'I did, Jack.'
'I just thought we could have fixed it up with time, that's all.'
'I know. I thought so, too. But. .'
'Now you don't think so.'
'No, I don't.' Her voice was far away. He knew that later he would think about it, the tone of her voice, that it would hurt hearing it in his mind again.
He tried to lighten his voice. 'Didn't meet some other goofball, did you? In a bus station or something?'
She was very silent this time. 'There might be someone else.'
'Might be?'
'I'm not sure, yet. Not sure if I want there to be.'
'But you're going away with him to find out.' The fighting tone was coming back, the dueling stance he had assumed with her so many times.
'That's not it. I'm going away to think about it. Meeting him just made me sure about you and me.'
Hearing her voice like that, the fight drained out of him. 'I think I know what you mean,' he said.
'Do you?'
Again she was silent. Then, 'Good-bye, Jack.'
'Ginny?'
'Yes?'
He let the phone receiver nestle slowly into its berth. The line of electricity, the voice turned into electrons, was cut off.
'Forget it,' he said.
The phone rang again almost immediately. He waited and then picked it up.
'Yes?'
'Mr. Paine?'
Not Ginny; another voice, cold, smooth and efficient.
'This is Paine.'
'I'm Gloria Fulman.' The name meant nothing except something very vague, and as it came to him she added,
'The former Gloria Grumbach.'
'Yes, Ms. Fulman. What can I do for you?'
'I thought you'd like to speak with me.'
'I'd be happy to see you tomorrow-'
'I'd like you to come to my hotel tonight.'
'It's kind of late, Ms. Fulman. And I'm tired-'
'My sister is being cremated at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, and I will be leaving immediately afterward. If you'd like to speak to me it will have to be tonight.'
'All right. Where are you?'
She told him, and he wrote it down.
'I'll be there in twenty minutes.'
'That will be fine.'
He put the phone down again, in its cradle, and stared at it before rising to his feet and pulling his shirt on.
SIX
The elevator rose smoothly to the fifth floor. He got off and turned left. Her suite was at the end, double-doored with a private hallway. There was a knocker on the door, and he used it. He saw the bright tiny light of the peephole darken, then the door opened.
'Come in, Mr. Paine,' she said.
She was better-looking than he thought she would be. On the telephone she had sounded tall, thin and stiff, but she was short and just a little overweight, the kind of chubbiness that adds the right amount of curve to the right places. Her hair was medium short, styled high on top. She looked to be in her mid to late twenties.
She brought him into a brightly lit living room; Paine counted four other doors and an open pantry leading to a small kitchenette. She obviously liked to spend money on suites, even for one night.
'The liquor cabinet is stocked, if you'd like anything. Or I have coffee.'
'Coffee would be fine.'
She walked to the pantry and said something. A few moments later a young girl in a maid's uniform appeared with a tray. The service was silver; there was a platter with tea sandwiches on it.
'You don't travel light,' Paine said when the maid had left.
Gloria Fulman's own coffee cup steamed untouched on the table beside her. She didn't take cream. She didn't smile.
'I have a favor to ask of you, Mr. Paine,' she said.
'I'm listening.'
'I want you to keep the five hundred dollars my sister gave you, plus the five hundred dollars my father gave you. I will give you five hundred dollars also. I want you to forget about the Grumbach family.'
Paine said, 'I can't do that. Your sister signed a contract with the agency I work for.'
'I want to cancel that contract.'
'Ms. Fulman,' Paine said slowly, 'I work for a man who won't let me do that. There are a lot of reasons. One of them is that there would be more money coming to his agency after I finished the job. Another is that he just won't let me do it.'
'Would
'No.'
'I see.'
'I don't think you do. I think you'd like to drop the whole thing because you're afraid of scandal. You'd like to shut the whole mess up now, and let it all die down, and then pick up the pieces and assemble them so that the good name of the Grumbach family goes on. And you're willing to give me a lot of money to do that. Am I right?'
'I don't know why you're so angry, Mr. Paine. So far I haven't bribed you heavily at all.' He thought he detected a trace of a smile but decided that it was just a trick of the light.
'Mr. Paine, do you think my father killed himself'?'
'No, I don't.'
'And do you think my sister Dolores killed herself?'
'Possibly. I don't know.'
'All right, Mr. Paine.' He could almost see the tiny gears spinning behind her eyes. She picked up her coffee cup and sipped at it, her expression showing that it was just the right temperature for her now, that she had known all along that it would be just the right temperature at just this time.
'Is there anything I can help you with?' she said.
He took the photographs out of his pocket and gave them to her. She went through them, bunching the first three together and handing them back and then bunching the second group and handing them back.
'Do you recognize anyone in these pictures?' Paine asked her.
'I understand that money won't work, Mr. Paine,' she said. 'Good-bye.'
Paine got up. He made a move for the door but she sat where she was, sipping at her coffee. The servant didn't appear to show him the way out.
Paine crossed the room to the door leading out of the suite. He left it open. When he reached the end of the short hallway, he turned around. Her chair was already empty. The servant girl was there, bent over, collecting the plates and cups onto the silver tray.
