Worst Fears Realized

named Arlene Mitteldorfer came to see you about a divorce?”
    There was a long silence.
    “Bruce, you still there?”
    “What’s this about, Stone?”
    “I take it you remember her. You may also remember that she was murdered a day or two after you saw her.”
    “How do you know about this?”
    “I ask a lot of questions. What I want to know is, what did she say about her husband in that meeting?”
    “I remember that you were the arresting officer. You know very well I can’t discuss that with you; the conversation was privileged; otherwise, I’d have called you at the time.”
    “She’s been dead for twelve years, Bruce; privilege shouldn’t be a problem.”
    “My notes from those days are in storage in Queens. It would take weeks to find them.”
    “I don’t want your notes, Bruce; I just want to know what, you remember about that meeting. Mitteldorfer is out of prison, and I’m trying to find him. I’m hoping you can tell me something that might help.”
    “I don’t remember much.”
    “She was a beautiful woman, Bruce. I’m sure you remember the meeting very well.”

    “I don’t see why I should violate a confidence to help you, Stone.”
    “Let me give you a reason, Bruce: it appears that Herbert Mitteldorfer is going around New York City, killing people who have annoyed him in the past, and, sometimes, their friends. We’re at six bodies, and counting. If you gave her advice that might have been to his disadvantage, and I’m sure you did, then he might very well be annoyed withyou. ”
    There was only a brief silence, and then Goldsmith was talking. “I took her to lunch; she was gorgeous, and I didn’t mind being seen with her. She told me her husband had appropriated the money her father had left her, and that she wanted to divorce him and get the money back. She wanted to know if that was possible, and I told her it certainly was. My recollection is that we were talking about something in the range of three or four million dollars, plus an apartment her father had given them when they got married. She was worried that he might become violent. I advised her to move out of the house immediately and file for divorce. I told her I could get her the apartment back very quickly, and she’d be able to move back in during the proceedings. She said she’d get back to me. I never heard from her again.”
    “Did you sleep with her, Bruce?”
    “That’s hardly relevant to this conversation.”
    “It is, if she told her husband about it. Spouses tend to spit out these things in the middle of domestic quarrels.”
    “Yeah, all right, I fucked her. We had lunch at a little hotel in the Sixties; I kept a room there, at the time.”

    “Was there anything else she said about her marriage, anything at all?”
    Goldsmith thought for a moment. “Yeah, there was: she said she thought her husband had another wife, that he was a bigamist.”
    “Did she say who or where the other wife was?”
    “No; we were…getting involved about that time, and we didn’t get back to that. I would have asked her, of course, if she had called me back.”
    “Of course.”
    “Stone?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Should I watch my back?”
    “Bruce, if I were you, I’d leave town; that’s what I’m doing.”
    “Hang on,” Goldsmith said. “Millie, tell Moyle that I’ll do the deposition in San Francisco, and get his plane ticket changed to my name. He’s on the two o’clock flight, isn’t he? I don’t care what he says, just do it.” He came back to Stone. “Thanks, pal, I appreciate the warning.”
    “And I appreciate your recollections,” Stone said, feeling slightly soiled from having received them. He hung up and called Dino. He was headed north on the Saw Mill River Parkway.
    “Bacchetti,” Dino said.
    “It’s Stone. You may get a call from a guy named Palmer, who…”
    “I just did.”
    “So, you’re on top of that?”
    “You bet I am. Anything else come up?”
    “Yes. Arlene Mitteldorfer saw a divorce lawyer right before she was murdered. He told me that shesaid she thought Herbie had another wife.”
    “Before her?”
    “Duringher.”
    “Herbie was a bigamist?”
    “Could be. I don’t know if the marriage records were computerized that long ago, but it might be worth doing a search; I’d sure like to talk to the other Mrs. Mitteldorfer. Maybe she’s hiding him.”
    “I’m on it,” Dino said.
    “I’m on the way to Connecticut, now; let me give you the numbers up there;