This Little Piggy Went to Murder (31 page)

“And Herman Grendel?” prodded Wardlaw.

Luther twisted his lips into a smile. “Yes. I suppose you do have an interest in this confession, don’t you? Well, you’ll be glad to hear, I’ve told you the truth all along. I guess that was a mistake, because, somehow, you knew. God knows how, but you did.” He shook his head in a kind of respectful amazement. “All right, where were we? Ah yes. Herman Grendel.” He cleared his throat and resumed his professorial tone. “Kierkegaard said we need ask only two questions. Is it possible? And, can I do it? Herm was an execrable human being, totally devoid of natural human emotion. Never, in the twenty-some years I was married to his daughter, did he ever let me forget that I wasn’t good enough for her. I never made enough money — which, for Herm, was the bottom line. The air smelled sweeter to me the instant his soul left his putrefying body. I hated him more than any other human being I’ve ever met and I hope to God l sent him straight to hell. And Sydney.” He spoke softly into Amanda’s ear. “That was a bonus. At first I had someone else in mind, for the third little piggy, but when Sydney appeared, it seemed only natural to turn my attention to him. Did you know he raped our daughter when she was only twelve?”

Amanda struggled to look at him. Her eyes grew wide with horror.

“I kept it from you because I thought it would only cause you pain. I tried for years to get Chelsea to see a therapist, but she refused. All I could do was force him to leave town. In the end, that simply wasn’t enough. When he came back here all puffed up because he had enough dirt on your brother to blackmail him for the rest of his fucking political life, I saw my chance. I would have preferred to peel his skin slowly off his body, roast him over an open fire, but with time constraints being what they were, I felt rat poison was a reasonable alternative, You’ll be glad to know he died in acute pain. I only wish it could have taken longer. As he lay dying on the floor, for some reason I thought of that old Portuguese proverb. You know the one.
Visits always give such pleasure — if not the arrival, then the departure.
”

Amanda made a move to break away from him. Angrily, Luther clutched her arm and drew her backward against his chest. “No you don’t, darling. You have to listen to this.”

Amanda’s eyes pleaded with Sophie for her to do something! Wardlaw quickly caught her attention and nodded for her to remain quiet.

“And then, we mustn’t forget Ryan,” continued Luther. “The little piggy who had none. I believe I first conceived this while sitting in the bathtub one night eating a ham sandwich. Ryan would, of course, have disapproved. Such a self-righteous, basically priggish little weasel. At the barbecue, Sydney gorged himself on roast pork. Thusly, he became the piggy who ate roast pork. A bit broad perhaps, but then there it is. Ryan, in contrast, being an abstemious vegetarian, had none. Did you know, any of you, how much I despised Woodthorpe on general principle? He embodied everything I hate in my own gender. Too facilely charming. A liar. An athletic body that he used to his own sexual advantage. Outwardly, he appeared to be the sensitive, liberated,
new man
, but it was all cerebration. Nothing internal. Whatever ideals he thought he held, he was going to fuck Jenny over the same way men have fucked women over for centuries. And who was going to be his next victim? None other than our daughter, dear wife.” His voice began to shake. “The idea of his touching Chelsea nauseated me. This consummate, burbling, opinionated, self-righteous fungus was going to leave the woman he had just impregnated to destroy our daughter’s life! His death was going to be my last gift to her. God, how I loved the sound of the bullets hitting his chest.” His smile was almost serene.

