Thanksgiving (4 page)

‘What do you mean by the picture angle?’ I said.

‘Photos. Snapshots. Et cetera. Some even from back when we got together.’

He grinned.

‘But of course a toney guy like you wouldn’t be interested in that sort of thing, would you, Tone? You were interested in Miss Lucy as a person, right? Well, good for you. Dull work, but someone’s got to do it.’

‘Where did you get them?’

‘Get what?’

‘The photographs.’

‘Ah, the
photographs
,’ he said in his fake English accent. ‘Same as my phonograph over there, old chap. I took them from our house. This was a year or so before you moved in. After she told me it was all over and I had to go, blahdi-blah, I actually ended up staying on there another few months. I had nowhere else to go, you see, being as luck would have it temporarily unemployed at that particular point in time. She tell you that?’

‘Of course.’

‘You said that a little too quickly, Tone. Not your style, I think. And not hers, either. To tell you, I mean. Luce would have been too kind to tell you a thing like that, knowing how it might hurt you. Just as she was too kind to chuck the father of her children out on the streets. So I ended up living there till a friend of hers found me a job at the university. Yep, that philosophy degree finally paid off after all. Actually the position was as one of the janitors, but hey, the pay was good and I took it philosophically. Anyway, meanwhile I carried right on living with her in that house you know so well, like nothing had really changed. We even slept in the same bed. Had to, you see. The kids had the other rooms.’

There was a lengthy silence.

‘Now I know what you’re thinking,’ Allen continued, ‘except you’re too polite to ask. At least, I think I know. Let me have a shot at it anyway. I’d be prepared to place a modest bet that what you’re thinking is,
Did they fuck?
’

He took a long draw on his cigar and washed the smoke down with some more whiskey.

‘Well, the answer is in the affirmative. Luce didn’t want to, but when push came to shove she didn’t say no. Or at any rate, not real convincingly. She was too hot to last even one month without some pussy action, never mind three. But she must have made a deal with herself. She’d let me fuck her, but she wasn’t going to come. Or at least, she wasn’t going to let me know I’d made her come.’

He laughed, slapping his hands together.

‘And you know what? Those last months of our marriage was the best sex I ever had in my whole goddamn life. Imagine fucking this hot babe’s brains out, knowing all the time that she’s fighting her own orgasm. We’re talking truly mind-blowing stuff here.’

He poured himself more whiskey and pushed the other glass towards me.

‘Come on, Tone, take your medicine like a good boy. You’re going to need it before I get through.’

‘Through with what?’

‘Satisfying what killed the cat. I mean, let’s get real. We both have an agenda here. I have my memories, you have a gun.’

I recrossed my legs involuntarily, shielding the right side of my body.

‘A gun? What are you talking about?’

‘Well, maybe you’re just glad to see me.’

He laughed again.

‘Anyway, before I finally had to leave and get an apartment of my own, I had lots of time to go through our photo collection and pull out the ones I wanted. Luce was at work all day and the kids were at school, so I had the run of the house. Sure you don’t want to see them? The prints haven’t worn that well, the ones I wasn’t able to find the negs for, but they’ll still give you an idea.’

He stood up, tossing his cigar butt into the stove.

‘Let’s see, where did I put those things? This place used to be a total mess, but I knew exactly where everything was. Then I got one of my manic spells a while back and decided to tidy up. Now I can’t find jack shit. Some of those early ones are really something. Luce used to make most of her clothes, to save money, and I have to say she was pretty damn good. She knew how to dress herself to cause a stir without causing a riot, you know? When she went out alone, she always dressed defensively. Had to, to avoid unwanted attention on the streets. But when she was with me she could loosen up a little, go without a bra and let it all hang loose. Even after feeding Claire her tits were still as perky as ever. Frank took them down another notch or two, but back then I used to get a real rush walking down the street with her, my arms around her, like Van the Man says, knowing that every guy around was getting a hard-on just looking at her. That ever happen to you?’

He looked at me.

‘What’s the matter, Tone? You don’t say nothing. You’re not inhibited, are you? The stereotypical uptight Brit? We’re just a couple of guys here. We can talk freely.’

