Kill Your Darlings

18

By one-thirty the Gold Room was full; most everyone at the convention was there. So were various representatives of the press, including TV news teams, minicams and all, here from channels 7 and 9, the rival groups at either side of the stage. The table where I’d sat earlier today, on the panel, was still strewn with microphones and water glasses, but there was also a podium at the center now, behind which a smiling and a little bit nervous Tom Sardini was assembling some note cards and the award plaques and other material. As the current president of the Private Eye Writers of America, Tom was to be master of ceremonies.

The room was buzzing, but people were keeping their voices down-perhaps out of respect for the late Roscoe Kane. It was no secret Roscoe was this year’s recipient of the Life Achievement Award; though technically under wraps, it had been leaked by Tom to the media, and naturally the word had then traveled around the convention as well. The five hundred or more people in the room all whispering created a cloud of noise that hung over the room, as if threatening a storm.

I was sitting with Kathy in the front row; Donaldson was seated next to her. Just behind Donaldson was Gregg Gorman, looking as spiffy as he could manage, in a tweedy sports coat with patched elbows, a brown knit tie and a more or less clean tan shirt. Sardini had asked him to “say a few words” about the Hammett book, at the close of the ceremony. Next to him was Mae Kane. She still wore the clingy black dress with black gloves and a pearl necklace; she looked a little like a blonde Morticia Addams.

Donaldson leaned back and whispered to Gorman; Gorman listened, eyes wide, then glanced at me, eyes slitted, and I nodded at him. Gorman smiled broadly and nodded and reached in his coat pocket and took out a checkbook. He made out a check, handed it to Donaldson and Donaldson, with a sage little nod, handed it over to me.

The check, on the Mystery House account, was for ten thousand dollars. At lower left a notation: editorial services, Secret Emperor.

I glanced back at Gorman and he was still smiling broadly, one pal to another; he nodded at me and I nodded back, but couldn’t manage to summon a smile, even a fake one. Mae Kane looked at me warily. I was able to find a little reassuring smile for her, but she didn’t seem to buy it. Smart woman.

Glancing back around, I noticed, on the other side of the room, Jerome Kane, seated quietly in an aisle seat, gazing back at me with his father’s china-blue eyes. His attire was stylishly somber, black jacket and gray slacks and gray tie; his friend Troy apparently was not with him-the rest of his row was taken up by a preoccupied-looking Tim Culver, sitting next to Cynthia Crystal, who was sitting next to four women of varying ages who were talking with (actually, at) Cynthia, drawing-room mystery fans no doubt. They were in the right place, then: the Gold Room was one big drawing room today….

By now it was standing room only, but a few people were lining the walls; at my right, one of those people was an orange-haired woman in a green dress with a brown purse on a strap over her shoulder.

Evelyn Kane.

She looked nice today. She’d had her hair done, and the green dress had a sheen to it, looked new, and fit her matronly figure nicely. She had a corsage on, as well. She looked like a chaperone at a senior prom.

My eyes caught hers.

A nasty little smile settled in one side of her mouth; she nodded. I nodded back, wondering what the smile meant.

As inconspicuously as possible, I pointed Jerome and Evelyn out to Kathy.

“Just like Charlie Chan,” I said to her, sotto voce.

“What?”

“All the suspects are gathered.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Jerome, Evelyn, Gorman, or Mae. Or a combination thereof. Killed Roscoe Kane, I mean.”

Kathy looked at me like a mother at her bonehead child. “Gorman couldn’t have done it, Mal. He had an alibi, remember?”

“Sure. He said he was eating with his angels, at the Berghoff. Only I called the Berghoff, and they close at ten. Even if he and his friends lingered well past closing, his alibi’s shot. Roscoe was drowned some time between eleven and midnight, remember.”

That would’ve sobered her, if she hadn’t been sober already.

Tom, up on the stage, motioned at me.

“Save my place,” I told Kathy, and went up and joined him.

“This is great, Mal,” he said. “Do you see how many people are here? All this media? The PWA couldn’t pay for this kind of publicity.”

“That’s true,” I said.

“Well, I just want you to know I appreciate your making sure Mae Kane was here. Without her, we don’t have much of a show.”

“That’s also true,” I said. “But don’t thank me yet. You better see how this goes….”

“I’m sure it’ll be smooth as glass. Are you excited, Mal?”

“Uh, sure. About what?”

“Don’t give me that. About being up for best hardcover, you dope! You got an acceptance speech ready?”

I won’t claim I’d forgotten about being nominated, but it hadn’t been the foremost thing in my mind today.

