When I raced by Richard to put the first casserole on the table, I noticed he was trying to entice one of the cats to join him.
“Don’t bother,” I said, when I swung back into the room with the rice and veg. “Cats will only come to you when you don’t want them to.”
When I trotted out the salad, I added, “You’re trying too hard.”
“I think you’re right.”
Three cats had left the room. The fourth, the black and white one, had turned its back on Richard and was watching the wall with great interest. The fat little calico was following me.
“This is it,” I said as I made my last trip into the room with rolls and the wine.
“Kitty, kitty, kitty,” said Richard.
The black and white cat jumped from the chair and stalked into the bedroom, tail twitching.
“They’re all in there now,” Richard said.
“Not true, the calico’s still in the kitchen. And don’t feel bad about it. It’s the nature of the cat to be in charge.”
“I suppose.”
“Trust me. When it becomes inconvenient to have cats around, they’ll be all over you.”
“If you say so. I’ve always had dogs, myself.”
“And who can blame you?” I said, fluffing the tulips and lighting the candles.
In the course of our dinner, the last traces of raging sunset disappeared. Not that we were paying attention.
By the time we were through our chocolate cake, the sky was dark and starry. We took our coffee and Armagnac on to the balcony and sipped it in the dark.
“You can see the dippers,” said Richard.
I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the dippers, because our knees were touching. Richard watched the stars, and I watched Richard. I didn’t think about his wife. I didn’t even know her name.
The night was mild, with a sensuous little breeze. A taste of summer to come.
We talked. About the Harmony, about Justice for Victims, about his hobbies, about why I didn’t have any, about the Tulip Festival, about the weather. About my friends. About my family. About what it’s like to relocate in middle age.
I don’t know when we stopped talking. The silence that replaced the talking was intense, almost noisy. It was full of watching and tentative touching.
I need this, I thought, as we moved back into the living room, wrapped around each other. I need to feel together. I was tracing the outline of Richard’s ear as we sank onto the sofa. Two cats exploded off the cushions. We didn’t care.
I felt a bit catlike myself, stretching and purring.
“We might be more comfortable elsewhere,” Richard whispered in my ear after a long time.
“The cats are, um, elsewhere.”
“We could ask them to stay and that should get rid of 213 them.”
I was enjoying the sensation of laughing when a blast from the phone knifed through our mood.
“Don’t answer it,” he said, very close to me.
“It’ll just take a second. It could be Robin.”
He nodded, leaning back.
“Yes,” I breathed.
Squeaking sounds surged through the receiver. Richard leaned forward again when I gasped. His face creased with concern.
“Arrested? Where? For what?” But, of course, I knew. “Okay, calm down. I’ll be there. I said I will be there.”
“What is it? Has Robin been arrested?”
“Not Robin. Alvin.”
“Alvin?”
I nodded. It was going to get worse.
“What was it, drugs or something?”
I took a long, assessing look at Richard before I told him.
“He was prowling around the back corridors of the Harmony, and someone called the police.”
Richard nodded, approving. “We don’t take any chances with theft or attacks on guests.”
“He was just asking a few questions. But I guess someone had seen him there before, and he looked suspicious.”
“Well, I don’t know what the hell made him decide to do that, but I’ll bet he’s in hot water now.”
“Right. And I have to get him out.”
“Why? He’s not your responsibility.”
I took a deep breath before I started in on my explanation.
* * *
I hadn’t thought that Alvin could get any paler, but he managed it. I hadn’t thought he could get any snippier, but he managed that too.
We were crossing the Portage Bridge to Hull at the time. Close enough to the Peace Tower to see the time was 11:30 p.m.
“Okay,” I said, turning around to face Alvin in the back seat. “May I remind you that I was prepared to post bail for you? If necessary. But the charges have been dropped, haven’t they? You can thank Richard for that.” I pointed to Richard, who was driving.
Richard seemed a little on the stiff side to me.
Alvin sniffed. “I guess you should have been prepared to post bail for me, since you were the one who sent me on a criminal expedition in the first place.”
“Hardly criminal. Just asking a few questions in the hotel.”
“Then why did you ask me to be discreet?”
I could feel Richard’s eyes on me.
“So as not to scare off any potential witnesses. And I thank you for what was no doubt a very thorough and effective job.”
“I notice you didn’t have to sit in the slammer waiting for someone to bail you out, even though you were the brains behind the whole operation.”
I sighed. “There was no operation. And I’m beginning to think, no brains. I just need some kind of information that would ensure the police don’t come hounding Robin again over Mitzi’s murder.”
“Sure, let them hound poor old Alvin.”
“How did I know you were going to draw so much attention to yourself that you’d get arrested?”
I turned to Richard before Alvin could respond. “It’s not far from here,” I said. “Turn left, and then first left again, and then first right.”
As we stopped in front of Alvin’s place, he and I were still swapping recriminations.
“I’ll walk in with him,” I said to Richard. “He’s a little shaky.”
