The Groaning Board

party?”
    “Yes,” he said. “Someone tried to
pitch you over the parapet. You put up some fight.”
    “Scraped my knees... She smiled at
him.
    “I like the direction this is going,”
Bill said. He took the cross from her and laid it back in the box, set the box
on the table. He pulled her to her feet.
    “No... wait, Bill. When I struggled I
must have caught the cross and jerked it. Remember there was blood on my hair,
but no wound? I think the cross came from an || earring and must have lodged in
that damned Wonderbra. So when you unhooked it...“
    “We can play it back exactly as it
happened,” he said, giving her forehead, her cheeks, her eyelids, whispery
kisses, saving her mouth for last. She put her fingers over his mouth for a
moment.
    “He was wearing cross earrings, Bill.
I saw them.”
    Veeder stared down at her. “Who,
Leslie?”
    “Ellen’s boyfriend. Todd. He’s the
one who tried to throw me off Hem’s roof.”

Chapter Forty-Four

     
     
     
    “How SOON DO YOU THINK THEY’LL KNOW FOR
SURE IF MlCK- lynn was
murdered?” Up on one elbow, Wetzon watched Izz stretch the leash as far as it
would go in order to stalk a grasshopper.
    “Depends on whether there was water
in her lungs, contusions, toxicology...” Bill yawned. His eyes were closed.
“They probably know already.”
    “And if there was no water in her
lungs...“ With her forefinger she traced a line from his throat to his
waistband. Sunday in the Park with Bill. “Hey,” she said, “don’t you fall
asleep on me.”
    They were in semi-shade, lying on a
cotton blanket on a hill overlooking the lake. A white picnic hamper with the
‘21’ Club logo lay on its side near a virtually empty bottle of an Oregon pinot noir. Mariachi music just faint enough to be pleasant came from distant boom
boxes. The air had a summer sweetness to it, which strangers never associated
with New York.
    “ ‘The isle is full of noises, Sounds
and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not…,’” she murmured.
    Opening one eye, Bill gave the elbow
she was leaning on a push. He grabbed her in a bear hug when she came down,
then parked her on top of him. “What did you say?”
    “You were asleep. Great. I must be
scintillating company. I said, what if Micklynn had no water in her lungs?”
    “Madam, there is no other company I’d
rather be with. No water in lungs usually means she was dead before she went
in. But not necessarily.”
    “Silvestri thinks it was murder,”
Wetzon said.
    “Oh, he does, does he? And how would
you know that?“
    “I overheard him say something to the
M.E.”
    “Wanna come work for me? I can always
use a good snoop.”
    “Speaking of that, I guess with
Micklynn dead, I can tell you that she hired me to see what I could find out
about Sheila Gelber’s murder.”
    “Let’s neck,” Bill said.
    “Aren’t you going to say I’m not a
detective and it’s too dangerous to muck in police business?”
    “I wouldn’t dare. Didn’t you tell me
in no uncertain terms that you can take care of yourself?” He undid her
ponytail, slipping the band over his wrist.
    Nuzzling his chin, she said, “I did
indeed.”
    “So you want to tell me what you
found out?”
    He was laughing at her, but she
answered anyway. “The only two people in The Groaning Board group who knew
Sheila Gelber were Micklynn and Ellen. Micklynn was going to go into business
with Sheila until you told her the contract with A.T. was airtight and she
couldn’t break it to include Sheila.”
    “And Ellen?”
    “Sheila was Ellen’s English teacher
at Colton. Micklynn accused Sheila of favoritism when Sheila chose a Jewish
student over Ellen for a university summer program. Hardly a motive for
murder.”
    “On the surface. But murderers don’t
always have rational motives.”
    “May I quote you?”
    He rolled them over so that he was on
top of her. “You have no respect.”
    “Oh, yeah, do you see the great
criminal attorney William Veeder himself, a middle-aged, married man, rolling
on the grass in Central Park with that Twinkie Wall Street headhunter,
what’s-her-face?”
    Izz gave a fierce tug on her leash as
she chased a tiny bird that teased by squawking at her, then flying off. “Hey,
you, come back here,” Wetzon said.
    “Everyone’s out of town for the long
weekend.” Bill kissed her mouth, making love to her lower lip.
    “Mmmmm... it only takes one person to
spot us.” She closed her eyes. “You know, if Micklynn was