Bad Business

55

"I'm just going out for my walk," Marlene said. "Can you walk along with me?"

I said I could, and we set out. Marlene was in full stroll regalia as we walked past the big empty lawns of her neighborhood. A symphony of spandex. At the end of her street we turned and walked along the seawall. Below us the ocean washed across the beach. There were people in bathing suits down there and occasionally one worth studying. Marlene made no reference to getting fried and passing out on me the last time I saw her. I suppose, in fact, that there isn't so much to be said.

"Shame about Steve Gavin," I said.

"Yes."

"Did you know him?" I said.

"Oh, yes, of course. I saw him at a number of Kinergy functions that I attended with my husband."

"Would you have any idea why he might want to kill himself?"

She couldn't resist the dramatic opportunity. She did an amateurish impression of someone thinking. Frowning, her lips slightly pursed, her eyes narrowed.

"Maybe he was unlucky in love," she said.

"Who was he unlucky in love with?"

"Who? Oh God, I don't know. I just said that. I mean, isn't that why a lot of people kill themselves?"

"Any reason someone might want to kill him?"

"Someone? Who? I thought he killed himself."

"Well," I said, "just hypothetically, if it wasn't suicide but murder. Who would you suspect?"

"Suspect?"

"Hypothetically," I said.

A good-looking woman walking a small black-and-white bull terrier walked past us. I glanced at the woman's backside. Excellent. Marlene looked at me as if she disapproved.

"Cute dog," I said.

"I can't really guess," Marlene said, "even hypothetically, about Mr. Gavin's death. I barely knew him."

I nodded. We walked along the water. Ahead of us on the sidewalk a couple of gulls were fighting over an orange peel. They flew up as we reached them and came back down to continue the fight when we were past.

"Marlene," I said, "you were intimate with Gavin."

"Excuse me?"

"Marlene," I said, "you were intimate with Gavin."

"That's a terrible thing to say."

"Marlene, you really should stop lying to me," I said. "A private detective named Jerry Francis spotted you together several times. A very reliable source, highly placed at Kinergy, says Gavin was keeping company with you."

Marlene stopped and leaned on the iron railing along the seawall and stared out at the ocean. Then she turned slowly back toward me. Her eyes looked a little moist, but some people can produce that look with effort.

"Damn you," she said. "You leave me nothing. No shred of dignity."

"Maybe a shred," I said. "Tell me what you can about Steve Gavin."

"He was a very fine man."

"And you're heartbroken by his demise," I said.

"Oh, why must you be cruel. I couldn't show what I felt."

"Why not?"

"I was a married woman," she said.

"Until your husband's death."

"And after my husband's death?" she said. "What would people think if the next day I was flouncing around with Gav?"

"Hideous to contemplate," I said. "Did Gav have a theory about your husband's death?"

"No, of course not, he would have told the police immediately."

"I'm sure," I said. "Did he know anything about your wifeswap arrangement with Bernie and Ellen?"

She slapped me. It was a showy slap, but not a very hard one. I stayed on my feet.

"I'll take that as a no," I said. "Did he know about Darrin O'Mara and his program?"

"You bastard," she said. "Doesn't anything touch you?"

"I'd be deeply touched," I said, "if you told me whether Gavin knew about O'Mara and his program."

"I may have mentioned something about it."

"Did you tell him you were involved?"

"No, of course not. I simply told him that I'd heard it was popular at Kinergy."

"Was he interested in that?"

Marlene was doing defiant now. Her head was up and sort of tilted back, as one's head would be if speaking to an underling.

"Yes. He seemed quite interested. It is, after all, quite an interesting concept."

"You bet," I said. "Was there anything else he was interested in?"

She almost blushed.

"I don't mean that," I said. "Was there anything else about your husband or about the company that Gavin seemed interested in."

"There was some sort of money problem, I think. He had talked with Trent about it, I think, before Trent passed away."

"Did he say what kind of money problem?"

"Nothing I paid attention to. I found it all very boring."

"Did he talk with anyone else about it?"

"He seemed worried about Coop," she said. "After Trent's tragic death, Gav said maybe he could talk with Bernie."

"Bernie Eisen."

"Yes."

I put my hands up to defend my face. "He didn't know about you and Bernie."

She had moved from haughty to icy.

"I told you, no."

"So how long had you and Gavin been an item?" I said.

"Since, let me see, we were, um, together for the first time ... it was just a little while before Trent's death, I believe."

The woman with the bull terrier came back along the seawall toward us. I watched her over Marlene's shoulder. The front was as good as the back.

"So for a while there," I said to Marlene, "you were juggling Trent, Bernie, and Gavin. Pretty good."

"I wasn't juggling anything," she said. "I was trying to find myself."

"How'd that work out?" I said.

"Very well, thank you. I know who I am now."

I avoided the trap she had set. I did not ask her who she was. Whoever she was I was sick of her. The only genuine thing she had done since I met her was to get zonkered at lunch.

"Shall we walk back?" I said.

"Tired already? I always walk five miles. I'm in excellent condition."

"Can you do a one-armed push-up?" I said.

"A what?"

"Never mind," I said.

"Five miles too much?" she said.

"Yes," I said. "I'll say goodbye here."

"Well, I hope I've been helpful," she said.

"Sure have."

"Good," she said. "We always enjoy our time together, don't we."

"Always," I said.