"Enid called, about Myrna. When did you last see her?"
"I saw her at breakfast. I didn't see her at lunch. Enid told me she wasn't feeling well. What's going on?"
"I have no idea. Apparently, she's disappeared. Enid called the police. They'll be here shortly, I'd imagine."
"The police? What for?"
"Why don't you save the bullshit for the cops," I said.
"Wait a minute. 'Bullshit'? What's the matter with you? I'm tired of being treated like a creep," he said.
I started walking away.
"Where are you going?"
"What difference does it make? If I stand here another minute, I'll just end up insulting you."
Bennet walked alongside me. "That wouldn't, be a first. I heard about your meeting with Paul. He was pissed as hell."
"So what?" I said.
"I know you think we did something."
"Of course I do!"
He touched my arm. "Look. Hang on a minute and let's talk about this."
"Go ahead and talk, Bennet. I'd love to hear what you have to say."
"All right. Okay. I might as well level with you because the truth isn't nearly as bad as you think."
"How do you know what I think? I think you cheated the Maddisons out of fifty thousand dollars' worth of rare documents."
"Now wait a minute. Now wait. We didn't mean any harm. It was just a prank. We wanted to go to Vegas, but we were broke. We didn't have a dime between us. All we wanted was a few bucks. We were only kids," he said.
"Kids? You weren't kids. You were twenty-three years old. You committed a felony. Is that your rationalization, calling it a prank? You should have gone to prison."
"I know. I'm sorry. It got out of hand. We never thought we could pull it off and by the time we realized how serious it was, we didn't have the courage to admit what we'd done."
"It didn't seem to bother you to blame Guy," I said.
"Listen, he was gone. And he'd done all that other stuff. The family was down on him and Dad just assumed. We were assholes. I know that. We were wrong. I've never felt right about it since."
"Well, that absolves you," I said. "What happened to the letters? Where are they?"
"Paul has them at his place. I told him to destroy them, but he couldn't bear to do it. He's been afraid to put them in circulation."
I could feel my mouth pull down with disgust. "So you didn't even get the money? You are a creep," I said. "Let's talk about Patty."
"The baby wasn't mine. I swear. I never screwed her."
"Paul did, didn't he? And so did Jack."
"A lot of fellas screwed her. She didn't care."
"Not Guy. He never laid a hand on her," I said.
"Not Guy," he repeated. "I guess that's true."
"So whose baby was it?"
"Probably Jack's," Bennet said. "But that doesn't mean he killed Guy. I didn't either. I wouldn't do that," he said.
"Oh, come on. Grow up. You never accepted any responsibility for what happened, the whole lot of you. You let Guy take the blame for everything you did. Even when he came back, you never let him off the hook."
"What was I supposed to say? It was too late by then."
"Not for him, Bennet. Guy was still alive at that point. Flow, it's too late."
I looked up to see Enid standing by the hedge. I had no idea how much she'd overheard. She said, "Your partner's on the phone. The police are on the way."
I moved past Enid and walked down the short flight of stairs, crossing the patio to the kitchen door. I found the handset on the counter and I picked it up. "It's me. What's going on?"
"Are you all right? You sound bad."
"I can't stop to tell you. It would take too long. I should have fallen on Bennet and beat the man to death."
"Catch this. I just had a chat with the private investigator in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This gal was at the courthouse when she called in to pick up messages. She went right to the clerk and filled out a request for Claire Maddison's death certificate."
"What was the cause of death?"
"There wasn't one," he said. "As long as she was at it, she made a couple more phone calls and got her last known address. According to the utility company, Claire was living in Bridgeport until last March."