Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

own.
    Dolores herself was quite beautiful, becoming more so as she matured. She apparently got along well with her stepfather, and she didn’t date or stay out late at night.
    If she disapproved of the women who clustered around Rockwell, Dolores kept it to herself. She was very close to her mother, and so far in her life, her fate had been entwined with Manzy’s.
    And that was Dolores’s tragedy.
     
    By March 1960 the Rockwells’ marriage seemed to have fallen apart. Neighbors could not help but notice a lovely middle-aged blond who arrived at the antiques shop close to midnight several evenings each week. She drove a long Cadillac convertible and often wore expensive furs. When she slipped into the antiques shop, she left a cloud of Chanel No. 5 in her wake.
    This woman may have been the final insult to Manzanita, who must have realized that a lot more than conversation about antiques was going on. Quite suddenly, Manzanita abandoned her home and husband. The manager of the bank where she worked was puzzled that such a dependable employee would quit without so much as giving notice. But Manzy Rockwell had. At the same time, Dolores Mearns stopped going to her classes at the university.
    A couple who lived next door to the Rockwells had formed close ties with them. They were sure that Manzy would have talked with them before she left, but she never mentioned that she was about to leave “Rocky.” They were hurt at first and then worried. They knew Manzy was often annoyed by Raoul’s flirtations and his tendency to spend more energy on his antiques than he did on her, but they had believed the two of them were in love. Sometimes they had laughed about it—who but Manzy would have put up with Raoul’s pomposity and pretense? They often said he needed her. Manzy grounded him and was the voice of reason in their marriage.
    Their neighbors suspected that there were even times when Raoul would have gotten into financial trouble without his wife’s bookkeeping and steady salary. As much fun as Manzy Rockwell was, she was the one who paid the bills, took Raoul’s clothes to the cleaners, helped out in the antiques shop, and generally held things together.
    And suddenly she was gone. Simply gone. And so was Dolores.
    The couple next door asked Raoul where Manzanita and Dolores were, and he said they had gone to Vancouver, British Columbia—some 150 miles north of Seattle—to visit relatives. But weeks passed and the two women didn’t come back.
    Finally, Raoul told them that he had made up an excuse for Manzanita’s departure to hide the fact that she had left him. He was humiliated. He seemed almost heartbroken as he explained he’d hoped for weeks that they would reconcile, but he had finally realized that she wasn’t coming back.
    “She doesn’t love me anymore,” he said bleakly. “And Manzy closed out our joint bank account. She took every penny I’ve saved for the shop and to buy more antiques. She even burned all my business records before she left! I’m having a terrible time trying to figure out my income tax return.”
    Their neighbors saw that Raoul was really depressed. He was drinking heavily, and he didn’t seem to care about the shop anymore, letting days go by without opening his doors for business. They were surprised; they’d always believed that if either Rocky or Manzy deserted the marriage, he would have been the one to leave. But he seemed to be the classic betrayed husband, bereft and anchorless. The late-night visits from the beautiful blond continued, but even they didn’t seem to cheer him up.
    Finally, though, Raoul pulled himself together. He filed for divorce from Manzanita on grounds of “cruelty and desertion.” In Washington State, an uncontested divorce was final in three months. Raoul would be a single man by late July 1960. Manzanita didn’t come forward, and the Rockwells’ divorce proceedings moved ahead.
    Once more, Raoul grew enthusiastic about his business, and he proudly announced to his friends and patrons that he had been awarded a Fulbright scholarship that would enable him to travel to Portugal and Africa to study the religious significance of Ashanti weights. Current theory was that the prized objects had been hand carved and then finished with a lost wax process introduced by Portuguese sailors.
    “I don’t agree with that,” he submitted confidently. “My research thus far suggests that the weights were used as native charms long before