"My daughter is home, and I have not gone into the office; and we would very much like you to come to the house. I expect to pay you."
"I will come out in about an hour, Mr. Orchard," I said, and hung up.
It was a little after noon. I got up and stood a long time under the shower. I"d had about four and a half hours" sleep and I needed more. Ten years ago I wouldn"t have. I put on my suit-I wasn"t sure you could get onto West Newton Hill without one-made and ate a fried egg sandwich, drank a cup of coffee, and went out. l should have made the bed."t knew I would hate finding it unmade when I came back.
It was cold and bright out. It took five minutes for the heater in the car to get warm enough to melt the ice on my windows, and another five minutes for it to melt. I had no ice sc.r.a.per.
By the Ma.s.s Turnpike it is less than ten minutes from downtown Boston to West Newton. From West Newton Square to the top of West Newton Hill is a matter of fifty thousand dollars. Status ascends as the hill rises, and at the top live the rich. It is old rich on West Newton Hill. Doctor rich, professor rich, stockbroker rich, lawyer rich. The new rich, the engineer rich, and the technocratic rich live in developments named after English kings in towns like Lynnfield and Sudbury.
Roland Orchard looked to be a rich man"s rich man. His home was large and white and towering as one came up the hill toward it. It occupied most of the lot it was built on. New rich seem to want a lot of land for a gardener to manicure. Old rich don"t seem to give a d.a.m.n. Across the front and around one side of the house was a wide porch, empty in the winter but bearing the wear marks of summer furniture. Above the door was a fan-shaped stained gla.s.s window. I rang the bell. A maid opened the door. Her black skin, devoid of make-up, shone as though freshly burnished. Her almond-colored eyes held a knowledge of things that West Newton Hill didn"t want to hear about.
She said, "Yes, sir."
I gave her one of my cards. The one with only my name on it.
"Yes, Mr. Spenser. Mrs. Orchard is expecting you in the study."
She led me down a polished oak-floored hall, past a curving stairway. The hall-it was more like a corridor-ran front to back, the depth of the house. At the far end a floor to ceiling window opened out onto the backyard. The coils of a grapevine framed the window. The rest was dirty snow. The maid knocked on a door to the left of the window; a woman"s voice said, "Come in." The maid opened the door, said "Mr. Spenser," and left.
It was a big room, blond wood bookcases built in on three walls. A fieldstone fireplace covered the fourth wall. There was a fire going, and the room was warm and smelled of woodsmoke. Mrs. Orchard was standing when I came in. She was darkly tanned (not Miami, I thought, West Palm Beach, probably) and wearing a white pants suit and white boots. Her hair was s.h.a.g cut and tipped with silver, and the skin on her face was very tight over her bones. She had silver nail polish and wore heavy Mexican-looking silver earrings. A silver service and a covered platter on a mahogany tea wagon stood near the fire. A chiffon stole was draped over the back of the couch, and a novel by Joyce Carol Oates lay open on the coffee table.
As I walked toward her she stood motionless, one hand extended, limp at the wrist; toward me. I felt as if I were walking into a window display.
"Mr. Spenser," she said. "It"s very nice of you to come."
"That"s okay," I said.
I didn"t know what to,do with her hand, shake it or kiss it. I shook it, and the way she looked made me suspect I"d chosen wrong.
"My husband had to go into the office for a bit; he should be back soon."
I said, "Uh huh."
"He might have stopped off at the club for handball and a rubdown. Rolly works very hard to stay in shape."
"Uh huh."
"What do you do, Mr. Spenser? You look to be in excellent condition. Do you work out?"
"Not at the club," I said.
"No," she said. "Of course not."
I took off my coat. "May I sit down?" I said.
"Oh, I"m sorry, of course, sit down. Will you have some coffee, or tea? I had some sandwiches made up. Would you like one?"
"No, thank you, I ate before I came. I"ll take coffee though, black."
"You must pardon me, Mr. Spenser; my manners are really much better. It"s just that I"ve never been involved with policemen and all. And I have never really spoken to a private detective before. Are you carrying a gun?"
"I thought I"d risk West Newton without one," I said.
"Yes, of course. You"re sure you won"t have a sandwich?"
