Rosato and Associates: Legal Tender Part 9

My heart sank. "Did they bother her? Did she see them?"

"I calmed her down." Hattie pa.s.sed some papers across the table to me. "Here's a list of the things they took. The detective told me to give it to you."

I pushed the papers away. "Which detective?"

"I don't know. Mean-lookin', funny name."

"Azzic?"

She nodded.

"Tell me how Mom is."

"In bed, from ten o'clock. She hadn't slep' a wink. Don't they know what they're doin' to you?"

"They don't care. Did she eat?"

"They should care! It was a crazy house here today! That detective, askin' questions. They even went lookin' for your car, to search that, too. The dog was barkin', your phone was ringin' all day. One of the girls came with a box of stuff from your office and took it upstairs. Black girl."

"Renee Butler?"

She nodded again and rubbed her forehead irritably. "What a day. Reporters, buzzin' at the door through dinnertime. I went out there and ran them off! They called you a murderer!"

"That's what they'll keep calling me, until I can prove I'm not."

"You, with that rowing! It's what got you into this mess!"

"Not exactly-"

"I told you you should stop. You don't listen to me, you don't listen to n.o.body. d.a.m.n fool thing to be doing, rowin' a d.a.m.n boat!"

I could almost see Hattie's blood pressure rising. "What are you so upset about? My mother? You don't have to be, I set up a trust for her. If anything happened to me, there's enough in there to keep her, and you-"

"Me?" Suddenly Hattie slapped me, right across the face.

"Hattie, Jeez! What'd you do that for?" I jumped to my feet, more shocked than hurt, but Hattie's features were contorted with a pain of her own.

"Fool! How can such a smart girl be so d.a.m.n stupid?! I'm worried about you! Not me! Not your momma! You're the one!"

"Benedetta?" came a voice, agitated, from my mother's bedroom. "Benedetta!"

"Ma?" I walked past Hattie to my mother's room, responding on autopilot. I opened the door and the cloying rosewater filled my nose. It was stifling, a.s.saultive. I felt suddenly anxious. Panicky. I hurried to the window and flung it open. The cool night air billowed in the light curtains.

"Close the window!" my mother said. "Close the window!"

"Shhh, it's staying open. n.o.body's out there. Settle down." I breathed easier in the fresh air. "Stop worrying. Everything's okay."

"Did you do the dishes? Do the dishes, Bennie."

"The dishes are done."

"Do the dishes. Do the dishes."

"They're all done, Ma. Hattie did them." I went to her bed and took her hand, which felt weak and warm in mine. I brushed a damp curl from her brow.

"Do the dishes. The dishes are in the sink."

"Hattie did the dishes. They're put away. They're all done. How are you feeling? "

"It's dark." She tried to sit up, then flopped back on her pillow. "It's late. You should go home. Go home. Go home."

"I am home. Hattie told me you had some soup today. That was good."

"It's dark. It's dark. Do the dishes. Do the dishes. Get me a Kleenex."

"How are you?" I sat on the ancient bed, which creaked loudly. Another thing she wouldn't let me replace.

"Get me a Kleenex. I need a Kleenex."

"You don't need a Kleenex, forget about the Kleenex. Did you really eat lunch today? Some soup?"

"I need it, I need it. It's dark." Her voice rose, thinning out with anxiety. "I need it. I need it. I need it."

"All right, relax." I pulled a Kleenex out of the box on her nightstand, and she grabbed it from me, balling it up and squeezing it like a pulsing heart. In a minute she'd be tearing it apart and fingering the pieces, then stuffing the shreds in the pockets of her nightgown. The rest she would hide under the chenille coverlet and in her pillowcase. "Is that better, Ma? You happy, you got your Kleenex?" I couldn't keep the irritation from my voice. She went through a box of Kleenex a day, even though Hattie bought Family Size. We needed Crazy Family Size.

"Read to me. Read to me. Read to me. It's dark."

"Okay, fine." I dragged a wooden chair over to the bed, kicked off my pumps in the dark, and put my feet into the well of the night-stand.

"Read to me. Read to me. Read to me."

