by Jeffrey Ford
To my surprise, Antony agreed to stay put. He still must have been hurting from the previous night.
"How'd you find out about the coroner?" asked the big man.
"I called Katie and got an address," said Schell.
"I'm surprised she didn't charge you for it."
"Who says she didn't?" asked Schell.
"Wait a second," said Morgan, "I need clothes. I'm sure this young lady needs a few things also. I know you can't stop at the Parks place for her things, but I have plenty of clothes in those boxes back at my cabin. How about stopping there tonight and picking some of them up for us, seeing as we'll be here for a week or more?"
Schell thought for a moment, considering her request, and then shook his head. "I don't want to take the chance. I'll risk shaking down the coroner for some information, but I don't want to run into whoever has been casing your place. One of us will have to go shopping for you," said Schell.
That ended the conversation, and soon after we left the table. The issue of stopping or not at the cabin was far from decided, though, as I observed Morgan Shaw go to work on Schell. Isabel and I were sitting in the living room, but we could hear them talking in the kitchen as they washed and dried the dishes together.
"I see some woods out there, Thomas. I think you should take me out for a walk and show me your property."
"I never go out there," said Schell.
"Never? It's a beautiful day. I'd like to see your place. We wouldn't be seen from the road. This house seems very secluded."
"I was going to do some work with the butterflies," said Schell.
"Forget the butterflies for a while," she said. "I'm your guest. I'll go crazy if I have to stay indoors the entire time I'm here."
There was no response from Schell.
"Is there a view of the sound through those woods?" she asked.
"I think so," he said. "I've never been back there. Diego could tell you."
"Diego's busy," she said. "I'd like you to take me."
I could picture Schell in the kitchen, staring into the dishwater. He said nothing we could hear, but a few moments later, Morgan started humming a tune, which turned into a song. The next thing I knew, the water stopped running and the back door opened and closed. I got up and went to the kitchen window and watched as Schell and Morgan Shaw headed out across the grass toward the path that led through the trees.
While I stood there, Antony came through the kitchen and stopped to glance out the window to see what I was looking at.
"Is that the boss?" he asked. "Taking a walk in the woods?"
"So to speak," I said.
"Between the two of them," he said, "it's hard to figure who's the mark and who's the con."
"She's got him," I said.
"Or is he letting her think she's getting him?" said Antony.
"Or is she letting him think that he's letting her think she's getting him?" I said.
"Romance," said Antony. "A con so crazy that by the time the bullet's in the chamber, you don't know if you've taken someone or you've been taken."
"Romance?" I said. "That's a little premature."
"Call it whatever the fuck you want," he said.
When we turned around from the window, Isabel was standing, leaning against the entranceway to the kitchen with her arms folded. I wondered how long she'd been listening to us. Antony went to the table and grabbed his newspaper. "I'm gonna check the morning line," he said. He held the paper up as he left the kitchen, saying, "Adios," and padded off down the hall, past the office, toward his room.
As soon as Antony was gone, I sat with Isabel at the kitchen table and explained to her the predicament she was in as it had been explained to me by Schell. She already had a fairly good grasp of the situation and knew she was in a tight spot. I told her that Schell thought she should head for Mexico and try to find her father.
"Are you sure he just doesn't want me to be as far away from you as possible?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Did you see his face when you came out of the room?"
"Yeah," I said. "I never thought of that. He does have big plans for me. He wants me to go to college."
"He doesn't want you getting mixed up with an illegal," she said and gave me a sarcastic smile.
"I don't think Schell has anything against you," I said. "I just think he's protected me for so long, he's having a hard time accepting that I've grown up."
"Creo que йl tiene dificultad con que te vuelvas mejicano otra vez," she said.
"That I'll admit," I said.
"And what do you think I should do?" she asked.
"Stay with me," I said.
"No es possible, en realidad," she said. "And if I did, we'd have to leave Long Island and find somewhere else to live."
"True," I said.
"I don't know," she told me. I could see the sadness creeping into her expression.
"Schell said you could stay here for as long as you liked. We don't have to decide right now. Maybe if we think about it for a few days, we can come up with a solution."
She bit her bottom lip and nodded.
"Hey," I said, changing the subject. "Come, I'll show you something incredible." We both stood, and I took her by the hand. I led the way down the hallway to the Bugatorium. When we came to the door, I told her to close her eyes, and she did.
Once she was in the middle of the room, I told her to open them. "Behold, the Bugatorium," I said. The butterflies seemed to perform on cue. She spun around to take in the entire sight, giggling nervously.
"This is Mr. Schell's?" she asked.
I nodded. "What do you think?"
"I don't know," she said and took a seat at one end of the couch, her gaze darting about.
I sat down at the opposite end. "He says he studies butterflies because they are masters of deception, but I think there's more to it than that."
She nodded, and I wished I'd owned a camera so I could have captured the look of enchantment on her face. We spent the next few hours telling each other our childhood memories. She'd grown up in a town in Zacatecas, an old colonial town in the highlands, where her father had labored in the silver mines. Her mother's family was Huesteca, originally from northern Veracruz, and they spoke a form of ancient Mayan as well as Spanish. We recalled relatives and games, mole poblano and chilaquiles, and I told her about the men in the Plaza Santa Domingo who composed love letters and wills for those who could not write. The tide of memories increased the longer we talked.