"Look, Mrs. Orchard, I spent most of last night with your daughter and a corpse. I spent the rest of last night with your daughter and the cops. The last l knew she was in jail for murder. Your husband says she"s home. Now he and you didn"t get me out here to make sure I was eating pcoperly. What do you want?"
"My husband will be along soon, Mr. Spenser; he"ll explain. Rolly handles these things. I do not."
She looked straight at me as she talked and leaned forward a little. She had large blue eyes, and she wore eye shadow, I noticed. l bet the eyes got her a lot that she wanted. Especially when she looked right at you and leaned forward a little as she talked. She turned slightly on the couch and tucked one leg under the other, and I got the long line of her thigh and the jut of her sharp b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Her body looked lean and tight. A little sinewy for my taste. She kept the pose. I wondered if I was supposed to bark.
She picked up the book.
"Do you read much, Mr. Spenser?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Do you enjoy Miss Oates?"
"No."
"Oh, really? Why on earth not?"
"I"m probably insensitive," I said.
"Oh, I don"t think so, Mr. Spenser. What little I"ve heard Terry say of you suggests quite the contrary."
"Where is Terry"?"
"In her room. Her father has asked that she talk with no one except in his presence."
"How"s she feel about that?"
"After what she"s gotten herself into and what she"s putting us through, she"s learning to do what she"s told."
There was a triumphant undertone in Mrs. Orchard"s voice. I said nothing.
"Would you put another log on the fire, Mr. Spenser? It seems to be going low; and Rolly always likes a blazing fire when he comes in."
It was a way of establishing relationships; I thought, as I got a log from the basket and set it on top of the fire-get me to do her bidding. I"d known other women like that. If they couldn"t get you to do them little services, they felt insecure. Or maybe she just wanted another log in the fireplace. Sometimes I"m deep as h.e.l.l.
The door to the study opened and a man came in. He wore a dark double-breasted blazer with a crest on the pocket, a thick white turtleneck sweater, gray flared slacks, and black ankle boots with a lot of strap and buckle showing. His hair was blond and no doubt naturally curly; it contrasted nicely with his tan. He was a slender man, shorter than I by maybe an inch and maybe ten years older. Under the tan his face had a reddish flush which might be health or booze.
"Spenser," he said, and put out his hand, "kind of you to come."
I shook hands with him. He wasn"t being the top-exec-used-to-instant-obedience. He was being the gracious-man-of-affluence-putting-an-employee-at-ease.
He said to his wife, "I"ll have coffee, Marion."
She rose and poured him coffee. She put several small triangular sandwiches on a plate, put the coffee cup in the little depression on the plate that was made to hold it, and placed it next to a red leather wing chair.
Orchard sat down, carefully hiking his trouser legs up at the knee so they wouldn"t bag. I noticed he had a thick silver ring on his little finger.
"I"m sorry to have kept you waiting, Spenser, but I don"t tike to stay out of work if I can help it. Married to the job, I guess. Just wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly."
He took a delicate sip of coffee and a small bite of one of the sandwiches.
"I wish to hire you, Mr. Spenser, to see that my daughter is exonerated of the charges leveled against her. I was able to have her released on bail in my custody, but it took a good deal of doing and I had to collect a number of favors to do it. Now I want this mess cleared up and the suspicion eliminated from my name and my home. The police are working to convict. I want someone working to acquit."
"Why not have Terry join us?" I said.
"Perhaps later," Orchard said, "but first I want to speak with you for a time."
I nodded. He went on.
"I would like you to give me a complete rundown of the circ.u.mstances by which you became involved with Terry up to and including last night."
"Hasn"t Terry told you?"
"I want your version."
I didn"t want to tell him. I didn"t like him. I did like his daughter. I didn"t like his a.s.sumption that our versions would differ.
I said, "Nope."
"Mr. Spenser. I am employing you to investigate a murder. I want a report of what you"ve discovered so far."
"First, you may or may not be hiring me. You"ve offered. I haven"t accepted. So at the moment I owe you nothing. That includes how I met your daughter, and what we did."
"G.o.ddammit, Spenser, I don"t have to take that kind of insolence from you."
"Right," I said, "you can hire another Hawkshaw. The ones with phones, are in the yellow pages under SLEUTH."
I thought for a moment that Orchard was going to get up and take a swing at me. I felt no cold surge of terror. Then he thought better of it, and leaned back in his chair.
