“How long did you know Lee Rhodes?”
“Twenty-five years or so.”
“Were you in love with him?”
This was daring. She sat back in her swivel chair; I was afraid that it might give way under her, tipping the great lady on her head, but she knew what she was doing. “You’re awfully fresh, young man,” she said.
“I was curious.”
“Then to satisfy your curiosity, yes, we were very close at one time. Shortly after Ellen was born, Lee wanted to divorce Grace and marry me. I may say with some pride that I talked him out of it. We were fond of each other but I was almost as fond of Grace. I didn’t want to wreck her life; though, since, I’ve sometimes wondered if it was the right thing.”
“You mean not separating them?”
She nodded, her eyes focused on the far wall, her voice dreamy. “They never got on of course. Grace would’ve been so much happier with another man, I’m sure of that, but the opportunity never arose again and they settled down with one another, neither contented.”
“You went on seeing a great deal of both?”
“Oh yes. I saw them through a hundred crises. When Ellen was supposed to marry that nephew of mine, it was I she came to after her father annulled the marriage. I was the one who reconciled them … though not for long since she went away as soon as she was of age. I practically brought her up. They were the most helpless family you ever saw when it came to managing their private affairs.”
“Mrs. Rhodes disliked Camilla, didn’t she?”
“Not really. She hated the idea of her, naturally, when she found out. Grace is a woman of high principles, you know, and it was a devastating blow for her, finding out Lee had had a by-blow, as they say back home. I think she was quite indifferent to Camilla one way or the other, as a person.”
“You obtained the contract for Roger Pomeroy before he came to Washington, didn’t you?”
She looked startled. “You’re very well informed,” she said coldly. “Yes, as a matter of fact I did.”
“You must’ve known all along that he had a pretty good alibi in case of arrest.”
“I did. As a matter of fact Grace and Ellen and I discussed the whole thing the morning of the day Pomeroy was to be arrested. I had discovered that that young fool of a policeman was going to arrest Roger and I talked it over with the family: should I or should I not let the police know that I had helped Roger get his contract before he came to see Lee. Roger himself begged me not to. I must say I didn’t want to: I would’ve found myself in a very uncomfortable position. On the other hand, we didn’t want Roger arrested. I will tell you, frankly, that none of us knew what to do until Rufus saw fit to kill himself and Roger was released, ending, I may add, one of the worst days of my life.”
“Do you think Rufus killed himself?”
“You should know,” she said, slowly, looking at me speculatively.
“I should know?”
“Did you take sleeping pills?”
“Certainly not.”
“Then it would seem Rufus was killed, and the confession was a fake.”
“That’s how I see it.”
“Why would the murderer want to kill you, though?”
“Because I knew everything. I’ve been poking around, you know, out of curiosity; while nosing about I figured out who did it.”
Verbena Pruitt’s face was a mask: a vast roseate larger-than-life-size mask. “I can see then why you were poisoned. Now I will give you some advice: leave Washington. I can promise you that the police will forget the whole thing. There will be no more trouble for any of us. The dead are dead and can’t be recalled. The rest of us are well out of it. You get out of it, too.”
“No.”
She was suddenly angry. “What then do you want? What’s your price? This was ugly indeed.
“I’m not for sale,” I said, becoming indignant although my sense of reality didn’t entirely desert me even in this heroic moment. “At least not now, to you. I’ll tell you one thing, though. I was ready to drop the whole thing last night. I decided it was, as you say, none of my business. I didn’t want to upset everyone again. I saw no reason to interfere in an affair which did not, really, concern me at all. But then the murderer tried to kill me and that, for reasons which will become more apparent, was more than I could take. I now intend to turn the killer over to the police.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
There was nothing more to say; we were through with one another. I had learned what I needed to know already, earlier in the conversation, and so, very politely, I excused myself and left her office. She did not speak.
“Well?” said Winters, joining me in the corridor.
“Well, yourself, my fine minion of the law.”
“Don’t be cute.”
“It’s my nature,” I said, feeling blithe.
In the entrance hall we ran into Johnson Ledbetter. He looked more than ever like an harassed buffalo at the end of the trail. He greeted me with hollow vigor. I detached myself from Winters and moved off into a corner with him. Politicos wandering in and out of headquarters quickly averted their gaze when they saw him: he was a fallen star and no one wanted to catch the infection of failure which, as all professionals know, is remarkably contagious.
“We’ll be seeing you tonight, won’t we, Senator?”
“Yes, of course I’ll be there. What’s going to happen?”
“We’re going to unveil the murderer of Rufus Hollister and Leander Rhodes.”
Ledbetter’s gray face looked set. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do. There’s one thing I would like to know, if I may: what did happen when you talked to Rufus, before he was shot?”
“That’s private.”
“You will be forced to tell it to the court, Senator.” I was reckless.
“I don’t see that it has any bearing on the murders,” he said weakly.
“I’m sure Winters can keep you off the witness stand if we know just what happened.” I was quite willing to commit Winters to anything at this point.
“We discussed the business of the two companies, all of which you have no doubt read about in the papers.”
“What did he have to say?”
“He said we were in danger of being exposed, that a Federal Commission was ready to publish its findings and begin legal proceedings. I said that I, of course, had no connection with any of this, even though my name appeared as a director and there was some stock issued in my name.”
“Did Hollister say anything about being exposed?”
“That’s all he talked about.”
“I mean being exposed by some malicious party, by the murderer?”
Ledbetter paused for one long moment; then he shook his head, “No, he didn’t mention anything like that.”
“Why did you quarrel?”
“Because he wanted me to accept equal blame with him; since I was not guilty I saw no reason to associate myself with him.” This canard was uttered with pious sincerity. “He thought I could get the Party to hush the whole thing up, or at least blame it on Lee. Unfortunately, I couldn’t.” Ledbetter betrayed himself in a most un-lawyerlike fashion; I wondered how on earth a man of his limited intelligence had managed to become the Governor of a state.
“What time did you go upstairs to talk to him?”
“About eleven-thirty.”
“How long were you there?”
“Twenty minutes, I should say.”
“Did he act as though he had another appointment?”
Ledbetter’s eyes grew wide. “How did you know? Yes, as a matter of fact he did say he was to meet someone at twelve.”
“In his room or somewhere else?”