type of meeting with him one time. But the thing was, I just couldn't afford to become connected in any way with illegal drug activity. So, stupidly I asked Jack about the drugs. I should have known better. I knew Jack's word was good, and I shouldn't have asked. But I did.'
Slonski sat there squirming in his regret. He had made a mistake of a not uncommon type in human relations and now the hurt was deepened because he knew he would never be able to undo it. I said, 'And that's when you and Jack broke up?'
'It was the beginning of the end. That was midsummer, and Jack stayed with me until mid-October-October sixteenth, to be precise. But he was moody and difficult all summer and fall, and he refused to tell me what the real problem was. He said I was too conventional-too 'straight arrow' was how he put it-to understand. And that hurt me.'
'In some circles it's a dreadful thing to accuse a person of. Anyway, if Jack prized openness and honesty as much as you say, he must have been feeling guilty himself for not confiding in you, not trusting you, and that would have accounted in part for his rotten state of mind. Maybe his conscience was bothered by the thing itself-whatever it was he was involved in.'
He sipped at the beer and thought this over. 'I doubt it. Jack had his own moral code. He was arrogant that way. He could break the law with no compunction if he thought the law was wrong. He was a child of the sixties in that respect. I stayed out of Vietnam by getting an essential job in a defense industry while Jack was out in the streets burning his draft card.
That's how he could rationalize the drug dealing he'd done. He said as long as you didn't sell it to the kids, it was just another popular consumer item you were providing.'
'Right. Like alcohol-which killed his father and must have made Jack's young life miserable.'
'That's what I said,' he said, and set the beer mug on the floor. 'But Jack just said any habit could be abused, and then refused to discuss it any further. He didn't like talking about his father. It was just too loaded a subject for him. Though I think he thought about his family a lot. They were always a strong presence in his mind and could set off some powerful feelings.'
'Right. Family has always been important to the Lenihans.'
'When I look back to last summer and fall, I keep thinking there must have been some point where I missed something, where something happened to Jack and I didn't recognize its importance. Or that I'd closed myself up, or been preoccupied with work. We'd had such a good thing going, and I just can't understand what I might have done to foul it up.'
'Maybe nothing. Nothing at all.'
'One of the characteristics that attracted me to Jack when we met was his ambition, the way he was working so hard to put some order in his life.
Enrolling in business school, planning for the future, putting his past behind him, even getting close to his family again. What happened that changed all that so suddenly? I've racked my brain, but I cannot for the life of me put my finger on what it might have been. Of course-it's all academic now. Even if somehow the misunderstanding could be cleared up-if that's what it was-Jack's not coming back. That's a fact I'm trying to face, and I'm having a very hard time with it.'
'Had you thought he might come back?'
'Of course,' he said with a little shrug. 'No one had ever left me before. I've always been the one to do the leaving. I'm known as the irresistible Warren Slonski.' People call me that.'
'What a nice compliment.'
'So, the thing is, I wasn't used to a situation like that. Men are usually trying to get into my bed, not out of it.'
I said, 'Hell, I know exactly what you mean.' If he'd looked suddenly queasy, I'd have shot him through the heart. But he didn't blanch, or laugh.
He just put his hands behind his head, gazed at the ceiling tragically, and flexed his biceps.
I said, 'Maybe Jack's volatile reaction to your question about drug dealing was a result of his being confronted with the awful truth. Maybe he was back in the business and exploded out of guilt. Isn't that a possibility?'
He shook his head. 'No. I knew Jack. He would have admitted it. I was wrong to suspect him and wrong to bring it up. It had to have been something else. I knew Jack.'
'You mentioned that Jack was getting close to his family again. Was he seeing a lot of them?'
'For a while he was, and they all seemed to be hitting it off fairly well.
During the summer and into the fall Jack was even doing some work around the house for his grandfather in the North End. And he'd see his sister Corrine while he was out there. I went with him a couple of times and Corrine was nice to me, even though we had a hard time finding things to talk about. Her husband wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs though. 'Dreadful Ed,' Jack and I called him.'
'Did you meet Jack's grandfather?'
'No, but I was curious about him. He's apparently some type of famous political figure in Albany-I'm from Water-town and don't know much about that. I know he was part of the Boyle brothers' machine here for fifty years, and it would have been fascinating to meet him. But Jack never offered and I didn't push it.' He picked up his empty mug. 'Say, how about a refill on the Beck's? It looks as if the well is about to run dry.'
'I'll pass, but you go ahead.'
He did and returned with another beer for me too. 'Just in case,' he said.
'Thank you.'
He flopped back in his chair, throwing one leg over the arm again.
'I understand Jack was close to his mother,' I said. 'Did he see her often?'
'They talked on the phone once a week, and that's where Jack went when he first left me, out to LA. By the time he actually packed up and moved out, he was in bad shape, a real nervous wreck. I guess he went out to his mom's to wind down. She and Corrine were really the only people in the family who never gave Jack a hard time about being gay, and his mom had been supportive in a lot of other ways over the years. She had her own troubles, of course, raising two kids with an alcoholic husband who couldn't hold a job more than a day. I think she left Albany behind a long time ago, but she did stay close to Jack and Corrine. She kept trying to convince Corrine to move out there, or at least to visit, and offered to pay her way, but Corrine seemed unable to make any kind of break from the North End, even for a week. I never met Mrs. Lenihan, but Jack made her sound like a very strong and exceptional person.'
'What about you? When did you last see Jack?'
He grimaced. 'As I told that idiot Bowman from the Albany police department this morning, I've seen Jack once in three months. On Christmas Day we had dinner at the Quackenbush House. It was my stupid idea. The afternoon was so tense and Jack was so uncommunicative we skipped dessert and went our separate ways, and I never really expected to see him again. Of course, now I won't.'
'Then I suppose Jack didn't mention-either then or last fall-a particular project he was working on?'
He frowned across his beer mug. 'Project?'
'Something that might be considered immoral by some people but not by others. Something that would right a wrong.'
'No, I'm sure I'd remember. Why do you ask that?'
'It's come up, but specifics are lacking. There might be a connection between this project and Jack's death.'
'I can't imagine what. No, business school was Jack's only project until he quit last fall. That and learning about opera. I was helping Jack gain access to the very considerable pleasures of opera, and I think he was really beginning to love it. Opera has been important to me since I was fifteen. It's been a way to experience the passion of human life without getting my own hands too dirty, if you know what I mean. Opera has always been my chief emotional release. Along with sex, of course.'
'Of course.'
'But Jack never mentioned any other project, no. Could that have been what was eating away at him?'
'I think so, yes.'
'Something some people might consider immoral? I suppose I was one of those people. Is that what you're thinking?'
