Irish Alibi (12 page)

“Is that when you moved out?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I told you.”

“You felt she had made a fool of you. What did she think of your not coming back after the game?”

“She had found other things to do.”

“Because you had stranded her. Where did you spend Saturday night?”

“At Magnus O'Toole's condo. It's a place where visiting sports people can stay. You've seen it. You found me there.”

“You just decided to spend the night with him rather than his wife?”

“We were both pretty drunk.”

“Ah.”

“And we had things to talk about.”

“His wife?”

Kelly puffed up, about to be indignant, then sighed. “Okay. Fine. Here's the story. Madeline and I had fallen in love. We talked of marriage. She and Magnus had drifted apart. Their marriage was beyond repair. She thought he could get an annulment.”

“You're all Catholics?”

“Yes.”

“So divorce was out?”

“Oh, Madeline would have settled for that.”

“Would you?”

“It's a moot point. I must have been blinded. She was a good-looking woman, and lots of fun.”

“And a successful author.”

“And a successful author. I realize now I really didn't know what she was like. When I found out the way she had carried on Saturday night, I wanted out.”

“You went back to O'Toole's condo.”

“That's right.”

“Did O'Toole know about you and his wife?”

“The point of seeing him was to speak to him about it, about getting an annulment.”

“Lucky you just ran into him.”

“That's not quite accurate. The point of the trip was to tell Magnus what Madeline and I intended to do.”

“You told him?”

“I did.”

“How did he react?”

“I told you we had been drinking. It started during the game, and afterward we went to a campus bar, then on to the apartment of Professor Roger Knight.”

“Roger Knight.”

“Your partner's brother.”

Jimmy let it go. “You were drinking together, and you told him you wanted to marry his wife.”

Kelly looked as if he would have preferred another description of the confrontation. But he nodded.

“And he had no objections?”

“I wish I could say that I had a clearer memory of that night. Of course he was angry when I told him. I understand that. I was prepared for it. The fact is, he was jealous of his wife's success as a writer. I suppose that's why he wrote
Irish Icons
.”

“I would think he'd want to take a swing at you given the circumstances.”

“Maybe he did. The thing is, the longer we talked, the easier it got for both of us. Of course, he knew what she was like, and I had yet to find out.”

“Which you did when you went back to the motel on Sunday morning.”

“More like noon. She was on her way to the noon Mass at Sacred Heart.”

“That makes her sound devout.”

“A student had come to take her there. He was one of the men she had met in the bar.”

“A student?”

“They knew one another from Memphis.”

“So you moved out and went back to the condo.”

“I had taken O'Toole's rental car. I wanted to get it back to him.”

“Was he at the condo when you got there?”

Kelly thought about that. “He showed up after I got there.”

“Showed up?”

“He came out of one of the bedrooms, as if he had just woken up.”

“You think he was pretending?”

“Right now I don't know what to think. Here was a man who had been told his wife wanted to dump him.”

“He took that pretty bad?”

“He did.”

“Okay, you're back at the condo, moved out of the motel, everything over between you and Madeline. Is that right?”

“It is. I told Magnus what had happened, and we pretty much agreed on the kind of woman his wife was.”

“Then what?”

“I sacked out. It had been quite a night, Saturday, and I was feeling pretty low. I slept right on through until Monday.”

“So you didn't decide to go back to the motel and murder Madeline.”

He leapt to his feet. “What a godawful thing to say.”

“Please sit down.”

“I'll be damned if I will. I came down here to be whatever help I could. I have done that. I'm leaving.”

“I can't let you do that.”

“Are you arresting me?”

“You're a material witness to a homicide. From what you've told me, you had a pretty good motive. But forget about that. I'm not going to hold you as a suspect.”

“You're damned right you're not.”

“I suggested earlier that you might want to talk to a lawyer.”

“I don't need a lawyer.”

“I hope not.”

“Look, I've got a business to run. You can't ask me to just stay around while you carry on your investigation.”

“I am asking that. It's not just a suggestion, either.”

“This is outrageous.”

“Homicide usually is.”

“That sounds as if you're accusing me. I've never harmed anyone in my life.”

“I wonder if Magnus O'Toole would agree with you.”

Quintin Kelly's mouth became a line. He stood and glared at Jimmy. “I am going to talk to a lawyer.”

“Good. Where will you be staying?”

“Not at the motel.”

“How about the condo?”

“Maybe.”

“I have to know.”

He said he would be at the condo, if it was all right with Magnus. “I'll ask him.”

“You can wait for him here.”

10

“Your friend's in trouble,” Phil said to Magnus O'Toole.

His mouth formed a little O on his bearded face. “You don't think that he…”

“Don't you?”

“Geez.” Magnus raked his beard with his fingers. “I don't know.”

“He's being interrogated now.”

“Wow.” Magnus's cheeks puffed up, and then he expelled air. “He was pretty angry with the way she had acted.”

“Tell me about it.”

Phil had to understand, Magnus said, that he could only tell him what his old classmate had said when he came back to the condo on Sunday afternoon. “He said she'd been living it up at the motel. I can believe it. Sometimes I think she imagined she was one of the women in her novels.” He stopped. His eyes grew moist. “Whatever went wrong between us, the woman was my wife.”

“She and Kelly checked into the motel together.”

“Their plan was to come up here and ask me for a go-ahead. Can you believe it? What a sonofabitch.”

“How long had you been friends?”

“Friends! I hadn't seen him since we were in school together. He was Madeline's publisher. I suppose that's how it started.”

