“Yet he still asked you for a place to stay?”
“His wife had thrown him out and most of the other people he was close to were at SSI, and he said they were ganging up on him. Besides which, Philip was a master at deciding what things should be like, and then believing they really were like that. There was no reason for him to think I’d let him stay, but he thought it anyway.” I paused. “I sound awful, don’t I? Here he is dead, and I’m making fun of him.”
“You’re answering the detective’s questions like you’re supposed to,” Thaddeous said firmly.
“Your cousin is right, ma’am. I just want to get a full picture of the man.”
“How did he die?” I asked. “My neighbor said he froze to death.”
“The autopsy won’t be completed for a while, but the results of the preliminary exam are consistent with that.”
“Then he didn’t kill himself?”
“It doesn’t look that way. Did he say something that implied he was considering suicide?”
“No, I was just afraid that … that I had driven him to it. If I had just let him stay …”
“Mrs. Fleming,” Salvatore said, “I’ve investigated many deaths, and each time, somebody has an ‘if-only,’ but nobody has ever found a way to change what’s already happened.”
“He didn’t have no business staying here anyway, what with Richard gone,” Thaddeous said.
Salvatore nodded, which I appreciated, but I wasn’t convinced.
“Now, when did your husband leave?” Salvatore asked. “Thursday evening,” I said. “A six o’clock flight.”
“The airline?”
“Virgin Atlantic.”
“And Mr. Crawford didn’t get here until today?”
“I got in at around two,” Thaddeous said. “I was on USAir, if you need to check.”
Only when Thaddeous added that last part did I realize what Salvatore was up to. Presumably, they’d be able to figure out when Philip had died and he wanted to know where we were when that happened. Of course, Richard had already been gone by then, and Thaddeous hadn’t arrived yet, so both of them were in the clear, but I was without an alibi. So I wasn’t altogether surprised at Salvatore’s next question.
“Now, when did you say Mr. Dennis left here?”
“Somewhere between six and six-thirty.”
“And that’s when you went to the grocery store?”
“Not right away. My cousin Vasti called, and after I got off the phone with her, I called Aunt Nora.”
“My mama,” Thaddeous explained.
“Vasti told me that Thaddeous was coming, and after I checked with Aunt Nora, I looked in the cabinets to see what I needed from the store.”
He dutifully wrote all this down. “How long did these calls and looking in the cabinet take?”
“Maybe half an hour. I wasn’t paying close attention, but I know I was hurrying to get out and back before the snow started.”
“Then what?”
“I went to the store and came back.”
“How long did that take?”
“Probably an hour and a half. The store was packed with people getting stuff before the storm.”
“That put you back here at …?”
I was tempted to tell him to add it up himself, but I reminded myself that he was just doing his job. “Somewhere between eight and eight-thirty.”
“What did you do for the rest of the evening?”
“Cleaned up, mostly. Getting ready for Thaddeous.”
“There wasn’t no need for that, Laurie Anne,” Thaddeous said. “I’m not company, I’m family.”
“I had to clean up anyway,” I said, which was true enough. I just hadn’t planned to do it then.
Salvatore asked, “Did you have any other visitors?”
“Not a one.”
“Phone calls?”
I shook my head.
“You don’t think Laurie Anne hurt that boy, do you? Because you’re crazy if you think that.”
Salvatore said, “Laurie Anne?”
“That’s what my family calls me.” Given a choice, I go by Laura, but I didn’t want to say so in front of Thaddeous and hurt his feelings.
“Mr. Crawford, I don’t think anything right now. It looks like Mr. Dennis was drinking, passed out, and froze to death.”
“What about that bruise on his forehead?” I asked. “Could he have been mugged?”
“Doubtful,” Salvatore said. “He still had his wallet and was wearing his gold class ring from MIT. If a mugger had been interrupted, he might have left those things, but then the person who interrupted him would probably have called us. Chances are he hit his head when he passed out. Probably never even felt any pain.”
“That’s good,” I said.
He asked us a few more questions, nothing big, then closed his pad and stood.
“Are you going to need us to go down to the station to sign a statement?” I asked.
“You sound like you’ve done this before,” he said.
“The police chief back home is a good friend of mine,” was all I said. If Salvatore even remotely suspected me, the last thing I wanted to do was tell him I had been involved in other murders, even in solving them.
“Well, I don’t think it’ll be necessary. If I need to talk to you again, I’ll be in touch. Here’s my card, in case you think of anything else I should know. Mr. Crawford, I hope the rest of your visit will be more pleasant. I’m sure Mrs. Fleming will tell you that this is not an everyday occurrence. Not in this neighborhood, anyway.”
“If it was, you can bet I’d pack her up and take her home with me,” Thaddeous said.
Since he was family, I waited until Detective Salvatore left before turning on him and saying, “Pack me up and take me home? You and what army?”
He looked right ashamed of himself. “I knew as soon as I said it that it was a mistake. I didn’t mean anything by it, Laurie Anne. Mama was the one who was worried about you being by yourself, not me. I told her you’d be all right, but I didn’t argue with her too hard because I was just as glad for the chance to get out of town for a few days.”
