Part 21 (1/2)
”You're all confused. You killed Tom Pike, Davey.”
”You're miserable, Al. You're a mean b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Al Stanger.”
Slowly, slowly, Tom Pike turned back to face us. He had changed. The look of muscular tension had gone out of his fists and wrists. They were just slack hands, pinned there by the loop, fingers pressing into the flesh of the throat. His chin had dropped. His toes pointed downward. His face had become bloated and the eyes no longer looked at anything at all.
”See now how it was just the nerves twitching some?” Al asked gently.
”You were right, Al. He's dead for sure,” Lew said.
I pushed myself up and fingered a new lump on the back of my head. ”How long would you say he's been dead, McGee? All things considered.”
”I'd say he must have been dead by the time Broon started to drive away, Al. All things considered.”
”Guess we shouldn't touch a thing. Get a reconstruction by the lab people to match up with the eyewitness account.” He handed me the carbine and went over and took handcuffs out of a back pocket. He snapped one around Broon's wrist, told Lew to bend him over a little, and snapped the other around Broon's opposite ankle. Lew let go and Stanger gave Broon a push. Broon sat in the gra.s.s, knees hiked up.
”Lew, you cut across and get the car and bring it around in here. Might as well stop and pick up our gear over there on the way. We'll be waiting right here.”
With a last look at the body, Nudenbarger hurried off.
The body had stopped turning. Stanger stared into the distance, sighed, spat. ”Sorry I had to rap you like that.”
I looked into his small dusty brown eyes. ”I guess it was the quickest way to stop me, Al.”
”Feel all right?”
”Just a little bit sick to my stomach.”
”Funny. So do I.”
21.
I STAYED AROUND and did what I could to help Bridget Pearson through the worst of it. In a conference about strategy, Ben Gaffner had accepted my suggestion that nothing would be gained by opening up the actual way in which Maureen had died. It could bring down on us a lot of awkward questions from high places. and did what I could to help Bridget Pearson through the worst of it. In a conference about strategy, Ben Gaffner had accepted my suggestion that nothing would be gained by opening up the actual way in which Maureen had died. It could bring down on us a lot of awkward questions from high places.
Better to make it an identification error over in Lime County and let the phosphate pit story stand.
He agreed that there was so little to go on that Dr. Sherman's death might as well remain on the books as suicide. But the Penny Woertz murder had to be taken out of the active file, and properly closed. That meant some acceptable explanation of motive. Dave Broon came in handy. He was smart enough to have started talking about strangling Tom Pike in a fit of anger and then, upon discovering he was dead, trying to string him up to make it look like suicide.
That gave Gaffner a choice-to play ball with Broon or to go for murder first. Murder first would need only the eyewitnesses to state that they had seen Pike trying to get free as Broon was slowly hauling him clear of the ground. Gaffner had, Broon brought in for a private playback of the tape of the conversation under the live oak. Broon then said it was his certain knowledge that Pike was having an affair with the nurse and had killed her out of jealousy. Gaffner, out of respect for the reputation of the deceased Miss Woertz, edited it down to Pike's pursuit of her, with the crime of pa.s.sion occurring doubtless when his advances were repulsed. All this cooperation earned Broon the chance at a plea of guilty to murder second, with, whether the sentence was ten, fifteen, or twenty, a chance at parole in six.
Even though by funeral time-a ceremony for two, for Mr. and Mrs. Pike-the swarm of auditors and examiners were beginning to find that Tom Pike had been distributing newly invested capital to previous investors and calling it a distribution of capital gains, Fort Courtney was full of people who could not, and would never, believe that such a brilliant and warm and considerate and handsome and well-mannered man could have ever juggled a single account in any questionable manner, to say nothing of stabbing stabbing anyone. anyone.
No, it all had to be some kind of vicious and clever conspiracy, engineered by Them. They Them. They were the subtle, hidden enemy, hiring that Broon person, making some kind of intricate deal with him, and then probably taking over toe wonderful properties Tom Pike had such great plans for at the time of his death. were the subtle, hidden enemy, hiring that Broon person, making some kind of intricate deal with him, and then probably taking over toe wonderful properties Tom Pike had such great plans for at the time of his death.
So the funeral was well-attended. Biddy knew that all the allegations were so absurd as to be grotesque. And so did Janice Holton. Biddy was so certain, that I could not risk the slightest slur or shadow of doubt to color anything I said to her, or she would never have let me try to help her in any way. She kept going on tranquilizers and raw courage. I helped her close up toe house. It would be sold once all estate and inheritance matters were straightened out, and the funds would go to the unfortunate who had invested in Development Unlimited. Fortunately, as there was no doubt of Maureen's having died first, the trust fund would go directly to Bridget. Because Maureen had signed certain papers in connection with her husband's enterprises, had he died first, it was possible the monies might have been diverted to toe creditors of Development Unlimited.
She said she was going to drive on down to Casey Key and open up toe old house and stay there for a time, quite alone. She said she would be all right. She would walk the beach, get a lot of painting done, sort herself out.
The morning I was packing to leave the Wahini Lodge, Lorette Walker stopped by and said she heard from Cathy I was checking out. I asked her to come on in. She leaned against the countertop and lit a cigarette and said, ”Stayed you a long time, huh?”
”I couldn't tear myself away from this garden spot.”
”Lot of things happened. Always like that wherever you go?”
”I'm happy to be able to say no.”
”That's no good way to fold a s.h.i.+rt! Mess it all up for sure.” She came over and took the s.h.i.+rt back out of the bag, spread it out on toe bed, folded it quickly and deftly, and put it in the bag. ”Best way,” she said, backing off. ”Sorry I couldn't do you much good on what you wanted me to find out.” lot of good. You'll never know how ”You did a much.”
”But n.o.body come hard-nosing around to try to make me say it twice.”
”I told you I'd leave you out of it.” She said wistfully, ”Could be better for me if you never did keep your word.”
”How do you mean?”
”I told myself, back there when I wanted to trust you some, I said okay, gal, you just go ahead and he'll mess you up good. Be a good lesson. Stop you from ever going soft again for any whitey.”
”That's why you did it?”
She put on a look of owlish innocence. ”Well, then there was that chance of toe airplane ride you mentioned. I figured on Paris. Anyway, here's toe change from that two hundred. I spent eighty of your dollars on people that didn't have anything worth telling.”
”So let's split what you've got left there.” She flared immediately. ”So it means I got no right to tell myself I ever did a d.a.m.n thing for you just for a favor? You buying me for this sixty dollar, you think?”
”Right off the slave block, woman. You did a favor, but I've got no right to do a favor, according to you. I know you didn't expect a dime, but by G.o.d you'll take that sixty dollars and you'll buy yourself a pretty suit, something tailored, maybe a good medium shade of blue, and you will wear that d.a.m.ned suit, and you will accept it as a gesture of friends.h.i.+p and trust.”