“There you go.”
Janene reappeared with our iced tea, and we ordered our lunches. Cameron opted for the tuna steak sandwich, while I decided to try the salmon salad. When Janene left again, Cameron turned to me with a serious look on his face.
“So, Mr. Barnes, as I told you this morning, I’m not sure I understand why Terry’s wife hired a private investigator.”
“She seems to think there’s more to her husband’s death than the mugging story,” I told him.
“This is the first I’ve heard of Terry’s murder being anything but what the police said.”
“The official version may be the truth,” I said. “Mrs. Pendleton just wants to make sure. Did you know Terry well?”
“Yeah, fairly well. I mean, we didn’t hang out together all the time or anything like that, but we had lunch together every once in a while, and we worked on several projects together at the firm. Why do you ask?”
“There are a few discrepancies we’d like to clear up. For instance, to the best of your knowledge, was Terry about to be made a partner at Chaney and Cox?”
“Partner? Hardly. Eventually, yeah, we both expected to be offered partnerships, but not for at least a few years yet. Why?”
“His wife says that the night before his death, Terry told her he thought he’d make partner pretty soon.”
“Boy, I don’t know what to say about that. Terry and I came to the firm at about the same time, and we were both on the same track as far as partnership was concerned. In fact, a few weeks ago, we had lunch right here, and we talked about whether it would be just a few years or maybe a little longer before we started making the big bucks.”
I speculated on how much Cameron must be making already. Perspective is everything.
“So the amount of time it takes to be offered a partnership is about the same for everyone?”
“Well, not exactly,” he said. “It’s more the amount of time you’ve put in at Chaney and Cox, as opposed to how many years you’ve been a lawyer altogether. For instance, Terry and I both worked at other firms before starting at C&C. Sandra Richardson is about our age, but the firm hired her right out of law school, so she’ll probably make partner before I do. Not that I blame Elias and William for wanting to keep sexy Sandy around. If I were in charge, I’d do the same thing. I mean, there’s someone whose legal briefs I’d like to examine.”
Ignoring that, I said, “This may not be the best segue into my next question, and there’s really no polite way of asking, but do you know anything about Terry’s marriage?”
“Far as I know, he and his wife got along okay.”
“Let me be more specific. Do you know if he had any affairs?”
“Oh, well, that’s a different matter. I thought you meant was the marriage in trouble. Heck, sure Terry had a little something on the side, but who doesn’t, right?”
“Who, indeed,” I agreed. Sounded like a rap. Or something from Dr. Seuss.
Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of our lunches. After we’d both eaten a little, Cameron leaned over the table a bit and said, in a low voice, “Look, we’re both men of the world here, right? We both know the score.”
Not only did I not know the score, but I was pretty sure old Cameron and I didn’t even play the same game, but now wasn’t the time to debate that with him.
“I mean,” he continued, “you gotta have the wife, for the job, you know. Somebody who looks good on your arm at the right parties and charity events. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself a little every once in a while, too.”
“How about Terry? Who’d he enjoy himself with?”
Yes, I know it should be with whom did he enjoy himself, but I’ve found if you go around using proper grammar, people look at you funny.
“Hmm,” he said. “The only one I know about for sure is this babe who’s a cocktail waitress at a bar out in the ‘burbs, place called The Joker’s Wild, in Penn Hills. We met her there at a bachelor’s party a few months ago. She and Terry seemed to hit it off, and I know he saw her at least a couple of times after that, but it wasn’t anything serious, just a little diversion, you know.”
“Sure,” I said. “You happen to know her name?”
“Dee-Dee, I think. I remember she was blonde and leggy. Great ass, too. I was thinking about putting a move on her myself, but Terry beat me to it. Well, more power to him, I thought. Besides, plenty more where that one came from.”
“Anybody else you know of who Terry might have had a little diversion with?”
“Un-uh,” he said. “Just this Dee-Dee. You really think any of this has anything to do with Terry’s death?”
“I doubt it,” I said. “But that’s part of my job, running down information that turns out to be irrelevant to the job I was hired to do. Until I run it down, I don’t know if it’s important.”
“Yeah, I see your point.”
We’d finished our lunches by this time, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say to Cameron, so I thanked him for his time and the meal and got up to leave. As I stood, though, I did think of one more question.
“Let me ask you something,” I told him. “Just curious. You’re engaged, right?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “How’d you know that?”
“Someone at the firm mentioned it to me. Anyway, after you’re married, what if your wife wanted to have a little diversion of her own every once in a while. Would you have any problem with that?”
He frowned and said, “Why the hell would Ellen want to do that? It’s not like I wouldn’t be fucking her anymore. She’ll have the house to take care of, kids eventually, things to do