"Relax. Everything's okay, Ma. Settle down, and I will." I didn't turn on the light or bother with a book, there was no point to that. I simply told her about my day, from top to bottom, every night. I have no idea why I did this, nor did I kid myself I was getting through. I just told it to her as if it were a novel, and she would quiet in time, then doze off. I'd done this every night since she'd gone completely bonkers, which was almost as long as I could remember. Enough Kleenexes ago to reforest the Pacific Northwest.

"Read to me. Read to me. Read to me." She began to tear at the Kleenex. "Now. Now. Now."

"Well, today she found out that the man she loved was murdered," I said, and told the whole story. She muttered throughout, not listening to anything I said, and if the truth be told, I didn't listen to her either.

It was Hattie I was thinking of.

Later, I stood in the middle of my living room with Bear, listening to Sam's worried voice on my answering machine. He'd called five times to see how I was, his messages interspersed with the reporters', but I couldn't return his calls just yet. I was a.s.sessing the damage wrought by Hurricane Azzic.

The apartment was messier than even I liked it. Books had been torn from the shelves and spilled onto the rug. The contents of a drawer had been dumped on the coffee table in front of the TV and the stack of CDs had been rifled. The couch pillows, upended, lay on the floor next to the remote control. At least the cops had managed to find the remote. It must've been in the couch. It's always in the couch.

I stepped through the rubble into the kitchen with Bear at my side. Pots and pans littered the counters. An open box of Meslix lay on its side and the kitchen drawers hung open. Fingerprint dust covered the counters and cabinet doors. Bear sniffed around, much as the cops had before her. What were they looking for? Mark had never even lived here, he'd always kept his own place. Why did they do this? Because they could.

The worst was the bedroom. I stood in the portal, taking it in. My bedclothes had been stripped and the mattress showed an old menstrual stain the size of a calf's liver. Christ. I imagined the cops joking over that.

I went to my bureau. My underwear drawer was in total disarray, invaded by unseen hands. The other drawers had been searched, too. Sweaters tumbled with T-s.h.i.+rts; pantyhose and socks were intertwined, half on the floor. Rowing gear had been jettisoned. My photos of Mark were gone, as were his early love notes and Valentine's Day cards. Even my diaphragm was missing. Terrific. Exhibit A.

I crossed over the debris to the closet, where it was more of the same. Suits had been trashed, even my silk dresses ended up on the floor. My shoes were piled in a mound. It was a nightmare, even for a slob.

I sighed, kicked off my pumps, and padded into the bathroom. A jar of Lancme moisturizer was open, the costly creme churned up by a grubby finger, and the toothpaste was squeezed out into a turquoise squiggle. The door to the medicine cabinet was ajar; the aspirin and other pills had been uncapped and presumably gone through. I plopped onto the closed toilet seat and slipped the papers out of my jacket pocket; a search warrant, a list of what had been seized, and an affidavit of probable cause. I remembered affidavits as long as these from the old days. Now my name was on the caption.

Bear settled onto the cool tile floor and looked up questioningly, so I read aloud: "'Letters and correspondence, personal computer and diskettes, office supplies, files of household bills and the like, articles of clothing.'" I a.s.sumed this referred to the outfit I was wearing the day Mark was murdered, for fiber samples. Also all the clothes in the hamper, since police like that for evidentiary as well as shock value. Going through your dirty laundry, literally.

The list continued. "'Shoes and sneakers, overcoats and topcoats, and certain jewelry items as follows,'" and they catalogued every piece of jewelry I had, most of which was my mother's. They even took her engagement ring, a diamond chip from a man who didn't stick around for the wedding.

"G.o.dd.a.m.n it," I said, and threw the paper on the bathroom floor, where it landed next to a large black smudge.

More fingerprint soot. I followed the smudge trail to the bathtub, where the cops had taken more fingerprints and probably samples of my head and pubic hair. Wonderful. At this point the police knew more about my reproductive system than I did. I rested my chin on my hand. The Thinker, on the potty.

Bear meandered over, turned around, and plopped her heavy tush onto my toe. Then she threw her head backwards and smiled at me, almost upside down. Someday she would figure out it was easier to see someone if you faced them. I scratched the spray of b.u.t.terscotch fur behind her ears, and she eased sleepily back to the floor, nestling her head between her paws and flattening her body like a bathmat. Only her eyes stayed on me, brown marbles asking, "So, you gonna clean up or you gonna feel sorry for yourself?"

