The Letter Killeth (21 page)

The light changed, and the cab moved forward. Alan was avoiding the rearview mirror.

“Did Izquierdo talk about Lucy?”

The cab seemed to slow, then regained speed. “What do you mean?”

“She was one of his imaginary conquests.”

“The guy was a jerk.”

“There seems to be a consensus on that.”

“His wife was no better.”

“Oh.”

“Driving a cab is like being a cop, you see the seamy side of everything. She was having an affair with that kid. I know, I drove him there.”

“The night he killed the husband.”

Alan hesitated. “You're right.”

The rest of the drive was mostly in silence.

At the courthouse, Alan helped Roger out of the cab, then took his elbow and walked him to the entrance.

“Could you come back for me?”

“Sure.”

“In an hour?”

Alan gave him a little salute, and Roger pushed through the revolving door.

“I'm Philip Knight's brother,” Roger told the corpulent desk sergeant, who, looking at the massive speaker, seemed to grow thinner.

“So what?”

Roger sought and found his identification as a private investigator.

“I suppose it's all right.”

“Think of him as a client.”

“Is he?”

“You can ask him.”

The sergeant thought about that, then decided against the effort it would take. He made arrangements for Henry to be brought to a visiting room and had an officer show Roger to it.

Roger was settled somewhat precariously on a chair when Henry was led in. He stared at Roger, then smiled. “What brings you here?”

“‘When I was in prison you visited me.'”

“Sure.” Henry sat across from Roger.

“So you murdered Raul Izquierdo?”

Henry just looked at him.

“Someone confesses to a crime either because he did it or because he is trying to protect someone else.”

“Does that exhaust the possibilities?”

“They are the only ones we need. So you think Pauline murdered her husband?”

“Look, I did it, and that's that.”

Roger shook his head. “But you couldn't have.”

Henry smiled. “Did implies could.”

“An unassailable principle, whose counterpart is: could not have, therefore did not. I refer to the second scarf, the one you say you put in Larry Douglas's loft.”

Henry hunched forward. He was enjoying this as a puzzle. Roger could imagine the sessions Henry had had with Izquierdo.

“Why not?”

“Pauline put it there.”

“Why would she do a thing like that?”

“The question is rather why you would have. You had no reason to throw suspicion on Larry Douglas. He was a friend of yours. The fact that you did not come forward when that scarf was found in Larry's place proves that you knew who did it.”

“That's pretty flimsy.”

“The truth is never flimsy. Of course, the scarf is relatively unimportant. More important is your alibi.”

“What alibi?”

“I understand it is a delicate matter. You described your seduction of Pauline Izquierdo as unsuccessful. But it wasn't, was it? She is your alibi.”

“That's crazy.”

“And you are hers, aren't you? When did you leave her that night?”

Henry sat back. “You've been reading too many novels. That's a plot worthy of F. Marion Crawford.”

“Indeed it is. You would confess, there would be a trial, and she would come to your rescue and say that you were with her at the time of the murder. That's the plan, isn't it?”

Henry smiled. “It's your story.”

Roger put his hands flat on the table. “And Izquierdo was already dead when you had your rendezvous with Pauline.”

Clearly this had not occurred to Henry. Roger recalled for him the supposed time of the murder. “That was before you went to her, wasn't it?”

“Oh, come on.” But there was a speculative look in Henry's eye.

“So you see, you can't be alibis for one another.” Roger paused. “Something I am sure Pauline realizes.”

Henry now had a realization of his own. He avoided Roger's eyes as if he were reviewing the events of the night Raul Izquierdo was strangled.

“She wouldn't do that to me!”

“Let's go back to your F. Marion Crawford plot. You think she killed her husband, she thinks you did. Which of you suggested your confessing? Of course, it could have been either of you who confessed, but noblesse oblige. You confess, the charade begins, she testifies, and the upshot is you are both exonerated. That was the idea, wasn't it? But why should she exonerate you if she did it?”

