back. I wasn't even sure quite what I was trying to do, talking with Penny. And I didn't really know quite how to go about whatever it was I was trying to do. It wasn't a new feeling. I spent half my professional life in that situation. Actually, I spent a good portion of my unprofessional life in that situation too. When all else fails, I thought, try the truth.
'Ever since I came back into the case,' I said, 'I've been stonewalled. Security South won't let me near you or your sisters. I finally insisted a few days ago on seeing your sisters and I found them husbandless, apparent prisoners in their own house, oddly disoriented. I took them out and placed them with their husbands at a location known to me and not known to Security South.'
Something stirred behind Penny's face that made me pretty sure she hadn't been told. It was only a little something. She had great self-control.
'You had no right to do that,' she said.
'Could you explain why they were being held as they were?'
'They were not being held, Mr. Spenser. They were being protected.'
'From what?'
She shook her head slowly.
'I don't have to talk to you.'
She was right, but I didn't think supporting her opinion would do me any good. Having nothing to say, I stayed quiet and waited.
'I love my family,' Penny said. 'I loved my father especially. His death has been a tragedy for me. I have tried to protect us all from its impact. From the sometimes gratuitous scrutiny that follows upon a death. I am still trying to protect us from that.'
'Do you want his murderer caught?'
'In the abstract, yes. But I feel that Jon and the police are adequate to that task, and what I want more than anything is peace-for me, for my sisters.'
'Did you have anything to do with the separation of your sisters and their husbands?'
Penny stared at me. Her face showed nothing. She seemed to be thinking of something else.
'Do you have a relationship with Jon Delroy?' I said.
Penny looked tired. She shook her head again. Even more slowly than she had before.
'I find it hard not to like you, Spenser. But… I'm afraid this conversation is over.'
She stood. The waiter leapt to hold her chair. She walked off the veranda and out of the Reading Room without another word and without looking back at me. On the assumption that offering to pay, as a nonmember, would be a vile breach of etiquette, I stood after she had disappeared and walked out as well.
FIFTY-TWO
WE WERE GETTING ready to go to a party at Dolly Hartman's house. Getting ready meant something different to Susan than it did to me. It began with taking a shower, but it did not end there. The shower was under way now. The wait would be a long one. While I was waiting, I called my answering machine from the Ramada Inn. There was a message to call Dalton Becker. Which I did.
'Got hold of that will you was interested in,' Becker said.
'Wow,' I said. 'You never rest, do you?'
'Ever vigilant,' Becker said. 'Will was drawn up thirty years ago, right after Stonie was born, near as I can figure.'
'And?'
'And nothing. Will says that his estate will be divided equally among his heirs.'
'So why you calling me?'
'I miss you.'
'You're being cute,' I said. 'Isn't that fun.'
'And I got Vallone to talk to me a little.'
'About something besides Vallone?' I said.
'Yeah, Rudy's always been pretty happy being Rudy,' Becker said. 'But while he was enjoying that, he did mention that Clive had discussed modifying the will.'
I waited.
'You interested in how?' Becker said.
'Yes, I am,' I said, 'if you could get through swallowing the canary long enough to tell me.'
'It pains me to say this,' Becker said, 'but Walter appears to have been a closet sexist after all these years. He wanted the will to add a clause giving managing control of Three Fillies Stables to any male issue.'
'Jason Hartman,' I said.
'That's the only male issue we know about.'
'Why the hell didn't Vallone tell us that?'
