"He was really quite special," said Sonia, after some time.
I looked over at her. She was looking down the length of the table at the far empty chair across from her.
"I've heard that," I said, trying to offer some comfort.
She turned and looked at me and smiled the fragile smile of babies and old people.
"I don't know if I'm mourning the loss of a son or a lover."
She looked away quickly then, and picked up her fork and had more duck.
"Perhaps it is both," I offered.
She nodded at her plate, and chewed her food. I was cutting big chunks off my filet mignon. I'd soon have it tamed.
"I imagine the main reason you invited me here tonight is to discuss this case. It is why you've hired me," I said.
Sonia looked at me and nodded.
"It's more important to me now that you find whoever did this and bring them to justice."
"That's what you've hired me for."
"There'll be a large bonus in it for you," she said.
"That's not necessary," I replied, eating the last bit of my filet mignon.
"I just want to be sure you're motivated."
"I'm always motivated," I said. "If you spoke to Frank, not Moody, but Burton, then you know I've never lost a case."
"He said that, yes."
"But what that means," I said, taking a break from my food and putting my cutlery down and looking at Sonia intently, "is that I ask questions that people don't like to answer, and I don't make friends. And that might include you."
Sonia held my gaze for a while and then nodded curtly.
"Very well, you can ask me any questions you'd like. Though I trust that your discretion is as discreet as I've been told."
"It is," I said. "Unless I find out you killed him. In that case I'll go to the cops with whatever you've told me. If you had nothing to do with it, then I'll go to my grave with what you tell me."
Sonia liked that. She smiled and nodded.
"I'm sure you've heard no end to the rumors about Paul and I."
"I've heard some things. What I'd like is the truth from the horse's mouth."
"Paul and I did have a relationship if that's what you're wondering."
"It's more than that," I said. "It appears that you've used your quite considerable influence to mold the Philharmonic in your own image, if I can put it that way. And that's upset a lot of people."
Sonia looked at her plate and ate some more food. I did the same. I was working on the bacon now. Mighty fine tasting bacon too.
"Perhaps I did overreach," she said.
"I'd like to start at the beginning. When did you and Paul first meet?"
"I met Paul at a Juilliard recital when he was in his third year. I've been a benefactor of both Juilliard and the Philharmonic for as long as I can remember. Forty years perhaps. It was something Philip and I got into not very long after we were married. I've continued with it since Philip died. I like feeling that I can contribute to the development of music and it gets me out and about."
I nodded and finished putting the last bit of bacon in my mouth. I topped up Sonia's wine and did the same for myself. I didn't think I needed to loosen her tongue with Bacchus' grapes, but it wouldn't hurt.
"Paul was always so very charming. You might find this odd, but there was a chemistry between us from the beginning. Though it was a few years before we got intimate. It was his twenty-fifth birthday if I remember correctly. I had hosted a party for him here and he stayed overnight after the last guests had left."
"That was after he had been given a first violin position?" I asked.
"Yes, Paul was given a first violin position after a year, I think, that he was with the orchestra. That would have been two years before."
"Some I've spoken to believe that Paul, if I can put it crudely, slept his way to the concertmaster position."
Sonia looked at me and smiled somewhat embarrassedly.
"I suppose that wouldn't be wholly inaccurate. Though I made sure he got the first violin position before we became intimate. But regardless, Paul made me feel young. He was attentive and kind and flattering. He had such charm. Even if we had never been intimate, the way he made me feel I would have made his dreams come true. So I'd say no, it wasn't just about the sex. There was so much more to Paul."
"You paint a very different picture of the man I have in mind."
"What have you been told?" Sonia asked.
"I've come to see him as a petulant and spoiled child in many ways."
Sonia smiled off at the far end of the table.
"I suppose that wouldn't be terribly inaccurate either. He was spoiled and he was petulant, but all great artists are. But with me, up until recently, he was very different. Though I had seen those sides of him."
"If I can be honest with you, Sonia. I'm seeing a portrait drawn before me of a man who was a borderline sociopath, a user and a narcissist."
Sonia looked at me and smiled again.
"I sometimes wondered about that," she said, "especially recently. But even if it's true, I would do it all again. Perhaps you can't understand. The good times were so good that they more than made up for the bad. And I loved him. If I'm to be honest with you, Anthony, I loved him. Almost as much as I loved my dear Philip."
Sonia's eyes misted up again. She took her napkin and dabbed at them. I placed my hand on her forearm.
"Love ain't easy," I said, knowing all about that.
She looked over and nodded. I took my hand away.
"You said things seemed to have changed between the two of you recently. Can you tell me about that?"
"He became less attentive. He became less interested in me. I think he was becoming put off by my age if I'm to be honest. It started shortly after I helped him get the concertmaster position. It wasn't obvious, but all our intimacy stopped and he seemed to have very little time for me. And when we were together, he was short with me, distant and constantly distracted."
