Tedone was right. The rain arrived in the night. It was about three a.m. when it started falling. Lulu was fast asleep with her head on my left shoulder, snoring softly. Me, I was lying there in bed wide awake. Couldn’t stop thinking about the Talmadge brothers, about who had wanted them dead and why.
I did doze off for a bit as the rain pattered outside, but I was wide awake again when Quasimodo announced the dawn. Got up, put on my silk target dressing gown, fed the fire in the bedroom fireplace and went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, rubbing my bleary eyes. Lulu followed me in there and nudged my leg with her head. I put down her 9Lives mackerel. Toasted a thick slice of Italian bread and slathered it with blackberry jam. Took a tray with my coffee and toast back to bed and dove under the covers as the fire warmed up the room and a chilly rain fell over Whalebone Cove.
I wondered where Merilee was right now. I wondered if she was deeply immersed in Brett. I wondered when I’d be able to disappear back into my own work. I did think about pulling the manuscript out of my briefcase and glancing through it, but there was no point. I was no longer back in the ’70s, living my sweet season of madness. I was living right here, right now with the Talmadge brothers. My mind couldn’t stop dwelling on their cousin, Jim Conley, the not-so-cool and collected resident trooper, and on sly, cagy Colin Fielding, and on the Hardy Boys, Tony and Gas. It was on Skip Rimer, Truman Mainwaring’s infuriated lover. It was on Donna Willis, the sturdy botanist who’d clashed repeatedly with Austin, and on Joanie and Sandy at the A&P and how they’d been fond of Austin, but not Annabeth McKenna.
Let me tell you, real life can be a genuine pain in the ass when all you want to do is get lost in your own alternative reality.
When I’d finished my coffee and toast I went into the bathroom and removed the bandage on my head. The wound looked clean and was healing nicely, although my shaved scalp was getting itchy and the staples were starting to feel annoyingly there, which I took as a sign that they were getting ready to come out. I showered and washed the wound carefully, patting it dry before I applied a fresh bandage. Then I stropped Grandfather’s razor, shaved and put on my six-ply shawl-collared cashmere cardigan over a viyella shirt and jeans. It was damp in the old farmhouse that morning. I couldn’t seem to get warm.
The bedside phone rang. The unlisted number. Yet again, I raced to pick it up, hoping it was Merilee calling from Budapest to tell me how much she missed me.
Yet again, it was Carmine Tedone. ‘Morning, Hoagy. Hope I didn’t wake you.’
‘Not a chance, Lieutenant. I’ve been up for hours.’
‘So have I. My wife elbowed me awake at two o’clock to tell me I was grinding my teeth in my sleep so loud that I was keeping her awake. I ended up spending half the night pacing the living-room carpet.’
‘They do have bite guards for that sort of thing.’
‘Yeah, I’ll be sure to put that right at the top of my list of priorities. So, listen, I got hold of that date you asked me for.’
‘That was fast. Did he give you any trouble?’
‘Not a bit. He was happy to help. Are you ready?’
‘Hang on just a sec. Let me get my notes.’ I fetched my notepad from the parlor and returned to the bedroom, leafing through it. ‘OK …’
‘Now are you ready?’
‘Good to go.’
We traded dates. And immediately fell silent after that.
‘You still there, Hoagy?’ Tedone said finally.
‘Still here,’ I said, my pulse quickening
‘I thought maybe you blacked out or something.’
‘No, I’m fine. Well, I’m not fine, but I’m fine. Tell me, do you have any free time today?’
‘You kidding? Aside from working the Talmadge double homicide and having the governor and the entire hierarchy of the state police breathing down my neck, I’ve got nothing but free time. In fact, I was thinking of scarfing up a Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast and then taking in a noon showing of Jurassic Park. Want to join me?’
‘Actually, I wanted to ask you for another small favor.’
He let out a pained sigh. ‘Can I tell you how much I’m already hating this? I feel like any moment now Deputy Superintendent Mitry’s going to lower the boom on me and I’ll be back in uniform working the Sunday-morning speed trap on I-395 in Killingly.’
‘Lieutenant …?’
‘What a crap detail that was. Standing out in the freezing cold, ticketing every poor slob for the crime of going sixty-six miles an hour when they came around a blind curve after a long, steep downhill stretch of highway. I swear, there’s not a living soul who could stay under sixty-five on that particular—’
‘Lieutenant …?’
‘If they try to send me back there, I’ll turn in my shield and go private with my cousin Pete. He’s been after me for years to partner up. No bosses. No red tape. No one breathing down your—’
‘Lieutenant …?’
‘WHAT?’
‘You don’t even know what I’m about to say.’
‘Like hell I don’t. You’re about to propose some whackadoodle end-around play and try to drag me into it.’
‘You want to catch your killer, don’t you?’
‘Of course, but on the off-chance that no one’s ever told you, there’s such a thing known as proper police procedure. If I don’t follow it to the letter then the case will never hold up in court.’
‘This will hold up. Not to worry. About that small favor …?’
‘My stomach is starting to hurt again.’
‘You need to chew on a couple of Gaviscons.’
‘I need for you to go back to New York City and stay there.’
‘Lieutenant, it’s very simple. You’re either in or you’re out. Which is it?’
‘In, in. I’m in,’ he said hurriedly. ‘What do you want me to do?’
I built a big fire in the parlor fireplace as the chilly rain continued to fall. I even closed off the hallway door to the master bedroom suite to make the parlor more toasty.
She arrived a socially correct ten minutes after her midday invitation, although I doubt that Miss Manners was much on her mind at that particular moment. She came in by way of the mudroom and took off her wet raincoat and hat, which I hung up in there for her.
‘I’d better take off my rain boots, too. They’re all muddy.’ They were rubber wellingtons – the only thing that did the job out there. ‘It was awfully nice of you to call,’ she added brightly.
‘And I made sure I picked a perfect day, didn’t I?’
She declined my offer of a sandwich but did say yes to tea.
I already had the kettle going and made us a pot of Earl Grey. ‘I’m afraid I don’t have any cookies to offer you.’
‘That’s quite all right. I’m not much for sweets. If I eat them I puff up like a blowfish.’
‘I find that very hard to believe’
‘You, sir, are one smooth talker,’ Annabeth McKenna said as she sat on the sofa in the parlor and put her feet up on the coffee table, the better to warm her toes in her black stockings. Her feet were small and slender. She had lean, muscled calves – a runner’s calves. There was absolutely nothing casual about her appearance, I noticed. She’d brushed out her lush mane of chestnut hair until it gleamed. Wore lipstick, eyeliner and eye shadow. Her charcoal-gray wool skirt and contrasting pale-gray cable-stitched sweater were extremely becoming. She’d even dabbed on some of that subtly intoxicating essential lavender oil. Her scent of choice.
