The Throat

left that money to Fee?'

'Robert Bandolier was our policy holder, that's right, ma'am. He was the beneficiary's father?'

'Well, yes, he was. How did Bob die? Are you allowed to tell me that?'

'I'm afraid it was a heart attack. Were you close?'

She uttered a shocked little laugh. 'Oh my, no. We were never close to Bob Bandolier. We hardly ever saw him, after the wedding.'

'You said that Fielding Bandolier no longer resides at your address?'

'Oh, no,' she said. 'There's nobody here but senior citizens. Only about five or six of us have our own telephones. The rest of them wouldn't know what to do with a telephone.'

'I see. Do you have a current address for the beneficiary?'

'No, I don't.'

'How long did he reside with you, ma'am?'

'Less than a year. After I got pregnant with my Jimmy, Fee went to live with my brother Hank. Hank and his wife, my sister-in-law, Wilda? They had a real nice home in Tangent, that's about a hundred miles east of here. They were real nice people, and Fee lived with them until he graduated high school.'

'Could I trouble you for your brother's telephone number?'

'Hank and Wilda passed away two years ago.' She did not speak for about fifteen seconds. 'It was a terrible thing. I still don't like to think about it.'

'They did not die of natural causes?' I heard a suppressed excitement in his voice.

'They were on that Pan Am flight—103, the one that blew up right in the air? Over Lockerbie, in Scotland? I guess they have a nice memorial over there, with my brother's name and Wilda's on a kind of a plaque? I'd go over there to see it, but I don't get around too good these days, with the walker and everything.' There was another long pause. 'It was a terrible, terrible thing.'

'I'm sorry for your loss.' What probably sounded like sympathy to her sounded like disappointment to me. 'You said that your nephew graduated from high school in Tangent?'

'Oh, yes. Hank always said Fee was a good student. Hank was the vice-principal of the high school, you know.'

'If your nephew went on to college, we might get his address from the alumni records.'

'That was a big disappointment to Hank. Fee went down and joined up in the army right after he graduated. He didn't even tell anyone until the day before he was supposed to be inducted.'

'What year would that have been?'

'Nineteen sixty-one. So we all thought he must have gone to Vietnam. But of course we couldn't know.'

'He didn't tell your brother where he was assigned to duty?'

'He didn't tell him anything. But that wasn't all! My brother wrote to him where he said he was going, for basic training? At Fort Sill? But his letters all came back. They said they didn't have any soldier named Fielding Bandolier. It was like running up against a stone wall.'

'Was your nephew a troubled boy, ma'am?'

'I don't like to say. Do you have to know about things like that?'

'There's a particular feature of Mr. Bandolier's policy that might come into play. It allowed him to make smaller payments.What the provision states is that payment of the death benefit is no longer in effect should the beneficiary, I'm reading this right off the form here, be incarcerated in any penal institution, on parole, or in a mental institution of any kind at the time of the death of the policy holder. As I say, this provision seldom comes into force, as you can imagine, but we do have to have assurance on this point before we are allowed to issue payment.'

'Well, I wouldn't know anything about that.'

'Did your brother have any feeling for what sort of work our beneficiary was interested in taking up? It might help us locate him.'

'Hank told me once that Fee said he was interested in police work.' She paused. 'But after he disappeared like that, Hank sort of wondered if—you know, if he really knew Fee. He wondered if Fee was truthful with him.'

'During the year he lived with you, did you notice any signs of disturbance?'

'Mr. Bell, is Fee in some sort of trouble? Is that why you're asking these questions?'

'I'm trying to give him five thousand dollars.' Tom gave her a good, hearty insurance man laugh, the laugh of a member of the Million Dollar Round Table. 'That may be trouble to some, I don't know.'

'Could I ask you a question, Mr. Bell?'

'Of course.'

'If Fee is somewhere like you say, or if you flat can't find him, does that insurance money go to the family? Does that ever happen?'

'I'll have to tell you the simple truth. It happens all the time.'

'Because I'm the only family left, you see. Me and my son.'

'In that case, anything you can tell me could be even more useful. You said that Fee went to Tangent, Ohio, when you found you were pregnant?'

'With my Jimmy, that's right.'

'Was that because you did not feel that you could cope with two children?'

'Well, no.' Pause. 'That was why I asked about, you know. I could have brought up two children, but Fee was like a boy who—like a boy a normal person couldn't understand. He was such a little boy, but he was so private. He'd just sit staring into space for so long! And he'd wake you up screaming at night! But never talk about it! So closed-mouthed! But that's not the worst.'

'Go on,' Tom said.

'Well, if what you say is right, my Jimmy could use that money to help get a downpayment.'

'I understand.'

'It's not for me. But that money can come to the family if Fee is like you say. Incarcerated.'

'We'll be going over the policy to make that determination, ma'am.'

'Well, I know that Fee took a knife from my knife drawer once and went outside with it, and that same day, I mean that night, one of our neighbors found their old dog dead. That dog was cut. I found the knife under Fee's little bed, all covered with dirt. I didn't think he killed that dog, of course—he was just a little boy! I didn't even connect it with my knife. But a while later, a dog and a cat were killed about a block away from our house. I asked Fee right out if he was the one who did those things, and he said no. I was so relieved! But then he said, 'There isn't any knife missing from the drawer, is there, Mama?' He called us Mama and Papa. And I just, I don't know, felt a chill. It was like he knew that I counted those knives.'

The quavery voice stopped talking. Tom said nothing.

'I just never felt right about Fee after that. Maybe I was wrong, but I couldn't stand the thought of bringing a baby into the house if he was still living with us. So I called Hank and Wilda.'

'Did you tell them anything about your doubts?'

'I couldn't. I felt terrible, having all these bad thoughts about my sister's boy. What I said to Hank was, Fee wasn't screaming at night anymore, which was the truth, but I still thought he might upset the baby. And then I went and talked to Fee. He cried, but not for very long, and I told him he had to be a good boy in Tangent. He had to be a normal boy, or Hank would have to put him in the orphan home. It sounds just awful, but I wanted to help him.'

'He did well in Tangent, didn't he?'

'Just fine. He behaved himself. But when we drove over to Tangent, Thanksgivings and such, Fee never looked at me. Not once.'

'I see.'

'So I wondered,' she said.

'I understand,' Tom said.

'No, sir, I don't think you do. You said you're in Millhaven?'

'At the Millhaven office, yes.'