‘I’ll speak my piece later.’

‘Or your piece will speak for you. You’re not planning to shoot me, are you?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Pardon my asking. Just a thought that occurred to me. You know how we no-class Americans can’t help blabbing out anything that crosses our minds. Where were we? I’m losing my grip. Time for another hit.’

He sat down and gulped some more whiskey.

‘Right, those photos. And that’s not all. I was kind of unhappy about Luce kicking me out, tell you the truth. In fact I was seriously pissed off. So to get even, I decided to sort of keep an eye on her for a while, see what transpired. And that’s how I come to have the tapes of her and Scott.’

He paused.

‘You know about Scott?’

‘I think she mentioned the name.’

‘What did she say?’

‘I don’t remember.’

‘Forgive me, I’m curious to know how she pitched it.’

‘She said something about him being a co-worker and that they’d gone to Japan together on some sales trip.’

‘Did she tell you that they’d done the deed? That’s what she would have said, I’ll bet. “Done the deed.” She loved those corny old expressions.’

He looked at me.

‘She didn’t? Well, I don’t blame her. Personally, I think it was a mite reckless of her to mention Scott at all. Don’t scare the new horse, would have been my advice. So obviously she didn’t tell you what happened once they got back. She didn’t tell me either, of course, but I found out just the same because I was stalking her at the time, like I said. And I have to tell you that once Scott and Luce got back from that sales trip to Tokyo they proceeded to do the very same deed at least a dozen times more back in town. It sounds dumb, but that kind of shocked me. I mean, I didn’t expect Luce to remain celibate, but I somehow didn’t expect to be replaced so soon. Although I have to say that given what she was after, she made a pretty good choice. This Scott was a real studly guy, some kind of work-out fanatic, one of those abs-of-steel types. He liked to get her to walk on his stomach. Wish I’d been able to have her do that. She must have looked pretty good from that angle.’

‘How do you know all this?’

He frowned at me.

‘Are you paying attention? I told you. I taped them at it. Well, some of it, anyway. But I’ve got pretty lengthy extracts from eight sessions. They used a motel, you see. Luce had the kids at home and Scott had a wife. And since they had no reason to suppose that anyone suspected them, they always used the same motel. So I checked out the facility in question, and figured out that whatever the room number, the bed was always on the left-hand side of the unit. After that, it was just a question of following Luce down there, seeing which room she went into, and then trying for the one next to it. “107 free? I’ll take that.” Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn’t. Then a microphone embedded in a suction cup sticker attached to the party wall, and I got to record the whole party. The sound quality isn’t that great, compared with what I got up to later, but it’s okay. They were mostly quite loud, anyway. You can surely make out what was going on.’

He stood up unsteadily.

‘Want to hear one? March eighteenth is my favourite. That’s right before Scott’s wife found out what was going on and the shit hit the fan. The interesting thing is that you can kind of sense, unless this is just me, that Luce already knew that something was up. She was always good at that, sort of premonition stuff. Anyway, there’s an edge of desperation there that’s lacking in the earlier tapes, when she was just thinking of the moment. The down side is there’s also a lot of talk about how she feels guilty and doesn’t want to wreck his marriage and all that, but that just makes the action scenes more piquant, if that’s the word I’m looking for. Frankly, of all the tapes, it’s the one I find myself taking down off the shelf most often. It’s definitely the one I’d start with, if I were you. You want to hear it?’

He surveyed his stacked cassettes blearily.

‘Unless you’d prefer to be the star yourself, of course.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Allen slumped back into his chair.

‘Well, see, once Scott was out of the picture I kind of lost interest for a while. There were others, I knew that. I can’t remember the names. They came, they went. No pun intended. By that time, I didn’t really care that much.’

He grinned at me.

‘But you were different. You stuck in there. You did the decent thing. Just what we expect of you guys. Poor old Luce must have thought she’d died and gone to heaven. Every young maiden’s dream come true. The other guys were just interested in one thing, but you fell in love with her. You even married her.’

He feigned a British salute, palm turned out.

