Wednesday, May 31500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlpf0aLZBvR
Noah snapped off the alarm clock radio and threw back the covers. He already had hit the snooze button three times and it was now 6:50. He sat up in bed and knew even before looking in the mirror that his eyes were puffy. He pulled the t-shirt over his head, and slung it off his arm. After fighting the urge to fall back on the pillows he turned and looked at himself in the mirror over his dresser to the left of the bed. Grim. It was going to take something heroic to make him look decent this morning. He crawled out of bed and walked straight to the shower.
While he bathed he tried to get his bearings. Christ! It hadn't even been forty-eight hours since they had found Lauralee Dowey's body, and he felt as if he'd been at it a week. That was the pace and nature of any case that set them to work against the clock. Time smeared, the body clock went haywire, chronology lost its logic of sequence. He thought about Ashton's call. The man had been brusque, but not ungracious, and in retrospect it had been thoughtful of him to call since he really didn't have anything to tell him that couldn't have waited. The only thing he did tell him---that he expected the killer wouldn't wait two weeks before his next hit----he would not explain and had left him feeling more uneasy than before he called.
He turned off the water, opened the shower door, and reached for a towel for his hair. He walked into the bedroom, where he had already plugged in the hairdryer. Having finished drying, he dropped the towel. Not too bad, he thought, looking at himself in the mirror. Then the images of Vicki San Felipe and Lauralee Dowey flashed into his mind. He thought of the bite marks, of the frenzy that had caused them, and he turned away from the mirror and dressed.
Before he left the house he called Overpeck, quickly ran over his interview with Ottie Needham, told him he was going to try to see Stewart after breakfast, and would come in to the office after that to work up her supplements. Then he tried the McDuff offices. Stewart wasn't in, but when Noah told his secretary who he was, the lady quickly checked Stewart's calendar and set up an appointment for 10:00.
When he got to the Tip-Top Grille he was two and a half hours earlier than he normally arrived and Camille's eyes widened as he came in the door.
"Ah, what are the police doing here this late?" she asked, laying down her new copy of Elle and smiling, displaying the gold that framed her upper canine and lower incisor. Camille, of stumpy stature and the face and hair of a silent movie heroine, faithfully read the latest French and American fashion magazines. Uninvited, she followed Noah to a table that Sophie had just finished cleaning near the front windows., and the two of them sat opposite each other. Sophie and Hou were busy cleaning the dirty tables. The morning had been a busy one.
"They came early this morning," Camille said, tossing her head at the dirty tables. "Like wasps. The girls, poor little bitches, were going mad." She grinned. "It was wonderful."
They visited over coffee as Noah ordered and then ate his breakfast. Camille kept up with the police section of the newspaper, and always wanted to hear what Noah thought about this crime or that crime. She worried about the cases printed up in the "Crime Stoppers" columns, and sometimes would ask Noah weeks after a crime was features if the "damned thing" had ever been solved.
"You have a good job," she once told Noah. "Any time you deal with the basic human cravings, it's a good job. People need to eat, they need to make love, they need to pray, and all too often they feel a need to kill each other. If can't own a clean little café, or be a prostitute or a priest, then a homicide policeman is the best thing."
She had laughed at this, but Noah felt sure that Camille believed there was more than a small measure of truth in it.
Noah finished her breakfast, had one more cup of coffee at Camille's insistence, and then walked to her car, where the morning air was already growing heavy with the coming heat.
He made his way to the West Jopak Townline and headed north, the skylines of all three of Tolumura's "urban centers" visible through his windshield, rising out of the lush canopies of the city's trees. Downtown was the largest, distant and hazy to his far right and gradually falling behind him; Fortune Plaza on the Northeast Freeway to his near right; and the newer environs of the haute monde, the Mago Vista district dominated by the Symphony Tower straight ahead. The traffic on the freeways flowed to and from and branched off in the general direction of all three of these centers like concrete causeways connecting island cities in a vast lake of green water.