Alvin shot me a look that could have melted metal.
“It’s no trouble. Just want to make sure you’re all right.”
I hopped out of the car, grabbed his arm and propelled him to his door.
“Let go of me,” Alvin said, jerking away, “you’re going to leave bruises.”
“I’m just trying to help you.”
“Yeah, right,” he said.
“Okay, fine. I’ll leave you alone now. But tell me,” I stole a look back to the car where Richard was waiting, “what did you find out when you were in the Harmony?”
“You astound me,” said Alvin.
“Come on.”
“No. I’ve just spent the worst night of my life and all you can think about is your stupid investigation.”
“Not all, not all. Haven’t I been concerned about your welfare tonight? Didn’t I race to the police station with the one person who could get the charges quashed?”
“Big deal.”
“So, what did you find out? Had any of them been there?”
Alvin leaned against the door to the apartment building.
He pulled out the key to the front door. I could tell he was trying to decide whether to tell me or not.
Finally, he broke.
“Yes.”
“Which one for God’s sake? Don’t tantalize me.”
Alvin’s eyes glittered. He inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The door swung open. Alvin stepped through.
“They all were,” he said, just as the door closed in my face.
Sixteen
As I shlepped along the corridor to my apartment, I had time to reflect on the evening.
I could still feel the nip from Conn McCracken’s look when he had told me what he thought of Alvin’s investigation and my part in
it.
Richard and I had decided the visit to the police station had been enough to take the magic out of our evening. I felt that Richard had taken Alvin’s prowl through his hotel too seriously. And worse, he had his doubts about my motivations for our date.
“How could you even suggest such a thing?” I stared at him, astounded.
“What am I supposed to think?”
“Not that!”
We were pulling up in front of my building, when he dropped this bomb.
“Well, it seems kind of funny, we have this very nice dinner and romantic evening on the same night your hired help goes snooping around my hotel. And, of course, I’m not there to catch him, because I’m all snuggled up with you on the sofa. What else could I think?”
I felt rage rising and bubbling. I could hear my anger buzzing around my ears. The first time I’d let myself relax with someone since Paul, a man I felt I could trust, maybe even love, a man who made my knees crumble. And he reduces it to a scheme to get my own way. I bit my tongue, grabbed my purse and jumped out of the car as fast as I could.
“Go to hell,” I said and slammed the door.
* * *
“What did you mean, they all were?” I snapped at Alvin the next day.
His back was turned to me, bony and repellent. His ponytail drooped. He yawned.
“I’m on my break,” he said.
“What do you mean, you’re on your break? You just got here and it’s three o’clock in the afternoon.”
“First, it was time off for overtime. You remember last night? Which I spent in the slammer after doing research for you. Now it’s my break. I always take my break at three o’clock.” He didn’t turn around.
“Fine,” I said, “I’ll wait.”
I picked up the Benning brief and stared at it. I’d been staring at it all morning and most of the afternoon. It hadn’t gotten me anywhere so far.
When the phone rang, I snatched it on the first ring.
“Hi,” said Alexa.
“Hi.”
“I just thought I’d let you know how things are going.”
“How are things going?”
“Oh, they’re wonderful.”
They are not, I thought. In fact, they couldn’t be worse.
“That’s great,” I said.
“Conn and I went out last night. To dinner. We were having such a nice time, until he got a call about a case he’s been working on.”
“Oh.”
“Quite an exciting life he has really.”
“Indeed.”
I already knew about Alexa’s date. I’d seen Conn McCracken the night before. He hadn’t been too happy at the time.
“Well,” he’d said, “I was enjoying a very nice dinner with a very nice lady. We were comfortable and relaxed when the call came in that a suspicious character was prowling around the same hotel where we’re investigating a nasty murder. I had no choice but to come downtown and see for myself.”
“I know what you mean,” I’d said.
“And what do I find? You again.”
He had me.
“Where you shouldn’t be.”
“Right.”
“Because two people have already been killed, and you have already been hit on the head, and you might have been killed. Because this is a serious business.”
“I agree.”
“And because your sister wants me to make sure nothing happens to you.”
“She does?”
“That’s right. And I want your sister to be happy. So, for the last time, I will ask you to leave this to us.”
“Sorry,” I said.
He ignored that. “And don’t think sending your weirdo sidekick is going to be just as good. We know him now, too.”
We both looked over at Alvin. Alvin looked back at us, misery obviously flooding his being.
Alexa held me personally responsible for the unplanned end of her evening, and she wanted to make sure I knew it. It was three fifteen when I got off the phone, and Alvin’s break was over by my calculations. I could resume questioning him.
“So, just what did you mean, they all were?”
“They all were. What’s ambiguous about that?” Behind the cat’s eye glasses, his eyes were slits.
“Explain, please.”
“Every single one of the people in your photos had been seen by someone or another behind the scenes at the Harmony.”
“Even Deb Goodhouse?”