“But the crowning glory,” he waved the gun in the air, “was going to be paying you back, my dear Amanda, for all the years of silence and isolation you’ve given me. I didn’t get married to live my life alone!” He tightened his grip around her waist and brought the gun down close to the side of her face. “I thought the piggy poem was a nice touch. God, I mean I’ve had to listen to that cretin, Claire Van Dorn, wax eloquent for months on the raptures of children’s poetry. It was only fitting to show her what an unsullied
adult
imagination could do. I also thought it would directly implicate a feminist. I mean, don’t women call men chauvinist
pigs
anymore? Did I miss a jargon change somewhere? But then I suppose one must never be surprised at the police department’s lack of sociological understanding. Well, no matter. You’ll pay now, my dear, for all the years you
tolerated
my presence. You think I didn’t know about your little love tryst with that pathetic cow?” His voice fell to a whisper. “At first I was simply jealous of the time you spent with her. But shortly after Sydney arrived, he told me what was really going on. You remember how good he was at ferreting out secrets? Listening at doors has never been my style. I don’t mind telling you, old Sid had a good laugh at my expense. I’m surprised he didn’t take out a full-page ad in the local newspaper.” Luther pulled her back hard against the wall. “How could you do that to me, darling? I gave you my love. I gave you my intelligence. I brought my need to you like a little boy with a precious gift.”

“I did love you!” pleaded Amanda, finally breaking her silence. “But you never understood that. Nothing was ever enough! You wanted someone to worship, Luther. All these years and you could never forgive me for being human! Don’t you see? You can only worship something that can’t talk back!”

Luther pushed the gun further into the soft part of her neck.
“Oh most pernicious woman. Smiling damned villain!”

“But that’s the truth,” she cried. “My truth. Luther, surely you must see we couldn’t go on living together. I tried to talk to you about it. Remember, last year? We spoke about a separation. We were poisoning each other. We have been for years.”

Tears began to stream down his cheeks. He batted at them with the hand holding the gun. “I see nothing of the kind. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Hate and revenge have been the only things keeping me alive. Now we’re almost done with it. I think I should tell you, dear Amanda, what I had planned for you. I knew that once you saw no one was coming up here tonight, you’d come up yourself. I’d decided to jump to my death with that note safely tucked away in my pocket. Did you realize Alice saw us leave together? She couldn’t miss the gun in your hand. My death would have sealed your own destruction. Eventually, I’m confident, you would have been charged with all the murders. Sophie here would have seen to that. And” — he laughed — “you even played right into my hands with that swindle you managed from your Association. That was another little secret Sydney told me about. It almost made me think I should start listening at keyholes myself. Lucky for me, it gave you the perfect motive. Anyone who stood in the way of Jack’s election became your target. You couldn’t afford to have him lose because he’d take you down with him. Since I knew the truth about his breakdown, I was to become your final murder victim. By the way, I felt it was my obligation to inform the police about what was going on. Anonymously, of course. Knowing your fate, I could have gone to my grave a happy man!”

“Luther,” she said softly,” Have I caused you such pain? Have I hurt you so badly?” Her voice was filled with astonishment.

“Those people I killed, they weren’t even human. But you.
You
knew what you were doing. You betrayed me!”

“I would never have left you!”

Luther gasped. “But you left me
years
ago.” He pointed the gun at Wardlaw, tears beginning to impair his vision. “Now,” he said, his mouth close to Amanda’s ear, “climb out that window. There’s a metal ledge out there. You won’t fall. Do it!”

Amanda glared. “I can’t!”

Luther pointed the gun directly at her. “Of course you can. As I see it, you have two choices. Do what I say or I’ll shoot you right here.”

Amanda backed up, calculating her options. “All right,” she said, swallowing hard. Carefully, she hoisted herself through the opening.

Luther crawled after her, shouting, “Wardlaw, tell your men not to fIre. They might hit an innocent person — if they can tell the difference.”

The floodlight followed in the darkness as Luther edged toward her.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to cause you some pain, Amanda dear.” He grabbed her ankle.

“Luther,” she called. “Think what you’re doing! If I’m going to die, I can’t change that. But will you listen for one second?”

He stopped, balancing on his knees, his face black against the beam of light behind him.

Amanda spoke slowly. ”I haven’t always been a good wife. I know that. I know now I’ve hurt you terribly. If you want us both to die on those rocks down there, I can’t stop you. But the truth is, I’ve never stopped loving you. The form may have altered —”

“No!” he cried, closing his eyes. “I won’t listen to this.”

