Widow's Walk Part 42

"Well, yes."

"Gee," Susan said with her head against my shoulder. "I was sort of proud of my own contribution."

"Which was not inconsiderable," I said.

"And which may never be made again if this conversation continues."

We were quiet. Pearl was old enough and deaf enough so that she could be asked to lie on the floor during these encounters and would do so without curiosity. Now, however, when we were in, as it were, phase two, she had gotten herself up slowly and was standing by the bed with her nose two inches from my ear, waiting to be boosted up. I rolled off the bed and boosted her up. She turned several times around and settled arthritically in between us with a big sigh.

"This makes postcoital snuggling something of a problem," I said.

"Thank G.o.d," Susan said. But she slid her hand under Pearl's neck and rested it on top of mine.

"So, how 'bout them Sox," I said.

"Would you like to debrief," Susan said, "about the Smith business."

"Larson Graff was so grateful that I took Shawcross out for him that he told me more than I ever wanted to know."

"He did put Smith and his wife together?"

"Yes. He knew Mary from high school. He knew Smith from the closet. He knew Smith needed a beard, and he knew Mary was stupid and avaricious. So was her boyfriend, so the three of them figured out that she could be Smith's beard, continue to see Levesque, and among them skim some of Smith's money. Unfortunately they came head-to-head, unfortunate phrase, with some people more avaricious, less stupid, and much more brutal, who were after the same thing."

"Shawcross and company."

"Yep. Shawcross was looking for a banker to squeeze and Larson Graff knew it and supplied Smith."

"Closet boy."

"Yeah."

"How did Shawcross know Graff?"

"Graff did some legitimate publicity party work for Shawcross after Shawcross came to town and was establis.h.i.+ng his legitimacy."

"Did Shawcross kill Nathan Smith?"

"Did or had it done."

"And the others?"

"Same answer. He apparently killed DeRosa and his girlfriend personally. The guns he had with him when I shot him are the same guns that killed them."

Lying on her back Susan put one leg up in the air and straightened it like a ballet dancer and looked at it. I looked at it, too.

"According to Rita's financial guy a scheme like the one that Shawcross was running on Pequod Bank was good for maybe a hundred million dollars."

Susan was still looking at her leg.

"Would you pay that much to see me naked?" Susan said.

"I don't have to," I said. "But it is money that a lot of people would kill for and Shawcross was one of them. Conroy, too, I guess, though I don't think he actually pulled a trigger."

"Maybe I should charge," Susan said.

"Per view?" I said.

"Un-huh."

"Can I run a tab?" I said.

She put her leg down and turned her head and smiled at me.

"Yes, you can," she said.

Susan drew a small circle with her fingertips on the back of my hand.

"So what will happen to them?" she said.

"Mary Smith and Levesque have probably done more crime than we know. But, based on what we know, I doubt that either of them will do any time. Conroy's going to jail."

"That's sort of too bad."

"That's just sentimental," I said. "He was part of a scheme that got half a dozen people killed."

"Yes, but Ann Kiley loved him and he loved her enough to get himself caught."

"Ann who?"

"Kiley," Susan said and paused. "Oh," she said. "You're going to keep her out of it."

"Yes."

"Because she loved not wisely but too well?"

"Yeah. That's one thing."

"What else?" Susan said.

"Her father loves her," I said.

Susan looked at me for a while. I looked back. It was like looking into my own soul.

"Now who's sentimental," she said.

I nodded.

"Do you think we could get Pearl to move?" I said.

"Sure," Susan said. "I'll bribe her with a cookie."

"Okay."

Susan got up, elegantly stark naked, and went to the kitchen and returned with a dog biscuit, which she waved under Pearl's nose. Pearl perked, and tracked the cookie to the foot of the bed, where Susan helped her down. She settled onto the floor with her cookie and Susan jumped back onto the bed.

"Now what?"

"I owe you about a thousand dollars' worth of nude looks," I said.

"Maybe we can work out a payment schedule."

"I could maybe bop your rear molars out," I said.

Susan smiled at me. "Well," she said, "since you put it so nicely."

Surprisingly, her molars remained stable... though I think they might have loosened a little.