Undercurrent (The Nameless Detective) (20 page)

Quartermain brought the car into the curb in front of the place—a pine-shaded, ivy-draped, one-story frame structure—and there were lights on inside and a sign in the glass front door reading
Please Come In
. The three of us crossed the sun-and-shade-dappled sidewalk and entered; a chunky brunette in her middle forties was sitting behind a dove-gray metal desk and doing something with a sheaf of papers. She was not alone. On the near side of the functionally appointed room, in one of those round, modernistic comfort chairs, sat Bianca Tarrant

She wore an emerald-green, lightweight pants suit, and her auburn hair had a sleek, carefully brushed appearance; there was artfully applied make-up around her eyes and on her mouth, and some to soften the tone of the sepia freckles across the bridge of her nose. She looked poised and assured—and yet, you could tell she was suffering a hangover. It was in her violet-rimmed eyes and in the faint pouches beneath them that the make-up could not quite conceal. Nothing like the hangover Dancer was suffering, but a hangover nonetheless.

She looked at us as we came in, and surprise parted her lips and put faint furrows in the pale smoothness of her forehead. A little uncertainly, she stood up; her eyes moved restlessly from one to the other of us; three haggard, unshaven, middle-aged men, two in rumpled suits, one in slacks and a sports shirt. Not exactly a trio to inspire ease or a sense of normalcy. She took a step toward us and then stopped, still uncertain.

Quartermain said, "Good morning, Mrs. Tarrant. Is your husband here?"

"Why . . . no, not at the moment, Chief." Her voice was husky and cultured, with none of the odd intensity that had inflected her words to me the day before. "He left about fifteen minutes ago, to see a client briefly. He should be back any time now; we're attending a luncheon in Monterey."

"Do you know if he keeps a key here to the old schoolhouse on Gutierrez?"

Her frown deepened. "I don't know, I suppose he does." She made a half-turn toward the secretary's desk. "Margot . . . ?"

"Yes," the brunette said. "It should be in his office."

"Would you get it, please?" Quartermain asked her.

"Of course." She stood up and went through an unmarked door at the rear of the room.

Bianca Tarrant said, "Is something wrong at the museum?"

"No, it's nothing like that."

Her gaze strayed to Dancer. "Russ, we heard on the radio this morning about the fire. I'm so sorry. How did it happen?"

"Somebody set it deliberately."

"Oh no . . ."

Quartermain said, "I have a few questions, if you wouldn't mind, Mrs. Tarrant."

"Questions?"

"About Walter Paige."

She shifted the weight of her body uncomfortably, looked at me, looked away, looked at me again. "Because of what I said to you yesterday?" she asked in a soft, nervous voice. "Well, you know, I . . . was a little high yesterday; Keith and I had been drinking quite a bit. I'm sorry about . . . well, I suppose I did act somewhat strangely, didn't I?"

"Somewhat," I said.

"It was just that I was a little high," she said. "I knew Walt Paige six years ago, and it was such a shock to learn that he had been murdered . . ." She cleared her throat. "Have you found out who killed him yet?"

"Not yet."

"Do you have any idea who it was?"

"Possibly."

"Who?"

"Do you know a bald man in his forties, heavy-set, dark?"

"I don't believe so. Is . . . he the one you suspect?"

"We're trying to find him," Quartermain said. "You and Paige were friends, is that correct?"

"Yes. We were friends."

"But you hadn't seen him in six years?"

"No. No, I hadn't."

"Did you know he had come back to Cypress City?"

"No. He . . . didn't try to get in touch with us or anything."

"But he did, Mrs. Tarrant."

"What?"

"He called your husband several weeks ago and tried to rent a vacant store here in Cypress Bay; your husband turned him down. You didn't know about that?"

"Keith didn't tell me, no." Her hands moved against one another like furtive lovers. "I can't imagine Walt trying to rent a vacant store—unless he was planning to move back to this area. Why did my husband turn him down?"

"He said he didn't care for Paige, that Paige was not the type of man he cared to have for a neighbor. Why would he say that if the three of you were friendly six years ago?"

"I don't know. He . . . I always thought he and Walt were friendly. He's never said any differently to me."

"What was his reaction to Paige's death?"