“I’m not lying!” she shouted. “I’m so sorry. We’ve spoken such different languages. We’ve each had such different needs. I didn’t understand.” Her eyes blurred with tears.

“God,” cried Luther, looking up at the sky, “why have you always been so silent?” With his whole body convulsing, his eyes seemed to turn inward. “No more,” he whispered. Releasing his grip on her ankle, he fell forward, dropping into the abyss.

Amanda grasped at the spot where a second before he had knelt. With her fists clenched, she pounded the cold metal, her guttural cries barely recognizable.

Sophie watched quietly as Wardlaw and the other policeman helped Amanda back inside. Gently, they led her through the door and down the steep steps to the bottom. Sophie leaned out one of the windows, noticing that the beam of light had finally been switched off. The beach seemed a vast, bleached wasteland in the weak moonlight. Carefully, she climbed through the opening and crawled out onto the ledge herself. She could just make out the form of Luther’s body broken on the rocks below. Men were climbing out to him. How could this man, a man she’d loved and trusted, have ended up down there? How could he have been responsible for four murders? He’d lied. Manipulated. And yet, even now, she couldn’t think of him that way, She shivered on the ledge as she watched the police lead Amanda away through the tall grass. Looking helplessly up at the moon, Sophie drew her arms around herself and cried.

“I thought I might find you in here,” said Bram, unzipping his leather bombardier jacket. He held a mug of coffee in one hand, the remnants of a sandwich stuffed into his side pocket.

Sophie sat hunched over Luther’s desk, staring out the window at the bright, cloudless day. She would have felt more comfortable if the weather had at least attempted to replicate her mood. “How was Amanda?”

“I picked her up at the police station and took her to Jack’s house. She said she simply couldn’t come back here. Not after last night.”

Sophie nodded. “I keep thinking this is all a bad dream and I’m going to wake up.”

Bram sat down in a chair, wrapping his fingers around the warm mug. “I’m so sorry about all this, honey. I haven’t known these people as long as you have, but —”

“All my life,” said Sophie, shaking her head in disbelief. “I’ve known Amanda and Jack all my life. And Luther? I loved him, Bram. Like a brother.” She turned her face away.

“You know,” he said, his voice gentle, “Jack stopped me in the drive after Amanda had gone into the house. He was on his way to see Chelsea.”

“I wonder how she’s taking all this.”

“Jack said she was pretty shook up. Both about her father
and
Ryan. Anyway, what he wanted to tell me was that it seems Nora was responsible for locking us in that sauna. She thought we were getting a little too snoopy and wanted to scare us off. According to her, she was on her way back to let us out when she got waylaid by some guy who insisted she talk to him about a political fund-raiser she’s supposed to attend next week. Remember, Jack had a staff meeting that morning? Well, by the time she did make it back, she saw Luther carrying you out of the smoke and laying you on the ground. She got so freaked, she simply left. Never said a word to anyone. But apparently, last night she got pretty drunk. Told Jack the whole story. She also admitted to switching off the light in the attic the other evening. Jack’s more than a little worried. If we say anything about the sauna incident to the police, she could be charged with attempted murder.”

Again, Sophie let her gaze drift out the window. “I don’t want that. As far as I’m concerned, I’d like to let the whole incident drop.”

Bram nodded his agreement. “Me too. Oh, and Claire drove up as I was carrying in Amanda’s overnight case. It seemed like they wanted to be alone so I didn’t stay.” He paused. “I can’t help but wonder …”

“Wonder what?”

“Did Luther know about them? Was that why he hated Amanda so much?”

Sophie gave a deep sigh. “He knew, but only since last Monday. What pushed him over the edge was much more complex than simple jealousy.” She picked up a picture she’d taken of Luther and Amanda many years before. Luther was sitting on the deck of a large sailboat, holding a bottle of beer. Amanda was standing behind him, pretending to feed him a hot dog. It had been a glorious time. Full of high spirits. They’d spent the entire day together out on the lake. Why had Luther saved it all these years? He must have been looking at it very recently. For some reason it made Sophie think of what Virginia Woolf had once written.
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.