to drink? Coffee, tea, soft drink, beer, bourbon, scotch, vodka—”
“Damnit, there you go again.”
“I can’t help the way I am. I thought it was one of my most endearing characteristics. At least, that’s what you used to say.”
“All right. Get me a bourbon, but then I want to talk.”
“Wait. Is this an official visit or a social call?”
His eyes became slits as he stood up. “I’m off duty.”
“Oh. Okay. Bourbon it is.” I turned to go toward my tiny kitchen, but he quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. Boy, did he lay one on me. A kiss, I mean. When we came up for air, I was breathless. The fact that he leaves me that way is one of the reasons we still see each other. “What was that for?” I asked when I could speak again.
“On account of as how,” he answered with a grin.
“What?”
“On account of as how I want you to know my feelings haven’t changed.”
“I was wondering.”
“Can I get that drink now?”
My turn to grin. “Yeah. Come with me into the kitchen.” He got a bourbon and w
ater and I got a Lite, a fine pilsner beer. We traipsed back past my little dinette into the living room, where we sat next to each other on the couch. I was hoping for some heavy necking.
Ben had other ideas. “Mavis,” he said in a too businesslike manner, “you’re the talk of the locker room.”
“Don’t beat around the bush, Ben. Just come right out and tell me what’s on your mind.” I can’t help it. Facetiousness just comes naturally to me.
He rolled his eyes and I knew what was coming.
“Can’t you be serious for one minute?”
“You’re going to tell me that lumpy Lon has been slandering my good name.” I put my drink down on the table and reached for my cigarettes. I was about to light up, which I’ve noticed I do when I’m in an avoidance situation—I’ve been analyzing it, see—when I was rudely interrupted.
“Have you started smoking again?”
“Is that what Lon has been saying about me? You’d think he’d have better things to talk about.”
“No. He was laughing about your stupid theory. When did you start back?”
“It’s not stupid. I’m right. Lon’s the one who’s stupid. Two weeks ago. I’m surprised you didn’t smell it on my clothes when we went out to dinner.”
“I was too busy trying to talk some sense into you, but I can see it didn’t work. If you want to kill yourself, it’s none of my business”
“That’s right. Either way, you can’t stop me. I’ll smoke if I want to and I’ll work my theory. Lon can work his. The dumb jerk. I knew he wouldn’t believe me. I banked on it.”
“He’s actually a good detective.”
“He’s an asshole.”
Ben whistled. “He must have made quite an impression.”
“No different from the last time.”
“Come on, Mavis. Did you really think he’d buy that dumb theory? There’s no basis for it.”
“Sure there is. I tried to tell him. I really did. He just has his own ideas. Well, I’ve got news for you, and for all of HPD. You all can just laugh your guts out in the locker room while I solve this murder.”
“Sure, baby.”
My turn to narrow my eyes. “Don’t give me that. Don’t patronize me, Ben. I’m serious. This is my big chance and I’m not going to blow it.”
He was scooting over closer to me on the couch. Somehow the conversation had gone awry. Ben wasn’t interested any more. No more chewing of my ass. No more sour looks. I suddenly became confused. Why was he here? Just to tell me that all of Houston was laughing?
“What’s going on?” I asked him as I put my hands upon his chest and held him back. He kept coming. “What is it? I’m not a threat anymore? Everything’s okay because I’m not a menace to the insecurities of the men of the HPD?”
“Let’s forget it for right now, Mavie. I don’t want to fight. It’s not worth it.”
Now he was into heavy necking, but I was not. I was hurt. Was it so funny? I didn’t mind lousy Lon and his buddies making fun behind my back, but if Ben agreed with them, well, that was different.
I was still trying to talk, but his face was too close to mine for eye contact. I’m big on eye contact. Then his face was buried beneath my hair, his mouth nibbling on my neck, his arms around me, pulling me closer. The importance of what I was trying to say was slipping away from me as I felt a tingling. Much as I was trying to resist, I couldn’t help myself. When his lips came down on mine, I completely lost my train of thought.
A few minutes later we were headed past the kitchen to my bedroom, our clothing leaving a trail behind us. We had firm intentions of coming together upon my bed, but there was one little item that I’d forgotten about.