"Well, he was shocked, naturally. Just as I was." She moistened her lips. "We were both shocked, too, when we heard this morning about poor Brad Winestock. Does that have any connection with what happened to Walt?"

"It might. We're not certain just yet."

The door at the rear of the room opened and the brunette reappeared. "The schoolhouse key doesn't seem to be in Mr. Tarrant's key file," she said. "He usually keeps it there, but he was at the schoolhouse on Friday, and he may still have it with him."

"He'll be back shortly, you said?" Quartermain asked Bianca Tarrant.

"Yes, any minute now."

She did not seem to want to do any more talking; she returned to her chair and sat down and opened a large handbag on the floor beside it and made a project out of lighting a mentholated cigarette. Her hands were agitated. Smoke fanned out of her nostrils and from between her lips, and she watched it eddy and swirl as if the nebulous patterns held a great fascination for her; she did not look at any of us.

The brunette sat down, wearing a bewildered expression, and Quartermain took Dancer's arm and moved him over near the door. I followed them. Quartermain said sotto voce, "What about Paige and Mrs. Tarrant, Dancer? Was there ever anything between them?"

"Hell, I can't tell you if there was or wasn't Paige didn't brag up his conquests, and if the two of them were playing around, they sure as Christ weren't talking about it in company."

"She's acting guilty as hell about something," Quartermain said darkly. "What and why, if there was nothing between them?"

Neither Dancer nor I had any answers for that—but even if we had had any, we would not have had time to put voice to them. There was movement out on the sidewalk, and the glass-paneled door opened and Keith Tarrant came briskly into the office. He stopped when he saw the three of us standing there, glanced over at his wife, and then gave us a wan smile. If he was also suffering a hangover, he did not show it; his eyes were clear and his round face was smooth and line-free. He wore tan slacks and a soft light-brown sports jacket and a beige tie—moneyed attire.

"Gentlemen," he said.

"Hello, Keith," Quartermain said, and Dancer and I nodded.

"You all look like you've had a rough night" His smile went away. "You especially, Russ. A damned shame, what happened to your place last night."

"Yeah," Dancer said.

"Well—I gather you're waiting to see me?"

"We are," Quartermain told him. "We'd like to have the key to the old schoolhouse on Gutierrez Avenue."

"The museum?" Tarrant looked puzzled. "What would you want in there?"

"There are some things in the basement we'd like to look through. Specifically, Anita Hartman's donation."

"May I ask why?"

"We're looking for boxes of papers and such Dancer here gave Miss Hartman a few years ago. There may be a manuscript carbon of
The Dead and the Dying
among them."

"Oh, so that's it," Tarrant said. "The book
does
have something to do with Paige's death, then?"

"We think it might. And with what happened to Dancer's place, and with the murder of Brad Winestock."

"God, is all of that interconnected?"

"It would seem to be."

Tarrant looked at Dancer. "Russ, you wrote the book; why do you need the manuscript carbon?"

"I wrote it twenty years ago," Dancer told him. "Can you remember details of what you were doing twenty years ago?"

"Yes, I see what you mean. Well, the key is in my briefcase, in the trunk of my car. I'll get it for you right away."

"Would you mind coming over to the schoolhouse with us, Keith?" Quartermain asked.

"I guess not—but Bianca and I have a luncheon engagement in Monterey. Do you really need me?"

"I'd like to discuss some things with you, and it would save time if we talked over there. You can bring your wife along and leave for Monterey from the schoolhouse."

"Just as you say, then," Tarrant agreed. He went over to where his wife was sitting. "Bianca?"

"Yes," she said, "all right."

She had gotten the nervousness out of her voice, and her words were controlled. She stood up and Tarrant put his arm around her shoulders and told the brunette that if there were any calls, he expected to be back in Cypress Bay by four o'clock. Then the five of us filed out, and the Tarrants went down to where his Chrysler was parked a short distance away. A few seconds later Quartermain pulled out to lead the way to Gutierrez Avenue.

*****

The schoolhouse was a simple Early California building, complete with a bell tower atop its canted tile roof—an old and stern and vaguely melancholy structure with time-scarred adobe walls; but the bell tower was freshly painted and you could see the big iron bell within gleaming dully in the warm morning sunlight, as if recently polished.

