The Right Jack

by Margaret Maron

  "The ring? I bought it in a pawnshop and started wearing it in college."

  "Why?"

  "Well, look at me."

  Bewildered, she looked him over completely and saw nothing to alter yesterday's original impression. Lieutenant Alan Knight was a remarkably attractive specimen of American malehood.

  She said as much.

  "Yeah, now, he said without vanity. "Up until my sophomore year in college, I was an Alfred E. Neuman lookalike: my ears stuck out like jug handles, my front teeth made Bugs Bunny's look good, I was as tall as I am right now, but weighed a hundred and ten sopping wet, and I had cowlicks fore and aft-goofiest looking face outside a comic strip."

  Sigrid lowered herself to the dock and leaned back against the next piling with her left knee drawn up and her right leg dangling over the edge.

  "What happened your sophomore year?"

  "I worked on my uncle's tobacco farm, ate my aunt's cooking all summer, and put on twenty-five pounds. It seemed to make everything fit together. Then before

  I went back to college, my sisters hauled me down to their beauty shop and they found a way to cut my hair so it didn't look like a haystack in a hurricane. All of a sudden, I looked pretty much like I do now."

  "And that was bad?"

  "Scared the living bejesus out of me," he replied earnestly. "I told you I like women and I do. I grew up in a household with six sisters, a terrific mom, and more aunts than I can count, but I never had a sweetheart. Girls at school used to tell me all their problems 'cause they knew I'd understand. They never wanted to go out with me, though. As far as they were concerned, I was just good old dumb-looking Alan. They kept telling me I was almost like a brother to them, only no girl wanted to date her brother."

  Across the way, the pigtailed child had her hand on the thick cord that bound the majestic dragon to the earth, and they could hear her lilting tones as she cajoled her father to let her fly it solo.

  Alan Knight leaned down to scoop up a handful of loose gravel scattered alongt he pier and began plinking it into the water.

  "When I got back to college that fall, I didn't know what hit me. I sort of liked it, having girls like me-who wouldn't? But I also didn't know how to handle it. Most guys, the guys that girls go after, have time to get used to how to act. From kindergarten, most of them; and certainly by junior high; and there I was, all the way in college, for God's sake."

  Sigrid smiled.

  "Yeah," he said self-mockingly. "Funny as hell, right? And the worst thing about it was that after a while I missed having girl friends. I don't mean lovers, but friends who are girls. Sorry, I guess I should say women."

  "I'm not hung up on semantics," Sigrid said mildly.

  "No? Anyhow, every time I'd try to be friends with a female, she'd either slap me down or expect us to go to bed together. It got to be such a hassle that I bought the ring and told everybody it was a secret marriage and that she'd promised her parents to finish school out west somewhere first. That took a lot ofp ressure off right away."

  "I shouldn't have thought a ring had that much power anymore."

  "You'd be surprised."

  "What happens when you're attracted to someone?" she asked curiously.

  "I take it off. Or I tell her my wife and I are separated at the moment."

  "So you have your cake and eat it, too."

  "At least I'm not trying to pretend the cake doesn't exist," he said; then added boldly, "Why are you?"

  "In case you hadn't noticed," she answered flatly, "I'm not a college sophomore. I did all the growing up and filling out I'm ever going to do and, unlike you, I didn't turn into a swan."

  "But women are different," he said, "there's so much you can do to help the swanning along."

  "Oh Lord, don't start on the hair-makeup-sexy clothes bit."

  She pulled both knees up sharply and rested her strong chin on them.

  "Why not? What are you afraid of?"

  "I'm not afraid of anything, andf rankly. Lieutenant, I can't see that it's any of your business."

  "The guy you're living with-Is he the one trying to get you to nibble some of the cake?"

  "Oh for God's sake," Sigrid groaned and swung herself up to leave.

  "That's what my sisters always used to say when I got uncomfortably near the truth," he called, stridng after her.

  "I'm surprised they didn't smother you in your crib," she muttered as he caught up with her.

  "They tried. Mother wouldn't let them." He smiled at her persuasively.

  "She did not smile back.

