'Television?'
'Yes, one of those television features they do from time to time on interesting or unusual people. They evidently chose Virginia because she was the only licensed private detective in Washington working out of a wheelchair. Later, when this thing with Latty and Don Wolf came up and I wanted someone to look into his background, Virginia was the one I called. There were things about Virginia that bothered me. I worried a little that she wasn't entirely honest with me from time to time, but still, she did a good enough job as far as Don Wolf was concerned. She's how I found out he was married.'
'Did you know that before or after the night Latty was attacked?'
'Before,' Grace answered. 'Virginia dug that up in just a matter of hours after she went to work on the case.'
'But you didn't mention it to your niece?'
'I was hoping she'd come to her senses on her own, you see,' Grace said. 'That's how one learns things in the real world, through experience. And, I thought he'd probably do something to give himself away, although I certainly never anticipated that he would…' Her voice trailed off and didn't continue.
'Tell us about Virginia Marks' connection to what went on that night.'
'Just as I asked, Virginia had placed Don Wolf under surveillance. She followed them, first to the night club and later to Don's office.'
I had a clear memory of Virginia Marks' car pulling away from the curb just as the elevator door opened and Don Wolf and Latty reentered the lobby from the elevator. 'How did she know about the rape?' I asked.
'How?' Grace repeated with a frown. 'What do you mean?'
'Did she somehow see what happened?'
'Oh, no. She was waiting on the street. When they came back downstairs, she drove away. Not wanting them to see her, she waited around the block. When Latty left in a cab a few minutes later, Virginia followed. From the state Latty was in-she was crying, her clothes were in tatters-Virginia more or less assumed what had happened, and, of course, she was right.'
'What about New Year's Eve?' I asked. 'Did you know Latty was going to meet him that night?'
'Yes,' Grace said.
'How did you know?'
Grace stole a sidelong glance at Suzanne Crenshaw, who was vigorously shaking her head. Grace looked back at me.
'Because I heard her on the phone. Virginia had fixed it, you see.'
'Fixed it?'
'The phone. She made tapes so I could listen.'
'In other words, she put a tap on the line?'
'Yes. I suppose that's what it's called.'
'A legal tap?' I don't know why I even bothered to ask. As far as Grace Highsmith was concerned, I was a long way from being a virgin.
Suzanne Crenshaw was still shaking her head, but Grace Highsmith was not dissuaded. 'I don't know what's illegal about it, Detective Beaumont. After all, it is my phone. It's in my name, and I write the check that pays the bill each month.'
Great, I thought, another key piece of information gleaned from an illegal wiretap.
'So,' I said, 'you knew Latty planned to meet Don Wolf. Did you have any idea she was going to ask him to marry her?'
For the first time, Grace seemed indecisive. She hesitated. 'I didn't know, but I was afraid she might. She's been reading all of Dorene's old romance novels, you see, the books Dorene couldn't take with her when she moved into smaller quarters. You know what they're like.'
'No,' I said, quite honestly. 'I have no idea.'
'They're the kind of story where no matter how awful the man seems to be at first glance-no matter how repulsive or obnoxious, or unreasonable-he always turns out to be all right in the end. True love triumphs. He and the heroine get married and live happily ever after and all that sort of thing. Very unrealistic, if you ask me.'
'What does any of this have to do with Latty?'
'She's rebelling against her mother, you see,' Grace answered. 'Her mother is so impossibly unconventional- she never married, believes wholeheartedly in free sex, thinks marriage is the inevitable outcome of a patriarchal society, and all that other feminist nonsense. Naturally, Latty wants to do just the opposite-including wanting to marry the first man she became seriously involved with.'
'She might have been rebelling against you, too, Miss Highsmith,' I suggested.
'Heavens, no,' Grace said immediately, underlining her objection with a definitive shake of her head. 'Not against me certainly. I may not read all those books, but in my own way, I'm every bit as much of a hopeless romantic as Latty is or as her grandmother was. I'm sure I would have married and settled down myself, if I'd ever met just the right sort of man.'
Not bloody likely, I thought. 'Let's go back to New Year's Eve,' I said, bringing the discussion back to the subject at hand.
'What about it?'
'Virginia Marks followed Latty to Myrtle Edwards Park?'
'No. Since we knew that's where they were meeting, I asked her to wait there for them.'
'And what happened?'
'Don Wolf showed up first. When Latty got there, they walked off down by the water. A few minutes later, just after the fireworks started, Latty came running back alone. On the way to her car, she ran right past Virginia's. Virginia said she could see Latty was upset, that she was crying.'
'And then what happened?'
'I had asked Virginia to speak to Don Wolf. She waited for a while for him to come back through the parking lot. When he didn't, she finally went to check, thinking he might have left the park somewhere north of where she was waiting. That's when she found the gun. It was right there just off the jogging path, near where Latty stood for a moment or two when she came back alone. Virginia picked up the gun, realized it had been fired, and assumed the worst.'
'That Latty had shot him?'
Grace closed her eyes and nodded.
'What happened then?'
'She went back to her car, called me on her car phone, and asked me what I wanted her to do.'
'Grace,' Suzanne Crenshaw interjected urgently. 'I really think…'
'Now, Suzanne,' Grace Highsmith said, as stubborn in her own way as Latty Gibson was in hers. 'Now that I've started, I'm going to finish. Damn the torpedoes, if you'll excuse the expression. As soon as Virginia told me what kind of gun it was, I knew it was ours-mine. At least I was afraid it was. I needed time to think, to decide what to do. I asked Virginia to hold on to the gun and to call me again as soon as she found out for sure whether or not Don Wolf was dead. She did just exactly what I asked. She was back there on the pier when the body was found the next morning.'
'Miss Highsmith,' I said, 'willfully concealing evidence in a homicide investigation constitutes a felony.'
'Oh, I know all that,' she replied airily. 'That's what I have you for, isn't it, Suzanne?'
The attorney nodded grimly but said nothing.
'Wait a minute,' Tim Blaine said, opening his mouth for the first time in the course of the interview. 'When Latty left, why didn't Virginia Marks follow her?'
It was a good observation-one I wished I had made myself.
'I already told you. Because Virginia's assignment that night was to talk to Don Wolf, to conclude my negotiations with him.'
'Negotiations for what?'
'To present him with my offer.'
'What offer?'
'A payoff,' Grace Highsmith said. 'Or maybe it's called a bribe. I'm not sure which is which. Whatever you want to call it, I was prepared to give the man money if he would promise to get out of Latty's life and stay