I fetched the teapot and put it on a tray with mugs, spoons, a small pitcher of milk and jar of local honey. I set it on the coffee table and filled our mugs. She sat up and stirred milk and honey into hers, then sat back, put her feet back up on the coffee table and crossed her ankles, her stockings rustling. There’s something about the rustle of stockings that makes a man’s blood boil. Maybe that’s why women wear them. Maybe there’s no maybe about it.
I stirred milk and honey into my own tea and sat down next to her.
Lulu was curled up in the wing-backed chair next to the fireplace, the better to eye us guardedly.
‘I don’t think Lulu likes me,’ Annabeth observed, sipping her tea.
‘Why would you say that?’
‘Something about the way she keeps watching me.’
‘She regards you as a potential threat to her happy home, that’s all.’
Annabeth tilted her head at me curiously. ‘Am I?’
‘Are you what?’
‘A potential threat to your happy home.’
‘You certainly could be. You’re extremely attractive. My ex-wife is in Budapest. And we had a terrible fight before she left. Major ten-round bout.’
‘You and Merilee? May I ask what it was …?’ She stopped right there. ‘Please forgive me. It’s really none of my business.’
‘No, it’s OK, I don’t mind. It’s the same old fight that anyone who’s involved with a movie star always has. Kind of pathetic really, but there you have it.’
Annabeth frowned. ‘I’m not following you, I’m afraid.’
‘When a leading lady and leading man go away on location for months and their characters are supposed to be involved, then they get involved.’
She shook her head. ‘Sorry, I still don’t …’
‘She’s having an affair with Mel Gibson, OK?’
Annabeth’s penetrating brown eyes widened. ‘She’s not. I don’t believe it.’
‘Believe it. Hell, if I rattled off the list of leading men with whom she’s had affairs since I first met her, it would make your jaw drop. Why do you think I crash landed?’
‘Are you telling me that’s why you got into drugs and the two of you split up? Because she was sleeping around on you?’
‘I’m afraid so. We’ve managed to make it work again these past few months because she swore to me that it would never, ever happen again. But it was a big, fat lie. She hasn’t changed a bit. And I refuse to put myself through this humiliation all over again. So when she left for Budapest I told her that we’re history. It’s over.’
Annabeth studied me with concern. ‘This is such awful news – especially because you two seemed so happy together. I thought you might even be on the verge of a return trip to the altar.’
‘So did I,’ I said bitterly.
‘I’m sorry, Hoagy. Truly, truly sorry.’
‘No need to be. I’m a lot stronger now than I was ten years ago. I’ll go home to my crappy old fifth-floor walk-up on West 93rd Street, bolt the door and dive head-first back into my book. I’ll be fine.’
‘That sounds like a good plan. And if you don’t mind some professional advice, I’d stay away from self-medicating. If you start to feel overwhelmed by anger or despair, go to the gym. Or call someone. Call me.’
‘Thank you. That’s very kind of you. But there’s no need to worry. My self-medicating days are behind me.’
‘I’m glad to hear that.’ She sipped her tea, wiggling her toes inside her black stockings. ‘Sometimes I wish I weren’t such a goodie-goodie.’
‘Meaning …?
‘Meaning if I were a shameless slut bomb I’d try to steal you. I have the world’s hugest crush on you,’ she confessed, coloring slightly. ‘Surely you’ve sensed it. You’re very perceptive, not to mention kind, funny, talented and so handsome. You even smell good.’
‘It’s Floris No. 89 talc. You do, too. Smell good, I mean.’
‘Thank you, it’s—’
‘Essential lavender oil.’
‘How did you know that?’
‘Because you smell subtly of lavender yet you’re not making Lulu sneeze. She’s allergic to most alcohol-based scents.’
‘If I knew for certain that you were genuinely available I’d be all over you in a second. But I have this stubborn moral streak. I would never try to steal another woman’s man.’
‘Even if he wanted to be stolen?’
Those penetrating brown eyes of hers narrowed at me. ‘Deep down inside, I don’t think you do.’
‘Deep down inside, you happen to be wrong. I find you incredibly attractive, not to mention fascinating.’
A vein in her forehead started to throb faintly. ‘I … have to keep reminding myself that you’re still recovering from a concussion. How is your head wound anyhow?’
‘Fine. Or at least I think it is. I didn’t go to medical school.’
‘Well, I did. Here, let me have a look.’
‘You really don’t have to do that.’
‘Don’t be absurd. It’s no bother. Duck your head a little.’ She put her mug on the tea tray, sat up on her knees and raised an edge of the bandage. ‘The wound shows no sign of infection.’ She prodded the staples gently. ‘It’s healing nicely. They did a good job at Middlesex.’ She carefully tamped the bandage back down, stroking my hair – where I had hair –with the fingers of her right hand. Her left hand was resting on my thigh. She snuggled closer, curling up next to me with her feet underneath her and rested her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her, inhaling her scent while Lulu watched us from the chair on full alert.
‘This is nice,’ I said softly, gazing into the fire. ‘I could sit here like this all day.’
‘I feel the same way.’ Her voice was almost a whisper. ‘I like being with you. You make me feel so at ease.’
‘Good, I’m glad.’
‘I’m glad that you’re glad.’
‘That’s what makes this so hard.’
She raised her head from my shoulder, frowning. ‘Makes what so hard?’
‘That stubborn moral streak of yours …?’
‘What about it?’
‘You didn’t bat a thousand.’
‘I’m afraid I’m not particularly well versed in sports terminology. I don’t know what that means.’
‘It means that you lied to me the other day. Just a little lie in the grand scheme of things, but now that both Talmadge brothers are dead, it turns out it was actually pretty huge.’
Annabeth swallowed, her eyes probing mine. ‘What on earth are you talking about?
‘You told me that Austin was checked into McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Massachusetts five years ago when your husband, Paul, was killed while he was jogging early one Sunday morning by a hit-and-run driver. That was a lie. I spent a couple of hours at the library yesterday and found the police report of his death in the Monday, July eighteenth, 1988 edition of the New London Day. Paul was killed on Sunday, July seventeenth.’
‘You don’t have to remind me of the date.’
‘Actually, it seems that I do.’
Annabeth shook her head at me. ‘I still don’t understand where you’re going with this.’
‘According to Austin’s employment records with the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as the A&P, Austin was actually on the job in Old Lyme on the seventeenth of July, stocking shelves. He punched in at noon, according to the manager’s employee records. Frank had to dig pretty deep to find them, but those places never throw anything away. In fact, the records show that Austin kept showing up for work there until three days after Paul was killed.’
Her face tightened. ‘Meaning what exactly?’
‘Meaning Austin murdered Paul. What’s more, you knew he murdered him or you wouldn’t have lied to me that he was hospitalized at the time. Why did you lie to me?’
Annabeth didn’t answer me for a long moment. Just stared into the fire with a faraway look on her face. ‘Because I–I was ashamed,’ she finally stammered. ‘Am ashamed. I got Paul killed. It was my fault. I said something incredibly stupid to Austin during one of our sessions and I got Paul killed. I wake up every morning knowing that deep down in my soul.’
