by Rick Polad
I tried a different approach that I hoped would be less personal and threatening. “Do you have any idea who the father is?”
A look passed over his face that I took for exhaustion. Later I realized that it was sadness and helplessness. “I don’t know, no.”
I felt sorry for him, but didn’t know why. There was something there that I could feel but not explain. “Would it surprise you that Elizabeth didn’t know who the father was?”
“She thought it was me.”
He offered another beer. I declined.
“That is not quite true,” I offered. “Elizabeth knew the father was one of two possibilities, but she didn’t know for sure.”
He was silent.
When asking questions, it was always helpful to know whether or not someone was lying. It could help when deciding when to trust someone’s answers to questions you didn’t know the answers to. I knew the answer to my next question. “I don’t know how to make this easy, and I suppose if it is none of my business you will tell me that, but were you having an affair with Elizabeth?”
He straightened in the chair like I had jabbed him in the back, looked straight at me and said, “No, I was not.”
So much for trust. But I had to admit he was good at lying. If I hadn’t known the truth, I would have believed him.
Then he quickly added, “I was having a relationship and a friendship.” He slumped back down in the chair and stared out into the garden. “We talked often about the word ‘affair’. We both hated it. It sounds so sordid and what we had was not sordid.” He looked back into the room. The sad look was back. He looked like a kid whose balloons had just floated away, not quite believing that it had happened.
I felt helpless, like when I was talking to Marty that day amongst her toys. I also thought that maybe he wanted someone to talk to.
“Spencer, you said there were two possibilities. Was the other just some guy off the street?”
“It was just some guy off the street, but not just any guy. It was your brother Ronny.”
I expected surprise but there was none. He closed his eyes, gently covered his face with his hands and said very softly, “half brother.” When he looked back up at me there were tears in his eyes. “Ronny is Marty’s father. My God—how?”
“He raped her.”
His face lost its color and he was shaking.
There was no way he could fake that emotion. I wanted to leave him alone, but I had to know why he knew he wasn’t the father. After all, she had slept with him that night too. “I want you to know I believe you. But why couldn’t it have been you?”
Before answering he looked at me for bit. Then his face changed and I could tell he had made a decision.
“Spencer, can you stay a bit? I’d like to answer that question and it may take awhile.”
“Sure. But there is an unmarked car and one of your employees waiting for me outside. Let me go tell her.”
“Sure. Do you mind letting yourself out? I need to freshen up a bit.”
“No problem. I’ll have to make a stop also. Those beers have caught up with me.”
“Sure. The bathroom is through that door and then on your left.” He pointed.
We got up at the same time and he invited me out with a sweep of his arm. Walking alone down the hallway, the big house seemed awfully empty. I left the front door ajar and walked to the dark blue Ford. I expected to see the moon but clouds had rolled in from the west. The night was warm and muggy and there was a warm breeze out of the south. As I reached the car, the passenger’s window glided down. Rosie had the car running with the air on.
“You get lost in there?” she asked with a smile.
“I wouldn’t mind. All the comforts of home.”
“Several more from what I saw of your place.”
“Sure. Easy to take cheap shots when you’re sitting here wasting the taxpayer’s money on gasoline to run the air.”
“Hey, I gotta get some perks for ferrying around the likes of you.”
“Thanks friend. Just for that I’m gonna make you wait some more. I just came out to let you know it might be awhile. Do you want to wait?”
“Those are my orders.”
“I’m really sorry, Rosie. You must have other things to do.”
“No problem. I was just...”
“Goddamn!” I had felt something wet on the back of my right leg and had turned around to see a schnauzer running away.
Looking concerned, Rosie asked, “What’s the matter, Spence?”
I pointed to the rear of the car where the dog was standing about twenty feet away. “That damned dog just peed on my leg.” I took off running after the dog and chased it halfway down the block before I gave up. I kept thinking I was catching up and then realized it was staying five feet away just to keep me running. If I slowed, it would too. So I finally conceded defeat and walked back to the unmarked car. I expected some sympathy and maybe I would have gotten some if Rosie wasn’t so busy laughing. And I’d been feeling bad because she had to wait for me. The hell with her; she could wait all night.
Wondering what to do about my pants leg, I returned to the house and let myself in. I was pretty sure that walking into the mayor’s house smelling of dog pee would not fall under Stosh’s idea of behaving myself. I tried to wash it out in the bathroom.
The mayor was waiting for me. I sat carefully, keeping my pants leg away from the chair. He started to ask me something and then stopped and sniffed. I hoped he would think he was imagining it.
“Spencer, I was wondering something. You said Elizabeth knew it was one of two people. If she is dead, how do you know she knew that?”
It was a question I really didn’t want to answer. I was hoping it wouldn’t come up because I didn’t want to bring Maxine into it. Even though I trusted her I knew there would be a credibility problem.
“Well, I...”
He took a deeper breath and, before I could finish, asked. “What the hell is that smell?”