“She lived in Memphis?”

“She didn't like Atlanta. She didn't like me, either, not anymore. She said her consciousness had been raised. About gutter high.”

“She moved out?”

“Those damned novels brought in tons of money. She was making more than I did. And happy to let me know it.”

“That must have been hard to take.”

“You married?”

“Not yet.”

“What are you, engaged?” He studied Phil as if he were trying to guess his age.

“In my line of work, I run into a lot of arguments against marriage.”

“Oh, don't go by mine. There are lots of wonderful marriages.”

“But not yours.”

“I picked a lemon in the garden of love. That's a song.”

“So Quintin Kelly came to you and said, ‘I want to steal your wife.'”

Magnus laughed and then seemed to wish he hadn't. “You saw us Saturday night, at your place. By the way, that was a wonderful evening. My nephew had told me what a great professor your brother is. He was right.” Magnus paused. “How did you end up on the South Bend police force?”

“I'm a private investigator.”

“Come on.”

“Scout's honor.”

“I'll be darned. So what are you doing down here?”

“I'm on special assignment for Notre Dame.”

“Doing what?”

“Making sure that none of what has happened affects the good name of the university.”

“That student?”

“What student?”

“Kelly said that a student came to take Madeline to Mass on Sunday, some kid from Memphis whose family she knew.”

“Sounds innocent enough.”

“With Madeline, you never know.”

“She was a practicing Catholic?”

“Let's say she needed practice.”

“Did you know she'd be here this weekend?”

“No! I couldn't believe it when Kelly told me the two of them had come up together.”

“You had no suspicions?”

“About him? How could I? I didn't know. Not that I was surprised. I mean what surprised me was that the two of them thought I'd give them my blessing. I was supposed to apply for an annulment!”

“You wouldn't do that?”

“If Madeline and I weren't married, no one is. We were married in the Log Chapel, on campus. December 6, 1979.” His eyes were moist again.

“A long time ago.”

“You can say that again.”

“How would you describe his behavior when he returned to your condo?”

“He brought his bags. He'd moved out of the motel. And he told me why.”

“Madeline wasn't what he thought she was?”

“I could hardly disagree with his description of her.”

“You were both pretty angry with her.”

“I'd been angry with her for years.”

“But not angry enough to kill her?”

“Are you kidding?”

“You have to understand how this will look to the police. Your wife's playing around with another man, the man comes to you to give you the bad news, your reaction must have been pretty strong.”

“How would you feel?”

“I'd probably want to take a poke at him.”

“I wish I had.”

“But you didn't.”

He laughed a bitter laugh. “Suddenly we were in the same boat.”

“No hard feelings?”

“I wouldn't go that far.”

“So what then?”

“What do you mean?”

“Where are we? Sunday afternoon. How'd you spend the day?”

“I watched a couple of games.”

“At the condo?”

“At the condo.”

“With Quintin Kelly.”

“He flaked out. Went back to bed. I should have done the same. What a night.”

“The police are going to think, okay, Kelly's out like a light, you're angry with your wife, maybe you decided to go have it out with her.”

“It was too late for that.”

“Too late to make up?”

“Much too late.”

“It was over.”

“Definitely.”

“It certainly is.”

O'Toole looked at Phil silently. “I fell asleep on the couch, during the Bears game.”

“Dozed off?”

“Slept. It was dark when I woke up.”

“So you were asleep for hours.”

“That's right.”

“And you couldn't know if Kelly decided to go back to the motel.”

O'Toole looked thoughtful. “I see what you mean.”

“But you wouldn't know.”

“I'm sure you could find out without my knowing about it.”

“Everything will be found out. You can count on it.” Not a statement Phil would have wanted to back up. It was far more likely that what had happened to Madeline O'Toole in that motel suite would be added to the long list of unsolved cases police had to live with.

“If he did it, by God he should pay for it.”

“It's always hard to imagine that someone would actually kill another person.”

“Maybe he didn't mean to.”

“Killed her by accident?”

“Did you ever fight with a woman?”

“What's it like?”

“Forget about the marquis of Queensbury. I don't mean you'd hit a woman. Some men do, but I suspect that's rare. No, you spend half your time trying not to hurt her. Meanwhile, she's coming at you with anything she can lay her hands on.”

“You're talking about Madeline.”

“I'm trying to say that Quintin might have got into a squabble with her and was just trying to defend himself.”

“Maybe you should be his lawyer.”

“Was Stewart serious when he told Kelly to get a lawyer?”

“I think he meant you both should.”

“I don't need a lawyer.”

“Don't be so sure. You have to know the police mind.”

“I know what I didn't do.”

“Who knows what Kelly is telling Jimmy Stewart.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think of how what you've been telling me would sound coming from someone else.”

“The sonofabitch.”

“So contact a lawyer.”

“Lawyer, hell. I have to get back to Atlanta.”

“I think they'll want you to stick around.”

“They'd have to arrest me first.”

“You can be held as a material witness.”

“What do I know that could possibly help?”

“A lot. Stewart is going to have to work out a timeline on the basis of what you two say. There will be a lot of gaps. Falling asleep for hours, that sort of thing. And there should be witnesses at the motel.”

“Someone might have seen him there on Sunday night?”

“Or you.”

“Hey, come on.”

“I'm thinking like a cop.”

“Well, then, think of the motel. As you said, the place must be crawling with witnesses.”

“With a key, you wouldn't have to go through the lobby.”

O'Toole threw up his hands. “Where would I get a key?”

“Kelly?”