Alibi

by Joseph Kanon

  The trip back was longer, and by the time we reached the Giudecca channel we were soaked through, my fingers frozen on the rudder. I killed the motor when we were almost at the Zattere, letting the boat bob for a minute, then rowing back under the footbridge to our canal. The sound of the rain now covered the plash of the oars. I didn’t have to let the boat drift. Claudia lifted the coat off her head and looked around.

  “It’s okay. No one’s out,” I said.

  “I won’t go back to that camp,” she said, as if she hadn’t heard me, another conversation.

  “No.”

  “Never. No matter what.”

  “It’s not there anymore, Claudia,” I said quietly.

  “That one. Another. Any of them.”

  “Ssh,” I said. “No one’s going anywhere.” I put a finger to my lips, then pointed at the lighted window across the canal. I used the oar to swing around to our gate, catching the mooring pole and tying the boat before I helped Claudia out. She was shivering, her lips moving involuntarily. I helped her up the stairs, then closed the grilled door on the canal. She was standing near the pile of paving stones, staring at the tarp. I looked down to where the blood had been, just a streak of wet now.

  “Come on, let’s get you dry,” I said, taking her arm.

  She was still looking at the tarp. “What are we going to do?”

  “A bath. You’re freezing.”

  “No, I mean, what are we going to do?” She motioned toward the pile.

  “I know what you mean. A bath. Then we’re going to go to Mimi’s.”

  She looked up. “What?”

  “I’ve been thinking-it’s the safest thing we can do. Hundreds of witnesses. When anyone asks, we were at Mimi’s.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “We can do it. People will be late. Everything’ll be a mess in the rain. We go in the back. Then we’re in the ballroom, dancing. That’s all anyone will remember.”

  “Dancing,” she said, shocked. “After we just-”

  I took her arms. “I know what we just did. And now we’re going to Mimi’s.”

  “I can’t.”

  “We have to,” I said, still holding her. “Otherwise, where were we?”

  “How can we go?” she said nervously. “Like this? What do we wear?”

  “Borrow something of my mother’s.”

  “I couldn’t.”

  “Claudia,” I said, gripping her now. “There isn’t time. I’ll run the bath. We’ll pick something out. It’ll be all right. It has to be.”

  “But my hair, it’s all wet,” she said, putting her hand up to feel it.

  “Your hair.”

  She stopped, hearing the absurdity of it.

  “Everybody’ll be wet,” I said. “Come on. We have to hurry.”

  She didn’t move.

  “We can do it.” I looked toward the tarp. “We can’t let anyone know.”

  “And we’re supposed to smile? After this?” She shook a little.

  “Yes. As if nothing happened.” I took her shoulders again. “Because nothing happened.”

  She looked at me, then nodded, still shaking.

  “All right. Hot water. Come on. Leave the lights. I want to check later. If there’s any blood we missed.”

  “Oh,” she said, stopping. She looked back toward the steps, her face slack.

  “You all right?” I said softly.

  She nodded. “It’s just-I forgot about the blood.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  There was only enough hot water for one bath, so we took turns. While I was drying off near the space heater, Claudia went through my mother’s closet, her head wrapped in a towel, her skin flushed from the warm soak.

  “You’re young. That already puts you ahead. Wear anything.”

  “To a party like this? It’s easy for you.”

  “If it still fits,” I said, picking up my jacket from the bed. “I haven’t worn it in three years. That’s nice.”

  She was holding up an evening gown with a scalloped neck, as creamy and soft as lingerie.

  “It’s from before the war.”

  “Here, let me help.”

  She slid the dress over her head.

  “It’s loose,” she said.

  “This much?” I pinched in some fabric at the back. “We can pin it. You’ll look wonderful.”

  “Oh, wonderful,” she said, flouncing out her damp hair. “Everyone will see it’s old.”

  “They’ll still be looking at you. That’s all we want.”

  “Look at all this. Powder, everything. How can she have so much?”

