Act of God

Will-yum, he’s like one of the Body Snatchers, you know?”
    “The movies?”
    “Yeah. One was in the ‘fifties, and the remake was the ‘seventies, so I don’t have anything on them here. But he goes around the way the people did after they went through the pods, kind of... dead inside. Robots who did what they did, imitating life.”
    I looked at her.
    She said, “That’s why I was surprised to hear you say Will-yum hired you. He’s always been pretty tight with a buck. A buck, hell, Will-yum wouldn’t pay ten cents to see Christ ride a bike.”
    I kept looking at her.
    Nugent said, “What’s the matter?”
    “I was thinking, if either your niece or nephew did kill your sister, you must have thought about which one it was.” The vampire smile again. “I’ve thought about that a lot, you know? One of them a murderer, and here I’m paying for insurance policies on each of them because the one that got murdered made me promise to. But I finally gave up and decided I’d just wait.”
    “Wait for what?”
    “Wait for one of them to collect on the other. Then I figured I’d know for sure.”
    As I opened the door to leave, the cowbell reminded me of another movie. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the scene where Eric Idle walks along behind the plague cart, ringing a bell and calling, “Bring out your dead.”
    Only this time it didn’t strike me funny.

11

    Crawling south in the traffic on Route I back toward Boston , I pieced together what I’d learned so far. Five years ago, Barbra Proft dies in a fall that her sister, Darlene, believes was murder. William and Darbra split a hundred thousand dollars of insurance proceeds. A year ago, Darbra moves to the Commonwealth Avenue building with Trad Wickmire and starts an affair with Roger Houle. Then three and a half months ago, in mid-March, Darbra calls her aunt to check if the remaining policies on her and her brother are still in force. A month or six weeks ago, Wickmire overhears Darbra’s half of the “sugar daddy” telephone conversation. Some time later, Darbra breaks up with Houle in a melodramatic scene at Grgo’s restaurant and about the same time starts an affair with Rush Teagle. A week or so after that, Abraham Rivkind is killed at the furniture store. Another week later, Darbra leaves for vacation in New Jersey , mode of transportation unknown, calling Wickmire in the middle of the week from Sunrise or Sunrise Beach . Then Darbra supposedly returns on Saturday, Teagle saying she left him a conveniently lost note, nobody else hearing boo from her. Darbra’s suitcase and accumulated mail are on her bed, but none of the other things you’d expect a returning vacationer to do seem to have gotten done.
    There might be a pattern in there somewhere, but I couldn’t see it.
    After leaving the Central Artery at South Station, I found a parking space in the Leather District. Until the 1830s, the area was known as South Cove, and with good reason, since it was under water and provided wharf space for merchant goods. Then the cove, like Back Bay , was filled in to create more livable land. After a fire in the 1870s, the area was rebuilt as the center of the shoe industry, which gave the district its name. Now most of the shoe manufacturers and their warehouses are gone, replaced by artists’ lofts, galleries, and restaurants.
    I treated myself to a heavy lunch at the Loading Zone, a converted warehouse on Kneeland Street with hustling waitrons, great barbecue, and a wide selection of ales on tap. Then I walked over to Value Furniture.
    From the curb, the store also looked like it was converted from a warehouse, but what a warehouse. Four stories tall, the windows were bays on the first three floors and Palladians on the top, with ornate, flagged spikes like medieval lances guarding the roof. The facade was marble, curlicues and other detail work around the sills and corners. The entrance was two massive brass doors, and I tugged open the one on the right.
    I was barely across the threshold when a pert young woman with a smile like a toothpaste commercial and a hairstyle like the national boundaries of Iraq met me. “Good afternoon, sir, and welcome to Value Furniture. My name is Karen. Can I help you in any way?”
    “I’m here to see Mr. Bernstein.”
    “Fine. Mr. Bernstein is on the fourth floor.” The smile never wavered. “If you’ll just follow me, I’ll show you to his office. We can take the elevator, or”—she gestured