by Craig Smith
‘Buddy thinks Johnna disappeared just to hurt you.’
‘I want you to stay away from Buddy. I know it’s not my business and I don’t have any right to tell you what to do—’
‘No problem. He ended it last night.’
‘He ended it?’ She nodded uncomfortably. ‘Did he say why?’
‘He asked me to marry him.’
I expect I swore, but I can’t remember. I only recall looking at her as I tried to fathom my emotions.
‘I told him I wasn’t ready. I don’t want to get married!’
‘You said no?’
‘He said you won’t let me see him again if we’re not married, so we might as well end things.’
LUCY WAS IN HER ROOM WHEN I went back to the house. Molly was upstairs sanding the new floor.
I waited patiently until she stopped.
‘You talk to Lucy?’ I asked.
‘She’s grounded for life.’
‘If Dalton gets hold of the phone records, Molly, he’s going to find out about this.’
‘If Buddy was with Lucy Tuesday he couldn’t have done anything to Johnna Masterson, David.’
‘He called me, Molly! He was laughing at me! He knew what was going on with Johnna!’
‘Lucy says Buddy thinks Johnna is doing this to hurt you.’
I shook my head. ‘Buddy has played us from the start. I don’t care anymore if you believe me about Denise Conway, but this thing with Lucy was a setup.
He spent the whole evening talking to her and driving around with her because he knew I would point my finger at him!’
‘We don’t know Johnna,’ Molly persisted. ‘She could have—’
‘She had her revenge, Molly. She reported me to Affirmative Action.’
‘How could Buddy kidnap her if he was out with Lucy?’
‘Roger Beery did it. Tell me you don’t think he’s capable of something like that.’
‘I thought you said it was Buddy. Now it’s Roger.
What’s Roger—?’
‘They’re in this together, Molly! I told you, it’s how they got away with killing Walt and Barbara!’
Molly looked at me as if stricken, and for the first time everything I had told her became possible. But then it faded and she shook her head. It didn’t make sense. Walt and Barbara… for the money… maybe, but what did Johnna have to do with that? I told her I didn’t know.
I CALLED GAIL THAT AFTERNOON and arranged a meeting for seven-thirty Monday morning. Big problem, I said.
Sunday evening passed in funereal silence. Molly had exercised a mother’s prerogative. She had confiscated Lucy’s television set, her keys, and both phones.
Lucy thought she was being unfair. Molly told her she didn’t know what unfair was.
Having walked the streets of Chicago without a place to lay her head at the age of fifteen, pregnant and alone, Molly knew about unfair. It was house policy never to ask about those days. When she was younger Lucy had made inquiries, of course. How had her mother survived? Molly had answered glibly. She got lucky and picked up a job as a waitress. The people at the restaurant gave her a little apartment to live in until she got on her feet. Later she got into a trade school and trained to be a carpenter. I was fairly sure that Lucy understood there was a bit more to coming off the streets than her mother admitted, but she never asked once she was of an age to understand such things. Molly said Lucy didn’t know what unfair was, and Lucy retreated to silence. So did I, for that matter.
Around ten that evening, Molly came to me in my monk’s cell on the third floor. ‘You want to toss those books off the bed, Professor?’ she asked.
I was reading Marcus Aurelius and holding the lesser Stoics in reserve. ‘What did you have in mind?’ I answered stoically.
‘Clear your bed and I’ll show you.’
We made love with the reverence and uncertainty of first times. Curiously, the weeks of celibacy had blunted the sense of urgency in both of us. We did not move quickly or work ourselves into a frenzy. We took our time, savouring the touch of flesh. We made it last, and even as it concluded we were quiet. The intimacy was more important than the rest.
And it seemed to me as we lay together afterwards that Molly had come to me because we were about to lose each other, that this was not a reunion but her goodbye before I went to jail.
WE DROPPED LUCY OFF AT SCHOOL shortly after seven-fifteen. She was humiliated by the door-to-door service, but Molly was adamant. Lucy had precious few rules to live by, but she had decided to break them.
