“I’m going to have to do quite a lot of running around today,” he said. “I’ve got Stacey Spratz picking me up about quarter to nine. I think we’re going to interview the boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Kayla Anson had a boyfriend.”
“Oh.” Bennis stirred out of her lethargy. “I’ve heard about him. From Abigail, my friend who sent me down here. Margaret was supposed to be livid.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s self-made, or something. Abigail said he was really quite respectable. You couldn’t tell he hadn’t been to Taft and Yale. But apparently he has no real background, the way Margaret would define the term, and he’s in business for himself, by which I suppose she’d mean that he doesn’t have enough money. I mean, her own husband was in business for himself.”
“I’m not too sure if you describe the founder of a global conglomerate as ‘in business for himself.’ ”
“Well, maybe not. But you see what I mean. And I don’t really see why it would have mattered anyway, unless he was a beach bum or a ski instructor, and Abigail says he definitely isn’t that. He owns Goldenrod. The catalogue company.”
“Am I supposed to know what that is?”
“You’ve seen enough of their catalogues,” Bennis said. “They sell natural fiber clothes for the country. Sort of like an East Coast Sundance. I buy a lot of my flannel shirts from them.”
“And they’re successful?”
Bennis shrugged. “I suppose you can never tell without a financial report, but I’d guess that unless the man’s an absolute ass of a businessman they must be. Their stuff is everywhere. They’re the most status-ridden label on any college campus. I don’t think they’re outsold by anybody except J. Crew and L. L. Bean.”
“Sounds good.”
“One would hope. But that’s just like Margaret Anson, you see. I suppose you’ve met her by now. You must have seen what she’s like.”
“She’s an unattractive woman.”
“Unattractive nothing,” Bennis said. “She’s a rattlesnake. I don’t think I’ve been so upset by anybody in my entire life. Do you think she’s some kind of serial killer, luring young women into her garage and then—”
“I doubt it,” Gregor said. “In fact, one of the few things I’m sure of is that Margaret Anson did not physically strangle either one of those two women.”
“Is there a way to strangle somebody that’s not physical?”
“I meant strangle with her own hands. Rather than induce somebody else to strangle. Pay somebody else to strangle. That kind of thing.”
“Oh,” Bennis said. “Well, that’s a possibility. Do you think there’s something about mothers that makes them hate their own daughters?”
“What?”
“I don’t mean all mothers,” Bennis said. “I mean, obviously, I got along wonderfully with mine. I mean some mothers. And the hate is so deep that it’s like acid. Deeper than hate could ever be otherwise.”
“I think in a case like that, the hate is usually mutual.”
“Well, Margaret Anson hated her daughter. I can tell you that absolutely. I don’t know if Kayla Anson hated her mother. I only met her superficially once or twice.”
“You only met Margaret Anson once.”
“It was enough.”
Gregor stood up. “I’d better get dressed and ready to go. Stacey Spratz seems to think that we’re going to tour most of the state today. And maybe we are. I think I need to get him to make me a map. I never know where I am.”
“I’m going to stay in and drink tea and read P. D. James.”
Bennis was already almost reading P. D. James. She had picked the book up from the floor and laid it in her lap. Now she was rubbing the tips of her fingers against the cover. Gregor hesitated. The way she was this morning made him uneasy. She was so—worn out.
“Well,” he said, “if you’re sure you’ll be all right here alone.”
“Of course I’ll be all right here alone. And you couldn’t take me with you. You know that. I’ll be fine.”
“Of course you will.”
“Of course I will.” Bennis looked up. “Go get dressed, Gregor. You’re hovering over me like a storm cloud.”
It was Bennis’s hair that looked like storm clouds. Gregor had always thought so.
He left her sitting at the little table and went back into the bathroom to get dressed.
2
Gregor was already sitting in the lobby when Stacey Spratz showed up. It took no time at all for Gregor to realize that Stacey was full of news, since Stacey tended to announce it, out loud, to everybody assembled near the inn’s front desk.