Carlos’ shoulders moved skeptically. “Who knows?”
“Has anything like this ever happened before, Governor?” said Wilkes.
“Nothing quite like this.”
“There have been rumors.” Wilkes paused tactfully. “What rumors? Don’t pull punches.”
“Rumors that Mrs. Playfair is in the habit of absenting herself from her family without explanation.”
“You may deny those rumors.”
“No doubt I shall soon have the opportunity. You do realize, sir, that we cannot keep this disappearance from the press? We will have to send out a five-state alarm. I could not take the responsibility for not doing so, but such an alarm is news when it involves a governor’s wife. Big news.”
“Yes, of course, I see that, but you don’t have to tell the press every detail. This business about the canary. The possibility that she may have left impulsively without telling anyone. There’s no point in mentioning either one of those things to the press.”
Tash had a sense of the dreadful unspoken, the shadows in every life that must never be put into words or even thought, the ghosts at the back of every mind.
Was Jeremy trying to defend the indefensible? Was he ruthlessly smothering his own unbearable suspicion that Vivian was responsible for everything, even the strangling of her own canary?
“We’ll have to tell them the car is missing,” said Wilkes. “State and city police must have a full description of that car. And we must get the alarm out now. For Mrs. Playfair’s own sake, we can’t afford to wait another second.”
“You’re right,” said Jeremy. “Do it at once. Carlos, call a press conference to be held here in an hour.”
“Let me take the first barrage,” said Carlos. “I’ll meet them with a written statement. You can put in a brief appearance at the last minute confirming what I’ve said.”
“Don’t you think I could stand up to the first barrage?”
“I’m sure you could, but why bother when you don’t have to? This is going to be rough. The slightest slip of the tongue, even the slightest hesitation, and they’ll be on you like a pack of hounds on a wounded hare. Save your strength for tomorrow when you may really need it.”
Hilary nodded to Carlos. “I’ll see he gets some rest.”
“Rest?” Jeremy’s scorn flashed out like a whiplash. “Do you think I can rest now? If anybody needs me I’ll be with Wilkes in the communications room. That’s where news will come first.”
Carlos sighed. “Tash, you and I have work to do and only an hour to do it in. We use the Florida Room for press conferences here, because it’s big and secluded from the rest of the house. We’ll need a telephone there.” He unplugged an extension from the wall.
“Let’s go.”
The Florida Room was in darkness. Carlos switched on chandeliers and sconces, plugged in the telephone he was carrying, and dialed the Leafy Way switchboard operator.
“Nick? Miranda here. If there are any calls for me or Miss Perkins in the next hour, we’ll be in the Florida Room. Call the press room at the State House and tell every correspondent there that the Governor is having a press conference here at eleven o’clock. Better call the wire services, too. Tell the chief usher that everyone is to be shown directly to the Florida Room. We don’t want them straying all over the house. Call whoever is on night duty at the secretariat and tell her to stand by for a typing and Xerox job in a few minutes. Tell one of the pages to bring a tape recorder to the Florida Room now.” Tash looked at her watch. “Ten after ten already.”
“Time enough if we don’t hurry,” returned Carlos. “You Saxons in North America are always hurrying.”
“You mean Anglo-Saxons?”
“Same thing. Now please stop hurrying so I can think a little.”
“Saxons can’t stop hurrying,” said Tash. “It’s in our genes. The ice age and all that. If we hadn’t hurried then, we would have been extinct.”
She stopped as she realized Carlos was not listening. “Miss Perkins—”
“You said ‘Tash’ a moment ago.”
“Did I? All right, Tash. What do you think has happened to Mrs. Playfair?”
“How can I possibly say? I’ve been a member of this household less than twenty-four hours.”
“So you have a fresh-point of view, and that’s why I’m asking you. Jerry and I are so close to her, we can’t see her as she really is. What do you think of her?”
“She’s beautiful but somehow tragic. I don’t know why.”
“Tragic?” He tasted the word. “You think she’s not happy?”
“She ought to be.”
“That’s no answer. Did she seem happy to you the first day you met her?”
“No, but she did today. At luncheon she was radiant.” Carlos started to offer her a cigarette. “Oh, I forgot. You don’t smoke.” He lit one for himself. “In a small, closed official household like this you never know what is being said in the real world outside. Tell me: Do people in town gossip about Vivian?”
“There have been rumors that she disappears every now and then for no known reason. My editor briefed me on this before I came here to interview her.” Carlos lit another cigarette, forgetting the one already burning in the ashtray. He lifted his chin to blow out a long plume of smoke toward the ceiling, then brought his eyes down to Tash again.
“It has happened. Three times. We don’t know where she goes or what she does. Her explanations are what lawyers call ‘frivolous and irrelevant.’ The only people who are supposed to know about this at all are those closest to her.”
“And they are?”
“Her husband. Me, because I’m close to him. Her social secretary, Hilary. And her maid, Juana, whom you haven’t met. When Vivian disappears we four close ranks and cover up for her, but we didn’t do a very good job of it tonight. The canary business unnerved Hilary. Nothing like that has ever happened before.”
“But she always comes back unharmed?”
“She has in the past.”
“And you can’t even guess where she goes or what she does?”
Carlos’ answer was dragged out of him.
