Jasper said, “That bastard Lennard is going to regret this. He’ll wish he had stayed in the closet with the door deadlocked!”
“I advise you to wait for the facts before you take any action.”
“Then get the facts.”
“I’m not trained in police work, or psychology either, for that matter. I don’t know where to go from here.”
“You got this far. Keep going. If you won’t, I will.”
“Stay out of it personally, Mr. Jasper, at least until you—”
“Cool down? I don’t cool easily.”
It wasn’t exactly news. The blood had come rushing back into Jasper’s face and he looked ready to burst his skin. He slapped his hand fiat against the table.
“When I get through with that bastard,” he said, “he’ll be lucky to get a job as a dishwasher. He’s contemptible, a man without moral decency, to take advantage of a girl like Cleo entrusted to his care. God knows what romantic notions he put into her head.”
Aragon knew of only one notion, and not by the wildest stretch of the imagination could it be called romantic. He remembered almost precisely the words she’d used on her visit to his office: “My new friend says I got rights, I can do what other people do, like vote.” Vote. Lennard’s approach was certainly unique.
“I’ll do the best I can, Mr. Jasper. But don’t expect miracles. Both people involved, Lennard positively, Cleo probably, must be aware that they’ve asked for trouble.”
“I don’t expect miracles. I expect results. Go back to where Lennard’s been living, examine his personal effects, his correspondence, bank accounts if any, even the books he reads.”
“You’re asking me to break in.”
“No. We won’t call it that.”
“Others will. Gaining entry to Lennard’s place would require a search warrant issued by a judge to a policeman under circumstances strongly suggesting a crime. I don’t meet any of these conditions.”
“I have connections.”
“Don’t try to use them. You’ll cause difficulty for both of us if you do.”
“Very well.”
“I take that as a promise, Mr. Jasper.”
“It’s a promise I may not be able to keep. If I should happen to see them walking past my office building, I’ll knock the hell out of—”
“It’s a long way from Hibiscus Court to the Jasper building. However, I think they’re still in the city. Otherwise Lennard wouldn’t have asked permission for his bride to come and live in the court with him. There’s another fact: Lennard has a job to keep.”
“That’s what he thinks,” Jasper said. “As of tomorrow morning Lennard’s name will be off the school payroll and the salary for the two weeks’ notice he’s entitled to will be mysteriously delayed or lost in the mails. The facts surrounding his dismissal will be available to any prospective employer. Let’s see how romance thrives on a little adversity.”
“Sometimes it does, Mr. Jasper.”
Jasper refused to consider this. “It will be three years before Cleo comes into her fortune. I confidently predict that by that time Roger Lennard will be long gone and forgotten and Cleo’s estate will have a conservator.”
“Your second prediction may come true but I wouldn’t bet on the first one.”
“He will be gone and forgotten,” Jasper repeated with grim satisfaction.
When the two men parted, Jasper didn’t offer to shake hands. It was a bad sign, a symptom, Aragon thought, of the paranoia often afflicting rich men, that people who didn’t agree with them were against them.
Aragon unlocked the door of his car. Donny Whitfield’s morning escapade had taught him to take more sensible precautions against chewing gum in the trunk lock. The gum was still there. He was about to get into the car when he heard a soft, tentative voice from the other side of the eugenia hedge:
“Señor?”
He replied in Spanish. “What are you doing over there?”
“Waiting to talk to you. Most privately.”
“All right, get in and we’ll go to the end of the driveway. The Jaspers are probably waiting to hear my car leave.”
She got into the front seat, a short, plump woman wearing what seemed to be several layers of dark clothing. She smelled of oregano.
He said, “You’re Valencia?”
“Yes. Valencia Ybarra.”
“I’m Tomas Aragon. I’m looking for Cleo.”
“I know. I heard. I hear things they don’t want me to. They think because I don’t speak good English I don’t understand, so they ignore me like a dog.”
He parked on the street below and turned off his headlights.
“It’s not so good talking here. The police are always driving past. I’m afraid they might arrest us.”
“What for?”
“They don’t need a reason when you’re Chicano in a rich neighborhood. Chicanos are suspicious characters. How about we go and get some pizza?”
“Pizza?”
“Pepperoni. The food they serve in the house is so tasteless I am always hungry. Are you hungry?”
“Yes.” He couldn’t remember eating dinner.
“The pizza parlor is nearby, only about five blocks. I’m not dressed to go in but you could go in and bring something out for me.”
If pepperoni pizza was the asking price for some inside information, he was willing to pay it.
As they ate he thought of Donny Whitfield. The boy had had nearly twelve hours of non-diet by this time and had probably used every minute to advantage.
“So you hear things, Valencia?”
“Many.”
“Why did Cleo run away?”
She was amazed by the question. “To get a man. Why not? That is natural. They would never allow her to get a man, especially the señor. He treated her like a little girl and she behaved like a little girl. But not always. Ho, ho, not always.”
“What’s the ‘ho, ho’ about?”
“I am thirsty. A large Coke would soothe my throat.”
Aragon provided the large Coke and waited.
“The night before she left,” Valencia said, “Ted came home. It was late, everybody was in bed. She and Ted got together.”
“What do you mean, they got together?”
“You don’t know? How old are you anyway?”
“All right, all right, I know. But Ted is her nephew. They’re blood relatives.”
“Ah yes, they make such a fuss about things like that in this country. Is it so odd, two young people going to bed together? But the fussing that went on when the señor discovered them, oh, oh, you wouldn’t believe it. Ted was forced to leave in the middle of the night. And the next morning the señor and his wife screamed at each other all through breakfast. Such language.”
“And you think that’s why Cleo ran away?”
“She went to find a man. She liked that business with Ted. She’s ready to get married and have children. In Mexico, pretty soon she’d be an old maid.”
The news about Ted and Cleo had caught Aragon by surprise but he had little doubt of its validity. It fitted in with Jasper’s reluctance to have his wife questioned and with Ted’s suspicious reaction to the phone call Aragon had made to the house that morning. He asked Valencia about the call.
“Ted was at my elbow telling me what to say. He pinched my arm so hard it left a bruise.”
“Where was Mrs. Jasper at this time?”
“She went to the bank to get Ted the money he wanted and wasn’t supposed to have... That was you on the other end of the line?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t go to school with Ted.”
“No.”