"I'm gonna clean up, okay?"

Satisfied, Bear closed her eyes.

I got off the seat, found the CD player, cranked up Bruce Springsteen's greatest hits, and went to work. In no time I was caterwauling along with Bruce, lost in my task, but then I reached a song that made me stop singing. A song that forced me down on the floor, to deal with what was going on.

"Murder, Incorporated."

Mark was dead. Someone had killed him. Deep inside was anguish, but out there was his murderer. Someone who drew breath while Mark didn't. It was unjust. Obscene. I knew what I had to do.

I had to find Mark's killer.

Chapter 13.

I stopped by my mother's apartment early the next morning and stood at the door, briefcase in hand, as if it were a typical day and I still had a law firm to run. Hattie was rinsing the coffeepot at the sink, dressed but still in her rollers. Later she would press her hair with an old curling iron, and the acrid smell would fill the apartment, upsetting my mother and costing me two boxes of Kleenex. I always teased her about it, but I wouldn't this morning.

"Hattie, I've been thinking about what you said. I decided you're right about Mom. You want me to call the doctor?"

"No, I'll call him." She was rinsing out the pot again and again, her back to me. Her s.h.i.+rt said I'M A WINNER! and red dice were sequined on her scapula. "I got the time."

"No, that's all right."

"You're the one who's busy. You got your apartment to fix up."

"I cleaned up last night."

"All of it? I heard the music, but I fell asleep."

"It's all taken care of."

"I'll call about your momma. I want to do it."

"You sure now?"

"I'm sure."

We weren't talking about the call, we were making up. Or at least trying to, as easy as that was without saying the words or even meeting each other's eye. "If the appointments are early morning, how will you do it? You'll have to get up early."

"I'm up anyway. Makes no never mind."

"I'll help you get her up."

"I can do that, too. I did it for the hospital, I can do it for the electroshock," she said, finally twisting off the water and placing the gla.s.s pot in the coffeemaker. Her back was still to me, and I wanted to go before she turned around. I didn't want to face her, because I was choking now, finding I couldn't say what needed to be said. But she turned suddenly, her eyes dark and sorrowful, and said to me, "You have a good day, now."

Thank you for smacking me last night, Hattie. I've never been smacked before. No one noticed how stupid I can be, or how careless my words.

"You too, Hattie," I said, and left.

I started the day at Groan & Waste, so early that the receptionist on Sam's floor wasn't in yet. I powered past the secretaries' empty workstations, ignoring the a.s.sociates who were in at daybreak and walking around conspicuously enough to get credit for it. I never would've made it at Grun. When I get in early, I like to work. So does Sam, who was going full steam ahead when I walked into his office, his custom English suit bent over financial printouts.

"Bennie! Where have you been? How are you?" He leapt up when he saw me and came around to give me a hug.

"Sam," I said, embracing him. His hug was a comfort, even though he was so fas.h.i.+onably thin.

"I didn't sleep all night," he said softly, giving me a final squeeze. Close up, his eyes were red-rimmed and his skin pale. He looked distraught, unhealthy. "Can you believe that Mark is dead?"

"Not really."

"Why didn't you call me back? I was so worried. I stayed in, waiting."

"I'm sorry, I had to clean."

"What? You? Siddown and tell me what's going on." He pressed me into the sling chair across from his desk, taking the one next to it himself. "You want me to get you some coffee?" He waved at a Sylvester the Cat mug.

"No, thanks." Grun coffee was even worse than mine.

"I can't believe it." Sam kept shaking his neat head. "Mark murdered, and you a suspect. But don't worry, I have it all planned. I'm going to stop work at noon today, then take off for a few days. I canceled all my appointments, everything. I want to help."

"Thanks." Sam would be there for me, he always had been. Sometimes I thought we were all we had, a friends.h.i.+p of outsiders.

"Don't thank me. Now, listen, I already talked to somebody about representing you."

"I have a lawyer, Sam. I'm gonna use Grady Wells."

He blinked. "Do I know that name?"

"He's one of our a.s.sociates. The Supreme Court clerk."

"The blonde on TV with you? He's cute, but is he a good criminal lawyer?"