Dying to Tell (28 page)

"Glad not to have disappointed you."

"You should be. I don't take disappointment well. And a death in the family .. ." He paused while the waiter returned with our drinks, but kept looking at me till the bloke had gone again. "I take that even worse."

"I'm sorry about your son."

"I find that hard to believe."

"I didn't mean to kill him."

"Ah, now that I do believe. But he is dead. And the German police seem to think you're responsible."

"It was self-defence."

"No, Lance. It was murder. Plain and simple. But you didn't do it. There's the irony."

"What do you mean?"

"We'll come back to what I mean later. You wanted to meet me. That's what the farrago with the book was all about. So, you're meeting me even sooner than you'd hoped, thanks to my early flight home. After Gordon screwed up in Japan, it was odds on you coming here. The porter smelled a rat right off, incidentally. He's not likely to see me with a bookstore carrier-bag under my arm if we both live to be a hundred. As for talking to strangers in coffee-shops, that's not my style. Now, what do you want to say to me?"

"I have a message from Mayumi."

"Deliver it."

"She'll never reveal the contents of the letter to anyone if you agree to leave Haruko and her in peace."

"I have to trust her on that, do I?"

"Yes. I think you know you can. The only two people she did tell Miller Loudon and her brother are dead."

"Didn't she tell you, Lance?"

"No."

"No?"

That's what I said."

"And I believe you. You know why? Because, if you knew what was in the letter, you wouldn't have come to San Francisco. You'd have run for your life. And you'd have been well advised to."

"Why don't you tell me?"

"You have a sense of humour, Lance. That must be why Gordon dislikes you so much. He always dislikes people who crack better jokes than he does."

"Do you accept Mayumi's offer?"

"Is that what you'd call it an offer? Sounds more like a plea for mercy to me."

"And are you a merciful man?"

"What do you think?"

"I think .. . not."

Townley allowed himself half a smile as he stubbed out his cigarette. "Honest as well as humorous. My, my, you do have a lot going for you. More than your friend Rupe Alder."

"Where is Rupe?"

"He threatened me, Lance. And then, when I showed him I wasn't prepared to yield to his threats, he threatened my grandson. I don't know what he thought I'd do about that. But ask yourself: what should I have done? What choice did he give me?"

"What did you do?"

Townley dropped his voice to a gravelly whisper. "I killed him."

They were the words I'd half-expected to hear. But still they sent a chill through me. "He's dead?"

Townley nodded. "Uhuh."

"You killed him?" My voice too had descended to a murmur.

"Let's be accurate here. I'm retired from that line myself. I had Gordon handle the job. He enjoys the work, just like amateurs tend to. Do you want to know the particulars? I'd opt not to, if I were you."

Tell me."

"OK. Your friend, your choice. Rupe got heavy with us, so we got heavier in return. Gordon lured him to a rendezvous in Buena Vista Park. The official cause of death was a cocaine overdose. The media evidently thought he got that bump on the head falling over in a drugged stupor. Some Japanese tourists found him. Well, they do go out early, don't they? They were there for the views of the city. I guess dead crack-heads count as one."

I couldn't seem to frame a response. All this way and all this struggle, for the bleak reward of Townley's deadpan report on how he and his murderous son-in-law had neutralized the threat Rupe posed to them.

"Gordon removed anything that could have identified Rupe, of course, and checked him out of his hotel room. At that point, your friend dropped off the edge of the world. Well, the edge of the continent, anyhow, on account of the fact that bodies unclaimed after thirty days are cremated and their ashes scattered in the ocean. Sadly, though, he didn't leave my life so neatly. Gordon searched his room and his belongings and the clothes he was wearing. He found the photocopy of the letter, which was all Rupe had shown me. But not the original. And he still hasn't found it. Rupe must have hidden it. The question is: where?"

"You think I'd tell you if I knew?"

"I do. You see, what you said about killing Eric in self-defence, well, that goes for me and Rupe as well. He wanted me to go public with the whole story. But that would have been suicide. Worse, it would have endangered my family. I had to defend them as well as myself. There really was nothing else I could do. I tried talking him out of it. I tried buying him off. I even tried begging, which doesn't come easy to me. None of it did any good. Your friend was a man with a mission. He was determined to blow everything wide open. He had to be stopped. He was stopped."

