up with the memory. “Holly said that there was nothing wrong with it. I wanted him to stay at home but he went anyway. And if I didn’t go with him he’d come home smelling of women’s perfume. Either that or he smelled like soap because he’d taken a shower somewhere.”
“Did Simona Eng and Mr. Langdon come to any of these parties?”
“Simona came to protect me.” Idabell smiled. “I had her come to a couple of teas I gave for the teachers. We became friends. I told her how upset I was about going out with Roman and Holly and she tried to come along. I think that she was kinda stuck on Roman for a little while there. But after a couple of parties she convinced me that I should keep away.”
I had just turned onto B. Shay’s street. The architects who planned the apartment buildings that dominated the block didn’t seem to think that their future tenants would be driving cars. There were very few buildings that even had garages and those that did certainly didn’t have enough space. The curbs were packed with cars all down the street. I had to park almost a full block away.
“What about Langdon?” I asked before moving to open the door. “What’s his story?”
“I don’t know,” she said, her tone begging me to stop asking questions. “Roman met him at the same tea that Simona came to. Roman liked talking to people. He started taking Casper to a private black club that they went to behind the Chantilly Club.”
I had cajoled and lulled enough. The time had come to get serious.
“All right now, I’ve heard you out, Idabell. I can see that there was something wrong with your old man and that he pushed you—hard.”
The schoolteacher was fully awake now.
“And I’m willing to help you,” I continued. “But I need to know some things first.”
“Anything,” she said.
“Did you kill Holland or Roman? And if you didn’t, do you know who did?”
“No,” she said with certainty.
“No to all of it?”
“Yes,” she said. “I know nothing about them getting killed.”
“All right,” I said. “All right. What about this thing Holland made you do? What about that?”
“I can’t say anything about that, Easy. Don’t ask me.”
“That’s okay too, but if you can’t help me then I’m gonna have to help myself.”
“What do you mean?”
“That I will drive you down to the police station if I don’t get some kind of satisfaction that you aren’t tied up in a murder.”
“But I told you …”
“What you say doesn’t make any sense, Mrs. Turner. You’re so upset that you’re crying, you’re willing to throw away your whole profession by bein’ with me in your classroom, and then the next thing anybody knows your brother-in-law is dead in the garden, your husband has been murdered, and you’re on the run. All that an’ you don’t know nuthin’?”
“There’s nothing to say,” she said. “Nothing that has to do with the murders.”
“If that’s all you have to say then I’m gonna drive us down to the police station.”
“Why? It’s not your problem. You haven’t done anything.”
“But that’s what an honest man is supposed to do,” I said. “If there’s something wrong he’s supposed to stand up and say, ‘Look here,’ and tell what he knows. If he can’t do that then his whole life falls apart, it just falls apart. Now I’ve given you a chance. I took your dog and I came out here to meet you. You’re a beautiful woman, Idabell, but that don’t mean I got to go to war for you.”
“I thought you liked me,” she said. It was her last attempt.
“I do like you. I wanna help. It’s no good for you to get on a bus and run. The cops will find you. And if you run they’ll prove you guilty. That’s what cops do best. If they think you’re guilty then makin’ up evidence is just cuttin’ corners for them. Believe me.” I paused to let my arguments settle in. Then I said, “What did your husband have you do?”
“He had me bring something from Paris.”
“Bring what?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean? How can you get something and not know what it is?”
“It was in a box. He didn’t tell me what was in it. He said that it was better if I didn’t know. I just picked it up at a place that he told me to go to and then I brought it back. If I hadn’t done it he would have killed Pharaoh.”
“Why you? Why Paris?”
Idabell turned her head and motioned up the block. “Bonnie’s a flight attendant. She got me a ticket. I told her that I wanted to go shopping in Paris with her. That’s what Holly told me to do. And then one day, when she was off with her friends, I went to the address that Holly said to go to.”
“She didn’t know?”
“No. Not until we got back. I told her then because I knew it was wrong. I wouldn’t have done it for anyone but Pharaoh.”
