Somebody Else's Music(138)

“I don’t know that you should be in the middle of this lecture when we hit the lobby and there are a lot of microphones around,” Bennis said.

“True,” Liz said, and they were at the lobby right this minute. They were in front of the glass doors and then inside them, out of the cold and wet and into the carefully climate-controlled atmosphere of a place that was trying very hard to be a real hotel, even if it was far out into the rural wilderness. Liz could see the reporters massed around the desk. None of them was looking in their direction. She thought there might be just a chance to make the elevators before they realized she’d come in. Then one of them turned around and made a grunt and they were all turned around, some of them shouldering cams, some of them carrying notebooks, as if anybody ever really used a notebook anymore.

“Liz,” one of them shouted.

Liz didn’t turn around. She pushed her way to the reception desk and asked the shell-shocked young woman for her room key. The young woman handed it over as if it had been contaminated with the Ebola virus.

“Liz,” somebody behind her shouted. “What do you think about the arrest? Does it upset you that one of your childhood friends has just been arrested for murder?”

“Ms. Toliver,” somebody else shouted. “Can you give us your reaction to the arrest of Margaret Kennedy for the murder of Christine Barr?”

“Maiden names,” Liz said to Bennis, under her breath, without moving her lips. She marched determinedly to the elevator, thinking about the old cliche’, as if it were entirely new. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. When she and Bennis got to the elevators, she stopped and pushed the call button. Of course, she didn’t have the kind of luck that meant the elevator would already be right here at the proper floor.

People were still calling questions at her, and other people were photographing her. She could see the flashes as they went off behind her, reflected in the polished steel of the elevator doors. She ignored them all. There was no point in even saying “no comment.” When the elevator doors opened in front of her, she stepped inside the car and pulled Bennis after her. She turned around and punched the button for the fourth floor. She smiled. The elevator doors closed.

“Sheesh,” Bennis said. “Does that happen to you all the time? It would drive me crazy.”

“It’s not me, it’s Jimmy. And it doesn’t even happen to him all the time anymore. I think it does happen to people who are more current. Like Madonna.”

“She can have it. This is all because of the murder?”

“The first time I got stuck in it, it was just after Jimmy and I started dating,” Liz said. “And then it was mostly because they wanted to know who it was who had Jimmy on a string. It calmed down after we did the interview for People magazine.”

“Right,” Bennis said.

The elevator doors opened on four. Liz stepped out and looked around. Nobody had made it upstairs yet. She went to the door to the west wing and poked her head inside. “Anthony? It’s me. Us. It’s okay.”

The door swung wide. Liz pulled Bennis onto the floor. Jimmy and Mark were way up at the other end of the hall. Geoff was closer, and saw her first. He came barreling down the corridor and threw himself at her.

“Mom! Mom! You’re alive!”

“You didn’t think I was going to be alive?” Liz said.

“Mark said—” Geoff turned to look.

“I did not,” Mark said. “What do you take me for?”

“We’ll discuss that later,” Liz said. “What’s been going on around here? Who got arrested?”

“Margaret Smith Kennedy,” Jimmy said. “At least, that’s what the news bulletin said. Gregor Demarkian called and said to tell you that if the name didn’t ring a bell, I should tell you it was Peggy Smith. You know a Peggy Smith, right? She was on that list you gave me to give to Demarkian?”

“Yes, she was,” Liz said. “But that’s all? They arrested Peggy? They didn’t arrest anybody else?”

“Not as far as I know,” Jimmy said. “What did you expect, they’d arrest the whole lot of them? I’d be more than happy if they did, mind you, but I don’t think anything you’ve got on them could be classified as a crime. You look odd. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’ve been asking her that since we left here,” Bennis said. “She’s been behaving very oddly the whole time.”

“That’s just so odd, that they only arrested Peggy,” Liz said, and then she let it go, because it was none of her business now. It had been none of her business for years. “Look,” she said. “Does that proposal still stand? Do you still want me to marry you?”