Now why did that question not surprise me? “No,”‘ I replied.
“Ever done business with anyone in Peru?”
“Again, no.”
“Any reason to be dealing with someone in Peru, in an official capacity or otherwise?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Your friend Stewart has, I expect,” he countered.
I didn’t reply, cautiously deciding to take this as a question, not a statement.
“Seen there, has he?”
“He may have,” I replied. “I don’t know. He was in the merchant marine for twenty years. He went a lot of places.”
“Merchant marine, was it? Down on the docks, I expect. Lots of things go down around the docks. Went to Peru. Not so long ago, either,” he replied evenly. “Purser too. Dealt with customs officials very likely.”
What was I supposed to infer from that? Lewis’s elliptical references were definitely getting on my nerves. “What do you think happened that evening?” I said, forgetting my determination to keep quiet. “Alex tied this guy up, killed him, set fire to the place and then bopped himself on the head? So badly he has a concussion, I might add?”
“Strange, I grant you. But more likely than the other way around, wouldn’t you say? No sign of anybody else there,” he said, raising his head and looking right at me. Mercifully I heard the door open, and Moira came in.
“So you’ve never seen him?” Lewis persisted, pointing once more to the photo of Lizard.
There didn’t seem to be any way around this very direct question. To say yes now, however, after I’d said I didn’t know him, would make me look as if I was hiding something, maybe covering for Alex. “No,” I lied.
Lewis looked at me for several seconds, then turned to Mancino. “That’s it, then. We’ll be off. We’d like you to come to the store with us tomorrow morning to see if there’s anything missing. We will be pursuing various lines of enquiry.”
“You do that,” I said in as authoritative a manner as I could muster. Then I just hung in until the two had left before bursting into tears. Moira was horrified, of course. She thought they’d been badgering me, and maybe they had. I couldn’t tell her though.
Lizard. It was the man I’d rather facetiously called Lizard, the man who had dueled it out with my ex-husband for a jade snuff bottle at Molesworth Cox.
Dead, burned, in my store. Was it another of Clive’s little pranks that had gone very wrong? Had he sent someone to steal the snuff bottle? He’d been prepared to pay enough for it. Top price, actually, and I’d refused. Lizard had wanted the box too, very, very badly. But if he’d broken into the shop, how had he been killed? Not by Alex. Even leaving aside the fact that he would never do such a thing, Alex was barely conscious. So who else was there?
More to the point, what had I done? Rather than helping the police with their investigation, I’d actually lied about knowing Lizard. Now what?
I called my lawyer. She was vacationing on Maui for a week.
I called Rob Luczka. “Answer the phone,” I ordered, as it rang and rang. I knew he and Barbara had been in Montreal visiting her sister, but I was praying they’d returned.
“Hello,” he said at last.
“You’re home,” I said, relieved.
“Just got in,” he said. “What’s up?”
“ T really need your help. The most awful thing has happened.” I started to tell him about Alex, the body, and the fire.
“I’ll be right there,” he said, interrupting me. I heaved a sigh of relief. While Rob and I occasionally seem to inhabit different planets, I consider him to be a friend, and despite the occasional round of bickering from time to time, usually over what I see to be his rather black-and-white view of events, I hope he feels the same about me. It made me feel better knowing he was on his way over.
Less than half an hour later we were ensconced on my back deck with a pitcher of iced lemon tea. It was a beautiful warm summer evening, and more than anything else I just wanted to sit there and enjoy it and not think about what had happened. After discussions about the weather, Montreal, and the Blue Jays, Rob gently turned the conversation around to the subject at hand. He was very sympathetic until I got to the part about the photo of Lizard.
“I told Lewis that I didn’t know the person in the photo, but in fact, while I don’t know exactly who he was, I have seen him before, at an auction at Moles-worth Cox.” I hesitated, hearing his sharp intake of breath. “I thought they were accusing Alex of something awful, and me of arson, insurance fraud, and my hand hurt and I had a headache,” I rattled on. Even to my own ears, I sounded like a whiny brat.
“This is murder we’re talking about here, Lara. How do you think it will look for you and Alex if— make that when, not if—the police find out you had seen the victim, that you lied?”
“I was thinking maybe I could say I’d had a brain wave or something, a sudden return of memory. I was in shock, you know, after the event…”
Rob looked at me as if I’d just crawled out from under a rock. He was absolutely furious. His jaw was clenched so tightly I thought his teeth would crumble. “So you’re planning to pile lies on top of lies, are you? You think this is quite all right to do?”‘
“Spare me the lecture, Rob,” I shot right back. “I made a mistake, okay? Most people do that from time to time. Maybe not you, of course. Maybe not that Ms. Perfect you live with. But most of us do. I don’t want a speech about ends never, ever justifying means, or on the duties and responsibilities of a citizen or whatever. I’m asking you for advice on what to do about this situation, how to help Alex and get out of this mess.”
After what seemed an eternity, he spoke very quietly. “ T will have to tell them what you have told me.”‘ I felt a sudden wave of sympathy for his daughter Jennifer, who I knew was subjected to this particular strain of morality a lot, and who suffered from it.
“Even if it looks bad for Alex too? Rob,” I pleaded, “ T thought you were my friend. I asked you for help as a friend.”
He stood up. “I am a policeman, first and foremost,” he said. “If you didn’t want me to report it, then you shouldn’t have told me.” He started to walk away.
“Well, maybe you don’t have your priorities straight,” I said to his rigid back. He kept walking. “Maybe life is not quite as neat as you think it is,” I continued.
“Ask Jennifer what she thinks,” I called as he reached the gate. It was a low blow. I heard the gate latch firmly behind him.
4
It took me a while to figure out what was missing, in part because the shop was such a mess, but also because it was not what I expected.
Constable Chu was back on duty the next morning and drove me to the shop. I was grateful for the lift, because I hurt even worse that day than I had the day before. I felt as if it would take a shoehorn to get me behind the wheel of my own car.
I had been dreading this moment, not just because I was frightened at what I would find, but also because I was worried about what to say to Sergeant Lewis. The question was, had Rob told him about Lizard or not? If he hadn’t, then perhaps I could try my memory-coming-back-to-me story, but if he had, then saying that would only make it worse.
I was feeling terrible about Rob. I knew that I had done to a friend something that one should never do: put him in an unconscionable position. I wanted to call and apologize, but he had been so angry I was afraid to. I had thought a lot in the wee small hours of the morning about why I had been acting so childish of late. I am no spring chicken after all. In fact I am old enough to have grown children of my own instead of behaving like an infant. I could operate a business reasonably efficiently, travel all over the world without a qualm, but when my ex-husband moves in across the road, I go slightly nuts. Clive was right. It was time for me to get a grip.