Bill Pronzini: Deadfall

Confirmed homosexuals couldn’t be seduced by a woman, of course. But Leonard hadn’t been quite as gay as everyone, including poor Tom Washburn, believed him to be. He had not only been married once, he’d been sleeping with his ex-wife now and then during the year prior to Kenneth’s death. Claudia Mitchell on the phone last Saturday, talking about her sister: If I told her once after the divorce I told her a hundred times-good riddance. I warned her. Once bitten, twice shy, but she never listens to me. Ruth Mitchell had confirmed it when I’d contacted her earlier this afternoon. She had gone to his office one day to ask his advice on a legal matter, there had still been a spark of attraction between them, one thing led to another-mostly, I gathered, at her instigation. The right (or wrong) woman could still get Leonard into bed, if she knew how to play her cards right. And Alicia Purcell was a grand master when it came to playing cards of that sort.

So Leonard, good old secretive, duplicitous Leonard, had been screwing Alicia too, right under his brother’s nose, right under Washburn’s. And they had succeeded in keeping their affair secret until the night of the party last May. That night, not much past nine-thirty, they had been alone in the library; Mrs. Purcell had admitted as much. They must also have been indiscreet in some way-discussed the affair, maybe even engaged in a little stand-up passion play; she was the type who’d find that kind of dangerous activity exciting. And they’d got caught: Kenneth had overheard them or walked in on them. There hadn’t been any big scene at that point, even though Kenneth was drunk; he knew what kind of woman his wife was, they’d had an open marriage, so it wasn’t likely he’d have assumed the role of the outraged husband. He had probably been more stunned than anything else. At any rate he’d stalked out of the house, passing Lina in the kitchen, and gone straight to the cliffs to be alone, to come to terms with what he’d just found out.

Pure speculation on the rest of it: Leonard had followed belatedly, using another exit from the house or going through the kitchen himself while Lina was out distributing canapes to the guests-his intention being to talk to Kenneth, apologize, beg forgiveness… something like that. Alicia either went with him or had followed soon afterward. There had been a confrontation out there in the darkness high above the sea, and it had turned violent. Kenneth was drunk and he’d had time to nurture his anger; maybe he’d attacked Leonard, maybe they’d struggled, maybe Leonard had given him a shove and over he’d gone.

I was sure of this much: Leonard was either directly responsible for his brother’s death, or had blamed himself for causing it.

Guilt and remorse and grief might have cracked him up then and there if it hadn’t been for Alicia. She’d calmed him down, convinced him to cover up their part in Kenneth’s death and to keep their affair a secret. Not because she cared about Leonard; she was looking out for herself. She didn’t want to be implicated in her husband’s death, not in any way. An unquestioned fatal accident guaranteed her inheritance, insured a hassle-free future — or so she must have thought at the time. She’d coached Leonard in what to do and what to say to the party guests, to the authorities when they came; and because he was weak, and riddled with guilt, he had gone along with her. He’d played his part well enough; even his tears when the body was discovered had been genuine. But he’d been crying as much for himself, I thought, as for his dead brother.

Before they returned to the house, Alicia had done one other thing: she’d picked up the Hainelin snuff box, which must have fallen to the ground when Kenneth’s coat pocket was torn during the struggle. That was the real reason she’d kept it hidden from the police, and later sold it to Summerhayes on the QT: she hadn’t wanted anybody asking how it had come into her possession that night.

The two of them alibiing each other had fooled everybody into believing she was in the clear-me included. No one suspected Leonard, the devoted brother, of having had anything to do with Kenneth’s death; if he said he was with Alicia, then that cleared her, too. Nobody had seen either of them leave the house or return to it, so there was nobody to dispute her word or his. Nobody, that is, except Danny Martinez.

Martinez had just finished making his delivery when Kenneth was killed. Either he’d been drawn out to the cliffs for some reason and had seen it happen, or more likely, he’d been near the house when Alicia and Leonard came back and had overheard an exchange of dialogue that told him what had happened. But they hadn’t seen or heard him. And for his own reasons he hadn’t come forward to tell what he knew. Alicia, at least, must have felt that she and Leonard had got away clean.

But then, after nearly six months, Martinez’s life had come apart and he’d decided to use his knowledge for financial gain. He’d called Leonard, only to mistakenly talk to Washburn instead. Martinez, as quoted by Washburn: Your brother didn’t fall off the cliff that night, Mr. Purcell. He was pushed. And I know who pushed him. Washburn thought Martinez was trying to sell Leonard the name of his brother’s killer, and so had I; but that hadn’t been it at all. The purpose of Martinez’s call had been blackmail, not extortion. And when he finally had reached Leonard with his demands, Leonard had paid off to the tune of two thousand dollars. That had apparently not been enough for Martinez; he’d made the fatal mistake of trying the same blackmail scam on Alicia. And she’d paid him off with death.

Thursday night, two weeks ago. Not more than a couple of days after she had killed and buried Martinez. Leonard must have talked to her about the blackmail business; he was scared, he was still guilt-ridden, maybe he’d even threatened to make a clean breast of everything to the police. She couldn’t have that, not after the drastic steps she’d already taken to protect herself. She arranged to see Leonard at his house, alone, while Washburn was out for the evening. With the intention of murdering Leonard, too, to keep him quiet? Possibly; she’d gone in the back way and she’d brought a gun with her-the same gun she’d used on Martinez, probably. Still, you’d think a woman as shrewd as she was would have picked a safer, more isolated place to commit premeditated homicide. It could be she’d brought the gun as a precaution or a threat or a last resort; it could be they’d had words, and she let slip what she’d done to Martinez, and Leonard threatened again to go to the police. In any case she shot him.

Leonard, dying: Deadfall… so sorry… fall, how could you… Only that wasn’t quite right. He’d been delirious, mumbling, blood in his throat obscuring the words, and I had misheard one of them. He hadn’t said fall, how could you. He’d said Al, how could you.

Al. Love, Al. Love, Alicia.

Ray Dunston, quoting the Bible far more aptly than he’d ever know: Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

Another week had passed, and Tom Washburn had brought me into it. I’d asked Mrs. Purcell some probing questions, so probing that she had lied about having tried to seduce Ozimas because she was afraid I might connect her sexually to Leonard. And then I’d found out from Lina about Danny Martinez. Either Alicia had asked the housekeeper what she’d said to me, or Lina had volunteered the information; whichever it was, she learned that I was on to Martinez. To find out just how much I knew or had guessed, she’d tried to use her favorite weapon-seduction-on me too. Then, later, I’d discovered that the Hainelin box had been in her possession and that she’d sold it to Summerhayes, and had confronted her with the knowledge on Sunday afternoon. I was definitely getting too close for comfort. Sex wasn’t going to work on me, so she’d used Dessault again (he might even have been with her when I called; she could easily be the reason for his two-day absence from Mission Creek)-this time to arrange a beating to force me off the case.