there. He said they hadn’t heard from you.”
“They hadn’t heard from me, but they knew where I was,” I said. “Evidently I was being followed.”
I told Nick that I had seen Barbara in Martha’s Vineyard, but it had been a useless trip. I selected carefully the information I would give him. “I agree with you. She probably married Bruce to get a ticket to medical school, but she seems to be keeping her share of the bargain.” I also couldn’t resist having a chance to slam her. “She let me know what a devoted and loving pediatric surgeon she is, that sometimes when she walks through the pediatric nursery, she goes over to a crying baby and picks it up to comfort it.”
“That would be Barbara,” Nick agreed. “Carolyn, how are you holding up?”
“Just barely.” I could hear the exhaustion in my voice.
“Me, too. The cops have been raking me and Benny over the coals again. One good piece of news?” His tone brightened. “I sold my Park Avenue apartment.”
“The one that makes you feel like Roy Rogers?” I smiled.
“Exactly. The agent tells me the buyer is planning to rip it to the studs and redesign it. Good luck to him.”
“Where will you go?”
“To the loft. I’m looking forward to it, if there’s anything I look forward to at this minute. We caught a nineteen-year-old with a phony driver’s license in the club last night. If we’d served her, we could have been shut down. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was planted by the cops to put more pressure on me.”
“Nothing would surprise me at this point,” I said, meaning it.
“Dinner tonight? I want to see you.”
“No, I don’t think so. I’m going to drive up and try to visit Mom. I need to see for myself how she’s doing.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“No, I have to go alone.”
“Carolyn, let me ask you something. Years ago, Mack told me that you had a crush on me and that I should be careful not to encourage it by playing up to you.” He paused, clearly trying to keep his tone playful. “Is there any way I could revive that crush, or now is it going to stay one-sided on my part?”
I know there was a smile in my voice. “It was mean of him to tell you.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Nick’s voice became serious again. “All right, Carolyn. I’ll let you go. But hang on to the thought that we’re going to make it through this mess.”
I started to cry. I didn’t want him to hear, and clicked off, but then immediately wondered if Nick hadn’t been starting to say, “together,” or did I only imagine hearing that word because I wanted so desperately for it to turn out that way?
Then it occurred to me for the first time that it was possible my cell phone and the telephone line in the apartment were being tapped. Of course they must be, I thought. Barrott has been sure I’m in touch with Mack. They wouldn’t take a chance on not knowing if he called.
Reflecting on my conversation with Nick, I wondered if their ears were burning at his suggestion that they might deliberately try to entrap him with an underaged drinker in the Woodshed.
I hoped so.
64
L il and Gus Kramer sat nervously rigid in Captain Larry Ahearn’s office. Ahearn eyed them carefully, figuring out his approach to them. It was obvious when Gaylor ushered them in that Lil Kramer was on the verge of a total breakdown. Her hands were trembling. There was a distinct twitch at the side of her mouth. She was on the brink of tears. Start gently, or let her have it? He decided on the rough approach.
“Lil, you didn’t let on to us that you spent two years in prison for jewelry theft,” he snapped.
It was as if he had punched her in the mouth. She gasped, her eyes widened, and she began to moan. Gus jumped to his feet. “You shut up,” he yelled at Ahearn. “Look up that case. She was a young girl from Idaho, without a family, caring for an old lady night and day. She never touched that jewelry! The old lady’s cousins were the only ones who had the combination of the safe in her house. They framed Lil so that they not only had the jewelry but the insurance, may they rot in hell.”
“I never met anyone who went to prison who wasn’t framed,” Ahearn said brusquely. “Sit down, Mr. Kramer.” He turned back to Lil. “Did Mack ever accuse you of stealing anything?”
“Lil, don’t say a word. These people are trying to frame you again.”
Lil Kramer’s shoulders sagged. “I can’t help it if they do. No one will believe me. Just before he disappeared, Mack asked about his new watch, if I had seen it. I knew he was hinting that I had taken it. I got so upset, I yelled at him. I said the three of you in that apartment are all so careless, then when you can’t find something you blame it on me.”
“Who else blamed you?” Ahearn demanded.
“That nasty Bruce Galbraith. He couldn’t find his college ring, as if I would have anything to do with taking it. What would I do with it? Then, a week later, he said he had found it in the pocket of his slacks. No apology, of course. No, ‘I’m sorry, Mrs. Kramer.’” She was weeping now, tired, hopeless tears.
Ahearn and Gaylor looked at each other, knowing they were thinking the same thing: That would be easy to check.
“Then you don’t know if Mack found his watch before he disappeared?”
“No, I don’t. And that’s why I’m so afraid that when he comes back, he’ll accuse me again.” Lil Kramer began to wail. “And that’s why when I thought I saw him in church that day-”
“You thought you saw him in church!” Ahearn interrupted. “You told us you were certain you saw him there.”
“I saw someone about his size, then when I heard he had dropped the note, I was sure, but then I wasn’t sure, and I guess I’m sure now, but-”
“Why did you suddenly decide to move to Pennsylvania?” Gaylor interrupted.
“Because Mr. Olsen’s nephew, Steve Hockney, overheard Mack asking me about the watch, and now Steve is holding that over my head,” she screamed. “Because he wants us to complain about Howie to his uncle and get him fired and…and…I can’t…take…it…anymore. I just want to die. I want to die…”
Lil Kramer leaned forward and covered her face with her hands. Her thin shoulders shook as she sobbed. Gus knelt beside her and put his arms around her. “It’s all right, Lil,” he said, “it’s all right. We’re going home now.”
He looked up, first at Ahearn, and then at Gaylor. “This is what I think of you two,” he said, and spat on the carpet.
65
T he other phone call after I finished speaking with Nick was to Jackie Reynolds, my psychologist friend, who had been trying to reach me and whom I’d put off calling. Of course Jackie had been reading the newspapers, but we hadn’t talked much since our dinner when all of this began. Remembering my suspicion that the phone might be tapped, I gave very general answers to her questions.
I knew she caught on. “Carolyn, I’ve had a couple of cancellations,” she said. “Have you any plans for lunch?”
“No.”
“Then why don’t you come up here, and we’ll send out for sandwiches and coffee?”
That sounded good to me. Jackie’s office adjoins the apartment where she lives on East Seventy-fourth Street and Second Avenue. As I hung up, I realized how much I wanted her guidance about my planned visit to Mom. Which reminded me that I had not yet spoken to Elliott.
I dialed his office, and was put straight through to him. “Carolyn, I didn’t know what to think when I couldn’t
