Swan Dive

can’t do that.
    ”I know.”

I dialed my answering service from a booth on Broadway. No messages. I tried Chris and drew Eleni, who told me Chris was out but due back after 2:00.1 told her it was important that I speak with him and that I would be there at 2:00 sharp. She apologized for his not calling me back the previous evening, but didn’t give me any reasons.
    I hung up, called Felicia Arnold’s office, and waited through receptionist and secretary for her soft, breathy hello.
    ”Ms. Arnold, John Cuddy.”
    ”I recognized your voice. And please call me Felicia.”
    ”I was hoping I could see you today. Around noon?”
    ”I believe I can work you in.”
    ”At your office.”
    ”If you insist.”
    ”Ms.—Felicia, please.”
    ”All right. Eleven-thirty?”
    ”Thank you. See you then.”
    I got in the Fiat and took Route 1A through Revere , past the Wonderland dog track and the Suffolk Downs horse track. The road breaks over Lynn Beach, then curves north through Swampscott. I found the building again easily, feeling confident that old Bryce would be faithfully manning his computer terminal.

    ”Oh, Mr.... uh, Curry, isn’t it?”
    He looked insecure, uneasy that I’d walked in on him while his fingers were fondling the keyboard. ”Close. Cuddy, John Cuddy.”
    ”Oh, yes, sorry. Names . .
    ”I’m the one who’s sorry, Mr. Stansfield, breaking in on you again like this. But I have a few more questions that I thought you might help me
    with.”
    ”Please, uh, sit down.”
    ”The last time I saw you, I remember your mentioning that Roy Marsh came to work here about the time your uncle died.”
    ”That’s right. Well, uh, just after, of course.”
    ”While you were going through your divorce.”
    ”Right.”
    ”Who was your attorney?”
    ”My... uh, for the divorce, you mean?”
    ”For the divorce.”
    ”I don’t quite, uh, see how that’s . .
    ”Any of my business?”
    ”Well, y—no, no. I realize, uh, the police have to look into everything, but. .
    ”I’m not a cop, Mr. Stansfield.”
    ”But you said—”
    ”Only that I was investigating Marsh’s death. And I am.”
    He looked confused. ”The police, they, uh, asked me whether I, whether the firm ever hired any Boston private... you’re, uh, the one they think killed him. Killed Roy !”
    ”They may have said that, but they don’t believe it.”
    ”Well, then, why, uh, should I answer any more of your questions?”
    ”Because I know about you and Teri Angel.”
    He was about to say something, but the sound of her name froze his mouth around a syllable like a stop-action photograph.
    ”Your voice, Mr. Stansfield. Your voice is on her telephone tape machine.”
    ”But, it’s been over... uh, that is—”
    ”I haven’t told the police.”
    ”You haven’t?”
    ”No. And I hope I won’t have to.”
    He pinched the bridge of his nose. ”I don’t, uh, understand. I’m sorry.”
    ”One step at a time. Who was your divorce lawyer?”
    He tried to focus. ”Felicia. Felicia Arnold.”
    ”And through her you met Teri.”
    ”That’s correct. My wife and I hadn’t... uh, for a long time, I was... uh, unable.”
    ”And Felicia suggested you see Teri.”
    ”Yes. I didn’t know at the time... I, uh, know this must sound awfully naive of me, but... I, uh, actually thought she was just a sort of...”
    ”Therapist?”
    ”Yes. I mean, you could tell just hearing her, uh, speak a few sentences that she wasn’t educated very formally, but she had a way of listening, of bringing out, uh, things that troubled me. I even tried to pay her the first time by check. And I haven’t, uh, hadn’t seen her in over a year.”
    ”There’s one thing I haven’t been able to figure out, Mr. Stansfield. How did Marsh meet Teri?”
    ”She called here once, to cancel an, uh, appointment I’d made with her, and I was at the post office, so Roy took the call and, uh, asked me who ‘Teri’ was, so I finally told him after he already guessed.”
    ”He threaten to expose you and her if you didn’t set something up for him?”
    ”Yes. Uh, no, not exactly. I think I, uh, just let him talk to her the next time, over the telephone when she, uh, called here.”
    And the cops, looking at Teri’s or the office phone bills, would just assume it was Teri or Marsh calling the other all along. ”Go on.”
    ”Go on? Well, uh, there’s not that much more to say.”
    ”I’m afraid there is. What about the drugs?”
    ”I called, uh,