Swan Dive

Teri takes the drugs, but doesn’t try to sell them. Because the killer is using them personally, like Felicia. Or because the killer wanted Marsh, or Teri, or both, dead and didn’t give a damn about the drugs, like Hanna. But why does anybody go to the trouble of framing me first?
    I got up, locked up, and drove home. Nobody was waiting for me anywhere. I had a pizza delivered, washed it down with my last three Molson Goldens, and went to sleep at 10:00 p.m.

I drove past the Swampscott house twice, but saw no sign of Braxley or Terdell for half a mile in either direction. Assuming they weren’t anchored offshore in a Boston whaler, I backed into her driveway alongside the apparently fixed Escort and got out of my car. I rang the bell, then knocked just as Hanna opened the door. She had a towel in her hand.
    ”John.”
    ”Hanna, I wonder if I could talk with you for a while?”
    ”Oh, of course, of course. Come in.”
    She led me into the living room. It now looked straightened, restored. Hanna said, ”I remember you don’t like the coffee, but could we sit in the kitchen? I’m doing the laundry, and Vickie is in the yard with Rocky. I want to keep the eye on her. Like you said?”
    ”The kitchen would be fine.”
    I sat on a stool, Hanna folding linens from a plastic basket and turned three-quarters away from me so she could see the child through the window. Vickie had a furry beanbag of some kind on a piece of cord, and would swing it out toward a low hanging bush, then work it back to herself like a fly-caster after trout. The quarry was the kitten, who would pounce on the bag from beneath the bush, tussle with it wildly, then bound back under cover to await the next toss.
    I said, ”She looks happy.”
    Hanna smiled. ”She is. To be home, with her new kitty. And I am happy.”
    ”To be home?”
    The smile turned wistful. ”To be home, and to be free of Roy , that too, I think.” She creased a pillowcase precisely, like a marine furling the colors at sunset.
    ”Hanna—”
    ”I bury him yesterday.”
    ”I’m sorry?”
    ” Roy . I bury him yesterday.”
    I couldn’t read any emotion at all from her. ”How did Vickie take it?”
    ”I did not have Vickie there. They tell me it is cheaper to do the cremation, but I tell them, no, I want him buried. I tell the BMW man, ‘Come get your car, I make no more payments on it.’ He was mad, so was the boat man, I call and say, ‘Come, take back your boat, no more payments on that either.’ ” She shook her head. ”They both say they sue me, but I need the money so I can bury Roy . And I bury him so I can go back if things ever get bad again, go back and stand at his grave and remember what bad really is.” I waited till I was sure she was finished. Then I said, ”Have you seen Braxley again? Or heard from him?”
    ”No.”
    ”Hanna, I met with the police. And with Chris.” I summarized for her what I’d learned from each.
    She listened, politely but still without emotion. ”Was that different from what you expect them to say?”
    ”No.”
    She shrugged. ”So I wait, right? For the drugs to be found or Braxley to come see me again.”
    When I didn’t answer, she said, softly, ”It doesn’t matter. It is still better than Roy .”
    ”Hanna, I’m at a dead end looking for the drugs. You told me the last time that you didn’t really know anything about them, and I believe you. But if you can think of anything that would help, I’d appreciate it.” She gestured with a dish towel. ”When I come back here, I pull the things together that the drug people pull apart. I don’t know Roy ’s life since I leave him so well, but the only things I can see gone that I remember are a suitcase and the video things.”
    ”When you say video things, you mean the camera and the case for it?”
    ”Yes, the case he carry the drugs in. And the stand thing.”
    ”The tripod?”
    ”Yes. Tripod.”
    I thought back to Maylene’s comment at lunch about Teri’s supposed screen test. ”Did Roy take the camera and tripod out of the house much?”
    Hanna dropped her eyes. ”Sometimes.”
    ”What for?”
    She blushed. ”You need to know this?”
    ”Hanna, I don’t know what I need to know.”
    She abandoned the laundry and hugged herself as though she were chilly, staring out at Vickie and away from me. ” Roy , he like to... use the camera when we... in our bedroom. He set up the tripod thing and the camera and then... take the pictures of us...