"So, you murdered Rupe because he was blackmailing you."

"That's what it amounts to, yuh."

"And Peter Dalton? What was your justification for murdering him?"

Townley checked there was nobody even close to being able to overhear us before replying in an undertone. "Money. I needed it pretty badly then. I was preparing for my very early retirement. I could see what was coming up and I knew I'd have to drop conclusively out of sight if I wasn't to finish up just how Hilde Voss told you I did. Rupe would never have traced me if I'd stuck to my soundest principle: solitude is safety. I've invested wisely over the years. I own Egret Apartments, though as far as the lessees are concerned I'm just another one of them. The only unwise thing I've done is the most human. I stayed in touch with my family. But for that, no one would ever have found me. And the letter could never have harmed me."

"Does Clyde know what happened to Rupe?"

"No. Nor why it had to happen. And I'd like to keep it that way."

"I won't tell Maris, if that's what you mean."

"That's considerate of you."

"I'm considering her."

"Of course. What a gent in disguise you are. Unlike Rupe. The truth is, Lance, that Clyde didn't even know he had a grandfather alive and well and residing up the road until Rupe told him. I was planning the surprise for later in the boy's Stanford career. Actually, I was waiting for his mother to warm to the idea. Anyhow, Rupe forced the issue and made it clear to Clyde that I wasn't exactly your footstool-and-slippers kind of grand pappy Left me with a lot of ground to make up. I'd appreciate being allowed to tackle the task the best way I can."

"Am I missing something here?" (I certainly felt as if I was. Townley had mixed candour with implacability to disarming effect. He wasn't what I'd expected, though whether that made him more dangerous or less I couldn't decide.)

"Are you missing something? You mean in addition to the big picture?"

"What's your answer to Mayumi?" (In the end, after all, there had to be one.)

"Let's get out of here." He turned towards the bar, where the waiter was refilling the ice bucket. "Check!"

"I'm not sure I '

"Don't worry. I'm not taking you to Buena Vista Park."

We didn't in fact go further than the square separating the Fairmont Hotel from Grace Cathedral. Townley lit another cigarette and smoked it enthusiastically as we walked slowly round the perimeter of the small park occupying the western half of the square. There were plenty of cars and people about. The street-lighting was good, the location as safe as they come. There were no dark corners, no black-windowed vans. One part of my brain assessed the spot as scarcely less secure than the bar we'd just left. Another part of my brain was having none of it.

"I don't doubt Mayumi's sincerity, Lance. The problem is the letter. While it exists, it's a threat to me and mine. If it fell into the wrong hands ... the consequences are unthinkable. Mayumi would be forced to talk. There's no question about it. When fire swept this city after the nineteen hundred and six earthquake, it was only stopped by dynamiting the grand mansions along Van Ness Avenue to create a fire-break. You see what I'm saying? Without the letter, I've got to have a firebreak."

"Mayumi doesn't have the letter to give you."

"No. But in amongst all this aching sympathy for her and her lovesick daughter, you might ask yourself why she was so stupid as to keep the letter in the first place. If she'd burned it the day it was delivered .. . But I know the answer, of course, which you're in no position to. Fortunately, you are in a position to resolve the situation."

"I am?"

"We're both in trouble, Lance. The only difference is that your trouble is here and now, whereas mine's out there in the future. You're a murder suspect in two continents. I'm a nobody who wants to be sure of staying that way. I can prove you didn't murder anyone. And you can guarantee the continued anonymity of Mr. Chester Duthie. I see the making of a deal there, don't you?"

"How can you prove anything or me guarantee anything?"

