Amagansett

Forty-One

The following days passed in a blur of lawyers and seemingly endless debriefings by men from the DA’s office as everyone shouldered in looking for a slice of the cake. A pack of newshounds descended on East Hampton. Most were obliged to sleep in their cars, the inns and boarding houses already at capacity, what with it being the height of the season.

Justin Penrose was the first to crack. Those with the least to lose always were. He cut himself a deal—accessory after the fact of manslaughter—for his role in covering up the hit-and-run. It was the turning point. Once Lizzie Jencks had entered the frame, there was a motive for the murder of Lillian Wallace. The floodgates opened. Now it was just a question of who would drown and who would be saved. Wakeley and Manfred Wallace fought each other for the lone life preserver.

Wakeley had done a good job of protecting his charge from any association with the murder—too good a job as it turned out; there was almost nothing linking him to the crime. Manfred’s lawyer drew a parallel with Henry II and Thomas à Becket, claiming that Wakeley had taken it upon himself to rid Manfred of his meddlesome sister. This argument largely fell on deaf ears.

Hollis didn’t witness it at first hand, the unsightly spectacle of the two former friends turning on each other. He had already removed himself from the scrum by then. So had George Wallace. The newspapers presented him as a broken man, destroyed by the revelation about the true circumstances of his daughter’s death. The Press was no better equipped than anyone to speculate in this way. Following his brief interrogation by the DA, George Wallace had simply disappeared.

Chief Milligan, on the other hand, had taken center stage, the winds of national interest fanning the flames of his ego into a firestorm. Strangely, Hollis found himself amused rather than angered by the sight of Milligan claiming credit for the arrests, the successful conclusion of his own month-long investigation.

When it came to it, Hollis really didn’t care, and that realization surprised him. Besides, his thoughts were elsewhere—with the man hanging between life and death in Southampton Hospital. The man who had been manipulating events from the moment he first dragged his lover’s body from the ocean in a net.

Labarde had survived the initial surgery, only to be hit by a raging infection. He had not regained consciousness.

The fourth time Hollis visited him, there was a leather-cheeked old Indian seated at his bedside, clasping his hand. Hollis waited patiently in a chair for twenty minutes, unable to make out what the Indian was muttering in his soft voice.

When the old man finally left, he said, ‘Ain’t nothin’ to do if he don’t want it. And he don’t.’

Who could blame him? There was a bunch of people poised to pounce all over him, eager for his version of events, should he survive. Hollis had made a point of charming the head nurse, a woman who concealed a good heart behind a lofty demeanor. She had finally relented, promising that he would be the first to know if there was any news.

The call came four days later, early in the morning, at Mary’s place, to which Hollis had decamped to avoid the overeager newspapermen staking out his house. When the phone rang, his head was thick with exhaustion, having hit the pillow only an hour or so before.

Abel and Lucy had come to dinner, and somehow they’d all found themselves seeing in the dawn. There was a lot to catch up on. Abel had been out of circulation all week, dealing with the commotion over ‘the photo’, as it was now referred to.

It had been bought many times over, syndicated around the world, and he was still reeling from the shock of what he’d achieved: the big picture, the photographer’s dream. True to form, Abel dismissed the image as a work of mediocrity, an instant of violence trapped on film, with little else to recommend it apart from a certain ghoulish appeal.

He was wrong. It somehow captured more than the moment, pointing to a deeper, more universal injustice: two well-dressed types gathered at the execution of a working man. Wakeley was frozen in the act of turning his head away and raising his arms protectively, an instinctive gesture, but one which seemed to imply he was washing his hands of the deed. Because of the angle, the gun wasn’t visible, but the muzzle flash was, shards of lightning exploding from Manfred Wallace’s fingers, a faceless figure clad all in black, unleashing a thunderbolt. There was something almost beatific about Labarde’s expression as he crumpled forward and to the right.

They said all this to Abel, but he stuck to his guns. He much preferred the shot of Hollis putting the boot into Manfred Wallace, a print of which he had also brought along with him by way of a gift—the only one in existence, framed in oak. Mary remarked that the look of hatred on Hollis’ face scared her, and Abel told her that that was the point. It was the one time he’d seen the real Hollis, he said, the beast within; and he wanted her to know what she was letting herself in for.

Abel had a healthy mistrust of what was happening to him. Picture editors and agents, many of whom had never even bothered to return his portfolio, were now calling him at all hours of the day and night. He knew he had gotten lucky, stumbling on success in his own backyard. Later in the evening, he announced, a little drunkenly, that even if his career took off it wouldn’t change him as a person.

‘Oh go on, please,’ said Lucy, ‘just a bit.’

Their laughter woke up Edward, who shouted down from his bedroom window for them to put a sock in it.

Finally the dawn light crept overhead, revealing a low, feathery mist on the paddock. Abel and Lucy made a half-hearted offer to help clear up, heading for their car almost in the same breath. Hollis and Mary left the table as it was and went inside to bed.

After they had made love, they lay on their backs side by side, their fingers intertwined, drifting off to sleep.

Unexpectedly, Mary turned to him and kissed him passionately.

‘Mmmmm,’ he groaned.

‘Tom, there’s something you should know,’ said Mary ominously.