  I left her at the mirror, patting her face, and went to dress, hurrying, even managing my tie in a few minutes. Then I headed downstairs to check the water entrance, running a flashlight along the edge of the tarp. There were a few dark splotches of dampness on the stone floor, possibly from our dripping clothes, but nothing that looked like blood. One more check tomorrow in the daylight. What else? The ashtray in the hall. Not even a trace. When I got back to my mother’s room, Claudia was still at the dressing table, putting her hair up.

  “We have to hurry.”

  “There’s nothing else I can do with it,” she said, ignoring me. “This way it doesn’t matter if it’s wet.”

  I saw the white back of her neck, like a girl’s, then looked into the mirror as she blotted her lipstick. The room was warm now, close with the smell of perfume and powder.

  “You look beautiful.”

  She met my eyes in the mirror, then looked down, suddenly upset.

  “I can’t do this. All the time thinking-” She stopped, then reached for another tissue and raised her head to look at me again. “Where are the pins?”

  It needed only two, which I covered in the back with the sash. The shoes were more difficult-we had to stuff wadded tissue into the toes to make them fit.

  “So,” Claudia said, standing in front of the mirror, smoothing the skirt. “It’s okay?”

  “Almost.”

  I went into my mother’s closet and pulled out the false panel in the glove drawer that hid her jewel case. You had to lift the top tray of rings out to get to the bigger pieces. I took out a necklace.

  “I can’t wear-”

  “She’s not wearing it,” I said, fastening it behind her neck. “She won’t mind.”

  She fingered the stones, just gazing into the mirror for a minute.

  “My god. Are they rubies?”

  “I don’t know. Garnets, maybe. Anyway, they suit you. Your coloring. Ready?”

  But she stood there, still looking, then made a wry grimace. “All my life I wanted to go to those parties. In one of the palazzos. With jewels. And now-like this.”

  Mimi’s ground-floor layout was similar to ours; a long hall stretching from the Grand Canal to a calle, flanked by old offices and storerooms converted tonight into cloakrooms and little parlors. As I’d expected, there was a crush at the water entrance, a swarm of flashbulbs and dripping umbrellas and harried maids running back and forth. Most of the maids were new, borrowed from friends or hired for the evening, and none of them recognized me. We were just part of the crowd in evening dress streaming in from all directions, handing over wet coats, adjusting hair in powder rooms, stamping our shoes dry on the marble floor. In the confusion of arrival, with everyone talking at once and music coming from upstairs, no one noticed us. We might have come in at any time. I glanced up to see if Mimi was on the stairs, receiving, but she had evidently already joined the party. Better still.

  At the top of the stairs was a landing, an anteroom before the main sala, a place to catch your breath and gather your skirt, and for a moment we stood there, dazzled. Mimi’s ballroom was one of the grandest in Venice, as large as the Rezzonico’s, and tonight every inch of it seemed alive with light. The center chandeliers were electric, but the walls were lined with sconces holding real candles, hundreds of them, backed by mirrors, so that the effect was watery, constantly in motion, the nightti
me equivalent of sunlight reflected off the canal. At the end of the room the high windows tapered to gothic points, but the walls themselves were rococo, paneled Arcadian scenes framed in gilt, moldings of swirling plaster. Waiters passed trays of champagne. Women glanced at themselves in mirrors. After the dark lagoon, the bulky tarp splashing over the side of the boat, I felt we had stepped into another world-not this one, maybe the one the room had been meant for, not real even then.

  “Adam, you did come.” Mimi after all, standing guard at the door. Her hair, swept up, was sprinkled with jewels, not a tiara but tiny diamond pins, bits of starlight. Could she see it on my face? Washed now, but still somehow streaked with his blood? I felt my hands shaking and dug my nails into the palms. We could do this, had to.

  “Hours ago,” I said, nodding toward the crowd below.

  “And you’ve brought Miss-”

  “Grassini,” Claudia said.

  “Yes, I remember. So glad,” she said, shaking hands, her eyes sweeping down to take in Claudia’s dress. She turned to me. “How nice you look. Out of uniform.” A raised eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t have evening clothes. Grace said you couldn’t find-”

  “And then I did. I hope it’s all right.”