"So this has been going for three years then?"
Sonia nodded and pinched her lips together.
"You could have still had him removed from that orchestra if you wanted."
"Yes, I suppose so, Anthony, but it's not that easy. He hadn't been cruel or mean, though I'd heard rumors that he was saying nasty things about me behind my back. In any event, love can still survive as a fire in one heart, it doesn't need both flames to be burning."
I knew all about that too.
"And I still loved him. We've been together almost as long as I was with my late husband."
"I understand that. And yet you must have known that Paul had a roving eye. You paid off one woman who he got pregnant, and that's probably just the tip of the iceberg."
"You are thorough," she said, "you've already done your homework."
"That's what you're paying me for."
"You're right. I regret that. I still feel bad for what I put that poor woman through. She was very upset."
"How much did it cost you to keep her quiet?"
"I paid her half a million dollars," said Sonia, "and I got her the best doctors to take care of her pregnancy."
"You mean for the abortion?"
Sonia shot a sharp look at me.
"Yes, if you must say it like that."
It wasn't my place to question a woman's reproductive rights. But what I didn't like was blackmailing someone into a position they might not have taken otherwise. Sonia sensed my dissatisfaction with what she'd done.
"I regret that, Anthony. I really do. That was some years ago when I was still quite smitten with Paul. That veneer has since tarnished, but I did what I did. If it makes you feel any better, I still keep in touch with Stephanie and make sure that she's taken care of. She's married now and has two small children, a boy and a girl."
"So everything's great then," I said sarcastically.
Sonia didn't take the bait. Just as well, I would've felt differently about her if she had.
"I'd
like to see her. Do you have an address and telephone number for me?" I asked.
"I'll get it for you before you leave."
Alfred came back in and took our plates away. We'd finished. The bottle of wine was finished and my glass was almost empty. Sonia was taking her time about it. Alfred came back in with our last course which was consisted of dulce de leche, candied almonds all atop of a milk gelato. I finished the last of my wine and took a sip to water to cleanse my palate.
"Surely you don't eat like this every night?" I asked.
Sonia looked over at me and smiled.
"Good heavens no," she said. "Only when I have guests."
"I wouldn't know how you kept yourself so trim otherwise."
"Decadence is to be shared, Anthony, simplicity can be enjoyed alone."
I took a mouthful of dessert. It was like eating soft, cold, wet pillows of heaven. Just as sweet but perhaps more decadent.
"What is your next step?" asked Sonia.
"I'll know that once we've finished discussing all that you know."
Sonia looked over at me and nodded. Then she took a taste of her dessert.
"You knew about Stephanie. Tell me what you knew about Lauren and Rosanna."
"I know they're both married and that Paul was behaving badly with them."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, as you said before, he had a roving eye. I always knew it, but for the first ten or more years while we were intimate he either wasn't seeing anyone else behind my back or he was doing it very carefully behind my back that I didn't know about it."
"Which would you put money on?" I asked.
Sonia looked across the table but where her mind was, was very far away.
"I'd rather not speculate," she said.
In other words she was worried that he had been banging other woman all this time. A leopard doesn't easily change its spots. But I wasn't here to pop her balloon. The woman had seen enough pain and perhaps embarrassment. She also hadn't done much wrong other than behave badly. But certainly no worse than others, and in many ways better. Paul, on the other hand, had met his match so it seemed.
"And lately, with these women?" I asked.
Sonia looked over at me and then back at her bowl of ice cream. She took another taste.
"He was sleeping with them if that's what you mean. I told him it wasn't a good idea, but he was long past listening to me by then. I suppose now, looking back, that we'd coddled him for too long. He just thought he could get away with anything really."
"But it would appear that he hasn't."
Sonia nodded.
"I suppose not. If he'd only listened to me. I knew he was courting danger I just wish he hadn't found it."
"How was his relationship with these other women? Can you speak to that?"
"Not very well," she said. "That was a part of his life that he kept from me for good reason. Though I confronted him with it when he got his black eye, from Rosanna's husband I think it was."
"And what did he say?"
"Well, he denied it of course. At first. But I told him I knew about it. He eventually confessed but told me he was having a hard time ending it. He said they just wouldn't take no for an answer."
"Both of them?"
Sonia nodded.
"That's what it sounded like. He didn't go into much detail with me about it, but he did swear that it was over, that he was going to start over."
"Did you believe him?"
Sonia looked at me steadily.
"I wanted to. I really did, but I think there's a part of me that didn't believe him."
"Because at this stage you'd already given him the gypsy's warning," I said.
"Yes, about a month ago, Frank and I had a meeting with Paul about his performance in the orchestra."
"So it wasn't specifically about his relationships with these other women?"
"Not particularly. It was more to do with his lack of respect for the other musicians. Missing practices and not performing to the highest standings for someone in his position."
"Maybe he wasn't up to the task? I've heard that other musicians seemed as capable."
