Liar

16

Margot Martin didn’t live far from me, at least not in miles. But then again, back when people lived in castles, the average scullery maid never lived far from the queen. Rivo Alto Island is a world away from my neighborhood.

The streets of Rivo Alto crisscross over the curving canal for which the island was named. Both the man-made island and its canal were the brainchild of a turn-of-the-century developer who looked at a mudflat and saw money. He wasn’t wrong.

Margot’s manse was one of the island’s more modern ones; someone undoubtedly tore down an older house to build it-not an uncommon practice there. As a result, you’d be hard-pressed to find another area as small as Rivo Alto crowded with so many varieties of architectural style.

The houses are closer together than those in my neighborhood, but larger, and those situated along the canal, as Margot’s is, each have private docks. The boats have plenty of space, but it’s tougher to get around on Rivo Alto in a car-I ended up double-parking in the narrow lane in back of Margot’s place. At three in the morning, I figured I’d be fine until the paperboy tried to squeeze by.

On the way over, I’d thought about everything I knew about Margot Martin. It wasn’t all that much, even though we had worked on the same paper for a number of years.

I knew that Margot had become a widow about ten years ago, and that the late Mr. Martin left her a bundle. She was his second wife; he was a widower when they met. She spent her thirties as a corporate wife, serving as Martin’s hostess at numerous business gatherings, keeping the peace among the other wives at company golf tournaments.

After several decades of jet lag, intense pressure, rich food and three-martini lunches began to take a toll on Martin, Margot tried to help her husband cope with an attempt at a healthy lifestyle-but all the granola and bran muffins in the world couldn’t undo the damage. One evening Martin-having slipped out of the house while Margot was at a Junior League meeting-keeled over in the yacht club bar, breaking, as he fell, a bottle of single-malt Scotch that was nearly as old as he was, ensuring that his passing was accompanied by genuine grief.

Before she became a corporate wife, Margot had briefly held a part-time job on a small regional magazine. When our previous society editor retired, she told our editor that Margot was “an experienced journalist” and asked that Margot take her place. I’m sure one look around the newsroom convinced him that no one else had the wardrobe to do the job.

Being a society writer is not an easy job; Margot often attends five events a week, sometimes two a night, usually dressed to the nines. The circles she moves in are relatively small and all are closely interrelated; no little amount of diplomacy is required when dealing-week after week-with Mrs. X who is bitter about not having that photograph of her in her newest gown in the paper, or Mr. Y who is angry that his daughter wasn’t in the debutante ball photo, or Mr. amp; Mrs. Z who weren’t mentioned in the article on the Assistance League fund-raiser. One of the curses of newspaper work is that everyone’s an editor-or thinks he should be. In her case, it’s compounded by constantly dealing with people who are sure of nothing so much as their own-importance.

But whatever sympathy or understanding I might usually be able to muster for Margot was gone that night. It had been a hellish day, and I was fairly sure she must have led the bomber to my home.

Her house was dark. As I came up the walk to the front door, Margot’s little Yorkies started yapping.

I smiled to myself. Things were looking up.

I knocked on the door. No answer, but I could hear the snickety-snick of Yorkie toenails scrambling across the marble entryway. The barking got louder, and then there was the telltale thump of a full eight pounds of ferocious protection launching itself against the door. Judging by the sounds, one of them was trying to shoulder it open, making a miniature leaping canine battering ram of himself, while the other was trying to scratch his way through the wood with forelegs that were only slightly slower than a circular saw.

“Nice doggies!” I said.

The barking became frenzied.

A light came on at the house next door. Still nothing at Margot’s place. I rang the bell. The dogs went ape wire.

Above the doggie din, I heard Margot’s phone ring. Apparently she heard it, too. Soon lights came on at her house, then went off at the neighbor’s. “Hush,” I heard her call, to absolutely no purpose.

The porch light came on. I already knew she had a video camera set up at the front door, so I looked toward the camera and said, “Open up, Margot, we need to talk. Now.”

“Irene?” Barking in the background. Yep.

“Quiet!” I heard her snap at the dogs. They lowered their protests to growling. “Just a moment.”

I heard her lead them away, probably shutting them up in the downstairs bedroom. She came back, apparently a little more awake and ready to do battle. Her voice was less sleepy now.