  "Look, I'm sorry if I've insulted you. You're right. It's none of my business if you don't like cake. Truce?"

  Her suspicious gray eyes probed his. The mischief that had lurked there a few minutes ago was gone now and he seemed serious again.

  "I think it might be better if you worked with someone else in the department," she said doubtfully.

  "I don't. Besides, your partner's still out and your captain mentioned you weres hort-handed. Why don't we head on up to the Maintenon," he suggested craftily, "and get Flythe's fingerprints?"

  Sigrid glanced at her watch. Roman usually served Sunday's main meal in the middle of the day. If she stretched it out a little, she could probably miss his anised veal completely.

  "First we'll drop in on Molly Baldwin," she told him.

  Behind them, the crimson dragon with the golden face stalked sea gulls far out over the water.

  18

  DURING the week, Manhattan lives up to the image set forth in a thousand books, movies, songs, and sermons. It is indeed a money-grubbing, smart-talking, elbow-shoving, glitzy, rude, sophisticated, dirty, elegant, international metropolis. But on Sunday mornings, it becomes an astonishingly small town. Except for the Times Square area which never completely shuts down, the rest of the island grows hushed and lazy. Wall Street is a ghost canyon, footsteps echo through Grand Central Station, families stroll leisurely to church along empty sidewalks, and best of all, if you happened to be a nervous young sailor who learned to drive on a dirt road in rural New Hampshire, the streets unclog on Sunday mornings and become wide boulevards.

  He and Lieutenant Knight had dropped the skinny lady police officer off at a green door in a high brick wall, theng one searching through the food stores along Hudson Street.

  "Water biscuits?" he'd asked.

  "Big round crackers," explained Lieutenant Knight, and gave him a brief history of what food used to be like on clipper ships.

  By the time they returned with her crackers, the lady officer had changed from jeans into gray slacks and a navy blue jacket. Soon they were zipping along up Tenth Avenue, catching green lights all the way.

  Now this was more like it, thought the yeoman.

  Tenth Avenue became Amsterdam Avenue as they sped north paralleling the park. Upon approaching the West Nineties, he slowed down and eventually turned left to pull up before the address Lieutenant Harald gave him.

  "We shouldn't be long," said Lieutenant Knight as the two officers got out of the car.

  In fact, they were back in less than three minutes, the time it took to lean on the intercom button in the lobby until they roused one of Molly Baldwin'sl ate-partying roommates and were told that Miss Baldwin herself had left for work at least two hours ago.

  "Never mind," said Alan Knight when Sigrid started to apologize for taking them out of the way. "It was a good idea to try to catch her off guard. To the hotel?"

  "To the hotel," she agreed.

  "To the hotel!" echoed their neophyte driver. With renewed confidence, he boldly cut across Central Park, cruised down Lexington Avenue, and swerved in at the hotel's curb with style and panache..

  It was exactly three minutes past eleven.

  ***

  They found the Bontemps Room much as they had left it yesterday, although some of the older players beneath the glittering chandeliers were beginning to look a bit weary around the edges. They had been split into two groups after the mid-m
orning break at ten thirty. The smaller section competed for the mainp rize, now reduced to seven thousand dollars; the others were playing for small but numerous consolation pots.

  Sigrid saw that Jill Gill was still in the running for the main prize. The entomologist gave her a distracted wave, but her attention was all on the cards.

  "They have to keep at it if we're going to finish by five," Ted Flythe told them. "The breaks are supposed to last fifteen minutes, but it takes almost a half hour to get them settled down again."

  As they spoke, Sigrid tried to visualize him without a beard, as he might have looked fifteen years ago without bags under his hooded eyes, his dark hair longer and without the beginning traces of gray. One thing about his habit of smoothing his beard into a sharp point: his fingers would leave nice clear prints.

  If he were Fred Hamilton, the main thing was not to alert him of her suspicions. Let him continue in this role of laid-back aging roué.

  After a few desultory remarks, she took out a fresh white index card and, casually holding it by the edges, said, "Would you mind jotting down your address andt elephone number, Mr. Flythe, in case we should need to contact you after the tournament's over?"

  "Sure, Lieutenant, but let me give you my card."