When finally it was time to leave the Bugatorium, I asked her again what she thought of it.
"Una cбrcelita muy preciosa," she said.
I was disappointed that she didn't love it, but at the same time her words planted a seed in my thoughts, and I wondered if I would ever see that room again in the way I did before she'd spoken them.
TRUTH IS BEAUTY
By the time Schell was finished with the makeup kit, we each looked ten years older. He now sported a trim goatee and fuller eyebrows. My complexion was nearly white, and I sported a bushy black mustache and round-frame glasses. He told me that government agents don't usually have facial hair, but that we needed to take the chance in order to thoroughly confuse the coroner's memory.
His belief was that the most important aspect of any costume was the shoes, and he had pairs and pairs of them he'd picked up on the cheap at the Salvation Army to add the right touch to his false incarnations. "A G-man's a cop with greater jurisdiction," he said, "but still a cop." With this in mind, he chose two pairs of simple black shoes that appeared slightly scuffed, with well-worn heels. We dressed in three-piece suits, each outfit topped off with a fedora and a trench coat.
Schell was agent Barlow, as stated on the false ID he and Antony had lifted in Penn Station, and I was agent Smith. The county coroner, a Dr. James Cardiff, lived in a nice, old, two-story place off Middle Neck Road in the town of Great Neck. We arrived at his house precisely in the middle of the dinner hour, as Schell had planned it.
The sun had already set, and the night felt more like winter than autumn. There were lights on in most of the houses on the block and the air was laced with the smell of frying onions. As we walked up the path to the front porch, Schell advised me, "No pleasantries. Just stare at him as if you believe he's guilty of something."
I nodded.
We climbed the steps, and Schell rapped rather long and hard on the front door. A plump woman in late middle age, with graying hair, impressive jowls, and wearing an apron, answered. She was a little startled to see us standing there, but she composed herself and asked, "Can I help you?"
Schell flashed the badge and ID quickly and then pocketed them. "Federal Bureau of Investigation," he said. "I'm agent Barlow and this is agent Smith." I quickly touched the brim of my hat as a greeting to the woman but did not alter my blank expression. "We're here to speak to Dr. Cardiff."
"Please come in," she said and pulled the door back for us to enter.
We stepped into the living room of the house. Off to our left was a dining room, and sitting at the table was a boy, about fourteen, and a man I figured was Cardiff. The gentleman stood, placing his napkin on the table, and came toward us. He was a heavyset fellow, balding on top, and had a kind of nervous spring in his step. Schell introduced us again and showed the ID, this time more slowly, so that Cardiff could get a good look at it.
"What can I do for you?" he said, shaking Schell's hand. "Always happy to be of service to the law." He reached toward me for a handshake as well, but I didn't offer my hand, only my look.
"Is there a place we can speak in private?" asked Schell.
His wife went back to the dinner table as Cardiff led us through the house to a small book-lined study. Once inside, he shut the door behind him and offered us seats. Schell and Cardiff sat in leather chairs. I remained standing, off to the side a little, but in a place where he could see me watching him.
That nervous energy I'd noted earlier in the coroner's step had now manifested itself in his hands as he clasped them together, then rubbed them, then flexed his fingers, only to begin again with this unconscious ritual.
Schell tipped his hat back with one finger. "We're conducting a secret investigation concerning the Barnes case," he said. "You know the situation I'm referring to? The murder of Charlotte Barnes?"
Cardiff nodded.
"You're to tell no one of our visit," said Schell.
"Certainly not, gentlemen," he said. "Mum's the word."
"You worked on this case, am I right?" asked Schell.
"Not officially," said Cardiff.
"You didn't sign the death certificate?"
"No, I signed off on it, yes, but someone else did the autopsy."
"That seems rather unusual," said Schell, lifting one bushy eyebrow.
"I'm the coroner," said Cardiff. "I sign the legal paperwork in that capacity. That's it."
"Who looked at the girl?" asked Schell.
"Well, usually I examine bodies if there's any question as to cause of death, as I'm also a licensed medical examiner."
"But you didn't handle this case?"
"No. Someone from higher up ordered a special Forensic Pathologist to come in to oversee things."
"Do you know who it was?" asked Schell.
"Never met them," said Cardiff. "I was told to take the day off when the procedure was done. At first I'd assumed Barnes had applied his significant influence, but as it turned out, I rather think his influence was blocked by someone even more powerful."
"It's stated that the girl died of strangulation," said Schell.
"That's what it says," said Cardiff. "But, to tell you the truth…that's fishy."
"What do you mean, fishy?" I asked.
Cardiff glanced quickly up at me. He was now obviously sweating and wiped his brow with the heel of his palm. "I looked the girl over when she first came in," he said. "There were no marks on her throat. There was no traumatic damage done to the windpipe. None of the telltale signs of strangulation. Nothing indicated to me to look in that direction at all. Instead, she was pale, her complexion slightly yellow, as if she were both anemic and jaundiced at the same time."
