There were fang-marks in the soft wood. “That cat!” he said aloud as he gathered them off the rug. “One day it’s paper towels; the next day it’s pencils!”
“Yargle!” came a response from the kitchen, as Koko tried to yowl and swallow at the same time.
For his own Sunday night supper Qwilleran went to Rennie’s at the inn. It was quiet. Weekend guests had checked out, and the week’s business travelers had not yet registered. After having a Reuben sandwich, he stopped at the reception desk to chat with Lenny Inchpot.
“How’d you like the games?” the clerk asked. “My mom saw you there with Mr. MacWhannell and said you two had the best-looking knees at the whole Gathering.”
“That sounds just like your mother!”
“How’d you like Boze’s caber toss?”
“Fantastic.”
“When he went to the podium to get the gold medal hung around his neck, I was so proud, I could bust! It’s not real gold, but it’s a shot in the arm for a guy with no real ambition – except to win the state lottery. One day he asked me, ‘How much is a million dollars?’ Boze isn’t smart, but he’s big, and it doesn’t hurt to have a muscleman behind the desk after midnight. Another time he asked me why the days were getting shorter. It keeps me on my toes, sort of.”
“How do you answer his questions?”
“Usually I give him a straight answer, best I can, but the other day I went for the joke. He asked me, ‘Where’s Brazil?’ I remembered that line from Charley’s Aunt and said, ‘Where the nuts come from.’ It fell flat, of course, so I told him Brazil’s in South America, which is south of North America, and I ended up drawing a map of the western hemisphere on the back of an envelope. See what I mean?”
“What’s his chief interest?”
“Eating. Never gets enough food! My mom would be willing to teach him to cook for a living, but…”
A business traveler came to the desk asking for a studio room with computer desk, and Qwilleran moved away until the transaction was complete. Then he asked Lenny, “Has the homicide had any effect on business?”
“It doesn’t seem to bother the guests. In fact, some of them find it kind of exciting. But the staff talk about it a lot, among themselves. Yesterday the day porter saw a locksmith truck from Bixby pull up to the back door. The police took him upstairs. In half an hour he left.”
“Boze must have been on duty at the time of the crime.”
“Yeah, and he told me what he told the police. Around two or two-thirty the lobby was quiet, and he heard the elevator go from the ground floor to one of the upper floors. He thought some guest was coming in when the bars closed. A little later he heard the elevator go down again, as if somebody had just come in for a nightcap or something.”
“Or something,” Qwilleran said. “Well, good to talk with you, Lenny. Keep up the good work!” He glanced at the carpet, picked something up, and dropped it in his pocket. With amusement he remembered what Iris Cobb used to say: “A whirligig is just a whirligig, but two whirligigs are a pair, and three are a collection.”
He was now a collector. It was surprising how many pennies dropped through people’s fingers or through holes in their pockets. Or were they purposely dropped by penny-droppers like Mildred?
At the barn he put the newfound pennies into the spalted maple box and checked his messages on the answering machine. He immediately returned Larry Lanspeak’s call.
“Qwill! I’ve been trying to reach you all day!”
“When did you get in from – wherever you were?”
“This morning. Carol had phoned my hotel on Friday, and I couldn’t believe the news! But I met a Chicago buyer at the merchandising show, and he told me something quite interesting about Delacamp. That wasn’t always his name. His last name was Campau. That’s spelled C-A-M-P-A-U, and he was in partnership with a French gemologist whose name was spelled F-E-Y D-E-A-U. But it seems that Americans had a problem pronouncing the firm’s name and even remembering it. So Campau became Delacamp, and F-E-Y D-E-A-U became F-I-D-O… Do you follow me?”
“Woof woof!”
“Okay, wise guy! Get off the line.”
“I’ll be on my best behavior. Tell me the rest of the story.”
Larry went on. “Fido accused Delacamp of embezzling money from the firm and took him to court, but he lost his case for lack of proof. There had been a lot of nasty publicity, however, so Delacamp sued Fido for libel – and won a sizable judgment! How do you like that?”
“Interesting bit of intrigue!”
“That’s what I thought. I’ve always been curious about Delacamp’s cash transactions… Don’t forget: the genealogy club meets Wednesday night, and you’re invited.”
It was late evening – the hour when Qwilleran had often phoned Andrew Brodie at home. The chief answered brusquely.
“It’s a long time between drinks, Andy, and I happen to have some double-malt.”
“Be right there.” A few minutes later he tramped into the barn, looking grouchy.
Qwilleran said with enthusiasm, “Andy, I saw the pibroch for the first time today, and I want to tell you it’s a transcendental experience!”
“Whatever that means.”
