“So it’s over as far as you’re concerned,” she said.
“The case?”
“Yes.”
She got a bottle of Riesling from the refrigerator and poured some for herself, and came and sat at the other end of the couch from me, with her legs tucked up under her.
“Not entirely,” I said. “I’d like to know what Jordan and Alderson are doing, and whether the FBI has been compromised.”
“Patriotism?” she said.
“I don’t want to see this guy lose his job, too,” I said.
“Because of his wife.”
“Because he told things he shouldn’t have told to a woman he thought loved him,” I said.
“They’d fi re him for that?”
“You bet,” I said.
“Maybe she did love him,” Susan said.
“Funny way to show it,” I said.
“Maybe she was doing what she had to,” Susan said.
“Maybe we all are, all the time,” I said. “But if you really believe that, there’s not much point to either of our jobs.”
“Yes,” she said. “Even if it’s an act of self-deception, it’s one we need.”
I smiled.
“So we aren’t exactly free,” I said, “even to believe in free will?”
She stuck her tongue out at me.
“Oh, pooh,” she said. “It’s an academic game. We both believe in individual responsibility, and we both know it.”
I smiled at her.
“And if we didn’t before, we do now,” I said.
Pearl had been asleep in the big leather wing chair across from us. She rose quite suddenly and came and stared at us.
“Has Timmy fallen down a well?” I said.
“It’s suppertime,” Susan said. “She wants Daddy to feed her.”
“I would have said she was looking at you,” I said.
“Did you go to Harvard?” Susan said.
“No.”
“Did I?”
“Yes,” I said.
“She wants her daddy to feed her.”
“Sure,” I said, “now that you’ve explained it.”
I got up and went to the kitchen and gave her a bowlful of dog food and came back to the couch. Pearl ate noisily. Susan 69 looked at me over her wineglass. She had big eyes, which she made up artfully.
“I hope you don’t get mired in Doherty’s issues,” she said.
“I hope I don’t get mired in anything,” I said.
“It wouldn’t be too hard to do with Doherty,” she said. Pearl finished her supper and came in and looked at us again. I got up and gave her a cookie for dessert. While I was up I got myself a second drink and brought it back to the couch.
“Because of what happened to us twenty years ago?” I said.
“What do you think?” Susan said.
Pearl came in from the kitchen and wedged herself between us on the couch and put her head on Susan’s thigh.
“I’ve thought of it,” I said. “It resonates.”
“Want to talk about it?” Susan said.
“Sex might make it better,” I said.
“You think sex makes everything better,” Susan said.
“Uh-huh.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Susan said. “Let’s see.”
18 .
I was in the shower the next morning when Susan came in wearing La Perla lingerie.
“Vinnie’s on the phone,” she said.
I got out and toweled off a little.
“You want to stand and admire my glistening body while I take the call?” I said.
“No,” she said and handed me the cordless phone and departed.
I said, “Yeah?”
Vinnie began without preamble.
“I follow the professor the other night to Alderson’s place. She don’t meet him for drinks. She goes straight there. I see Hawk there, scouting Alderson. Professor’s got a suitcase. She goes in. I wait. Hour later she comes out. Still got the suitcase. She gets in her car. Drives about a hundred feet to the hotel next door. Parks in the garage. Checks in to the hotel. I wait awhile. She don’t come out, so I go home. Hawk’s still there. This morning I’m there when she comes out of the hotel. No suitcase. Gets in her car, drives to the college. Parks in the lot, gets out and starts for her building. Guy walks up behind her and shoots her in the back of the head. I put one in him. Go over and check. She’s dead. He’s dead. I get back in the car and watch for a little while. Nothing happens. No one comes out for a look. I don’t hear no sirens. So I screw. I’m in the parking lot at Dunkin’ Donuts down near Fresh Pond Circle.”
I was quiet for a minute. Pearl wandered in to admire my glistening body. I patted her head while I thought.
“Any witnesses?” I said.
“No.”
“Anybody looking out a window,” I said, “maybe got your plate numbers?”
“Plates are bogus,” Vinnie said. “I put on new ones before I called you.”
“How long since the shooting?”
“Hour, probably,” Vinnie said.
“Cops should be there,” I said.
“Sooner or later,” Vinnie said.
Pearl heard Susan moving around in the kitchen and hustled out of the bathroom to investigate. You could never be certain someone wouldn’t give you a second breakfast.
“Recognize the shooter?” I said.
“No. Little guy. Five-six, five-seven, skinny. Dark hair cut short. Maroon sweatsuit. Cheap black running shoes.”
“Don’t be a fashion snob,” I said.
“Don’t matter anyway,” Vinnie said. “He won’t be using them.”
“Okay,” I said. “Eat a few donuts, drink some coffee. I’ll get back to you.”
I walked into the bedroom and sat on the bed. Susan had made it already. My gun lying on the bedside table looked very much out of place. I had dried off so that my body no longer glistened. Susan would have to settle for quiet beauty. I dialed Hawk’s cell phone.
“What’s up with Alderson?” I said.
“In his hole,” Hawk said. “Been there since yesterday afternoon.”
“People in or out?” I said.
“Not that I can tell.”
“Somebody aced Jordan Richmond,” I said.
“And?” Hawk said.
“Vinnie killed him.”
“That’d be Vinnie,” Hawk said.
I told him what I knew.
“Vinnie got a whole assortment of license plates,” Hawk said. He laughed softly. “Clip-ons.”
“Good to be prepared,” I said.
“’Specially being Vinnie,” Hawk said. “Cops going to connect you to this.”
“I know.”
Susan came into the room fully dressed and saw me still naked sitting on the bed. She covered her eyes.
“Ick,” she said.
“You got an alibi?” Hawk said.
“I do,” I said. “I was seeing my shrink.”
19.
Epstein came nondescriptly into my office and sat in a client chair.
“Coffee?” I said.
“Yes.”
I took a clean coffee cup from my desk drawer and handed it to him and pointed at the coffeemaker on top of my file cabinet. Epstein got up and helped himself.
When he sat down again he said, “Three days ago the wife of one of my agents got shot to death in the parking lot of Concord College.”
I nodded.
“She used her maiden name, Jordan Richmond,” Epstein said.
“In her circles I think they say birth name, ” I said.
“In her circles there aren’t any maidens,” Epstein said.
“Another man, whom we can’t identify, was killed with her, and Ms. Richmond’s husband, Dennis Doherty, is missing.”
I nodded.
“Thing is,” Epstein said, “Ms. Richmond was killed with a Russian-made nine-millimeter which was found at the scene. The guy who was killed with her was done by a nine too, but not the same one.”