That was fine, she could do whatever she wanted, but if she wanted to live at home, she had better learn to deal with the consequences.
Alone with Molly finally I tried to talk to her about Lucy. ‘Try to understand,’ I said, ‘what she’s going through!’ It was no use. Molly was doing what she thought was best. We got to Gail’s office at exactly seven-thirty. Gail looked tired at the start of our meeting. As I related Lucy’s confession her demeanour grew increasingly grim.
‘You had no idea she was seeing this guy?’ she asked Molly when I had finished the story.
Molly shook her head.
Gail broke her office’s non-smoking rule and lit a cigarette. ‘He asked her to marry him, and she turned him down?’
‘I think things were happening a little too fast for her,’ I answered.
Gail looked at Molly. ‘If you want me to go to the prosecutor, we can bring criminal charges against this bastard. You know that?’
Molly shook her head. Lucy was almost eighteen.
She knew what she was doing.
‘Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.’
‘I’m not going to put Lucy through something like that,’ Molly answered.
Gail looked at me. ‘I suppose you’re ready to kill him?’
‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but as an officer of the court aren’t you obliged to tell the police if you know a client is about to commit a crime?’
‘Tell me you’re joking.’
I smiled good-naturedly, telling her nothing.
‘What are the chances Johnna decided to disappear?’
Molly asked. ‘Lucy thinks, I mean Buddy told her he thinks Johnna did this to get at David.’
Gail considered the possibility for a moment, then shook her head. ‘Have you seen her parents on TV?
This thing is killing them. If Johnna Masterson disappeared to hurt David, I guarantee you one thing: she hates her parents a lot more than she hates him.’
‘But it’s possible?’
‘Johnna Masterson is the victim,’ I said.
‘And you’re the suspect,’ Gail answered, her voice sharp with authority. Gail was tired of my Buddy Elder theories. It was time I faced up to the situation.
‘No argument there. On the face of it, my story sounds incredible.’
‘Then change your story before it’s too late,’ Gail answered.
‘Even if it’s true?’
Gail looked away from us, swallowing whatever insult she intended. Finally, she said, ‘A woman called Denny’s. A woman, not a man. This was twelve, twelve-fifteen?’
‘Just after Lucy gets off the phone and before she goes down the hill and gets in the car with the son of a bitch.’
Gail smiled at me condescendingly. ‘The window of opportunity?’
‘What would you call it?‘
‘Unless Lucy made the call to Denny’s, you’ve still got a problem. You pick up the phone and it’s Buddy Elder. The only way he knows you’re at Denny’s is if Johnna told him, but he’s been on the phone with Lucy since ten-thirty.’
‘He has a partner who snatches her.’
‘While Buddy’s on the phone?’
‘The perfect alibi.’
Gail seemed dubious. ‘Who was the woman who called Denny’s, David? Another partner?’
‘Denise Conway. Why not?’
‘Why not? Well, for starters, Lucy comes out and gets in the car. Where’s Denise
– in the backseat?’
When I didn’t answer her, Gail levelled her gaze at me as if she had caught me in a lie. ‘I didn’t like your story when it was possible. I’m sure as hell not buying it now.’
‘What if I’m not lying, Gail? Can you just consider that for a minute?’
‘It’s a waste of time.’
‘I know you don’t like it. I don’t like it, but I’m telling you what happened! What if she has a car parked out there, makes the call for Buddy, and then drives off before Lucy shows up?’
‘Why go to all that trouble?’
‘I don’t know, Gail! Maybe because I’ll look like a muddle-headed fool trying to explain how I got a phone call from Buddy Elder while he was seducing my stepdaughter!’
Gail shook her head angrily. ‘You’re convicting yourself with this story, David. You can’t stay with it!’
‘You tell me what I did then! You’re the attorney.
Pick a story that will float, because I don’t have a clue what you want to hear!’