‘What was it that you said? Something that made Austin angry?’
‘Austin had admitted to me in our Friday therapy session that he’d stopped taking his Thorazine again. I warned him that he would have to go back to McLean if he didn’t resume taking it immediately. He became enraged with me because he actually enjoyed working at that store. He’d even made a couple of lady friends there.’
‘Joanie and Sandy, sure.’
She looked at me in surprise. ‘You know them?’
‘Absolutely. We’re pals. They told me they felt sorry for him.’
‘Me they hated. They thought I was a shrew because I’d come into the market and bawl him out for being rude. They thought he was a lonely sad sack. Had no idea that he was a seriously ill individual. Austin hated the Thorazine. Hated that it made him into such a fatso, as he put it. But he needed to be on it in order to function. In one of our sessions a few weeks earlier I’d suggested he try embarking on an exercise regimen. I mentioned, for example, that Paul liked to run the country roads near our house, especially early on Sunday mornings when very few cars were out. People in my profession are trained to be very careful about revealing any details about our personal lives. I should never, ever have said what I said.’
‘Sounds like a pretty harmless remark to me.’
‘It wasn’t. It was a fatally stupid mistake. Lyme’s a small village. Austin knew where we lived. And I knew that I was dealing with a patient who had a history of exhibiting violent behavior.’
‘Did Austin admit to you that he was responsible for Paul’s death?’
‘Never.’
‘There’s no chance that it was someone else, is there?’
‘No chance. Frank phoned me from the A&P not long after they took Paul’s body away to tell me that Austin had shown up late for work and was acting peculiar.’
‘Peculiar as in …?’
‘Agitated. Muttering to himself. Frank had to send him home for the day because he was disturbing the customers.’
‘The police report in the New London Day was pretty scant on details. Apparently no one saw it happen. The state police were hoping a witness might come forward. I take it that no one did. I also take it that you didn’t report Austin.’
She breathed in and out slowly. ‘I should have called Jim Conley and told him. It would have been the right thing to do. But I didn’t do the right thing. Instead, I called Michael.’
‘Why Michael? We’re talking vehicular homicide here, Annabeth. Austin murdered the father of your children.’
‘Do you honestly think I don’t realize that?’ Her eyes welled up with tears. ‘I called Michael because that’s what I’d been ordered to do when I took Austin on as a patient. That was the deal. If there was any kind of trouble, I was to call Michael. No one else. So I called him. I–I was a shattered wreck when I did. I’d just lost the great love of my life. Paul was … He was so kind, funny and sweet. You remind me of him sometimes.’
‘Please don’t say anything like that again.’
‘But it’s true,’
‘I don’t care. Please don’t say it.’
‘OK.’ She lowered her head back on to my shoulder, nestling close to me. ‘I did tell Michael we should inform the state police immediately that Austin was responsible for Paul’s death. He said, “We will do no such thing.” Furthermore, he said that if I did so on my own he’d see to it that I lost my position at Yale as well as my license to practice. Put yourself in my position, Hoagy. I was a grief-stricken thirty-seven-year-old woman who’d just lost her husband and had three small kids to support. What choice did I have? So I did what Michael told me to do. Continued to treat Austin and collect my million dollars a year.’
‘Annabeth, there’s something I really don’t understand.’
‘What is it?’
‘Michael was so utterly terrified of Austin that he couldn’t even be in the same room with him unless there were armed guards present. Wouldn’t he have welcomed the opportunity to have Austin arrested and put away for life? Wouldn’t he have wanted to be free of him?’
‘Austin was his kid brother. Family. And it was Michael’s responsibility to look after him, even if he was terrified of him. It sounds crazy, I know. But the Talmadges have never been like other people. Besides, they’re above the law. Austin would never have been charged with a crime or seen the inside of a jail. So I kept my mouth shut and sent him off to McLean.’
‘Did he go willingly?’
‘Far from it. Two of Michael’s bodyguards had to hold him down so I could shoot him up with Haldol. He was transported there by private ambulance.’
‘How often did it come up in your subsequent therapy sessions with Austin over the years?’
‘How often did what come up? What are we talking about now?’
‘The fact that he killed your husband. What do you think we’re talking about?
She let out a sigh. ‘I guess I was just hoping you’d changed the subject. I don’t find this a very pleasant one to talk about. Austin always pretended he had nothing to do with it. Told me he hoped I found out who was responsible for Paul’s death so that law and order would be served. He was very big into law and order, as you know.’
‘Why did he kill Paul?’
‘I already told you. He’d stopped taking his Thorazine. When I threatened him with a return trip to McLean he became enraged.’
‘I’m not buying it. You must have had that very same conversation dozens of times before. Why did he really do it?’
She snuggled there against me in silence for a long moment. ‘To show me that he was in charge.’
‘OK, that I can believe.’
‘Part of me died inside after that, I swear. I became like a zombie. Just kept on treating him and putting one foot in front of the other. He’d stay at McLean for weeks or months at a stretch, return home, stay on his meds, show up for work at the A&P and our therapy sessions. Then, inevitably, he’d stop taking his meds, stop showing up, grow increasingly erratic and have to be hospitalized. The pattern repeated itself over and over and over again until two years ago, when Frank told Michael that Austin was simply too disruptive and that he couldn’t allow him to work at the A&P anymore. Michael was dismayed, but it came as no surprise to me. Austin’s condition, despite my best efforts, was steadily deteriorating.’
‘Were you ever concerned that he would attack you?’
‘Never. He was too dependent on me.’
‘What about one of your children?’
‘I never, ever mentioned a single morsel of personal information about them. And I made sure they were never on their own after school. If I had to be in New Haven then my mother would pick them up and stay with them until I got home. Mind you, these past two years were less of an issue because he was away at McLean most of the time. Practically all of last year and most of this year, until just a few weeks ago.’
‘Which explains why I never saw him on patrol this summer when I was working on my novel in Merilee’s guest house. When I came out here last week he showed up almost instantly in his tricked-out police car, incredibly anxious to meet her. I just figured he was a goofball celebrity stalker with a serious personal hygiene problem, but Mr MacGowan warned me he was much more dangerous than that and told me to report the encounter. Next thing I knew the kitchen was full of Very Important People who were talking about “pulling the ripcord.”’
‘The matter was taken quite seriously,’ she acknowledged. ‘Merilee is a huge star and Austin, he wasn’t doing well. I don’t need to tell you that.’
‘No, you don’t.’
‘After Michael’s security team had reeled him in and brought him home to his private sanitarium, I had the substitute nurse, Eileen, knock him out with a heavy dose of Ambien, as I told you. Except he’d become incredibly adept over the years at pretending to swallow pills. Also at sneaking around. He managed to get out of a locked room without attracting the attention of Michael’s guards, their dog or me. Grabbed his clothes and took off.’
