The Winter of Her Discontent (32 page)

“I don't think that was necessary,” I said. “If anyone needed forgiveness, it was Paulette.”

“I didn't know that at the time.” He looked at Zelda and she looked at him, and their faces were full of such love, such longing, that it was impossible to imagine that either of them had ever been coupled with anyone else.

“If I were you two, I'd scram before Elaine eyeballs you.” I started on my way back into the Canteen.

“I have something for you,” said Zelda.

I paused with one foot in the door. “What's that?”

She pulled a small packet of letters from her coat pocket and passed it to me. “It's not much, but it might help. These are the letters Paulette was getting.”

“Thanks.” I palmed the notes and watched as the two of them headed down the block. When they were out of sight, I entered the Canteen stairwell and struggled to read the letters by the dim, bare bulb that lighted the way. No dice. I stepped back outside and searched for a better light source.

“Rosie?”

Minnie was on the walk beside me.

“Funny seeing you here,” I said. “Where's the fire?”

“I was wondering if you'd seen Ruby.”

“Not a glimpse. Why?”

Minnie worked her fingers into pretzels. “I think I may have done something very stupid.”

“I'll be the judge of that.”

“Ruby told me this morning that she had a date tonight. Right after I got home from rehearsal she had a call. From a man. She wasn't home, so he asked me to tell her that he'd had a change of plans and he wanted her to meet him tonight at nine at the Bernhardt.”

“Was it Donald Montgomery?”

“That's the problem: I don't know. He didn't give me a name, just said Ruby would know who it was. I've never spoken to Captain Montgomery before, so I wouldn't recognize his voice. Anyway, I told her about it, and she left the house a little while ago. I got to thinking about what you said about her being in danger, and it seemed to me that her meeting up with some man at the Bernhardt wasn't exactly the safest thing she could be doing, especially since this was a rather suspicious last-minute change of plans.” That was putting it mildly. “I thought I'd better track you down and tell you.”

“Good thinking. What time is it?”

She peeled back her glove and squinted at her watch. “A quarter till. We should go there, shouldn't we? Just to make sure she's okay.”

“Yeah, I guess we should.” I debated whether or not to get Jayne. There was a good chance this was going to be nothing but a trip for biscuits. And after everything that had happened with Tony, Jayne needed a night of fun and frivolity. There was no point in ruining both of our evenings.

 

We arrived at the Bernhardt and found the main doors locked and the lobby dark. I took Minnie around to the alley, and together we struggled to open the load-in doors. Bingo—they were unlocked and slightly ajar.

We crept into the basement and wound our way through the catacombs. I kept expecting to find Ruby lying in some darkened corner, but aside from ourselves there were no other signs of life. The room that had once served as Vinnie Garvaggio's butcher shop had been cordoned off with police tape. The other doors I hadn't been able to open stood ajar and were also designated as crime scenes. Their contents were finally revealed to us: large, commercial freezers hummed in these small, dank spaces. This was where the meat was stored after the horses were butchered.

We passed through the cross-under and made our way to the stairs that led up to Friday's office. We paused on the first landing—lobby level—and listened for a sign that anyone else was in the building. I put my finger to my lips and gestured for Minnie to stay low. Slowly, I peeked through the window in the stairwell door and searched out the lobby. Nothing.

“If she's coming, she hasn't arrived yet,” I said. I pushed open the door and entered the lobby. Minnie clicked on the lights and I settled down for a wait with Paulette's letters.

“What are those?”

“It turns out Ruby wasn't the only one being threatened. The dame that died—Paulette—she was receiving letters too.” I rifled through my coat pockets, searching for the letter Ruby had attempted to throw away.

“What are you looking for?”

“I palmed one of Ruby's notes a few days ago. I want to compare the handwriting.”

Minnie nodded reverently. My hand landed on a piece of paper in my pocket and pulled it out. It was stuck shut, so I pulled at the seal and forced it open.

“Is it a match?” asked Minnie.

It wasn't even the right letter. I'd just pulled open the V-mail I'd never mailed for Ruby. Curiosity got the better of me, and I scanned the page. What I assumed would be an uncomfortable epistle trying to woo Captain Montgomery into marrying her was something quite different. It was a Dear John that took up less than half the page. She didn't want to see him again and, more to the point, she'd never cared for him to begin with. Their whole relationship was, she confessed, a game.

It would've been a pretty admirable letter if it had been in Ruby's handwriting.

I
LOCATED THE LETTER
R
UBY
had thrown out several days before in my pocketbook. I rotated between the three pages. Ruby's threat, Paulette's threat, and Ruby's Dear John were all written in the same handwriting. I turned Ruby's V-mail over and found that it was addressed in a different hand. Clearly, the same person wrote all three of these letters, but someone else addressed the V-mail. That meant the culprit was able to switch Ruby's letter to Captain Montgomery with a note of his or her own and seal it up before Ruby addressed it.

But who would've had access to her mail?

“Is something the matter, Rosie?” asked Minnie.

I shoved the three letters back into my pocket and stood. “Not a thing. I don't think Ruby's going to show up. Maybe we should just call it a night.”

“You know Ruby—she's always late.”

“True, but Jayne's going to go goofy when she realizes I'm gone.”

“I think we should stay.”

I started toward the stairwell. “How about you stay, and I'll see if I can intercept Ruby before she's gets here?”

“I don't think that's such a good idea.” Minnie pulled a revolver out of her pocket. The iron was so new I could see my reflection in it.

“Fine, have it your way.” I grabbed air. “What's this all about, Minnie?”

“You know the answer to that.”

“If I did, do you think I would've asked the question?”

The gun shook. It was heavy and she had trouble keeping it elevated. “It's not fair. It's not right to take advantage of them.”

“I haven't taken advantage of anyone.”

