Heart of Stone (40 page)

“I've got to go,” I said and took my foot off the brake.

The car slid backward, and Isaac had to pull back his hand or lose it. He chased after me, imploring me to stop. I reached the pavement of Route 15 and wheeled the car around. Isaac reached me just as I shifted into drive. I stepped on the accelerator, and the car lurched forward.

“Simon's been arrested!” he called after me.

I quite nearly didn't hear him. In fact it took me a couple of beats to arrange his words in my head and realize what he'd said. I cursed him and myself. Then I stamped on the brake and pulled over to the side of the road. Isaac arrived at a trot from behind. I glared at him and told him to climb in.

“What happened?” I asked, once I'd driven off again toward the village.

“Terwilliger came back to the camp last night after midnight,” he said. “He dragged Miriam out of bed to question her. He knew about the Mimi thing.”

“Yes, I told him. I had to tell him. It's important.”

“I know. I get that.”

“So what did she say?”

“She laughed. Told him he was crazy. She'd only met the kid a few times for rehearsals and the concert. And she'd certainly never seduced him.”

“Did Terwilliger believe her?” I asked.

“Didn't seem to. But you know how cops are. They shine a hot lamp on you and blow smoke in your face until you confess.”

“So how did it end? He couldn't have had any evidence to arrest her.”

“No, he didn't. He just said he'd come back again today after discussing the case with the district attorney.”

We were coming up on Palmer Square. I had no appointments or any idea of where to go, so I pulled into a parking spot across the road from the park. I yanked the handbrake and opened my door.

“Let's talk over there,” I said, indicating the gazebo in the square.

The day was turning into a gem, at least weather-wise. After the rain and wind of the previous night, Prospector Lake was once again a perfect summer idyll. As long as you didn't count the dead bodies and seduced young boys.

“Why did Terwilliger arrest Simon? Did he blow his stack again?”

“Nothing like that,” said Isaac, squinting out over the lake toward the eastern shore. A light breeze ruffled his hair, and I felt I was losing my resolve. “Terwilliger came back this morning. Just about an hour and a half ago. He wanted to speak to Miriam again, but she was taking a walk down by the lake. Simon and I met him in my cabin so as not to upset the others.”

“And?”

“That idiot cop said he'd spoken to the district attorney, and the two of them had agreed that there was enough evidence to take Miriam in for questioning. Trumped-up evidence, I'm sure. Terwilliger said he was going to arrest her as soon as she came back to camp.”

“So why didn't he?”

Isaac gazed into my eyes, and a frisson ran up my spine and over my shoulders. I wondered if he'd noticed. I blinked and looked away. “So why didn't he arrest her?” I repeated.

“Because Simon confessed to killing Karl.”

Isaac told me the entire story. When faced with Miriam's arrest, Simon had come clean. He told Terwilliger that he'd long hated Karl for his betrayals. First his friends, then his family, and finally his faith. He spoke calmly for once. No paroxysms, no fits or shouting. He simply said he'd seen Karl in the woods near Arcadia that morning, not far from the hunters' shelter above the camp. He engaged him, and the two walked to the beach. Simon asked him what he was doing on the lake, why he hadn't contacted any of them. Karl told him he had come because he hated his wife and wanted to win back the love of his life, Miriam.

“Don't you mean Mimi?” asked Terwilliger.

And Simon bristled. No one called her Mimi but him. That was his name for her. Karl called her Miriam, and he didn't deserve her. And she didn't love him, besides. He had come to Prospector Lake for nothing.

“Then there was nothing going on between them?” asked Terwilliger.

“Nothing,” insisted Simon. Sure, she may have helped him. Given him a flea-bitten blanket to sleep under in the shelter, but that was it. Nothing else.

“I understood she gave him a monogrammed Dopp kit?” asked the chief.

Simon laughed. “That was nine years ago,” he said. “And it was a gift from all of us. For his trip to California.”

“But it's brand-new.”

“Not brand-new,” said Simon. “Never been used. Karl left it behind in 1954. I took it back to New York with me to give it to him the next time I saw him.”

“Why did you all deny any knowledge of the Dopp kit that night? You lied to me.”

Simon chuckled. “We're all loyal to each other, not to fascist cops.”

“You seem to have an answer for everything.”

“No answers,” Simon said. “Just facts.”

“So what happened next?” asked Terwilliger. “How did you get from the shore to the top of Baxter's Rock?”

Simon shrugged and explained. “I told him I would step aside and let him have Miriam if he could prove his love for her.”

“Huh?”

“When we were kids, we used to talk about diving off Baxter's Rock. We always chickened out. I told him if he would risk his life for her, I would let her go.”

I had to interrupt Isaac at this point. “What the hell?” I asked. “Are you telling me Terwilliger bought that?”

