A Bullet for Cinderella Page 8

  There would be no glimmer of understanding in the cold official eyes of Lieutenant Prine.

  A state road patrol car passed me, going slowly. The trooper behind the wheel stared curiously at me as I sat there. He stopped and backed up. Maybe they were already looking for me.

  He leaned across the empty seat and said, “What’s the trouble?”

  “Nothing. I mean I was overheating. I thought I’d let it cool off. Is it far to a gas station?”

  “Mile or so. It’ll cool off quicker if you open the hood.”

  “Will it? Thanks.”

  “And get it a little farther off the road, doc.”

  He went on. I moved the car farther off the road. I opened the hood. I wondered if he would be bothered by the way I had acted and come back to check my license and look the car over. I wondered if I should make a U turn and get as far away from him as I could. But it made some sense to risk the outside chance of his coming back and stay right there until I could plan what to do with the body.

  The noon sun was warm. There was a subtle, sour odor in the car that sickened me. A dark-red tractor moved back and forth across a distant hillside. Drainage water bubbled in the ditch beside the shoulder. A truck went by at high speed, the blast of its passage shaking my car.

  I found that a two-day drunk gives your mind a flavor of unreliability. Memory is shaky and dreams become mixed with reality. I began to wonder if I had imagined the body. When there was no traffic I looked into the back seat again. The tarp was there. The body was covered. It was not covered very well. I saw a thick ankle, a dark green sock, a brown scuffed shoe, cracked across the instep, with laces tied in a double knot, the way my mother used to tie my shoelaces when I was very small to keep them from coming untied. It made Grassman more believable as a person, as the person who had sat on the edge of a bed and tied those laces and then had gone out and become a body, and the laces would eventually be untied by somebody else, somebody with a professional coolness and an unthinking competence. I whirled around when I heard traffic coming. When the road was clear again I pulled the tarp to cover the ankle and shoe, but it pulled clear of his head and my stomach spasmed and I could not look at him.

  After a while I fixed the tarp properly. I got out of the car. I did not want to look in again. But I found myself staring in at the side window.

  I had to get rid of it somewhere. I had to get rid of it soon. The very nearness of the body kept me from thinking clearly.

  The lake? I could find it again. But I could be seen there as readily as Ruth saw Grassman. I could hunt for obscure roads at random and dump the body out when I came to what seemed to be a good place. But the body was going to be found and it was going to be identified and it was going to be in the paper with the right name. And Ruth was going to remember the odd question I had asked the man and remember his telltale response to that question.

  The minutes were ticking by and I was getting nowhere. Fitzmartin’s trap was wide and deep, lined with sharp stakes. I wished I could put the body back on his doorstep. Give it right back to him. Let him sweat.

  At first glance the idea seemed absurd. But the more I thought about it the better it seemed. I would be seen driving into the yard. But if questioned I could say that I was going to see Fitzmartin. And I would see Fitzmartin. I would leave the body in the yard somewhere between the piles of stacked lumber.

  No. That would do no good. No man would be so stupid as to kill another man and leave the body at the place where he worked. Yet if some attempt was made to conceal the body—Perhaps then they would assume it was a temporary hiding place until Fitzmartin could think of another.

  On the other hand, would any man be so stupid as to kill another man and then drive the body to the police station in his car and claim he didn’t do it? Maybe that was my best out. Maybe that was the best innocent reaction.

  My hands were icy cold and sweaty. They left wet marks where I touched the steering wheel. I was trying to think of every alternative, every possible plan of action. I could go back and check out and head west and try to leave the body where it would never be found. Buy a shovel. Dig a desert grave. I could put the body in the seat beside me and run into something. My ideas were getting worse instead of better. The very presence of the body made thinking as laborious as trying to run through waist-deep water. I did not want to panic, but I knew I had to get rid of it as soon as possible. And I could not see myself going to Prine for tender mercy. There had been a reason why Grassman had been killed. Hiding the body would give me a grace period. I would have to assume it would be traced to me eventually. By the time they caught up with me, I would have to know why he had been killed. Knowing why would mean knowing who. I knew it was Fitz. Why did Fitz kill Grassman?