Her eyes glazed over. “These men are being stolen away from us, and instead of honoring them, you're looking for ways to bleed them dry. I won't let you do it.”

I backed toward the door. “You're tooting the wrong horn, Minnie. I'm not seeing anyone. I'm not part of this scam. In fact, I'm the one trying to stop it.”

She put both of her hands on the butt of the gun and rested a finger perilously close to the trigger. “I thought you were different, but then you went and saw that man at the Canteen again.”

“Peaches? I made it clear to him that all I wanted was a few dances. Ask him if you don't believe me.”

The barrel of the gun swayed like it was a living, breathing creature. “And then there was that man who kept calling the house, wanting to talk to you.”

So that's why I'd missed Paul Ascot's calls and why Ruby had been upset that she hadn't been getting Donald's. Minnie was the one who'd intercepted them and who, presumably, saw to it that I didn't get the message Norma left on our door. “You're misunderstanding, Minnie. None of these men mean anything to me.”

Even I knew how bad that sounded.

Minnie's hands shook again, and the revolver refracted the lobby light. “All the while your supposed boyfriend is missing in action. It's probably killing you that he hasn't been declared dead yet. After all, you can't get his money until you have a death certificate.”

Things were going from bad to worse. “You're misunderstanding things. I can see how you would, but I'm not like the others. Jack and I weren't married, remember? I'm not waiting for money to come my way. I wouldn't want it if it did.”

“Of course you are. You're just like them. It's a game to them. Do you know that? I've heard them talking about their conquests like they were baseball cards they'd collected. And why? So they could
get money to buy expensive clothes and afford a nice uptown address. My dead brother paid for those things. And the sad part is if she'd ever really loved him, if he'd come home safe and started a life with her, he would've gladly bought her anything she wanted.” So that was the link. Paulette must've been married to Minnie's brother, Mickey.

“She didn't kill him, though. You must understand that, Minnie.”

She cocked the gun, and my stomach slid down to my ankles. “Don't you understand the hope she gave them? Each of those men left this earth believing she loved them. Do you think my brother would've taken the risks he did if Paulette hadn't kept telling him to be brave and strong for her? We didn't want him to be brave and strong. We wanted him to come home. We wanted him to live to see another Christmas.” She began to cry. “And then to find out that she married again so soon afterward. Just like that, Mickey was forgotten. All of them were forgotten.”

The stairwell door banged open. As Minnie turned to the sound, I dove on her and grabbed for the gun. She fired once, and a storm of plaster rained down from the ceiling. I pinned her arms to the floor and pushed all of my weight against her until she lost her grip. She yelped in pain as I tossed the gun toward the figure by the doors. Ruby bent down and picked it up.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I'm going to guess the same thing you're doing here. Minnie told me I was supposed to meet someone here at nine.”

It was 9:15. Ruby had, as always, kept us waiting.

Minnie began to sob from her place on the floor. “Someone has to stop them.”

I approached her in trepidation. If she attacked me again, would Ruby stop her? Or would she be too busy looking at her reflection in the gun's surface? “Someone will stop them, Minnie. I've already told the Canteen what they're up to, and none of them will be working there anymore. I won't let any of them get away with it again. I promise.”

Minnie lifted her tear-stained face to mine. “You can't promise that.”

“Sure I can.” I fished a handkerchief out of my pocket and passed it to her. “I've got friends who have ways of being persuasive. I imagine they could get those three girls to do just about anything they asked.”

 

Minnie was arrested that night for the murder of Paulette Monroe and the attempted murder of Olive Wright. She also owned up to being behind Ruby's allergic reaction, though she claimed it wasn't to kill her. Like her attempts to intercept our phone calls and the letter she forged to Donald Montgomery, she thought if she could keep Ruby and me from seeing these men, she might be able to save both them and us.

Ruby went home with Jayne and me. While she had to know what could've happened to her if she had been on time for once in her life, she was too wrapped up in playing the heroine to acknowledge that things might've turned out very differently.

“I suppose I owe you a thank you,” I said.

“That would be nice.”

I dug my nails into my palms. Being grateful to Ruby was a hard state to find yourself in. “And while we're giving each other the things we deserve, how about you give me an explanation: Why have you been so awful to me?”

Ruby sighed and stared into the parlor fireplace. Blackened logs crackled as flames danced around them. “I wanted to keep you out of this. I thought if I made you feel unwelcome, if I planted enough doubts to make you uncomfortable with seeing another man, you might stay home. I guess I was wrong.”

I couldn't have been more surprised if she'd lifted her skirt and shown me a wooden leg. “You were protecting me?”

“I suppose you could put it that way.” I was strangely touched. I'd never known Ruby to do anything that wasn't for her own gain.

“What happened to your ring?” I asked.

Ruby looked down at her bare left hand. “I gave it back. George and I are through.” She put her hand to her neck and massaged her tendons. The necklace George had given her was also gone. The only souvenir of their relationship was the vase of once-yellow roses rotting in the middle of the parlor coffee table. “It was awfully tempting. The money. The gifts.”

“So why did you change your mind?” I asked.

“I do have morals, you know.” And ambition. Unlike Zelda and company, Ruby had considered what would happen if her soldier came home. She couldn't stomach the thought of giving up her career.

There was no point in telling her that I knew this. Ruby had her own demons to live with.

“I'm glad you changed your mind about George,” I said. “But I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that you leaped at the chance to meet another man at the Bernhardt tonight.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Not as disappointed as I am.”

“I don't get you.”

She fought a smile. “The call Minnie intercepted was from Lawrence Bentley. He's on leave and begged me to see him.”

“Oh.”

“He may be arrogant, close-minded, and self-absorbed, but he never once told me I couldn't be whatever I wanted to be.”

There was a lot to be said for a man like that.