Make Out With Murder [= Five Little Rich Girls]

Twelve

Between the Sands Point police and the Long Island Rail Road, it was almost ten o’clock before I got back to the city. I did manage to call Kim before that, from the station in Port Washington, but it probably would have been better if I hadn’t called her at all. I didn’t manage to say three sentences to her before Gordie took the phone away from her.

“You take a lot of telling,” he said. “I don’t want you coming here, I don’t want you calling here, I don’t want you sticking your nose in where it ain’t wanted.” Then he told me to do something I wouldn’t have been able to do if I had wanted to, which I didn’t in the first place, and then he slammed the phone down.

I walked from Penn Station to Haig’s house. I had given him a little of it earlier over the phone and now I gave him the whole thing in detail. (I left out the sex part, at least as far as going into details was concerned. I mean, I had to let him know that Gregory Vandiver walked in and found me screwing his wife. That was the kind of thing that might turn out to be pertinent. So I told him what I had done, you might say, without telling him how much I had enjoyed it.)

“The timing,” he said, “is very critical here.

“Right. The killer had about an hour and a half to plant the bomb. The car was all right when Seamus picked me up at the station.”

“Indeed.”

“She usually did her own driving. Anybody who knew her well would probably know that.”

“Do the police know that?”

“No. The police think that the killer did what he was trying to do. It seems that Seamus was involved with some faction of the I.R.A. The police had a sheet on him because he was suspected of playing a role in a gun-running operation. So they think Seamus was the intended victim, and they also think they have several leads.”

“I take it you and the Vandivers permitted them to continue thinking this.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure that was wise.”

“Neither am I, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was passed off as a friend of Mrs. Vandiver’s who happened to be visiting at the time. Her husband could have confirmed that we were friendly.”

“Indeed.”

“Gordie McLeod was back in the Village by eight-fifteen. Because I talked to him on the phone, and no, it wasn’t my idea. I wanted to talk to Kim, but he included himself in. Of course he didn’t have to stick around while a batch of Long Island public employees asked dumb questions and took pictures of everything, but I’m sure he was at work all day.”

“He was not.”

“Oh?”

“Mr. LiCastro called. The fungicide he wants to use will render the discus spawn infertile. I so informed him and gave him some suggestions. Gordon McLeod did not show up today for what I believe is called a shape-up. Mr. McLeod has been betting on quite a few horses lately. With little success.”

“That’s interesting.”

“It is. Nor is he in debt to his bookmaker. His losses, however, have of late exceeded his wages, and yet he has been consistently able to settle his debts promptly, and in cash.”

“He must be sponging off Kim.”

“Perhaps. It would be useful to determine this.”

I nodded. Haig put his feet up on the desk. He tries this every once in a while, but he’s always uncomfortable because his legs are too short and his abdomen too large. He gave it up after a few seconds.

He said, “I had a visitor during your absence. Mr. Ferdinand Bell.”

“What did he want?”

“To be helpful. A noble ambition, but I’m not sure he achieved its realization. He described the swerving of his automobile with an excess of detail. Listening to him, I very nearly felt that I was in it at the time. It was not a feeling I particularly enjoyed.”

“Did he have anything else to say?”

“He had some things to say about Miss Andrea Sugar. He brought to my attention the possibility that a lesbian relationship might have existed between her and Jessica Trelawney.”

“No kidding.”

“He seemed shocked by this. I find his shock more interesting than the relationship itself, certainly. He also said that Mr. Vandiver is in serious financial difficulties.”

“You couldn’t prove it by the house.”

“So I gather. Mr. Vandiver has apparently suffered some financial reverses.”

“How would Bell know that?”

“I’m not sure he knew that he knew it. He was letting his mind wander in my presence, talking generally about the flightiness of the sisters Trelawney. Jessica’s homosexuality, Melanie’s hippie lifestyle, Kim’s hour upon the stage—”

“Kim seems pretty straight-ahead to me.”

