choose.”
Again, Eve put her hand over his. “They’re friends of ours, Paul. Keep that in mind.”
“Some friends.”
“I just want to ask one more time-”
Eve spoke before Mainwaring could. “The girls didn’t know anything about it. We were very careful. They disliked me simply because I was trying to replace their mother. That happens all the time with widowers.”
Not that it could have had anything to do with Eve’s personality or the way she treated Marsha or her need to be number one babe in residence.
“Are we about done here?” Mainwaring had taken to drumming his fingers on the table. As chairman of the board he believed that when he was through talking the meeting was over. Who wanted to hear the prattle of lesser beings?
“We haven’t eaten yet, Paul.”
“Are you really hungry, Eve?”
She bowed her head slightly as if in prayer. I’d just demoted her from a fine actress to a ham. A very clumsy move. “No, I guess you’re right. Van’s dead and that’s all that matters.”
Suddenly, soap opera actors looked pretty good to me.
“I told you what I’d pay you to write that letter, McCain. Twenty thousand. Now I want you to add a line about our marital arrangement. That you’ll stay silent about that, too.”
“I won’t write it.”
“Then you’re a fool.”
“No, I’m not. You’ll just have to take my word for it. I won’t tell anybody as long as it doesn’t have any bearing on your daughter’s death.”
“Which means that you’re going to keep on asking questions and putting your nose into things that aren’t any of your business.”
“That isn’t my way of looking at it but yes, I still don’t think the Cameron boy killed your daughter. And I don’t think he committed suicide, either.”
“I was hoping we were going to be friends, Sam. You’re making that impossible.” I wasn’t sure what the word “friends” meant to her, but I was probably flattering myself if I thought there was a hint of lust in her definition.
“Let’s get out of here.” Mainwaring had taken her arm and popped her out of her seat so that they were both glaring down at me accusingly. “If I see you anywhere around my property, McCain, I’m going to have you arrested.”
“You’re a very big disappointment to me, Sam,” Eve said.
As soon as they started to leave, the waiter returned. “Aren’t they going to eat?”
“No, but I am.” I gave him my order. “Is there a pay phone nearby?”
“Just off the lobby.”
“Thanks.”
When Marsha answered, she said, “The Mainwaring residence.”
“Marsha, it’s Sam.”
“You sound as if something’s wrong.”
“You didn’t get this call, Marsha. I just had lunch with Paul and Eve-well, we planned to have lunch, let’s say-and they both made it clear that they don’t want anything to do with me. So please don’t tell them I called.”
“All right. I won’t.”
“I appreciate it, Marsha. Is Nicole there?”
“She’s up in her room. She’s got a small TV up there and rarely comes down. This morning I brought her breakfast up to her.”
“Does she have a phone in her room?”
“The girls each had their own line. I can’t imagine what Mr. Mainwaring had to pay the phone company every month.”
“Would you mind going up there and asking her if I could talk to her?”
“That’s no problem, Sam. But you’ll have to call her back.”
“That’s fine. I just don’t want to be on the phone with her when Paul and Eve get back. They wouldn’t be very happy to know she’s talking to me.”
“I’ll hurry.”
“Thanks again, Marsha.”
“I imagine she’ll talk to you. She told me she likes you. I’ll be right back.”
The wait was only a few minutes. “Here’s her private number. She said she’d be happy to talk to you.”
“Marsha, I’m sending you a Cadillac.”
I could feel her smile through the phone. “I’d settle for a new Plymouth. My old one is wearing out. It’s ten years old and needs a lot of help. It’s sort of like me.”
“You sure didn’t look like it when I was out there.”
“You sure can sling it, Sam. Good luck with Nicole.”
While I dialed I thought about Paul and Eve Mainwaring. They had a secret worth keeping. Paul worked in a military environment, and while generals likely had frequent orgies with various animals, the Pentagon made sure that these were considered as top secret as nuclear warhead locations. People with military secrets were blackmailed all the time. Mainwaring had opened himself up to that and to being tainted with the stigma of perversion if his behavior was made public.
When Nicole came on the phone, she said, “My father is going to be mad I talked to you.”
“I know that. And he may well be on his way home right now. I had lunch with him just a few minutes ago.”
“I don’t give a shit what he thinks, Mr. McCain. I just said that to warn you.”
“Is there a place we could meet around four o’clock?”
“I ride my bike up to Whittier Point a lot. There’s a pavilion up there. I like to sit in the corner of it and read.”
“That’d be great. Four o’clock, all right?”
“I’ll be there.”
I spent the next hour and a half in the office working on a probate case. Somewhere at midpoint the phone rang and Jamie said, “It’s Commander Potter, Mr. C.”
Potter said, “You won’t like me after this call.”
“What makes you think I like you now?”
“Very funny, asshole. Paul Mainwaring just left here and he’s convinced the chief that you’re to be arrested if you keep bothering people about his daughter’s death.”
“What would he arrest me for?”
“He’ll figure out something. He’ll haul you in and then you’ll bail out and then he’ll haul you in again when you start bothering people again. And so on. Why don’t you save yourself and me a lot of trouble and just give it up?”
“Maybe because I’m onto something.”
“Uh-huh. If you were on to something you’d have called me about it already.”
“You make a lot of assumptions.”
“Just give it up, Sam, because I’m the one who’ll have to bring you in and that won’t be fun for either of us.”
“I can’t do that, Mike.”
“Well, then I can’t keep from arresting you.” And with that he hung up.
I went back to work on the probate case, more distracted than ever. Mainwaring was moving in on me now. As Potter had hinted, this was nothing more than harassment. But Mainwaring knew many powerful people in this state, including the governor himself. If Mainwaring wanted to call in some favors, he could. For relief I kept glancing at my wristwatch. I had an hour and a half before I drove out to Whit-tier Point. At least the scenery would change.
