Ed McBain - Killer's Choice

Kling cleared his throat.

Boone turned from the camera.

He was not a good-looking man, and yet he was a good-looking man. He was a trifle short perhaps, with thick black hair, and with the irregular features of a boxer. But he was narrow-waisted and wide-shouldered, and he turned with an economy of movement that told Kling he was quick on his feet and probably as sharply trained as a Commando. He had bright brown eyes, and they focused instantly on Kling, and he moved away from the camera just as instantly and walked to Kling with his hand extended.

'Detective Kling?' he asked.

'Yes,' Kling said. 'I hope I'm not intruding.'

'Not at all.' Boone turned and said, 'Karl, mind if we take a short break?'

'I'm only paying the jungle queen forty dollars an hour,' the man with the folded arms said.

'I can use a break,' the model said. 'This looking down bit can get strenuous.'

'Go ahead,' Karl said, unfolding his arms. 'Take a break. Practise looking down. Practise looking down and giving the feeling that you're looking up at the same time.'

'For that, you've got to be double-jointed,' the model said. 'You should have hired a circus performer.'

'Sometimes I get the feeling I have ,' Karl said.

Kling followed Boone to the side of the room. He took a package of cigarettes from his pocket and extended it to Kling.

'Smoke?'

'Thanks, no,' Kling said.

Boone shook a cigarette free and lighted it. He blew out a stream of smoke, sighed, and said, 'Who killed her?'

'We don't know,' Kling said.

'How can I help?'

'By answering some questions, if you don't mind.'

'Not at all.' Boone sucked in on his cigarette. 'Shoot,' he said.

'You were married how long?'

Boone did not stop to calculate. Quickly, he said, 'Five years, two months, and eleven days.'

'You remember that closely?'

'It was the happiest time of my life,' Boone said.

'It was?' Kling said. His face was expressionless. He was remembering all that Mrs Travail had told him, but his face remained expressionless.

'Yes,' Boone said.

'Why'd you get divorced?'

'She didn't want me any more.'

'Let me get this straight,' Kling said. ' She asked for the divorce?'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'I don't know. I wish I did know. I thought everything was going along fine. Christ knows, I loved her.'

'We'd better start from the beginning,' Kling said.

'All right. Where do you want me to start?'

'Where'd you meet?'

'At the public library.'

'When was this?'

'Eight years ago. 1949?'

'Good enough. Remember the month?'

'June.'

'What were you doing at the library?'

'I was free-lancing at the time. I'd had a job possibility, some industrial stuff, but I couldn't find any samples to clinch the deal. I'd had some stuff in one of the photography magazines, and I went to the library to locate the back issue.'

'Did you?'

'Yes. I also met Annie.'

'How?'

'It was strange. I guess I'm a nervous type. I was drumming my fingers on the table. I'd taken the… what do you call it… reader's guide to magazines or something, because I couldn't remember the issue the stuff had been in, and I was thumbing through it at the table and drumming my fingers. I'm a nervous type. Lots of nervous energy. I always tap a foot or drum my fingers or something. You know?'

'Go ahead.'

'She was sitting at the table reading. She asked me to please stop drumming my fingers. I guess we had sort of a little argument about it. I wasn't really angry. She was a damned attractive girl, and I started the argument just so I could get to apologize later on.'

'Did you?'

'Yes. I apologized and asked her out to dinner. She accepted. That was the beginning.'

'What kind of a girl was Annie?'

'Annie?' Boone's eyes went reflectively sad. 'The most wonderful girl I've ever met in my life. Alive, Mr Kling. Really alive. You meet a lot of redheads who only have the red hair, and that's their fire. The rest is just washed-out pale complexion and no life. Have you noticed that most redheads have very pale complexions? When they get in the sun, they turn red all over, like lobsters. Annie wasn't that way. She was alive. Her red hair only set the pace. She loved doing things. Swimming, skiing, riding, everything. We had a ball. We really did. She didn't burn in the sun. She turned bronze. She was beautiful. I loved that girl. I gave that girl everything I had. I loved her.'

'What happened?'

'I don't know.'

'You don't have any inkling?'

Boone shrugged helplessly. 'Monica was born. Have you met my daughter?'

'Yes.'

'She's a charmer, isn't she?'

'Yes.'

'Then you've met the Bag, too?'

'What? I'm sorry.'

'My ex mother-in-law, Mrs Travail.'

'Yes. I met her.'

'The bitch,' Boone said. 'I'm taking her to court, you know.'

'I didn't know.'

'For custody of the child.'

'I got the impression she liked you,' Kling said.

'Really? She's a great actress, the Bag. I think she had more to do with Annie and me splitting up than anything else.'

'How do you figure that?'

'She hated Annie. The Bag lost all her men, and she didn't like the idea that her daughter had one. The Bag also lost her looks, and Annie still had hers. The Bag was stupid, Annie was bright.'

'Bright?'

'Intelligent. Smart as a whip. There wasn't anything Annie couldn't do and do well. A quick learner, Mr Kling. Quick. I had a hard time keeping up with her.'

'She… she wasn't stupid?'

'Stupid? Hell, no. She was that rare combination, a brain with good looks. And she didn't flaunt the brain. She didn't make you feel like an idiot. Oh, Jesus, Mr Kling, how can I tell you about Annie? She was the best thing that ever happened to me. She's responsible for whatever I am now. I was a dumb kid with a camera when I met her. Now I know what I want out of life, now I know the things that are important. Annie did all that. The day I lost her was the blackest day of my life.'

'You were trying to explain why you got divorced.'

'Oh. Yeah. Well, Monica was born. You can't have so much fun when you've got an infant on your hands. I mean, no matter how much you love the child, you're still tied down. Annie wouldn't leave her with anyone but the Bag. She wanted the Bag to come and live with us. I flatly refused. I didn't see why we couldn't get baby sitters, the way other young married people do. Annie wouldn't. She simply wouldn't. She loved that kid like… well, she loved her. But at the same time, I think she resented her. Because she tied us down, do you know? Because we couldn't go off on those long ski week-ends any more. Because we couldn't pack up and go to the beach for a week on a moment's notice.'

'What else?' Kling asked.

'Well, I hate to admit this…'

'Yes.'

'She was outgrowing me.'

'What?'

'I'm a camera. That's really all I am. Photography is my profession, and I see everything as if I'm looking through a camera. I feel things that way, Mr Kling. I'm one of those people who…who feel things. But I'm not much in the brain department, never was.'

'I see,' Kling said.

'Annie was growing. I wasn't. Cameras don't grow, Mr Kling, they only record.'

'Annie outgrew you .'

'Yes.'

'Not the other way around?'

'Oh, don't be ridiculous. God, she had a mind like a trap. Click! A hungry mind. Devoured things. Wonderful. A wonderful girl.'

'Why'd she go to work in a liquor store after she divorced you?'

'I don't know. A girl like her, I figured she'd want a challenge. Advertising, radio, television, something like that, something where she could use her mind. So first she works selling furniture, and then liquor. I didn't get it. I asked her once. When I went up to see Monica.'