  “Darling, don’t be silly. I’m desperate for young people. Half the men here seem to have canes. When did we all get to be such an age?” She paused. “You’re supposed to say, You didn’t.”

  I lifted my head, focusing, digging my nails in again. “You didn’t.”

  “Charm itself, isn’t he?” she said to Claudia. “And so quick. I don’t suppose you’ve brought Gianni.”

  “No. Isn’t he here?” I said, not looking at Claudia.

  “Not yet. I don’t know how Grace puts up with it. I wouldn’t. He’d be late to his own funeral.”

  Claudia moved involuntarily, catching Mimi’s eye. “Well, a doctor,” she said.

  “Yes, but at this hour. Oh dear,” she said, looking over my shoulder toward the stairs. “Count Grillo. I never thought-the stairs.” I turned to see a white-haired man making his way up slowly, gripping an attendant with one arm and the banister with the other. “Maybe I should have him carried. But so embarrassing. My god, when I think how he used to-”

  “An old flame?”

  “How he used to dance. Don’t be fresh. Go and be conspicuous. Maybe you can get the orchestra to liven things up a bit.” She turned to Claudia. “We’ll talk later. I’m so glad you came. You look lovely.” She moved over to the head of the stairs. “Ernesto, how marvelous. No, don’t hurry. Oodles of time.”

  A waiter came by with champagne.

  “They’re going to start wondering where he is,” Claudia said, looking at her glass. She shuddered suddenly, like someone caught in a draft.

  “Cold?”

  She shook her head. “I’m nervous. I don’t know why. Not before, not even in the boat. And now here, a place like this.”

  “Have some champagne.”

  “Oh, just like that. Champagne-as if nothing’s happened.”

  “I want people to see us having a good time,” I said, spreading my hand, steady now, toward the ballroom. “He won’t be missed for hours. He’s a doctor. They’re like that. Things come up.” I put down my glass on a little table. “So let’s be conspicuous. Dance?”

  She looked up at me, biting her lip. “It’s my fault, all this.”

  I held up my arms, ready to dance.

  “And now for you, this trouble. What if you had never met me?”

  I took the champagne glass out of her hand. “Yes, what if?” I said, then put my arm behind her back and moved her into the room.

  The orchestra, in formal cutaways, was playing “Why Do I Love You?” but slightly off-rhythm, as if they were sight-reading, more familiar with Strauss than a twenties show tune. Not that it mattered. The dancers were moving at their own pace, peering over shoulders, the music just an excuse to look around at one another. Everything gleamed-jewels, the huge mirrors, even the long parquet floor, polished probably for days. I thought of Byron’s famous party, when they threw gold plates into the canal.

  “So you can dance too,” Claudia said.

  “Miss Hill’s dancing class. We all had to go. The boys hated it.”

  “And the girls?”

  “They liked to get dressed up.”

  She glanced around the room. “So nothing changes. Look at the clothes. Is it all right, the dress?”

  “Perfect.”

  “Ha, perfect. The poor relation.”

  “Not too poor,” I said, putting a finger to the necklace. Off to the left I caught a quick flash of light, stronger than a candle.

  “Jewels. If my father could see me-” She looked away, frowning. “Maybe it was for him, what happened. For him.”

  But at that moment, my face suddenly warm, I knew it wasn’t. Not for him, not even for Claudia. I’d wanted to do it. I wasn’t in the cold boat anymore, unable to think. I’d wanted to do it. Even now I could feel the odd excitement of it, my arms shaking as I held his head under.

  “What’s wrong?” Claudia said.

  “Nothing. Just a little warm. Dance over there-I want them to take our picture.”

  Another flash went off, and now the heat drained away from my face, as if my blood were running back and forth, like the tide in the lagoon.

  “Adam? What are you doing here?” My mother was standing with a couple at the edge of the dance floor. I leaned over and kissed her cheek.

  “I decided you were right, so we borrowed a dress. Your idea, remember?”