“Irene, what’s gotten into you?” she said reprovingly. “This is no hour to be calling on anyone.”

“Open up, Margot.”

“Leave me alone. Go on, don’t make me call the police on you.”

“Please do call them, Margot. I’d like for them to know how the person who planted a bomb in front of my house learned where I live.”

The front door flew open. “A bomb!”

But I was speechless. The thin woman standing barefooted in front of me was clutching the folds of a blue cotton robe; peeking out beneath it was a worn red flannel nightgown with little lambs on it. She had not brushed her short, not-from-nature-blond hair and-most startling-had some kind of white cream all over her face, everywhere but around her eyes. She looked like a poorly designed Day of the Dead figurine. This couldn’t be Margot, could it?

“Well,” I said, when I came out of my daze, “at least I know he’s not spending the night.”

Her hand flew to her head and she said, “Come inside.” As she shut the door, she motioned toward a leopard-skin fainting couch in the front room. “Have a seat. I’ll be right back down.” She paused halfway up the staircase and said, “Make yourself a drink if you like.”

“Mind if I turn on some lights?”

“Not at all. I’ll only be a minute.”

The dogs had switched to an alternative schedule of barking-sporadic outbursts of barking between lengthening interludes of mere growling.

Although she had said she’d only be a minute, I knew Margot wouldn’t come back down until she had put herself together, a project that might take some time. I felt a moment’s hesitation over what I was contemplating, then thought about Travis and found my resolve. I strolled across her white carpet and out of the front room, trying to remember where I had once seen an office on the first floor.

Trying not to be distracted by the view of moonlight on the canal, or the design of her big open kitchen, I turned to the right, walked down a hallway and opened a door next to a laundry room. A bathroom. I started to close the door, had an inspiration and went to the medicine cabinet first. I found a small box of bandages there and dropped it into my purse.

The dogs started barking again; I began to appreciate the cover their noise provided.

I closed the door, retraced my steps down the hall, turned left this time, and found the office. It was clean and orderly, and during the day it probably had a beautiful view of the canal. The view at night would have been better with a brighter moon; there was just enough light to see Margot’s sailboat tied up at the dock. I made myself concentrate on the task at hand. I searched the drawers of the small desk. I looked through a stack of loose papers and invitations, but found nothing of interest.

I had been in this office once before, at one of the Christmas parties, when Margot was giving the grand tour of the house. But this time, all the equipment was new; as I looked around the office, I saw that Margot went in for the latest available models. For the first time, I envied her wealth. The room wasn’t outfitted on a part-time reporter’s salary-this equipment was better than what we worked with in the newsroom. There was a three-line speakerphone on the desk. Next to the desk, on a carved mahogany cart, was a plain-paper fax machine; a matching cart held a copying machine. There was a beautiful computer work station with a fancy printer on it. I checked the phone lines running between the phone, computer and fax. The second and third lines were hooked up to the fax and computer.

I looked for an answering machine but didn’t see one; maybe it was in another room. I thought of turning the computer on, but decided that even with this high-tech office, Margot wasn’t the type to make computer notes about her boyfriends. I was about to leave when I noticed that one of the line-in-use lights on the phone was lit. Line one. I hurried over to the phone, pressed the mute button so that nothing would be heard from my extension, and picked up the receiver. Whatever number she had called at three in the morning had already answered, and I was only in time to hear a male voice saying,“… or enter your phone number and then press the pound key, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.” As I listened, I fumbled in my purse, trying to find a little tape recorder I sometimes use for notes and interviews. There was a long tone, a set of quick beeps, and then the sound of Margot dialing again. I tried to memorize the tune the tones played as she dialed. It was eight tones long. A mechanical voice said, “Thank you,” and disconnected. Margot hung up. I quickly followed suit.

It was only then that I found the recorder. I softly repeated the little dialing song into the microphone, hoping I had it right. I was pretty sure it was Margot’s number, followed by the pound sign.

I was going to try it out, but since the upstairs phone might also be equipped with line-in-use lights, I hesitated using the office phone while she might be standing near an upstairs phone. I would have to wait to verify that the tones matched her number.