‘Are you sure you didn’t let him slip out?’
She raised her face to mine, puzzled. ‘Whatever do you mean?’
‘He had an awfully easy time getting away. It was almost as if you wanted him to escape.’
‘Not true, Hoagy. I had no idea that Austin had a copy of the key to his room. And I certainly had no idea that Captain Rundle of Troop F, who must have sawdust between his ears, would actually return Austin’s patrol car to the house and leave the keys in the ignition. Seriously, how stupid is that?’
‘Seriously? Very stupid. But, on the other hand, it did provide you with a golden opportunity to do what you’d been wanting to do for years – avenge Paul’s death.’
She blinked at me in utter shock. ‘You think I’m the person who slashed Austin’s throat?’
‘No, I don’t think it. I know it. When I was ghosting Hollywood memoirs I learned quite a few things about the dark side of human nature. The single most important one I learned was that if a person lied to me from the get-go, that it was no fluke. It was who they really were, and that they would lie to me again and again. Lie to me whenever it furthered their personal agenda – which, in your particular case, happens to be covering up the fact that it was you who followed us up that mountain, cut Austin’s throat from ear to ear and shoved him over the safety railing into the gorge below. You lied to me from the get-go, Annabeth. You told me that Austin was hospitalized at McLean when Paul was killed. He wasn’t. That lie? That told me who you really are.’
She lowered her gaze, her face reddening. ‘Here I thought we were having a friendly conversation, maybe even a bit more than friendly, and it turns out that you invited me over to accuse me of murder. I truly don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about.’
‘See? You’re lying again right now. You do know what I’m talking about. Don’t bother to deny it, because that will just be another lie and we’ll keep going around and around in circles. When you were nice enough to drop off that delicious chicken noodle soup, you mentioned you’d been stuck in traffic on the Q Bridge in New Haven at the time of Austin’s murder. You said you’d been clearing off your desk at the med school that day.’
‘So?’
‘So I phoned my old Cambridge pal T.J. That would be Dr Thomas Joshua to you, whose office is right down the hall from yours. He told me he was in his office the entire day working on a book review that some scholarly journal had asked him to write. I said to him, hey, the writing thing is mine. Get off of my cloud. And he—’
‘Is there a point to this?’ she asked with a slight edge in her voice.
‘He swore to me he didn’t catch so much as a glimpse of you that day. In fact, he told me he hardly sees you at all anymore, and when he does you seem very somber. He’s been wondering if you’re doing OK, which it so happens you’re not. T.J. could tell. He has a razor-sharp mind, I understand.’
‘Is there a point to this?’ she repeated, this time with a much harder edge.
‘As a favor for a rowdy old friend – that would be me – he called Dr Prakesh, the psychiatrist who has the office directly across the hall from yours. Then he called me back five minutes later. Guess what? She didn’t see you in your office that day either, the reason being that you were never there. That was a lie. Yet another lie.’
I paused, waiting for Annabeth to contradict me. She didn’t. She didn’t so much as say a word. Just sat there, breathing in and out.
So I plowed ahead. ‘You do have my sympathy, you know. Austin murdered your soul mate. But you and I both know that you weren’t stuck in traffic on the Q Bridge in New Haven at the time of Austin’s death. You were high atop Mount Creepy with a hunting knife in your hand and Austin Talmadge’s steaming-hot blood all over you. So why don’t you just come clean? I can help you. The governor’s fixer, Colin Fielding, likes me for some reason. He told me if I ever needed a favor to give him a call. He’s a former spook. I guarantee he can make all of this disappear. But if you keep lying to me, I can’t help you. And I want to help you. You see, it so happens that I’ve grown rather fond of you.’ Her eyes searched mine. There was hope in them. Desperate hope. ‘More than fond, actually. The truth is that I’m absolutely crazy about you,’ I confessed as Lulu grumbled at me unhappily from the wing-backed chair.
Annabeth studied me curiously. ‘You’re a strange one. First you accuse me of being a pathological liar and murderer, then you tell me you’ve fallen for me.’
‘No one’s ever accused me of being normal. Go ahead, ask around.’
‘I don’t have to,’ Annabeth said softly. ‘Because I’ve fallen for you, too.’ She raised her face to mine and kissed me lightly on the lips. Her mouth tasted sour despite the honey she’d been drinking in her tea. She took my hand and held it, squeezing it tightly. Hers was ice cold. ‘Jim Conley phoned me at the sanitarium to tell me that Austin had just shot Truman Mainwaring at the beach club and then had gone roaring out of there. I knew immediately he’d flee to his mountain to hide. It was his safe place. So I drove straight home – the kids were still at school – changed into hiking boots, jeans and an old wool mackinaw shirt of Paul’s and drove to Talmadge State Park. I parked my Volvo around the bend a good distance from the parking lot and was hiding in the brush near the entrance, waiting, until he showed up just like I knew he would – although I sure wasn’t expecting to see you with him.’
‘He didn’t exactly give me a choice.’
‘I had no idea what to do about you. I certainly didn’t want to kill you. Fortunately, Austin took care of that for me when he knocked you out and buried you in that root cellar, which I considered a genuine blessing.’
‘That makes one of us,’ I said, as Lulu grunted sourly. ‘Make that two.’
‘I followed you up there to the ruins, making sure I kept a good, safe distance behind you.’
‘It was you who Lulu smelled. It’s a good thing for you that you weren’t wearing any of your essential lavender oil that day. If you had been she would have recognized your scent when you stopped by here with that chicken noodle soup and started barking her head off.’ I glanced over at her in her chair. She had an extremely alert, watchful expression on her face. ‘Everything went blank for me once Austin conked me over the head and entombed us in that root cellar. Tell me, what happened after that?’
‘He kept hiking his way up through the ruins of the old farm. I caught up with him and called out his name. He was utterly horrified to see me. “Go away! I don’t want you here!” he screamed at me. “I’m your doctor, Austin,” I said. “You’re sick. You have to come back with me.” He refused. Kept right on hiking, panting for breath, sweat pouring down his face. He was toting some kind of duffel bag. I stayed with him, stride for stride. “I’m never coming back and don’t try to make me!” he warned me. Then he pulled his gun on me and said, “I don’t want to kill you but I will.” I said, “Like you killed Paul, you mean?” We’d reached the railing next to the falls by then. “Sure, I killed Paul,” he confessed. “He was asking for it. He had a beautiful wife, three healthy kids. He was happy. He was smart. He deserved to die. Every person on the planet who’s happy and smart deserves to die. I hate them all. I hate you.” He kept on ranting. I let him rant. Just walked slowly toward him, staying calm and non-threatening. Whenever I hike in the woods I always carry a folding hunting knife in the back pocket of my jeans. Paul gave it to me in case I ever encountered a coyote or rabid raccoon in the woods. I keep it razor sharp. “It’s going to be OK, Austin,” I said gently. “I promise you it’ll be OK.” He’d exhausted himself enough by then that he let me approach him and put my hands on his shoulders.’
