Read Online Barrington Street Blues by Anne Emery - Free Book Online Page B

when you last saw it?”
    â€œOh, yeah. This office wall performance was shortly before he died. Maybe a couple of days before.”
    â€œSo the gun went missing between then and the time he died.”
    â€œMust have.”
    â€œDid you report it stolen?”
    â€œNo, I didn’t know if it was stolen or if he gave it away or what. And I didn’t give a shit one way or the other.”
    I had to wonder about the timing: the gun disappearing just around the time of his death. He certainly didn’t die of gunshot wounds, but perhaps there was some question about his suicide after all. I might as well ask his widow.
    â€œWhen you heard about Dice’s suicide, where were you?”
    â€œI was standing right behind him going ‘ha ha ha, it’s all mine now!’ Asshole!”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œWho what?”
    â€œWho’s an asshole?”
    â€œDice!”
    â€œYou and your husband didn’t get along?”
    She looked at me as if I were demented. “Get along? Who gets along? Do you get along with your wife?”
    She was asking the wrong guy. Or the right one. “There were problems in your marriage, then.”
    â€œDepends what you mean by problems. We fought. A lot of pricey china got smashed. He whored around behind my back. I cheated on Dice to get back at him but I passed out with the guy still on top of me. But what the hell? I liked old Dice; he was a few laughs.”
    â€œWhen you heard about the suicide, did that make sense to you? Did you think he would take his own life?”
    She shrugged. “Why not?”
    â€œLet’s look at
why
. Were you aware of any reason he would have wanted to end it all?”
    â€œHe had money troubles, big time. That would be the only thing that would push Dice over the edge. It wouldn’t be a lost love, or a guilty conscience, or anything like that. But money would do it. If anything would.”
    â€œWhat was the source of his money problems?”
    â€œWhat do you think?” I didn’t answer so she continued. “It all went up his nose. Or he gambled it away. He mortgaged our house without telling me; took some chick in to forge my signature. I let him have it when I got wind of that. What a jerk.”
    â€œDid Dice have any enemies?”
    â€œEnemies?” She turned towards the bar. “Dickie! I’m going to need an IV here to replace my fluids if you don’t hop to it!”
    â€œOn its way, Mave!”
    â€œYou have to keep these guys on their toes. So, Monty, you think somebody pushed Dice off that balcony. Who would have done that?”
    â€œWell, you say he had a big cocaine habit. And serious gambling debts. That opens up a few possibilities.”
    She waved my speculations away with a bejewelled hand. “That was just for fun. He always came up with money for his coke. And as for his gambling debts, nobody was coming around to break his legs. He knew which creditors to pay first! Nobody cared about his lack of money but Dice himself.”
    â€œHow was his law practice going?”
    â€œDown the toilet.”
    â€œIt was a one-man practice, right?”
    â€œIt was a no-man practice. He was a good lawyer but he just let it slide.”
    â€œDo you think he ever did anything desperate in relation to his law practice?”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œLike dipping into his trust fund, his client’s money, to cover gambling debts?”
    â€œNot that I know of. But he wouldn’t have told me anyway.”
    â€œSo, no problems with the Bar Society? An investigation or anything of that nature?”
    â€œThe only investigation he was ever subject to was a raid on one of our parties!”
    â€œReally.”
    â€œI just took the whole thing as a joke. These two grim-faced cops showed up. I yelled out something like ‘Scatter, everybody, Vice Squad!’ Or ‘Panty raid!’ Or something. They weren’t amused. But