Lawrence Block - After the First Death

“Absolutely nothing. She met him in California, that’s all I know.”

“Oh?”

“She went out after you were sent to prison. Sublet the apartment for the remainder of the lease period, sold everything except a few things she put in storage, then took a plane to the coast. Awhile after that Kay got a note from her. We exchange Christmas cards. That’s about all She hasn’t been back since then, as far as I know.”

I lit a cigarette. “Suppose she knew him before.”

“It doesn’t seem likely.”

“Nothing seems likely. What’s his name?”

“I don’t know. Kay would know-”

“Is she home?”

“Sleeping. She went to sleep about an hour ago.” He looked down at his pajamas and robe. His feet were bare. “I was reading, just about ready to turn in myself.”

“Sorry to bother you.”

“Don’t be silly.” His eyes met mine. “I think you could use a drink. What can I get you?”

“Nothing for me.”

“Well, I can use one, then.”

He found a bottle of Scotch and carried it into the kitchen. I followed him. He filled a tall glass with ice cubes, added a jigger of Scotch, then filled the glass the rest of the way with tap water. He asked me if I was sure I didn’t want to join him.

“Maybe some coffee,” I said.

“Instant all right?”

“Sure.”

We waited while the coffee boiled. We sat at the kitchen table, he nursing a drink, me working on the coffee.

I said, “The name.”

“I don’t remember it, Alex.”

“Wake Kay.”

“I can’t do that”

“Why the hell not? Christ, Doug, I don’t have an abundance of time. I can’t afford to wait until things are convenient for people. The time’s too short as it is.”

“I can’t wake her.”

“Why?”

“She’ll panic. She’ll want me to call the police. She thinks-”

“That I’m a killer?”

He shrugged, drank, nodded. “You know women.”

“The hell I do.”

“Well I don’t know what to do. You really think this guy-”

“I don’t think anything, but it’s a place to start.”

“You figure he and Gwen-”

“Uh-huh.”

He got to his feet “No. Not a chance.”

“She wouldn’t have to have known what he did. She could have thought it was all straight, that I really killed Evangeline Grant.”

“But you figure she was having an affair with him.”

“That’s how it would read, yes.”

He shook his head. “Not Gwen,” he said.

“You sound sure of yourself.”

“Dammit, I am! She loved you-”

“And I loved her. But it didn’t keep me out of Evangeline Grant’s bed, or too many other beds before that. People are unusual animals. They don’t always do things for the right reasons. They don’t always do things that make a vast amount of sense.” I lit a cigarette. “I need that name, Doug.”

“Kay has an address book. I’m not sure where she keeps it, but I could dig it up.”

“Do that.”

He sighed, set his glass down empty. “All right,” he said. “Wait here.”

I waited while he went off to hunt for the name and address of my wife’s current husband. I waited, smoking my cigarette, drinking my coffee, listening very intently. At first I didn’t realize what it was that I was listening for. Then all at once I did. I was waiting for the sound of him making a telephone call to the police. The sound never happened, and he came back with a red leather book in his hand, and I wondered when if ever I would be able to start trusting people again.

“This is it,” he said.

The entry, carefully inscribed in Kay MacEwans’s small neat hand, read:

Mr. & Mrs. Russell J. Stone (Gwen Venn)

4315 Portland Hill Drive

Los Angeles, California

“She didn’t take down the zip code,” Doug said idiotically.

“I don’t think I’ll need it.”

“Are you going out there?”

“God, no. Too dangerous. And not worthwhile, yet.” I copied down name and address on a scrap of paper, tucked it away in a pocket. “Mr. Russell J. Stone sounds very possible,” I said. “But there are other possibilities.”

“Like who?”

“Like an old boyfriend of hers whom I don’t think you know. Like a departmental colleague of mine whom, come to think of it, you do know. Whatever happened to Warren Hayden?”

“Hayden? You must be kidding.”

“I haven’t done any kidding in almost five years, Doug.”

“Well, why in hell would Warren Hayden-”

“Cam Welles got put out to pasture, didn’t he?”

“Oh, sure, Just a couple of months after you, uh-”

“You can say went to jail, you know. I know. I went There’s no point in pretending it didn’t happen.”

“Just a few months after you went to jail, Cam Welles retired.”

“And Warren got the top spot?”

“Who else was there?”

“My point,” I said.

He stared incredulously at me. “Do you mean to suggest,” he said, “that for the sake of a department chairmanship, a meek little man like Warren Hayden would take a knife and-”

“Why not?”

“Alex-”

“God damn it,” I said, “at least it’s a reason, isn’t it? Everybody on earth is very goddamn willing to believe that I killed two girls for the sheer hell of it, with no reason at all. At least I’m talking about motives, I’m advancing some possibilities.” I lit another cigarette. “There was an old lag I knew, a trusty in for life. A murderer. You know why he was in there?”

“No.”

“He was playing cards with his best friend and he lost. And when he thought about it afterwards he decided that the friend must have cheated him, and that really got him mad. He waited two days and thought it out all very carefully, and then he went downtown and bought a shotgun, and then he went to the friend’s place and emptied both barrels in the friend’s face. Took most of his head off.”

“I don’t see-”

“You didn’t let me finish. You know how much he lost in that card game? You know the staggering sum that made him.

kill?

“Alex-”

“Fifteen cents, Doug.” I closed my eyes for a moment The human race is so imperfect an invention. “Fifteen cents. The chairmanship of the history department is worth a hell of a lot more than that.”

“I don’t think Warren Hayden would do anything like that.”

“Neither do I. But I’ll want to make sure.”

“I don’t even think he’s in town this year. I think he’s on sabbatical somewhere in South America. Peru, I think.”

“I’ll have to check. There are quite a few things I’ll have to check, Doug. It’s my life, you know.”

“Sure.”

I got up, pushed back my chair. We were uncomfortable with each other, Doug and I. I had gotten what I had come for, and we would each of us be glad to say goodbye.

“I’ll go now,” I told him. Thanks for the coffee, and the conversation. And Russell Stone.”

“Don’t go off half-cocked.”

“I won’t”

“Even if Gwen was having an affair, and I don’t believe it for a moment it doesn’t prove anything. Not by itself.”

“Maybe not.”

“So just take it easy.”

“Uh-huh.”

He walked me to the door. I’ve still got some money set aside for you. Want it?”

I said I did. I still had some money, but I felt I couldn’t have too much. There was little enough time, and I did not want to get hung up with money worries. He came back with two hundred dollars in tens and twenties.

“You’ll get this back,” I said.

“I expect to.”

He didn’t expect to. He was good enough to say so. He was my only friend in the world, and he didn’t really believe me, and I didn’t entirely trust him. It can be rather a lonely place, this world.