"Marion," he said, "I"ll have some brandy. Would you join me, Mr. Spenser?"
I looked at my watch; it was two thirty. He really handled stress well. I decided what the flush under the tan was.
"Yeah. I"ll have some. Thank you."
Marion Orchard"s face looked a little more tightly stretched over her good bones as she went to the sideboard and poured two shots of brandy from a decanter into crystal snifters. She brought them back to us, handed one to me and one to her husband.
Orchard swirled it in his gla.s.s and took a large swallow. I tried mine. It was the real stuff okay, barely liquid at all as it drifted down my throat. A guy who served brandy like that couldn"t be all bad.
"Now look, Spenser. Terry is our only child. We"ve lavished every affection and concern on her. We have brought her up in wealth and comfort. Clothes, the best schooling, Europe. She had her own horse and rode beautifully. She made us proud. She was an achiever. That"s important. We do things in this family. Marion rides and hunts as well as any man."
I looked at Marion Orchard and said, "Hi ho, Silver."
Orchard went on. I was not sure he"d heard me.
"Then when it came time for college, she insisted on going to that factory. Can you imagine the reaction of some of my a.s.sociates when they ask me where my daughter goes to school and Itell them?"
It was a rhetorical question. I could imagine, but l knew he wasn"t looking for an answer.
"Against my best judgment I permitted her to go. And I permitted her to live there rather than at home." He shook his head. "I should have known better. She got in with the worst element in a bad school and..."
He stopped, drank another large slug from his snifter, and went on.
"She never gave us any trouble till then. She was just what we wanted. And then in college, living on the very edge of the ghetto, sleeping around, drugs. You"ve seen her, you"ve seen how she dresses, who she keeps company with. I don"t even know where she lives anymore. She rarely comes home, and when she does it"s as if she were coming only to flaunt herself before us and our friends. Do you know she appeared here at a party we were giving wearing a miniskirt she"d made out of an old pair of Levi"s? Now she"s gotten herself involved in a murder. I"ve got a right to know about her. I"ve got a right to know what she"ll do to us next."
"I don"t do family counseling, Mr. Orchard. There are people who do, and maybe you ought to look up one of them. If you"ll get Terry down here we"ll talk, all of us, and see if we can arrange to live in peace while I look into the murder."
Orchard had finished his brandy. He nodded at the empty gla.s.s. His wife got up, refilled it, and brought it to him. He drank, then put the gla.s.s down.
He said, "While you"re up, Marion, would you ask Terry to come down."
Marion left the room. Orchard took another belt of brandy. He wasn"t bothering to savor the bouquet. I nibbled at the edge of mine. Marion Orchard came back into the room with Terry.
I stood and said, "h.e.l.lo, Terry."
She said, "Hi."
Her hair was loose and long. She wore a short-sleeved blouse, a skirt, no socks, and a pair of loafers. I looked at her arms-no tracks. One point for our side; she wasn"t shooting. At least not regularly. She was fresh-scrubbed and pale, and remarkably without affect. She went to a round leather ha.s.sock by the fire and sat down, her knees tight together, her hands folded in her lap. Dolly Demure, with a completely blank face. The loose hair softened her, and the traditional dress made her look like somebody"s cheerleader, right down to loafers without socks. Had there been any animation she"d have been pretty as h.e.l.l.
Orchard spoke. "Terry, I"m employing Mr. Spenser to clear you of the murder charge."
She said, "Okay."
"I hope you"ll cooperate with him in every way."
"Okay. "
"And, Terry, if Mr. Spenser succeeds in getting you out of this mess, if he does, perhaps you will begin to rethink your whole approach to life."
"Why don"t you get laid," she said flatly, without inflection, and without looking at him.
Marion Orchard said "Terry!" in a horrified voice.
Orchard"s gla.s.s was empty. He flicked an eye at it, and away.
"Now, you listen to me, young lady," he said. "I have put up with your nonsense for as long as I"m going to. If you..."
I interrupted. "If I want to listen to this kind of c.r.a.p I can go home and watch daytime television. I want to talk with Terry, and maybe later I"ll want to talk with each of you. Separately. Obviously I was wrong; we can"t do it in a group. You people want to encounter one another, do it on your own time."
"By G.o.d, Spenser," Orchard said.
I cut him off again. "I want to talk with Terry. Do I or don"t I?"