Gail leaned back in her chair, looking exasperated.
‘You need another lawyer. I can’t handle this. I’ll stick with you until you get someone, but I can’t deal with you when you get like this.’
‘Like what?’
‘It’s like you want to go to prison.’
‘I want a lawyer who believes me.’
‘They don’t make lawyers that stupid.’ Gail looked shocked by her own response, but she didn’t back down. ‘Sorry, but it’s the truth.’
‘If David says—’
‘David says whatever he thinks people will believe.
You know that, Molly. You of all people! Fine, that’s David. Part of his charm, once you get used to it. The trouble is we’re not drinking cocktails and talking about cars and horses! We’re fighting for his life here, and he’s too stubborn to admit he’s lying!’
‘I guess you need to tell us what we owe you. For everything,’ Molly answered. ‘We’re going to find another attorney.’
‘I’ll get a bill out to you this afternoon,’ Gail answered with a touch of relief. She stood up, her eyes shifting between us. ‘I can give you some names if you want.’
Molly would not look at her. She said that wouldn’t be necessary.
In the truck, Molly said to me, ‘What now?’
‘Dalton,’ I said.
Chapter 26
DETECTIVE DALTON, THE WOMAN in the sheriff’s department told us, had the morning off. I told her to call him. We had information about the Johnna Masterson case. She said I could talk to Lt. Gibbons or Detective Jacobs. I shook my head. Dalton.
When she got the detective on the phone, she relayed what I had told her. Hanging up, she looked at us.
‘One hour.’
I said we would be at the cafe down the street. ‘When he gets in, call us,’ I said, handing her my card with the cell phone number listed. ‘We’ll be here in five minutes.’
Forty minutes later Detective Dalton walked into the cafe where Molly and I were working on our third cup of coffee. We had been talking out our options again, the things we needed to do after the arrest.
‘Are you going to confess?’ Dalton asked cheerfully.
He was alone, dressed casually, a man pulled in from his morning off.
‘Only my innocence.’
He sat down and like a regular signalled the waitress for a cup of coffee. ‘Does your lawyer know we’re talking, Professor?’
I told him I no longer had an attorney representing me.
‘Well, that must mean you wouldn’t mind taking a polygraph.’
‘Two conditions,’ I said. ‘First, I need to tell you a couple of things about last Tuesday night.’
Kip Dalton didn’t really smile, but his expression seemed to relax. I knew then he already had the phone records and maybe a lot more. He expected me to recant. ‘I’ll listen.’
‘Second, when you’ve got me hooked up to that machine, I want you to ask about Denise Conway. I don’t care what you ask, but you cover the subject.
When I pass this son of a bitch I want you and my wife to know that diary she wrote is a lie.’
Dalton smiled at this. ‘You understand these tests aren’t one hundred percent. What they do—’
‘You’re telling me I’m still going to be a suspect even if I pass.’
‘I can’t rule you out if the evidence says you did it.
As far as what your wife thinks, I don’t know a woman alive who would trust a machine over her own instincts.’
‘Just ask the questions.’
Dalton gave me a grudging smile. ‘I’ll see that they’re asked. Now why don’t you tell me about last Tuesday night, the way it really happened.’
‘My stepdaughter Lucy tells me she’s been seeing Buddy Elder the past month or so without our knowledge.’ Kip Dalton’s eyes brightened momentarily.
‘Tuesday night, according to her, she was on the telephone with Buddy from sometime after ten o’clock until midnight. At that point she left the house and was with him until about three o’clock in the morning.’
Dalton seemed to expect me to adjust my story.
When I made no attempt to do so he seemed confused.
‘You still believe the call at Denny’s came from Buddy Elder?’
‘No belief to it, Detective. I talked to Buddy.’
‘And your statements to us are substantially accurate and complete?’
‘No, sir,’ I said. ‘They were entirely accurate and complete. Except that we don’t cook at the fireplace in the kitchen, and we never have folks out to the farm dressed up in costume.’
