Ike sang out like he always does. “Morgue Mama!”
I sat where I always do, at the table by the cigarette machine. It has the best view of the street. Not that there’s ever anything on the street worth seeing.
Ike’s coffee shop is always empty at that time of day. He brought me my Darjeeling tea and a handful of those little Ghirardelli chocolates. He brought a mug of black coffee for himself. He said just the right thing. “What’s in the bag?”
I pulled it out. Put it on the table between us.
“So that’s what caused all the fuss?” he asked.
It was the cocoa can, of course. The one Jack Kerouac gave to Gordon for safekeeping. One of Andrew’s students had found it just that past Thursday. Andrew could have kept it for himself. He was close to Gordon, too. But he brought it to me. I pried off the lid and showed Ike the tiny pine cones. He took one out and studied it like it was a precious jewel plucked from the sarcophagus of an Egyptian pharaoh. “So how’s your disposition today?” he asked. “More endurable I hope?”
I took the pine cone from his fingers. I put it back in the cocoa can. Snapped on the lid.
“I know I’ve been a real B lately.”
He laughed. “Lately?”
I laughed. “More than usual, I mean.”
He unwrapped one of the chocolates and playfully slid it to me, as if he were feeding a rabid raccoon. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Maddy. You did what you had to do.”
That was true enough. I did do what I had to do. Two days before Rollie’s funeral I’d had lunch with Detective Grant at Speckley’s. Over meatloaf sandwiches I told him about the gun class Gwen took. About the gun she bought. About the motive she had for killing Gordon. Why Gordon was eager to take her to the landfill. Why Rollie would take the blame before taking those pills.
Of course Grant already knew all that stuff. “More than likely you’re right,” he said. “But evidence-wise it adds up to zip.”
I bristled like a porcupine. “Common sense-wise it adds up to murder.”
He calmly buttered another roll. Gave me half. “It’s all circumstantial, Mrs. Sprowls. No gun. No other physical evidence.”
“I thought you folks convicted people on circumstantial evidence all the time?”
For some reason he was amused by that. “That we do. But we’ve also got Rollie’s suicide note. No way in hell the prosecutor’s office goes after Gwendolyn Moffitt-Stumpf when her husband’s already confessed.”
“Have you tried to get her to confess?” I asked.
“Every which-a-way,” he said. “How about you?”
And so I made those beans, mustered up my courage, and after Rollie’s funeral confronted her. And she showed me the door. With nothing more to show for my effort than my dirty crock pot.
Ike unwrapped two more chocolates. “There’s still a chance her conscience will get the best of her, isn’t there? Call Detective Grant and admit she did it?”
I patted his hand. I liked it that he was trying to lift my spirits. “I suppose, Ike. But more than likely Gwen intends to live with her guilt. She’s good at that. And she still has Rollie’s money. Her big house and those awful wiener dogs. But at least she knows that I know. That has to be some kind of punishment.”
Ike kept trying. “What about the other murder? Maybe the police will charge her for her part in that. That would be some consolation, wouldn’t it?”
“For me or for the police?”
“Both maybe?”
I took a nibble out of my chocolate, as if it was a knotty little crab apple. “Detective Grant made it clear they have no plans to rattle Gwen’s cage. And in case you’re wondering, Ike, neither do I.”
Ike’s voice was softer now. His eyes were moist with concern. Probably something more. “I know this has been plenty rough on you,” he said.
I quickly saved us from an awkward moment. “I’ll live,” I said.
His cool eyes and smile were back. “You were right about things, weren’t you? The connection between the two murders? The trophy? Even this little can of pine cones?”
“Not everything, Ike.” I pried off the lid again. I carefully emptied the pine cones onto the tabletop. Among the pine cones was a small piece of paper, folded into a square. I unfolded it and showed Ike the words printed across the top in fifties-style script: Mopey’s Diner. I jerked it away from his eyes before he could read any more. Held it face down against my blouse.
“Now don’t play with me, Maddy. Was there cheese on that famous burger or not?”
I smiled wickedly. But I could not have been more melancholy. “Either way, Chick Glass wouldn’t be very happy with the answer, would he?”
“No,” said Ike, “I guess he wouldn’t.”
Ike’s is different than most other coffee shops these days. He doesn’t mind if people smoke. He has a cigarette machine. He has ashtrays and packs of matches on the tables.
“Ike,” I said, “strike a match for me.”
He did. I held the restaurant slip to it.
“Dolly Madison Sprowls,” he said as the slip curled and disappeared in the ashtray, “you are the cruelest woman alive.”
“But lovable, Ike?” I asked.