restrained sorrow. No one spoke above a whisper unless they were speaking with Mrs. Springborn and never once did I hear Albert Leroy’s name mentioned. I had the distinct feeling Albert Leroy could have walked into the room unnoticed. I had the odd notion that I was the only person in the room who had really known Albert Leroy, the only person who had played any meaningful part in his life, the only one who viewed Albert’s death with at least some importance.
This went on for an hour. Sometimes, the room had so little motion the whole thing could’ve been a painting, and as dull and lethargic a painting as the landscapes on the walls. I was getting thirsty, in spite of the coolness of the room, and must’ve swallowed several times, in a dry sort of way, because Linda Sue Springborn came over after a while and stage-whispered, “Could you use a drink of water?” And she winked.
Suddenly I liked her better.
I smiled and said, “Yes, I sure could use a drink of water.”
I followed her out of the room and through the hallway into a room that was obviously used for living and not display, with a couch in front of a television and a soft lounge chair next to a table strewn with magazines and paperbacks. From there she led me through a smaller drawing room, not as lived in as the previous room but not as much a museum as the other drawing room, either. Off of that was a small overblown closet of a room, a small study with a desk and one wall of books and three walls of awards and photos relating to the Kitchen Korner radio program. “ My den,” she said. “Not near so large as Raymond’s, but I need my privacy as much as he does. Maybe more.”
She went to the bookcase where in the middle a space was reserved for a cluster of bottles and glasses, which made for a small but sufficient liquor supply. She said, “Sorry, no ice,” and poured me a shot of Scotch as though she knew that was what I wanted. It was. She made herself a hasty gin and tonic and had it down before I’d even sipped my Scotch.
“You take that like it’s medicine,” I said.
“Exactly what it is,” she said. “A transfusion for an anemic soul.” She smiled. She was rather pretty, in a plastic-surgery sort of way. Her eyes were hazel. “How glad I am for a stranger to talk to. Someone I don’t have to play games with.”
“Oh?”
“I didn’t love my brother, Mr. Quarry. He was a burden in life and he’s a burden in death.”
“Those words sound cold even to a stranger’s ears, Mrs. Springborn.”
“Well…” She made a face, and there was sadness in it somewhere. “It isn’t true to say I didn’t love my brother… I used to love him… I loved him before he became irrational… before he became a hermit… he was a bright man once, Mr. Quarry, maybe a genius, near it anyway… but he had a mental breakdown, was given shock treatment, which was maybe a mistake because afterwards… he was a vegetable. Tell me, Mr. Quarry, how do you mourn a potato?” She laughed, then abruptly the laughing turned to choking and her eyes teared. She brushed away the wetness and fixed herself another drink. She could mix a gin and tonic as fast as I’ve seen one made. She could down them with the best of us, too. “There’s something in your face that makes me feel I can be open like this with you, Mr. Quarry. And Peg, she’s a good girl, a smart girl. She’s a little wild sometimes, but I don’t think she’d bring one of her casual shack-ups along with her. She must think well of you to bring you along.”
“Can I have another Scotch?”
“Of course, certainly, let me have your glass. Where are you from, Mr. Quarry?”
“Nowhere, really.”
“What’s your trade?”
“I’m a salesman.”
“What do you sell?”
“Myself, mostly. Like everybody else.”
“How true, how true that is. We’re all prostitutes, Mr. Quarry, in one way or another. We pursue almighty buck, the great American pastime. But what happens when we get almighty buck, Mr. Quarry?”
“I’ve never had that problem.”
“Well, I’ve had it, I have it now. Once you get there, so what? What’s the point of it all?”
“That’s a question I never ask myself.”
“You just play your role and continue on, survival as an end in itself.”
“You might say that.”
“We have roles we play, Mr. Quarry, and sometimes playing them we forget who we really are.” She laughed, then said, “Do you know,” her voice slipping into a flat Midwestern nasal twang, “do you know I’ve made a pile of money being a homey, down-to-earth Ioway gal? Like to hear a recipe for chocolate marshmallow fudge? Some tips on jarring preserves?” She shook her head and began making her third gin and tonic. I touched her arm.
I said, “Listen, it’s none of my business, especially since I don’t know how much you can hold, but you’ve got a role to play out there, with your friends and relatives, and a gutful of gin and tonic might not be the best thing for you to be riding on.”
She made the drink anyway, and had it down before she answered. “Leeches,” she said. “None of those S.O.B.’s, none of ’em cared about Albert when he was alive. Why should they care now?”
“You’re important business people in this town,” I said. “They come out of respect to you.”
“Leeches,” she said.
“You want to go back now?”
“Yes.”
I walked her back and she was a bit wobbly on the way, but once in the drawing room she straightened and resumed her role of stiff-upper-lipped bereaved sister. She was a good actress.
24
After a while I went out into the hallway and sat on the bottom step of the winding staircase. It was nice getting away from that drawing room full of ghouls; it was nice sitting alone. For half an hour I sat and watched the French doors to Springborn’s den and waited. Finally Peg came out and gave me a wry smile and said, “Having a good time?”
“Terrific,” I said. “Any progress?”
She shook her head no; still a stalemate situation, she told me, probably best sorted out by lawyers. Ray was too good at business wheeling-and-dealing, she said, and she was too stubborn, for either of them to make any headway.
Then she said, “Well, now, look… I suppose I ought to go pay my respects to Linda Sue, and make the rounds talking to the friends and relatives. What a pain in the ass. I suppose you’ve had your fill of all that? You want to wait out here for me?”
“Sure. Take your time, I don’t mind the waiting at all.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
I watched as she disappeared into the drawing room, then I went in through the French doors.
Raymond Springborn’s den was similar to his wife’s, but on a larger scale. One wall was a window that provided a no doubt breathtaking view of the Mississippi, a view blocked right now by drawn cream-color curtains. The room was full of dark wood, like the hallway but not so barren, with a nonfunctional fireplace across from the French doors, its mantel covered by trophy-style awards, and much wall space taken up by framed citations, plaques and photographs pertaining to the Kitchen Korner radio program and various other Springborn-Leroy family enterprises. The wall opposite the cream-curtained window was all but engulfed by a desk about the size of a small tank, a grooved, scarred desk stacked high with paperwork. The half of the back wall that wasn’t taken up by French doors was a bookcase and in front of the bookcase was a steel frame cart with a modest supply of liquor and glasses riding it. Raymond Springborn was standing with his back to me, replacing a bottle of bourbon on the stand, getting ready to chug down a healthy glass.
Apparently he hadn’t heard me come in, his mind on the business dealings he’d discussed with Peg, perhaps, or maybe he was just anticipating the forthcoming jolt of bourbon.
