True-Life Adventure

worst thing about it was that I was going to have to find yet another place to live— I couldn’t endanger Sardis’s life by being in it. It wouldn’t be gentlemanly.
    “I’ve gotta leave,” I said. “I can’t have you harboring a marked man.”
    “Nonsense,” she said. “And too late. Both of us already knew somebody wanted to kill you when I offered to put you up, and neither of us backed out then.”
    She was right. I wanted to stay with her and I’d been too chickenshit to bring up the danger before, and now I was trying to cover up by being macho. Face it, Mcdonald, I said to myself, you’re full of it.
    To Sardis I said, “You’re a princess.”
    “True,” she said. “Very true.” And she got a kind of smug look like Spot gets when things are going his way.
    “I don’t want you dead,” I said.
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “So let’s get this jerk before he gets us.”
    “My thought exactly.” She put some water on for tea and sat down at her kitchen table. I joined her.
    “I’ve been thinking about our conversation last night— about Jack and his ‘background checking.’ And whether or not he did it routinely. Jack had a list of people to talk to about Lindsay. You and Brissette were on it. So were Joan Hearne, Susanna Flores, and Peter Tillman. Do you know any of them?”
    She nodded. “Susanna and Joan, yes. Tillman, a little, but not through Lindsay. I met him at a party once.”
    “Lindsay was seeing him and he was married.”
    “So?”
    “So he was vulnerable to blackmail. So was Brissette. He had a coke habit, and you had Mr. A&L. Is there anything in either Susanna’s or Joan’s life that could be used against either of them?”
    “Joan’s, definitely. She’s a former mental patient— took too much acid about fifteen years ago and wound up in the bin. In and out of the bin, matter of fact. Lousy press for a bank veep.”
    “What about Susanna?”
    “I don’t know her very well, but she’s absolutely straight as far as I know. She and Lindsay and I have been known to have a few drinks and talk a certain amount of girl talk, but she’s never let anything slip that could make her vulnerable.”
    “Do you like her?”
    “A lot. Listen, why don’t we just ask her? If Jack tried to blackmail her, she’ll probably be pretty pissed off and glad to talk about it. Also, she has a vested interest in this thing— two, in fact. She’s worried about Lindsay on a personal level and she needs her back for the show.”
    “Okay, let’s ask her.”
    Sardis made us both some tea and then she reached for the phone. “Susanna? It’s Sardis Kincannon.” There was a pause.
    “No. I haven’t heard from her, either. But I’ve found somebody else who’s interested in finding her. I’m afraid it’s your competition— a guy named Paul Mcdonald; he works for the Chronicle .” Pause. “Yeah, he did quit, but he’s back for the time being. Anyway, he worked for Jack Birnbaum and he thinks the way Birnbaum got his information was by blackmailing people.” Long pause. “We thought it might be something like that. Thanks, Susanna. I’ll be in touch.”
    “Well?”
    “She knows you.”
    “I don’t think so. I’m sure I’d remember.”
    “I mean your work. She says you’re okay.”
    “That’s gratifying.” It was, but I was getting impatient. “Did Birnbaum try something with her?”
    “Sure did. Her husband’s a lawyer who represents some company that was involved in a scandal that Bay Currents didn’t do a story about. You follow? Anyway, Susanna says she turned down the story without knowing it was a firm her husband represented— one of those deals with a lot of d.b.a’s and a.k.a.’s. So it wasn’t really a conflict at all, and even if it was, it’s pretty weak stuff. But I guess it’s all Jack could get. Anyway, he tried that on her and she gave him a piece of her mind and threw him out.”
    “That settles it then. If he tried to blackmail her, he probably did it with everyone. And that gives just about everyone a motive to kill him.”
    “But what about Brissette?”
    “Good question. Let’s try this: Brissette knew something about Lindsay which, under carefully applied pressure, he told Birnbaum. Whatever it was made Birnbaum dangerous to someone. That someone found out he knew and how he found out and killed both him and Brissette.”
    “And the someone read in the Examiner that you were Jack’s assistant and figured you knew too. So he