‘Good show, chaps. Although as a show it didn’t seem that impressive to me, I have to say. Not compared to the Scott archive, at least. His tapes definitely get more air-time around here than yours, I’m afraid. But comparisons are invidious, and I’m sure it seemed great to you at the time. Plus technically it was a piece of cake compared with that motel gig. Cheaper, too, since I didn’t have to rent a room myself. It was just a question of wiring Luce’s bedroom for sound, which was easy enough to do, visiting the kids every week like I did. I bought a sound-activated recorder from Radio Shack and slipped it in the back of one of the closets. I knew she’d never look in there. Hell, I found some of my own stuff while I was doing it, a pair of shoes I’d forgotten about.’

He shot me a glance.

‘So how about it, Tone? Do you want to hear you and your late wife “doing the deed”? Like I say, it all sounds distinctly underwhelming to me. Lots of talk, but where’s the meat? Still, I have high standards in these things. Maybe it’ll be different for you. Might bring it all back, eh?’

He frowned.

‘Don’t look at me in that tone of voice, Tone. Hell, we’re practically related. We’ve both had the same woman. They’ve got some word for that in Spanish. We’re brothers under the skin. Under Luce’s skin, that is. All I’m saying is that you’re perfectly welcome to access my private Library of Congress here, should you feel so inclined. For legitimate research purposes only, of course.’

My limbs felt like lead, but I forced myself to stand up. I took out the revolver clumsily, snagging the barrel on my coat pocket.

‘Ah, I knew Mr Chekhov wouldn’t let me down,’ Allen said quietly.

He finished his whiskey and got up.

‘Now before you shoot me, Tone, let me give you two fashion tips for future reference. Never wear brown shoes with a blue suit, and don’t choose a lightweight Burberry if you’re planning to carry a concealed weapon. Okay, go ahead, I’m ready.’

‘I’m not going to shoot you.’

For the first time, a trace of anger appeared in his eyes.

‘You’re not? Then what the hell is the gun for? And what was all that “You-could-die-tonight” bullshit? What are you, some kind of tease? I’ve been counting on your shooting me. Why do you think I’ve been goading you like this? Jesus, I’ve spent all this time working on you, and now you tell me you’re not going to come across?’

He brightened up suddenly.

‘How about if I throw in the Polaroids?’

‘The what?’

The lights waxed and then waned almost to nothing.

‘I took a whole set one night she was really hot. Got her to pose in various positions. Made her think it was all a game. It wasn’t that hard. Man, she didn’t know
what
the hell she was doing. Next day she asked about it, sounding kind of scared, but I showed her the empty camera and said I’d just been kidding. I got about eighteen in all. They’re around somewhere. You interested?’

In the dim light cast by the stove, I saw him give me a look.

‘Or maybe you’d prefer the video.’

‘Video?’

‘Well, it was originally Super-8. They didn’t have video back then. I got it transferred later.’

He searched around among the video cassettes stacked on his shelving.

‘This was back when we lived in San Francisco. You know those mornings that dawn bright and clear and kind of cold, with an edge to them, and everything feels possible? You don’t get any more of them once you turn thirty, even if the weather’s the same. We’d been on a stoner all night long. Luce wasn’t really into drugs, not like me, but I slipped some speed into the juice I brought her that morning. It was a kind of crazy night. We’d been to a party, well a couple in fact, and then a bunch of us ended up driving over to Marin.

‘I don’t recall too much after that except when Luce and I finally got home we were both bopping and the light was just incredible and I remembered this camera I’d borrowed from someone. I was just pissing around at first, seeing how it worked, totally into the trip, you know, focused, and suddenly she came in and started dancing to this music I’d put on. Only she had plans of her own, see, so she did a sort of slow strip to get my attention. Like I was into this boring guy thing with gadgets and she needed to win me back. Which I have to say she did, but not before I got some pretty good footage. I was a little worried about the light shining in through the window behind her, the one that always used to stick when it was damp, which it was a lot of the time with the fog rolling in, but not that morning. And the exposure turned out to be just perfect.’

He smiled.

‘You going to kill me now? Or you want to see your late wife back when she was still cute? What’s it to be, Tone? Don’t keep me hanging on like this.’