'People don't talk about this stuff. They get nervous if you tell them that growing up you got fucked over every single day. People just plain don't like to hear it. Doesn't mean we turn out killers.'
April yawned a third time.
'Fuck it, you don't give a shit,' Louis grunted at her.
'Tell me about Wendy,' she said.
'Huh. Do you have a year? She's a very complicated person.'
'No, Louis, I have an hour. Come on, tell me something I need to know. Did you see her this morning?'
Louis dropped his head into his hands. 'We spoke on the phone. You probably have all the phone records. You know we spoke. Where is she?'
'What did you talk about?' April asked.
'Nothing. Details. She was upset about the rain. She wanted to make sure we didn't line the red carpet with flower trees as we'd planned.'
'Any particular reason?'
'Wendy is particular about everything. The winds were high. She knew the flowers would be spoiled. She was concerned the image of decay would give a bad impression.'
'The image of decay?' April said, not believing a word of this.
'She always wanted her brides to have happy memories. It's ironic.' He sniffed angrily.
'Because she knew Prudence would die? Were you the final say on the flowers, Louis?'
'No, no. Of course not. Mrs. Hay ordered them. I couldn't just not deliver them. I spoke to Mr. Hay about it. He was only too happy to cut them out. We donated all twenty-six flower trees. I'm praying they'll pay me. Maybe I should sue the city.' He got up to move his glass, then sat again, eyes moving from one to the other.
'Did Wendy have anything else on her mind?' April asked.
'No, not that I remember.' Louis's face was flushed almost purple from emotion, or drink. He looked about ready to have a stroke. 'I already told him all this.'
'Well, here comes something new. You're very close. You know her state of mind. So far, she's the key to the killings, and you're the key to her.'
'No. I said this before. Wendy has her weaknesses, but she's not a killer.'
April lifted a shoulder. 'Nonetheless. You're the key to her.'
Louis raised his hand. 'I'm not the key to her. We do business. I wouldn't say we're close.'
'Hey, don't play with me!' she said sharply. 'I have the party list going back years. You've had your problems in the past. We know about that, too. So cut the cha-cha. You do a lot of business with Wendy.'
'Okay, a lot. So what?' Louis's face went through a number of expressions: pissed, nervous, impatient.
'You did a wedding together on Martha's Vineyard a month ago?'
'Yes ... ?' Now he was wary.
'How did you get there?'
'We took the van.' Very surprised.
'Your van?'
'Of course my van.'
'Who went?' April asked.
Louis pursed his hps. 'Uto and me.' He raised his shoulders.
'What about Wendy?'
'Wendy went in her own car.'
'Did anybody go with Wendy?'
'I don't know, why?' 'Did you know Wendy was a marksman?'
'Of course.'
'Did she brag about it?'
'Brag, no. It was a fact of life, like being left-handed.'
'Is she left-handed?'
'No.'
'What did her being a shooter mean to you?'
Up went that shoulder. 'I don't know, nothing. Wendy's good at her job. That's all I think about.'
'You're a smart man, Louis. Don't give me that. Did she ever talk about taking somebody out?' April kept pushing.
'Never.'
'What about Tito?'
'I told you he's a bedbug, afraid of his own shadow.'
'Like Ubu?'
'I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Did you shoot the guns, Louis?' April demanded.
'Me, are you crazy?' His eyes bulged out.
'Oh, come on, it's fun. You know it's fun. Why not?' she prodded. 'Everybody likes to shoot.'
'I still don't know what you're talking about.' He looked pained.
'I'm talking about the guns on the Vineyard. Wendy told me all about it. She said you all shot the guns.'
Up went the shoulder.
'You remember it now?'
He shook his head. 'I'm not sure. I don't remember. Maybe some of the others did.' His face was draining now.
'Did you all stay at the house while you were there?' 'Wendy's house?'
April nodded, holding her breath.
'Yeah, we stayed at Wendy's house.'
'Ubu, too?'
'Yeah.'
April exhaled, and so did Mike. 'You may go away for the rest of your life for not telling us about the guns sooner, Louis. You certainly could have saved Prudence. I don't know. Maybe you didn't want to save Prudence. I don't know, Mike, does this look like a conspiracy to you?'
'Could be. We'll have to see how the DA takes it.'
'I never touched those guns.'
'How many guns, Louis? One, two? An arsenal?'
'I don't know, a few,' he said vaguely. 'I don't like guns. I wasn't paying attention.'
'Maybe you didn't touch them, but transported them.'
He shook his head. 'They never left the island. I'm sure of it.'
'How can you be sure of it if you weren't paying attention?'
Silence.
'You took a big chance, Louis, and you're going to pay for it.'
'The bigger chance was talking to you,' he muttered.
'We're going to take a look around, that okay with you? If it isn't okay with you, we'll get a warrant. Which do you prefer?'
He shook his head. 'You have my permission. Look away,' he said.
Forty-four
M
ike blew air out of his mouth. In big puffs like someone practicing Lamaze. He was tired and wanted April to come home with him. 'You okay?'
'Oh, yeah, just thinking.' April was writing quickly in her notebook. Her to-do list. Go to Martha's Vineyard Island. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.
He could see her thoughts churning. In a few hours they'd covered a lot of bases. This time they'd gone through Wendy's place themselves, and not looking just for guns. They were after an address and found one in a file with tax and electric and phone and water bills for a house located at Chappaquon-sett, Vineyard Haven, Mass. Bingo.
They also found the garage bill and located her car in a garage on Third Avenue. It was a tomato BMW 538i.