"OK. Listen. I chose Gordon as a husband for Barbara because I thought she might need his protection if and when I was no longer able to protect her myself. She never knew that, of course. Now, the downside of protection is that sometimes the guard dog can turn on its owner. Gordon contracted the hit in Berlin to a pro called Ventress. There's a protocol in these things Gordon doesn't understand. When I explained to Ventress that I was his contractor-in-chief, he was willing if not exactly happy to tell me everything that occurred. It seems Gordon added a second hit to the list just before taking off after you. He'd followed Eric to the Adlon and therefore knew Eric had disobeyed orders by deciding to take a personal hand against you. Gordon instructed Ventress to make sure Eric didn't survive that act of disobedience."

"You're saying ..."

"Ventress finished Eric off, on Gordon's orders. My son-in-law decreed that my son had become a liability. He's thought that for a long time. There, at the Adlon, he had an opportunity to do something about it. And he took the opportunity. The question now is: what am I going to do about it?"

"What's the answer?"

That's where you come in, Lance. You see, I could tip the authorities off in Germany and Japan. I could tell them Gordon Ledgister is the man they're really looking for. Forensic evidence would nail him for Miller Loudon's murder, no question. Since he could also be shown to have been on the scene in Berlin, your version of events would be believed over his. Leaving you in the clear and Gordon .. . where he deserves to be. Eric was a liability. Gordon was right about that. But he was also my son. The man who killed him must be made to pay for it. And I don't mean Ventress."

"Aren't you afraid Gordon will implicate you?"

"No. He loves Clyde and Barbara. He knows what might happen to them if he shot his mouth off. Besides, he wouldn't know I'd fingered him. He'd have to take his punishment like a man. It's death for murder in Japan, they tell me. Don't worry about Gordon. I made him. I can break him. You should be asking yourself what you can do to encourage me to come forward. I mean, I can settle things with Gordon privately if I need to. I don't necessarily have to rescue you into the bargain."

"What do you want?"

The letter. What else?"

"I don't have it. I don't know where it is. I can't give it to you."

"I think you can. You were Rupe's best friend, weren't you? His best and oldest friend. That means you know the way his mind worked. Which also means you have a better chance than anyone else of figuring out where he hid it."

"I don't know."

"Not yet. But I'm backing you to learn. You just need a little encouragement." He stopped. Looking round, I realized that we'd completed a circuit of the square and were back where we'd started, outside the Fairmont Hotel. "Well, I reckon you have all the encouragement you need now. Don't you?"

I stared at him dumbly. How could I answer? Mayumi had sent me to fall on his mercy. I'd known that to be a fool's errand all along. But I hadn't expected to be offered a second one at the end of it. Nor to realize that it, like the first, was an errand I couldn't refuse.

"Find the letter, Lance. And deliver it to me. Then I'll accept Mayumi's offer. And you'll get your life back."

I was already late for my appointment with Maris when Townley and I parted, but still I took a roundabout route through Chinatown to reach the Ritz-Carlton. I couldn't decide whether I'd just been handed a lifeline or not. Townley's reasoning was sound as far as it went. I probably did stand a better chance than anyone of working out where Rupe had hidden the letter. But better didn't necessarily mean good enough. And not knowing what the letter contained could be a fatal handicap.

But fatality cut two ways. If I found the letter, I'd know at long last what it was all about. Townley's apparent confidence that I'd refrain from reading it was surely a pretence. I knew what had happened to those who'd learned his secret. That could well be the fate he had in mind for me too, even if he did mean to let Ledgister take the rap for the murders. Two for the price of one was a bargain that would appeal to him. I couldn't trust him. I didn't trust him.

And yet I had no choice but to act as if I did.

"Chester Duthie is Clyde's grandfather. A bit of a rough diamond, banished from his grandson's life by Clyde's mother. Rupe was trying to squeeze money out of them by threatening to tell her they'd got together. They paid him off and he left town. That's all there is to it. Chester assures me he won't breathe a word to Clyde about your ad."

Maris looked at me with wide-eyed scepticism. "How come a total stranger from England found out about this obscure little family difficulty?"

"Business dealings with Chester, apparently. The old boy wouldn't go into details. Probably because they were .. . legally iffy."

"And it just so happens that, since then, Rupe has disappeared."

"Coincidental, as far as I can gather. I'll have to look for him elsewhere."

"It doesn't have anything to do with the death of Clyde's uncle."