"You're referring to Patrick. That's who Doug would have had in the first violin section rather than Paul. He likely would have made him concertmaster in time too."
"You don't think Patrick's as good?"
"I do, Patrick was just more difficult to get along with. At least he was with me, but that could have had something to do with the relationship between Paul and I."
"Might have had everything to do with it."
Sonia sighed.
"It's all moot now," she said. "Everybody wins now that Paul's dead. Everyone except for me."
"You mean Patrick, because he'll get a first violin position?"
"Yes, and Milo, he'll likely be up for concertmaster. And the two women. In a roundabout way I suppose, their marital lives can perhaps go back to normal."
"So you're suggesting that any one of them could have killed him."
Sonia looked at me and she furrowed her brow.
"No, good heavens no. That's not what I'm suggesting at all. I don't think any of them would have done it. Perhaps one of the disgruntled husbands but surely not Rosanna, Lauren, Milo or even Patrick. I just can't see it."
"What about Doug then, or John?" I asked.
Sonia shook her head and put more ice cream in her mouth. I did the same. I was quickly nearing the end of it.
"No, not Doug. If anything, he was most upset with me. Had quite a few strong words with me when he was let go, and Frank too."
"What happened to Doug?"
"Last I heard, and this was many years ago, he was teaching high school music."
"What about John?"
I scraped the bottom of my bowl, and managed to come up with almost a spoonful's worth of ice cream. Sonia still had a few bites left. She studied her spoon in the bowl for a moment before she spoke.
"Maybe," she said, "but that's an awfully long time to keep a grudge. Why wait so long?"
"I have my theories."
"Perhaps you're right. I didn't know him very well, but I do remember Frank telling me how absolutely blindly mad he became when he was let go upon hearing that Paul was taking a first violin position."
"Had Paul mentioned anything about being followed lately?"
"He had, he seemed quite upset about it. I even offered to hire a bodyguard for him. He was that upset, though I don't know of its veracity. You see, Paul could be quite paranoid. I think it was the drugs he was on."
"Is that why you had the talk with him? You and Frank?"
"Yes, Paul was getting quite out of control."
"Do you know what drugs he was on?"
"I heard he was on cocaine, but I never saw him take any, obviously, I wouldn't allow that here."
I nodded and pushed my bowl out in front of me. I took a sip of water to clean my palate. Then I grabbed my tumbler and had a drink of Scotch.
"Let's retire back to the living room," said Sonia.
She took a last spoonful of her dessert and got up. I stood up with her and followed her into the living room where we had sat when I first arrived. There were windows just off to my left that I could see out of all across Central Park. It was a view worth a few bucks.
"So you didn't believe him about being followed?" I asked, taking a sip of Scotch.
Sonia was holding her wine glass which still seemed half empty. Perhaps much like her life had now become.
"I wanted to believe him. And a small part of me did believe him, but I never saw any evidence of anyone following him."
"Yet you still offered to hire a bodyguard."
"I did. He seemed very agitated about it."
"What happened about that then?"
"He said it wasn't necessary. I pushed a couple of times but he didn't take me up on the offer."
"Perhaps he didn't want to be followed."
"I don't know what you mean," said Sonia.
"So he hadn't ended his relationships with those other women?"
"Doesn't sound like it, but that's not my biggest concern."
I looked out across the park. I wondered how many little ant people were crawling across its belly right now, eye deep in their own excrement.
"What is your biggest concern?"
"I have a few. Though one that comes to mind right now is his drug use."
Sonia shook her head and sipped some wine.
"I had offered to pay for the best rehabilitation clinic for him. He said he'd go, he just needed to tie up a few loose ends."
"I heard he recently bought a kilo of coke from a dealer here in town."
Sonia frowned.
"That's worth around fifty grand."
"Good heavens," said Sonia.
"That's not the worst of it. He only put a down payment on it."
"How much?"
"Twenty percent. Though I'm wondering why he didn't just pay for the whole thing with cash."
I looked at Sonia like she had the answer to my question.
"Weren't you paying him a substantial income as enticement to be with the orchestra?"
Sonia looked at me.
"I suppose that's what everyone thinks. I imagine Paul would let them believe it. He always liked to exaggerate how well he was doing. But to answer your question, Anthony, no, I didn't pay Paul a substantial income. The enticement was an apartment in lower Manhattan and income as needed to cover incidental expenses. I've never given him more than fifty thousand dollars in a year. The rent on the apartment, however, is worth one hundred and eight thousand dollars a year."
"Must be a nice apartment," I said.
"Paul liked it."
"Where is it? I'll need to take a look at the crime scene later."
Sonia gave me the address. It wasn't far from where I was staying at the Ritz. It looked across the park. Sonia said Paul insisted on that, and he wanted to be close to work.
"How much did he earn as the concertmaster?" I asked.
Anthony Carrick Hardboiled Murder Mysteries: Box Set (Books 1 - 3) Page 39
