The Original Alibi

Chapter 17

It was mid-afternoon and Charles confirmed that Eddie was still at home. The general was in bed upstairs. Charles told me to go into the study, and he’d bring Eddie to me.

From the doorway, Eddie Whittaker said, “Mr. Kile, how do you do. I’ve been looking forward to our meeting.” He walked in as if his shorts were too tight. “So, you’re a private eye as you fellows are called?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t think they existed anymore, other than in seedy books and second-rate movies.”

“No. We’re for real. Correspondence school, you know. Study at home. All that.”

He grinned, but not a friendly grin. His nose was a little wide, much like looking at a double barreled shotgun, but he was a handsome man. He had nice eyes and hair, and his wallet would be getting fatter soon.

“Then you know what you’re doing, I take it.”

“Oh, absolutely, I finished the course and passed the mail-in exam. Proud to say, top of my class, first out of all five of us. So, what can I do for you, Eddie?”

“You asked to see me, Matt. What is it I can do for you?”

“You said, ‘I’ve been looking forward to our meeting.’ Why is that?”

“Well, I’ve heard you have taken on the task of proving once and for all that I was in no way culpable in the death of my fiancee. For me, that is good news. I will help any way I can.”

“That’s good to hear, Eddie. May I call you Eddie?”

“Please, Matt, I agree first names are friendlier, more personal.” He sat in the general’s chair, at his desk as if it was Eddie’s desk, or he anticipated it being his. He motioned me to take a seat. I sat in the same visitor chair I used during my meetings with the general.

“Tell me about what happened eleven years ago.”

“We had a nice Christmas; the summer was hot that year.”

“Let me warn you, Eddie, Chapter six of the Apex detective correspondence course taught how to strong arm recalcitrant witnesses.”

“Oooh, recalcitrant, that correspondence school must have really been good.”

“It was. Chapter seven taught how to deal with smartass punks and spoiled, pampered brats who don’t deserve the treatment in Chapter six.”

He squirmed a bit. What I said had stung.

“I thought you had some questions for me, Matt. Why don’t you go ahead ask a few?”

“Sure. Let’s get right to it. Did you kill Ileana?”

“You do get right to the point, don’t you, Matt?”

“Yes. Did you?”

“No.”

“You figure you deserve to sit in the general’s chair? That you can fill it?”

He grinned, leaned back and intertwined his fingers with his elbows on the arms of the chair. “The general, my grandfather, was a great man. But I’m not exactly chopped liver.”

“The general served his nation. Helped his friends. Raised his grandson. Gives to charity. Is concerned with justice for the family Corrigan. What do you figure elevates you above chopped liver, to use your phrase?”

“I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, I’m a member of Mensa, and I lost my father in defense of this country. You don’t like me, do you Matt?”

“Alexander Dumas would have called you a fop. Baroness Orczy would have used the word popinjay. But me, I’d just say you’re a waste. And, I’d also not say your grandfather was a great man, as you characterized him. I’d say the general is a great man. Sounds like you already are thinking of him as dead.”

“He doesn’t have long now.”

“Before you get too eager, let me warn you. You might think you can fill his shoes, but you couldn’t even wear his yesterday’s socks.”

Charles knocked softly and entered. “Would you like the usual, Mr. Kile?”

“No thank you, Charles, nothing for me.” Eddie looked toward Charles and screwed up his face while shaking his head. Charles left.

“I love my grandfather,” he said in a tone about a buck short of having real value. “He is more important to me than you could know. You believe me, don’t you?”

“Oh, sure, I believe you. Millions wouldn’t, but then I’m a sucker for sincerity, even when it isn’t sincere.”

“I don’t like your manners, Mr. Kile.”

“I don’t like them either, Eddie. On lonely nights I worry about them. Not all that much. Not enough to work at changing them, but I do worry.”

“You can’t get in my head, Kile.”

“I was in your head before you walked in this room.”

“That’s enough of your sarcasm, Kile. If this desk wasn’t between us, I’d kick your ass.”

I smiled. “Please feel free to follow me outside when I leave. Now tell me, I’m curious. You were engaged to marry Ileana, with the engagement coming after you learned she was pregnant. What if I said, she got pregnant to trap you. Saw you as her meal ticket out of the middle class. When you figured out she was doing the Madonna material girl bit, you killed her.”

“You’re full of shit. We were in love. Planned to marry and grow old together.”

“In over eleven years you have found no other woman to replace her.”

“That’s correct. She was the one, my one. There can be no replacement. I am destined to live alone with her memory. As for your accusation, the court found me innocent.”

“Not so. The court ruled the state had not made its case even sufficiently to have you arrested. The D.A. had no real choice but to drop the charges. Those charges can be reinstated. You were not tried and found not guilty. So don’t rest all that easily.”

“I am innocent, Matt.” So we were back to first names. “I did not kill Ileana. I loved her. And I want you to find whoever did kill her. I’m sure the general has agreed to compensate you well for proving my innocence. I want you to earn that money. I hope you do.”

There was nothing more to be gained by continuing. Eddie Whittaker likely had very little confrontation in his life. I had given him a heaping serving and he had handled it well. I had scrambled his composure, but he had recovered and held it together. The man was smart and cool under pressure, perhaps an inherited trait, perhaps just a cocksure confidence that he believed himself to be the smartest guy in any room.

I left. Eddie didn’t follow me outside.