Noah exited on Paul Poole and drove a few blocks, past Mago Vista, and then right on Mago Vista Lane. Geoffrey Stewart's McDuff offices were in a smoke-gray glass building nestled in an inlet cut out of the dense loblolly pines. There was a large artificial pond in front of the building and a fountain in the middle of it spewing a single jet of water high into the air so that it feathered out and fell in drifting sheets across the pond's glassy surface. McDuff occupied the entire top floor of an eight-story building, and as the company's CEO, Geoffrey Stewart's office wasn't hard to find off the main reception area. His secretary politely led Noah into his office, which was large and modern and overlooked a green belt of emerald lawn on the verge of the pine woods.
Stewart stood as Noah entered and came around his desk to shake his hand, offering him one of the two plush leather chairs in front of his desk. He took the other. A large athletic man in a dark suit, Stewart was hawk-nosed and handsome with rather longish dun-colored hair. He must have been in his middle forties. His manner was gracious and straightforward. After the preliminaries he asked, "How do you happen to come across my name in connection with Lauralee?" He was curious, not defensive.
"It came up during our interviews," Noah said. "It's routine to check all the names we get that way."
"Nolie Burr?"
"All the interviews are confidential."500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ39iflZmKQf
Stewart smiled kindly. "I understand," he said. "But I do know Nolie. Can you tell me how she's handling this?"
"Not very well."
"No, she wouldn't have. Excuse me," he said. "Would you care for some coffee, or a soft drink?"
"No, thank you."
"I have to have some coffee," he said, standing and reaching over his desk for a cup and saucer already there. He poured the coffee from an aluminum carafe on a tray and added cream from the same tray, stirred it and sat down again. "I'm addicted to the stuff," he said. "I like it strong, and I drink too much off it." As he lifted the cup to his lips Noah noticed he was wearing a wedding ring. Holding the saucer and cup of coffee, he crossed his legs. "Okay," he said. "I have my pacifier. Shoot."
"We understand you dated Lauralee Dowey for a while." It wasn't a question. It didn't need to be; Stewart would know what to do with it.
"It's been about ten months since I've seen Lauralee," he said, pausing. He gave the impression he was bracing himself to go through with something he had already made up his mind to do. "I had an affair with her which lasted almost a year. It ruined my marriage." He looked embarrassed at what he had just said, and winced apologetically. "Rather, I ruined it, because of the affair. I'd been married to a wonderful woman for sixteen years, I have two kids just now entering their teens. It's taking me a while to own up to the responsibility of having thrown all that away."
"You're still wearing your wedding ring."
He glanced at it. "Yeah." He didn't explain.
"Would you tell me what you were doing the night Lauralee was killed?"
"Sure," he said. "I've already checked my calendar. I worked here until 6:00. I didn't want to eat at the condo---I live in Oak House condominiums now, can't really bring myself to call them home----so I drove to Saffron's over by the Pavillion. I finished there around 8:00. Still didn't want to go back to the condo, so I walked across the Loews. I wanted to see Summer, but the next feature didn't start for half an hour. I walked around the Pavillion until time, bought a ticket and saw the film. Got out a little after 10:30 or so and was there for the rest of the evening. Sorry, but I only have myself for an alibi."
Noah didn't say anything to his last remark, but continued routinely. The sooner Noah got through the list of questions the better.
"Can you tell me what you know about Stanley Needham?"
Stewart sipped his coffee before he spoke. "I met him twice, but practically all of what I know about him-----at it's only superficial---I learned from talking with Lauralee. They divorced in 1982. He's a con man, a wife beater, a liar, a thief, a drunkard.....I could go on. He's one of those men who've done just about everything there is to do on the negative side of the ledger. A total loss."
"How did you happen to meet him?"
"During the months of our affair, I spent a lot of time over at Lauralee's condo. I met him there both times." He grinned a little, remembering. "Once he took a swing at me."
"What?"
