«I told Dick you called Wednesday,» she said to Tanner, «but he says you never reached him. The poor lamb’s been holed up in a conference suite with some awful merger people from Cincinnati or Cleveland or somewhere… Leila, darling! Bernie, love!» Ginny pecked Tanner’s cheek and choreographed herself past him.
Richard Tremayne came in. He was watching Tanner and what he saw obviously pleased him.
Tanner, on the other hand, felt the look and whipped his head around too quickly. Tremayne didn’t have time to shift his eyes away. The news director recognized in the lawyer’s stare the look of a doctor studying a medical chart.
For a split second both men silently, unwillingly, acknowledged the tension. And then it passed, as it had passed with the Ostermans. Neither man dared sustain it.
«Hey, John! Sorry I didn’t get your message. Ginny mentioned something legal.»
«I thought you might have read about it.»
«What, for God’s sake?»
«We didn’t get much coverage in the New York papers, but wait’ll you read next Monday’s weekly. We’ll be celebrities.»
«What the hell are you talking about?»
«We were robbed Wednesday. Robbed and kidnapped and chloroformed and God knows what else!»
«You’re joking!
«The hell he is!» Osterman walked into the hallway. «How are you, Dick?»
«Bernie! How are you, buddy?» The men grasped hands, but Tremayne could not seem to take his attention from John Tanner.
«Did you hear what he said? Did you hear that? What happened, for Christ’s sake? I’ve been in town since Tuesday. Didn’t even have time to get home.»
«We’ll tell you all about it. Later. Let me get your drinks.» Tanner walked away rapidly. He couldn’t fault Tremayne’s reaction. The lawyer was not only shocked by what he’d heard, he was frightened. So much so that he had to make clear he had been gone since Tuesday.
Tanner made drinks for the Tremaynes and then went into the kitchen and looked out past his pool to the edge of the woods. Although there was no one in sight, he knew the men were there. With binoculars, with radios, probably with tiny speakers which magnified conversations taking place in any section of his house.
«Hey, John, I wasn’t kidding!» It was Tremayne walking into the kitchen. «Honest to God, I didn’t know anything about it. About Wednesday, I mean. Why the hell didn’t you reach me?»
«I tried. I even called a number on Long Island. Oyster Bay, I think.»
«Oh, shit! You know what I mean! You or Ali should have told Ginny. I’d have left the conference, you know that!»
«It’s over with. Here’s your drink.» Tremayne lifted the glass to his lips. He could drink any of them under any table.
«You can’t leave it like that. Why did you call me in the first place?»
Tanner, stupidly, wasn’t prepared for the question.
«I … I didn’t like the way the police handled it.»
«The police? Fat-cap MacAuliff?»
«I never talked to Captain MacAuliff.»
«Didn’t you give a statement?»
«Yes … yes, I did. To Jenkins and McDermott.»
«Where the hell was old law’n’order himself?»
«I don’t know. He wasn’t there.»
«Okay, Mac wasn’t there. You say Jenkins and McDermott handled it. Ali told me they were the ones who found you …»
«Yes. Yes, that’s what I was pissed-off about.»
«What?»
«I just didn’t like the way they handled it. At least I didn’t at the time. I’ve cooled it now. I was hot then, that’s why I tried to reach you.»
«What were you figuring? Police negligence? Abridged rights? What?»
«I don’t know, Dick! I just panicked, that’s all. When you panic you want a lawyer.»
«I don’t. I want a drink.» Tremayne held Tanner’s eyes. Tanner blinked—as a small boy defeated in a game of stare.
«It’s over with. Let’s go back inside.»
«Maybe we ought to talk later. Maybe you have some kind of case and I don’t see it.»
Tanner shrugged, knowing that Dick didn’t really want to talk later at all. The lawyer was frightened, and his fear arrested his professional instinct to probe. As he walked away, Tanner had the feeling that Tremayne was telling the truth about one aspect of Wednesday afternoon. He hadn’t been there himself.
But did he know who had been?
By six, the Cardones still hadn’t arrived. No one asked why; the hour passed quickly and if anyone was concerned he hid it well. At ten minutes past, Tanner’s eyes were drawn to a car driving slowly past his house. It was the Saddle Valley taxi, the sun causing intermittent, sharp flashes off the black enamel. In the rear window of the automobile he saw Joe Cardone’s face for a moment. Joe was making sure all the guests had arrived. Or were still there, perhaps.
Forty-five minutes later the Cardones’ Cadillac pulled into the driveway. When they entered the house it was obvious that Joe had had several drinks. Obvious because Joe was not a drinker, he didn’t really approve of alcohol, and his voice was just a degree louder than it might have been.
«Bernie! Leila! Welcome to the heart of the eastern establishment!»
Betty Cardone, prim, stoutish, Anglican Betty, properly added to her husband’s enthusiasm and the four of them exchanged embraces.
«Betty, you look adorable,» said Leila. «Joe, my God, Joe! How can a man look so healthy?… Bernie built a gym and look what I got!»
«Don’t you knock my Bernie!» said Joe, his arm around Osterman’s shoulder.
«You tell her, Joe.» Bernie moved towards Cardone’s wife and asked about the children.
Tanner started towards the kitchen, meeting Ali in the hallway. She carried a plate of hors d’oeuvres.
«Everything’s ready. We can eat whenever we want, so I’ll sit down for a while… Get me a drink, will you, dear?»
«Sure. Joe and Betty are here.»
Ali laughed. «I gathered that … What’s the matter, darling? You look funny.»
«No, nothing. I was just thinking I’d better call the studio.»
Ali looked at her husband. «Please. Everybody’s here now. Our best friends. Let’s have fun. Forget about Wednesday, please, Johnny.»
Tanner leaned over the tray of hors d’oeuvres and kissed her. «You’re dramatizing,» he said, remembering Fassett’s admonition. «I really do have to call the studio.»
In the kitchen, Tanner walked again to the window. It was a little after seven o’clock and the sun had gone down behind the tall trees in the woods. Shadows lay across the backyard lawn and the pool. And beyond the shadows were Fassett’s men.
That was the important thing.
As Ali had said, they were all there now. The best of friends.
The buffet of curry, with a dozen side dishes, was Ali’s usual triumph. The wives asked the usual questions and Ali slightly embossed the culinary answers—as usual. The men fell into the normal arguments about the relative merits of the various baseball teams and, in between, Bernie revealed further the humorous—and extraordinary—working methods of Hollywood television.
While the women cleared out the dining room, Tremayne took the opportunity to press Tanner on the robbery. «What the hell was it last Wednesday? Level with us. I don’t buy the burglary story.»
«Why not?» asked Tanner.
«It doesn’t make sense.»
«Nobody uses gas on anybody,» added Cardone. «Blackjacks, blindfolds, a shot in the head, maybe. Not gas.»
«Advanced thinking, perhaps. I’d rather it was a harmless gas than a blackjack.»