Ben pulled up short of the bed and abruptly stopped what he was doing. Dammit.
“Going somewhere?” His tone was as sharp and cold as an icicle.
My heart was palpitating for more reasons than one. My eyes followed his, and there, yawning open across the width of my double bed, the evidence of a trip in the making plain to see, was my suitcase.
I searched for a glib answer.
“I asked you a question.”
The temperature had dropped from the high nineties to the freezing point in about five seconds flat. I saw no use in stalling or telling him anything other than the truth. My eyes roved over his face as we both stood staring from my suitcase to each other and back at my suitcase again.
I started toward the bed to close my luggage. “Oh, I’m driving over to Austin tomorrow to visit an old friend. We’re going to spend the day together, and then I’ll be coming back home Monday after she goes to work. She wanted me to come for the whole weekend, but it’s been so hot that I didn’t want to drive when my air-conditioner was broken, so today I got Alex, you know, Vivian’s husband, to fix it for me. I could have left late this afternoon, but I didn’t get packed because I didn’t know how long it would take Alex to fix it and I thought I might as well wait and get up early tomorrow. I guess I could have flown, but I needed to get my air-conditioner fixed anyway, and you know how I hate to be without my car when I go anywhere. There.” I had the suitcase all latched and placed on the floor and stood facing Ben, ready to resume where we’d left off.
He was staring down at me with that narrow-eyed look of his—the look I’m sure he reserves only for me and prisoners to whom he gives the third degree.
“What?” I asked.
“Where are you really going?”
I don’t know why he didn’t believe it. It sounded like a perfectly good story to me. “I told you. I’m going to Austin to visit a friend. We’re going to have a picnic at Barton Springs and go swimming. She’s been having some problems with her husband and she called me to talk about it. She’s always called me when she has problems; she says that she’s never found another friend she can confide in like she can me; and then she said she wanted me to come for the weekend. But I couldn’t bear to drive in the heat, like I told you.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ben said as he started back down the hall. He began picking up pieces of his clothing.
“Ben, why would I lie about a little thing like that?” I asked as I followed him. He was getting dressed.
“I don’t know where you’re going, but it’s not Austin. I suspect that wherever it is, it’s tied to that murder case.”
“I’m going to Austin to visit a friend. She works in the Capitol Building. She’s the secretary for one of the state representatives. If he’s in town on Monday, she might even introduce me to him before I leave.” By this time he was sitting on the couch tying his shoes. I watched while he buttoned up his shirt and slipped on his tan suit coat.
“Ben, why are you so angry?”
“I’m not going to argue with you, Mavis,” he said and began knotting his tie. “I know you’re lying and it makes me mad. I told you to leave the case alone, but you won’t do it. I thought it was all a joke to you or that you were through with it, but I see you aren’t.”
“I’m going to Austin to see a friend; that’s all, Ben. Why won’t you believe me?” I was on the point of pleading as I stood there half naked. I could see that the warmth was oozing out of our relationship.
“Quit lying,” he said as he approached the front door.
“How can you do this? How can you just get dressed and leave me like this?” My voice was getting shrill.
“When you’re ready for an open, honest relationship, Mavis, call me. I might still be around.” With that, Ben flung open the door and left, slamming it so hard behind him that the windows rattled.
I stood there gaping after him. It had all happened so fast that I was somewhat in shock. I tried to think of where I’d gone. wrong. It was a situation of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. How could we have an open, honest relationship when he tried to tell me what to do? I turned the lock and began picking up my clothes. There was nothing to do except go to bed with the late movie. I’d think more about Ben tomorrow.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
On Sunday, I departed for Austin. I took Highway 290 west out of Houston and cruised into the hill country around six o’clock that night. It’s not a bad drive. Boring, about four hours of highway bordered by beautiful blankets of bluebonnets, our state flower, but all in all, not a bad drive.
I called my friend while I was there, but she wasn’t home. Sunday evening I bought a chicken dinner and went out to Barton Springs for a solitary picnic under the trees. I watched the kids swimming in the icy spring water, and the lovers making out on blankets on the far bank, and felt a little sorry for myself.
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