Эд Макбейн - Snow White and Rose Red

“Nice to meet you,” I said.

“What’s your name?” she asked. “Your first name, I mean.”

“Matthew,” I said.

“that’s a nice name. Matthew. that’s from the Bible,” she said.

“Yes,” I said.

“You want a cup of coffee or something? The uniforms, when they’re on their lunch break, it sometimes takes a while to get them back home.”

“No, thanks, I’m fine.”

“People keep telling me I have great coloring,” she said. “Peaches and cream, they tell me. The red hair and the fair complexion. And the blue eyes, I guess. Did you notice I have blue eyes?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Your eyes are brown,” she said.

“Yes.”

“I’m twenty-seven years old,” she said. “How old are you?”

I debated lying.

“Thirty-eight,” I said.

“that’s a good age,” she said.

“Uh-huh.”

“I hate these young kids who don’t even know how to undo a bra,” she said.

“Uh-huh.”

“You sure you don’t want some coffee or something?”

“Positive.”

“What’s your favorite color?” she asked.

“Blue... I guess.”

“I wear green a lot,” she said. “Because of the red hair. They go good together, red and green. Like Christmas, you know? I have a lot of green lingerie. that’s rare, green lingerie. I mean, you can’t find too many green panties and bras in the stores. I send away for mine. There’s this shop in New York, it can get you lingerie in any color you want. I sent away for a pair of gray panties once, this very sexy, lacy pair of panties, you know? Cut very high on the leg? But they looked dirty when they got here. I don’t mean sexy dirty. I mean dirty dirty, like grimy, you know? that’s because they were gray. I thought they’d look good, you know? Gray? I have a gray dress I look very good in, so I thought the panties would look good, too. But they only looked dirty. I didn’t even want to put them on, they looked so dirty.”

She shrugged.

“Gray is a difficult color,” I said.

“Oh, you’re telling me ,” she said. “Do you have trouble with gray, too?”

“I rarely wear gray,” I said.

“Me neither, except for this one dress I have. I don’t wear gray panties, that’s for sure. In fact, I hardly ever wear panties at all down here. It gets too hot for panties down here. What’s your favorite flower?”

“Gardenias,” I said.

“They remind me of funerals,” she said. “I like roses. Tea roses.”

“they’re nice, too, yes.”

“Because of the smell, is that it?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Gardenias.”

“Oh. Yes,” I said.

“They do smell nice,” she said. “Do you like the Police?”

“Some of them.”

“Huh?”

“I like Detective Bloom,” I said. “And Lieutenant Hanscomb seems—”

“No, no, not the police ,” she said. “The Police .”

I looked at her.

“The group,” she said.

I was still looking at her.

“The rock group,” she said. “The Police . that’s their name. I absolutely adore the Police, don’t you?”

“I don’t think I’m familiar with them,” I said.

“Oh, they’re really terrific,” she said. She smiled again. She had a nice smile. “We seem to like all the same things, don’t we?” she said.

A knock sounded on the door.

“Oh shit,” she said, “just when we were getting to know each other.”

Police Officer Randy Ruderman was perhaps twenty-six years old, a squat, barrel-chested man with a shock of wheat-colored hair hanging on his forehead under the peak of his hat. He took off the hat the moment he came into the room, and stood at attention inside the doorway, as though expecting departmental reprimand.

“This is Matthew Hope,” Terry said. “Lieutenant Hanscomb would like you to answer any questions he has.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ruderman said.

“If you need anything,” Terry said to me, “you know where to find me.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“I live on Broderick Way,” she said, and went out.

Ruderman was still standing at attention.

“Why don’t you sit down?” I said.

“Thank you, sir,” he said, but he remained standing.

“I’m an attorney,” I said.

“Yes, sir,” he said.

“I have nothing to do with the police department,” I said.

“that’s good, sir,” he said. “I mean—”

“Sit down, why don’t you?” I said.

“Well, yes, sir, thank you, sir,” he said, and took a seat near the door, his hat perched on his lap.

“Officer Ruderman, can you remember back to last September?”

“I don’t know, sir,” he said. “That was a long time ago.”

“I’m talking about the twenty-seventh of September, along about eleven-thirty at night. A Dr. Nathan Helsinger came here to present a certificate for emergency admission to—”

“Oh yes, sir,” Ruderman said. “The Whittaker girl.”

“that’s what I’m referring to.”

“Yes, sir, I remember the case.”

“Did you accompany Dr. Helsinger to the Whittaker house?”

“Yes, sir, I did.”

“Got there at a little before midnight, did you?”

“About a quarter to twelve, yes, sir.”

“Who was there when you arrived?”

“When we got to the premises, we were greeted by the girl’s mother and the mother’s attorney.”

“Would that have been Alice Whittaker—”

“Yes, sir, that was the woman’s name.”

“—and her attorney, Mark Ritter?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What happened when you got there?”

“They told me the girl was upstairs. I already knew... Dr. Helsinger had already told me while we were on the way... in the unit... what I was expected to do.”

“And what was that?”

“Remove the girl to Good Samaritan Hospital for examination and observation.”

“What happened next?”

“We went upstairs—”

“ Who went upstairs?”

“Me, Mrs. Whittaker, and her attorney.”

“Dr. Helsinger did not accompany you?”

“No, sir, he stood downstairs.”

“The three of you went up—”

“Yes, sir.”

“—to Sarah’s room, did you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Was the door to her room closed?”

“Yes, sir, it was closed.”

“How did you gain entrance to the room?”

“The mother knocked on the door, and the girl asked who it was, who was there, something like that, and the mother said it was her, and she said ‘Come in,’ the girl did, and we went in.”

“Who went into the room first?”

“Mr. Ritter did.”

“And then who?”

“The mother. Mrs. Whittaker.”

“You were behind them?”

“Yes, sir, they had said something about not wanting to upset her, she had tried to slit her wrists. They didn’t want the first thing she saw... they thought seeing a policeman would upset her, if that was the first thing she saw.”

“ Did she get upset when she saw you?”

“No, sir, not at first. She didn’t know what was going on, you see.”

“What do you mean? Did she seem disoriented or—”

“No, no, nothing like that. I mean, she didn’t know why we were there at first. She asked if there’d been a robbery or something. She meant burglary, of course, lots of civilians, they don’t know the difference between robbery and burglary. She thought the house had been burglarized or something, you see. She thought that’s why the police were there.”

“Who told her why you were really there?”

“Mr. Ritter.”