The room itself is fifteen feet square, outfitted as living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, closet, and laundry facility. Originally this was Henry’s garage and I’m happy to say that it sports no stucco, red Spanish tile, or vines of any kind. It is made of aluminum siding and other wholly artificial products that are weather-resistant and never need paint. The architecture is completely nondescript. It is to this cozy den that I escape most days after work and it was from here that I called Nikki and asked her to meet me for a drink.
CHAPTER 3
I do most of my hanging out in a neighborhood bar called Rosie’s. It’s the sort of place where you look to see if the chair needs brushing off before you sit down. The plastic seats have little rips in them that leave curls of nylon on the underside of your stockings and the tables have black Formica tops handetched with words like hi. To the left above the bar, there’s a dusty marlin, and when people get drunk, Rosie lets them shoot rubber-tipped arrows at it with a toy gun, thus averting aggressions that might otherwise erupt into vicious barroom snits.
The place appeals to me for a couple of reasons. Not only is it close to my home but it is never attractive to tourists, which means that most of the time it’s half-empty and perfect for private conversations. Then, too, Rosie’s cooking is inventive, a sort of devil-may-care cuisine with a Hungarian twist. It is with Rosie that Henry Pitts barters baked goods, so I get to eat his breads and pies as a dividend. Rosie is in her sixties with a nose that almost meets her upper lip, a low forehead, and hair dyed a remarkable shade of rust, rather like the color of cheap redwood furniture. She also does tricky things with an eyebrow pencil that makes her eyes look small and suspect.
When Nikki walked in that night, she hesitated, scanning the place. Then she spotted me and moved through the empty tables to the booth where I usually sit. She slid in across from me and eased out of her jacket. Rosie ambled over, eyeing Nikki with uneasiness. Rosie is convinced that I do business with Mafia types and drug crazies and she was probably trying to determine the category into which Nikki Fife might fit.
“So are you eating something or what?” Rosie said, getting straight to the point.
I glanced at Nikki. “Have you had dinner?”
She shook her head. Rosie’s eyes moved from Nikki to me as though I might be translating for a deaf-mute.
“What have you got tonight?”
“It’s veal porkolt. Veal cubes, lotta onion, paprika, and tomato paste. You’ll love it. You’ll go nuts. It’s the best kinda stew I make. Henry’s rolls and everything, and on a plate I’m gonna put some good soft cheese and a coupla gherkins.”
She was already writing the order down as she spoke, so it didn’t require much from us in the way of consent. “You gonna have wine too. I’ll pick the kind.”
When Rosie had left, I related the information I’d picked up in the files about the murder of Libby Glass, including the telephone calls that had been traced to Laurence’s home phone.
“Did you know about her?”
Nikki shook her head. “I heard the name but it was through my attorney, sometime during the trial, I think. I can’t even remember now what was said.”
“You never heard Laurence mention her? Never saw her name written down anyplace?”
“No little love notes if that’s what you mean. He was meticulous about that sort of thing. He was once named as correspondent in a divorce action because of some letters he wrote and after that, he seldom put anything personal in writing. I usually knew when he was involved with someone but never because he left cryptic notes or telephone numbers on matchbook covers or anything like that.”
I thought about that one for a minute. “What about phone bills though? Why leave those around?”
“He didn’t,” Nikki said. “All the bills were sent to the business-management firm in Los Angeles.”
“And Libby Glass handled the account?”
“Apparently she did.”
“So maybe he called her on business matters.”
Nikki shrugged. She was a little less remote than she had been but I still had the feeling that she was one step removed from what was happening. “He was having an affair with someone.”
“How do you know?”
“The hours he kept. The look on his face.” She paused, apparently thinking back. “Sometimes he would smell of someone else’s soap. I finally accused him of that and afterwards he had a shower installed at the office and used the same kind of soap there that we used at home.
“Did he see women down at the office?”
“Ask his partner,” she said with the faintest tinge of bitterness. “Maybe he even screwed ‘em on the office couch, I don’t know. Anyway it was little things. It sounds stupid now, but once he came home and the edge of his sock was turned down. It was summer and he said he’d been out playing tennis. He had on tennis shorts and he’d worked up a sweat all right, but not out on a public court. I really zapped him that time.
“But what would he say when you confronted him?”
“He’d admit it sometimes. Why not? I didn’t have any proof and adultery isn’t grounds for divorce in this state anyway.”
Rosie arrived with the wine and two paper napkins wrapped around some silverware. Nikki and I were both silent until she’d departed again.
“Why did you stay married to him if he was such a jerk?”
“Cowardice I guess,” she said. “I would have divorced him eventually, but I had a lot at stake.”
“Your son?”
“Yes.” Her chin came up slightly, whether from pride of defensiveness I wasn’t sure. “His name is Colin,” she said. “He’s twelve. I have him in a boarding school up near Monterey.”
“You also had Laurence’s kids living with you at the time, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right. A boy and a girl, both in school.”
“Where are they now?”
“I have no idea. His ex-wife is here in town. You might check with her if you’re curious. I don’t hear from them.”
“Did they blame you for his death?”
She leaned forward, her manner intense. “Everyone blamed me. Everyone believed I was guilty. And now I take it Con Dolan thinks I killed Libby Glass too. Isn’t that what you were getting at?”
“Who cares what Dolan thinks? I don’t think you did it and I’m the one going to work on this thing. Which reminds me. We ought to get the financial end of it clarified. I charge thirty bucks an hour plus mileage. I’d like to have at least a grand up front. I’ll send you an itemized accounting from week to week indicating what time I’ve put in doing what. Also, you have to understand that my services are not exclusive. I sometimes handle more than one case at a time.”
Nikki was already reaching into her purse. She took out a checkbook and a pen. Even looking at it upside down, I could see that the check was for five thousand dollars. I admired the carelessness with which she dashed it off. She didn’t even have to check her bank balance first. She pushed it across the table to me and I tucked it into my purse as though I disposed of such matters as casually as she.
Rosie appeared again, this time with our dinner. She put a plate down in front of each of us and then stood there until we began to eat. “Mmm, Rosie, it’s wonderful,” I said.
She wiggled slightly in place, not yielding her ground.
“Maybe it don’t suit your friend,” she said, looking at me instead of Nikki.
“Marvelous,” Nikki murmured. “Really it is.”
“She loves it,” I said. Rosie’s gaze slid across to Nikki’s face and she finally seemed satisfied that Nikki’s appreciation of the dish was equaled only by my own.
I let the conversation wander while we ate. Between the good food and the wine, Nikki seemed to be letting down her guard. Under that cool, unruffled surface, signs of life were beginning to show, as though she were just wakening from a curse that had rendered her immobile for years.
“Where do you think I should start?” I asked.
“Well I don’t know. I’ve always been curious about his secretary back then. Her name was Sharon Napier. She was already working for him when he and I met, but there was something not right about her, something in her attitude.”
“Was she involved with him?”
“I don’t think so. I really don’t know what it was. I could just about guarantee they didn’t have any sexual ties, but something had gone on. She was sometimes sarcastic with him, which Laurence never tolerated from anyone. The first time I heard her do it, I thought he’d cut her down, but he never batted an eye. She never took any guff from him at all, wouldn’t stay late, wouldn’t come in on weekends when he had a big case coming up. He never complained about her either, just went out and hired temporary help when he needed it. It wasn’t like him, but when I asked him about it, he acted as if I were crazy, reading significance into the situation when there wasn’t any. She was gorgeous, too, hardly the run-of-the-mill office type.”