  He pulled a thin leather case from an inner pocket of his jacket and extracted a card with a Graphic Games logo and his business address on the front. He turned it over and scribbled down a number in the East nineties.

  "I'm on the go a lot, all up and down the East Coast," he warned, handing Sigrid the card, "but the office usually knows how to reach me."

  Sigrid thanked him and carefully stowed his card between the pages of her note pad. Before leaving the house earlier, she had called headquarters and set in motion a rush request for Fred Hamilton's fingerprints. With even minimal efficiency, they should be able to do a rough comparison by tomorrow morning.

  The ranks of cardplayers semed to have thinned slightly. Flythe told them that several of the losers had opted to drop out after elimination rather than playf or the consolation prizes. Sigrid spotted Vassily Ivanovich among the also-rans, as well as several others she had helped to interview the day before.

  "We were looking for Miss Baldwin," said Alan Knight. "Is she here?"

  "Yeah, she's been in and out all morning." Flythe looked around vaguely. "Talking to the busboys and things. I haven't seen her since the break, though."

  "Did you remember to bring those copies of the first pairings?" asked Sigrid.

  Flythe nodded. "As a matter of fact, I gave them to Miss Baldwin. I didn't realize you people were going to be back today, so I thought she could pass them along to you."

  There was no sign of Molly Baldwin in the room and when they inquired among the green-jacketed busboys standing around the hospitality table, they met with shrugs and blank expressions.

  In the large serving pantry beyond the service door, they found the room steward somewhat testy because a fresh tray of coffee cups had not arrived from below. A cribbage tournament might not drawt he Maintenon's usual class of patrons, but Mr. George scrupulously preserved the standards. Not even for cribbage players would he allow Styrofoam cups to sully the Bontemps Room. Coffee at the Maintenon was dispensed from silverplated urns into china cups.

  "So where are the clean cups?" shrilled Mr. George. "And where are Johnson and LeMays?"

  His question was partially answered as the rumble of a service cart and the tinkling of china heralded the arrival of cups through the doors of the serving pantry. The cart was pushed by a single busboy.

  Mr. George's patience was frayed. "Where's Johnson?"

  "He wasn't with me," the youth shrugged. "I ain't seen him since break."

  "I'm sorry, Lieutenant," said the distracted steward when Sigrid persisted with her questions about Molly Baldwin. "I've got my hands full here and I really can't say where Ms. Baldwin is right now.

  He looked around sharply. "LeMays, I need two dozen of those cups lined upb eside the urn. Ruiz, you and Pacabelli can start with the ashtrays again. You know Madame Ronay's rules: no more than three butts before you give them a clean one. What if she comes back and sees that mess out there? Hop to it!"

  Threatened with La Reine's displeasure, the busboys hopped.

  Sigrid and Alan Knight followed them back into the Bontemps Room. Sigrid was struck again by the disparity between the room's eighteenth-century regality and its decidedly twentieth-century proletarian clientele.

  As they entered from the rear, one of the tall, gold-tipped doors at the front opened and revealed their quarry.

  "There she is!" said Alan Knight.

  The two officers started across the wide floor. At the sight of their purposeful advance, the color drained from Molly Baldwin's face.

  "Ms. Baldwin,!" called Sigrid.

  They were passing one of the consolation tables and Vassily Ivanovich's grizzled head came up from his cards and swung in the direction they were headed. "What you say? That is little Molly?"-

  "Hey, where're you going?" cried his opponent as the big Russian joined the charge.

  "I quit! You are winner this time," Ivanovich flung back over his shoulder. Beyond the tall lieutenant's head, he saw a slender brown-haired girl in the doorway and roared, "You! You are T. J.'s Molly?"

  It was too much. Molly Baldwin turned and fled.

  There was a brief traffic jam at the doorway as Sigrid, Knight, and Ivanovich each tried to get through.

  At the end of the hall, where the main staircase created a wide landing, Molly was waylaid by an elderly gentleman in a dark suit.

  "Excuse me, miss, but are you with the hotel? I need someone on the housekeeping staff to-"

  At that precise moment, the elevator across the landing chimed and Madame Ronay stepped off, followed by three frightened-looking maids.

