Paper Doll

chapter thirty-five

“IT’S SIMPLY NOT so,” Loudon Tripp said.

“So why is everyone telling me otherwise?” I said.

“I can’t imagine,” Tripp said.

“Your secretary hasn’t been paid her salary,” I said.

“Of course she has.”

He took his checkbook from its place on the left-hand corner of the desk and opened it up and showed me the neat entries for Ann Summers.

“And the check you gave me bounced,” I said.

He turned immediately to the entry for my check.

“No,” he said. “It’s right here. Everything is quite in order.”

“There’s no running balance,” I said.

“Everything is in order,” Tripp said again.

“Do you know that your wife was unfaithful?” I said.

“By God, Spenser,” he said, “that’s enough.” His voice was full of sternness but empty of passion.

“I fear that I have made a mistake with you, and it is time to rectify.it.”

“Which means I’m fired,” I said.

“I’m afraid so. I’m sorry. But you have brought it on yourself. You have made insupportable accusations. My wife may be dead, Mr. Spenser, but her memory is alive, and as long as I’m alive, no one will speak ill of her.”

“Mr. Tripp,” I said. “Your wife was not what she appeared to be, not even who she said she was. Your life is not what you say it is. There’s something really wrong here.”

“Good day, Mr. Spenser. Please send me a bill for your services through”-he looked at his watch-“through today,” he said.

“And you’ll pay it with a rubber check,” I said. “And enter it carefully and not keep a balance so you won’t have to know it’s rubber.”

“Good day, Mr. Spenser!”

I was at a loss. It was like talking to a section of the polar ice cap. I got up and went out, and closed the door behind me.

“He’s crazy,” I said to Ann Summers. She shook her head sadly.

“Why didn’t you tell me about him right off?”

“I don’t know. He’s, he’s such a sweet man. And it seemed gradual, and he seemed so sure everything was all right, and…” She spread her hands.

“Even when you weren’t getting paid?” I said.

“I felt sorry, no, not that, quite, I felt… embarrassed for him. I didn’t want anyone to know. I didn’t want him to know that I knew.”

“Anything else you haven’t told me?” I said.

She shook her head. We were quiet for a while. Then she spoke.

“What are you going to do?” she said.

“I’m going to find out,” I said. “I’m going to keep tugging at my end of it until I find out.”

She looked at me for a long time. I didn’t have anything to say. Neither did she. Finally she nodded slowly. In its solemnity, her face was quite beautiful.

“Yes,” she said. “You will, won’t you.”