I had to own up. “I’m sorry, sir. It’s me. While I was talking to my driver I’m afraid one of your neighborhood canines decided to use my leg for a fireplug. I tried to wash it out.”
He thought it was funny too, but at least offered to help. We were about the same size. He offered to loan me a pair of pants and throw mine in the wash. I was going to take him up on it when the doorbell rang.
He walked to a monitor set in the wall by the bar. “It’s a woman holding up a badge. Someone you know?”
I got up and joined him. It was Rosie. “Yes, that’s my ride. Would you buzz her in?”
He did. I beat him to the front door.
Before I could justly reproach her for belittling me in front of the dog, she said, “Spencer, I just got a call from Stosh. Kelly is gone. He wants to talk to you. Call him at home.”
I asked the mayor if I could use the phone. I called Stosh and he explained.
“She wasn’t here when I got home. We have a car at the track and her hotel. Did she say anything to you about leaving, Spencer?” Stosh asked.
“No. I told her to stay put. Is the car gone?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” I felt a little better. “She likes to drive. Probably got tired of being cooped up and went out to get some air.”
“Yeah, and if by chance somebody spots her?”
“Unless they shoot out her tires, they’ll never stop her. She’s good with the wheel.”
“Any idea where she might go?”
“Anywhere I guess. Specifically the track or her hotel room.”
“She that dumb?”
“No she’s not. She wouldn’t go to the track, but maybe she needed something from her room.”
“Then we’d get it like last time. You did tell her about the room, didn’t you?”
“Well...”
“Holy shit, Spencer. When did you stop thinking?” I could tell he was trying hard not to explode.
“Can I help?”
“
Nope. are you done with the mayor?”
“No, we were just getting started.”
“Then stay there. The only safer spot for you would be in a cell, and I’m thinking about that.”
I couldn’t blame him. “Okay. Let me know as soon as you find her.”
“Sure, kid.” He hung up.
I found Rosie by the front door.
She looked concerned. “We’ll find her, Spence.”
I nodded and walked her back to the car.
Chapter 31
We sat in the car and said nothing for several minutes.
As it started to rain, Rosie asked, “So, we staying or going?”
“Staying.” I watched a few big drops splatter on the windshield and tried to guess where the next one would fall. Not even close. “Stosh doesn’t need my help and I have some more to discuss with the mayor.” I let out a big breath. “And I guess I should get back in before it starts to pour.” After opening the door, I said, “Come and get me if you hear anything.”
She nodded.
I closed the door, buzzed the gate, and walked slowly back to the house letting the warm rain splatter against my face. The mayor met me at the door and led the way back to the family room.
He gave me a quizzical look. “You don’t look so good, Spencer. Something wrong?”
“Yeah, a friend of mine is missing,” I said with concern.
“I’m sorry. I’d offer you the aid of my police department, but I guess you already have it. I can offer a drink. Would you like something stronger?”
I shook my head. “No thanks. I need to think straight. If I want to get wasted I’ll let you know.”
“Fair enough. You up to continuing?”
“Sure.”
“Well why don’t you change into a pair of my slacks and rinse out yours.” He pointed to a chair where a pair of khaki slacks were draped over the back.
I changed in the washroom, rinsed out my pantleg, and returned to my chair in the family room. I had wondered how I would keep my mind off Kelly. Maybe best to just keep asking questions.
“We may get interrupted again,” I explained. “But when we were interrupted last time I believe I had wondered how you were so sure you are not the father. Are you denying you had relations with Elizabeth?” I knew he did. Elizabeth had told Maxine as much.
He hesitated and looked past me at something that wasn’t there. When he returned his eyes to me he had made a decision.
“No, I am not denying that. As a matter of fact my relations, including going out for ice cream, with Beth were the happiest times of my life.”
I didn’t try to hide the shocked look on my face. “So this wasn’t just a fling? You actually cared about her?”
He nodded with a lost look on his face. “Yes. We were very much in love.”
I couldn’t believe I was sitting here with the mayor of Chicago listening to him tell me about his affair. “You don’t have to tell me about that. That is none of my business.”
“I’d like to, though. I need to tell somebody and I think I can trust you.”
“Why do you think that? You don’t even know me.”
A tiny smile flicked briefly across his face. “Sometimes you just have to go with a gut feeling.”
“Pardon my asking, but if you did have relations with her, how...?”
He held up his hand and interrupted before I could finish. “I had a vasectomy.”
“After you met Beth?”
“No, way before. Before I was married as a matter of fact.”
I didn’t know much about vasectomies. I did know that sometimes they didn’t work. So I asked, “How do you know it worked? Could you still have gotten her pregnant?”
“No,” he responded adamantly. “I had also had relations with my wife for many years. We have no children. It worked.”
Okay. He wasn’t the father. That meant Ronny was. That was not a pleasant thought. I realized my job was over. But I still had a lot of questions. I told him so.
He simply said, “Ask.”
I did. “You had it before you got married. Was it for some medical reason?”