“Even her.”
“Even Jo Quinlan?”
“Yup.”
“Even Brooke?”
“I said all of them, didn’t I? All of them. Even the dead guy, Sammy Dash.”
“Wendtz, too?”
“Right.”
“What about him?” I held up Denzil’s picture.
“Him, too.”
“Really?” I said, smiling for the first time in eighteen hours.
“That’s great.”
“It is?”
It was. My life was in ruins. I was not welcome back to my best friend’s bedside. My relationship with Richard was in the toilet. My business was dying of neglect. My sister had Conn McCracken on my back. I had five cats in my apartment and Alvin in my office. I was thrilled to have some people to take it out on.
“I can’t think of a single reason for a Member of Parliament to skulk around the back halls of a hotel, can you?”
Alvin shrugged, but I knew he was intrigued.
“Did you happen to note just which hotel employee saw which of our suspects when?”
“Yes, I did.” He extracted a semi-shredded notebook from one of his many pockets.
I smiled some more.
“I got their names, who they saw, where and when, as far as they can remember.”
“Did you give this information to the police?”
He shook his head. “They thought I was some kind of burglar. They didn’t believe I was investigating anything, so I didn’t tell them anything.”
“Well, that’ll show them, I guess.”
Alvin shot me a look.
“So, now we have witnesses.”
“I can’t go back there. They’ll call the cops in two seconds.
And I don’t think you’d better go there either.”
“We don’t have to go there. You have the names of your witnesses.”
“Right,” he said. “I knew that.”
“Okay,” I said, “let’s get on with it. So, what were they doing there?”
“Fighting mostly.”
I was going to enjoy this. “Let’s hear it.”
“Where do you want me to start?”
“Let’s start with Deb Goodhouse. I’m very curious about her.”
“Well,” said Alvin, “it was very strange. One of the bus boys was delivering room service to Mitzi Brochu’s suite. Just as he gets to the door this woman bursts out, practically knocks him over, bites his head off…”
“And?”
“The woman was Deb Goodhouse. He said he’d recognize her anywhere. He described her. Even her size, which you don’t get a sense of from this picture, although I guess you did your best.”
“All that from just a glimpse as she came out of the door?”
“Well, no. He saw her again. On the staircase. He, my source, was taking the staircase because he wanted to have a cigarette, and employees aren’t supposed to smoke around the Harmony. But he was in a bad mood because La Brochu didn’t give him one red cent for a tip. They all say she was too cheap to tip anybody for anything. So he felt like a smoke, and he thought the stairs would be safe. But Deb Goodhouse was there. Hanging on to the stair rail. And shaking. Of course, my source doesn’t want to be identified, because if they find out he was smoking on the stairs, maybe he could lose his job.”
“Shaking from what?” I asked. “Was she frightened?”
“No, she looked very angry. If looks could kill, he said he’d have keeled over on the spot.”
“Well, well.” I
felt like one of Robin’s cats after a bowl of half-and-half. I may have even licked my lips. “Isn’t that interesting.”
It almost killed Alvin to ask, but he did anyway. “Why?”
“Because the Hon. Deb Goodhouse told me that she’d never met Mitzi Brochu. Now what do you think the chances are that she got into and out of Mitzi’s room without meeting her?”
“Not so hot. Mitzi was there, according to my source.”
“Good, very good. What else do you have?”
“Well, there’s more. Your friend Robin’s sister. She was in and out. Couple people saw her on different occasions.” He looked at me coyly.
“Go on.”
Usually I have to drag every little fact out of him, but in this case his desire to tell the story overcame his desire to string me along for a while.
“I guess Brooke’s problem is even worse than we thought. One of the cleaners saw her doing a line of coke in the washroom outside the big ballroom on the mezzanine. Cut it and snorted it right on the fancy counter where the ladies fix their make-up. This source was cleaning the cubicles and Brooke didn’t even bother to hide. Like cleaning people don’t count, and you could do anything in front of them.”
“Sounds like Brooke.”
Alvin was getting coy again. “That’s not all,” he said, looking at his watch.
“What else?”
“Well, she stayed in the ladies room for a while, and then when my source was coming back with replacement tissues and paper towels, she saw Brooke come out of the washroom, and he was waiting for her.”
“Who?”
“Rudy Wendtz.”
“Bingo.”
“And that’s not all. He belted her right in the chops.”
“What?”
“Slammed her back against the wall. My source pretended to be polishing the water fountain so she wouldn’t miss anything. You know what he said?”
I shook my head.
“He told her he didn’t want her anywhere near Mitzi, and she’d better get the message. Then he belted her again. My source said there was blood running down the side of Brooke’s mouth, and she was crying.”
Whoa.
“And then Brooke said, don’t mark my face, it’s my career. And he said, what do you think Mitzi will do to your career if she finds out about us. Don’t be a stupid bitch, Brooke. You’re going to ruin everything.”
Speak Ill of the Dead Page 19