Page 31 of Fade Out
“And how do you know that?”
“I have Rita’s files.”
Her face went pale and she looked out the window. It was a nice view down the river to the lake. I doubted it was comforting.
“Are you here to blackmail me too?”
“No. I would like you to tell me everything though.”
“And how is thatnotblackmail?”
I didn’t say anything. She sighed deeply and at first I didn’t think she’d tell me a thing, but then she began. “I met Gunner Lindquist through the Buckmans. It was before Earl died. I wanted to know… well, you know what I wanted to know. About your friend. Shortly after I took over the column, the paper hired an editor fromPeople. She wanted some real dirt in the columns. Earl had always been too classy for that. I’d been trying to follow his lead but... I started using Gunner professionally.”
“You told me you take ‘tips’ not to put certain things in the newspaper. Did Earl do that?”
“You have to understand. When I began writingThe Silver Spoonthe paper offered me half what they’d paid Earl. Which was terribly cruel because, if anything, it costs me far more to do the column. My clothing budget alone—even with the freebies I get—well, it’s enormous. And people who used to tell Earl things for nothing wanted me to pay them. I was struggling. And—well, if I’m writing about someone, I have to call and ask if they’d like to comment. Most of the time they offer before I have a chance to ask.”
“And then Gunner died.”
“Yes. I read about it in the paper the morning after his body was found. The Buckmans were terrified. It was obviously a professional hit. They knew it had something to do with 618 North Wells. They really did think the building was legit at the start. By the time they figured out everything that was going on they were in too deep to walk away. Rita showed up in my office about six weeks after her father’s death. Told me she was taking over his business. Told me my taking over for Earl had inspired her. Which, looking back, was probably bullshit.”
“Rita likes bullshit.”
“Well. I needed an investigator. The information Gunner found for me was very useful. I’d come to rely on it. So I gave her a try. Honestly, she wasn’t as good as her father. I thought I could do better if I looked around, so I tried to fire her. That’s when she showed me what you found in her files.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“And I’m sorry. I assume we’re in the same boat. Fellow passengers, as it were.”
We weren’t; I didn’t have the virus. I just smiled though. She could assume what she wanted. I didn’t want to take the chance that she’d stop talking to me.
“Where was I? Oh, yes. Things got worse after that. She ‘suggested’ I become more involved in My Old Friend. The charity. They work with the elderly. Rita and Bill wanted names. Leads as they called them. Bill would sell them on an account at Peterson-Palmer and then they’d begin to slowly steal from them. I felt terrible about it.”
“Not so terrible you didn’t take your cut.”
“I couldn’t turn down the money. Rita would never have trusted me after that. And I have two girls. I’d like them to have a little something when I leave this world.”
“And when the whole thing fell apart, you told the Feds about Rita’s blackmailing you.”
“Of course.”
“And that’s why they didn’t prosecute you.”
“That and the fact that I told them everything I could think of about Rita and Bill. I was very cooperative.”
I nodded. Then I put her file on the desk for her. She opened it and looked at the top sheet.
“It’s yours.”
Quietly, she closed the file and slipped it into a desk drawer.
“Thank you.”
“The woman in the box. She’s close enough to Rita’s height and weight that the police believe it’s her. I suspect she has some connection to Rita. I’m not flattering myself with the idea that Rita deliberately killed someone to frame me.”
“She saw an opportunity and decided to take it,” Gloria said, having firsthand knowledge of that. “You think this young woman has a connection to someone on the board for 618 North Wells.”
“It’s possible. I assume someone on the board had Gunner Lindquist killed, as well as Arturo Luna.”