I moved back out into the kitchen. There was a set of hanging baskets near the sink, and one of them held three lemons and a couple of limes.

I took one of the lemons, and then, turning to the island in the center of the kitchen, pulled a small paring knife from a wooden block.

I heard water running upstairs just as I passed the kitchen phone. Seizing the opportunity, I set my little treasures down, pulled the recorder back out of my purse, then lifted the handset and replayed the tape. I pressed the numbers that matched the tones.

There were two rings, ones I hoped were not awakening some perfectly nice stranger, then Margot’s voice on a recording. Her voice mail. I hung up. The number I had dialed was her own. She had called someone’s pager number, entered her own number, and was now waiting for a call back. Because she had a voice mail service, when I called her number from her own phone I got the service instead of a busy signal. It also explained the lack of an answering machine.

Whom did she page? Someone who would respond at three in the morning. A lawyer? Perhaps. Or maybe it was the new boyfriend. And if the man who had been looking for me in the lobby of the Express was the bomber, I didn’t want to be around if he showed up. I began to wish I had brought Rachel along. I would have done it, but I knew Travis was safe at my home not because there was a patrol car outside, but because Rachel was inside-she would watch over him.

Here at Margot’s, my plans had to remain flexible. A lot depended on what Margot did once she came back downstairs.

I quickly searched the rest of the first floor and found one other bathroom. I checked the medicine cabinet-no bandages. I heard a door close upstairs and hurried over to the bar in the front room.

By the time Margot came back downstairs in a blue Chinese silk jacket and loose-fitting slacks, feathery slippers and full makeup, I was mixing an Absolut and tonic. I offered her one, and she accepted.

“I hope you don’t mind that I stole one of the lemons from the kitchen,” I said, holding it up.

“No, of course not,” she said.

I made her drink twice as strong as mine, sliced a couple of pieces of lemon and added them as twists. She sat on the leopard skin. I went for the white leather sofa.

“Now, what’s all this about a bomb?” she said.

I told her about the explosion, leaving out lots of details about Travis, merely saying that he was a visiting cousin who was severely burned while trying to rescue my cat. She looked genuinely horrified, which gave me hope for her.

“That’s terrible,” she said. “But I don’t know why you think I had anything to do with it.”

“Someone was asking for me in the lobby of the Express a few days ago-but you intercepted him.”

She blushed, but didn’t say anything.

“A man with a similar description-probably the same guy-tried to follow me when I was on my way to see Travis today. He was unsuccessful then, but it seems he finally managed to reach us at the one place where I’d hoped we would be safe-my home. My own home, Margot.”“

“But you’re assuming it’s the same person!”

“Margot, did you look up my address for someone recently?”

She set down her drink, placed her hands in her lap. Her nails were perfect.

The dogs took up barking again.

“Yes,” she said, wringing the perfect hands, “but he wasn’t the one who-he wouldn’t have done something like that.”

“If you didn’t have some doubts about that, you wouldn’t have let me in here tonight.”

“Of course I would have let you in. We work together.”

“Right, we’re such close pals. So for the sake of your old pal’s health- who is he?”

She looked away from me.

“Who is he?” I asked again.

The phone rang.

She shot up from the leopard skin as if it still had its claws. “Excuse me,” she said, hurrying over to the nearest phone-the one in the kitchen. “Probably my neighbor.”

Right.

“Oh, hello!” she said in a voice obviously meant to carry to my ears, “I’m so sorry if my dogs awakened you! I know it’s very late, but a dear friend from the paper needed to see me. Yes, of course everything is just fine. Sorry to disturb you. I’ll try to keep them quiet.”

I glanced out the window. The neighbor’s lights were still out.

I figured she was talking to her new boyfriend, and decided to resort to Plan B. I walked over to the bar, as if to make another drink. Margot was speaking more softly now, a quick murmur or two before hanging up.

She came back into the room just as I took hold of the lemon, told myself it wouldn’t hurt as much as Travis’s burn, and nicked my finger with the knife.

“Ow!” I shouted-beyond what the little sting called for. I immediately grabbed my hand and squeezed my finger so that the bleeding looked worse.

“Oh, dear!” she said, quickly looking away.

