Fiddlers

‘I met her four years ago. We published a book of hers. I edited it.’

‘What sort of book?’

‘An appreciation of Byron.’ Shea paused. “Do you know who I mean?’

‘Yes,’ Kling said.

‘You’d be surprised how many people don’t know who Byron was. Or Shakespeare, for that matter. In one of her classes last week, Christine asked her students if they were familiar with the words “To be or not to be.” Christine asked them to identify the source, and extend the quotation if they could. Eight students in the class. What would you guess their answers were?’

The detectives waited.

‘Four of the eight couldn’t identify the source at all. Three of them said the source was Hamlet. The eighth said Romeo and Juliet. Six people couldn’t extend the quotation at all. Two people could add only, “That is the question.” One student told her after class that it would have been a lot easier if Christine had given them a quote from a movie. “To be or not to be,” can you imagine? Only the greatest soliloquy ever written for the English-speaking stage!’ Shea shook his head in despair. ‘Sometimes, she would come home weeping.’

‘When did you start living together?’ Kling asked.

‘Well, almost immediately. That is to say, we kept our own apartments, but de facto we were living together. She didn’t give up her place and move in with me until last Christmas.’

‘When’s the last time you saw her alive, Mr. Shea?’ Brown asked.

‘Yesterday morning. When she left for work. We had breakfast together and then… she was gone.’

‘What were you doing last night around eight o’clock?’ Kling asked.

Shea said nothing for a moment. Then he said, ‘Is this the scene where I ask if I’m a suspect?’

‘This isn’t a scene, sir,’ Kling said.

‘I was here in the office. Working on this very manuscript,’ Shea said, and lightly tapped the pages on his desk. ‘Dreadful, I might add.’

‘Anyone here with you?’

‘Any number of people. We work late in publishing.’

‘What my partner means…”

‘Did anyone see me here? I believe Freddie Anders stopped in at one point. You might ask him to corroborate. His office is just down the hall.’

‘What time was that? When he stopped in?’

‘I believe it was around six thirty, seven.’

‘Anyone see you here at eight, Mr. Shea?’

‘Oh dear. Now we have the scene where I ask if I need a lawyer, isn’t that right?’

‘You don’t need any lawyer,’ Brown said. ‘We have to ask these questions.’

‘I’m sure,’ Shea said. ‘But to set the record straight, I didn’t leave here until ten last night. When I got to the apartment, the police were already there, informing me that Christine had been shot and killed. For your information, I loved her enormously. In fact, we planned to be married in the fall. I had no reason to kill her, and I did not kill her. And now, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to leave.’

‘Thanks for your time,’ Kling said.

Shea turned back to the manuscript on his desk.

* * * *

‘Everybody’s always innocent,’ Brown said. ‘Nobody ever did anything. Catch ‘em with the bloody hatchet in their hands, they say, “This ain’t my hatchet, this is my uncle’s hatchet.” Wonder anybody’s in jail at all, so many innocent people around.’

‘You think he was lying?’ Kling asked.

‘Actually, I think he was telling the truth. But he had no reason to get all huffy that way. We do have to ask the goddamn questions.’

The car’s air conditioner wasn’t working, and the windows, front and back, were wide open. The noonday traffic sounds were deafening, discouraging conversation. They rode in silence, in stifling heat.

‘Artie,’ Kling said at last, ‘I got a problem.’

Brown turned from the wheel to look at him. Kling kept staring straight ahead through the windshield.

‘I think Sharyn and I may be breaking up,’ he said.

His last words were almost lost in the baffle of city traffic. Brown always looked as if he were scowling, but this time he really was. He turned to Kling again, briefly, scowling in reprimand, or disbelief, or merely because he wasn’t sure he had heard him correctly.

‘I thought she was cheating on me,’ Kling said. ‘I followed her.’

‘She’d never cheat on you in a million years, man.’

‘I know that.’

‘So what the hell’s wrong with you? You go tailin the woman you love?’

‘I know.’

‘Playin cops and robbers, the woman you love.’

‘I know.’

‘Where’s this at now? Where’d you leave it?’

‘She doesn’t want to talk yet. She says I hurt her too much.’

‘Yeah, well, you did! I ever go followin Caroline, she’d put me in the hospital.’

‘I know.’

Brown was shaking his head now. ‘Big detective, what’s wrong with you, man?’

‘She thinks… Artie, can I say this?’

‘How do I know what you’re gonna say before you say it?’

He sounded suddenly angry. As if, by betraying Sharyn’s trust, Kling had somehow betrayed his trust as well. Something was sounding a warning note. Kling almost backed off. He took a deep breath.

‘She thinks I didn’t trust her because…”

Brown turned from the wheel.

‘Because she’s black,’ Kling said.

‘Well?’ Brown said. ‘Is that the reason?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Then why does she think so?’

‘That’s what I’m asking you, Artie.’

‘What, exactly, are you asking me, Bert? Are you asking me would a black woman think her white partner who followed her was unconsciously harboring the thought that all blacks are devious and deceitful and not to be trusted?’

‘Well, no, I…’

‘I’m your partner, too, Bert. Do you think I’m devious, deceitful, and not to be trusted?’ ‘

‘Come on, Artie.’

‘So what are you asking me, Bert?’

‘I guess I’m asking… I don’t know what I’m asking.’

‘I never dated a white woman in my life,’ Brown said.

Kling nodded.

‘Only white men I really know are on the squad. I trust them like they were my own brothers.’

Heat ballooned into the car. The traffic sounds were deafening.

‘You’re asking me will it work, isn’t that it? You’re asking me will black and white ever work? I’m telling you I don’t know. I’m saying there’s centuries here, Bert. Too damn many centuries. I’m telling you I hope so. I hope you find a way, Bert. There’s more than just you and Sharyn here, man, you know what I’m saying? There’s more.’

He nodded, looked at Kling one more time, and then turned back to the road and the traffic ahead,