“Your bias on the subject has already been noted. He also alluded to Caitlin’s liberated sexuality, which he cloaked with the euphemism of nymphomania.”

“I’m not positive it’s a euphemism.”

“Be that as it may. And that led him to Gregory Vandiver’s infirmity of purpose. Vandiver made some substantial investments in rare coins about a year ago. He consulted Bell, and purchased the pieces through Bell and on Bell’s recommendation. He specifically sought out items for long-term growth, the blue chips of the coin market. Barber proofs, Charlotte and Dahlonega gold, that sort of thing. Then a matter of months ago, Vandiver insisted that Bell unload everything and get him cash overnight. It seems Vandiver did realize a profit on his investment, if a tiny one, but that Bell would have advised him to hold indefinitely, and certainly to hold for several months, as an upturn could be expected in the market. But Vandiver insisted on selling immediately, even if he had to take a loss.”

“Meaning that he needed cash, I guess.”

“So it would seem. The money involved was considerable. I had to pry this from Bell, who evidendy believes that matters communicated to a professional numismatist come under the category of privileged information. Gregory Vandiver liquidated his numismatic holdings for a net sum of $110,000.”

“He had that much invested in coins?”

“I find that remarkable. I find it more remarkable that he had a sudden need for that much cash.”

I nodded. “I wonder,” I said.

“If he could have placed the bomb in the car?”

“Yeah. I suppose it’s possible. Say he gets a train earlier than his usual one. He comes straight home and goes straight to the garage and wires the bomb to the Mercedes. He knows he’s safe because he’s not going to drive the car. He doesn’t even think about Seamus because Caitlin usually drives herself.” I stopped for a moment. “No, it doesn’t add up. He wouldn’t know she was going to use the car then. He didn’t know I was there, so there was no way to know she would drive me home.”

“He could assume she would use the car eventually, however.”

“But why bother getting home earlier than usual? He could have planted the bomb some other time.”

Haig leaned back and played with his beard. I asked a few more questions that he didn’t respond to. I went over and watched the African gouramis while he did his genius-in-residence number. While I was watching them, I saw the female knock off a guppy. It didn’t bother me a bit.

Haig said, “I would like to know at what time Gregory Vandiver left his office.”

“So would I.”

“I would also like to know where Gordon McLeod spent the afternoon. And his source of income.”

“So would I.”

“There are other things, too. Several extremely curious things. I am going to have to know considerably more about Cyrus Trelawney.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Hmmmm,” he said.

Wong brought us some beer and we sat opposite each other drinking it and arguing about where I was going to spend the night. “There is a pattern to all of this, Chip,” he told me. “There are going to be more deaths. One develops the ability to sense this sort of thing. There have been four deaths already since the case engaged our interest. Melanie’s was the first. The other three have been gratuitous. The prostitute, the sailor, the chauffeur.”

“Manservant,” I said.

“When a manservant dies at the wheel of his employer’s car I have difficulty in not regarding him as a chauffeur. Three gratuitous deaths. There will be more deaths, and they will be more to the point. I sense this.”

I went through my usual mental hassle as to whether he was a genius or a nut case.

“I would prefer that these deaths not occur. I will, in fact, endeavor to prevent them to the best of my ability. It is for this, after all, that I am employed. But, failing that, I would at least prefer that one of these deaths not be suffered by you.”

“I’d prefer it, too.” I said. “To tell you the truth.”

“You expose yourself unnecessarily by returning to your rooming house.”

“I expose myself to worse than that on the couch. I could die of a backache.”

“You could have my bed,” Haig said.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.”

“I would not mind the couch.”

“Oh, come on. I’ll walk a couple of blocks and I’ll be home, for Pete’s sake. It’s nothing to worry about.”

So I headed back to my rooming house.

That was my first mistake.

My second mistake happened as I was on my way up the steps to the front door. A guy came out of the doorway to the left of my building, and two other guys came out of the doorway to the right of my building, and one of them asked me if I was Harrison, and I made my second mistake. I said I was.