the party, tell them you forgot. After all, that boy-what was his name?'
'Nick.'
'Nick can back up your story.'
'If they can ever find him,' the other man said dolefully.
'You know what those kids are Re-here today, gone tomorrow.
'Well, don't worry about it,' Konigsbacher advised.
'As long as you're innocent, you have nothing to fear. You are innocent, aren't you, Vince?'
'Pure as the driven snow,' Symington said solemnly, and both men laughed immoderately.
'Ross, have you had dinner yet?'
'As a matter of fact, I haven't. You?'
'No, and I'm famished. I know absolutely the chicest French bistro in town; their bouillabaisse is divine. Would you care to try it? My treat, of course.'
'Sounds like fun,' Konigsbacher said.
'It's got to be better than my wife's cooking, She can't boil water without burning ice, 'Ross, you're a scream!'
Symington paid the bill and they left for the chicest French bistro in town.
The detective told himself he was living high' off the hog, and plotted how he might make this cushy duty last.
Incomplete reports to Sergeant Boone and Delaney would help.
Delaney himself was sinking in a swamp of incomplete data. He couldn't get a handle on the alibis of Otherton, Bellsey, Yesell, or Symington, and Harold Gerber's confession was still neither verified nor refuted.
Other than eliminating Kane as a suspect, little hard progress had been made.
Delaney found most bothersome about this puzzle wasn't the factual alibis but the enigmas that showed no signs of yielding to investigation. In his dogged, methodical way, he made a list of what he considered the key mysteries that seemed to defy solution: Major riddles: 1. Who was the late patient Dr. Ellerbee was expecting on the night he was killed?
2. Why were there two sets of wet footprints on the townhouse carpeting?
3. What was the meaning of the hammer blows to the victim's eyes after he was dead?
4. Who stole the billing ledger-and for what reason?
5. What was the cause of Ellerbee's change of personality during the past year?
Minor riddles: 1. Did L. Vincent Symington's sighting of Dr. Ellerbee driving alone on a Friday night have any significance?
2. Why did Joan Yesell attempt suicide immediately after she was questioned about the case?
3. What was the real purpose of Dr. Diane Ellerbee's visit to the Delaneys' home-and her unexpected friendliness?
He hunched over his desk, studying the list with the feeling-a hope, really-that finding the answer to one riddle would serve as a key, and all the others would then give up their secrets in a natural progression, the entire case suddenly revealed as a rational and believable chain of events.
It existed, he was convinced, and remained hidden only because he hadn't the wit to see it.
He was rereading his list of conundrums when the phone rang.
'Edward X. Delaney here.'
'This is Detective Charles Parnell, Mr. Delaney. How are you, sir?'
'Fine, thank you. And you?'
'Having fun,' Daddy Warbucks said, laughing.
'I'm assdeep in numbers, trying to put away a guy who was running a Ponzi scam in Brooklyn. Took his relatives, friends, and neighbors for about a hundred big ones. Interesting case. I'll have to tell you about it someday. But the reason I called… I promised you I'd follow up on Simon Ellerbee's will. It's been filed for probate, and I can give you the scoop.'
'Excellent,' Delaney said.
'Wait a minute until I get pen and paper… Okay, what have you got?'
'Everything goes to his wife, Diane, except for some specific bequests.
Twenty thousand to his alma mater, ten to his father, five to Doctor Samuelson, one thousand to his receptionist, Carol Judd, and small sums to the super of the townhouse, the Polish couple who work for the Ellerbees up in Brewster, and a few others. That's about it. Nothing that might be the motive for murder that I can see.'
'Doesn't sound like it,' Delaney said slowly.
'The widow's got plenty of her own. I can't see her chilling him for a little more.'
'I agree,' Parnell said.
'The only thing interesting in the will is that Ellerbee specifically cancels all debts owed to him by his patients. Apparently some of the screwballs were strictly slow-pay, if not deadbeats.
Well, Ellerbee's will wipes the slate clean. That was decent of him.'
'Yes,' Delaney said thoughtfully, 'decent. And a little unusual, wouldn't you say?'
'Oh, I don't know,' Daddy Warbucks said.
'Everyone says he was a great guy. Always helping people. This sounds right in character.'
'Uh-huh,' Delaney said.
'Well, thank you very much.
You've been a big help, and I'll make sure Chief Suarez knows about it.'
'It couldn't hurt,' Detective Parnell said.
After Delaney hung up, he stared at the notes he had jotted down. He pondered a long while. Then, sighing, he reached for his 'agony list' of unsolved puzzles. He added -a fourth item under Minor riddles: Why did Dr. Ellerbee cancel his patients' debts?
And, having done that, he tramped gloomily into the kitchen, hoping to find the makings of a prodigious_ sandwich that might relieve his depression.
Detective Brian Estrella was also thinking of food. Since his wife, Meg, had been in the hospital and nursing home, he had been baching it and hating every minute. He was unused to solitude, and a real klutz when it came to cooking and household chores.
He had what he considered a brainstorm: He called Sylvia Mae Otherton on Friday night and suggested, with some diffidence, that they have dinner together. He would find a Chinese take-out joint and buy enough food for both of them. All Sylvia would have to supply would be hot tea. She thought it was a marvelous idea.
Estrella bought egg rolls, barbecued ribs, noodles, wanton soup, shrimp in lobster sauce, fried rice, sweet- and-sour pork, fortune cookies, and pistachio ice cream. Everything was packed in neat cardboard containers, and they even put in plastic forks and spoons, paper napkins.
It was-like a picnic, with all the opened containers on the cocktail table along with cups of hot tea Sylvia provided.
They agreed it was just the kind of spicy, aromatic food to have on a cold winter night with a hard wind rattling the windows and flurries of snow glistening in the streetlight.
The detective didn't neglect to compliment Sylvia on how attractive she looked, and indeed she had done much to improve her appearance. Her hair was washed and coiffed in a loose, fluffy cut. The excess makeup was gone, and the garish costume replaced by a simple shirtwaist.
More important. her manner had undergone a transformation. She seemed at once confident and relaxed. She smiled and laughed frequently, and told Estrella she had gone out that afternoon and spent two hours shopping, going from store to store -something she hadn't done since Dr. Ellerbee died.
'That's wonderful,' the detective said.
'See, you can do it.
You should try to get out of the house every day, even if it's only for a few minutes.'
'I intend to,' Otherton said firmly.
'I'm going to take charge of my life.
And I owe it all to you.'
'Me? What did I do?'