We parked directly in front, and Tarrant pulled up behind us and got out and opened the trunk for his briefcase. Sparrows and blackbirds chattered in the surrounding trees and shrubs, but there was nonetheless a hushed quality about the schoolhouse—as if a place that had once been the dispensary of simple knowledge commanded a certain solemnity and respect from all living things. It was a fitting location, I thought, for the Cypress Bay Historical Museum of Art and Literature.

Quartermain went to the Chrysler and said something to Tarrant as he was about to open the door for his wife. I saw him frown slightly, and then shrug, and then lean in to speak to her; I knew Quartermain had asked that Mrs. Tarrant remain in the car—that he wanted to ask questions of Tarrant without her being present. She stayed where she was, and Quartermain and Tarrant came up to join Dancer and me on a packed-earth path leading through the grounds.

The schoolhouse's front entrance was set into a recessed arch—heavy, triangular-hinged double doors with an old-fashioned bronze latch in one of them. Tarrant used his key, and the door swung inward to reveal a cool mustiness and thick, mass-shadowed gloom.

"We've had the electricity turned on for some time now," he said. "I'll get the lights."

He stepped inside and moved away to the left and moments later fluorescent tubes suspended from the ceiling flickered like strobe lights and then came on brightly. I saw as we entered that a considerable amount of labor had been expended by the volunteer citizens' group. Walls had been knocked down and partitions erected, and there was scaffolding and an array of ladders and sawhorses and paint canvases and hand tools strewn about the dusty floor.

Tarrant indicated an archway across the enlarged main room. "The basement stairs are through there, in the back. I'll take you down, if you want."

Quartermain nodded. "We can do our talking on the way."

"Just what was it you wanted to discuss with me, Chief?"

"I'm going to get a little personal, but it can't be avoided. Just how well did your wife know Walter Paige six years ago?"

Tarrant gave him a sharp-eyed look. "Why do you ask that?"

"She seems to be taking his death pretty hard—a man she hadn't seen in six years and supposedly knew only in a casual way at that time."

"Supposedly? Just what are you getting at?"

"The truth, I hope."

"Are you trying to intimate Bianca is the woman Paige had in his bed just before he was killed? That you think she had something to do with his death?"

"I don't think anything at this point. I'm only trying to find out why she's so obviously emotionally upset by Paige's murder. Are you going to tell me you haven't noticed, Keith?"

Tarrant started to say something, appeared to change his mind, and pressed his lips together in a thin, tight line.

Quartermain said, "Well?"

"Oh Christ, all right. I've noticed."

"Can you explain why?"

"I think I can." Tarrant stopped as we passed under the rear arch into another work-littered chamber, and looked pointedly at Dancer. "Will you hold what I say in confidence, Russ?"

"I do enough tale-telling on paper," Dancer said.

Tarrant took a long breath as we began moving again, toward a short hallway at the far end of the chamber. "Six years ago," he said, "Bianca was . . . attracted to Paige. Just one of those things that happen: a powerful physical attraction. I saw it almost immediately, and instead of trying to delude myself that there was nothing to it, I confronted her with it. She tried to deny it, but I managed to get the truth out of her; Paige wasn't averse to dating other men's wives, God knows, and she had let him talk her into a meeting. I told her that if she wanted to keep that date, if she wanted Paige that much, I wouldn't stand in her way. She could have him if he was what she really wanted, but she had better make up her mind right away. If she chose to sacrifice our marriage for a love affair that couldn't possibly last, all right, but she would have to make a quick, clean break with me. I wouldn't stand for an affair."

Quartermain said, "And she chose you—your marriage."

"That's right. Putting it all on the line was the wisest thing I could have done; otherwise she would probably have let him seduce her on that date she'd made."

"You're certain nothing like that happened between them?"

"Yes, I'm certain. I watched her carefully after she'd made her announced choice. She was faithful to me and to her word; I would have known if she wasn't."

"She said she thought you and Paige were friends; she was surprised when we told her about Paige's phone call five weeks ago, and why you turned him down on the store rental. Why would she think you were friendly after what happened—or almost happened?"