‘And then?’
Annabeth stared into the fire. ‘And then I spun him around, whipped out my knife and slit his throat from ear to ear,’ she said in a voice utterly devoid of emotion. ‘He wasn’t hard to kill. Didn’t even put up a fight. Besides, I’m strong. I do an hour of weights every day, don’t forget. He bled out fast once I’d severed his carotid artery. Then I leaned him up against the railing, picked up his legs and shoved him over the side. He was already dead by the time he landed in the stone gully at the base of the falls.’
‘How did it feel? Any regrets?’
‘None. It was payback, Hoagy. It was justice. In fact, a feeling of incredible calm came over me as I started back down the mountain trail the way I came. And it’s stayed with me ever since. I’ve never slept better.’
‘Still, you must have gotten Austin’s blood all over you.’
‘I did get some on my hands and face, which I washed off in a stream along with my knife. Also on Paul’s mackinaw shirt, which I wadded up just in case I ran into someone on the trail. The rest of my clothes were fine. When I got back down to the base of the mountain I heard voices and realized that Jim Conley had already set up a command post in the parking lot and recruited the volunteer fire department’s search and rescue team. They’d found Austin’s car, I gathered. I was glad I’d parked a good distance away. I got off the trail at once and made my way as quietly as I could through the brush in the direction of my car. When I finally managed to reach the paved road, I found it parked on the shoulder less than a hundred yards away. I got in and sped away, unnoticed. I made it home well before my mom brought the kids home from their after-school team sports. I buried Paul’s mackinaw shirt in the woods out behind the house. Then I took a shower and washed my hair thoroughly just to make sure there was no trace of Austin’s blood on me. I put on clean clothes, threw the ones I’d been wearing in the washing machine and started a load of laundry. By the time my mom brought the kids home I was seated at my desk, calmly working away in my home office.’ She stroked my leg, gazing at me with warm affection. ‘You want to know something? It feels incredibly cathartic to be telling you all of this. It’s almost as if it’s bringing us closer together. We’re sharing something that no one else knows. I want you to know. It matters to me, dear. You don’t mind if I call you that, do you?’
‘You can call me anything you want,’ I said, gently caressing her cheek with the back of my hand.
She took my hand, kissed it, and held it against her cheek. ‘When Austin’s body was found the next morning with you and Lulu right near him, not in great shape, but alive, my heart soared with relief.’ She swallowed. ‘Until two days later, that is.’
‘Why, what happened then?’
‘I got a phone call from Michael. He knew that I’d killed Austin, of course.’
‘How?’
‘Because he was Michael. The man knew everything, I swear.’
‘How do you know he wasn’t just bluffing?’
‘Because he told me he was in possession of a bloody mackinaw shirt. I asked him to hold on for a moment and ran out the back door. Sure enough, someone had dug up Paul’s mackinaw and taken it.’
‘Who?’
‘Hoagy, I truly don’t know.’
I mulled it over. ‘It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Colin Fielding keeps an old spook buddy on retainer to do his dirty work for him. Fielding has forty billion reasons to keep Michael happy. As long as Michael’s happy, the governor’s happy. Whoever the guy was, he must have tailed you home from Mount Creepy. What did Michael say to you when you got back on the phone? Did he intend to turn you in to the police?’
‘Oh, heavens, no. He had something much more insidious in mind. He intended to hold it over me.’
‘Hold it over you how?’
‘He wanted me to marry him.’
‘You’re kidding me.’
‘Trust me, I’m not. He said he’d been drawn to me for a long, long time. He thought I was lovely, spirited and warm-hearted. Someone he felt comfortable with. He told me that he would enjoy nothing more than to help me raise my children and to make them happy. Make all of us happy. And that if I accepted his proposal he’d never breathe a word to anyone about what I’d done to Austin.’
‘Unreal.’
‘No, absolutely, totally, one hundred percent real.’
‘So what was your response?’
‘Total shock, at first. Then I wanted to laugh. The idea of me marrying that pale, trembling scarecrow was utterly preposterous. Just the thought of seeing him naked made me shudder. But it would not have been wise to insult him, and I knew it, so I said, “This is much too important to talk about on the phone.” He agreed and suggested I drop by later that night. We could talk candidly because we’d be all alone. Connie Pike always went home after she’d finished his dinner dishes and he’d dismissed his security detail and sent them on their way.’
‘OK, now this part starts to make some sense.’
‘What part?’
‘He stopped by here when I came home from the hospital to apologize on behalf of his family for what had happened to Lulu and me. I figured he’d be relieved that his life-long nemesis of a kid brother was dead. Far from it. He was still utterly terrified. Trembling same as ever. When I asked him why, he told me he was convinced that Austin’s killer would come after him next. But then he turned right around the next day and dismissed his security detail. He even treated the guys to a trip to New Orleans. Which made no sense, but now it does. Because when he came to see me he didn’t know it was you who’d killed Austin. Fielding’s spook hadn’t dug up Paul’s bloody mackinaw from your yard yet. Perhaps you’d been sticking around the house a lot and didn’t give him the opportunity.’
‘I did stay close to home, now that you mention it.’
‘It’s also possible that Fielding and the governor had to strategize about whether or not Michael would be better off knowing or not knowing – strictly as it related to the governor’s own political health and well-being. Once they decided to tell him, Michael promptly dismissed his security detail. He felt he no longer had any reason to be afraid. He certainly had no reason to fear you. After all, he intended to marry you, right?’
‘That’s right. I said I could come over after the kids went to bed, at perhaps ten o’clock, unless that was too late. He said no, it would be fine. He usually retired early but for me he would wait up, and leave the front gate open.’
‘You drove over there last night after the kids went to bed?’
‘I did.’
‘They didn’t hear you leave?’
‘My oldest, Max, did. I told him I was restless and felt like taking a drive down to the beach to look at the moon over the water the way his dad and I used to. Max thought nothing of it. They’re so self-absorbed at that age. When I arrived at Michael’s, the front gate was open and there were no more ex-Green Berets around, just as he’d said. I rang the doorbell. He opened the front door dressed in an old flannel bathrobe, pajamas and slippers, which I found profoundly weird but …’
‘He was a Talmadge.’
‘Indeed. If he chose to greet me in his jammies, so be it. He said, “Welcome, my dear. This is a momentous day for both of us, is it not?” I agreed that it was. I was wearing an old dress that I’d been meaning to get rid of. It’s very low cut, not that I have a lot to show off.’
‘You’ve got plenty to show off.’
She kissed my cheek. ‘You’re so sweet. I made sure I unbuttoned my coat before I rang the doorbell so he’d get a good look. I also made sure I dabbed on a great deal of essential lavender oil so that he’d think I was in a romantic mood.’