  "Ah, there you are, Miss Baldwin," said the Maintenon's owner in a steel bladed tone that could have ripped throughs olid teak. "May I ask why I've had to-"

  Abruptly she became aware of the others and the steel was instantly sheathed in French velvet.

  "Lieutenant Harald, Lieutenant Knight? But what has happened here? You have changed your mind?"

  The maids were edging away toward the opposite hall that led to the d'Aubigné Room.

  "Moment!" ordered Lucienne Ronay.

  "Changed my mind?" asked Sigrid.

  "Did you not say yesterday that you were finished here and that my people may restore order today to my poor d'Aubigné Room? Have you different thoughts now? And is this why," she asked with a pointed look at the wretched Molly Baldwin, "work has not yet begun there?"

  "No, we've finished," said Sigrid.

  "Alors!" said Madame Ronay and the maids scuttled down the hallway and disappeared into the wrecked ballroom.

  "-If you'll excuse me," Molly Baldwin said hopelessly, "I'll just get them started."

  Before anyone could object, the dark-suited gentleman said, "May I come with you? I'm Haines Froelick and-"

  "Monsieur Froelick!" exclaimed Lucienne Ronay, now transformed into a solicitous and totally sympathetic hostess, "Je suis très désolée. Your poor cousin! I grieve with you. That such a dreadful thing should happen here…"

  Mr. Froelick thanked her gravely and explained his errand concerning the missing schilling. "I know it seems silly to care about such a small thing when so much has happened, but if your staff could watch for it, it would mean so much."

  "Certainment. Miss Baldwin will-Mais, non!" Madame interrupted herself meaningfully. "To make certain my wishes are carried out, I myself will instruct them. Come, M'sieur. Molly?"

  "I'm sorry, Madame Ronay," said Sigrid, "but we've a few more questions we need to ask Ms. Baldwin at the moment."

  "So?" The shrewd hazel eyes compared Sigrid's calm demeanor with Molly Baldwin's apprehension. "So," she nodded.

  "When you have finished, Molly, I too have questions for you."

  "Yes, madame," the girl said unhappily.


  As her employer escorted Mr. Froelick across the landing, Miss Baldwin faced them in resignation. "There's a small room down there where we can talk."

  "Is true?" rumbled Vassily Ivanovich, looming up behind them. "You are T. J.'s cousin?"

  The girl looked into his glowering face and burst into tears.

  Sigrid was appalled, Ivanovich flustered, but Alan Knight was only clinically interested. With six sisters, he was long inured to the sight of bawling females.

  Which was the only way to describe Molly Baldwin at that moment. This was no momentary misting of the eyes, no delicate sniffles hidden away behind a dainty handkerchief, no sun shower that would disappear as suddenly as it had come. This was an all-out store.

  "Batten down the hatches," murmured the naval officer, and flourishing his large white handkerchief like a hurricane warning flag, he strode forward, put his arm around her and said, "There, there,h oneybunch, it's gonna be all right. Here, blow.".

  Still sobbing, poor Molly blew.

  "Atta girl! Blow again."

  Gradually, the sobs diminished, abating into snuffly hiccups. The fiery red blotches began to fade from her cheeks, leaving just her eyes and the tip of her snub nose a glowing pink. r

  "Okay now?" asked Alan Knight.

  She nodded like an embarrassed child and started to speak, when one of the maids burst from the d'Aubigné Room and darted toward them.

  "Lieutenant! Lieutenant!" she cried breathlessly. "Come quick. There's been another murder!"

  19

  AT first glance, Sigrid could almost believe the still form had been lying there since Friday night, overlooked in the chaos of the explosion. It was well under one of the back tables near the fatal Table 5, hidden by a heap of water-stained linen.

  The maid, pale but excited, described how she had been stripping the tables of the long white tablecloths and throwing them onto the pile already begun. When her co-worker trundled the laundry cart down the aisle, she had tried to gather up the heap, realized something heavy was tangled in the linen, gave a mighty jerk and out rolled the body of a slender young black man dressed in the short green jacket and black trousers of a Hotel Maintenon employee.