The Role Players (17 page)

“Which is?”

Chris shrugged. “Anything Tait wants him to do, I guess.”

Max's expression changed from puzzled to thoughtful. “Just goes to show how little we know about people we think we know,” he said more to himself than the rest of us. “I'm with Chris. Everything I've ever seen between the two of them has been totally boss-employee.”

“Except most employees don't live with their bosses,” I said.

“Maybe not most, but it's not unheard of,” Max said. “Of course, I suppose some people might think Tait takes advantage of him. He sure works a lot longer than an eight-hour day, and he's there on weekends. But I've never heard him complain. Whenever anything needs to be done, Keith just automatically seems to do it. Very low-key.”

“Well, Gavin seems to assume something's going on,” I said.

“Gavin
always
assumes something's going on,” Max said.

“Point. One last question. Do you know of any guns kept in the theater?”

“Like prop guns?” Chris asked. “I think there are a couple in the prop department. They don't work, of course.”

“No, I mean real guns.”

“Not that I know of,” Max said. “Tait may have one in his office for some reason, but I'd doubt it.”

“There's one in the box office,” Jonathan volunteered.

“Really?” Chris said. “I never saw it, though I almost never have any reason to go in there. But I've never even heard anyone else mention it, either.”

“Me neither,” Max said. “It might have been logical before Tait had a safe put in his office, but now there's never that much money in the box office at any time to risk anybody getting shot over. Maybe the gun's been lying around since before Tait got the safe. What makes you so curious about…” he paused, then, “Oh…because Rod was shot. And you think it might have been with the gun from the box office?”

I shrugged. “Considering the number of guns in the world, it's not very likely. Still, nothing is impossible, and a maybe-clue is a maybe-clue. I want to try to talk to Tait today, too, to ask him what he knows about it. Rod was killed with a .38, and if this one isn't a .38 there's no point in taking it further. If it
is
a .38 that narrows it down a little, but not all that much.”

Max gave me a wry smile. “Not when you consider that a .38's one of the most popular and common handguns in the country, if not the world. Hell,
I've
got one.”

“You do?” Chris asked, obviously surprised.

“Yeah. Don't worry,” Max said. “It's registered and I've got it in a safe place. A couple years before I met you I lived for a while in a really bad neighborhood, and I got it for protection. Just about everybody in my building had a gun.”

“Sounds like a nice place,” Chris said. “But I don't think I like the idea of having a gun around.”

Max repeated the wry smile. “Like I said, don't worry about it. It's in a safe place.”

“Well,” I said, “as for the Whitman's gun, if it is a .38, I'd want to know who else knew about it, who had access to it, etc. And I do want to look into this Tait-Keith thing, too, but I don't think it's exactly the right time to broach it with Tait. Jonathan and Keith seem to have hit it off, so maybe I can leave it to Jonathan to see what he can find out about it.”

I turned to Jonathan with a smile. “Okay by you?”

Jonathan looked pleased that I'd want to include him, but perhaps a bit hesitant. “I don't know, Dick, I'm not a detective. I wouldn't know what to ask.”

“Just be yourself. I don't expect you to ask if they're sleeping together, but just the regular questions that come up when people are getting to know one another. Anything that could help me understand how they interrelate. What Keith's background is, how he came to work for Tait, general stuff. Of course, even if there is some sort of personal relationship going on, I can't see exactly how it would have any direct bearing on Rod Pearce's death, but the itch to know is there, and I've got to scratch it. It just seems strange that right now we don't really know anything at all about him. Or Tait, for that matter.” I turned to Max and Chris. “What do
you
know about Tait?”

Max shrugged. “About his personal life? Almost nothing. He comes from a wealthy family, I know. His father, I believe—I've never heard Tait speak directly of him—was Horace Duncan, one of the most ruthless men on Wall Street. I know Tait's got a lot of business interests all over the country, but other than that…no idea.”

“No lover?” I asked. “Dating anyone? Go out to the bars?”

Both Chris and Max shook their heads. “Not that we know about,” Max said. “As I said before, there are certain things it never even occurs to you to think about. We just tend to accept what we see and let it go at that. I've never seen him with anyone—I don't even know what kind of guy he might be attracted to.”

“Except…” Chris said.

Max looked at him. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “except what that guy told you at work, and I don't know if I'd put much stock in it.”

“And what was that?” I asked.

“Well,” Chris said, “there's this guy, Chuck, at work who's really into the Master/slave thing, and he swears Tait picked him up one night in an S&M bar.”

Uh…
I thought. “How would he know who Tait was?”

“No idea. But Tait's a pretty unusual name, and one day at work he heard me mention Tait to a friend, and said, ‘Tait
Duncan
?' I hadn't said his last name. When I said ‘yes' he said, ‘Why, honey, I didn't know you were into the scene.' I didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but he told me. The guy's a real gossip, so I more or less let it pass—but he seemed pretty convincing.”

Max shook his head. “Tait into S&M?” he said. “I just don't buy it.”

“People can fool you,” Jonathan said, with an uncharacteristically serious expression. I knew he was referring to his hustler days in general and to the bastard who nearly killed him.

“Well if he is he sure fooled me,” I said. “I've never picked up the slightest vibes that he was anything other than solid vanilla.”

“He can be pretty controlling, though, now that I think of it,” Chris said. “He's usually pretty subtle about it, but still controlling.”

Max shook his head. “So are a lot of rich businessmen, but being controlling and being into any branch of S&M aren't exactly the same thing.”

“I don't know,” Jonathan said. “Isn't that the whole point to Master/slave relationships?”

