Out of Time by Michael Z. Lewin

Author:Michael Z. Lewin [Lewin, Michael Z.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Chapter Sixteen

I said, ‘The problem with weaving a reconstruction from a string of facts is that more holes are left than fabric. Maybe we have some of the main strands now. But a lot of questions and directions remain.’

Near to tears, Paula Belter put down her coffee. ‘Whatever else happens, at least now I know she cared.’ She dropped her face into her cupped hands, but she made no sound.

Then Douglas Belter coughed and asked, ‘What additional lines of inquiry are you thinking of, Mr Samson? Whether she was actually guilty of murder?’

Paula Belter looked up.

‘I had in mind Vera Wert’s background in Logansport. Where she went when she left Indianapolis. Whether she is alive now and if so where. What happened to her. And whether we might find out who Mrs Belter’s biological father was.’

I paused. Nobody filled the silence.

I said, ‘But maybe you don’t want me to go on. You hired me in the first place to get Mrs Belter a passport. That should be possible now, at least if you involve a lawyer to put it to the passport people in the right kind of way.’

‘I see,’ Belter said.

‘And, the potential this kind of inquiry has for absorbing money is very great indeed. The trail is old and cold and there is no certainty of any further success.’

Douglas Belter looked at his wife.

She became weary before us. ‘You decide, Doug.’ She rose slowly. Tamae helped her and the two women left the kitchen.

Belter and I looked after them, then at each other.

He said, ‘She can be the most wonderful woman in the world.’

In a moment we heard a piano being played in a nearby room.

‘A little emotional,’ Belter said, ‘but wonderful.’

I could see how his life would never be dull and that is a wonder of one sort.

Tamae came back into the kitchen and sat at the table. ‘She’ll be all right. It’s just hard for her,’ she said. ‘So many surprises.’

We both nodded.

To Belter she said, ‘Have you decided whether Mr Samson is to continue digging into the past?’

‘I don’t think there is much choice.’

She thought. ‘I suppose not,’ she said. Then to me, ‘Do you have any other information for us now?’

‘Only a picture.’

Tamae swallowed. Belter took deep breaths.

I took Charlie Carson’s photograph of Daisy Wines, George Edwards, Mike Carson, Ginny Tonic and a third couple and showed it to them.

‘Which one?’ Belter asked haltingly.

I pointed out Daisy Wines.

‘She looks so young,’ Tamae Mitsuki said.

I was back in my office by eleven-thirty. That was the time Albert Connah had arranged to meet the insurance representative for an inspection of the damage.

They arrived together and we looked the place over. First the yard and the perpetrators’ escape route. In the daylight we found some tyre burn trails which might have been made by the car they left in. I didn’t remember hearing a squeal, but I could have been deaf to anything but the too fresh sound of breaking glass.

The insurance adjuster talked to me alone, but not for long and with no complications.

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