‘Lord, I hadn’t even thought about the election.’
‘Let me ask you something, Mrs Weiderman: how many people had keys to the cabin?’
‘Everybody. The whole family. I have one. And old Mr Stokes, the handyman we use for lighter work.’
‘Does James have one?’
‘James...’ Then, ‘My Lord, you’re not thinking—?’
‘No, I just want to be sure I know of everyone who has a key.’
‘Oh.’ But I could see she still didn’t believe me. ‘Yes, James has one, too. He takes some of his women there. As Elise says, “That’s all right with us because it means he isn’t here bothering us.” I probably shouldn’t say this but right now I’m more worried about Elise than I am about the senator. Thank God Maddy’s strong. I think they would have divorced if it hadn’t been for her. She would sit with her mother for hours and listen to the same thing over and over and never complain. And she would question her father from time to time to make sure he wasn’t seeing that woman anymore. He resented it but he understood so he never got angry with her. And now—’
I suppose I heard the gunshot first but in my memory it and the scream are simultaneous. There was that second or two delay — it was the same with Mrs Weiderman — when we sat letting our ears inform our brains of the real meaning of the sounds... and then we were lurching from our sitting positions and racing to the sound of more screams from upstairs.
I recall staring up the flight of stairs in front of me; it might have been a mountain. I went up them two at a time with Mrs Weiderman, gasping, close behind me.
Part Two
Five
Because I’d slept in the guest room a number of times, I knew where I was going. I took the steps of the winding staircase two at a time and when I reached the landing on the second floor I saw Maddy already pounding on the door of the master bedroom. She’d just started shouting to be let in. ‘Mom! Please let me in!’
As I ran toward her, her voice got even more urgent and her fist against the door louder. When I finally got a glimpse of her face, the shock and dismay she’d kept hidden downstairs — I’d admired how coolly she’d handled the news about her father; perhaps because she understood she’d needed to hold it together so she could help her mother — were clear on her pretty features now. She was frantic, fearing that her mother might be dead.
When I reached her she said, ‘It’s locked, Dev! It’s locked!’ She stepped aside. She wanted me to be the magic man, to fix this. I wished I could.
I tried the fancy filigreed doorknob knowing it would be no use. Then my voice joined Maddy’s in calling out for Elise to let us in.
‘Kick the door in! Kick the door in! Hurry, Dev!’
Thanks to the movies and television — not to mention at least a century of fiction — people have the impression that a kick or two will pop a door open in under a minute. And true, there are some old doors that probably wouldn’t put up much resistance. But any reasonably well-made door in any reasonably well-made frame requires energy and a little time. Especially if the door resides inside a home as expensive as this one.
So while Maddy continued to scream I set about throwing myself against the door a few times, then slamming my foot into a space just under the doorknob.
Then a funny thing happened. It shouldn’t have been funny — after all, we might find a dead woman in the room, and maybe it was only funny to me anyway — but just as I raised my leg and leaned forward to assault said door again it was opened from inside and I went stumbling head-first across the threshold, then slammed drunken-moose style into Elise and ended up sprawled across the floor.
‘Oh, God, Dev, I’m so sorry.’
So she wasn’t dead. Or wounded.
‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘What the hell happened?’
Maddy was already holding her mother, which was fine with me. That way they were too busy to watch me scramble to my feet. I do, after all, have my dignity. I’ll always be the seventh-grader who lives in fear of being humiliated in front of girls. Who gives a shit what boys think of you.
Elise had started to cry again. ‘I tried to kill myself, Maddy. Or that’s what I thought I was doing. I put the gun to my temple but at the last minute I jerked it away and the bullet just went into the wall. I’m so sorry. Then I was too ashamed to come to the door!’
Her arms dangled over Maddy’s shoulders. Neither of them appeared to realize that Elise still held a Smith & Wesson .45 in her right hand. She didn’t even seem to realize when I slipped it from her fingers.
By now Mrs Weiderman had reached us. ‘Are you all right, Mrs Logan!’
‘Oh, Mrs Weiderman, I did such a stupid thing!’
‘You did no such thing, Mrs Logan. Now I’m going to take you into the guest room and turn the covers back for you and you’re going to lie down and relax while I bring you some hot cocoa with those little marshmallows you like so much. Isn’t that right, Maddy?’
But Maddy was too distracted to respond. Her mother had fainted dead in her arms.
Six
When I reached the desk at Linton’s only decent hotel — and the only likely place where Tracy Cabot would stay — I joined a group of four men and one woman who were doing everything except climbing over the registration desk and throttling the nervous-looking young man who was spit-and-polish enough to pass the meanest corporate test.
The reporters were local. They had no idea who I was, which was to my advantage. A Chicago man or woman might recognize me because I’d been around so long.
The clerk said, ‘This gentleman would like to get through. I’d appreciate it if you’d stand down the counter, please.’
They were not happy, the dears. I was interrupting the fun they were having tormenting the kid.
‘Welcome to the Regency. May I help you, sir?’
‘Thanks. I’ll need a single for a few days.’ By tomorrow morning there would be no rooms to let.
I’d brought a suitcase with two changes of clothes and balled-up underwear and socks. After signing my credit card slip, I carried the suitcase over by the elevators where a bellman who appeared to be in his sixties watched me suspiciously. He was a sharp and cynical sixty and he probably watched everybody suspiciously. He’d seen it all and maybe done it all and he knew that we’ve all got it in us.
‘You want some help, sir?’
His jacket was ruby red with gold-sprayed buttons and epaulets that looked in danger of slipping off. His tan trousers were as faded as his blue eyes.
‘Not with my bag.’ I set the suitcase down and said, ‘But I do need to ask you about a woman.’
‘You mean to hook up with?’
Nice to know I looked like the kind of guy desperate enough to have to pay for sex. ‘No. Somebody who might be staying here.’
‘Oh. Good. Because I could lose my job otherwise. So who’s the lady?’
I described her.
‘Sounds like the Cabot woman. That’s why all those reporters are over there. A cop said somebody killed her out at the senator’s cabin.’
Amazing how quickly and how much the press had already picked up on. Amazing and terrifying for us.
‘So she’s been staying here?’
‘Oh, yeah. I’d have to check to be sure but I’d say four, five nights offhand.’
The Regency would probably get a B rating in one of those travel guides. It had a kind of worn opulence like a grand dame on her uppers. The other bellmen I’d seen were much younger than this guy and much more clean-cut. I suppose every hotel needs a crafty old bastard. He would know where all the bodies were buried, sometimes literally.