Henry pushed back from the table. “Save this kind of crap for your students.”

“Do you trust her that much?”

Henry stood up, and the door of the room opened. An officer looked in. “Your cab is here.”

“Would you have him come in here?”

“The driver?”

“Please.”

“You through with him?” He meant Henry.

“Not yet.”

Then Alan Goessen was standing in the doorway. He looked at Henry and Henry looked at him.

“Hi, kid.”

Henry said, “Who is this?”

“Your real alibi, Henry. I regret to say that this is the man who murdered Raul Izquierdo.”

POSTSCRIPT

There were some who expressed surprise at the way Alan Goessen had reacted to Roger's accusation, but Roger was not among them. It is for the Izquierdos of this world, and their apprentices such as poor Henry Grabowski, to so blind the eye of conscience that evil may parade as good. Alan's fundamental decency rendered him helpless before the truth of what he had done.

He did wheel and leave the room, and he might have left police headquarters if Phil and Jimmy Stewart had not arrived. An indication from Roger sufficed for them to prevent Alan's going, and then, feeling surrounded, almost with relief, he acknowledged the truth of what Roger had said.

Ahead lay the slow turning of the wheels of justice. Roger found that he felt sorrier for Lucy than he did for her husband. There must be some elemental sense of the rightness in killing a man who had wronged one's wife. The irony was that, whatever the truth of Raul Izquierdo's claim to be the playboy of the western world, South Bend division, there had been nothing between him and Lucy. When the truth of this was brought home to Alan, he looked at his estranged wife with an indescribable expression. She took him in his arms, and in a broken voice he asked her forgiveness. When a plea of innocence was entered for him, it seemed to have some plausibility.

“He'll probably walk,” Jimmy Stewart said. He didn't sound regretful.

Larry Douglas had been accused, and he was free. Henry Grabowski had been accused, and he was free. The two young men were not true precedents for Alan Goessen, but who knew what might happen in the present state of the courts?

The liberated Henry had been reunited with Kimberley, whose mind now seemed adequate enough to match her beauty. Larry Douglas stopped by with a possessive Laura clinging to his arm, her unmittened hand displaying a diamond.

“Congratulations!” Roger said, but it was Laura who said thank you.

ALSO BY RALPH MCINERNY

MYSTERIES SET AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Irish Gilt

On This Rockne

Lack of the Irish

Irish Tenure

Book of Kills

Emerald Aisle

Celt and Pepper

Irish Coffee

Green Thumb

ANDREW BROOM MYSTERY SERIES

Cause and Effect

Body and Soul

Savings and Loam

Mom and Dead

Law and Ardor

Heirs and Parents

FATHER DOWLING MYSTERY SERIES

Her Death of Cold

The Seventh Station

Bishop as Pawn

Lying Three

Second Vespers

Thicker Than Water

A Loss of Patients

The Grass Widow

Getting a Way with Murder

Rest in Pieces

The Basket Case

Abracadaver

Four on the Floor

Judas Priest

Desert Sinner

Seed of Doubt

A Cardinal Offense

The Tears of Things

Grave Undertakings

Triple Pursuit

Prodigal Father

Last Things

Requiem for a Realtor

Blood Ties

The Prudence of the Flesh

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE LETTER KILLETH
. Copyright © 2006 by Ralph McInerny. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McInerny, Ralph M.

    The letter killeth / Ralph McInerny.—1st St. Martin's Minotaur ed.

          p. cm.

    ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35143-4

    ISBN-10: 0-312-35143-7

    1. Knight, Roger (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Knight, Philip (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Private investigators—Indiana—South Bend—Fiction. 4. Mail bombings—Fiction. 5. University of Notre Dame—Fiction. 6. College teachers—Fiction. 7. College stories. I. Title.

PS3563.A31166L48   2006

813'.54—dc22

2006012808

First Edition: December 2006

eISBN 9781466841963

eBook First edition: March 2013