Hugger Mugger

"Are you saying you'd like me to get you a lawyer, Jon?" Pe

"We both need one," Delroy said, still softly, with a little emphasis on "both."

"I don't think I need one, Jon," Pe

Delroy nodded silently and didn't say anything else. Becker tipped back in his chair.

"Anybody like a Coca-Cola? Coffee? Glass of water?"

Nobody said anything. Becker nodded to himself.

"Now I hope you are not going to argue with me here, Jon," Becker said, "when I tell you that we got your ass. Excuse me, Pe

Delroy didn't answer.

"Not only Mr. Spenser here but a reliable former police officer named Tedy Sapp witnessed your attempt to kill Mr. Spenser."

Pe

"Tedy Sapp's a goddamned queer," Delroy said.

"Don't have much to do with his reliability as a witness," Becker said. "You are looking at a long time inside."

Becker shifted a little in his chair, getting more comfortable. Delroy didn't move or speak. His clasped hands were perfectly still, resting on the table.

"What I'd like to know is why you tried to kill Mr. Spenser?"

"You charging me?" Delroy said.

"Not yet," Becker said. "You used to be a police officer. You know when we charge you we got to read you your rights and let you get a lawyer, and the lawyer won't let you say anything, and we got no chance of working anything out together."

"So I could just get up and walk out of here?"

Becker didn't say anything for a moment. He looked at me. I got off the wall and walked over and leaned against the door. Becker smiled.

"Course you could," Becker said.

Delroy looked at me and back at Becker and didn't move.

"Dalton," Pe

"We was hoping you might urge Mr. Delroy to be forthright," Becker said.

"Well, of course. Jon, I do hope you'll be completely open with Sheriff Becker on this."

Delroy smiled a very small private smile and didn't say anything. He seemed intent on the knuckles of his folded hands.

"Maybe you could even tell us what he was supposed to be doing while he was off trying to kill Mr. Spenser," Becker said. "Sort of what was his official assignment?"

"Well, Jon didn't have any assignments, per se," Pe

"The business being Three Fillies," Becker said.

Pe

"And the family being you and your two sisters."

"Yes."

"As I recall, Spenser had to rescue the two sisters from the security Mr. Delroy was providing," Becker said.

"Mr. Spenser was working under a misapprehension. My sisters were not, at the time he stole them from me, nor, I suspect, are they now, capable of caring for themselves, nor of making decisions in their best interest."

Becker nodded cheerily.

"We can get to that," Becker said. "You got any idea why Mr. Delroy attempted to murder Mr. Spenser?"

"None at all," Pe

"Jon," Becker said. "You interested in a shorter sentence?"

Delroy smiled again to himself, fleetingly. He looked at Pe

"Okay," Becker said. "Mr. Spenser, would you open that door and ask Jerry to send those folks in?"

I stopped leaning on the door, and opened it, and stuck my head out, and nodded at the deputy and jerked a thumb toward the interrogation room, and closed the door again.

"You didn't by any chance ask Mr. Delroy to shoot Mr. Spenser, did you, Pe

"Dalton, that's offensive," Pe

"Yep," Becker said. "It is. Sorry about that, but it kind of looks to us as if you might have."

Pe

"Stand by, Jerry," Becker said to him, and the deputy went and leaned on the wall I'd recently vacated when I went to lean on the door.

"I want to thank you all for coming," Becker said. "Especially you, Ms. Lark. I know it's a long flight."

"You sent me a ticket," she said.

Becker nodded.

"We had a little extra in the budget this month," he said. "Now, so we're clear, no one is here under duress. No one is under arrest, though it seems likely that Mr. Delroy will be."

Pe

"Everybody all right?" he said. "Anybody like a Coca-Cola? Coffee? Glass of water?"

Nobody did.

"Okay," Becker said. "Mr. Spenser, you been the one raising most of the hell in this case, why don't you hold forth a little bit for us."

Everyone turned their head and looked at me. I felt like I should open with a shuffle ball change. I decided against it.

"Most of you," I said, "will know some of what I'm going to say, but knowing all of it is the trick. This isn't a court of law. I'm telling you what I believe. But I can prove most of it."

The deputy with the mustache shifted a little as he leaned against the wall. I could hear the creak of his gun belt when he did so.

"About thirty years ago," I said, "Walter Clive had an affair with Dolly Hartman. The result of that union was Jason Hartman."

Stonie and SueSue both turned their gaze simultaneously on Jason. Everyone else kept looking at me.

"No one acknowledged that. Clive as far as I can tell didn't even know it. Dolly felt in the long run it would be in both her and Jason's best interests to lie back in the weeds and wait. Clive later made a will. It provided that his entire estate be equally divided among his children. Stonie and SueSue weren't too interested in the business. But Pe

Everyone was still. Sherry Lark leaned forward a little, her mouth slightly open, frowning slightly to show how attentive she was being. There were probably very few unscripted moments in Sherry's life.

"I don't know what caused Dolly to bring it up when she did, and frankly, it doesn't matter much. But she eventually told Clive that Jason was his son. Clive was not a guy who had just fallen off the feed wagon as it trundled through town. He wanted proof. So they arranged with a doctor named Klein-most of you know him, I think-for a DNA test. Meanwhile Walter, in the eventuality that the test proved out, began talking to his lawyer, Rudy Vallone, about changing his will. The change would have included Jason in the estate, but, and here's the kicker, it would also have given him control of Three Fillies."