“Who are these people?” Mrs. Carmody asked plaintively. Daisy wondered whether she could possibly be so self-centred she actually had not noticed the other inhabitants of the room.
“The residents of this suite,” Rosenblatt explained, “anda couple of witnesses. If they make you uncomfortable, we can go downtown to talk.”
“Oh no!”
“Not to police headquarters. The District Attorney’s of fices are in the Criminal Courts Building.”
“Criminal Courts! Oh no! No, let’s stay here, but I don’t think I got anything else to tell you.”
“Do you know if your husband had any enemies?”
“Enemies,” sneered Mrs. Carmody. “Better ask if he had any friends. That’s what he did for a living, make enemies. I can’t begin to list them.”
“Who were his friends?” Rosenblatt asked patiently.
“He didn’t have any in New York, not that I knew anyway. If I hadn‘t’ve gone out and made friends for myself, I’d’ve never seen anyone.”
“In Washington?”
“There were a coupla guys, couples that we visited with, but I don’t think he kept in touch. We’d’ve maybe exchanged Christmas greetings, you know, like we did with the folks in Chicago. That’s where we met, Chicago.”
“Carmody wasn’t from Chicago, though.”
“No, he worked there a few years, on theHerald-American. He came from some hick town out west, like I come from a hick town back in Iowa.” Mrs. Carmody coyly smoothed the fur cuff at her wrist. “You wouldn’t guess it to look at me now, would you?”
“Not in a million years,” said Rosenblatt. “TheHerald-American, that’s a Hearst paper, isn’t it?”
“Huh? Oh, you mean Mr. Randolph Hearst owns it? Yeah, could be. Now you come to mention it, Otis mighta mentioned that once. I don’t remember for sure, though. Don’t quote me!” she giggled.
“Did Carmody keep in touch with his family out west?”
“Just at Christmas. He may’ve wrote his mother sometimes, I dunno, or his sisters. His dad was a banker, a big man in town. He went to college, you know, Otis. Not just a farm college, either. They got a real university out there, would you believe? I mean, it isn’t no Yale or Harvard, but he was real educated, my Otis.”
Mrs. Carmody began to cry in earnest, the first real tears Daisy had seen. Her tiny hankie proved inadequate. With aplomb Rosenblatt handed over his own sizable square, reminding Daisy of Alec’s injunction always to pack spare handkerchiefs when he travelled on a case. She repressed an urge to go over and comfort the woman, without great difficulty as she simply couldn’t care much about her.
“He’s really gone, isn’t he?” Mrs. Carmody sniffed. “I didn’t really realize before, not for real. We had good times, him and me, back in Chicago. Only then he changed, and he didn’t seem towantto give me a good time anymore.” She sounded bewildered. “I thought it might be better in New York, more like Chicago, but he was just like in Washington. It wasn’t me that changed.”
Daisy felt her sympathies rising, for both of the ill-matched couple. Rosenblatt obviously did not. He went on with his questioning.
“Did Carmody keep in touch with his cousins or other relatives?”
“Nix! On his mother’s side, they’re just farmers and mill hands and like that.”
“You didn’t know one of his relatives is in New York?”
“Gosh darn, you don’t say! No, he never told me. If you want the truth, we didn’t talk much the last few weeks.”
“A Mr. Wilbur Pitt.”
“Never heard of him. Why would I? Otis didn’t talk about his family. What’s he doing in New York, this guy?”
“We haven’t spoken to him yet,” Rosenblatt said guardedly. He glanced at his wrist-watch. “If he contacts you, will you let me know? Here’s my card. I have to go now, I’m due in court. Don’t leave town, will you? Either I or Sergeant Gilligan will probably need to ask you a few more questions.”
“Gee, not that sergeant. He gave me the willies. You’re a gentleman, anyone can see.”
Flattery left the Deputy D.A. as unmoved as had tears. “In any case we’ll be in touch with you about your husband’s possessions. If you’re not using your hotel room, you better give me the address of your apartment.”
“Aw, gee, I dunno. Bart wouldn’t like me giving out that address. It’s kinda private, see.”