"I stayed out to the way, out of sight, really, when he came. He'd come a couple of times before. Four times in all, I guess, over the ten months I was seeing her. He was wanting money. She'd give him some; it was never enough. The second time I met him was the last time he'd come by. He was drunk and slapped her. I was in the next room and came barreling out of there when I heard that. He was surprised, swung at me, and I swung at him, knocked him down. I'd never hit anyone in my life. Broke my little finger," he held up his right hand. "Just as he was getting up Lauralee shoved a wad of bills into his hand and shuffled him out the door."
"You haven't seen or heard of him since then?"
"No. And that last time was several months before Lauralee and I stopped----seeing each other."
Noah found Stewart's frankness about his affair, and what it had cost him, a refreshing change of pace from the denials she usually encountered. It was almost as if he had come through a tragic experience of failed integrity with more integrity than he had possessed going in. He seemed determined to confront his failings head-on and not to make excuses for his foolishness. For this reason, Noah felt slightly apologetic about the next question which was, however, unavoidable and which she asked with an uninhibited matter-of-factness.
"Was sadomasochism routine between you and Lauralee or an occasional thing?"
"Well," he said, looking at her wryly, "that was to the point." He paused. "Neither."
"But you knew about her preference for it."
"Only near the end, yeah."
"How did you find out?"
"She told me."
"Why?"
Stewart took another sip of his coffee and then set the cup and saucer on his desk. He wiped his right hand over the lower half of his face, hesitating around his chin, which he rubbed lightly with his forefinger. He did all of this without hurrying, using the time to think.
"Basically," he said, "because she had more sense, and a greater understanding of honesty than I did." he paused again and looked down to his desk, where he put his hand on a bronze lozenge-shaped paperweight and shoved it a couple of inches, then took his hand away and laced the fingers of both hands together in his lap. "I met Lauralee at a business lunch one day. There were five or six of us. She was a very handsome woman, intelligent, articulate, attractive in a number of ways. We exchanged business cards, and I called her a few days later and asked her to lunch. It was that simple. I found her enormously attractive. I'd never cheated on my wife before, but I began then. Essentially, I began leading a double life. I neglected my business, and my family, and spent as much time as I could with Lauralee. It was easy, as I said, because of her condo on Long Street." He looked at Noah. "Cheating is easy. Living with what it makes of you is the hard part.
"I believed Lauralee cared for me---I know she did---but there was always a corner of her that she never wholly gave up to me. There was something held back. I threw myself into the affair heedlessly. I think I really did go kind of nuts over her. I was ten years older than she was, but she was the one who kept us from getting out of control. I'd lost all sense of perspective.
"Anyway, one day she decided to end it. She told me we had to stop. She didn't have to give me any reasons. I'd been over them a million times in my own mind. There was every reason in the world to stop it and not a single reason to go on except for my own self-indulgence. But I didn't want to end it. That's when she told me I didn't really understand her, that her life was more complicated than I knew, and she couldn't let it go the way it was going. I kept arguing with her, and finally she told me about the sadomasochism and Nolie Burr."
Caught by surprise, Noah must have given him a blank look before he could cover it.
"Didn't you know that Lauralee and Nolie were lovers?"
"No," he said, shaking his head and hoping he didn't look as stupid as he felt. Suddenly the whole character of the investigation had changed, and Noah wasn't sure if this new configuration was a big break or setback.
"I think I was an anomaly in Lauralee's recent history. She'd given up on men years ago." Stewart thought a moment. "To be perfectly frank, I'm not surprised that Nolie didn't let you in on their relationship. It was a closely guarded secret. Lauralee was convinced that her career would be ruined if it was generally known that she was bisexual. And she wanted to protect Nolie in that regard. Lauralee was a competitive businesswoman, and she knew what it was like to have to fight sexism. But she thought the fact that she was bisexual was something she wouldn't be able to overcome. She didn't think she'd have a prayer of advancement in the corporate world as a lesbian." Stewart nodded. "She was probably right."