‘Which was a huge mistake on your part.’
She furrowed her brow at me curiously. ‘How so?’
‘Lulu picked up the scent out on the driveway, followed it up the front steps to the door and raised quite a ruckus.’
‘But I’m wearing it right now. Why didn’t she start barking her head off the second I walked in the door?’
I glanced over at her again in her chair. She had that same alert, watchful expression on her face. ‘Because she knows I invited you here. She’s being cagy. Very cagy.’
‘Not possible. Dogs aren’t capable of that level of cognition.’
‘We’re going to pretend we didn’t hear you say that,’ I responded. ‘Mind you, when I was standing there on Michael’s front porch, it did occur to me that the scent she’d picked up was the Deet that Donna Willis was wearing when we paid a call on her. Donna practically drowns herself in it when she goes into the woods. She’s had Lyme disease twice and is afraid of getting it again. Plus she has serious anger-management issues and detested Austin. Only, Donna had no reason to kill Michael. In fact, she even liked the guy.’
‘They’d met?’
‘Corresponded. She thought he was very nice. A gentleman.’
‘He was a mean bastard,’ Annabeth said coldly.
‘OK, so you were standing there in the mean bastard’s doorway wearing your sexy low-cut dress with your coat unbuttoned, smelling as if you were in the mood for romance. What happened next?’
‘He ushered me inside and helped me off with my coat. My knife was in my coat pocket. Since we didn’t actually have anything to talk about, I didn’t bother to waste any time. Slit his throat from ear to ear right there in the entry hall. Once I’d severed his carotid artery he was gone very fast.’
‘Where are they?’
‘Where are what, dear?’
‘The fingernail scratches. The M.E. said he found skin and blood under Michael’s nails.’
She glanced down at her chest. ‘He did claw at me a bit, but it was more of a reflex than anything else. He didn’t actually put up a fight. He was exactly like Austin in that regard. He didn’t want to be alive either. After he fell to his knees and flopped over on to his back on the hallway floor I grabbed a handkerchief from my coat pocket and wiped the blood off of the knife and my hands. I stepped my way carefully back out the door, making sure I left no bloody footprints, then I used a clean second handkerchief to open and close it. Before I got in the car I took off my bloody coat and dress and changed into the old sweater and jeans I’d brought with me. Then I wadded up the coat, dress and handkerchiefs and wrapped them in a newspaper.’
‘What did you do with them?’
‘A mile or so down the hill from Michael’s place I pulled off on to the shoulder of the road and got out. There’s a very deep ravine in the woods there. I hurled them down there. The leaves are falling so fast now that I’m certain they’re already covered over. No one will ever find them.’
‘Fielding’s spook will, if Fielding asks him to search for them.’ I tugged at my ear. ‘But I’m guessing he won’t. No, I feel certain that Fielding and the governor will keep their mouths shut. These are ruthless men. Politics isn’t bean bag.’
‘Politics isn’t what?’
‘The governor will pridefully collect Michael’s billions on behalf of the state and Michael’s dreams for public education and health care will come true. Should you attempt to implicate him in any way, shape or form the governor will simply shrug and say he has no idea what you’re talking about. Who do you think the state police will believe – a woman who has just savagely murdered Connecticut’s two wealthiest citizens, or the esteemed governor of the state?’
Annabeth didn’t respond. Just stared into the fire in taut silence.
‘Were there many cars out on the road at that time of night?’
She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. ‘I didn’t encounter a single car on my way home. When I got there the kids were fast asleep. All was quiet and peaceful. I took a long, hot shower, climbed into bed and lay there, feeling the most profound sense of accomplishment. I’d done what I had to do to protect my family. If I’d refused Michael’s proposal he would have destroyed me for killing Austin. Made sure that I was locked away for life and that my kids were taken away from me. There was no way I could allow that to happen. If I’d accepted his proposal – well, it was utterly inconceivable that I’d accept his proposal. He’d left me with no choice, really.’ She held my hand to her soft cheek for a moment before she kissed it and said, ‘But now I have to decide what to do with you, dear. You present me with a much different dilemma. I’m madly in love with you, yet you know everything there is to know. Can pick up the phone today, tomorrow or two years from now and tell the police that I confessed to murdering the Talmadge brothers. I’m so incredibly torn. I truly can’t decide whether to kill you or get naked with you.’
‘I vote for getting naked. We’d have a huge amount of fun and I’d end up alive afterward. I can offer you flannel sheets, a wood-burning fireplace and an unparalleled view of Whalebone Cove out of the master suite’s French doors, not that I’m trying to sound like a realtor.’
Annabeth gazed at me, her eyes glittering. She was not only beautiful but incredibly desirable at that moment. I can’t explain why. She’d just shared the details of how she’d killed two people. Was talking out loud about killing a third person – me. Yet I wanted her more at that moment than I’d wanted any woman other than Merilee in a long time. ‘They’re not panty hose,’ she informed me. ‘My stockings, that is to say.’
‘And you’re telling me this because …?’
‘In case your tongue might be feeling adventuresome, which it is. I’ve aroused you. Would you like to know how I can tell?’
‘Desperately.’
‘Because I’m aroused, too. In fact, I’ve never been so aroused in my entire life.’ She turned sideways on the sofa and raised her wool skirt, the better to show me that her black stockings were indeed thigh highs. Then she lay back, opened her legs wide and raised her heels up off of the sofa.
‘Just out of curiosity, are you wearing panties?’
‘It so happens that I’m not.’
‘I’ve always noticed that about you Yalies. When you want something you’re very direct about it. Don’t beat around the bush, as it were.’
‘Well, are you just going to sit there or what?’
I didn’t bother to answer her. Not out loud, anyhow. I turned and knelt before her. Reached my palms underneath her and cupped her bare, firm butt cheeks in my hands. Her skin was incredibly smooth. She reached for me, put her hands gently behind my bandaged head and lowered it slowly between her legs. Ever so slowly … slowly … until …
Until I felt the point of a knife against the exposed skin of my neck. Her damned folding knife. She must have tucked it inside of her sweater’s thick wristband.
I raised my head up, exceedingly carefully, and said, ‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m sorry, Hoagy.’ She sat back up, holding the open blade against my throat as I knelt there before her. ‘You have no idea how sorry. I want you so badly right now I’m soaking wet, I swear.’
‘Thanks for sharing that little detail but—’
‘I’m afraid that you have to die, too, dear. There’s no other way. I simply can’t trust you. I feel terrible about this, especially because you’ll never get to finish your novel. I know how much that means to you.’ She kissed me softly again. It was a goodbye kiss. Her lips still tasted sour. And then, with savage quickness, she grabbed my head and spun it halfway around as she went for my left ear with the knife’s razor-sharp blade.
That was when Lulu dove across the coffee table and sank her teeth deeply into Dr Annabeth McKenna’s right wrist. Annabeth let out a shriek as the knife fell to the floor and screamed in pain as Lulu clamped her wrist between her powerful jaws, growling ferociously.
