Noreen blinked twice. “Just yesterday, I would have said yes, but now, what happened to me doesn’t seem very important anymore. My brother is innocent, Mr. Wolfe. Ask anybody anything that you think will help Michael.”
“That is a pragmatic position to take, Miss James,” Wolfe said. For him, the tone was almost approving. “And now I must leave for a previous engagement. However, Mr. Goodwin will work with you on details and specifics.” Having thus spoken, Wolfe levered himself to his feet and made for the hall and the elevator.
What Wolfe means by “details and specifics” is, among other things, the discussion of our fees with the client. And since he doesn’t like to trouble himself with the specifics of such mundane and mercenary considerations, he leaves them to me — knowing full well that as chief bookkeeper, checkbook-balancer, and bill-payer, I will always make sure that our income is sufficient to cover niceties including the fresh fish, meat, and vegetables that Fritz insists on ordering; the cases of beer that Wolfe insists on consuming; and the salaries that Theodore, Fritz, and I insist on receiving. So far, we always have had enough Federal Reserve notes coming in to ensure that life in the brownstone will continue to function in the manner to which Wolfe long ago became accustomed. For that, I take more than a little of the credit.
“Now, Miss James,” I said, swiveling to face our guest after Wolfe had departed for the plant rooms, “before we go any further, let’s talk about details and specifics.”
Ten
So now we officially had a client, and one who didn’t seem to show the slightest resentment about our “outrageous fees.” In fact, when I quoted the amount — sixty thousand dollars, half payable now, half at the completion of our work — she simply said, “Oh, I thought it probably would be more.” Then, without missing a beat, she pulled out a checkbook with a red-and-blue-plaid cover and proceeded calmly to write out a draft for thirty grand as if it were something she did every time she bought groceries. And she followed by asking me what was next.
“Next is more questions, if you’ve got the time,” I told her with a smile.
“Of course I’ve got the time, Mr. Goodwin — oh, there I go again. Archie, I mean. Take as long as you want. If anything, I should be concerned about your time,” Noreen said earnestly, sitting erect in the red leather chair like a student about to be quizzed by a teacher. I could see why Lily was so fond of her; this one had at least two of the three traits I like most — character and manners. The third is a sense of humor, and given the situation, Noreen hadn’t had much call to exhibit that side of her, assuming it existed.
I started in with the questions, including how well she felt she’d gotten to know Linville on their two dates.
“Apparently not very well at all, given what happened,” she mused. “As I told you and Mr. Wolfe, I really felt that he was an innocent kind of wild, if that makes sense. Not the mean kind, you know? I decided the press must have been unfair about him.”
“What about his drinking?”
“Well, he did do a little too much of that for my taste, especially given that he mixed it with driving. I guess if I’d known him better, or longer, I would have eventually said something about it.”
“Did you meet any of his friends?”
“Two or three. There was one, Todd Halliburton, we ran into both times we went out.”
I remembered Linville’s fireplug-sized sidekick. “What was he like?”
Noreen shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Actually, pretty nice. Seemed sort of on the shy side, though. He didn’t say much.”
I wondered if we’d met the same Halliburton. “Was he with a date? And what did he look like?”
“No, once he was alone — that was at Orion — and the other time, at Morgana’s, I think... um, yes, it was at Morgana’s, he was with another guy, Charlie something, I forget the last name. What did Todd look like? Well, he’s really short — shorter than Sparky... was. He’s got real light hair, almost white, and he wears it cut short. Why?”
“Just curious,” I told her. We were talking about the same guy, all right. “What does Halliburton do?”
She frowned, thinking about it. “I think he’s an accountant of some kind downtown. He mentioned it one night, but I can’t recall. I do remember that he said he lived in the Village, but that’s about all.”
“Miss James, to your knowledge, before Wednesday night who was aware of what had happened between you and Sparky Linville?”
“I thought we were going to use first names,” she said with a tight smile. “It’s Noreen, remember — Archie? Well, as I said before, Lily knew, back last Saturday, and Mother, Michael, and Edward found out when we had that homecoming party. And Daddy knew that same night, of course, because Mother phoned him.”
“Do the two of them communicate a lot?”
“I wouldn’t say a lot, no. They’re not chummy by any means, but they do still talk, especially when it involves Michael or me. And Mother did give Daddy a call that night, to tell him about it. She really hit the ceiling.”
“Not so surprising for a mother to be distraught in that situation, though, is it?”
“No,” Noreen conceded, “it’s not. And I guess I’d have reacted the same way if it had been my daughter.”
“Tell me about your friend Rojek, the one you said you see fairly often.”
She ran a hand through her hair and let it drop into her lap. “Doug’s a nice guy — really sweet. I met him through Michael. They got to know each other in a Wall Street softball league — they were each captain of a company team. Doug’s with a brokerage house — Maxwell and Mills.”
“Is this serious between you two?”
Noreen’s cheeks got rosy again. “I’m not really sure yet, but... maybe. I guess it’s really a little too early to tell.”
“How does he feel about you?”
She paused to think about it. “Well, I have to say I think he’s pretty interested, although like me, he’s been going out with other people too, at least occasionally.”
“Does Rojek know about what happened with Sparky Linville?”
“This may sound funny, but I’m not really sure.”
“It does sound funny. After you explain it, maybe I’ll understand.”
She looked over at the bookcases and then at the globe before answering. “Doug and I have been going out, oh, about once a week for a few months now — to the movies, for drinks, to a Mets game once. As I said, he’s really sweet, a nice guy. Well, after what happened with Sparky, I got so depressed, you know, that I didn’t feel like seeing Doug — or anybody, for that matter. So I turned him down three or four times in a row. I gave different excuses, like I wasn’t feeling well, or I had to spend the evening with Daddy, or I was just plain ‘busy,’ or—”
“I’ve been on the receiving end of all of those too, at one time or another,” I said, nodding.
She smiled weakly. “Anyway, I knew Doug was getting a little bent out of shape by all the turndowns, so I started saying yes again and we went out a few times, but I knew he could tell something was wrong. I mean, as hard as I tried, I wasn’t myself. I’m really still not... at all.” She allowed herself a deep breath.
“Okay, so he figured out that for some reason you were acting differently. But did he even know you’d gone out with Linville?”
“I’m not sure, unless Polly said something to him.”
“Why would she say anything?” I asked. “Was she really miffed after all about you going out with someone she’d been dating?”