run-over-attempt thing actually happened twice?'
Dale nodded slowly and held up two fingers, and Janet described once again the attack the previous week and the attack a few hours earlier that had landed Timmy in the emergency room.
'Now, who's this Timmy again?' Arlene said. ¦
Dale said, 'He's Don here's boyfriend. Don is a private investigator from Albany who we're hiring to clear everything up, including Eric's murder. We're giving him about four days to produce results.'
'You're a private eye with a boyfriend? How cool,' Arlene said. 'Are you bisexual?'
Before I could reply, Dan said without hesitation, 'I'm not sure that's such a great idea. I mean bringing in someone from outside.'
This was addressed to Janet and I let her answer it. 'Why is it such a terrible idea? The police have made no progress at all toward solving Eric's murder. And if somebody is trying to kill me too, there's at least a good chance that the same person is behind it-or people. But convincing Ken Stone of that, or even the staties, is going to be tough with no real evidence to go on. And Don has an excellent reputation, according to Eldon, who's an old friend of Don's boyfriend.'
'How's Eldon doing?' Arlene asked.
'I'm sure Don's C.V. is impressive,' Dan said to Janet, dismissing my resume with a little wave. 'But that's not my point. My point is, by bringing in someone who's outside the paper and outside the family at this sensitive juncture-someone who's going to take months just to gather background-you run the risk of having him going around stirring up people's suspicions and exacerbating an already tense situation without gaining anything positive. If there is some kind of plot against you or me or even Mom, we can hire a security service to protect us. If anybody asks why, we can just say Eric's murder freaked us out, and having protection for a while makes us feel more secure. Don,' Dan said, looking me in the eye for the first time since we'd been introduced, 'are you associated with a firm that does security work? If you and your firm could confine your work to guaranteeing the safety of Janet and myself and our mother for a month or so, that could be extremely useful to our family, and I think we might be able to do business.'
I was about to reiterate to Dan that I had already been hired by Janet, Dale, and Timmy to conduct a full investigation of Eric's death as well as the two Jet Ski attacks on Janet, and that Dan's view of the matter was interesting but of peripheral concern to me. Before I could, Janet, her face red and her neck muscles taut, laid into her brother.
'Dan, if you'd quit being some kind of Osborne patronizing twit for one minute,' she sputtered, 'you'd think about what this apparent attempt to kill me really means. It probably means that Eric wasn't killed by a homicidal drifter but by someone in our family. Don't you get that? It's probably not InfoCom that's behind this at all. I mean, how many corporations, no matter how cold-blooded and greedy they are, actually put out contracts on people who get in the way of their expansion opportunities? Let's face it-what this is is probably more Osborne violent craziness. I have no idea who in the family might be doing it, and to tell you the truth, I'm trying hard not to think about it. But a skilled outsider is exactly what we do need at this point. Not a shopping mall guard, but an experienced investigator. I've done some asking around about Don, and he comes extremely well recommended. And Dale and Timmy and I are hiring him, whatever the hell you think. So get used to it.'
Dan looked everywhere in the room except at his older sister as she told him, in effect, that he was a pompous man who struck silly poses, and his opinions were dumb and irrelevant. When she had finished, he reddened, but said only, 'Do I actually have any goddamned choice in the matter?' It looked like the reenactment of an old familiar scene in Osborne sibling annals.
'
Arlene tried to help. 'Kerr-McGhee put out a contract on Karen Silk-wood, Janet. And what about Inslaw?'
By now, Dan looked so cowed and miserable-his sister's light was obviously hot and bright in his life-that I was happy to lessen the tension in the room marginally by acknowledging Arlene's existence, which seemed to slip Dan's mind when he was in the presence of his sister, and by reminding Janet that there was an aspect of the situation she seemed to have analyzed carelessly.
I said, 'I think Arlene might be right, Janet, not to rule out corporate involvement in any kind of conspiracy. If there is a murder plot, that 'would be unique among assaults perpetrated by Osbornes, not characteristic. The examples of Osborne violence you described to me were spontaneous outbursts, never premeditated-as far as anybody knows-and not conspiratorial The victims were all nonfamily members. Which is not to say that one or more family members might not be conniving this time-with or without the participation of InfoCom. But there's no evidence yet pointing to any Osborne-or, for that matter, anybody else. For an investigator, the family and InfoCom are simply logical places to start.'
Janet eyed me stolidly and didn't react. Dan had listened to my assessment with what looked like mounting apprehension as it dawned on him, apparently, that my digging into Osborne family conflicts might be both intelligent and dogged.
It was Arlene, though, who said, 'I'm just glad somebody is finally going to do a real investigation of Eric's murder. I'm not saying the cops were covering up. But they sure haven't done much beside sit on their fat asses. So good for you guys and Don's boyfriend for hiring Don to do the cops' job. Are you taking contributions? I'd like to help out if there's a fund.'
'See me afterward,' Dale said. 'Your generosity is appreciated, Arlene.'
'I'm also going to be sending Don lots of good energy.'
Janet said, 'Look, I don't want to prejudge anybody, either, but what's happening to the Osborne family now, and to the Herald, is not a soccer game or a barroom argument or some juvenile criminal escapade. Just about everything is at stake for the Osbornes this time- the family business, the family name, the family history, for chrissakes. So it's possible that the particulars of past Osborne extreme behavior might be an inadequate guide.'
'God,' Arlene said, 'all the Osbornes are tantrumy, and June and Chester and their kids are all reactionary pigs. But the idea that somebody in the family that we all know might actually get in bed with a corporation and murder a relative, even if they hate their guts-that just makes me want to puke''
Arlene seemed to be speaking figuratively, but Dan looked suddenly queasy and bolted from the room He pulled the bathroom door shut after him, but not tightly, and we could hear him retching
6
That's June's car,' Janet said irritably. 'What could she be doing here?'
We had pulled into the driveway of the old Osborne house on Maple Street. The place was one of those grand old late-Victorian relics with a wraparound porch, turrets, and bow windows. The house obviously had been built back when coal, lumber, and Irish servants were plentiful and cheap, and when Americans aspired to large, prosperous families full of large, healthy people. Most of these big houses in Edens-burg, as elsewhere, had long since been divided into more economical rental units, but Ruth Osborne had hung on to all of hers. The shade was inviting under the immense maples, and the well-tended clumps of larkspur, delphinium, bee balm, and coreopsis between the main house and the carriage house were as showy and robust as the age when the garden must have been first planted.
Back by the carriage house, three cars were parked ahead of Janet's, the one we arrived in.
'June wouldn't have heard anything yet, would she?' Dale said. 'I don't think she consorts with either criminal riffraff or law-enforcement riffraff. At least, not that I know of.'
As we got out, the side door of the house opened and a man and a woman walked down the steps. 'Oh, shit,' Janet said. 'I hope they weren't interrogating Mom.'
The two figures who approached us were a large woman in a mauve silk dress and a dough-faced man with an odd, S-shaped mouth and a straw boater on his head. I assumed they were Janet's sister, June, and her husband, Dick Puderbaugh, but I was only half right.
'Hi, June, Hi, Parson,' Janet said. 'What brings you two around Maple Street?'
'Janet, hi, hi,' June crooned, and squeezed Janet's hand and Dale's elbow. 'Dale, Dale, it's awfully nice to
