Linda Fairstein - Final Jeopardy

Boy, am I the wrong one to ask.

“Yeah, actually, they did.”

“Something bad?”

“Very bad.” Put Tina on again, Maureen. Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?

Now Johnny was puzzled. He had been convinced the meeting with the cops was going to be a complete cake-walk when he agreed to do it.

“D’you have something to hide?”

“I didn’t know it at the time, Johnny, but it turns out that I did. Why, is there something you don’t want them to know.”

I had started to confide in him, and he leaned further into my face to return the favor by trying to trust me with his secrets.

“I didn’t have anything to do with killing Isabella and, man, you know she coulda driven me to it but I;y got things I don’t want nobody to know about. We all do,, don’t we?” “You bet.”,s “They’re gonna wanna know where I was the day sheer got it, right?” He was well oiled now and getting sloppy.

“Well, I got nothing to tell them about that. I’m not gonna ruin somebody else’s life that’s got nothing to do with their; business, see?”

“Hey, Johnny, I’d be careful about lying to them. You know with credit cards and telephone bills and things that leave a trail of dates and records, it’s stup- It’s not too smart to lie about something they can check on as easily as that.”

He tried to absorb that for a minute.

“Well, I don’t have to lie to them, I could just take the Fifth, right?”

“Well, not exactly.” I tried to explain the difference between being questioned by the police and being on the witness stand in a court of law. Forget about it.

I decided to try the direct approach.

“Maybe it’s not all that tough, Johnny. Where were you last Wednesday? I mean, as long as you weren’t on Martha’s Vineyard I think you’re absolutely right it’s nobody’s business. Try your story on me see how it flies. Isabella always trusted me.”

That was a one-way street.

I smiled sweetly at him, and hoped it looked warm and fuzzy as he stared back at me through his alcohol filled haze.

He propped one elbow on the table and rested his chin in the palm of his hand.

“You know The Tempest?”

“Shakespeare?” The Gorilla and I are gonna talk Shakespeare tonight? The lieutenant won’t believe it.

“No, not the movie. The boat, the yacht.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Sir Robert Ardmore’s yacht. That one?”

What unlikely shipmates: Johnny Garelli and British department store mogul, recently knighted, Sir Robert Ardmore.

“Yeah, Alice, that one. It’s like an ocean liner. I don’t know Ardmore, but you could say I’m a good friend of his wife.”

Garelli smiled.

“When Iz dumped me, I thought I’d drown my sorrows in the ocean.”

Ardmore ’s fifth wife, a twenty-six-year-old stripper whose instep was reputed to be higher than her I.Q., had met the elderly billionaire when he was in Vegas, doing a site inspection for a series of shopping malls. He was still married at the time, and his fierce batt leto retain the remarkable yacht which had originally been named for his fourth wife in the divorce proceedings led to its lavish rechristening as The Tempest.

“So you and Tiki Ardmore were together last week?”

“Obviously, that goes no further than this table, right?

Her husband’s got a lousy sense of humor, if you know what I mean. Really straight guy. Jeez, I’ve know Tiki since she was working the door at Motion’s.”

I think Lord Ardmore and I could do very well together, sailing off into the sunset, faithful and loyal like a pair of cocker spaniels.

“Where was the boat?”

“I flew on board by helicopter when Ardmore went back to London last Monday. I was in Easthampton, and the boat was cruising off Montauk, at the end of Long Island.”

Fifty-five miles from the Vineyard, as the crow flies.

“Well, at least you’ve got witnesses, Johnny. Crew, pilots, deckhands-‘ ”I got ’em all right, but one thing Tiki don’t want is witnesses. Everybody who works for Ardmore is deaf, dumb, and blind, if you follow me. This marriage may pn be hard work, but it beats the shit out of the last two jobs she had. I can’t burn her on this.“ ps ”Did you put into port anywhere?“

“Are you kidding? Those dinky little islands can hold stinkpots and Sunfishes, but not a yacht the size of this one. The Tempest needs its own dock. Nah, last thing we wanted to see was other people.”

I guess Tiki Ardmore was a snake-charmer, too.

Johnny gave me a few more details about his shipboard adventure, and I was confident that there were enough people who could confirm or contradict his story, were his involvement really to become a major factor in the investigation. I don’t know that I was any help to Lieutenant Peterson, but I would not have to eat again for at least a week.

The rain had started to come down heavily while we were eating dinner, and I was glad to see that there was a stretch limo waiting for Garelli at the curb. He left generous tips for Vie and the waiter, exchanged kisses on both cheeks with Joey, and asked me if I wanted to be dropped at my apartment on his way back to the hotel. Maureen and Mike had slipped out while Johnny was settling up his bill, and I saw their car parked just beyond the streetlight, as they watched me get into the rear seat before starting up their engine.

It was only a ten-minute ride down the drive to my place.

Garelli leaned his head back against the seat cushion and let the alcohol do its work, while I played out the visions of a helicopter or a speeding launch whisking him from The Tempest to the Vineyard, to kill Isabella, while Tiki Ardmore soaked in a bubble bath. The logistics of it were certainly possible, as any navigator could tell you. I had gotten the basics for Chapman and his team they would have to go the distance.

I thanked Johnny for the meal and wished him good luck with Luther tomorrow, then I got out of the limo and waited in the lobby for Mike and Maureen to park and join me.

“You guys must be starved, watching me eat all that food while you just sat at the bar the whole time I’ll send out for a pizza for you.”

“One glass of wine and three bottles of Pellegrino water, just to keep our glasses looking full. I’ll be running for the powder room as soon as you unlock your door,” Maureen responded.

“What d’ya get?” Mike asked.

“Nothing memorable. Has no use for cops, plans to lie to you guys tomorrow and stonewall you about where he was. Has a thing going with the wife of a billionaire, so he doesn’t want you to know the truth and blow it for her by going public. And yes, in fact he was on the East Coast the week of the murder, cruising in the Atlantic Ocean on his personal ”love boat,“ not too far from the Vineyard. He’s a superb marksman, especially good at moving targets.

Don’t remind me that I’ve been fooled before, Mike, but somehow I don’t think he killed Isabella. Too stupid to have actually formulated and carried out something that needed to be planned in advance like this murder. See what he tells you when he comes in to the office, but I don’t think he’s your man.“

We went into my apartment and I showed Maureen where to freshen up while I went into the den to call Steve’s Pizza. It was only ten-thirty, so I called David Mitchell, too, to ask him to join us. I’ve got two detectives with me. Is this a good time to come by and talk things over with us?”

“It’s great. Didn’t you get my message? I just got home twenty minutes ago and suggested you call if you got in before midnight. I’ll be right over.”

“Oh, I haven’t even gone into the bedroom yet to check?r the machine. Glad it’s still working. My mother seems to ie have given up on me this week. The door’s open.”;t Maureen called out to me from the bedroom.