“Of course not,” said Isaac. “He's not as dim as he looks. But it's true that we used to talk about diving off the cliff. But none of us ever had the guts to do it.”

Simon insisted he convinced Karl to climb up to the top of the cliff with him. And once there, the two men argued over Miriam. Then their differences devolved into blows, and in self-defense, Simon pushed Karl over the edge by accident. That was it.

“And Terwilliger actually arrested him?” I asked.

Isaac hesitated, casting his gaze upward as if to recall. Then he frowned and said that the police chief had seemed annoyed. “I believe he thought Simon was lying to cover for Miriam. But what could he do? Simon swore he'd killed Karl, even if he said it was an accident.”

“What did he say about Jerry Kaufman?” I asked. “Did Terwilliger even ask?”

Isaac shook his head. “Simon said the kid must have shown up later and fallen on his own. He insisted they died at different times, since he, Simon, was a witness to Karl's death.”

“And what about you? Did you say anything at all?”

“I kept saying that it was absurd. Believe me, Ellie. It made no sense, and I don't think Terwilliger bought it either. He just shrugged and took him in.”

We sat for a minute, digesting the information on the green of Palmer Square, Isaac just inches from me on the bench inside the gazebo. I wanted to run to the police station to appeal to my new friend, Tiny Terwilliger, to see reason and release Simon. But I also wanted to fall into Isaac's arms, breathe him in, abandon everything, including myself, to him. Forget this whole summer and all its heartbreaks. I just wanted to embrace the good, throw away the bad, the doubts, and the pain. I wanted Isaac and nothing else. No one else. None of the lies, none of the betrayals or suspicions. I wanted to be folded in his arms and lose myself forever there.

And I was sure he wanted that too. Even if I held none of the cards, I still knew. And Isaac's desire was unequivocal. I could dictate terms, ask for the moon, and he would capitulate. It would have been so easy to fall back into our love affair. But you can't un-ring a bell. You can't un-feel a burn. It was perhaps possible to heal. But healing took time. I inched away from him on the bench.

“Where's Miriam now?” I asked. “I need to speak to her.”

The last thing Miriam wanted was to see me. She'd heard of my accusation, according to Isaac, and couldn't understand my betrayal.

Officer Bob Firth was manning the desk at the police station when Isaac and I entered. Miriam was in an interrogation room, he informed us, refusing to leave without her husband.

“Where's the chief?” I asked.

“On his way over to Elizabethtown to see the DA,” he said. “He left about fifteen minutes ago.”

“Has Simon Abramowitz secured a lawyer?”

Bob shook his head. “Said he didn't want one. Didn't need one. He's going to sign a confession as soon as the DA gets here this afternoon.”

“He's not signing anything,” I said. “That man is not going to die in prison.”

Isaac's head nearly spun off its axis snapping to the side to look at me. His eyes burned wild, afraid, as if perhaps I knew something I shouldn't. He didn't ask, and I didn't volunteer. Let him wonder, I thought.

“Ellie, I know a local lawyer, Bill Hoch.” Isaac pronounced it “hoke.”

“Is he good?” I asked. “Or just some backwoods raconteur who likes to sue doctors?”

“Former vice president, fourth judicial district of the New York State Bar Association. He's a quiet, thoughtful man, by the way. So you can drop your stereotypes of small-town lawyers. Of course, his brother, Jim, is another story.”

“So what are you waiting for?” I said. “Go get Bill Hoch. Simon's not signing any confessions this afternoon.”

Isaac nodded and ran for the door. Hoch and Hoch's law office was across the street.

“Real nice to see you again, Miss Stone,” said Bob Firth, smiling.

Miriam glowered when she saw me enter the interrogation room. Her usual impenetrable expression was gone, replaced by an all-too-obvious evil eye. And it was directed at me.

“Put your indignation to one side for now,” I said. “We've got to get Simon out of here.”

“What do you care?” she sneered. “You came here, wormed your way into our hearts, then showed your thanks by betraying us. Simon is in that jail cell now because you started that lie about me and Jerrold What's-His-Name.”

“You listen to me, Miriam,” I said, brooking none of her argument. “You have spent your adult life hopping in and out of the love lives of your oldest and dearest friends. I'm no prude. You can love whom you will. But friendships suffer for it. And you, not I, destroyed Simon's love for Karl.”

“What?”

“They didn't split over Stalin or Khrushchev or Hungary. They split over you. You loved Karl, he loved another, and Simon loved you. Still does, obviously, since he's willing to confess to a crime he didn't commit. All to save you.”

“Don't point the finger at me, Ellie,” she said, her hackles up as high as I'd ever seen them. “I love Simon dearly and would never hurt him.”

“But you tracked Karl down in Los Angeles just to say hello? I don't believe it, Miriam. I think Karl came here to meet you. To win you back again after all those years.”

“That's not true,” she said. “I wasn't sleeping with Karl.”