“Is anything wrong at work?”
He shook his head.
“Woman problems?”
He nodded.
“Oh dear, I’m sorry,” I said. Thaddeous had the worst luck with women of any man I’d ever met. I don’t understand why, exactly. He was nice-looking and so good-natured that he’d give you the shirt right off his back if he thought you needed it. He just couldn’t find the right woman. To change the subject, I said, “I know I promised you an early dinner, but can you hold out for a few more minutes? I want to call somebody to tell her about Philip.”
“Not a problem,” he said.
I offered him a snack, but when he turned it down, I got out my address book, to look up Jessie’s phone number. Jessie had been a good friend in college, and we had kept in touch fairly regularly since then. She was among the crew that Philip had recruited to form SSI.
“Jessie? This is Laura.”
“Hi, Laura. I guess you made it through the storm.”
“Jessie, I’ve got some bad news. It’s about Philip.”
“Damn it, Laura, did he come over there? I’m sorry about that. He asked if I knew your address, and when I gave it to him, I mentioned that Richard was going out of the country. I should have known better.”
“Don’t worry about it. He did come over, but I didn’t let him stay. That’s not why I’m calling.”
“Oh?”
“Jessie, the police were just here. They found Philip in an alley with my name and address in his pocket.”
“He slept in an alley? I had no idea he was that bad off.” She sighed. “Tell me where they’ve taken him, and I’ll go bail him out. I guess I can take the money out of petty cash.”
“He’s dead, Jessie. He froze to death out there.” There was no response. I couldn’t even hear her breathing. “Jessie? Are you there?”
>
“Jesus, Laura. Are they sure it’s him?”
“I saw him.”
“Jesus.”
“I gave the police Colleen’s name, but I didn’t know the address. I did give them the number at SSI, so they’ll probably be calling over there.”
“I’ll check the machine for messages,” she said, suddenly businesslike. “Who was it you talked to?”
I gave her Salvatore’s name, and the phone number from his card. “Philip said that he and Colleen had broken up and that Vinnie and Inez were trying to chase him out of SSI. What’s going on?”
She sighed. “It’s a long story, Laura. Things have been pretty bad at the office: Vinnie and Inez fighting, Murray and Dee and Dom complaining, and Philip …”
“Being Philip,” I finished for her.
“Exactly. But I don’t want to talk about that now. You said Philip was in an alley?”
“Behind my apartment, as a matter of fact.”
“He died behind your apartment?”
“Yes.” Knowing that was an awful feeling, too.
“You sent him away in the snow?”
“It wasn’t snowing when he left here,” I said defensively. “There was plenty of time for him to find a hotel before it started.” She didn’t say anything, and I added, “What was I supposed to do? Keep him?”
“No, of course not. Don’t mind me. I’m just trying to take this all in. I know this must be awful for you. Did he look terrible?”
“Not too bad,” I said.
“And you’re all by yourself now?”
“Actually, my cousin Thaddeous is visiting.”
“So you wouldn’t have had space for Philip anyway,” she said, as if to soothe me.
Since I hadn’t known that Thaddeous was coming when I’d turned Philip down, it wasn’t all that soothing, but it was nice of her to say. “If Colleen and he have split up, who’s going to be taking care of the arrangements?”
“His family, I guess. I’m going to have to talk to some people. Listen, thanks for calling. I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more.”
“You know my number if there’s anything I can do.” I hung up, put on the best fake smile I could manage, and said, ‘Well, let’s go get something to eat.”
Thaddeous didn’t move. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“This fellow Philip meant a lot to you, didn’t he?”
“He used to. My first love.”
“I thought that freckle-faced boy in Byerly was your first love.”
“Steven Jones? Thaddeous, I was in the second grade—that doesn’t count. No, Philip was my first serious boyfriend. At one point I thought I wanted to spend my life with him.”
“How come I never heard anything about him?”
“I guess I didn’t talk about him much.” In fact, I had told Paw all about Philip right after we’d started dating, but Paw hadn’t been one to gossip. Besides, even though Paw never actually said anything against Philip, I could tell he didn’t think Philip was the right one for me. Since Philip never called or wrote me during Christmas and summer vacations, it had been easy to keep him separate from my life in Byerly.
“So what happened? Did Richard steal you away from him?”
I grinned at the idea of Richard and Philip fighting over me, but that wasn’t how it had happened. “I think I knew it wasn’t going to work with Philip long before I met Richard—I just didn’t want to admit it. You know when you fall in love with somebody, and you daydream what your life together would be like?”
“I’ve done that a time or two.”
“Well, I just couldn’t picture me being with Philip other than right there and then, in college. I couldn’t imagine taking him home to meet Paw, or what kind of house we’d have, or raising children with him, or anything. Once I realized that, I started to realize that he really didn’t treat me very well. He put me down a lot, and made fun of my being from the South.”
“Doesn’t sound like he deserved you.”
“He didn’t.” I hesitated, then added, “He slept around on me, too.”
“Son of a bitch!”
I nodded. It was a long time since I had thought about Philip’s betrayal and how upset I had been when I’d found out, and I was almost smug that it didn’t hurt much anymore. Still, I was sorry he was dead, and I said so.
