Devlin by Roderick Thorp

Author:Roderick Thorp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media

4:26 P.M. …

A woman answered the telephone. In response to recent events in her life, her “Hello” sounded as if her head were going on a chopping block. She seemed resigned to it, too, sick of living. Devlin was calling from the back of a kosher deli in Bensonhurst, near the neighborhood in which the telephone on Major’s slip of paper was located.

“May I speak to Mrs. Anita Brennan, please? I realize that this is a bad, awkward time to call, but—”

“I’m Anita Brennan.”

He drew a breath. “This is Frank Devlin, Mrs. Brennan, the brother-in-law you never met.”

“The FBI questioned me yesterday about you. They wanted to know if Jack had spoken of working with you …”

“He couldn’t have.”

“I know, that’s what I told them. Please.” She stopped. In the silence he realized that she was exhausted, unable even to try to keep up with events. “Look, Mr. Devlin, I knew Jack really wasn’t a serious man. He was running for the Senate because he didn’t know what else to do with his life, and his polltakers told him he could win. He had no more business being in politics than he had being in the Waldorf Towers …”

Devlin had to take a chance. He phrased his next question to draw her out. “Then you knew about Jane Milburn.”

“I knew he was having some kind of affair, yes. He had many liaisons and affairs. He was the kind of man who loved intrigue. He couldn’t conceal his involvements. I wasn’t married to him long when I learned that.”

“Do you mind telling me how?”

She coughed. “I was married before—outside the church, of course—and went into this marriage knowing—” She stopped again. “I hate that old bastard.”

“Who?”

“Our father-in-law. Who else? I realized a long time ago that I couldn’t believe a word out of his mouth where you were concerned. I thought I hated his son, too—I’m speaking of Jack—but dead is dead. No one ever really hates the dead. I was saying, I went into the marriage knowing somewhat more about men than he probably supposed. When his behavior became inexplicable, I hired a private detective. That was after less than a year.”

Devlin could hear too much tension; he had to be very careful with her. “If you’d been married before, why did you tolerate what he was doing?”

She sighed. “You’ve been away from the Brennans a long time, Mr. Devlin. As you must see at this point, your wife isn’t the only crazy member of the family. Charlotte wanted a senator, no matter what it cost; Jim has made the payments all these years; and their son kept his part of the bargain by not interfering with my life. I travel—”

“What do you mean, Jim has made the payments? I thought he was totally incapacitated.”

She laughed. “You really have been away. The last time I made the mistake of being alone with him, he told me what he’d do to me if we had real privacy. His son’s wife. This, years and years after he told me that the deal we made cut me out of the will.

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