Роберт Паркер - Robert B. Parker’s Blackjack

Juniper sat at a small table just outside of Black’s cell and Virgil and I perched ourselves on a bench behind and off to the side of Juniper.

Juniper previously had a short discussion with Black prior to the preliminary hearing, but this was Black’s chance to help provide Juniper with a defense, and so far Black was doing himself more harm than good. For ten minutes he had been staring at the floor in front of him as he repeated, “I did not kill her.”

“You have said that,” Juniper said.

Juniper dropped his notepad on the desk. He leaned back in his chair and clasped his chubby hands over his belly and looked at Black with his head tilted to the side.

“I did not kill her,” Black said again.

Juniper briefly glanced over at Virgil and me, then looked back to Black and slowly shook his head back and forth.

“I can’t decide whether you are trying to convince yourself or if you are losing your mind, Mr. Black,” Juniper said.

Black looked up at Juniper and stared at him. Then he looked to Virgil and me.

“I don’t know who did this,” he said. “But I am a victim here.”

“Right now you are a bit more than that,” Juniper said. “You are charged with murder.”

Black sat silently and shook his head.

“Look,” Juniper said. “I don’t feel at the moment the prosecution has that solid of a case, I don’t. But with the way things are going, they just might have enough ammo to convict you. So unless you provide me with some kind of details that can help me, I’m afraid there is a very good chance you will most definitely become a victim... of circumstance.”

Black looked up, pushed his hair back on his head, and stared at Juniper.

“Give me some details and let me figure out how best to use them, Mr. Black,” Juniper said. “Gamble with me here.”

Black nodded.

“What can I say?”

“Let’s start with the argument that the owners of the inn overheard.”

Black looked over to Virgil and me, then back to Juniper, but didn’t say anything.

“Did you have this argument with Ruth Ann Messenger the night she went missing?”

“I did,” he said.

“And what did you argue about?”

“She was... crazy.”

“Let me repeat the question,” Juniper said. “And what did you argue about?”

“The same thing that has happened to many a man.”

“This particular argument, involving you and Ruth Ann Messenger.”

“She said she loved me and wanted to leave town with me.”

“Did you love her?”

“No.”

“Then what were you doing with her?”

“What do you think?”

“What I think has no bearing on what you were doing with her.”

He shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, that is not very helpful or convincing, Mr. Black.”

He got to his feet and started to pace.

“Ruth Ann was real... seductive. Goddamn nice to look at. So, you know, at first there she is, this very attractive and beautiful woman, and she was, I don’t know, for a while, okay, and... we were having a good time.”

“A good time? Can you elaborate?”

“Oh, hell, she’d come around and she wanted attention, you know, and, well, I gave it to her.”

“In what way?”

Black’s eyes squinted a bit, reflecting.

“In the obvious way,” he said.

“How long had you been doing the obvious way with Ruth Ann?”

“About two weeks, I’d say.”

“Then what happened?”

“She started getting very possessive of me.”

“And in this two weeks’ time you spent with her did you know she was married?”

“Not at first, but I learned later.”

“How did you learn that later?”

“At first when I met her, when she was flaunting herself at me, when we was doing the obvious, she said she had been married but was no longer married. Then after a few times together she up and says she’s only separated from her husband but was in the process of getting a divorce. And I was... like, oh, shit...”

“Did you know he was a policeman?”

“Hell, no,” he said, shaking his head. “No... she didn’t mention his line of work. That came out later, too. She started off as something delicious and worked her way into being nothing but a stick of goddamn dynamite.”

“So she told you that later? About her husband being a Denver police officer?”

Black looked down and away from Juniper as if he was lost in thought.

“Yeah... she was manipulative... the... bitch. She doled bits and pieces. It was her way, how she churned her butter.”

Juniper glanced at Virgil and me.

“You wanted her out of you life?”

“Hell, yes, I did.”

“Did you kill her?”

Black smiled and looked over to Virgil and me, then looked back to Juniper.

“First, she is a divorced woman looking for someone to scratch her itch, then she’s a married woman that is separated, later I discovered she was really still with him and that he was a member of the Denver police force.”

“And his father?” Juniper said. “Did you also learn his father was the chief of police?”

“Yeah... another part of her butter batch... The chief has surely got me in his sights with the hammer back,” Black said. “Not my fault she was the way she was and her husband and his chief father got their goddamn feelings hurt.”

He nodded, then shook his head.

“Been interesting,” Black said.

“And did you also learn Ruth Ann’s husband knew about the two of you?”

“Oh, yeah... sure I did.”

“How did you find that out?”

Black laughed.

“She told me.”

“And how did you react?”

“Oh, I did a goddamn jig...” Black said.

Black’s eyes narrowed.

“Listen,” he said. “I was mad as hell.”

“And what did you do with that madness?”

“What?” Black said, as if he were just snapped back to being present in the moment.

“Did you act out in any way?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you tell her to leave, did you walk out, did she run off crying, did you hit her, did—”

“That is what we had the fight about at the goddamn inn that night.”

Juniper made a note. Then leveled a look at Black.

“If you did not kill Ruth Ann—” Juniper said.

“I didn’t,” he said with a snap.

Juniper nodded.

“Okay... Who do you think did?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you have any idea, do you know anyone who would have a motive to kill her?”

“Hell, goddamn, for all I know she has a slew of men with a motive... I’m telling you she was crazy.”

“Do you know if there were others she was doing the ‘obvious way’ with besides you?”

“I don’t know but I damn sure would not put it past her... but I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

“’Cause she was obsessed with me.”

“Do you think perhaps it could have been her husband that murdered her?”

“Well... ya know,” Black said with a sarcastic tone, “it damn sure could have been.”

“Do you know if he ever hurt her? Physically?”

“Not that I know of, no... But being around her for any length of time would make most men want to do something to her physically, that is how she liked it. Don’t think she was comfortable unless there were chips on the table. Taller the stack the better, and now that I think about it, the more players the better. Maybe there were others like me that had anted up.”

“But did she say anything, did you learn anything specifically about her husband, in respect to you?”

“She told me he was mad as hell. She played him, I’m sure, like she was playing me. She’s a sharp if I ever saw one.”