“Of course you are. Anybody would be. You remember how I was when Melanie died, and we didn’t even date, not really.”
Thaddeous had carried a torch for Melanie Wilson for years, and he’d been devastated when she was murdered. In fact, he looked downright glum thinking about her now.
“Enough of that,” I said briskly, as I reached for my coat. “We’re going out so I can show you what I like about this city.”
Chapter 5
It took us a little while to get ready because I had to make sure Thaddeous was ready for Boston weather. He had a good coat and his Walters Mill cap, but he didn’t have a scarf and his gloves weren’t even lined.
“The trick to surviving the winters up here,” I told him, “is to dress properly.”
“You sound like Mama.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said. Aunt Nora could be a mother hen, but she was usually right. Richard and I have a drawer of spare equipment, so I went through it until I found a scarf that didn’t clash with his coat and a pair of leather gloves.
“How do you keep up with all this mess?” he wanted to know.
“We don’t—I lose two or three gloves every winter. Why do you think I have a drawer of spares?”
Once I had him outfitted, we headed for the subway. Though we could have walked to where we were going, I knew he’d enjoy the trip underground. So I guided him through buying tokens, passing through the turnstile, and using the graffiti-decorated map of the transit system. “Everybody just calls it the T,” I told him, as we waited for a train, and he nodded as seriously as if I were teaching him a new language. Which I was, in a way.
Once we got sat down, I automatically started studying the ads on the walls of the train, the way I always do when I don’t have a book to read.
A minute later, Thaddeous nudged me. “You’re not thinking about Philip, are you?”
“No. Why?”
“You were looking pretty sad.”
I looked across at my reflection in the window on the other side of the train and realized what he was seeing. “That’s my subway face.”
“Come again?”
“My subway face. I don’t know what it is, but everybody looks like this when they’re on the subway. See?” He glanced around at the other riders, and sure enough, they all had the same blank expression as I did. “I guess it’s a privacy thing. Or maybe it’s for safety, so you don’t give the nuts a chance to talk to you.”
“All right,” Thaddeous said doubtfully.
After that I watched him, and though I could tell he was trying his best, his face just couldn’t help but look interested in what was going on, watching the people who got on and off at each station. I spoiled my own subway face with a grin, remembering when I had acted the same way. Then I frowned a little, thinking about the time Philip had laughed at me for looking like a tourist. I don’t think he’d meant to hurt my feelings, or at least, I hadn’t thought so at the time, but that’s when I’d first adopted that expression of studied disinterest.
We got to our stop, and I decided that I was going to leave my subway face and any thoughts of Philip behind us. I was going to show Thaddeous a good time, and if that meant we looked like country come to town, then so be it.
It was dark when we emerged from the subway, but the city lights were more than enough to see Boston by. I had purposely brought us up right into the middle of town, next to the Boston Public Library and in sight of Trinity Church, the view that gets onto the most postcards. All the while I was watching Thaddeous’s face, and his grin made me darned pleased with myself.
Of course, the people
behind us kept going, and I had to grab my cousin by the arm to pull him out of the way before he got run over. Thaddeous, used to driving everywhere, was amazed by the number of people out walking at night, even though it was in the thirties and there was snow on the ground.
Our first stop was Division 16, an old police station that’s been converted into a restaurant. Before we ordered, I said, “By the way, they probably don’t have iced tea.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Most places only serve it between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I found one place that did have it in September when I first got up here, but I nearly choked because I didn’t realize that they don’t sweeten it. And I thought I was going to die when I found out that they had charged me for refills.”
“Well,” Thaddeous said kindly, “they just don’t know any better.”
After dinner, we walked down Boylston Street to the edge of the Public Garden, then went over a block to walk back up Newbury Street. Some of the best stores in Boston are on those two streets, everything from expensive department stores like Lord & Taylor to funky shops like the one that only sells gargoyles.
It was half past ten when we got back to the apartment and well toward midnight by the time I rounded up sheets and a pillow for Thaddeous, unfolded the couch, and fixed his bed. I made sure to put on lots of blankets.
Once he was situated, I went into the bedroom and stared at the telephone. I wanted to call Richard and tell him about Philip, but it was nearly five in the morning in England. I’d have woken him for an emergency, but this wasn’t exactly an emergency. So reluctantly I turned out the light and crawled into bed, trying hard not to think about the spot where Philip’s body had been found, just a few feet from where I was lying.
The next day Thaddeous and I got up early and stayed busy the whole day. It was wonderful weather for Boston in February. It was cold, of course, but the sky was clear and a color that Thaddeous claimed was Carolina blue in honor of his visit. We took the subway to Park Street, then climbed up to the Boston Common.
The sidewalks were covered in gray slush from people trampling over the snow, but all Thaddeous had eyes for was the brilliant white covering the Common. There were some footprints crossing between the trees, but most of the snow was untouched and the trees were frosted with white. We just stood there a minute, looking at the snow. I knew it wasn’t the first time he had ever seen snow, but those six inches were likely the deepest he had seen.
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 04 - Country Comes to Town Page 3
