Singer 02 - Long Time No See Read Online Free PDF Page B

one point in his or her life, found you unspeakably delightful is humbling. “So what do you think?” Joey asked, slickly changing the subject before I could blurt out that the director was William Wyler instead of Billy Wilder and further humiliate myself. “I mean, about the woman they found.”
    “Her name was Courtney Logan,” I said.
    “Who did it? The husband?”
    “Only if he’s a total moron.” Chewing the top of the pen for a moment, I debated whether to self-censor all talk of murder. I would probably become excessively enthused and knew from experience that giddiness in the postmenopausal was generally less than appealing to the recently postpubescent. Nevertheless, I found myself bubbling, “Listen, kiddo, the minute a wife is missing, there’s speculation about the husband’s guilt. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that Greg Logan, Brown graduate, is not self-destructive. And that he’s smarter than Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity . Okay? And let’s also assume he plans a murder.”
    “Okay,” Joey said in bright anticipation, the way he had when he was ten and I’d allowed him to see Return of the Jedi yet again.
    “Now, I don’t mean Greg actually sat down and plotted anything. Let’s say it was a spur-of-the-moment crime of passion. But tell me, why would he stash his wife’s body in the one spot where— guaranteed —she would be found the following May, if not earlier? And on his own property? Why not simply let her stay missing? Even if everyone assumed she was dead, no one would have the foggiest notion where she was.”
    “So if there wasn’t any body ...” Joey thought aloud.
    “Where’s the physical evidence a murder was committed? Nowhere, that’s where. All there’d be is a belief Courtney was dead. Everything I’ve ever read says it’s very hard to get a conviction without a corpus delecti. But now her death—her murder— is a fact.”
    “Except maybe this Greg guy is a total jerk,” Joey mused. “Or some kind of psycho. Or okay, maybe it was temporary insanity but then he panicked and just wanted to get rid of her. Except once he calmed down, he couldn’t figure out a way to fish her out of the pool.”
    “Maybe,” I submitted, “he didn’t do it.”
    “Maybe,” he countered, “he did do it because it was part of some scheme.”
    “Are you giving me an Oliver Stone conspiracy theory?”
    “No. Listen, Mom. Maybe he was willing to take a huge risk, because he needed the body to get insurance money—except he needed a few months to make sure he’d covered up all his tracks. Or maybe it wasn’t the husband. Maybe it was his old man, Gangster Guy, who ordered the hit.”
    “Why? Because Courtney forgot to send him a birthday card? Joey, even if Fancy Phil Lowenstein wanted his daughter-in-law dead, is he going to deep-six her in the one place sure to incriminate his son?”
    “Maybe Fancy Phil has issues with Greg.”
    “Still, would he stash her where, God forbid, his grandchildren could conceivably see their mother’s body?”
    “You’re talking as if Fancy is a normal human being. What if he’s an animal? Do you think he’d care about his grandkids’ mental health?”
    A few minutes later, after tossing a few more theories back and forth and discussing whether the plot of The Big Sleep made any sense and agreeing that it probably didn’t, we said our good-byes. I must have flaked out for a minute because when I glanced down, I noticed that pen was still in hand. Mine. And it had jotted:
Greg Logan?
au pair?
did Courtney have boyfriend???
enemy from Courtney’s investment banking days?? or earlier??
Greg girlfriend??? + was she jealous???
stalker/psycho???
mob hit by Fancy Phil/Fancy Phil’s enemies???
    It was only then that I realized I’d been scribbling on an exam booklet of one Amanda Gerrity, a whispery, milk-white young woman with a distressing number of body parts pierced by studs and hoops. I ripped off the cover with