The detective stared at me for several seconds before he smiled. ‘I thought that was stretching it.’
‘Where did I go wrong?’
He shook his head. ‘You folks didn’t strike me as the kind of people who would throw a big fancy party.’
‘YOU’RE STILL GOING TO BE a suspect if you pass?’
Molly asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. We were in the truck driving back to the farm.
‘So what’s the point?’
‘Right now Dalton is sure I’m guilty. Come four o’clock he’s going to have to admit to himself that just maybe he’s wrong.’
‘You seem pretty confident.’
‘I’ve got nothing left to lose.’
Molly smiled. ‘You think they’ve got a setting on that machine for lying used car salesmen?’
‘Everyone knows when a used car salesmen is lying, Molly. They’re just like lawyers: their lips move. That’s why Tubs was the best. Tubs never lied. The man didn’t sell cars, he sold his own uncompromising honesty, and he taught me to do the same.’
‘But you lie all the time, David!’
‘Tubs made a big deal about keeping his word and never telling a lie, but it had nothing to do with honesty. He thought it did, but in the end it was just a sales technique. I got it up to here with never telling a lie.’ I settled my fingers just below my jaw. ‘I wanted to be honest without making a big deal out of it. I mean stories are fun! You make something up and people enjoy it! But I don’t break my promises, Molly.
I don’t back away from admitting mistakes. I don’t cheat people. I’m not perfect, I don’t mean that, but when I tell a wild-ass story everyone knows it’s a story!’
‘But they don’t, David. You’re so sincere about things that people think what you’re saying is the truth. Half of Lucy’s friends think there was a mass murder at our house ten years ago.’
I smiled. ‘Only half?’
‘Randy Winston asked me if we had gotten the farm from Chrysler stock you inherited. I asked him where he heard that, and guess where he got it?’
‘Okay. I get enthusiastic. But I don’t lie to you or Lucy about the things that count. You know that.’
‘You didn’t lie about Denise Conway?’
‘I broke your heart once, Molly. I swore to you I’d never do it again, and I never have.�
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‘Nothing happened?’
‘Nothing at all. The whole thing was Buddy Elder’s game, just like Johnna Masterson disappearing while he’s driving Lucy around in the middle of the night.
He decided to ruin us. The diary was the catalyst to everything, and that’s all it was.’
When Molly didn’t respond, I took my eyes off the road for a second. Her face was set and brittle. I thought she was about to tell me what a liar I was, but suddenly tears welled up in her eyes.
I pulled to the side of the road, and for a long time we just sat there holding each other.
AT THREE O’CLOCK I WAS back at the sheriff’s office. The examination took about an hour-and-a-half. We went through a number of warm-up questions in which I lied and told the truth at the examiner’s whim. By the time we got to matters relating to Buddy Elder, Johnna Masterson, and Denise Conway I was relaxed. Actually, I didn’t care. I had finally passed the only test that mattered.
When it was finished, I found Molly and Lucy waiting for me in an interview room. Lucy was impatient to know the results. Molly was different. She already knew how I had done and simply wanted to go home and get on with our lives, if that was possible. When Kip Dalton walked in about thirty minutes later, he had the look of a man who just can’t believe what he’s seen. ‘You ever take one of those things before, Professor?’
‘Are you trying to tell me I passed?’
‘You knocked it out of the ballpark.’
‘We need to talk about anything else?’
Kip glanced at Lucy but shook his head. ‘For now I’ve got what I need.’
Molly, Lucy, and I were already at the door when I stopped, as though remembering to ask something of no great importance. Tubs called it his Colombo Close, after the TV detective who always had just one more question. The pitch finished, the decisions all apparently made, he would come back at the point folks thought they were free of him. Detective Jacobs had worked it masterfully against me at the farm.
‘I’ve got a question for you,’ I said.
Kip Dalton appeared mildly curious, nothing more.
