Drew looked up, puzzled, had no answer. “Is Liz under suspicion?”
“Should she be?” Marge asked.
“I don’t think so.” Drew laughed. “But I don’t know much.”
A good insight, Marge thought. “She and her boss were close?”
“Real close. I often-” He stopped talking. His wife had returned. She had changed into a white shirt, black pants, and a white lab coat, ID tag with her name and picture resting on its lapel. To the police, she said, “If you need any further information, I’ll be at the hospital.” She glanced at her husband. “Henry’s bottle is in the fridge. In case I don’t get back, Marta is due in at seven.”
“I’ll take care of it, Liz.”
“Right.”
“That’s too bad about Dr. Sparks, Liz. I’m sorry.”
Fulton’s face softened. “Thank you, Drew. Go get some sleep.” To Oliver and Marge, she said. “Can I walk you out?”
“Like to use the phone first, if I could,” Oliver said.
“Help yourself,” Fulton said. “Good night.”
The door closed softly. Drew stared at the cops. “You can use the phone in the kitchen.”
Marge said, “You were saying that your wife and Dr. Sparks were very close.”
“Yeah. Yeah, they were.”
“In what way?” Oliver said.
“What way?” He wrinkled his nose. “Are you asking me if they were fooling around? I don’t think so. Liz isn’t the type. She’s like…” He sliced air. “Straight arrow. At least, I think she is. But hell, I don’t read women too well. She could be messin’ with my head and I wouldn’t know it.”
“Are you a straight arrow, sir?” Marge asked.
“Huh?”
Oliver’s smile was oily. “She means do you get around?”
Drew smiled back, but said nothing.
Oliver placed his hand on Drew’s bony shoulder. “I mean she is gone all the time.” He winked. “I know how it is.”
Drew started rocking, gave Oliver a conspiracy grin. “Liz gets pissed at me. But hell, it wasn’t my idea to get married.”
“No, I imagine it wasn’t,” Marge mumbled. Oliver shot her a dirty look. He said, “How’d she talk you into it?”
Drew smiled enigmatically.
“You knocked her up. She gave you an ultimatum.”
“Hey, I didn’t mind. I like Liz. Love the kid. Man, he’s a cute little sucker. You know, I think that’s what gets to her. I’m home a lot with the kid. We’re like real tight. Then she waltzes in on the weekends and the kid doesn’t want to go to her. ’Cause he’s used to me, unnerstan’?”
“I understand,” Oliver said.
“Pisses her off. I keep telling her it’s only because I’m home so much. She shouldn’t worry. Once Henry figures out what a jerk his old man is, he won’t want nothing to do with me. So…I’m enjoying him while I’m still something in his eyes.”
Drew shook his head, smelled his armpits. “I really stink. I’m sorry.”
Oliver smiled. It was sincere. “You weren’t expecting company.”
“No, that’s for sure.”
“Are you a musician?” Marge asked.
“Yeah. Bass player. I’m part of the house band at Smokey’s. Regular gig. Steady income. Not much income, but it’s steady. I mean, what does Liz expect? You know, you start out in this business, thinking you’re gonna be the next Eddie Vedder or Axl Rose. Hell, I’m thirty-four, man. Not too many people break it big at thirty-four. I’m real grateful. to Liz. I mean real grateful Rest of the band’s living in shit, and I got this nice house, a decent car. It’s not a Porsche but it’s no broken-down Honda, either.”
Oliver glanced out the window, at the driveway. A red Miata convertible. “Nice set of wheels.”
“Thanks. Liz bought it for me after Henry was born. Bought herself a baby Benz. I say, right on. She deserves it. She works hard.” His eyes clouded. “Man, I hope she doesn’t lose her job.”
“Was she in danger of losing her job?” Marge asked.
“If she was, she didn’t tell me. She don’t tell me much about work.” Drew smelled himself again. “You want me to take a shower or something?”
Yes, screamed Marge’s brain. Instead, she said, “Nah, we’ll be leaving in a few minutes. Did she ever mention anything about her job being in jeopardy?”
“Jeopardy? Isn’t that a game show?”
“About her job being cut,” Oliver said.
Drew scrunched up his forehead. “Well, she always used to say she was the last person on Sparks ’s project. If he was gonna bump anyone, I guess it would be Liz. But I met the old guy couple of times. He seemed to like her. After we ate dinner at his house, I told her that. I told her I thought he liked her. I told her not to worry.”
Marge said, “If you don’t mind my asking, when you ate dinner over there…how did Dr. Sparks react to you?”
“You mean ’cause of the way I look.” Drew rocked in the chair. “Oh, I fixed myself up. I wore a suit and tie, put my hair in a ponytail. I wouldn’t want to do anything that might make Liz lose her job. He was real polite to both of us.”
Drew stopped a moment.
“You know, he was an okay guy. We brought Henry of course. Dr. Sparks said something about how good I was with the little guy. I told him I loved kids. Sparks had a bunch of grandchildren. They started getting antsy at the table, you know, running around like kids do. I just got up and started playing with them. Felt a lot more comfortable with the kids than I did with the grown-ups. Especially when they started arguin’.”
Oliver’s eyes met Marge’s. “Who was arguing?”
“I don’t know. I left the table.”
“Think, Drew,” Marge prodded. “Was it Dr. Sparks and one of his children, Dr. Sparks and his wife-”
“No, it wasn’t the wife. She and him barely spoke. She was busy serving all this food. Man, I never seen so much food in my life. Turkey and ham and roast beef and mashed potatoes-”
“So if it wasn’t Dr. Sparks and his wife, it was…”
Drew held his finger in the air. “The priest. Dr. Sparks and the priest. Actually, I think the whole family was arguin’ with the priest.”
Oliver paused. “About what?”
“Stuff about God. Stuff I didn’t understand.”
Marge said, “You don’t remember any of it?”
“No.”
“You remember enough to recall them arguing,” Oliver said. “Doesn’t anything stick in your mind?”
Drew paused again. “Something about evil thoughts being evil or whatever. I remember that because I remember thinking: Drew, you’re in trouble. ’Cause you have lots of evil thoughts. Liz could tell you better.”
Marge said, “Did she participate in the argument?”
“I don’t know. If she did, it was probably on Dr. Sparks’s side. She wouldn’t do anything to piss him off.”
Oliver said, “Was the priest angry?”
Drew stopped rocking, folded his arms across his chest. “You know, everyone was dumping on him. His name was Bram.” He smiled. “Guess I do remember some things.”
“Go on,” Marge said.
“I remember thinking, ‘If I was getting dumped on, like he was, I’d either blow or go.’ He just sat there, real calm, just taking it. Never raised his voice.”
“Why were they dumping on him?” Marge asked.
“I don’t know. I guess they didn’t like what he was sayin’.”
“What was he saying?”
“I don’t know. I just felt for the guy, wondered why everyone was dumping on him. But maybe he was used to it. ’Cause when the missus called the kids for dessert, conversation went back to being polite. And the priest acted like nothing happened. Smiling with the kids. Playing magic tricks…you know, making nickels disappear and reshowin’ up behind their ears. I like that one. I do it all the time with Henry. The priest has a twin brother, you know.”
“Luke,” Marge said. “Was he dumping on him, too?”
“They all were-” Drew paused. “No, you’re right. How about that. You’re real good.”