Most of the houses had gone up in the fifties. The trees had flourished, overpowering the small lots. The houses were alternately pale pink and pale green stucco, mirror images of one another like a whole tray of loaf cakes on a bakery shelf. All had the same rock-covered roofs, as though some volcano nearby had erupted, raining down a thin debris. The whole tract seemed dominated by wide-mouthed garages and I was subjected to untidy views of lawn equipment and camper shells, toys, tools, dusty luggage, banged-up refrigerators. There were surprisingly few cars visible and the impression I got was of a community abandoned in the wake of some natural disaster. Maybe a plague had passed this way or maybe toxic wastes had risen up through the soil, killing all the dogs and cats and burning holes in children’s feet. At the intersection of Maryland and Virginia, I turned right.
On Carolina, a few enterprising souls had faced their homes with fieldstone or cedar shingle, and some had opted for an Oriental effect-trellises of plywood with geometric cutouts that were meant to look Chinese, the roof corners tilted up for that gala 1950s pagoda look. Compared to more recent tracts on the outskirts of Santa Teresa, these houses were shabby and the evidence of poor construction floated on the surface like chicken fat on homemade soup. There were cracks in the stucco, window shutters askew. The veneer on the front doors was peeling off in strips. Even the drapes were hung crookedly and I could imagine bathroom plaster bulging out in places, faucet handles frozen with rust.
The Howes had traded their front lawn for a rock garden, apparently burying the scruffy grass under tons of sand, topped with gravel beds in shades of mauve and green. I could still see a strip of black plastic “mulch” peeping out around the edge where some attempt had been made to suppress the weeds. The Bermuda grass had risen to the challenge and it was snaking its way through the gravel at a leisurely pace. There was a birdbath tucked among the succulents and a poured-concrete squirrel seemed to pop up out of the cactus in an attitude of perpetual, stony optimism. I doubted there was a live squirrel within blocks.
I parked the car and walked up to the house, taking the clipboard I keep in the backseat of my car. The Howes’ garage door was closed, making the place look blank and unoccupied. The long, low line of the porch was obscured with ivy, looking picturesque, but capable, I knew, of lifting the roof right off. The drapes were closed. I rang the bell, but there was no reassuring “ding-dong” within. A minute passed. I knocked.
The woman who came to the door was subdued, her faded blue eyes searching my face hesitantly.
“Mrs. Howe?”
“I’m Mrs. Howe,” she said.
It felt like Lesson One on a foreign-language record. There were dark circles under her eyes and her voice was as flat and dry as a cracker.
“I understand Leonard Grice is staying here. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
I held my clipboard up. “I’m from the insurance company and I wonder if I might have a word with him.” It’s a marvel God doesn’t reach right down and rip my tongue out by the roots for the lies I tell.
“Leonard’s taking a rest. Why don’t you come back another time.” She was closing the door.
“I’ll just take a minute,” I said quickly. I stuck the clipboard into the crack. She’d never get the door shut that way.
She paused. “The doctor still has him on sedatives.” A non sequitur but the point was clear.
“I see. Well, of course, I wouldn’t want to disturb him, but I’d really like to see him, as long as I’ve driven all the way out here.” I tried to sound winsome, but apparently failed.
She stared at me stubbornly and I could see the color rise in her face. She glanced sideways as though she were consulting an invisible companion. Abruptly, she moved back and let me into the house with the attitude of someone using the / word under her breath. Her hair was gray, shoulder-length and thin, turned under in a tight pageboy. She had bangs along her forehead in a hairstyle I hadn’t seen since those June Allyson movies where she was so loving and so long-suffering. Mrs. Howe wore a plain white blouse and a sensible charcoal-gray wool skirt. She was chunky through the waist. What is it about middle age that makes a woman’s body mimic pregnancy?
“I’ll see if he’ll talk to you,” she said and left the room.
I waited just inside the front door, taking in with a quick glance the cotton shag carpeting, brick fireplace painted white, an oil painting above it of waves crashing on rocks. She’d apparently used the painting as the focal point of her decorating scheme because the couch and wing chairs were upholstered in the same passionate shade of turquoise, in a fabric that looked faintly damp. I hated this part of my job-asserting myself persistently into somebody else’s pain and grief, violating privacy. I felt like a door-to-door salesman, pushing unwanted sets of nature encyclopedias complete with fake walnut case. I also hated myself vaguely for being judgmental. What did I know about hairstyles anyway? What did I know about waves crashing on rocks? Maybe the turquoise said exactly what she’d meant to say about the room.
When Leonard Grice appeared, I could feel my heart sink. He didn’t look like a man who’d murdered his wife, as much as that theory appealed to me. He was probably in his early fifties, but he moved like an old man. He was not bad-looking, but his face was pallid, cheeks sunken as though he’d recently lost some weight. His manner was vacant and he held his hands in front of him when he walked as though he were blindfolded. He had all the airs of a man who has stumbled painfully over (Something in the dark and wants to be certain he doesn’t get caught by surprise again. It was possible, of course, that he’d killed her and was consumed now by guilt and remorse, but the killers I’ve run into in my brief career are either cheerful or matter-of-fact, like they can’t understand what all the fuss is about.
Leonard’s sister walked beside him, her hand near his elbow, watching where he placed his feet. She eased him toward a chair and shot me a look, clearly hoping I was satisfied at the trouble I’d caused. I did feel crummy, I’ll confess.
He sat down. He seemed to be coming to life, reaching automatically for a pack of Camels in his shirt pocket while Mrs. Howe perched on the edge of the couch.
“Sorry to have to bother you,” I said, “but I’ve just been talking to the adjuster at California Fidelity and there were a few details we wanted to clarify. Do you mind answering some questions for me?”
“He can hardly afford not to cooperate with the insurance company,” she interjected peevishly.
Leonard cleared his throat, striking a match twice without effect against a paper matchbook. His hands were trembling and I wasn’t sure he’d ever manage to match the flame to the end of his cigarette even if he could conjure one up. Mrs. Howe reached over, took the packet, and struck the match for him. He inhaled deeply.
“You’ll have to pardon me,” he said, “the doctor has me on some medicine that does this to me. I’m on disability for my back. What is it exactly that you want?”
“I’ve just recently been assigned to this case and I thought it might be helpful to hear your own account of what happened that night.”
“What on earth for!” Mrs. Howe said.
“That’s all right, Lily,” he broke in, “I don’t mind. I’m sure she’s got her reasons for wanting to know.” His voice was stronger now, dispelling the original impression of feebleness.
He took a deep drag of his cigarette, letting it rest in the fork between his index and third fingers.
“My sister’s widowed,” he said, as though that might explain her belligerence. “Mr. Howe died of a heart attack eighteen months ago. After that, Marty and I got in the habit of taking Lil out to dinner every week. Mostly it was a way to keep up with each other and visit back and forth. Well that night, Marty planned to go as usual, but she said she felt like she was coming down with the flu, so at the last minute she decided to stay home. It was Lil’s birthday and Marty was disappointed because she knew we were going to have a little cake brought to the table and waiters singing… you know how they do. She wanted to see the look on Lily’s face. Anyway, she felt if she wasn’t well, she might spoil everybody’s evening so she didn’t go.” He paused, taking a deep drag of his cigarette. He’d accumulated a long ash and Lily pushed an ashtray toward him just as it tumbled.