'Really?' Watterson said. He was sipping at a glass of red wine. 'He's very civic-minded, father is. What exactly did he do?'
'Well,' Ness said, sorry he'd brought it up, 'that really isn't suitable table conversation.'
Watterson snapped his fingers. 'It was that Torso Clinic! He helped you on that 'Mad Doctor of Kingsbury Run' affair.'
Viv laughed. 'I never heard him referred to as a 'doctor,' before, Lloyd. Isn't it 'butcher'?'
'Not according to Lloyd's father,' Ness said. 'He studied the.. evidence and said he felt the Butcher had surgical training. But I'm really not so sure this is proper cocktail-party conversation.'
Ev touched his hand. 'Eliot doesn't take his business along on social occasions.'
Viv studied the couple over the rim of her glass. 'But he always sits with his back to the wall, doesn't he?'
Ev gave Ness an odd look, realizing that what Viv said was true.
Ness grinned and shrugged and said, 'Old Chicago habits die hard.'
'Does this mean,' Kenneth Morrison said, with a sneering little smile, 'that our safety directors packing heat?'
'Oh, no,' Viv said, putting her Bacardi glass on the table next to two other empty ones. 'He never carries a gun. It's against his philosophy.'
'Is that right?' Watterson said with an interested smile. 'Now why is that?'
Ness smiled shyly back and shrugged.
Viv said, 'Something about people being disinclined to shoot an unarmed man. Besides, he knows judo. Don't you, Eliot?'
Ness leaned over to her and said, very softly, so that no one else at the table could hear, 'Stop it, Viv.'
Viv's lips trembled and her eyelids fluttered nervously. 'I'm just a little drunk,' she said.
He smiled charitably. 'Happens to the best of us.'
They leaned back away from each other.
'Do you think the Mad Doctor is dead, Mr. Ness?'
He turned his attention to Lloyd Watterson, who had posed the question.
'Lloyd,' Ness said firmly, 'I don't think this is a topic of conversation that's really suited for-'
'No! No!' Kenneth Morrison was gesturing rather drunkenly. 'It's a fascinating topic! Share the inside dope with us poor outside dopes.'
Ness felt ill at ease, but as he glanced around the table, he saw all eyes on him, none of them belonging to anybody who seemed to feel uncomfortable about the subject.
And now Viv got into the act.
'The newspapers,' she said, 'and the public, too, assume that the Butcher is dead. I mean, he is dead… what was his name?'
'Dolezal,' Ness said softly.
'He hanged himself in the jailhouse,' Morrison said cheerfully. 'Spared the state the expense and the trouble.'
'I don't know about that.'
All eyes turned toward the pretty redhead at Watterson's side, whose small, high-pitched voice had finally entered the conversation.
'Everyone seems to think,' Jennifer Wainwright said, 'that the reign of terror is over. But it seems to me a lot of questions died unanswered with that poor man.'
'Poor man?' Morrison said. 'He was a maniac!'
'He never had a trial,' she said reasonably. 'How do we know he really was the Butcher?'
Watterson, his face blank but for intensely interested eyes, said, ' Do you think this fellow Dolezal was guilty, Mr. Ness?'
'Eliot,' Ness corrected with a smile, 'I have my doubts. The evidence is less than overwhelming.'
'Well, hell, man,' Morrison said. 'Didn't he confess?'
'Those confessions were beaten out of him.'
'I thought,' Watterson said, 'that the coroner's inquest cleared the sheriff in Dolezal's death.'
Ness smiled gently. 'Not exactly. In fact, Coroner Gerber's autopsy established that four of the suspect's ribs were broken while he was in custody. It's just that those injuries could also be attributed to Dolezal's two failed suicide attempts.'
'Come on now, Ness,' Morrison said, his smile nasty, 'aren't you just a little tiny bit bitter?'
'Bitter?'
'Hell, man-the sheriff stole your thunder! I remember all that press you got, coming out saying you were personally going to take on the Butcher. Well, the sheriff caught him, and that left you with a whole handful of nothing.'
Viv said sharply, 'Kenneth, I hardly think the demise of the prime suspect in the Butcher case made Sheriff O'Connell a hero. The press, the Cleveland Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union.. they were all, all over him, like a bad smell!'
Ness was struck by the bittersweet expression Ev wore as she studied Viv. It seemed to both please and sadden her to see Viv stick up for him.
'Come on, Eliot,' Viv was saying. 'Defend yourself! Admit it-you think the sheriff got away with murder. Literal murder.'
'Maybe,' Ness said, his voice barely audible. 'But my office can't do a damned thing about it.'
'Well,' Viv said, 'your pal Sam Wild has. He and half the reporters and editorial writers in town gave O'Connell hell. And they still are, months later.'
'I would say,' Morrison said, lifting his glass to Ness, 'that the sheriff's reelection possibilities are just about nil.'
Ness raised an eyebrow and his glass to Morrison. 'I'll say this much-whether the sheriff killed Mr. Dolezal or not, he's killed his own political future.'
Watterson slid his arm around Jennifer and said pleasantly; 'So is the Butcher case open or closed, Mr. Ness-Eliot?'
'Lloyd, the mayor feels that unless or until bodies begin turning up again, the case should be considered closed-unofficially.'
'Don't you have anyone working the case anymore?'
'Officially the slayings are unsolved-and I've kept two good men on it.'
'Ah,' Watterson said, smiling, as if reassured.
Ev, who'd been largely silent throughout the conversation, said, 'Eliot, you haven't said what you really think. Do you think the Butcher is alive or dead?'
'Oh, I think he's still out there.'
Viv smirked and said, 'So do I. But he'll stay in hiding. He won't be back.'
Ev turned to Viv and asked her why.
'It's obvious, dear,' she said. 'He can hide behind a dead man-this fellow Dolezal. Right, Eliot?'
'I think you're right to this extent, Viv: that's why we haven't heard from him in a number of months. But he'll be back. We have not, I'm afraid, heard the last of him.'
Watterson seemed interested and almost amused by that. 'Why's that, Eliot?'
'Because of the killing. That'll bring him back out in the open.'
'The killing?' Watterson asked, confused. 'What about it?'
'He likes it. Now, if you'll excuse us… I think the band is coming back from its break.'
They bid the group their good-byes; Ness could feel Viv's eyes on his back as he headed out to the dance floor with Ev. Ina Ray Hutton and her girls were playing 'Star Dust' and the lighting had shifted from coral to blue. He held Ev close, but she pulled gently away and looked at him with dark, searching eyes.
'Are you still in love with her?' Ev asked.
'Don't be silly, doll.'
'She's still in love with you.'
'I don't think she ever was in love with me.'
