Part 33 (1/2)
”Yes you do!” she said, and Matt saw that she was on the edge of tears.
”What's wrong with me being a cop?” Matt asked softly.
”If you don't know, I certainly can't tell you.”
”Jesus!”
”I'm tired,” she said. ”And a little drunk. I'm going to bed.”
”It's early,” he protested.
She walked away with a little wave.
”Call you in the morning before you go?”
There was no reply to that, either.
”s.h.i.+t,” Matt said aloud.
Thirty minutes later, just as Matt had decided she wasn't coming back out of the house, and as he had indicated to the bartender that he would like another Scotch and soda, easy on the soda, his father touched his arm and announced, ”I've been looking for you.”
I am about to get h.e.l.l, Matt decided. The party is just about over, and I have not danced with my mother. Actually I haven't done much about my mother at all except wave at her. And to judge by the look on his face, he is really p.i.s.sed. Or disappointed in me, which is even worse than his being p.i.s.sed at me.
”My bad manners are showing again, are they?” Matt asked.
”Are you sober?” Brewster C. Payne asked evenly enough.
”So far,” Matt said.
”Come with me, please, Matt,” his father said. ”There's no putting this off, I'm afraid.”
”No putting what off?”
”Leave your drink,” his father said. ”You won't be needing it.”
They walked out of the tent and around it and up the lawn to the house. His father led him into the butler's pantry, where he had been early that morning with Soames T. Browne.
H. Richard Detweiler was sitting on one of the high stools. When he saw Matt, he got off it and looked at Matt with both hurt and anger in his eyes.
”Would you like a drink, Matt?” Detweiler asked.
”He's already had enough to drink,” Brewster C. Payne answered for him, and then turned to Matt. ”Matt, you are quoted as saying that Penny has a problem with drugs, specifically cocaine.”
”Quoted by whom?” Matt said.
”Did you say that? Something like that?” his father pursued.
”Jesus Christ!” Matt said.
”Yes, or no, for G.o.d's sake, Matt!” H. Richard Detweiler said angrily.
”G.o.dd.a.m.n him!” Matt said.
”So it's true,” Detweiler said. ”What right did you think you had to say something filthy like that about Penny?”
”Mr. Detweiler, I'm a policeman,” Matt said.
”Until about an hour ago I was under the impression that you were a friend of Penny's first, and a policeman incidentally,” he said.
”Oh, Matt,” Matt's father said.
”I think of myself as a friend of Penny's, Mr. Detweiler,” Matt said. ”We're trying very hard to find out who shot her and why.”
”And the way to do that is spread . . . something like this around?”
”I didn't spread it around, Mr. Detweiler. I talked to Chad about Penny-”
”Obviously,” Detweiler said icily.
”And in confidence I told him what we had learned about Penny-about Penny and cocaine.”
”Not thinking, of course, that Chad would tell Daffy, and Daffy would tell her mother, and that it would soon be common gossip?'' Brewster Payne said coldly.
”And that's all it is, isn't it?” H. Richard Detweiler said angrily, disgustedly. ”Gossip? Filthy supposition with nothing to support it but your wild imagination? What were you trying to do, Matt, impress Chad with all the inside knowledge you have, now that you're a cop?”
”Where did you hear this, Matt? From that detective? The black man?” his father asked.
”Mr. Detweiler,” Matt said, ”I can't tell you how sorry I am you learned it the way you have, but the truth is that Penny is into cocaine. From what I understand, she is on the edge of being addicted to it.”
”That's utter nonsense!” Detweiler flared. ”Don't you think her mother and I would know if she had a problem along those lines?”
”No, sir, I don't think you would. You don't, Mr. Detweiler. ''
”I asked you the source of your information, Matt,” his father said.
”I'm sorry, I can't tell you that,” Matt said. ”But the source is absolutely reliable.”
”You mean you won't tell us,” Detweiler said. ”Did it occur to you that if there was any semblance of truth to this that Dr. Dotson would have been aware of it and brought it to my attention?”
”I can't believe that Dr. Dotson is not aware of it,” Matt said. ”Mr. Detweiler, I don't pretend to know anything about medical ethics-”
”Medical ethics or any other kind, obviously,” Detweiler snapped.
”But Penny is twenty-one, an adult, and it seems to me that Penny wouldn't want you to know.''
”Russell Dotson has been our family doctor for-for all of Penny's life and then some. Good G.o.d, Matt, he's a friend. He's outside right now. If he knew, suspected, something like that, he would tell me.”