“I'm far from an expert on the subject…” I began…

“Yeah. Pity,” Jonathan said with a wicked grin. I shot him a raised eyebrow look of surprise, and he just kept the grin and returned my raised eyebrow.

That broke my chain of thought into several small pieces, but I managed to keep going.

I sighed, then continued. “Well, again I can't imagine Tait's sexual preferences being relevant to Rod Pearce's death, unless I'm missing something.”

Jonathan leaned toward me and said in a stage whisper, “Interrogation over,
mein kommandant
? Shall I return the prisoners to their cells?”

I felt myself flushing, and I looked quickly at Max and Chris, who sat there grinning.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn't mean to get carried away.”

“You didn't,” Chris said. “But when you latch onto something, you sure don't let go easily.”

Jonathan put his hand on my leg. “I hope that includes me.”

I covered his hand with my own. “Yeah,” I said, “like you had any doubts.”

“We're glad to do whatever we can to help,” Max said.

We sat in relative silence for a few moments, drinking our coffee, until Chris said, “So what would you like to do today?”

“Whoa!” I said. “Aren't you two pretty beat? And you've got another show on tonight. Why don't you just kick back today and rest?”

“No,” Max said, “that's not fair to you. You're on vacation.”

“True,” I said, “but I want to try to see Tait, if I can, and then maybe run up to Times Square to see if we can get tickets to something for tonight.
Torch Song Trilogy
, maybe, or Quentin Crisp, or who knows? It's not as though we're low on options. And we still need to pick up a few more presents to take back home. No sense dragging you through a bunch of shops.”

Max and Chris looked at one another. “You're sure?” Max said.

“We're sure,” Jonathan answered. “Maybe we can all do something special tomorrow if you feel like it.”

“Well, we feel a little guilty about not spending as much time with you as we possibly can,” Chris said, “but tonight Max starts taking over the show.”

“I don't follow,” I said, puzzled.

“Once a show opens,” Max said, “the director's job is fairly well over. Everything is set and established. So it falls on the stage manager to keep everyone and everything in line and running smoothly from performance to performance.”

“Wow, that's some responsibility!” Jonathan said, admiringly.

Max just shrugged.

“All the more reason for you to take a day to yourself,” I said. “We've got another week before we leave. And even then it's not as though we were never going to see each other again.”

“True,” Max said.

“So let me call Tait, and then Jonathan and I can run to the store and bring back something for breakfast; no point in you even getting dressed.”

“You don't have to go to the store for anything,” Chris said. “We've got some more frozen sausage in the freezer and I can whip up a batch of waffles. And there's another bottle of that syrup.”

“Great,” I said, glancing at my watch. It was just 9:30, and Tait was probably up by now. “Now, if I can use your phone….”

*

Keith had answered the phone (“Duncan residence”) and after I'd identified myself there was only a moment's pause until Tait came on. I told him it was important that we talk privately and offered to come over to his apartment if it was convenient so as not to disrupt his day any more than necessary. I added that since I assumed Keith would be there, and that Jonathan would be with me, perhaps Keith might be willing to spend a little time with Jonathan in the conservatory. I knew Jonathan had a million questions about orchids he'd not had time to ask the first time we were there.

Tait agreed and suggested we come by around eleven.

I knew we'd be cutting it close—an hour and a half didn't give us much time to shower, dress, have breakfast, and make it on time, but figured we could take a cab.

Chris said for us to start getting ready while he began breakfast, which we did.

Jonathan suggested that we could take a joint shower to save time. Normally, that would have involved about three times as much time as taking individual showers, but he promised he'd behave if I did.

Breakfast was nearly ready when we returned to the living room to find Max setting the table. We'd been delayed a few minutes while Jonathan debated over which of three shirts to wear.

*

The cab dropped us off in front of Tait's building at 10:55. Jonathan was looking forward to possibly spending more time in Tait's conservatory, but said he'd do his best to find out anything he could about Keith and Tait's relationship. The doorman was expecting us, and walked us to the elevator.

Keith met us at the door. “Mr. Hardesty. Mr. Quinlan. Good to see you,” he said with a warm smile. “Please come in and have a seat. Mr. Duncan will be with you in just a minute. Can I get you anything?”

“No, thanks,” we both said in unison.

Keith smiled again and gestured us to the chairs near the window. “I'll just go tell him you're here,” he said, and left the room.

“I wish he wouldn't do that,” Jonathan whispered.

“What? The ‘Mr.' thing again?”

“Yeah. It makes me feel like somebody's grandfather.”

While I sat, Jonathan walked over to the windows, looking out at the Statue of Liberty.

“Think you'll ever get tired of looking at it?” I asked, gently.

“Nope,” he said, without turning around.

Just then Tait entered the room, followed by Keith. Jonathan turned around and I got up from my chair to shake hands with Tait.

“Mr. Quinlan,” Keith said, “there are a couple of new orchids blooming. Would you like to see them?”

“Sure!” Jonathan said eagerly. Without another word, Keith turned toward the conservatory and Jonathan followed him from the room.

Tait smiled after them, and then turned to me. “Sit, please,” he said, and we both did.

“So,” he said, “news?”

“Well, what I've got is a great big box of jigsaw puzzle pieces, and I'm trying to fit them together. Most of them are probably just sky and forest, but I can't afford to ignore any of them at this point.”

Tait nodded. “I understand.”

“Jonathan accidentally came across what might be one of the pieces when he was helping Keith stuff the new cast sheets into the programs. Keith had gone to look for another box to put the programs in, and Jonathan was looking for some scotch tape in the drawers under the ticket window. He found a gun and a box of bullets behind a stack of old playbills in the bottom drawer. Do you know anything about it?”