Authors: Donald E Westlake
Cornell said, “The imprisonment in the twelfth house, that could be
mine,
not necessarily his.”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Lane said. “Now, Libra in the second house, that’s gain through the deceased again; you see, that keeps coming up. So you see, Stew’s relationship to all this is perfectly well described, and it doesn’t say
anything
about his being violent. Everything is done
to
him.”
“Tell him about the Moon,” Cornell said.
“Yes, I was going to.” More shuffling. “In Stew’s
natal
chart, he has the Moon in the eighth house, in adverse aspect to Mars
and
Uranus. Now, that means death, you see, violent or sudden death, with something peculiar about it. Having
both
Mars and Uranus afflicting that way, it’s really very dangerous.”
“But that means it’s done to
him
,” Cornell said.
“What it’s beginning to look like,” Lane said, “there might be danger of more people getting killed.”
“Of course,” Cornell said, “the Moon business is in the natal chart, so it doesn’t necessarily mean right now. But the planets in the particular houses, that describes the current situation.”
“And Stew has nothing more to do with it,” Lane finished, “than appears on the surface.”
“Now, Henry’s,” Cornell told him.
“Right.” A great deal more shuffling. I waited through it, and then Lane said, “Now. Henry has Venus in Leo, that’s compatible with Jamie, because of Jamie’s Venus in Pisces. That’s just overall. Now, the houses, the description of things, right now. His Libra, ruler of his third house, is in the eighth. That means trouble because of deaths, and possible false accusations. He’s on our suspect list, and it says right here in his horoscope that it’s a
false
accusation. You can’t get much more specific than that.”
“All right,” I said.
Cornell, probably knowing I was about to change the subject, quickly said, “There’s more.”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Lane said. “I was just coming to it. His Capricorn in the eleventh house suggests sickness among his friends. But, you see, not through anything he
does.
In fact, the implication is that it saddens him. Then the really interesting one: Aquarius in the twelfth house. Fear of imprisonment caused by close friends. Now! Doesn’t
that
say it? Some close friend of Henry’s killed Jamie, and created a fear of imprisonment for Henry.”
“The imprisonment in Stew’s horoscope could be read the same way,” Cornell said.
“That’s right,” Lane said. “I forgot to say that. Now, his Pisces in the first house is trouble through affairs connected with the dead. More of the same, you see. Again, a description of Henry’s situation
now.
And it says he’s the victim of the circumstances, and not the cause.”
Cornell said, “And in his natal chart he has the Moon in the eighth house, too, the same as Stew. With Mars afflicting, meaning violent death.”
“Yes,” Lane said, “but without Uranus afflicting, so it isn’t as dangerous.”
“But he has Uranus in the eighth house
with
the Moon, and that means problems arising from deaths.”
“Well, that’s what he has now,” Lane said.
“Yes, but that’s the natal chart.”
“Well, he has Pluto in the eleventh house in his natal chart,” Lane said, “and that means something mysterious in connection with his friendships.”
“Nobody
knows
what Pluto means,” Cornell said. “It hasn’t been studied long enough.”
“Well, we know it means things that are hidden and strange. And the eleventh house is friends.”
“So it could simply mean being homosexual,” Cornell said. “It doesn’t have to have any relevance to right
now
.”
This could go on forever. I said, “Excuse me for interrupting, but I have some questions of my own to ask.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Cornell said, very contrite. “I got all caught up. Yes, of course you do. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t take your time up with this, I know you don’t believe in it.”
“I just have other ways of working,” I said.
Lane said, “I’ll go on and do mine, now. I won’t interrupt.”
I said to Cornell, “You inherited those things that you and Dearborn owned jointly, is that right?”
“Yes. His money went to his sisters in Nebraska.”
“What about you?”
“Me?”
“Who inherits if you die?”
He looked blank, and then said, “My goodness, Jamie does! We did our wills at the same time, leaving everything to each other, except some private things we both had.”
“Remington handled it?”
“Yes, naturally.”
Lane suddenly said, “
That
isn’t right.”
We both looked at him, and he was frowning at the papers in his lap. He sensed our sudden silence, and looked up sheepishly to say, “I’m sorry. I just ran across something wrong here.”