  I shut the hood and started the car and drove. I was five miles from the court and about nine miles from town when I found a promising looking road that turned left. It was potholed asphalt, ravaged by winter, torn by tractor lugs. It climbed mild hills and dipped into forgotten valleys. It came out of a heavy wooded area, and ahead on the left, set well back from the road, I saw a tall stone chimney where a house had burned long ago. The weathered gray barn had half collapsed. It looked like a great gray animal with a broken back, its hind legs dragging. The road was empty. I turned in where the farm road had once been. Small trees bent over under my front bumper, dragged along the underside of the car, and half rose again behind me. I circled the foundation of the house and parked behind the barn near a wild tangle of berry bushes. I could not be seen from the road. I had to risk being seen from distant hillsides. It seemed very quiet with the motor off. A crow went over, hoarse and derisive.

  I opened the rear door of the car. I made myself grasp his heavy ankles. Rigor had begun to set in. It took all my strength to pull the bulky body free of the cramped space between the back seat and the back of the front seat. It came free suddenly, thudding to the ground. I released the ankles and staggered back. There had been something under the body. Friction had pulled it toward me. It rested on the car floor, half in and half out of the car—a short, bright length of galvanized pipe with a dark brown smear at one end. I left the body there and went to see where I would put it. There was a great splintered hole in the back of the barn. I stepped up and through the hole. The floor felt solid. Daylight came brightly through the holes in the roof.

  I went back to the body again. It was not hard to drag it to the hole. But getting it inside the barn was difficult. I had to lift it about three feet. I puzzled over how to do it. Finally I turned him around and propped him up in a sitting position, his back to the hole. I climbed up over him, then reached down and got his wrists. I pulled him up over the edge and then dragged him back into the darkness. There was some hay on the floor, musty and matted. I covered the body with it. I went out and got the piece of pipe, using a dry leaf to pick it up. I dropped it into the hay that covered the body. I went back out into the sunlight.

  I wondered about Grassman. I wondered what compulsion had made him choose his line of work. Dirty, monotonous, and sometimes dangerous work. From the look of the man as he talked to us up at the lake, I guessed that he had no idea it would end like this. He had looked tough and confident. This body under the straw was a far cry from the fictional private eyes, the smart ones and the suave ones and the gamy ones. His story had ended. He would not sit up, brush the straw out of his eyes and reach for either blonde or bottle. Leaving him there had about it the faint flavor of burial, as though solemn words should be said.

  I inspected the car. The floor rug was stained and spotted in four places. I couldn’t see any on the seat, or on the insides of the doors. I took the floor rug out and rolled it up. I put it beside me in the front seat. I sat and listened to the quietness, straining to hear any sound of car motor laboring on the hills. I heard only the birds and the sound of wind.

  I drove back out and I did not head back the way I had come. A car seen going and returning was more likely to be remembered on a c
ountry road than a car that went on through. In about three miles I came to a crossroads. I turned north. I thought the road was paralleling the main highway, but in five miles it joined the main highway, coming into it at a shallow angle. I took the next secondary road that turned right. I was closer to the city. Soon, as I had hoped and expected, I came to a place where a lot of trash had been dumped. I put the rolled rug in with the bed springs and broken scooters and kicked some cans over it.

  By the time I passed the motel, heading toward the city, I was surprised to find that it was only quarter after one. I ate at a small restaurant on Delaware Street. When I left I met Mrs. Pat Rorick on the sidewalk. She had an armful of bundles. She smiled and said “Hello, Mr. Howard.”

  “Did you remember anything, Mrs. Rorick?”

  “I don’t know if this is any use to you, but I did remember one little thing. It was a skit the eighth grade did and Timmy was in it. It was based on Cinderella. I can’t remember the girl who played the part, but I remember how funny it sounded the way it was written, with Timmy calling the girl Cindy. It probably doesn’t mean anything.”