I said, “You don’t have an inside track, do you? ’Cause I don’t have anything prepared….”

Tom shook his head no. “I don’t know who the winners are. The results were given to me in sealed envelopes by the awards chairman; and the plaques are sealed up, too. But I think you’ve got a chance, Mal. I like your book.”

“It probably shouldn’t even’ve been nominated; the hero isn’t technically a private eye. Aren’t you up for something?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Best softcover.”

“Luck to you,” I said.

“Thanks, Mal. Thanks for everything.”

At two the awards ceremony started; R. Edward Porter, as one of the most respected short-story writers in the field, presented the short-story award to former Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine critic Jon Breen, who gave a brief self-effacing speech and sat down. Then best softcover was presented by last year’s winner, William Campbell Gault, who upon opening the envelope said, “Ah-the fix is in, I see.”

Tom had won, for his latest Jacob Miles novel; red-faced, he apologized for winning the award-then admitted he had helped found the organization in hopes that one day this might happen. That got a good, sincere laugh from the crowd, who applauded his honesty; the applause turned into a standing ovation and Tom just stood there, award in hand-a fancy wood plaque on which the cover of his book was embossed-and grinned like a kid on Christmas morning.

I looked past Kathy down at Donaldson and said, “Good luck.”

He was up for best hardcover, too; for Poisonous Wine.

He said, “And to you.”

We both lost; Bill DeAngelo won, for his latest Mark Kaub book. Bill said that since he hadn’t won an Edgar lately, he was very pleased to receive this. His delivery was funny, and he seemed genuinely grateful, and returned to his seat before the applause had died down.

Then Tom took the podium again and said, “We’ve saved the most important award for last-the Life Achievement Award. I suppose it’s no surprise to anyone here that this year’s award goes to Roscoe Kane. The loss of this important author, on the eve of receiving this recognition, is a tragic one. I’ve asked a good friend-and student-of Roscoe Kane’s, to say a few words, and introduce Mrs. Kane… who will receive the award for her husband. Mal?”

And I got up from the audience and climbed onto the stage and stood behind the podium. The minicams were trained on me. So was the crowd’s full attention.

“Roscoe Kane wasn’t a perfect man,” I said into the microphone; my voice was loud enough to do without a mike, so using one made it boom through the room, giving my words a certain added weight-and ominousness. “Roscoe Kane wasn’t even a perfect writer. His gift was a narrow one. Yet he was a genius of sorts. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs was a genius of sorts; or Ian Fleming; or Mickey Spillane. He created a vivid character in Gat Garson-like Tarzan and James Bond and Mike Hammer-a larger-than-life hero who, I think, will live on for as long as people like to read a good yarn. Which I trust will be forever.

“But Roscoe Kane wasn’t larger than life. I think his work may prove to be larger than death, but never mind. Roscoe was a flawed, eccentric man, and I loved him like a father.”

Halfway back in the audience, stage right, Jerome Kane leaned forward in his seat.

My voice continued to rumble through the big room: “I have to reveal something, now, that-unfortunately-may cast a shadow on Roscoe Kane’s reputation.”

Gregg Gorman leaned forward in his seat; Mae Kane covered her eyes with a gloved hand.

“You are all aware, I’m sure, of the forthcoming ‘recently discovered’ Dashiell Hammett novel, The Secret Emperor… only, the novel wasn’t ‘discovered.’ It was concocted out of a five thousand word fragment by Hammett, whose authenticity is not in any doubt. The novel, which is based on that genuine fragment, was written by Roscoe Kane.”

A collective gasp went up.

The reporters and TV people, at stage left and right, seemed to wake up; eyes popped open.

And Gregg Gorman, sitting forward in his seat, looked at me with red-faced anger.

“Roscoe Kane was a bitter man,” I said. “He had been blacklisted, or so he felt, by the publishing community; no new Gat Garson novels had been published in this country in fifteen years. He had also been largely ignored by mystery fiction’s fan community, their critics and reviewers. In his heart, Roscoe knew he was a mystery writer of the first rank; and when he was given the opportunity to finish a novel by his hero, Dashiell Hammett, he jumped at the chance. To prove his worth. And to put one over on those who’d blacklisted and rejected him. The publishers. The fans.”

The room got very quiet. Gorman had sat back in his chair, but his face was still very red. Jerome Kane had a small smile; Evelyn Kane did, too. In the front row, Kathy looked a little frightened. And Mae Kane was crying quietly into a handkerchief.

