Lawrence Block - Time to Murder and Create

I said, “You’re wearing the white pants suit.”

“That’s so you’ll be able to recognize me. You sure managed to turn my life inside out, Matt.”

“I guess I did. They’re not going to press anything, are they?”

“They couldn’t press a pants suit, let alone a charge. Johnny never knew Spinner existed. That should be my biggest headache.”

“You’ve got other headaches?”

“In a manner of speaking, I just got rid of a headache. It cost me a lot to get rid of him, though.”

“Your husband?”

She nodded. “He decided without too much trouble that I was a luxury he intended to deny himself. He’s getting a divorce. And I am not getting any alimony, because if I give him any trouble he’s going to give me ten times as much trouble, and I think he’d probably do it. Not that there wasn’t enough shit in the papers already, as far as that goes.”

“I haven’t been keeping up with the papers.”

“You’ve missed some nice stuff.” She drew on her cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke. “You really do your drinking in all the class joints, don’t you? I tried your hotel but you weren’t in, so then I tried Polly’s Cage, and they said you came here a lot of the time. I can’t imagine why.”

“It suits me.”

She cocked her head, studying me. “You know something? It does. But me a drink?”

“Sure.”

I got Larry’s attention, and she ordered a glass of wine. “It probably won’t be terrific,” she said, “but at least it’s hard for the bartender to fuck it up.” When he brought it she raised her glass to me, and I returned the gesture with my cup. “Happy days,” she said.

“Happy days.”

“I didn’t want him to kill you, Matt.”

“Neither did I.”

“I’m serious. All I wanted was time. I would have handled everything on my own, one way or another. I never called Johnny, you know. How would I have known how to reach him? He called me after he got out of jail. He wanted me to send him some money. He would do that now and then, when he was up against it. I felt guilty about turning state’s evidence that time, even though it had been his idea. But when I had him on the phone I couldn’t keep myself from telling him I was in trouble, and that was a mistake. He was more trouble than I was ever in.”

“What was the hold he had on you?”

“I don’t know. But he always had it.”

“You fingered me for him. That night at Polly’s.”

“He wanted to get a look at you.”

“He got it. Then I set up a meeting with you Wednesday. The cute thing about that was I wanted to tell you you were clear. I thought I already had the killer, and I wanted to let you know the blackmail routine was over and done with. Instead, you put off the meeting for a day and sent him after me.”

“He was going to talk to you. Scare you off, stall for time, something like that.”

“That’s not the way he saw it. You must have figured he’d try what he tried.”

She hesitated for a moment, then let her shoulders drop. “I knew it was possible. He was… he had a wildness in him.” Her face brightened suddenly, and something danced in her eyes. “Maybe you did me a favor,” she said. “Maybe I’m a lot better off with him out of my life.”

“Better off than you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there was a very good reason why he wanted me dead. I’m just guessing, but I like my guesses. You would have been happy to stall me until you came into some money, which would happen once Kermit came into the principal of his inheritance. But Lundgren couldn’t afford to have me around, now or later. Because he had big plans for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Can’t you guess? He probably told you he’d have you divorce Ethridge once he’d come into enough money to make it worthwhile.”

“How did you know?”

“I told you. Just a guess. But I don’t think he’d have done it that way. He would have wanted the whole thing. He’d have waited until your husband inherited his money, and then he would have taken his time setting it up right, and all of a sudden you’d turn out to be a very rich widow.”

“Oh, God.”

“Then you’d remarry and your name would be Beverly Lundgren. How long do you suppose it would have taken him to put another notch on his knife.”

“God!”

“Of course, it’s just a guess.”

“No.” She shivered, and all of a sudden her face lost a lot of its polish and she looked like the girl she had stopped being a long time ago. “He’d have done it just that way,” she said. “It’s more than a guess. That’s just the way he would have done it.”

“Another glass of wine?”

“No.” She put her hand on mine. “I was all primed to be mad at you for turning my life around. Maybe that’s not all you did. Maybe you saved it.”

“We’ll never know, will we?”

“No.” She crushed out her cigarette. She said, “Well, where do I go from here? I was beginning to get used to a life of leisure, Matt. I thought I carried it off with a certain flair.”

“That you did.”

“Now all of a sudden I’ve got to find a way to make a living.”

“You’ll think of something, Beverly.”

Her eyes focused on mine. She said, “That’s the first time you used my name, do you know that?”

“I know.”

We sat there for a while looking at each other. She reached for a cigarette, changed her mind, and pushed it back in the pack. “Well, what do you know,” she said.

I didn’t say anything.

“I thought I didn’t do a thing for you. I was beginning to worry that I was losing my touch. Is there some place we can go? I’m afraid my place isn’t my place any more.”

“There’s my hotel.”

“You take me to all the class joints,” she said. She got to her feet and picked up her bag. “Let’s go. Right now, huh?”