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“True,” I said.
“But, I’m not forgetting what I owe you… When Lisa was gone.”
“That’s not an owesie,” I said.
“It is to me. I’ll help you when I can.”
“Mary Smith says she never hired this guy,” I said.
“Mary Smith’s an idiot,” Belson said.
“Well,” I said. “There’s that.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Larson Graf faxed me an invitation list with the names of Mary Smith’s 227 closest friends, in alphabetical order. I recognized enough of the names to assume that these weren’t people who hung out at bowling alleys.
The first one I was able to talk with was a guy named Loren Ba
“Mary Smith?” he said.
“Yes, sir. Your name was high on her list.”
“Maybe because the list was alphabetical,” he said.
Ba
“You’re too modest,” I said.
“Um-him. I assume this is co
“Yes.”
“She really kill him?” Ba
“No.”
“And you work for Cone Oakes?”
“Yes.”
“Barry Cone called me,” Ba
“Tell me about Mary Smith.”
“Well, I don’t know her very well,” Ba
“They seem happy to you?”
“Sure. I guess so. She was younger. As I said, I’d see them now and then, at charity events, mostly.”
“Did you know them socially?”
“In the sense that we would go out to di
“Do you know Larson Graff?”
“Graff?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t believe so. Who is he?”
“He’s Mary Smith’s PR man.”
Ba
“You know him?”
“I didn’t know his name,” Ba
“Did your company insure the Smiths?”
“I don’t really know,” Ba
“Could you find out?” I said.
“Does it say CEO on my door?” he said. “Of course I could find out.”
“Would you?”
Ba
“Allison? Please find out if we have policies on Nathan Smith or Mary Smith.” He looked at me. “Address?”
I gave him the address and he repeated it to Allison.
“Get back to me promptly,” he said and hung up. He seemed confident that he would be gotten back to promptly.
“Aside from walker duties,” I said, “would you know why Mary Smith would need a public relations person?”
“No.”
“Who would know?” I said.
Ba
“Barry Cone’s a buddy of mine,” Ba
“And Nathan Smith?”
“See him at the Harvard Club once in a while,” Ba
“A player?”
“Yes. In the money business.”
“What did he do?” I said.
Ba
“How?”
“Like everybody else,” Ba
“Stocks and bonds?”
“And real estate, and banks, and, for all I know, lottery tickets.”
“Who would know more about him?” I said.
Ba
The phone rang and Ba
“We have a whole-life policy on Nathan Smith,” he said.
“How much?”
Ba
“There’s some premiums to pay,” I said.
“Not as much as you might think,” Ba
“Beneficiary?”
“Mary Smith.”
I didn’t say anything. Ba
“That doesn’t help your cause,” Ba
“Not much,” I said. “Can I get a copy of the policy?”
“It’s confidential.”
“Yeah, but you and Barry Cone are buddies.”
Ba
“Sure.”
“Why, if you are trying to clear Mary Smith, are you investigating Mary Smith?”
“I have nowhere else to investigate,” I said. “Think of it as cold-canvassing.”
Ba
“Management is management,” I said.
Ba
CHAPTER SIX
It was almost May. The azaleas were blooming. The swan boats were active in the Public Gardens. The softball leagues had begun across Charles Street, on the Common. And, in the Charles River Basin, the little rental sailboats skidded and heeled in the faint evening wind.
“You’re working for that hussy again,” Susan said.
“Rita?”
“Miss Predatory,” Susan said.
“I like Rita,” I said.
“I know.”
“Are you being jealous?” I said.
“Analytic,” Susan said. “Rita is sexually rapacious and perfectly amoral about it. I’m merely acknowledging that.”
“But you don’t disapprove.”
“Professionalism prevents disapproval,” Susan said.
“So the term ”hussy“ is just a clinical designation,” I said.
“Certainly,” Susan said. “She has every right to wear her skirts as short as she wishes.”
“She wears short skirts?” I said.
“Like you didn’t notice.”
“So do you like Rita, Ms. Professional?”
“Red-haired floozy,” Susan said.
“I so admire professionalism.”
Susan and I stood on the little barrel-arched bridge over the lagoon and watched Pearl the Wonder Dog as she tracked the elusive french-fry carton. Her face was gray. She didn’t hear well. Her back end was arthritic and she limped noticeably as she hunted.
“Old,” Susan said to me.
I nodded.
“But her eyes are still bright and she still wags her tail and gives kisses,” Susan said.
“Me too.”
“I’ve been meaning to speak to you about the tail wagging,” Susan said.
Pearl found a nearly bald te
“She hasn’t got long,” Susan said.
“No.”
“Then what do we do?”
“If she has to be put away, can you do it?” I said.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Because you can’t?”
“I don’t know about can’t,” I said. “But if you can do it, I’ll let you.”
“I thought you were fearless,” Susan said.
“I am, but it’s embarrassing for a guy as fearless as I am to cry in the vet’s office.”
“But it’s okay for me?”
“Sure,” I said. “You’re a girl.”
“How enlightened,” Susan said.
Pearl came back to check where we were. Since her hearing had declined she was more careful about checking on us. Susan bent over and looked at her face.
“But not yet,” Susan said.
“No.”
Susan put her arms around my waist and pressed her face against my chest. I patted her back softly. After a while she pushed away from me and looked up. Her face was bright. The shadow had moved on.