That was also when the hallway door swung open and Lieutenant Carmine Tedone, who’d been standing behind the door missing none of this, rushed in with his weapon drawn. He kicked the knife farther away. ‘All good, pal?’
‘All good, Lieutenant. It’s OK, Lulu, you can let go now. Good girl.’ I patted her head. ‘Good girl. Let go.’
Lulu released her hold on Annabeth’s wrist and backed off, still growling, her eyes never leaving Annabeth.
‘Your dog bit me!’ she howled, gaping at me in shock and pain.
‘You didn’t really think she was just going to sit idly by and watch you do me bodily harm, did you?’
‘Besides, if she hadn’t bit you I would have put a bullet in your brain,’ Tedone said. ‘So consider yourself lucky.’
‘I know I sure do,’ I said. ‘There aren’t many things I can count on in this life but one of them is my fierce protector.’ I patted her again and told her she could relax now – the danger had passed. She let out a low whoop, her tail thumping. ‘She’s up to date on her shots, by the way, so there’s no need to worry, Annabeth. You won’t get any more rabid than you already are.’
‘But it hurts!’ Annabeth cried out, her face contorting in pain.
‘Yeah, those deep puncture wounds can be a real bitch,’ Tedone said sympathetically. ‘Just hang on. I’ll have an ambulance here in five minutes and the EMT can give you a shot of something.’
He reached for the phone on Merilee’s writing table to phone it in while I fetched some ice cubes from the freezer and wrapped them in a dishtowel. I also stopped off in the mudroom to fetch Annabeth’s panties from the pocket of her raincoat. They were black silk, in case you were wondering. I know I was.
‘Here you go,’ I said, pressing the ice pack against her wrist. ‘Do you need help with your panties?’
She looked at me blankly. ‘Do I what?’
‘Your panties. Can you put them on with one hand?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said indignantly, her cheeks mottling as she tucked her stocking feet into them and slid them up her legs one-handed, raising her butt up off of the sofa so she could wriggle into them.
Tedone finished his call and hung up the phone, watching her. ‘You’re a distinguished psychiatric professional,’ he said, shaking his head at her. ‘Where is your dignity?’
‘My dignity?’ She let out a mocking laugh. ‘I lost my dignity the day I met the Talmadges.’
‘The ambulance will be here right away, along with two state troopers.’ He pulled a latex glove and plastic evidence bag from the back pocket of his trousers and bagged and tagged the knife.
‘Did you hear everything?’ I asked him.
He nodded. ‘Every word.’
‘I’ll deny it,’ she said as she held the ice pack against her wrist.
‘You can try, but it won’t do you any good.’ I retrieved my microcassette recorder from the kindling basket where I’d hidden it. It has a lot of mileage on it from my ghosting days, but is still top grade and amazingly powerful.
‘I’m not exactly a stranger to a courtroom, you know,’ Annabeth said, climbing up on her high horse. ‘I’ve been asked countless times to provide expert testimony about a criminal defendant’s mental fitness to stand trial. You’ve just recorded me without my knowledge or consent. That makes it inadmissible in court.’
‘Who do you think you’re fooling, lady?’ Tedone said brusquely. ‘Your case will never go to court. It’ll be handled very discreetly in a judge’s chambers, where you’ll plead guilty by reason of insanity and be remanded to the psychiatric wing of York Correctional, our illustrious state’s maximum-security women’s prison, for the next twenty or thirty years. Your mother will have to raise your kids from now on. Maybe they’ll come visit you. Then again, maybe they won’t want to when they find out what a monstrous lunatic you are. Hell, you’re almost crazy enough to be a Talmadge.’
‘You’re one cold-hearted bastard,’ she said, raising her voice at him.
Which was enough to prompt Lulu to start growling at her again from the foot of the sofa.
Annabeth drew in her breath. ‘Keep her away from me,’ she pleaded.
I led her into the kitchen for her reward. ‘You saved my life, Lulu,’ I said as I fed her one, two, three anchovies. ‘You’re a genuine heroine. Why, they make movies about dogs like you. Just wait until Mommy hears about this. She’ll be so proud of what a brave girl you are. Tell you what, first thing we’ll do when we get back to the city is head to the Oyster Bar in Grand Central for a pan roast.’ The pan roast in Grand Central’s Oyster Bar was her favorite food in the whole world. ‘How does that sound?’
She didn’t respond, which wasn’t her style at all. I bent down to give her a belly rub, but she didn’t want a belly rub, which wasn’t her style either. Instead, she sat up and raised her bandaged paw the way a dog does when it shakes hands. But that wasn’t what she wanted either. She wanted me to sit down on the kitchen floor with her so that she could climb into my lap and lick my face. I put my arms around her and hugged her as she whimpered softly. ‘Hey, we’re OK, girl. We’re both OK. Yes, we are.’
I was saying a few more things to her that I won’t bother to repeat here when the ambulance came speeding up the gravel driveway trailed by two silver Crown Vics. I got up and let them in through the front door. The EMT gave Annabeth a shot of novocaine and put a temporary bandage around her wrist. Also wrote down Lulu’s rabies vaccination number from her tag and the name of her veterinarian in New York City. The two huge state troopers stood there in their rain slickers with Tedone, watching.
‘Would you mind getting my raincoat and boots, please?’ Annabeth asked me.
‘Sure, no problem.’
‘Search the pockets,’ Tedone ordered one of the troopers. ‘And cuff her. I want you riding to the hospital with her the whole way.’
After the trooper had searched the pockets of her coat – and found nothing but her wallet and keys – he helped her to her feet, draped it around her shoulders and held her steady while she stepped into her rubber Wellingtons. Then he cuffed her left wrist, the one that Lulu hadn’t sunk her teeth into, to his own right wrist.
‘You’ll be fine,’ I said to her as they started for the door together. ‘You just got mixed up with a family that was a good, solid three hundred years’ worth of deranged. Take care of yourself, OK?’
Annabeth McKenna said nothing in response. Didn’t even look at me as the trooper escorted her outside into the rain with the EMT leading the way. While they got settled in the back of the van, the other trooper hustled out to his cruiser to serve as escort to the Shoreline Clinic. And then off they went, sirens blaring.
Tedone and I stood there in silence for a moment, emotionally spent, before I said, ‘Thanks for backing my play, by the way.’
‘No problem. It wasn’t what I’d call a conventional play, but it got the job done.’
‘Seriously, what’ll happen to her?’
‘Seriously? Exactly what I said. No way she’ll put her kids through the ordeal of a trial. She’ll quietly cop to an insanity plea and take up residence in York’s criminal psych ward. Kind of a strange place for a Yale School of Medicine professor of psychiatry to find herself living, but it’s been my experience that the world’s getting stranger and stranger lately.’
‘I’ve noticed that, too.’