Cornell said, “In the charts?”
“You have me with Venus in Sagittarius,” Lane said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll just change it here.”
Cornell said, “The state I was in, when I was doing those, I’m surprised I got anything right.”
“This is the only thing.”
They were going to go off again. I said to Cornell, “About your will. What happens if you die without changing it? Is there any contingency in there for Dearborn’s death?”
I had his frowning attention again. “I don’t remember if there is or not,” he said. “I suppose my aunt would inherit, wouldn’t she?”
“Your aunt?”
“She’s my nearest living relative. She and my uncle brought me up after my mother died. She killed herself.”
“Your mother?”
“Because my father deserted her when she got pregnant. With me. She waited till I was born, and then she killed herself.”
“So your aunt would inherit. Are you still close to her?”
“Oh, of course. That’s where Jerry and I stayed when we went down to Atlanta. I stay there every time I go South.”
“She knows about the homosexuality?”
“She doesn’t like it, naturally, but she agrees I have to live my own life.”
This looked like a dead end, but I followed it through to the finish. “Do you have any idea who inherits from your aunt?”
He smiled, a bit apologetically. “A local school,” he said. “It used to be public, and it went private rather than desegregate. A lot of the older people are leaving some or all of their money to it.”
“What was your aunt’s attitude about your living with a black man, then?”
“She didn’t like it, any more than his being a man in the first place.”
“Actively disliked?”
“Not really. She didn’t try to interfere in my life.”
“What about when you went visiting? Ever bring Dearborn with you?”
The apologetic smile returned. “No, that I couldn’t do.”
“Dearborn knew it?”
“Jamie understood.”
Had he? I remembered what I’d been told about Dearborn’s reaction to Maundy’s craving for secrecy, that he’d found racial meanings in it and had been made upset by them. Had he been unfaithful during Cornell’s trips as revenge for Cornell not being able to bring a black man home to Atlanta?
But I had more things I wanted to cover. I said, “Did Dearborn ever do anything to Koberberg that Koberberg might resent?”
“Henry?” He seemed baffled. “But we’ve already eliminated him, we just told you.”
“I’m interested in the way you people behaved within the group,” I said. “The relationship between Dearborn and Koberberg could have meaning even if the killing was actually done by somebody else.”
He wasn’t entirely convinced—the reason I’d given him didn’t make much sense, I suppose, but it was better than contradicting his astrology head-on—but he went along with me, saying, “Well, Henry and Jamie didn’t really get along very well, but a lot of people have a hard time getting along with Henry, really.”
“Do you?”
“Well, I understand him.”
“
I
don’t get along with him,” Cary Lane said, looking up from his papers. “He acts too know-it-all, if you ask me.”
I said to Cornell, “Is that what Dearborn thought?”
“Pretty much like that, I guess.”
“And how did he act toward Koberberg?”
“I suppose he teased him sometimes.”
“Teased him? About what?”
“About his appearance, I suppose.”
“And his love life,” Lane said. “Jamie used to be
merciless
about that. No, it’s true, Ronnie, Jamie was really very sweet a lot of the time, but he could be absolutely
vicious
if he put his mind to it.”
I said, “And he put his mind to it with Koberberg?”
Lane came very close to giggling. “Well, there’s just something so
stuffed shirt
about Henry. I suppose Jamie couldn’t help
tweaking
him sometimes.”
“And how would Koberberg react?”
Lane said, “Oh, he used to make believe Jamie was beneath contempt, you know. Very Queen Victoria, ‘We are not amused,’ that sort of thing.” The quote was done in an excellent imitation of Henry Koberberg’s voice.
“Koberberg never fought back?”
“Well, what could he
do,
actually?” Lane asked.
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking what he did.”
Cornell said, “He never did anything. And it really wasn’t that much, just sometimes at parties or wherever. And Henry really isn’t a violent man, you know. Aside from what the stars say.”
“What about Leo Ross? Would he defend Koberberg?”
“Oh, Leo never takes anything seriously,” Cornell said. Lane had gone back to his papers. Cornell said, “Leo likes things to be light and amusing. When it would start to get serious, Leo would just go away. In anything.”
“How did he and Dearborn get along?”
“Leo? Oh, they got along fine. They both liked things to be bright and pleasant.”