‘What?’

‘I want you to know this now, so there’s no confusion. I don’t think it’s the right thing to say, in fact I’m sure it isn’t, but seeing as it’s the truth and it’s not going to go away…’ She paused. ‘Besides, I figure we’re too old to talk around this kind of thing.’

‘We’ll be too old for anything if you don’t come out with it soon.’

‘I want another child, Tom.’

Hollis absorbed the news.

‘I understand,’ he said, ‘I really do. But I’m not sure they’re that easy to swap.’

‘I’m serious,’ she said, trying not to laugh.

‘I know.’

‘That’s why I kissed you.’

‘You thought you could swing it with a kiss?’

‘I thought it might be the last time.’

Hollis leaned toward her. ‘Well, let’s put that idea to bed,’ he said.

Two hours later, and after one hour’s sleep, the phone rang.

Mary offered to go with him, but he said it would be better if he went alone.

Labarde lay in the hospital bed, his pale, drawn features set in repose.

Hollis pulled up a chair and just looked at him.

Labarde opened a tired eye. ‘You look terrible,’ he said.

Hollis smiled.

‘They say I lost a kidney.’

‘Good thing they come in pairs.’

It was Labarde’s turn to smile.

‘Was I right to let him fire?’ asked Hollis.

‘You were right.’

‘You used me, you played me right from the start.’

‘You’ll get over it, Deputy.’

‘Tom.’

‘What, now we’re friends?’

‘No. I resigned.’

Labarde opened both eyes this time. ‘Yeah?’

Hollis nodded.

‘What’ll you do?’

‘I’ll find something.’

‘You’re staying around?’

‘Yeah.’

Hollis handed him two envelopes. ‘I took these from your place before they went through it.’

He had found the envelopes propped up on the desk against a water glass. One was addressed to Rollo, the other to someone called Sam Ockham.

Labarde looked at them, but didn’t take them. ‘You can throw them away.’

‘You sure you won’t be needing them?’

Labarde didn’t reply.

‘I’ll try and keep them off your back for a bit,’ said Hollis, ‘but there’s a stack of people want to see you.’

‘I guess.’

‘There’s been talk of a man, a man sent to kill you. Seems he turned up dead in the Wallaces’ pool with a bullet in his head.’ ‘I wouldn’t know anything about that.’

‘That’s the story to go with,’ said Hollis. ‘Just make sure you stick to it. The DA’s blood is up right now, he’s capable of anything.’

‘Thanks.’

‘There’s another thing. Manfred Wallace is saying Lizzie Jencks stepped into the road in front of the car.’

‘How does he justify killing his sister?’

‘I think he’s telling the truth.’

He’d been sworn to secrecy, but Labarde was the one man who had a right to know. Besides, Hollis needed his advice.

He told him what he’d learned from Joe the time he drove out to Springs: how a girl from a poor Bonacker family would have had little choice, how the Jenckses and their kind had been in the thrall of the wealthy Amagansett clans since the very earliest days, reliant on them for work, charity even, during tough years. It was a relationship open to abuse, and there’d been plenty over the years. Joe said he could list a whole load of them, payment taken in kind from families with nothing else to offer besides their womenfolk. He said he could point out the sons and daughters of gentry fathers brought up in Bonacker homes. He said Hollis was sitting across from one, although he didn’t go into details.

Hollis protested that that was then and this was now. Girls didn’t go around giving themselves to men just because they demanded it.

‘It’s 1947, for Christ’s sake.’

‘No need to bring him into it,’ said Joe sternly.

‘You know what I mean.’

‘I know things move slow out here.’

‘Did her parents know?’

‘Not till after. The brother did, he was the one pushed her to it. He liked the cards more’n they liked him. He needed work fast, the cash kind. His pa near killed him when he found out.’

Well, that explained why Adam Jencks had gone south.

‘It’s one of them things, is all,’ said Joe. ‘Ain’t nothin’ going to bring her back. It’s all arranged now.’

‘How’s that?’

‘Put it this way, the Jenckses ain’t makin’ the payments on the house right now.’

‘Oh, that’s great, everyone’s happy.’

‘I ain’t sayin’ that.’

‘Who was it, Joe?’

‘I ain’t sayin’ that neither.’

Labarde had listened in silence to Hollis’ account of the conversation. ‘Well…’ he now said.

‘You know who it is, don’t you?’ said Hollis.

‘No.’

‘But you’ve heard something.’

‘No.’

‘You’re lying.’

‘You don’t understand. There’s those who’ve been here for ever. Then there’s the rest of us.’

‘None of this would have happened if Lizzie hadn’t been out that night. It all springs from that. I believe Manfred Wallace. She stepped in front of his car.’

‘You caught him. Be happy with that. It’s enough.’

Labarde closed his eyes. ‘I’m tired,’ he said.

‘Sure.’

Hollis got to his feet and placed the chair against the wall.

‘Oh, Gayle Wallace came by a few days back.’

‘Gayle Wallace…?’

‘To see how you were doing. She’s gone now. I just thought you should know.’

Hollis walked to the door, then turned.

‘It’s good to meet you,’ he said. ‘Finally.’

But Labarde had already drifted off.