‘You’ve had yourself quite a week. You OK?’
‘Who, me? I’m fine.’
‘C’mon, I’ll drive you up to Meriden and take your formal statement. Why don’t you wait here while I fetch my cruiser? No sense in both of us getting wet.’ He’d stashed it in the barn before Annabeth got there. He started for the door, then stopped. ‘I’ve got to say, you showed some real nerve taking her on in that way.’
‘I felt sorry for her more than anything else.’
‘Don’t kid a kidder, Hoagy. She murdered two people and was more than ready to murder you, too. You telling me you weren’t scared shitless?’
‘Little bit.’
‘Oh, hey, that’s not true about Miss Nash and Mel Gibson is it?’
‘No, Lieutenant, I made that part up.’
‘Good, because my wife would be crushed.’
We both had oyster pan roasts. We ate at the counter. Always do.
As an appetizer I had nine blue points that I squirted with lemon juice and Tabasco sauce and washed down with a spicy Bloody Mary, which is my drink of choice whenever I eat raw oysters. I wore my pigskin driving cap so that I wouldn’t have to explain my head wound to Tony, the counter man, who’d been there since VJ day and was just as delighted to see us as we were to see him.
When he asked me about Lulu’s bandaged paws I explained that she’d tussled with a badger on Merilee’s farm. ‘And that was one sorry badger, let me tell you.’
‘You don’t have to,’ Tony assured me. ‘Lulu’s street tough.’
‘You bet she is.’
It was a bit after nine p.m. when I settled our tab and Lulu and I strolled our way out of Grand Central, me dragging on a Chesterfield that I’d lit with Grandfather’s Varaflame lighter, the one that had helped save both of our lives. We caught a cab home, the night-time air in the city feeling uncommonly mild after being in the country.
I’d already taken care of business when we’d arrived home that afternoon. Unpacked my clothes and shaving kit. Deposited my baskets of apples and pears from Merilee’s trees in the kitchen along with Mr MacGowan’s jug. Parked my Olympia, my manuscript, notepads and that all-important wad of prescription pad notes on the Stickley library table in my office, gazing out the windows at my view of Central Park. I’d also scheduled appointments for later in the week to get the staples removed from my skull and have Lulu’s paws checked.
It was my intention to resume my daily writing routine first thing in the morning. So when we got home from the Oyster Bar I turned out the lights, brushed my teeth, refused to floss, stripped down to my boxers and climbed into bed with Mrs Parker, listening to the comforting sounds of Central Park West sixteen floors below. Lulu’s tail thumped as she lay sprawled out next to me on the huge bed. She was happy to be home, especially with an oyster pan roast in her tummy.
When the phone rang I lunged for it, hoping it was Merilee.
It was Colin Fielding. ‘Sorry I wasn’t able to touch base with you in Lyme earlier today,’ he said in that slightly nasal voice of his. ‘Just wanted to say thank you on the governor’s behalf for the low-key way you handled everything.’
‘I wish I could say it was my pleasure, but I’m afraid I can’t.’
‘I know you can’t. This has been quite an ordeal for you. If I can ever lend a hand, don’t hesitate to call, OK? Things happen. Unexpected things. I can be a valuable person to know.’
‘I don’t doubt that for one second.’
‘I like the way you operate. If you’re ever in the market for some freelance political consulting work …’
‘I won’t be.’
‘Still, I’m going to keep your contact information in my Rolodex.’
‘You do that,’ I said before I hung up.
It rang again immediately. I was expecting it to be Colin Fielding pressing his case harder.
It wasn’t. It was Merilee. ‘Hoagy? My agent just called me with the news.’ There was static on the line but the connection was strong. ‘Annabeth killed Austin and Michael? I can’t believe it!’
‘Believe it. And she would have killed me, too, if it hadn’t been for your brave little girl.’
‘I hope you let her know how grateful you are.’
‘You bet. I just took her to the Oyster Bar for a pan roast.’
Merilee fell silent for a second. ‘I don’t even want to think that you almost …’
‘That I almost what?’
‘I’d just hate to lose you now that I’ve found you again.’
‘That makes two of us. Or I should say three,’ I said after a low moan from Lulu.
‘Darling, why did I have to hear about it from my agent? Why didn’t you call me?’
‘Because I didn’t want to distract you. Besides, I figured you’d hear about it soon enough.’
‘It’s just all so … so hard to imagine. Annabeth seemed like such a decent person.’
‘She may have been a decent person once, but she wasn’t one anymore. She was warped, twisted and incredibly dangerous. But enough about her. How’s the film coming?’
‘Well, I spoke to my director. Bluntly, just like Kate told me to.’
‘And …?
‘And he was thoroughly intimidated. He’s terrified I’ll bail if I don’t get my way and that the picture will lose its financing. From now on I’m playing Brett the way I see her. So she feels real to me.’
‘Good for you, Merilee. I’m proud of you.’
‘I couldn’t have done it without you, darling.’
‘I think Kate had a little something to do with it.’
‘Ix-nay on the Ate-kay.’
‘Ah, your Hungarian sounds as if it’s improving by leaps and bounds.’
‘It was you, darling. You inspire me. I want you to be proud of me. Don’t you know how much you mean to me? Oh, God, listen to me. It’s the middle of the night and I’m babbling.’
‘I love it when you babble.’
‘I’m just so happy that you’re safe. And you must be thrilled to be back in the city. You’ll start working again?’
‘First thing tomorrow morning. I’ve gone over those notes that I made on Dr Eng’s prescription pad when I was still semi out of it and they’re the real deal.’
‘This would be your so-called Third Level?’
‘I actually mentioned it out loud?’
‘You did. I thought you were delirious.’
‘I wasn’t. It was a major breakthrough. So major, in fact, that I think from now on I should plan on getting a major whack on the back of my skull every ten years.’
‘How about if we discuss that in ten years?’ She yawned hugely. ‘I have a six a.m. make-up call. Hanging up now. Love you.’
‘Love you, Merilee.’
The line went dead. I lay there in total contentment for a moment. Thought about reading Mrs Parker, then decided to just say goodnight to Lulu, turn out the light, close my eyes and go to sleep.
I lasted there that way for all of thirty seconds.
Got up and went into the kitchen to put the espresso on. Rummaged around in the bedroom for an old T-shirt, torn jeans, my flight jacket and Chippewas. Returned to the kitchen and poured myself a steaming mug of espresso before I headed down the hall to my office. I cranked up my original vinyl Rockaway Beach by the Ramones on my stereo – not too loud so as not to annoy the upstairs neighbors. Sat down at my desk and sipped my espresso, gazing out the windows at the city that never sleeps. As I rolled a fresh piece of paper into my Olympia, Lulu wandered in and curled up in her Morris chair under that incredible Hopper painting of the craggy Maine coastline.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, pausing to savor this moment. And then, with a great big smile on my face, I went back to work.
I was me again.