Jeffery Deaver - Manhattan Is My Beat

Emily's voice was softer as she said, "I didn't mean to suggest anything. What I said before. Ever since our mother died, Father's been, well, a little unstable. He's had a series of young friends. At least he waited until she died to turn adolescent again." She shook her head. "But a murder… So maybe he's in danger." The cigarette paused halfway to her mouth, then lowered.

Rune told her, "I guess he's okay. I mean, I don't know that he isn't. He sure didn't hang around for very long after the man downstairs was killed."

"What happened?"

Rune told her about Robert Kelly's death.

"Why do you think my father saw it happen?"

"What it was, I came back here to pick up something after Mr. Kelly was killed. And I was in the apartment downstairs-"

"How did you know him, this Mr. Kelly?"

"He was a customer at the store where I work. We were sorta friends. Anyway, I saw your father. And he saw me in the apartment. He was terrified. That was weird- me scaring anybody." She laughed. "But the way I figure it, the day Mr. Kelly was killed your father was hanging out on his fire escape. He saw the killer come out of the apartment after he killed Mr. Kelly. I think your father got a look at the killer."

Emily shook her head. "But why would he run, just seeing you?"

"I don't know. Maybe he couldn't see me too clearly and thought I was the killer who'd come back to destroy some evidence or something."

Emily was looking down at the fake Oriental carpet. "But the police haven't called me"-she nodded again- "which must mean you haven't told them about him."

"No."

"Why not?"

Rune's eyes drifted away. "The thing is, I don't like police."

Emily watched her carefully for a moment more. Then said probingly, "But that's not exactly the thing, is it? There's something else."

Rune looked away. Trying to be cool and poised. It wasn't taking.

"Well, all I know is that I'm worried about my father," Emily said. "He can be exasperating at times but I still love him. I want to find him. And it sounds like you do too. Why won't you tell me?"

Then, from somewhere, Rune managed to find an adult gaze. She slapped it on her face and gave Emily a woman-to-woman smile. "I have this feeling you're not telling me everything either."

The woman hesitated. She inhaled and blew a fat stream of smoke away from them. "Maybe I'm not."

"I'll show you mine if you…"

Emily didn't want to smile. But she did. "Okay, the truth?" She looked around the apartment. "I've never been here before. This is the first time. I haven't been in any of his apartments for the past year… Isn't that an awful thing to say?"

Rune said nothing. Emily sighed. She was looking much less adult than she had. "We had a fight. Last summer. A bad one."

There was silence.

Then she smiled at Rune. A bleak lifting of her mouth. Trying to make light. The smile faded. "He ran away from home. Isn't that silly?"

"Your father ran away from home? Like, that's radical."

Emily asked, "Are your parents still alive?"

"My mother is. She's in Ohio. My father died a few years ago."

"Did you get along with them when you were at home?"

"Pretty good, I guess. My mom is a sweetheart. My dad… I was sort of his favorite. But don't tell my sister I said that. He was really, really cool."

Emily looked at her with a cocked head. "You're lucky. My father and I fought a lot. We always have. Even when I was young. I'd have a boyfriend and Dad wouldn't like him. He wasn't from the right kind of family, he didn't make enough money, he was Jewish, he was Catholic… I fought back some but he was my father and fathers have authority. But then I grew up and after my mother died a few years ago, something odd happened. The roles switched. He became the child. He'd retired, didn't have much money. I'd married a businessman and I was rich. He needed a place to stay and he moved in with us.

"But I didn't do it right. Suddenly I had the power, I could dictate. Just the opposite of the way it was when I lived at home. I handled it badly. Last summer we were arguing and I said some terrible things. I didn't mean them, I really didn't. They weren't even true. I thought Dad'd just fight back or ignore them. Well, he didn't. What he did was he took some things and disappeared." Her voice quaked.

Emily fell silent. She held her cigarette in an unsteady hand. "I've been trying to find him ever since. He stayed at the Y for a while, he stayed at a hotel in Queens. He had an apartment in the West Village. I.don't know when he moved here. I've been calling people he knows-some of his old co-workers, his doctors-trying to find him. Finally a receptionist at his doctor's office broke down and gave me this address."

Emily smoothed her skirt. It was a long skirt, expensive silk. Slinky was the only way to describe it, Rune decided. "Now I've missed him again," Emily told her.

"Didn't you just call and apologize?"

"I tried a few months ago. But he hung up on me."

"Why don't you just give it time? Maybe he'll calm down. He's not that old, is he? In his sixties."

A look at the carpet again. "The thing is, he's sick. He doesn't have much longer. That's why the doctor's receptionist agreed to tell me where he was. He has cancer. Terminal."

Rune thought of her father. And now she recognized Symington's gray face, the sweaty skin.

She thought too: He'd better not die before she herself had a chance to find him and ask him about Mr. Kelly and the stolen money. Feeling guilty. But thinking it anyway.

"So what is it you're not telling me?" The adult Emily had returned. "Time to show me yours."

"I'm not sure he's just a witness," Rune said.

"What do you mean?"

"Okay, if you really want to know. I think your father might be the murderer."

"Impossible."

Rune said, "I think Mr. Kelly found some money and your father found out about it. I think your father stole the money and killed him."

Emily was shaking her head. "Never. Dad'd never hurt anybody."

Once again Rune thought of Symington's face-how terrified he'd seemed. "Well, maybe he had a partner who killed him."

Emily started to shake her head. But then she paused.

"What?" Rune asked. "Tell me."

"Dad wouldn't kill anybody. I know that."

"But…? I see something in your face. Keep talking." A good adult line to say. Right out of a Gary Grant movie, she believed. The sort Audrey Hepburn had said a million times.

"But," the woman said slowly, "the last time I talked to him I asked if he needed money and he said-he was really angry-but he said that he was about to get more money than I could imagine and he'd never take another damn penny from me or Hank ever again."

"He said that?" Rune asked excitedly.

Emily nodded.

"We've got to find him," Rune said.

"Will you turn him in to the police?" Emily asked.

Rune was going to say no. But she stopped herself.

You only lie to people, who can control you.

"I don't know. I think I believe he didn't kill Mr. Kelly. I want to talk to him first. But where is he? How can we find him?"

Emily said, "If I knew I wouldn't be here now."

"Is there anything there?" Rune nodded toward the mail Emily had been looking through.

"No, it's mostly just Dear Occupant… The only lead I've got is the name of his bank. I tried calling them to see if they had an address but they wouldn't talk to me."

Rune was thinking about another movie she'd seen a few years ago. Who was in it? De Niro? Harvey Keitel? The actor-a private eye-had bluffed his way into a bank and gotten information.

Maybe it was Sean Connery.

"Look, you don't understand… The man is dying! For God's sake, give me his address. Here's his account number."