“No. I didn’t want to have children.”
That wasn’t what I was expecting. “That is surprising. You don’t find many women who don’t want to have kids.”
He shifted on the couch. “I didn’t say Mrs. Grey didn’t want to have kids. I said I didn’t.”
“That must have made for a tough situation. She obviously married you anyway.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I didn’t tell her.”
My look was enough without any verbal response to get him to answer.
“I know. Not very fair. I’m not proud of that. But she wouldn’t have married me if I had told her. And at the time I was in love with her.”
“Can I ask why you didn’t want kids?” I didn’t point out that perhaps he shouldn’t have married a woman he didn’t think he could confide in.
“It goes back a ways.” He looked past me again and then continued. “I had a father who was a tyrant. He would get drunk and then take it out on us kids. There were five of us including a half-sister and Ronny my half-brother. I was the oldest and felt responsible for the younger ones. For some reason he usually picked on Ronny. I would try to get in his way so he would hit me or I would push the others out of the way and take the beatings for them. I learned how to duck and move so it didn’t hurt so bad.”
I stared in amazement. “What about your mother? Didn’t she help?”
“She did what she could, which included getting her share of the abuse. But she died when I was ten. Things went downhill after that.”
I told him I was sorry. He said that was just something he had to deal with by himself.
But I didn’t understand. “So you didn’t want kids because you had a bad childhood?”
“Not exactly. I did a lot of research. I found that in a lot of cases kids who are beaten go on to beat their own kids. I didn’t want that to happen.”
“Well, certainly that is something you could control. You don’t look like a child beater.”
“Thank you. But what does a child beater look like? And the control is the problem. In a lot of cases, it seems to be something you can’t control. It’s learned behavior.”
I knew there was a lot of controversy about this and let it drop. Whether it was true or not, he believed it. I listened to the rain pattering against the windows and saw a streak of lightning flash to the west. It was 10:15. I wondered if Stosh had found Kelly.
“Mrs. Grey want kids?”
“Oh yes, very much. Her doctor told her there was nothing wrong with her so she tried to get me to go to a doctor to see if it was me. I, of course, have refused for various reasons.”
“How about adoption?” I asked.
“A kid is a kid. I wasn’t willing to take the risk.”
“Has your wife accepted that you’re not going to have children?”
He lowered his head and pursed his lips. “Not really. It has been a problem. She gets very angry. Louise has been in and out of therapy at various times. One therapist suggested working with kids and that has helped. She has started kids programs and volunteers at various day care centers. She seems to be fulfilled by that. She even goes with me to the hospitals and makes balloon animals for the kids.”
“Do you love her?” I realized that was none of my business but neither was the rest and he could tell me to butt out if he wanted.
He answered quickly. “No. No I don’t. Not anymore.”
“Does she love you?”
He slowly shook his head. “No. I don’t think she ever did. She liked the politics. We met at a fund-raising dinner. I came up the hard way, through the ranks. Her family has money and supported my candidacy through the years. One thing led to another.” He looked out at the rain and sighed. “Oh, we were in love for awhile but that wears off if you don’t have much in common. We never talked much. Not like...”
<
br /> He picked up his glass and swirled what was left of his drink in the bottom.
“So you stayed together because it was convenient?”
He shrugged. “I guess. But she did want a family and I have always felt guilty about that.”
The phone rang. He didn’t react.
“Do you want to get that?”
“No. The machine will pick it up.”
He looked drained, like he wouldn’t have had the energy to get up anyway.
“So what happened with Elizabeth?”
It took him what seemed like a long time to answer.
“We met working on my campaign for mayor. There was just some, well, chemistry, I guess. She would stay late and we would sit and talk. One night we discovered we were closer than we had thought. We didn’t plan anything. It just happened. But I never led her on. We got together sometimes outside of the office. But I told her I would not leave my wife and she understood that. It was all her decision. She decided to stay.”
I wondered if that decision had somehow gotten her killed, but kept it to myself. I had been letting him talk to get it off his chest. I needed to concentrate on Beth. The phone rang again. Again he ignored it.
“Can we get back to Elizabeth?” I asked.
“Sure. What would you like to know?”
“How did you find out she was pregnant?”
“She told me.”
“When was that?”
“It was a couple of weeks after the night she said she got pregnant. That night I had gone to her apartment. It was a Friday night. My wife had gone to Wisconsin for the weekend.” His brow furrowed. “You know, I was late because Ronny had shown up here.”
“What did he want?”
“Money. That was all he ever wanted. Had some great plan to make money down south somewhere, but he needed a stake. I gave him a couple thousand just to get rid of him. I also told him I didn’t want to see him in Chicago again. He promised. I figured it didn’t mean much, but I knew it would buy time and hoped he would actually find something to keep him busy.”
“So you went to Beth’s and I assume you, uh...”
“Yes, we did.”
“But this had been going on for awhile and she didn’t know about the vasectomy. Was she using some kind of birth control?”