"I don't know what I know," Isaid.

"This is not an illicit liaison,believe me. Laura and I were married some time ago. We're keeping our marriagesecret, for the present. I'm going to ask you to go along with that."

I didn't say whether I would or not."Why all the secrecy?"

"We have our reasons. For one thing,under the college regulations, Laura would have to give up her post. Sheintends to, of course, but not immediately. And then there's Mother. I don'tknow how I'm going to break it to Jaer."

"You could just tell her. She'll survive."

"It's easy enough to say. It isn'tpossible."

The thing that made it impossible, Ithought, was Mother's money. Having money and looking forward to inheritingmore were difficult habits for a man to break in early middle age. But I felt asneaking admiration for Bradshaw. He had more life in him than I'd suspected.

We went downstairs and through the lobby,where Arnie was playing gin rummy with the night clerk. The bar was a gloomycavern with antlers on the walls instead of stalactites and customers insteadof stalagmites. One of the customers, a local man wearing a cap and windbreakerand carrying a load, wanted to buy Bradshaw and me a drink. The bartender toldhim it was time to go home. Surprisingly, he went, and most of the othersdrifted out after him.

We sat at the bar. Bradshaw ordered adouble bourbon and insisted on one for me, though I didn't need it. There wassome aggression in his insistence. He hadn't forgiven me for stumbling on hissecret, or for dragging him away from his wife's bed.

"Well," he said, "what about JudsonFoley?"

"He tells me you recognized him Fridaynight."

"I had an intuition that it was he."Bradshaw had recovered his accent, and was using it as a kind of vocal mask.

"Why didn't you say so? You could have saved alot of legwork and expense."

He looked at me solemnly over his drink."I had to be certain and I was very far from being that. I couldn't accusea man, and set the police on his trail, unless I were certain."

"So you came here to makecertain?"

"It happened to work out that way.There are times in a man's life when everything seems to fall together intoplace, have you noticed?" A momentary flash of glee broke through hisearnestness. "Laura and I had been planning to steal a weekend here forsome time, and the conference gave us the opportunity. Foley was a side issue,but of course a very important one. I looked him up this morning and questionedhim thoroughly. He seems completely innocent to me."

"Innocent of what?"

"Of Helen's murder. Foley went to herhouse to give her what protection he could, but she was already beyondprotection when he got there. He lost his nerve and ran."

"What was he afraid of?"

"A false accusation, what he calls aframeup. He's had some trouble with the law in the past. It had to do withshaving points, as they call it, in football games."

"How do you know?"

"He told me. I have," he saidwith a chuckle of vanity, "a certain capacity to inspire confidence inthese—ah—disaffiliates. The man was utterly forthright with me, and in myconsidered opinion he had nothing to do with Helen's murder."

"You're probably right. I'd stilllike to find out more about him."

"I know very little about him. He wasa friend of Helen's. I saw him once or twice in her company."

"In Reno."

"Yes. I spent a part of the summer inNevada. It's another fact about myself that I'm not publicizing." He addedrather vaguely: "A man has a right to some private life, surely."

"You mean you were here withLaura?"

He dropped his eyes. "She was with mea part of the time. We hadn't quite made up our minds to get married. It wasquite a decision. It meant the end of her career and the end of my—life withMother," he concluded lamely.

"I can understand your reason forkeeping it quiet. Still I wish you'd told me that you met Foley and Helen lastmonth in Reno."

"I should have. I apologize. Oneacquires the habit of secrecy." He added in a different, passionate voice:"I'm deeply in love with Laura. I'm jealous of anything that threatens todisturb our idyl." His words were formal and old-fashioned, but the feelingbehind them seemed real.

"What was the relationship betweenFoley and Helen?"

"They were friends, nothing more, I'dsay. Frankly I was a little surprised at her choice of companion. But he wasyounger than she, and I suppose that was the attraction. Presentable escortsare at a premium in Reno, you know. I had quite a time myself fending off theonslaughts of various predatory females."

"Does that include Helen?"

"I suppose it does." Through thegloom I thought I could discern a faint blush on his cheek. "Of course shedidn't know about my—my thing with Laura. I've kept it a secret fromeveryone."

"Is that why you don't want Foley taken back forquestioning?"

"I didn't say that."

© Alexander Sviyash, 2009