“Oh! What a klutz! Oh no, I’m going to bleed all over your white car-pet…

That snapped her into action. “Come this way, there’s a bathroom right down this hallway.”

I followed her, and managed to get to the bathroom sink without leaving any DNA on her floor. She was frantically searching for a bandage; of course I didn’t tell her there was a whole box of the things in my purse. I was also pleased to note that she scrupulously avoided looking at my hand.

“My God, it’s deeper than I thought!” I said. Utter nonsense, but it worked on her.

“Upstairs,” she said weakly.

I followed her again.

The master bedroom was huge and featured a king-sized round bed. I didn’t get to see much of it before she hustled me into the bathroom, where there were lots of jars and an array of cosmetics out on the counter.

I held my hand over this sink, but still she avoided looking at my savage wound. I was kind of pissed about that, because I figured that if I had known what a daisy she was ahead of time, I wouldn’t have cut myself. I could have faked it.

This time, while I surveyed the contents of this larger medicine chest over her shoulder, she found an adhesive bandage. She handed it to me at arm’s length, clearly squeamish about the entire business.

“I-I don’t think that will do,” I said weakly. “Do you have any gauze?”

“Yes, yes.” She reached for it, and some tape.

“God, I think I see bone!” I screeched.

She turned white, but shoved the first-aid items at me before stepping just outside the bathroom.

I wrapped the finger rather artistically, then, in the shakiest voice I could manage, said, “I think I’m going to faint.”

It was truer of her than of me. “Oh!” Her eyes widened. “Come and lie down for a moment!”

I let her lead me over to the big dot of a bed and did my best to plop my rear down on that part of the circumference next to the fancy telephone on a nearby nightstand. I sat, then put my head between my knees.

“I’ll be okay,” I said in a muffled voice. I lifted my head a little. “This is so embarrassing. I’ll go home in just a minute.”

Now she really panicked. “Oh, no, no! Stay here a little longer. I insist.”

I groaned. “Oh, maybe you’re right. Listen, would you mind getting my drink for me? I left it downstairs.”

“Certainly, certainly,” she said, happy to get away from the wounded.

The moment she was out the door, I checked out the phone. I didn’t bother with the last-number-dialed button-that would just be Margot’s own number, entered for the pager. But to my delight, it had one of those “caller ID” features on it, the ones that record and store the numbers of incoming calls. The display showed the last call received as number seventy-five, with date and time stamped but indicating it was a “private call”-meaning her boyfriend had called from a phone that blocked caller ID. I hurriedly scrolled with the “review” button, going back to calls that started on Tuesday, the day she met Mr. Wonderful in the lobby. In the mix of calls, two showed up fairly often, and at hours when her society pals were probably getting their beauty sleep.

Margot had a little notepad next to the phone; I took the top sheet off and slipped it in my pocket, just in case I might need to use old-fashioned methods-raising a number by rubbing a pencil over the indentations. No use outsmarting yourself with technology, I thought. I used the next sheet to write down the two numbers from the caller-ID display.

By the time she had come upstairs, I had made a remarkable recovery.

“Gotta go,” I said. “Sitting here reminded me that I’m up way past my bedtime.”

She protested all the way down the stairs. At the front door, a little of my smug satisfaction at tricking her left me, and a sense of what I might have set in motion took its place.

“Margot, listen to me. And I mean listen. Your life may depend upon it. If you’ve called the man who waited for me in the lobby-”

“Called him? At this hour? Of course not!”

“Listen! If you’ve called him, get out of here. Now. Don’t wait for him to come over. He’s dangerous. You can see that, can’t you?”

“I don’t think he’s-”

“Fine!” I said. “If you want to wait around here and have Mr. Goodbar make a house call, fine. Invite him in. When they drag the canal and haul up whatever bits and pieces are left of you, I’ll tell each and every salt-soaked one of them, ”I told you so!“‘

“That’s a horrible thing to say!”

“Yeah? Whatever it takes. In fact, if you insist on staying here tonight, at least let me take your Yorkies with me. I’m not as crazy about them as you are, but I hate to see animals suffer.”

“Get out!”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Margot. Get out.”

She opened the door.

“Please, Margot.”

“Get out,” she said, but it was softer.

I tried to find some measure of hope in that as I drove off in search of a pay phone.