party. You know, you may not be smart enough for Honey. I saw the photo of your wife in
“You’re saying I should leave my wife for Honey Deal?”
“I’m saying she’s one of a kind. If you’re afraid to spend time with her, then don’t.”
Carl said, “Let’s get back to Walter.”
“I won’t talk to you about Walter. I’m sure he told Honey. Ask her what he’s doing, as Walter says, to meet his destiny.”
“You don’t care that Honey knows?”
“It’s too big for Walter,” Vera said. “It’s his grand illusion, Walter Schoen becomes a prominent name in the history of the world.”
Carl said, “He wants to assassinate somebody.”
“I’m not saying another word.”
“I was thinking he might want to return to Germany for Adolf’s last stand, but there’s no way for him to get there. So it must be Walter’s gonna shoot somebody like the president of the United States. Get him riding in that open car he likes. A fella by the name of Giuseppe Zangara, an anarchist, fired five shots at Roosevelt one time from no more than twenty-five feet away. In Miami, 1933.”
Vera said, “He missed?”
“A housewife by the name of Lillian Cross bumped Zangara and threw him off his aim. He missed the president, but hit five other people standing there, one of them Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago.”
“Did she think five people shot,” Vera said, “was worth not losing the president?”
“I’ve wondered that myself,” Carl said. “One of these days I’ll look Miz Cross up. In the meantime I’ll see if I can find Honey- if her free spirit hasn’t gotten her to run off.”
Carl had put his cup on the tray. He picked it up now, took a sip and put the cup on the tray again, the coffee served to him ice cold.
“You realize,” Carl said, “you could be indicted for knowing about Walter but not saying anything? It’s called misprision, concealing treasonable acts against the U.S. government. Even if you take no part in the act.”
“I told you,” Vera said, “it’s his dream. Do you think I should go to prison for something Walter has no intention of actually doing?”
“You’re still liable.”
“Do you care?” Vera said. “You haven’t asked if Jurgen is here.”
“Is he?”
Vera said, “No,” and smiled.
“How about Dr. Taylor?”
“What about him?”
“You think he might tell on you?”
“Dr. Taylor has no credibility. He continues to say Adolf Hitler is the savior of the world, and who believes that? No, the doctor is not a concern of mine.”
Carl said, “You mean now that he’s dead?”
Twenty-three
Vera came in the kitchen to see Bo hunched over the morning paper spread open on the table.
“Did you hear what he said?”
“I wasn’t listening. He’s a peasant.”
“He knows about Dr. Taylor.”
“It’s not in the paper.”
“He doesn’t
Vera’s tone got Bo to look up at her.
“He knows policemen, federal agents. He asked if I was worried about the doctor informing on me. I said he’s not a concern, and he said, ‘You mean now that he’s dead?’”
Bo said, “He knows already?” sounding surprised.
“You call him a peasant,” Vera said, “with your prissy way. You serve him cold coffee. The man is the most famous law officer in America. They write stories about him in magazines. A book was written about him with photographs, you think he’s of no concern.”
“I thought his behavior crude.” Bo shrugged in his new smoking jacket. “What did you say to him?”
“I said, ‘The doctor, he was in an accident with his car, and was killed?’ I must’ve sounded stupid.”
“I’m sure you were convincing.”
Bo’s gaze dropped to the newspaper and Vera said, “Look at me, I’m talking to you,” and swept the paper from the table. “The police know another person was killed.”
“Rosemary.”
“I don’t know how you could shoot that poor woman.”
“I had no choice, she knows me.”
“I’m talking about Aubrey, in the loo. They found traces of blood someone tried to clean from the wall, blood and brains, Carl said, and did a poor job.”
“Since it was the powder room,” Bo said, “he should have said I did a piss-poor job.”
“I said to Carl, ‘Who could it be?’ astonished, eyes wide with innocence. Do you know who he said it was? Not who he thought it might be? Aubrey.”
Bo frowned. He’d used soapy guest towels to clean up the mess, knew enough to take the towels with him, stuffed into Mr. Aubrey’s pants once he got them pulled up. Then had to wrap Mr. Aubrey’s head in a bath towel he got from upstairs when he went up to look around, found some jewelry he liked and the doctor’s smoking jacket in green. Then he had to look for the Lugers and the machine pistol locked in a cabinet and had to pry it open but thought he did a rather professional job. He borrowed a blanket from Rosemary’s warm bed he used to drag Mr. Aubrey across the tiled floor to the front entrance where, Bo decided to let Mr. Obnoxious wait while he cleaned the powder room and thought about driving all the way out to a cornfield near Walter’s place at four in the morning when he was already in Palmer Woods, not a forest but there were patches of woods here and there.
“They’re sure the third one’s Joe Aubrey,” Vera said. “Joe’s the only one missing who was here last night.”
“It couldn’t be someone else?”
“I know it’s Aubrey and Carl knows it’s Aubrey you shot in the back of the head to make a mess. Did you think about where you should shoot him?”
“There was his head only a few feet away,” Bo said, “while he’s taking a whiz. Have you heard that one, for pissing? Mr. Aubrey was whizzing all over the floor.”
“You must have touched Rosemary.”
“I moved her hair aside.”
“With the Walther?”
“No, the tips of my fingers. I was gentle with her. But she saw me, so I had no choice.”
“You’re very good at what you have to do,” Vera said, laying her hand on his shoulder. She had been harsh with him and didn’t want Bo to sulk, waste her time acting hurt. She stroked his hair saying, “To make you feel better, we have Joe Aubrey’s check for fifty thousand dollars. If I can put it in an account and make withdrawals within a few days, we’ll have our going-away money.”
“And we can amscray out of De-twah,” Bo said. “Can I lay my tired head against your tummy-tum?”
Vera took his face in her hands and brought his cheek against her body. “What we don’t want to happen, they find Aubrey before we amscray. Can you imagine the interrogations we’d have to survive? Two of my alleged aides found shot to death?” She said, “That won’t happen, will it, Bo?”