“Was either of them a militant?”
“You mean in the race thing? Good Lord, no. They both just took things as they came. Leo still does, of course. But Jamie didn’t want to get involved in that kind of thing either.”
Lane, his voice a little odd, said, “Ronnie?” He was frowning at the papers in his lap.
Cornell looked over at him. “What’s the matter?”
“Look up some things for me,” Lane said, his voice still strange. “Just to check what I have over here.”
“You want me to use this book?”
I said, “I don’t have much more to talk about. Couldn’t this wait?”
Lane, when he looked at me, was obviously both frightened and upset. “Please, Mitch,” he said. “This is important, I think. And it won’t take long, I promise it won’t.”
“All right,” I said. There was nothing to be gained by antagonizing them, and I doubted I’d be able to keep Cornell’s attention even if I tried at this point. So I leaned on the foot of the bed, and watched, and listened.
Lane said, reading from his papers, “Natal chart. Mars in the third house, afflicted by Neptune.”
“Afflicted by Neptune?” Cornell was leafing through a fat book with a faded white cover. A dozen strips of paper marked places in it. “Here,” he said. “Suicidal tendencies. Violent tendencies.”
“Moon in the seventh house, afflicted by Saturn and Uranus.”
“Uhh—” Leafing pages. “Saturn adverse; sorrow through partnerships, marriage, unions. Uranus adverse; estrangement, unexpected attacks, odd experiences in connection with unions.”
“Death of partner?” Lane asked.
“Oh, yes. Generally, if bad aspected.”
“Saturn in the seventh.”
“Afflicted?”
“Yes.”
“Death of partner again. Treachery. Incompatibility. Coldness in partner.”
“Uranus in the eighth, afflicted.”
“Worry about legacies. Unexpected problems arising from deaths. Extraordinary or violent death.” Solemn-eyed, Cornell said, “Is this you?”
“Just listen. Now, in the progressed chart. Libra, ruler of first, in twelfth.”
“Ruler of first in twelfth.” Another section of the book. “Fear of imprisonment. Secret unhappiness.”
“Taurus, ruler of eighth, in seventh, afflicted.”
“Let’s see.” He read, then looked up to stare at Lane, stare at me, then look at the book again. “Death of partner. Danger of death by suicide or violence. Good Lord, Cary!”
“There’s more. Virgo, ruler of the twelfth house, in eleventh.”
“Unfortunate enterprises. Deceitful friends and great disappointments.” Cornell looked at him again. “This is you, isn’t it?”
“I’m doing David’s now,” he said. “Moon in the eighth house, natal chart.” He looked over at Cornell. “Stew and Henry both had that, too.”
“Afflicted?”
“Neptune.”
“That’s—wait just a minute. Death by treachery, or water, or drugs, or some ob—”
“Oh, my God!” Lane’s plastic face looked shrunken, hollow, as though the real skull inside it had been removed and it was slowly collapsing in on itself.
Were they actually going to drive themselves into hysterics with this? I came close to saying something, interrupting, trying to break the spell, but I had the feeling an insertion from me just now would do more harm than good, so I simply waited to see where all this would wind up.
But didn’t horoscopes always say cheerful things, like, “You are kind, witty, of quick intelligence and interested in astrology” and so on? What was all this death? What were these books?
Lane, meantime, was saying, “Mars in the eighth, afflicted.” His nervousness was making him jumble his words; they bumped and ricocheted off one another.
Cornell said, “Still in the natal chart?”
“Yes, of course!” Sudden panicky rage. “What else would it be?”
Cornell didn’t take offense, luckily. He bent to his books and said, “Sudden or violent death. Loss of legacy. Loss of money through partner. In a watery sign?”
“What? Oh! No, in Aries. An airy sign.”
“Death by mental afflictions or air accidents.” Cornell looked at Lane again and said, very low, “Mental afflictions.”
“Yes, I know. Saturn in the eleventh, afflicted.”
“Saturn in the eleventh. False friends. A cardinal sign?”
“Yes, Cancer.”
“Emphasizes the reading. Is that all for the natal?”
“Yes.”
“It could be any time in his life.”
“It’s talking about the
end
of his life, Ronnie!”