"Did you ever hear her speak of Stanley Needham's sister?"
"No."
"Did you know that Needham was blackmailing Lauralee?"
Now it was Stewart who was shocked. "Why? You mean using her bisexuality?"
"I'm not sure. I'm guessing now that's a good possibility. Did you ever hear Lauralee or Nolie speak of Jeanette Craig?"
"No."
"How about Violet Poole, Maria Tyler? Carolyn Schultz?"
Stewart only shook his head.
"Do you know if Nolie or Lauralee frequented any gay bars, clubs, or organizations?"
"They didn't. It was out of the question. They were totally removed from that scene." He looked away from him out to the pine trees, and Noah noticed he had a stroking profile. He was a handsome man. Then he turned back to Noah.
"I'll tell you something," he said. "After this happened, after I got over the considerable shock of it and was able to adjust my perspectives about who Lauralee Dowey was, we continued seeing each other for some time, a month or two. In retrospect she must've been trying to let me down easy and to salvage our friendship. We really did enjoy each other. Even without the sex. It was during this period that I met Nolie. Their relationship, in front of me, at least, was as steady and conservative as an old married couple's. I would spend evenings with them from time to time, just the three of us sitting around at Lauralee's place talking. We covered everything in the world, but one of the things that happened during those evenings was that I got an education about what it was like to be 'different' in this society. I listened to them for hours, and realized that I'd been walking around most of my life with my eyes closed. My life has been, well, is, the epitome of the status quo, and I hadn't the slightest idea, or worry, of what it was like not to be a part of that system. Well, not until I fell in love with someone who didn't fit in."
Up until this point, Stewart had spoken about his relationship with Dowey only as an "affair," and Noah had found it a telling inadvertence when he had used the word "love." Geoffrey Stewart had been deeply disturbed by his encounter with Lauralee Dowey, and his stoic determination to make amends with his own conscience didn't negate the fact that what he'd felt for a woman who was not his wife was something he would call "love" only as an unconscious slip of the tongue.
Once again Noah felt a twinge of uneasiness at having to bring up something in that relationship that might cause Stewart real pain.
"Just another couple of questions," he said. "What'd Lauralee tell you about the sadomasochism?"
Stewart nodded, opened his mouth to speak, stopped, then said, "I guess I've already blown it for Nolie. It was something they didn't want to reveal, the lesbian relationship, I mean."
"It doesn't matter," Noah said. "If it hadn't come from you it would have, and will, come from someone else. It's almost impossible to keep something like that quiet when it's an integral part of a homicide investigation. Things get out."
Stewart nodded again, but it was clear he really didn't buy Noah's glib effort at easing his conscience. But he went on, "The sadomasochism----it was between them, Nolie and Lauralee. They tried to explain it all to me but-----it was so alien----well, I think I pretended to understand it, tried to be non-judgmental about it. They just said it was something they both understood. That they weren't involved in the shame and humiliation part of it, just the pain-pleasure things...." He stopped, not knowing where to take it from there. He shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't want to know too much about it."500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJ1yRljzcm
"As far as you know," Noah said, "were the two of them involved only with each other in this? There was nobody else?"500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3VDY8Pty0
He nodded. "That's what they said." He looked at his hands.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4uOz3sBfm
"Do you believe them?" she asked.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAsujGq6QK
"What difference does it make?"500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2v0mKwfCR0
"I'd like to know your feelings about it."500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEHJCIP6eHv
He didn't answer immediately, his eyes moving restlessly over the top of his desk as though he might find the right words there among the workday clutter.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIB7Ezpu6K4
"I think," he said at last, "There may have been men involved."500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwftWEr8X1u
"Why do you say that?"500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhn7NvoWdQd
"You asked for my 'feelings.'" He looked at Noah with an expression that told him that was as far as he wanted to go with it. "I can't give you anything stronger than that.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCUcgz7Vxzo
