The first thing she said to me was, “Have you found out anything yet about Mitch’s wife?”
“Not yet.”
“He’s half-frantic with worry, poor man. He’s so afraid that Janice is dead and he’ll be blamed for it.”
“If he’s innocent, he has nothing to worry about.”
“If he’s innocent? Of course he’s innocent.” Her eyes narrowed; the determined jaw poked out a little farther. “He’s your client, for God’s sake. Surely you don’t think…”
“I don’t think anything, Ms. Goldman. I’ve exhausted a lot of possibilies in Mrs. Krochek’s disappearance and there aren’t many others left. I need to get as complete a picture of the situation as possible—that’s why I’m here. He’s told you everything about the situation, I take it?”
“Everything, yes. We don’t have any secrets from each other.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Eleven weeks. I know it’s not very long, but that doesn’t matter. You don’t have to know somebody for a long time to love and understand them.”
Wrong, lady. Some people you do; some people you could know for a lifetime and never understand. But I said, “When did he tell you he was married?”
“At the beginning of our relationship. That’s one of the things I love about Mitch—he’s honest, forthright, he doesn’t try to hide anything.”
“It doesn’t bother you?”
“That he’s married? Why should it? He doesn’t love her anymore, and she doesn’t love him. He loves me.”
“But you know he doesn’t want a divorce.”
“Of course he doesn’t. She’s already squandered so much of his assets, why should he give her half of everything he has left?”
“He wouldn’t have to give her anything if she were dead.”
“He doesn’t want her dead. He’s not like that.”
“Solve all his financial problems. And he’d be free to marry you.”
“We don’t have to be married to be together,” she said. “I’m not a conventional person. The kind of relationship we have right now, based on love and trust… it’s enough for me.”
No, it wasn’t; I could see it in her eyes. I said, “He told me he was with you Tuesday night from seven until after eleven. True?”
“Yes. At my apartment.”
“He never left, even for a few minutes?”
“Not for one second.”
“Did you see him on Wednesday?”
“No. You told him to stay home all day, and he did.”
“I spoke to his first wife this morning,” I said. “He tell you about her?”
“Yes. She’s a bitch.”
“Do you know her?”
“I’m glad I don’t. I’ll bet she had all sorts of nasty things to say about Mitch.”
“Not really.”
She rotated the iced tea glass again. “Why did you talk to her anyway? What could she possibly know about Janice’s disappearance?”
“Nothing. As I told you, I’m trying to get a complete picture.”
“By asking all these questions about Mitch?”
“Among other things. You think he’d object?”
“… No, I guess not. He … has faith in you. He told me that.”
“I hope I can repay it,” I said.
“I hope so, too. You … well, you just don’t know how bad it is for him right now. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but … he cried in my arms last night. Like a hurt child.”
I didn’t say anything.
“I felt so awful for him,” she said. “He’s such a warm, caring, loving man.”
And she was a naïve young woman riding for a big fall. But it wasn’t up to me to burst her rose-colored bubble; she would have fought me if I’d tried.
A waitress came by. I asked for the same as Deanne Goldman was drinking. The waitress asked if we wanted to order lunch and I said not yet and she went away. Ms. Goldman sat making more wet circles with her glass.
“It’s not his fault, you know,” she said.
“What isn’t?”
“The affairs he’s had. She told you about the one that broke them up, didn’t she? His first wife?”
“She mentioned it.”
“She drove him to it. Nagging at him all the time, denying him … you know, in bed. He wouldn’t have been unfaithful to her if she’d been a proper wife.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“It’s the truth,” she said. Sharply, but with a defensive undertone. She had her own doubts, I realized then, even if she wasn’t admitting them. If she were lucky, she’d burst the rose-colored bubble herself before Krochek had a chance to hurt her too badly. “He wouldn’t have been unfaithful to Janice, either, if it weren’t for her gambling sickness.”