“No.”
“You figure you deserve to sit in the general’s chair? That you can fill it?”
He grinned, leaned back and intertwined his fingers with his elbows on the arms of the chair. “The general, my grandfather, was a great man. But I’m not exactly chopped liver.”
“The general served his nation. Helped his friends. Raised his grandson. Gives to charity. Is concerned with justice for the family Corrigan. What do you figure elevates you above chopped liver, to use your phrase?”
“I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, I’m a member of Mensa, and I lost my father in defense of this country. You don’t like me, do you Matt?”
“Alexander Dumas would have called you a fop. Baroness Orczy would have used the word popinjay. But me, I’d just say you’re a waste. And, I’d also not say your grandfather was a great man, as you characterized him. I’d say the general is a great man. Sounds like you already are thinking of him as dead.”
“He doesn’t have long now.”
“Before you get too eager, let me warn you. You might think you can fill his shoes, but you couldn’t even wear his yesterday’s socks.”
Charles knocked softly and entered. “Would you like the usual, Mr. Kile?”
“No thank you, Charles, nothing for me.” Eddie looked toward Charles and screwed up his face while shaking his head. Charles left.
“I love my grandfather,” he said in a tone about a buck short of having real value. “He is more important to me than you could know. You believe me, don’t you?”
“Oh, sure, I believe you. Millions wouldn’t, but then I’m a sucker for sincerity, even when it isn’t sincere.”
“I don’t like your manners, Mr. Kile.”
“I don’t like them either, Eddie. On lonely nights I worry about them. Not all that much. Not enough to work at changing them, but I do worry.”
“You can’t get in my head, Kile.”
“I was in your head before you walked in this room.”
“That’s enough of your sarcasm, Kile. If this desk wasn’t between us, I’d kick your ass.”
I smiled. “Please feel free to follow me outside when I leave. Now tell me, I’m curious. You were engaged to marry Ileana, with the engagement coming after you learned she was pregnant. What if I said, she got pregnant to trap you. Saw you as her meal ticket out of the middle class. When you figured out she was doing the Madonna material girl bit, you killed her.”
“You’re full of shit. We were in love. Planned to marry and grow old together.”
“In over eleven years you have found no other woman to replace her.”
“That’s correct. She was the one, my one. There can be no replacement. I am destined to live alone with her memory. As for your accusation, the court found me innocent.”
“Not so. The court ruled the state had not made its case even sufficiently to have you arrested. The D.A. had no real choice but to drop the charges. Those charges can be reinstated. You were not tried and found not guilty. So don’t rest all that easily.”
“I am innocent, Matt.” So we were back to first names. “I did not kill Ileana. I loved her. And I want you to find whoever did kill her. I’m sure the general has agreed to compensate you well for proving my innocence. I want you to earn that money. I hope you do.”
There was nothing more to be gained by continuing. Eddie Whittaker likely had very little confrontation in his life. I had given him a heaping serving and he had handled it well. I had scrambled his composure, but he had recovered and held it together. The man was smart and cool under pressure, perhaps an inherited trait, perhaps just a cocksure confidence that he believed himself to be the smartest guy in any room.
I left. Eddie didn’t follow me outside.
Chapter 18
On the way out, Charles stepped around the Christmas tree near where I had first seen Karen. “The general would like to see you, Mr. Kile.” I felt confused. Charles noticed and cleared that up. “The general is feeling much better. He asks that you come to his small private study off his bedroom. He occupies the west wing at the top of the stairs; I’ll take you up.”
Karen’s room had been to the east at the top of the stairs. There was also a door to the right, past her suite, which she had said was Eddie’s room.
The general’s small study was about twelve feet by fifteen, not all that small, with thick carpeting. Low music played in the background, music similar to what Mackie played in his bistro. The temperature was a bit warmer than downstairs and the general was in shirtsleeves, again khaki. He insisted on standing to greet me. We shook hands. His shake seemed weaker than it had been only a few days before. His eyes a bit more hooded.
“Popinjay?” He laughed, and then coughed. “Fop? That was a bit thick, don’t you think? Even for a writer?”
I looked at him. He grinned. “Oh. I heard the whole thing. You didn’t see him at all during the first several days of your investigation, left him to wonder, then a full frontal attack. Great strategy. May I ask if you learned anything from it?” When I continued to look at him, knowing he had somehow overheard, he explained. “This room is directly above the main study. I had it fixed so that I can listen or not to whatever is going on in there. I arranged for it while building the house. No one else is aware, so I ask you to keep it under wraps. Over time I have fashioned the study into the place where family members gather to talk seriously. However, there are other rooms that afford me this same … access, shall I say?”
“General, I certainly hope, when our country again finds itself engaged in combat that the defense department will invite you to participate.”
The general laughed. “There are advantages to being an old man. Not many mind you, but a few. Young people, even those well into middle-age, have this notion that we curmudgeons have minds which deteriorate in direct proportion to the wasting of our bodies. Their self-indulgence on this point can easily be played against them.”
“So, you simply come up to this room and it becomes spy central.”
“It is helpful to know what people say when you are not about. How that confirms or contrasts with what they say when you are with them. Dozing in a chair after dinner or toward the end of a family meeting can briefly allow similar access. We old folks are assumed to be unreliable, even as to being awake. Ten minutes of strategic dozing is often more informative than hours spent as an active participant in conversation.”
“Don’t you feel a bit guilty using such tactics on your own family?”
With some effort, the general crossed his legs. “No more than they should feel using the tactics of waiting until they think I can’t hear to say what they really think.”
I reached out and touched his arm and smiled. “I see your point, General. You put this in place some years ago, then, while the house was still under construction?”
“Some plans are for near term use. Others have a longer horizon and are refined as time passes.”
I looked toward a slight knock on the door. Then Charles came in carrying a tray with what I knew had to be some Irish on crushed ice. The general smiled. “Would you indulge me, Matt? Please enjoy that for the both of us.” After I nodded, he said, “Now tell me, did your getting in my grandson’s face tell you anything?”
“You heard it all, General. What do you think?”
“Yes, the question in answer to a question. However, I heard only Eddie’s words. You saw his face, perhaps smelled his sweat. I could do neither.”
“No, General. I don’t think my bracing of your grandson told me any more than I knew before. Except for learning he is smart and handles pressure well. He may be made of sterner stuff than even he knows. Of course, that has nothing to do with whether or not he killed Ileana Corrigan.”
“That was my read as well,” the general said. “And thank you for sticking up for me. Eddie is smooth, but for reasons known only to Eddie, he remains confident he is superior to all others. Feeling so, showing respect is not easy for him. Nonetheless, he feigns it well in the company of outsiders. I know of no one who does not find him affable and courteous. Still, you got his goat a bit. I don’t recall ever having heard him threaten to pummel another man.”