“Right,” she said. “Not permitted. Care for a cigarette?”
“No, thanks.”
She was putting the ash from her cigarette into a Ziploc bag she had taken from her purse.
“Now, then, I assume Downes gave you all the do’s and don’ts regarding working here.”
“Mostly don’ts,” Jack said.
“This garden is your chore, the outdoor pool, the indoor pool, gymnasium, saunas, whirlpool, tennis courts. You’re expected to help out the gardeners when they ask, also the indoor help, in the event of too many guests, or a party. There will be a party here Saturday night. You don’t mind putting on a white jacket and handing around canapes, do you?”
“I’ll have to sample them first,” Jack said, “so I’ll feel good about sharing them with the guests.”
“Who has talked to you here so far?”
“Mrs. Houston.”
Nancy smiled. “She’s about the only reasonable one here. She’s my good friend. What did she say to you?”
“She may have been talking to the azaleas.”
“Ah!” Nancy smiled again. “She really opened up on you.”
“Or the azaleas.”
“You can forget whatever she says.”
“Okay.”
“Her loyalty is unquestioned. Who else has spoken to you?”
“A young woman who swam in the pool this morning. And a young man joined her. He didn’t speak to me. Is she called Shana?”
“And Chet. Chester Junior. What did Shana say to you?”
“She asked if I worked here, when did I arrive, that sort of thing.”
“They are affianced.”
“Going to marry up with each other,” he said.
“Yes. Exactly that. Anyone else?”
“No. I found my quarters last night. Ate my sandwiches. Walked around. I saw no one at all, except the guard at the gate who let me in.”
“You won’t be that lonely,” she said. “Didn’t you find the staff recreation hall?”
“No.”
“Ping-Pong. Stereo. Billiards. Wide-screen t.v. Quite nice, really.”
“Oh, wow.”
“The thing is that you are not wanted around when members of the family or guests are present, unless there is a need for you. On the other hand …” She put out her cigarette against the sole of her shoe. No ashes fell to the ground. She must have practiced this maneuver. She put the filter into her little plastic baggy. Immediately, she lit another cigarette. “… if you notice anybody acting oddly, saying anything odd, you are to come and tell me.”
“You mean, if I see someone breaking the rules?”
“Yes. That, of course. But I’m speaking of members of the family and guests as well as staff.”
“Like Mrs. Houston?”
“Not Mrs. Houston. She is the exception. But that sort of thing, yes. We want to know of any plans you hear anybody make. If you see people together you think don’t belong together, we want to know. We want to know of comments you hear people make about each other, Mr. Beauville, me, Doctor Radliegh. That sort of thing.”
“Why?”
“Doctor Radliegh does not like surprises.”
“That’s the simple answer?”
“Yes.”
“What about people’s privacy?”
“Oh, all this information is private. If I think it necessary, I will pass it on to Doctor Radliegh, but it goes no farther than him.”
Jack did not say anything. Granted, odd things were going on, possibly four attempts on Radliegh’s life. He did not want Nancy Dunbar to know he had been told of them. Perhaps some such precautions were necessary.
The idea of his spying was hateful to him.
Yet that was why he was there, wasn’t it?
“Is all this clear?” Nancy asked.
“Yes.”
There was the sound of a siren.
Nancy’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God.”
Quickly, she ground the cigarette out against her shoe, dumped the bent filtered cigarette in her baggy, dropped that in her purse, snapped her purse shut, stood up and began running toward her office.
Jack walked rapidly after her.
After the sunlight in the garden, her office was cold and dark. It took him a moment to see in the room.
She stood at her desk, talking on the telephone. “Yes … Yes … And Doctor Radliegh was not there? … I see … Thank you,” she said. “I’ll take care of it.”
After she hung up, Jack said, “What?”
“Doctor Jim Wilson was overcome by some sort of gas in the laboratory. The ambulance has come for him.”
The phone rang.
“Yes?” she said into the receiver. “Yes … ? I see. I’ll take care of it.”
Slowly, she hung up.
To Jack, or to herself, she said, “Jim Wilson is dead.”
Jack said nothing.
“Odd,” Nancy Dunbar said.
“Yes,” Jack said. “What do you say is odd?”
“Doctor Radliegh always arrives first in the laboratory. He wants the time alone before Jim comes in at two o’clock.” She looked at her watch. “It’s only one-thirty. Normally, Doctor Radliegh would be there alone.”
Jack said, “That’s five.”
•
Standing on the road on one leg, his other leg draped over his bike’s boy bar, Jack watched people assemble in front of the hacienda-style laboratory across the road from Radliegh’s main offices.
Back doors open, the ambulance was parked in front of the building.
Jack assumed the ambulance attendants had entered the building to recover the body of Doctor Jim Wilson. Some of the building’s windows had been smashed, presumably to let the lethal gas escape.
Down the road at high speed rode a man on a bicycle. In his late fifties, he was tall, slim, broad-shouldered. His hair was salt and pepper gray and black. He wore horn-rimmed glasses.
Jack saw a tongue of flame spurt from a broken window on the first floor of the building.
“Hey!” Jack pointed at the window, at the flame.
The older man dropped his bike on the lawn and ran toward the building’s front door.
“Hey!” No one was paying attention to Jack.
Smoke was now rushing through that window.
The older man collided with the ambulance attendants rushing out of the building at the front door.
The older man tried to push past them.
One attendant tried to grab his arm.
“No, Doctor Radliegh!” the attendant yelled. “Fire!”
Radliegh pushed the attendant away. “Jim Wilson! Is he dead?”
The other attendant fell to his knees on the lawn, coughing.
“Smoke!” the attendant yelled. “The building’s on fire! Stay out of there!”
