A Midsummer Night's Scream

golf with him one day, with a lunch afterward, and had a dinner with him as well.
    It was Mel’s own fault that he hadn’t asked the right questions. The old boys were interesting and he’d let them off too easily. Because they were so old? No. None of them, however feeble in body, had seemed to have lost their wits and ambitions.
    He’d interview them again, focusing on what they really thought about the actor. It might be useless. Or it might not be. Bunting wasn’t a good man. Maybe he was a worse man than Mel knew. Or maybe not.
    Of all the old friends of Bunting’s he’d interviewed before, the canniest was the attorney who was still going into the office, meddling. He’d succinctly answered the questions Mel asked and hadn’t volunteered a single extra word.
    Mel would make an appointment in the morning to see him in the office he still maintained.
    The lawyer, Irving Walsh, welcomed him to his office Wednesday morning and asked a secretary to bring along coffee. “Do you mind if I smoke a cigar while we talk? I’ll open a window if you wish.“
    “I like the smell of a good cigar, but have never smoked one. Please go ahead,“ Mel replied. He really hated the smell of cigars but wanted Walsh to be relaxed and content to talk.
    When the secretary had left the coffee, a brand as expensive as the cigar, Mr. Walsh said, “We’ve spoken before, but on the phone. What more do you want to know?“
    “There was a question I asked everyone else and neglected to ask you. After the dinner with your old friends and John Bunting, did you all leave the establishment together?“
    Walsh picked up a silver-plated pen knife to cut the end off his cigar. When it was lighted and he had politely opened a window and turned on a small fan blowing toward the window, he said, “As a matter of fact, we didn’t. John Bunting left early. He said his wife was waiting up for him and made a feeble joke about what a tight rein she kept on him.“
    “Did you happen to notice the time he left?“
    “About an hour or forty-five minutes before the rest of us called it a night. Maybe about ten or a little earlier. I’d told my driver to pick me up at eleven.“
    “Are you certain of this?“
    “Why wouldn’t I be?“
    “Because I asked the rest of the group you were with, and every one of them said you’d all left together and chatted on the sidewalk as your drivers arrived.“
    “They all had far more to drink than I did,“ Walsh said, fiddling with the growing ash on his cigar. I haven’t had a single glass of anything alcoholic for years. Maybe they really thought he was still with us.“
    “Perhaps,“ Mel said. “Do you like John Bunting?“
    “Why do you ask?“
    “It’s my job to ask nosy questions.“
    Walsh smiled. “So was it my job at one time. I’m still in the habit. No, I don’t like him. The rest of us had the benefit of a good education and, I admit, family ties that helped us out. John has ridden on his wife’s coattails, so to speak, for his entire adult life. If it weren’t for her charm, talent, and hard work, he’d be out of work and broke. Or even dead by now. And unlike the rest of us, he never talks about his daughter or grandchildren. He seems to have no interest in them.“
    “That’s my impression as well, and the opinion of a friend of mine who knows them slightly,“ Mel admitted. “Do the rest of your old friends feel the same way about him?“
    “Most of them. Except for Ed Kolwalski. He and Bunting were always in touch. Even in college, they stuck together. I suspected, but won’t go on the record, that Ed was supplying Bunting with drugs from his dad’s pharmacy. It might have just been vitamins, but they were so furtive about it that it made me wonder if it was something stronger.“
    “Do you think Kowalski still does this?“
    Walsh nodded. “I’ll deny I said this if this comes to court, but Ed passed a bottle of something to Bunting the night we got together. They were sitting next to each other, but I was on the other side of Ed and saw it changing hands.“
    “Thank you,“ Mel said. “And I’ll try to use this, if I need to, without using your name.“
    “That will be tricky.“
    “It will. But I might not be required to use the information. Or you might like to testify if we need you to.“
    Walsh simply raised his eyebrows and took another puff of his cigar.

    * * *

    When Mel returned to his office to make more detailed notes of his discussion with