“The first person to cast doubt on the authenticity of The Secret Emperor was G. Roger Donaldson,” I said. “Mr. Donaldson-who on this very stage received some rude treatment from me this morning, for which I apologize-came to me with his suspicions. He’d read the manuscript, having been asked by its ‘discoverer’ to help verify its authorship; at first he’d been convinced. But then he had second thoughts. It occurred to him that Roscoe Kane might have been capable of having written this and, after Kane’s suspicious drowning, Donaldson approached me with a copy of the manuscript. He wanted my opinion as a Roscoe Kane authority. Did I think Kane might have ghosted this book?”

Donaldson, next to Kathy, smiling faintly, nodded at me.

I went on: “I read The Secret Emperor last night. Through internal evidence, I can prove Kane wrote this book. His literary fingerprints are all over it. But I would like to add that it is a first-rate Hammett pastiche. I would trust it will one day see print, and enhance Roscoe Kane’s reputation-at least his literary reputation.

“Now, as to the question of who is responsible for this hoax-who has attempted to swindle Random House and all of you mystery fans out of your money-it is of course none other than my good, good friend Gregg Gorman….”

Gorman stood and thrust a finger toward me. “That’s a lie!” Without a microphone, his voice had a hollow, impotent quality, about as forceful as a stone rattling around in a can.

But he shouted on: “A complete fabrication! You have no proof, Mallory! Get him off the stage, somebody-aren’t there any security guards in this joint?”

I took the check out of my pocket. My voice coming out of the loudspeakers was like the voice of God, where Gorman was concerned. “When I confronted Gregg Gorman earlier today, he offered me ten thousand dollars, up front, to keep quiet about Kane’s ghost job; and ten thousand more, six months after the book’s publication. He made this offer in front of a witness. He gave me this check in front of several more. G. Roger Donaldson and Kathy Wickman, specifically.”

Donaldson and Kathy stood and turned toward the audience and nodded their heads.

Then they sat down.

So did Gorman, defeated; sat down heavily and slumped forward. He looked, as if for help, toward Mae Kane. Mae Kane didn’t look at him.

I continued. “I hope you people, and the thousands upon thousands of mystery readers you represent, will not look too unkindly on Roscoe Kane. He paid a heavy price for his involvement in this fraud; much heavier than the loss of his reputation. Roscoe Kane was my hero-but he was also a man. A flawed one-as has been every man I’ve ever met, to one degree or another. But I do think he had in mind to do something-something that, had he been able to do it, would’ve made him look better, in your eyes, and posterity’s.”

The room was dead silent; five-hundred-some rapt faces were fixed on me… everyone in the room was looking at me-except Gorman and Mae Kane, the former gazing downward, the latter staring blankly off to her left, her tears dried, now.

“I believe Roscoe Kane intended to reveal his authorship of the so-called Hammett book,” I said. I spoke softly, but it came across loud-not so much because of the loudspeakers, but because of the words themselves. “I believe he intended to reveal this all along. But initially, I think, he planned to allow the book to be published, and be received well by the critics and readers; then, possibly, he planned to pack up his share of the loot and head for Mexico or somewhere. But I know… knew… Roscoe. I know his ego. He would’ve told. Eventually he would’ve told. He’d have wanted his horse laugh on the publishing industry. He’d have wanted to have the last word with the fans. And his killer knew that.”

The room got noisy, then, but quieted down when I continued: “Yes-his killer. Because Roscoe Kane was murdered. I discovered his body, with his wife Mae. The evidence on the scene indicated murder, but the Chicago coroner’s office disregarded it, and my theories. So, today, in public, in front of this audience and these television cameras, I challenge the city of Chicago to reopen the death of Roscoe Kane, for a possible-probable-homicide investigation.”

The room went berserk; murmuring escalated into near shouting, and the TV minicam cameramen bore down on me, and reporters with microphones were moving in, too.

“Please,” I said, motioning to them to keep back. “Allow me to continue. I believe Roscoe had decided to reveal his complicity in the Hammett hoax, before publication of the book. And because of that, I think he was murdered. I think the murder was impromptu, almost a crime of passion, motivated though it was primarily by greed. And I also think I know who did it.”

A hush fell over the room; I looked at Evelyn Kane-she looked at me.

“I know who did it, and I’m prepared to share my opinion and my reasons for it with the police. Unfortunately, it would not be proper for me to share it with you people, here.”

The room got noisy again, and I had to call out to be heard, even with the microphone: “Right now, there’s an award to be presented-to Mae Kane, Mrs. Roscoe Kane, would you please step forward?”

