Stuart Woods - L.A. Dead

"I'll do some preparation, too, before they arrive. I'll let you know the exact time, after I've talked to them."

"I'll wait to hear from you, before I tell Arrington."

"I'm working from Mr. Calders office at the studio, should you need to reach me." Stone gave him the number, then hung up. He found the intercom and buzzed Betty.

"Yes, Stone?"

"Now get me Detective Sam Durkee at the Brentwood LAPD station.

After a short wait, Betty buzzed him, and he picked up the phone. "Detective Durkee?"

"That's right."

"My name is Stone Barrington; I'm handling the affairs of Mrs. Vance Calder."

"I know your name from Rick Grant," Durkee said. "Rick says you're an ex-homicide detective."

"That's right; NYPD."

"Then you'll understand what we have to do."

"Of course. I've just spoken to Mrs. Calder's doctor, and he says you can interview her this afternoon. How about two o'clock at the Judson Clinic?"

"That's good for me; I'll bring my partner, Ted Bryant."

"You have to understand her condition," Stone said. "She's been very badly shaken up, and there are some big gaps in her memory."

"Oh? How big?"

"When I spoke with her yesterday, the last thing she could remember was a conversation with her gardener eight days before the homicide. I've confirmed the date with her butler."

"So, basically, when we question her, she's going to say she remembers nothing?"

"Her doctor says she may recover some of her memories, but I can't promise you anything. For a while, she didn't remember being married to Calder, but she's gotten past that, so she may remember even more.

I can tell you that she has no hesitation about talking to you; she wants her husbands murderer caught and prosecuted."

"Well, we'll certainly try to make that wish come true," Durkee said.

"There have to be some ground rules: Both her doctor and I will be present at the interview, and if either of us, for any reason, feels she shouldn't continue, we'll stop it."

"Understood," Durkee said dryly. "See you at two o'clock."

Stone hung up and began to think about this interview. It was crucial, he knew, for Arrington to convince them she was innocent. If she couldn't do that, her life was going to change even more dramatically than it already had.

STONE COULD HAVE SPOTTED the two men as detectives in any city in the United States. They were both middle-aged, dressed in middling suits that revealed bulges under the left arm to anyone looking for them. Sam Durkee was at least six-four and beefy in build; Stone made him as an ex-athlete. Ted Bryant was shorter, bald and pudgy. He didn't expect either of them to be stupid, and his plan was to be as cooperative as humanly possible, without handing them his client on a platter.

He shook their hands, then led them upstairs to Arrington's room. She was sitting up in bed wearing cotton pajamas; Dr. Judson was at her bedside. Stone made the introductions, and everybody pulled up a chair.

Durkee took the lead. "Mrs. Calder," he said, "first, I want to offer the department's condolences on your loss."

"Thank you," Arrington said, managing a wan smile.

"I hope you understand that there are questions we must ask, if we're to apprehend your husbands killer; I know this won't be pleasant, but we'll keep it as short as we can, and we'd like the fullest answers you can give us."

"I'll do my best," Arrington replied.

"What do you recall about the evening your husband was shot?"

"Absolutely nothing, I'm afraid. I remember going to the hairdresser's the day before, the Friday, but I don't remember driving home, or anything after that, until I woke up here."

A Friday memory was progress, Stone thought.

"Are you beginning to pick up pieces of your memory?" Bryant asked.

"It seems so," she said. "Every day, I remember a little more."

"Are you aware that your husband owned a gun?"

"He told me so, but I never saw it."

"Was he the sort of man who would have used a gun to defend his home?"

"He certainly was; I'm sure that's why he owned it."

"Do you know where he kept the gun?"

"No."

Stone spoke up. "The buder told me that Mr. Calder kept a nine millimeter pistol in the same safe where he kept his jewelry."

"Thank you," Durkee replied. "Mrs. Calder, how would you characterize your marriage?"

"As a very happy one," Arrington replied.

"Did you and your husband ever quarrel?"

"Of course." She smiled a litde. "But our quarrels were almost always good-humored. You might call them mock quarrels. We argued about lots of things, but always with respect and affection."

"You say your quarrels were 'almost' always good-humored. Did they ever become violent?"

"You mean, did Vance ever hit me? Certainly not."

"Did you ever hit him?"

She looked down. "I can remember slapping him, once and only once. He'd said something that offended me."

"What did he do when you slapped him?"

"He apologized, and it never happened again. My husband was a gendeman in every possible sense of the word."

"When you argued, what did you argue about?"

"He would give me a hard time, sometimes, about how much shopping I did. Vance had a tailor, a shirtmaker, and a bootmaker; he ordered his clothes from swatches, so shopping was very simple for him. I think it both amused and horrified him how to learn how women shop. He could never understand why I would buy things, then take them back the next day."

"Any other subjects you argued about?"

"Sometimes wed disagree on child rearing. Vance believed strongly in corporal punishment, and I didn't. Hed been brought up that way by his parents, and in English schools, and he thought if it was good enough for him, it was good enough for his son."

"Did he use corporal punishment often with your child?"

"Rarely, and then only a palm applied to the bottom."

"And you disagreed with that?"

"Yes. I was never struck, as a child, and I didn't want Peter to be."

"What else did you disagree about?"

She shrugged. "I can't think of anything else specifically."

"What about women?"

"There were one or two of my friends he didn't like much, but he tolerated them for my sake."

"That's not what I mean," Durkee said. "Are you aware that your husband had a reputation for sleeping with his leading ladies?"

Arrington smiled. "That was before we were married. My husband walked the straight and narrow."

"And if you had learned that he didn't, might that have provoked a quarrel?"

"It might have provoked a divorce," Arrington replied. "When we married, I let him know in no uncertain terms what I expected of him in that regard."

"And what did you expect?"

"Fidelity."

"Were you always faithful to him?"

"Always," she replied.

"Was there any man in your past for whom you still felt… affection?"

Stone was a little uncomfortable with this, but he kept a straight face and waited for her answer.

"I feel affection for a number of friends," Arrington replied, "but I was as faithful to my husband as he was to me."

Stone didn't like this answer, and he saw the two detectives exchange a glance.

Arrington saw it, too. "What I mean is, I was faithful to him, and he was faithful to me."

"Mrs. Calder, are you acquainted with a woman named Charlene Joiner?"

"Of course; she costarred with my husband in a film."

"Were you and Ms. Joiner friends?"

"No; we met a few times, and our relationship was cordial, but I wouldn't call us friends. The last time I saw her was when she and Vance cohosted a political fund-raiser at our house."

"Would it surprise you to learn that your husband, while he was filming with Ms. Joiner, was spending considerable periods of time in her trailer?"