  “It might. Thanks.”

  “I’m glad I met you. I was wondering whether to call you about anything that sounds so stupid. I’ve got to run. There comes my bus.”

  “I’ll drive you home.”

  “No. Don’t bother.”

  I convinced her I had nothing to do. We got into the car. She had her packages piled on her lap. I wondered how she’d feel if she’d known about my last passenger.

  “How should I go about finding out who that girl was?”

  “Gee, I don’t know. It was a long time ago. I don’t know if anybody would remember. The eighth-grade home-room teacher was Miss Major. I had her too, later. She was real cute. I think she wrote that skit they did. I don’t know what happened to her. I think she got married and moved away. They might know at the school. It’s John L. Davis School. On Holly Street, near the bridge.”

  • SEVEN •

  The John L. Davis School was an ancient red-brick building with an iron picket fence enclosing the schoolyard. As I went up the steps to the door, I could hear a class of small voices chanting something in unison. It was a sleepy, nostalgic, afternoon sound.

  In the wide wooden hallway there were drinking fountains which looked absurdly low. A small boy came down the hall, tapping himself gently and wistfully on the head with a ruler. He gave me an opaque stare and continued on his way.

  There was a nervous young woman in the outer office of the principal’s office. She was typing and chewing her lip and when she looked up at me she was obviously irritated by the interruption.

  “I’m trying to find a Miss Major who used to teach here. She taught eighth-grade subjects, I believe.”

  “We only go through the sixth. Then the children go to the junior high.”

  “I know that. But you used to have the seventh and eighth here.”

  “Not for a long time. Not since I’ve been here.”

  “Aren’t there any records? Isn’t there any place you could look?”

  “I wouldn’t know where to look. I wouldn’t know anything like that.”

  “Are there any teachers here who would have been here when Miss Major was here?”

  “I guess there probably are. I guess there would be some. How long ago was she here?”

  “About twelve years ago.”

  “Mrs. Stearns has been teaching here twenty-two years. Third grade. Room sixteen. That’s on this floor just around the corner.”

  “I wouldn’t want to interrupt a class.”

  “Any minute now they’ll all be going home. Then you could ask her. I wouldn’t know anything like that. I wouldn’t know where to look or anything.”

  I waited outside room sixteen. There was a lull and then somebody started a record player. Sousa filled the halls with brass, at peak volume. There was a great scurrying in all the rooms. The doors opened. All the small denizens marched into the hall and stood in impatient ragged double lines, stomping their feet in time to the music. The floor shook. Weary teachers kept a cautious eye on the lines. The upstairs rooms marched down the stairs and out the double doors. Then the main floor marched out, yelling as soon as they hit the sunlight. The school was emptied. Sousa blared on for a few moments and died in the middle of a bar.

  “Mrs. Stearns?”

  “Yes, I’m Mrs. Stearns.” She was a round, pale woman with hair like steel wool and small, sharp, bright dark eyes.

  “My name is Howard, Talbert Howard. Did you know a Miss Major who used to teach here?”

  “Of course. I knew Katherine very well. That reminds me, I should stop by and see how she’s getting along these days.”

  “She’s in town?”

  “Oh, yes, the poor thing.”

  “Is she ill?”

  “Oh, I thought you knew. Katherine went blind quite suddenly about ten years ago. It was a shock to all of us. I feel guilty that I don’t call on her more often. But after a full day of the children, I don’t feel like calling on anyone. I don’t seem to have the energy any more.”

  “Could you tell me where she lives?”

  “Not off hand, but it’s in the phone book. She’s on Finch Avenue, in an apartment. I know the house but I can’t remember the number. She lives alone. She’s very proud, you know. And she really gets along remarkably well, considering.”

  It was a small ground-floor apartment in the rear of an old house. Music was playing loudly in the apartment. It was a symphony I didn’t recognize. The music stopped moments after I knocked at the door.