"No violence?" asked Schell.
"The only mark I saw on her was a puncture wound in the crook of the left arm." Here he laid two fingers of his right hand on the inside of his left elbow.
"What kind of puncture mark?" asked Schell.
"Some kind of needle, large gauge. I took blood for a test, but by then the word came down to leave her be. That's when I had an inkling it might not be Barnes who was calling the shots. Still I had the blood. I waited until the pathologist issued his report. When I read that he'd determined the cause of death to be strangulation, I couldn't believe it. I mentioned to my superior that this couldn't be, and he said to me, 'Do you like your job?' Well, these days…you know the way things are. I couldn't jeopardize my job."
"So you let it slide," said Schell.
"Not entirely," said Cardiff. "Even if no one else seemed to care, I wanted to know what was going on. I sent the blood to the lab to be tested under another name."
"And what did you learn?"
"The strangest thing," said the coroner. "I can't be sure, because I'd have to check the internal organs, and that's impossible now, but it seemed to me that the girl was transfused. I think she died of a bad transfusion."
"Bad in what way?"
"I know this sounds crazy, because the girl seemed to have been otherwise healthy, but I think someone pumped blood into her that was the wrong type. All the signs are there, clotting, jaundice caused by kidney malfunction, the paleness from the lack of oxygen getting to the cells."
"What happens to a person under these circumstances?" asked Schell.
"Fever, pain throughout the body, in the organs. Not a pleasant way to go. The only problem with my theory," said Cardiff, "is that there should have been some indication of the other blood in her system. Her type was A positive. There seemed to be other blood there, but it had no type as far as I could determine. Admittedly, I had only one sample and one chance at a test. If I'd had another go at it, I might have been able to determine what it was."
"Ever seen anything like it before?" I asked.
"I've heard of people getting a bad transfusion. But never this," he said.
"You've been most helpful," said Schell as he rose from the chair. "Thanks for the information. You're sworn to secrecy about this conversation. It doesn't matter who's asking. In other words, Mr. Cardiff, do you like your job?"
Cardiff nodded vehemently and laughed, as if Schell had made a joke. Neither of us cracked a smile, though, and the coroner quickly regained his composure.
Once we were back in the car and on the road, Schell said to me, "I feel as if God, in return for my years of flimflam, is working some cosmic con on me. Now we have bad blood transfusions and a conspiracy to contradict the facts. I've never been so concerned with the Truth before in my life."
"Truth is Beauty, that's what Keats said," I told him as I worked to tear off the fake mustache. I'd already ditched the eyeglasses, the overcoat, and the fedora in the backseat.
"The Truth-highly overrated," he said. "Nothing but a big pain in the ass."
When I was finally free of my disguise, I said to him, "And what about Isabel and me?" I'd been waiting all day for his lecture and still it hadn't come. All through the drive out to Cardiff's place, I'd waited for him to broach the subject. Now that our job was complete, I was more than ready to face him.
He sighed and smiled. "Diego," he said, "you're a good person, a good son. I'm going to have to trust your judgment on this, but I think you're moving too quickly with Isabel. Sleeping together in the house? You know that's not right. Why get so deeply involved with her at this point? Who knows where she'll wind up? She may have to go back to Mexico. She'll definitely have to leave the state. You have too much ahead of you that you have to do. I'm expecting great things."
"I thought you would be angrier,"
I said.
"I was put out this morning, I'll admit, but mostly I'm worried."
"Isabel thinks it's because she's Mexican," I said.
He considered this for a moment and said, "Yes, but not in the way she probably thinks. She seems like a nice girl. She's very smart, very pretty. But I don't want you falling back into that. It's too dangerous."
"Falling back into what?" I said.
"Getting lost in the past," he said.
I didn't have the heart to tell him I was considering returning to Mexico with her if she went. It wouldn't do to heap that upon him now, with all that was happening, so I bit my tongue.
"In general," he said. "you've got to watch out for women. They work a mean con."
"How?" I asked.
He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me.
"What's this?"
"A list of the boxes that we have to pick up from Morgan's cabin," he said.
I started to smile, but he held his hand up. "Please," he said, "spare me the indignity."
A SWEET DEAL
It was black as a kettle in among the trees near the cabin. Schell had pulled off the road and hidden the car behind a natural wall of brambles some way off from number six. We stumbled through the dark, avoiding trunks and trying to steer clear of the other cabins. Somewhere high above us an owl sounded every half minute. I'd left my trench coat in the car and, wearing only my suit jacket, was freezing.
"I think this is it up here," said Schell as he struck a wooden match to life. The momentary flame showed us the way to the door of the place, and once we were standing in front of the small cabin, he lit another so we could check the number.
"Yeah, you found it," I said.
Reaching into his pocket, he retrieved the key Morgan had given him. He opened the door and we stepped inside. That dank mildew smell made me gag slightly, bringing to mind Charlotte Barnes's body in the tumbledown shack. Schell lit one of the candles on the desk, and the light chased the bad memory from my mind.
"Can you imagine living here?" I said to him, my breath coming as steam in the cold.
