I dropped my handbag on the desk and hung my jacket on a peg. I sat on the couch and pulled off my boots, then padded over to the refrigerator and took out a bottle of white zinfandel and a corkscrew. At intervals, I try to behave like a person with class, which is to say I drink wine from a bottle instead of a cardboard box. I pulled the cork and poured myself a glass. I crossed to the desk, taking the telephone book from the top drawer, trailing telephone cord, directory, and wine glass over to the sofa. I set the wine glass on the endtable and thumbed through the book to see if Billy Polo was listed. Of course, he wasn’t. I looked up the name Gahan. No dice. I drank some wine and tried to think what to do next.
On an impulse, I checked for the name Daggett. Lovella had mentioned that he once lived up here. Maybe he still had relatives in town.
There were four Daggetts listed. I started dialing them in order, saying the same thing each time. “Oh, hi. I’m trying to reach a John Daggett, who used to live in this area. Can you tell me if this is the correct number?”
On the first two calls, I drew a blank, but with the third, the man who answered responded to my query with one of those odd silences that indicate that information is being processed.
“What did you want with him?” he asked. He sounded like he was in his sixties, his phrasing tentative, alert to my response, but undecided how much he was willing to reveal.
He was certainly skipping right down to the tricky part. From everything I’d heard about Daggett, he was a bum, so I didn’t dare claim to be a friend of his. If I admitted he owed me money, I was going to have the phone slammed down in my ear. Ordinarily, in a situation like this, I’d insinuate that I had money for him, but somehow I didn’t think that would fly. People are getting wise to that shit.
I laid out the first lie that occurred to me. “Well, to tell you the truth,” I said, “I’ve only met John once, but I’m trying to get in touch with a mutual acquaintance and I think John has his address and telephone number.”
“Who were you looking to get in touch with?”
That caught me off-guard, as I hadn’t made that part up yet. “Who? Um … Alvin Limardo. Has John ever mentioned Alvin?”
“No, I don’t believe so. But, now, you may have the wrong party. The John Daggett that used to live here is currently in prison and he’s been there, oh I’d say nearly two years.” His manner suggested a man whose retire
ment has invested even a wrong number with some interesting possibilities. Still, it was clear I’d hit pay dirt.
“That’s the one I’m talking about,” I said. “He was up in San Luis Obispo.”
“He still is.”
“Oh, no. He’s out. He was released six weeks ago.”
“John? No, ma’am. He’s still in prison and I hope he stays there. I don’t mean to speak ill of the man, but you’ll find he’s what I call a problematic person.”
“Problematic?”
“Well, yes. That’s how I’d have to put it. John is the type of person that creates problems and usually of a quite serious nature.”
“Oh, really,” I said. “I didn’t realize that.” I loved it that this man was willing to chat. As long as I could keep him going, I might figure out how to get a bead on Daggett. I took a flyer. “Are you his brother?”
“I’m his brother-in-law, Eugene Nickerson.”
“You must be married to his sister then,” I said.
He laughed. “No, he’s married to my sister. She was a Nickerson before she became a Daggett.”
“You’re Lovella’s brother?” I was trying to picture siblings with a forty-year age span.
“No, Essie’s.”
I held the receiver away from my ear and stared at it. What was he talking about? “Wait a minute. I’m confused. Maybe we’re not talking about the same man.” I gave a quick verbal sketch of the John Daggett I’d met. I didn’t see how there could be two, but there was something going on here.
“That’s him all right. How did you say you knew him?”
“I met him last Saturday, right here in Santa Teresa.”
The silence on the other end of the line was profound.
I finally broke into it. “Is there some way I might stop by so we can talk about this?”
“I think you’d best,” he said. “What would your name be?”
“Kinsey Millhone.”
He told me how to get to the place.
The house was white frame with a small wooden porch, tucked into the shadow of Capillo Hill on the west side of town. The street was abbreviated, only three houses on each side before the blacktop petered out into the gravel patch that formed a parking pad beside the Daggett residence. Beyond the house, the hill angled upward into sparse trees and underbrush. No sunlight whatever penetrated the yard. A sagging chicken wire fence cut along the lot lines. Bushes had been planted at intervals, but had failed to thrive, so that now there were only globes of dried twigs. The house had a hangdog look, like a stray being penned up until the dogcatcher comes.
I climbed the steep wooden steps and knocked. Eugene Nickerson opened the door. He was much as I had pictured him: in his sixties, of medium height, with wiry gray hair and eyebrows drawn together in a knot. His eyes were small and pale, his lashes nearly white. Narrow shoulders, thick waist, suspenders, flannel shirt. He carried a Bible in his left hand, his index finger closed between the covers, keeping his place.
Uh-oh, I thought.
“I’ll have to ask your name again,” he said as he admitted me. “My memory’s not what it was.”
I shook his hand. “Kinsey Millhone,” I said. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Nickerson. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
“Not at all. We’re preparing for our Bible class. We usually get together on Wednesday nights, but our pastor has been down with the flu this week, so the
meeting was postponed. This is my sister, Essie Daggett. John’s wife,” he said, indicating the woman seated on the couch. “You can call me Eugene if you like,” he added. I smiled briefly in assent and then concentrated on her.
“Hello. How are you? I appreciate your letting me stop by like this.” I moved over and offered my hand. She allowed a few fingers to rest in mine briefly. It was like shaking hands with a Playtex rubber glove.
She was broad-faced and colorless, with graying hair in an unbecoming cut and glasses with thick lenses and heavy plastic frames. She had a wen on the right side of her nose about the size of a kernel of popcorn. Her lower jaw jutted forward aggressively, with protrusive cuspids on either side. She smelled virulently of lilies of the valley.
Eugene indicated that I should have a seat, my choice being the couch where Essie sat, or a Windsor chair with one of the wooden spokes popped out. I opted for the chair, sitting forward slightly so as not to pop anything else. Eugene seated himself in a wicker rocker that creaked under his weight. He took up the narrow purple ribbon hanging out of the Bible and marked his place, then set the book on the table in front of him. Essie had said nothing, her gaze fixed on her lap.
“May I get you a glass of water?” he asked. “We don’t hold with caffeinated beverages, but I’d be happy to pour you some 7-Up, if you like.”
“I’m fine, thanks,” I said. I was seriously alarmed. Being with devout Christians is like being with the very rich. One senses that there are rules at work, some strange etiquette that one might inadvertently breech. I tried to hold bland and harmless thoughts, hoping I wouldn’t blurt out any four-letter words. How could John Daggett be related to these two?
Eugene cleared his throat. “I was explaining to Essie this confusion we’re having over John Daggett’s whereabouts. Our understanding is that John is still incarcerated, but now you seem to have a different point of view.”
“I’m as baffled as you are,” I said. I was thinking fast, wondering how much information I might elicit without giving anything away. As bugged as I was with Daggett, I still didn’t feel I should be indiscreet. Not only was there the issue of his being out on parole-there was Lovella. I didn’t want to be the one to spill the beans about this new bride of his to a woman he was apparently still married to. “Do you happen to have a picture of him?” I asked. “I suppose it’s possible the man I talked to was simply claiming to be your brother-in-law.”