David Bishop - The Original Alibi

“Eddie and I don’t think of ourselves as aunt and nephew. I mean, I’m thirty-five and he’s thirty-two. But, no, Mr. Kile, if you’re looking for bad blood between Eddie and me over this, there is none.”

“Does Eddie think the setup’s fair?”

“It’s not up to Eddie or me, the money is the general’s and he can do with it as he chooses. I’ve already explained how I feel about that. Besides, if need be, I’ve got the qualities to hook a man who has even more than the general. If I ever decide I need to go that route. I don’t see why I’ll need to. Did that sound conceited? I didn’t mean it that way. Everybody ought to have an honest talk with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses and then strive to improve their weaknesses. I’ve done that and I continue to do it.”

I couldn’t argue with her assessment. She played ladies golf and tennis at UCLA. She was educated in a wealthy man’s subject, has a good sense of humor, and is conversant. She enjoys visually tempting men while still coming across as classy, and from what I know, men enjoy being visually tempted.

“I’ve gathered that nephew Eddie is a player. That true?”

“Did I mention Eddie likes the ladies and he enjoys his trips to Vegas.”

The waiter stopped to tell us about their tempting dessert specials. We said no, but ordered a second bottle of the Krupp Brothers Cabernet Sauvignon we had enjoyed with dinner. When he left to get the wine I asked, “Seriously, what gets Eddie’s attention? Career, charities, what?”

“Eddie likes the ladies and he enjoys his trips to Vegas.”

We laughed before I asked, “What other women has he been serious about? Before or after Ileana.”

The waiter brought and opened the second bottle of wine. I put my hand up for him to leave the bottle to breathe and I would pour when we were ready.

“None that I know of and I would know,” Karen said. “We talk pretty openly. Ileana was the only one that made him think about settling down, about getting serious about life and what to do with his. But no dice. Eddie seems a fellow content with the superficial.” She laughed. “Look at me, like I should talk.”

“You and Ileana were friends, right?”

“For a while, before she and Eddie became an item.”

Karen knew of no jealous boyfriend or sugar daddy. She also said Eddie didn’t buy the expensive jewelry found in Ileana’s house.

“Eddie couldn’t afford that kind of stuff,” Karen said. “None of us knew she had it. I agree the jewelry suggests she had a man bringing her gifts. But, if she did, I doubt that man killed her.” When I raised my eyebrows, she said, “If he had, why wouldn’t he take back the diamonds he had bought for her?”

While I had listened, I poured our wine. “Could be, then again, if he did kill her and the cops ever put his name with their suspicions, the fact the jewelry hadn’t been taken could argue against him being the killer.”

“Or, if he did take it, it might have suggested a killing during a robbery. Somebody could have seen her wearing it and followed her home to take it by force.”

“You have a point,” I said. “Such is the grist of investigating homicides. The possible theories, winnowing them down, and then finding or not finding support for each.”

She nodded. “Apparently, the robbery theory lacks support as the jewelry remained. The sugar daddy theory has support in that it is the best argument for how the jewelry came to exist in the first place, yet the police could never identify him.”

“Fidge, ah, the department never found where the jewelry had been bought. So it could have been hot, but they found no record of stolen jewelry that matched up. Ileana seems to have liked bikers. Did she have a thing for bad boys? Maybe one of them could have heisted the jewels and gave them to her?”

“She had sort of run through her bad boy thing. It ended after she met Eddie.”

“But she had a sugar daddy, so perhaps her bad boy thing just morphed into married wealthy sugar daddy bad boys, sort of.”

“Could be, but then maybe she got the jewelry from one of the bikers before she met Eddie and there was no sugar daddy.”

“No. Not likely. Two different neighbors reported seeing luxury cars in her driveway now and again. She had at least one wealthy fella; one who could get his hands on quality jewelry that couldn’t be traced.”

“I just don’t figure Ileana that way. I thought she was sold on Eddie. She loved him, and he would eventually be rich. Why blow that for a necklace or two? Ileana was smart. And she really did love Eddie.”

“Could Ileana have had a sugar mommy?”

“Not Ileana. She liked the real deal.”

“Okay, enough on that, what about you? Career or charity?”

“I won’t have enough money to do much for charity, not like Eddie will, but then his favorite charity is his ladies. As for me, I’d like to get into investment banking or something like that. But not now, I’m content being there for the general.”

“You love him, don’t you?”

“He’s a great man. A real man. When I think about how my life would have been. How my mother’s life would have been, would still be, if it weren’t for the general. Well, I figure I owe him. It won’t be long now. I mean I hope it is, but the doctors say no. He knows that. That’s why he brought you in now. We talked about it. He wants to know and he could no longer push off his doubts.”

“Could Eddie have killed Ileana?”

“He was in Buellton so it’s really impossible.”

“I’m not asking could he in a procedural sense. I meant emotionally. Could Eddie kill?”

“Millions of people in the our armed forces over hundreds of years, not to mention the armed forces of the rest of the world, have killed. Cops sometimes must kill, also executioners who work for various governments. On that level, with an aura of external justification, I guess many, even most, could kill. The dicey part is one finding the justification alone, inside, you know. On that level, I’d say no. Eddie couldn’t.”

When dinner was over I asked her to come home with me.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” She put her hand over mine, palm up, and kneaded me with her knuckles.

“You’re damn right I do.” She smiled when I said that. “I got the idea from you,” I added as if that should cinch the deal.

“When did I give you that idea?”

“That first night. When we met. You were leaning on the banister.”

“Oh. That was lust, Mr. Kile.”

“Every relationship has to start somewhere. Lust seems as good a starting point as any other.”

“You have to promise me you’re not going to get all gooey in the morning and start talking about love or something.”

“You don’t believe in love?” I asked.

“I just don’t understand it. Don’t know if I’d recognize it. And if I did, whether I could get into it.”

“I can help you along if you get stuck.”

“No. You get too serious, we’re history. I’ve never seen love work, certainly not between my mom and the general. Both good people, but it just withered and died. And not between my mom and all the men she’s tried on for size to replace the general.”

*

I woke Karen gently before setting the bed tray over her thighs. Axel had prepared mimosas, coffee, and buttered English muffins with fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate. He left a note on the kitchen counter saying he saw this in a movie. Axel was working out just fine. The talking parrot I considering getting instead would have left beak marks in the strawberries.

Karen and I had enjoyed a wonderful evening of food and drink before we came back to my place. In a lot of ways she reminded me of Clarice Talmadge, only Karen liked the idea of staying the whole night. I suppose it’s a good thing that not all women enjoyed entertaining and seducing a man as much as these two ladies. If those two were the norm, the life expectancy for us men would be shorter, but then more of us would die with a smile on our face. And that’s not all bad either. When Helen, my ex, and I got married we were quite young and during our years together I imagined that other than hookers and in the movies, there were not all that many women who were so enthusiastic about sex. Man, was I wrong. And man, am I happy I was wrong.