`What did Sipe have to say to you?'
`That my husband was committing adultery - he had a snapshot to prove it - and it was his duty under the law to arrest him. I don't know now if there was ever such a law on the books-'
`There was. I don't think it's been enforced lately, or an awful lot of people would be in jail.'
`He mentioned jail, and the effect it would have on my husband's reputation. This was just about the time when Ralph began to believe he could make Captain. I know from this height and distance it sounds childish, but it was the biggest thing in his life at that time. He came from an undistinguished family, you see-his father was just an unsuccessful small businessman - and he felt he had to shine in so many ways to match my family's distinction.'
She looked at me with sad intelligence. `We all need something to buttress our pride, don't we, fragments to shore against our ruins.'
`You were telling me about your interview with Otto Sipe.'
`So I was. My mind tends to veer away from scenes like that. In spite of the pain and shock I felt - it was my first inkling that Ralph was unfaithful to me - I didn't want to see all his bright ambitions wrecked. So I paid the dreadful man his dirty money, and he gave me his filthy snapshot.'
`Did you hear from him again?'
`No.'
`I'm surprised he didn't attach himself to you for life.'
`Perhaps he intended to. But Ralph stopped him. I told Ralph about his visit, naturally.'
She added: `I didn't show him the snapshot. That I destroyed.'
`How did Ralph stop him?'
`I believe he knocked him down and frightened him off: I didn't get a very clear account from Ralph. By then we weren't communicating freely. I went home to Boston and I didn't see Ralph again until the end of the year, when he brought his ship to Boston harbor. We had a reconciliation of sorts. It was then we decided to adopt a child.'
I wasn't listening too closely. The meanings of the case were emerging. Ralph Hillman had had earlier transactions with both of the extortionists. He had been Mike Harley's superior officer, and had thrown him out of the Navy. He had knocked down Otto Sipe. And they had made him pay for his superiority and his power.
Elaine was thinking along the same lines. She said in a soft, despondent voice: `Mr. Sipe would never have entered our lives if Ralph hadn't used that crummy hotel for his crummy little purposes.'
`You mustn't blame your husband for everything. No doubt he did wrong. We all do. But the things he did nineteen or twenty years ago aren't solely responsible for this kidnapping, or whatever it was. It isn't that simple.'
`I know. I don't blame him for everything.'
'Sipe, for instance, would probably have been involved anyway. His partner Mike Harley knew your husband and had a grievance against him.'
`But why did Tom, my poor dear Tom, end up at that same hotel? Isn't there a fatality in it?'
`Maybe there is. To Sipe and Harley it was simply a convenient place to keep him.'
`Why would Tom stay with them? They must be - have been outrageous creatures.'
`Teen-age boys sometimes go for the outrageous.'
`Do they not,' she said. `But I can't really blame Tom for anything he's done. Ralph and I have given him little enough reality to hold on to. Tom's a sensitive, artistic, introverted boy. My husband didn't want him to be those things-perhaps they reminded Ralph that he wasn't our son, really. So he kept trying to change him. And when he couldn't, he withdrew his interest. Not his love, I'm sure. He's still profoundly concerned with Tom.'
`But he spends his time with Dick Leandro.'
One corner of her mouth lifted, wrinkling her cheek and eye, as if age and disillusion had taken sudden possession of that side of her face.
`You're quite a noticer, Mr. Archer.'
`You have to be, in my job. Not that Dick Leandro makes any secret of his role. I met him coming, out of your driveway.'
`Yes. He was looking for Ralph. He's very dependent on Ralph,' she added dryly.
`How would you describe the relationship, Mrs. Hillman? Substitute son?'
`I suppose I would. Dick's mother and father broke up some years ago. His father left town, and of course his mother got custody of Dick. He needed a substitute father. And Ralph needed someone to crew for him on the sloop - I sometimes think it's the most urgent need he has, or had. Someone to share the lusty gusty things he likes to do, and would like a son to do.'
`He could do better than Dick, couldn't he?'
She was silent for a while. `Perhaps he could. But when you have an urgent need, you tend to hook up with people who have urgent needs of their own. Poor Dick has a great many urgent needs.'
`Some of which have been met. He told me that your husband put him through college.'
`He did. But don't forget that Dick's father used to work for Ralph's firm. Ralph is very strong on loyalty, up and down.'
`Is Dick?'