  Miss Major opened the door. She wore a blue dress. Her hair was white and worn in a long page boy. Her features were strong. She could have once been a beautiful woman. She was still handsome. When I spoke to her, she seemed to focus on my face. It was hard to believe those eyes were sightless.

  I told her my name and said I wanted to ask her about a student she had had in the eighth grade.

  “Please come in, Mr. Howard. Sit there in the red chair. I was having tea. Would you care for some?”

  “No, thank you.”

  “Then one of these cookies. A friend of mine bakes them. They’re very good.”

  She held the plate in precisely the right spot. I took one and thanked her. She put the plate back on the table and sat facing me. She found her teacup and lifted it to her lips.

  “Now what student was it?”

  “Do you remember Timmy Warden?”

  “Of course I remember him! He was a charmer. I was told how he died. I was dreadfully sorry to hear it. A man came to see me six or seven months ago. He said he’d been in that prison camp with Timmy. I never could quite understand why he came to see me. His name was Fitzmartin and he asked all sorts of odd questions. I couldn’t feel at ease with him. He didn’t seem—quite right if you know what I mean. When you lose one sense you seem to become more aware of nuances.”

  “I was in that camp too, Miss Major.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. Probably Mr. Fitzmartin is a friend of yours.”

  “No, he’s not.”

  “That’s a relief. Now don’t tell me you came here to ask odd questions too, Mr. Howard.”

  “Fairly odd, I guess. In camp Timmy spoke about a girl named Cindy. I’ve been trying to track her down for—personal reasons. One of your other students, Cindy Kirschner, told me that you wrote a skit based on Cinderella for the eighth grade when you had Timmy in the class. Timmy wasn’t—very well when he mentioned this Cindy. I’m wondering if he could have meant the girl who played the part in the play.”

  “Whatever has happened to Cindy Kirschner, Mr. Howard? Such a shy, sweet child. And those dreadful teeth.”

  “The teeth have been fixed. She’s married to a man named Pat Rorick and she has a couple of kids.”

  “That’s good to hear. The other children used to be horrible to her. They can be little animals at times.”

  “Do you remember who played the part o
f Cindy in the skit?”

  “Of course I remember. I remember because it was sort of an experiment. Her name was Antoinette Rasi. Wait a moment. I’ll show you something.” She went into the other room. She was gone nearly five minutes. She came back with a glossy photograph.

  “I had a friend help me sort these out after I learned Braille. I’ve marked them all so I know this is the right one. It’s a graduation picture. I’ve kept the graduation pictures of all my classes, though what use I have for pictures, I’ll never know.”

  She handed it to me and said, “I believe Antoinette is in the back row toward the left. Look for a girl with a great mass of black hair and a pretty, rather sullen face. I don’t imagine she was smiling.”

  “I think I’ve found her.”

  “Antoinette was a problem. She was a little older than the others. Half French and half Italian. She resented discipline. She was a rowdy, a troublemaker. But I liked the child and I thought I understood her. Her people were very poor and I don’t think she got much attention at home. She had an older brother who had been in trouble with the police and I believe an older sister. She came to school inadequately dressed when the weather was cold. She had a lot of spirit. She was a very alive person. I think she was sensitive, but she hid it very carefully. I can’t help but wonder sometimes what has happened to the child. The Rasis lived north of the city where the river widens out. I believe that Mr. Rasi had a boat and bait business in the summer and did odd jobs in the wintertime. Their house was a shack. I went out there once after Antoinette had missed a whole week of school. I found she hadn’t come because she had a black eye. Her brother gave it to her. I gave her the part of Cinderella in an attempt to get her to take more interest in class activities. I’m afraid it was a mistake. I believe she thought it was a reflection on the way she lived.”

  “Was Timmy friendly with her?”

  “Quite friendly. I sometimes wondered if that was a good thing. She seemed quite—precocious in some departments. And Timmy was a very sweet boy.”