I could feel that I had the audience, and I wished that I had lines as good as Steve Tulk had in Twelfth Night, but all I had were a handful of facts and a lot of conjecture. I took a sip of rye and put the glass down on the coffee-table harder than I intended. “From the plane ticket and a few other things we know that Larry was planning to leave town with somebody. Plane tickets were bought in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Gosnold. We know that the woman appeared to be ready to run away with Larry. She may have encouraged, even masterminded, the whole scam. Larry’s legal friends all agree that when they first knew him, Larry was very serious about the law. It was only fairly recently that his attitude changed. Blame that on the lady. From what we know about her, she could be capable of anything. We don’t have a picture of her yet, but I’ve learned a few things about her. She double-crossed Larry. They arranged to meet at the Bolduc site where they’re building a new fire hall. Larry had used the construction shack there to hide his suitcase with the diamonds in it. It was on the way out of town. The perfect rendezvous.
“Only Larry didn’t expect that his partner had figured out that half of the diamonds was too big a fraction to lose. She pretended that everything was going as arranged until she slipped a knife between his ribs and dumped his body into a frame where footings for the fire hall were about to be poured the next day.
“What she didn’t figure on was the fact that the murder was seen by a down-and-outer by the name of Wally Moore. He was hiding in a nest he’d built safe from the wind and weather. Wally Moore was her next victim. Simply because he’d been foolish enough to try to get in touch with the wife of the victim. He was only trying to help out: the paper said that Larry was missing; he knew that he’d been murdered. Further, he knew where the body was. He went to see Mrs. Geller. Mrs. Geller gave him fifty dollars to keep quiet about it until she had a chance to hear the whole story. They arranged to meet in Montecello Park, where she knifed him too.”
“That’s a goddamned lie!” It was Ruth Geller. She was on her feet, her eyes wide with anger. “I told you it wasn’t me. I told you, but you won’t believe the truth!” She had walked to the centre of the room, with her eyes fixed on me. “You hateful, spiteful man, I despise you!” Sid got up and tried to put an arm on Ruth’s shoulder, but she brushed it off. “Why do you allow this man in your house, Debbie?” Ruth asked. “I really thought you had more sense.”
“In the circumstances, Mr. Cooperman …” Debbie never got to finish what she started to say. Ruth was now walking towards Pia.
“You were the one he meant, weren’t you? You were the double-dealer he was talking about.”
“Ruth! Sit down!” Sid pulled at her, but she wouldn’t budge.
“You killed all of them, didn’t you? You took my sister’s husband and killed his brothers. It was you. I don’t care what they do to you, I just don’t want to have to look at you. Will you please get out of here?” She slapped Pia in the face. It wasn’t a very good slap, but Pia’s face went quite red except at the place where the blow had landed. Sid had a grip on Ruth now, and led her sobbing back to her place on the couch. Near perfect silence. If I was bluffing my way forward, trying to provoke some accusation of confessions, I wasn’t doing bad. I only hoped that nobody called my bluff before I’d guessed the cards everybody else was holding.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Shock waves from the slap that Ruth landed on Pia lingered in the living-room like a bad smell. Pia quietly excused herself and went upstairs, where in a moment I could hear water running. In a moment she returned, having splashed water on her face and rubbed it a little too hard with one of Debbie’s luxurious towels. To her I guess we looked like a tableau vivant from some old play, or a grouping by Nathan Geller, for there we stood very much the way she’d left us: Debbie looking daggers at me for hurting Ruth, who was sobbing on Sid’s shoulder. I didn’t know whether I was still under sentence to leave the house or whether Ruth’s more recent accusation meant that the action had stepped over my body to more important things. I decided that I wasn’t going to leave the house unless my unwanted presence came up again. I had a seat front and centre, the curtains were opening on the last act, and I’d be damned if I’d willingly leave my seat for a smoke in the lobby.
Pia went directly to Sid. She touched him lightly on the back and said in a low, artificial voice: “I think we should go, Sid.” Sid nodded, and patted his sister-in-law on the shoulders. He slowly pulled her body away from his, pausing when he had her at arm’s length to see if
Ruth was going to be able to stand on her own.
“There, there,” he said. “There, there.”
“For what it’s worth,” Pia Morley said in a steady voice, “I want you all to know that in spite of being the crazy broad you have known all these years, I am not, on top of it all, a murderer. I don’t run away with other people’s husbands, even though I plead guilty to being a bitch in countless other ways. Debbie knows I didn’t take Sid away from her, and Ruth, you should try to remember that I’m very happy with Sid. Why would I want to run away with Larry? And if I ran away with him, why didn’t I leave town?” Ruth looked at her sister, who tried to catch my eye. I was watching Sid, who was twitching inside his suit. “Sid isn’t some kind of human pinball,” Pia said. “He does what he wants to do, like the rest of us when we can. God knows I’ve got a checkered past, Ruth, but why would I want to … I’m sorry, why would I run away with Larry?” She was speaking in a measured voice that only slightly resembled her normally exaggerated style of speaking. She rationed her breath to make sure she had enough to say all of the things she’d put together since leaving the room.
“What about this?” Ruth asked, holding up the photograph of Larry with his hands over Pia’s eyes. Pia took the snapshot from her and looked at it, then smiled. She handed it back again.
“That was at the party here last fall. Remember, Debbie, I got tanked on white wine and about six men walked me around the block. Damn it, I can’t help it when somebody puts their hands on me. It’s been happening all my life. Nathan used to say I was a very tactile broad.” Right then Pia was looking more than just tactilely interesting.
“Then where were you on the day that Larry disappeared?”
“How should I know? I haven’t been out of town since my trip to my gynaecologist in Toronto. If you want to check, his name is Walter Shankman in the Medical Arts Building, damn it. Sid, why am I defending myself, when I haven’t done anything?” Sid didn’t answer, he simply pressed the rounded shoulder of his sister-in-law, to which he was still attached. Pia saw that Rush was still holding the photograph in an accusatory way. “Look,” Pia said, “a half-wit could see he was clowning. Ruth? Ruth, can’t you understand? I wasn’t in love with your husband. His brother absorbs all my attention. Benny, can’t you see that?”
I was glad to get some status back, and nodded earnestly. “I believe you, Pia,” I said, “and maybe Ruth is beginning to. Tell us, Ruth, where did you get the idea that Pia was fooling around with Larry?” Ruth raised her eyes, looking a little wilted and damp.
“It just looked that way. I don’t know. I know he wasn’t spending his idle hours at our house. So I thought … And then when Debbie showed me the picture … Well, I guess I just jumped at the idea. It was something, after all. And I’d been living with nothing.” She looked at Pia. “I’m sorry, Pia, but you don’t know what I’ve been going through.”
At that moment the door-chime sounded like a summons in a minor key. Ruth looked up, and Debbie went to the door. When she returned she had Pete Staziak with her. He was looking awkward and large the way he always did in public. He reintroduced himself to the group and apologized for coming without calling first. “There has been a development which we feel you should know about.” Pete used the word “feel” a lot when he must have meant “think” or something with sharper edges. “We have located Larry Geller’s satellite office. And I’d like permission to bring over a witness to meet you. As a matter of fact, I’m expecting a call from him here.” He glanced over at Debbie and added, “If you don’t mind.” Debbie shrugged her indifference.