Not a Creature Was Stirring(42)

“Let’s just say I think we ought to think so. If you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean. I want to know what you think. Do you think it was an accident?”

“No.”

“Neither do I,” Myra said. She stared into her drink. “If it had to be one of us who killed him, and you could pick anyone you wanted to be it, who would it be?”

The second box had gloves in it. Black leather gloves. Teddy already had six pairs. “Are we assuming this person is going to get caught?” he said.

“Would it make a difference?”

“Well,” Teddy said, “if there was no danger of getting caught, I wish it had been me.”

“Ah,” Myra said.

Teddy threw the gloves on the floor. They were from Emma. Emma had given him the other six pairs. “Assuming a trial and a conviction and God knows what else, then I’d want it to be Bennis.”

“Bennis?” Myra looked startled. “Whatever for?”

“Balance, I guess,” Teddy said. “She’s the one who’s had the perfect life.”

“Bennis?”

“Just look at her, Myra. She’s rich as shit. She’s famous. She’s beautiful. She’s even got a man who wants to marry her.”

“Well, yes,” Myra said, “but even so. She’s had to work for all that. And the man—” Myra made another face. “Greek,” she said, as if it were an explanation.

“Now, now,” Teddy said, “don’t be a snob.”

“Anybody could marry a Greek,” Myra said.

“Who would you want it to be?”

“Oh, Bobby. Definitely,” Myra said. “He’s the one who’s had the really perfect life. I know he works like a dog, but he doesn’t have to. It’s just some macho kick he’s on. He’s got that huge trust fund, and that house in Chestnut Hill, and he goes running off to Europe every two and a half seconds. Besides, at the moment I want to kill him, and I’d much rather have the state of Pennsylvania do it for me.”

Teddy tried to remember if Pennsylvania had the death penalty, and couldn’t. “Why do you want to kill him? I didn’t think you even saw him much.”

Myra went back to staring into her drink. It seemed to fascinate her. “He’s just such a horse’s ass,” she said.

Teddy shook his head. “If someone was going to kill him for that, they’d have done it years ago.”

“I know. But you see—shit. I wish I hadn’t given up smoking. Bennis is out there puffing away, and every time I see her I want to mug her for a butt.”

“It has been a little tense around here.”

“Tense,” Myra said. “Yes. Teddy—”

“Yes?”

“If you did know something, something strange, that might get one of us arrested, would you tell the police about it?”

“I don’t know,” Teddy said. “That would depend.”

“On what?”

Teddy laughed. “On whether or not it was about Bennis.”

“Sometimes you’re just as much of a horse’s ass as Bobby is.” Myra looked into her drink again, saw that it was empty, and stood. “I’d better go get dressed. If Anne Marie sees me like this, she’ll have a fit. And I really can’t put up with one of Anne Marie’s fits today.”

“You’re not going to tell me what it was?”

“What what was?”

“What you saw,” Teddy said patiently. “The something strange.”

“Oh. That. Well, it wasn’t something I saw, exactly. It was something I didn’t see. Something that was in the study last night when we were all looking at—at Daddy’s body, and then it wasn’t in there today.”

“Maybe the police took it.”

“Maybe. But I don’t see why. It wasn’t anything personal.”

“You shouldn’t have been in the study today anyway. That Jackman person practically put a curse on the place to keep us out of there.”

“Well, he put a seal on it, and that’s all that matters.” She put her empty glass on the bar. “I’m going upstairs. Open my presents if you want. I can’t bear to see the horrors they’ve perpetrated on me this year.”

She swished through the doors to the foyer and slammed them behind her.

Teddy looked into his third box and found a pair of ear muffs, bright orange. He checked the tag and found, “From Anne Marie.”





3


Up on the second floor, Emma Hannaford walked into her bedroom, shut the door behind her, and locked it. Her mouth was as dry as sand. Her heart felt like a thin-skinned balloon being attacked by a sledgehammer. She kept telling herself to hurry, because Bennis was down in the kitchen and thought she’d just gone to the bathroom and would expect her back any minute. It was one of those internal lectures that had no practical effect whatsoever.