The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker Read Free Book Online Page B

me.
    "Then when it came time for college, she insisted on going to that factory. Can you imagine the reaction of some of my associates when they ask me where my daughter goes to school and I tell them?"
    It was a rhetorical question. I could imagine, but I knew he wasn't looking for an answer.
    "Against my best judgment I permitted her to go. And I permitted her to live there rather than at home." He shook his head. "I should have known better. She got in with the worst element in a bad school and…"
    He stopped, drank another large slug from his snifter, and went on.
    "She never gave us any trouble till then. She was just what we wanted. And then in college, living on the very edge of the ghetto, sleeping around, drugs. You've seen her, you've seen how she dresses, who she keeps company with. I don't even know where she lives anymore. She rarely comes home, and when she does it's as if she were coming only to flaunt herself before us and our friends. Do you know she appeared here at a party we were giving wearing a miniskirt she'd made out of an old pair of Levi's? Now she's gotten herself involved in a murder. I've got a right to know about her. I've got a right to know what she'll do to us next."
    "I don't do family counseling, Mr. Orchard. There are people who do, and maybe you ought to look up one of them. If you'll get Terry down here we'll talk, all of us, and see if we can arrange to live in peace while I look into the murder."
    Orchard had finished his brandy. He nodded at the empty glass. His wife got up, refilled it, and brought it to him. He drank, then put the glass down.
    He said, "While you're up, Marion, would you ask Terry to come down."
    Marion left the room. Orchard took another belt of brandy. He wasn't bothering to savor the bouquet. I nibbled at the edge of mine. Marion Orchard came back into the room with Terry.
    I stood and said, "Hello, Terry."
    She said, "Hi."
    Her hair was loose and long. She wore a short-sleeved blouse, a skirt, no socks, and a pair of loafers. I looked at her arms-no tracks. One point for our side; she wasn't shooting. At least not regularly. She was fresh-scrubbed and pale, and remarkably without affect. She went to a round leather hassock by the fire and sat down, her knees tight together, her hands folded in her lap. Dolly Demure, with a completely blank face. The loose hair softened her, and the traditional dress made her look like somebody's cheerleader, right down to loafers without socks. Had there been any animation she'd have been pretty as hell.
    Orchard spoke. "Terry, I'm employing Mr. Spenser to clear you of the murder charge."
    She said, "Okay."
    "I hope you'll cooperate with him in every way."
    "Okay."
    "And, Terry, if Mr. Spenser succeeds in getting you out of this mess, if he does, perhaps you will begin to rethink your whole approach to life."
    "Why don't you get laid," she said flatly, without inflection, and without looking at him.
    Marion Orchard said "Terry!" in a horrified voice.
    Orchard's glass was empty. He flicked an eye at it, and away.
    "Now, you listen to me, young lady," he said. "I have put up with your nonsense for as long as I'm going to. If you…"
    I interrupted. "If I want to listen to this kind of crap I can go home and watch daytime television. I want to talk with Terry, and maybe later I'll want to talk with each of you. Separately. Obviously I was wrong; we can't do it in a group. You people want to encounter one another, do it on your own time."
    "By God, Spenser," Orchard said.
    I cut him off again. "I want to talk with Terry. Do I or don't I?"
    I did. He and his wife left, and Terry and I were alone in the library.
    "If I told my father to get laid he would have knocked out six of my teeth," I said.
    "Mine won't," she said. "He'll drink some more brandy, and tomorrow he'll stay late at the office."
    "You don't like him much," I said.
    "I bet if I said that to you, you'd knock out six of my teeth," she said.
    "Only if you didn't smile." I