The room got funeral-parlor quiet again, and Mae rose from the audience like an apparition in black. She floated to the front of the room, the silver arcs of her hair swinging gently, and took the plaque from me. The plaque pictured the cover of Kill Me, Darling, the first Gat Garson novel; she didn’t look at it, though. She looked at me. Her face was white; her expression was blank; the tracks of tears could be seen against her pale makeup.

“Mal,” she said. “Why did you do this?”

I leaned across the table and pretended to be looking at the plaque, smiling as I did. The room was noisy again, people discussing, arguing, the revelations I’d dropped in their laps; the media people were keeping their distance from me at the moment.

I was away from the microphone now; no one could hear me but Mae.

I whispered: “You did it, Mae. You did it. Roscoe and Evelyn were getting back together. Her companionship offered him more than your bed ever could. She gave him his self-respect back; she’d convinced him to expose you and Gorman and the whole scheme, before the fact. So that he’d be the hero of the piece, the media star. So that his career might be able to start all over again, and you’d be left behind.”

She looked at me with wide, empty eyes.

I said, “When the police investigate, they’ll find it all out, easy enough. You arrived at the hotel and went up to his room-you knew what name he’d registered under. Did you ask for a key at the desk, or was the room unlocked? No matter. You went in and took off your coat and drowned him; then you put your coat back on over your clothes and disposed of the wet towels you’d sopped the bathroom floor up with, and you came down to the lounge and found me. And made a fall guy out of me, as Gat Garson would say. I found it a little odd that you left your coat on after we found Roscoe, even when you lay down on the bed, but I didn’t make much of it; then it occurred to me you might’ve left it on because your clothes under there were wet, still wet. From drowning him.”

The wide eyes filled with tears; actress tears? I couldn’t tell.

Then, softly, so that no one could hear but me, she answered: “I didn’t plan it. He was asleep in the tub. I held him under; he didn’t even wake up. He didn’t suffer. He just went away….”

The sounds of the shots shattered all else-stopped all discussion in the room; two shots, loud startling, commanding all attention.

Mae Kane’s wide eyes went wider still, as the impact threw her forward; then like a ragdoll she flopped back, keeping on her feet somehow, Raggedy Ann managing to stand impossibly up, and she looked down at her black dress. Two red holes, stacked one atop the other, like two periods ending sentences, like a bright red colon: then blood welled out the bottom one, turning it into a semicolon; she covered the semicolon with both hands and then brought them away from her, looked at them, the blood on them, and tried to scream.

But didn’t make it.

She fell forward, against the table, knocking the podium off, her bloody hand touching my shirt as I leaned forward toward her. I looked up.

Evelyn Kane was standing in the aisle behind where Mae Kane had stood; smiling like a skull. Holding a long-barreled.38 in her two gripped hands, the proper firing stance Roscoe had taught her when he’d schooled her in the use of a Garson gat such as this. The flap of the brown purse slung over her shoulder was open from where she’d withdrawn the revolver. Slowly she lowered the still smoking gun and let go of it; let it drop. It clunked on the floor near Mae.

People were standing and shouting, a few screaming, a few even scurrying out of the room.

But it had happened so fast, most of them were just standing there, like me. The two bullets had cut through Mae and right past me, under the table and into the wall, and I hadn’t even ducked for instinctive cover. The gun had been shot, the bullets had flown, before I knew what had happened.

Enough people had rushed out of the room, though, for Evelyn to find a chair to sit down and quietly wait. Wait for the police, that is. She didn’t have to wait for the media-the print reporters and TV news-people with their minicams were already gathered around her.

Mae was getting some media attention, too-flashbulbs were popping. I came around the table to her. Tom Sardini had her cradled in his arms, checking her pulse; not finding one, of course. I leaned down and closed the lids over the wide eyes; there was blood in her silver hair. I don’t know how it got there. She still smelled like jasmine.

For some reason, it occurred to me to retrieve the Life Achievement Award, which had tumbled out of Mae’s fingers when the two bullets hit her. But I couldn’t find it.

Some fan had gotten to it and taken it as a souvenir.

Kathy came up to me, face wet with tears; she touched the bloody hand-smear on my shirt, as if touching wet paint, and said, “Oh, Mal.”

That said it all. I put an arm around her shoulder and glanced about the room. Gorman was gone. Tim Culver, an arm around the shoulder of a shaken Cynthia Crystal, was escorting her out. Jerome Kane was standing in the aisle, ashen.

He moved down the aisle and found his way to where Evelyn Kane was seated, besieged by media people. He pushed his way in and sat down next to Evelyn the Grotesque, as he had so often called her, and held her hand.