Page 87 of The Happy Month
“Talk to your lawyer if you want. If you do the deposition, you can return the suitcase.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
August 3-4, 1996
Late Saturday Afternoon/Sunday morning
“Is this Virginia Marker?” I asked when she picked up the phone. I’d called as soon I walked into the house.
“It is. Who is calling, please?” she asked. She had a very faint accent, really only a hint of one. Once it might have been Italian or Greek. There wasn’t enough left to be sure.
As I explained who I was and why I was calling, I tried to make myself comfortable on the couch. But as tired as I was, from almost two days sitting in my car I couldn’t get comfortable.
“I have not thought of Vera in many years,” I heard her say.
“Did you see her much around the time she was murdered?”
“No. No I did not.”
“You were close friends, though?”
“For a time, perhaps.”
“Did something happen to your friendship?”
“Oh no. People wander apart.” She waited a moment and then asked, “Was that you? Have you been calling our telephone and hanging up?”
“Maybe once,” I lied. “Do you know anyone from that period named Gigi?”
“That is a name short for Georgette, is it not?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“I cannot think of anyone with that name.”
John came in through the front door. I waved at him, and he waved back. He went through the living room and then upstairs.
“Can you tell me more about Vera?” I asked Virginia. “How did you meet her?”
“I am not even certain. Hmmm… Well… maybe she was dating a friend of my husband, Manny. That might have been it.”
I had the feeling she was lying. In fact, I was pretty sure of it.
“You don’t remember this friend’s name?”
“Oh no, I do not.”
“Was it at a party or in a bar? A double date?”
“It was fifty years ago. I do not remember.”
“Did you belong to a group called The Sisters of Artemis?”
“No.”
“Do you remember hearing about them?”
“Is this a group for women who hunt? I do not like hunting.”