  My mother was taking in Claudia, giving a surprised glance at the necklace. Then she smiled, extending her hand, not missing a beat. “Claudia, how nice.”

  “I hope you don’t mind.”

  My mother waved this away. “Wonderful what being twenty years younger can do for a dress. It’s perfect on you.” And I saw in her smile that she thought some other bargain had been struck, an end to the trouble, our coming a promise of smoother days ahead, more precious than rubies. Her face beamed with a kind of warm relief. “Oh, but let me introduce Inspector Cavallini. Signora Cavallini.”

  “Inspector?” Claudia started, not expecting this, but the Cavallinis, half turned to the dance floor, missed the flicker in her eyes.

  “Signorina Grassini, isn’t it?” my mother went on. “I’ve become so bad at names. And my son of course you know. I think you met at Harry’s.”

  There were the usual nods and handshakes, something to fall back on while I collected myself.

  “Yes, I remember,” I said quickly, a signal to Claudia. “I hope you’re not on duty tonight.”

  “Only as an escort,” he said, smiling. “It’s my wife who brings me.” Signora Cavallini nodded, accepting this. She had the grave, long face of someone invited for her family connections.

  “Well, if Gianni doesn’t get here soon you will be,” my mother said. “I’ll have to send you out to find him.”

  “Ah, if every woman did that when the man is late, the police would never sleep.”

  “Adam, you did call him.”

  “Yes. At the hospital. I told him to meet you here. He’s probably around somewhere. It’s a mess downstairs. We were here for ages before we found you.”

  Claudia looked away.

  “No, it’s not like him. Well, it is like him, but not this much, if you see what I mean.”

  “Excuse me, would you turn this way, please?”

  The photographer stepped back onto the dance floor, motioning with his head for us to stand closer. A flash went off and there we were, evidence, Claudia and I standing next to the police. For one wild moment I wanted to laugh, caught by the unexpectedness of luck.

  “Perhaps you would not worry so much if you were dancing,” Cavallini said. “May I?”

  After a nod to Signora Cavallini, he led my mother out to the floor, leaving us to make small talk with his wife. It was a pity about the rain, but the ball was lovely, the way Ve
nice used to be. So much food. Of course, it was easier for foreigners. When even this ran out, I looked at my mother, chatting happily while she danced, and I felt queasy again.

  Signora Cavallini, whose English was poor, must have been as bored as we were, because she led her husband away before he could ask for another dance. They drifted into the next room, where supper would be served later, picking up glasses of champagne along the way.

  “My god, what a country. Even the policemen go to balls. Imagine at home,” my mother said.

  “How does Mimi know him?”

  “His wife, I think. Of course, with Mimi you never know. She casts a pretty wide net. Look at them all,” she said, waving to the room. “And she was so worried. ‘They won’t come out in the rain.’ Well, they’d come out in a monsoon. You’ll never guess who’s here. Celia de Betancourt. I thought, the war really must be over if she’s back. Venezuela all this time. Imagine the boredom of it.”

  “Who?”

  “Darling, you remember. You were fascinated by her when you were little. On the beach. She would just tan and tan.”

  I made a helpless gesture.

  “Well, anyway, she’s here. Still brown as a berry too. Of course it’s sunny there, I suppose. That’s her, over with Mimi. Remember?”

  I looked across the floor at a woman in a strapless taffeta gown, her dark neck entirely covered in diamonds.

  “That’s some necklace.”

  “The jewels are past belief. I think even Mimi was stunned. They said the war would put an end to all this, and just look.”

  “I hope it’s all right,” Claudia said, touching hers. “About the necklace.”

  My mother said nothing for a minute, her face soft and pleased, then put her hand on Claudia’s. “It’s lovely, isn’t it? Adam’s father gave it to me. Awful to think of it just sitting in a box somewhere. It’s nice to give it some air.”

  “Like a pet,” I said.

  “You know what I mean. What’s the point of having them if you don’t wear them? Anyway,” she said to Claudia, “I’m glad you did.” She turned to me, her eyes moist. “You look so like your father in those clothes. So like. He loved to dress up, you know. Parties.”