Act of God

happened.”
    A better nod, resolute. “My Abe, he’s part—he was partners in Value Furniture. It’s a store down in the Leather District.”
    A small, commercial neighborhood lying between Chinatown and South Station. “Go ahead.”
    “It’s a beautiful building, built a hundred years ago, back when they knew how to make them. He was working late on that Thursday—they stay open till eight, Thursdays—and somebody tried to rob him. They hit him... they hit him over the head with the poker from the fireplace in his office. The bookkeeper found him, lying on the floor, all his blood...”
    I didn’t want to push her. “What do the police say?”
    A shrug and more work with the tissue. “They don’t, except what I told you already. They figure somebody came in the store, hid somewhere till closing, then went to the office after the money.”
    “If the store was closed, how did the person get out?” Another shrug. “Through the emergency door at the back. Beverly and the security guy heard the alarm go off.”
    “ Beverly ?”
    “Beverly Swindell.” Rivkind pronounced it “Swin- dell .” A bleak smile. “First time I saw her name written down, I said to Abe, I said, ‘Abe, you’re hiring a bookkeeper with a name like “swindle”?’ He got a big kick out of that. Abe always loved my little jokes.”
    “Do you know the name of the security guard?”
    Rivkind shook her head. “He was new. An Irish guy, big like you, only not here very long.”
    “Here?”
    “In this country. He came over from Ireland , I don’t know, like less than a year ago?”
    “Have the police made much progress?”
    “I don’t know from murder, Mr. Cuddy. They tell me they’re looking into things, what do I know to ask them? Nobody saw anything, and whoever it was just ran away.”
    I waited a minute. “What exactly is it you want me to do?”
    A judicious nod this time. “After Abe... died, I went through his bills. The charge stuff, you know? Joel offered to do it for me, but I thought I should... get a handle on his debts, whatever.”
    “Joel’s your son?”
    “My...? Oh, no. Joel’s... Joel was Abe’s partner. Joel Bernstein. They worked in the furniture business for other people, then got together twenty years ago and bought out the owner of Value. Anyway, I’m going through Abe’s papers, and there are...” Rivkind made another couple of passes with the tissue. “There’re these receipts and things for restaurants and bars, only like too many of them.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, Abe was a great boss, he took the people for drinks, dinner at this local place, Grgo’s, you know it?”
    The name came out “Gur-go’s.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Well, you’d have to look good for it, he don’t advertise much. I’ve only been there a couple, three times because we live in Sharon , it’s easier to head up to Dedham , but all the people from the District eat at Grgo’s. The thing is, though, there were too many receipts in Abe’s papers from there and some bars and other restaurants I don’t remember him ever mentioning to me.”
    I wasn’t nuts about the direction this was taking. “Mrs. Rivkind—”
    “I don’t mean to interrupt, but would it be okay... Is it still professional and all if you call me ‘ Pearl ’?”
    I looked at her, the big eyes brimming a little.
    She said, “The last two weeks, I’ve been having everybody call me ‘Mrs. Rivkind this’ and ‘Mrs. Rivkind that,’ and it’d just be kind of nice to hear my first name from a man.”
    I leaned back. There was no come-on in what she said, just a sincere request. “Sure. And I’m John.”
    The tears stood down. “Thank you, John. Now, you were going to say what?”
    “I was going to ask you what you thought the extra receipts meant?”
    “I don’t know what to think. If Abe didn’t get... dead, I never would have seen them, and he’d know that. He took care of all the bills, always did. But—it’s not that we... that I don’t have the money to take care of them. It’s just... I don’t understand them.”
    “ Pearl , are you sure you want to?”
    The jaw jutted. “You think he was having an affair on me.”
    “I’m just saying, are you sure you want to know?”
    “John, my Abe and me were together thirty-one years. You get to know a man pretty well, thirty-one years of watching him get up and go to sleep and head for the bathroom. You ever married?”
    I thought of Beth and said,