“What do I tell her? She’ll keep calling until I talk to her.”
“Tell her to call you tomorrow,” Matt said.
“And what do I tell her tomorrow?”
“Between now and then, we’ll think of something.”
“What are you going to do with the mon—the briefcase?”
“Take it to my room.”
“And then?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been kicking the idea around that maybe we can—somehow, but don’t ask me how—use your returning the loot to our advantage. It would at least show a change of heart. I don’t know how much good that would do.”
She looked at him but said nothing.
“Eat your succotash, like a good girl,” Matt said. “An other option, of course, is to get rid of it. Then—”
“You mean destroy it?”
Matt nodded, and went on: “Then it would be your word against Chenowith that you ever had it.”
“His and Jennifer’s,” Susan said. “She’ll go along with whatever he says.”
“Against her faithful friend?” Matt asked sarcastically.
“Yes.”
“Then why do you give a damn about her?”
“I do, Matt. I can’t help that.”
Matt raised a forkful of pot roast toward his mouth, then lowered it.
“You don’t know that,” he said.
“I don’t know what?”
“From everything you’ve told me, Jennifer is a really weak sister.”
“I told you about her, why she’s that way,” Susan said.
“So she goes along with Chenowith because he’s strong, right? Or at least she sees him that way.”
Susan nodded.
“What are you driving at?”
“Don’t take this as anything but me thinking out loud,” he said. “Tell me about the drunken mother. Is she going to spring for a lawyer—a good lawyer—when they arrest Jennifer?”
“I don’t know. Probably. But if she doesn’t, I will. Do you know one?”
“I know two of the best, but I don’t think they’d take her case.”
“I thought they were supposed to represent people no matter what they did.”
“Let’s skip that for the moment,” Matt said. “For the sake of argument, Jennifer has a good lawyer. By definition, a lawyer argues. A good lawyer offers strong arguments.”
“I don’t understand you.”
“Little lady, you have a choice. You either stick with your murdering boyfriend, in which case they will take your baby away from you, and you will never see it again, or you go tell the FBI everything you know, and after you do that, you go into that courtroom and convince people you stayed with him out of fear for your life, and that of the baby.”
“I don’t know, Matt,” Susan said.
“We’re back to have you got any better ideas?”
“Let me think about it,” Susan said.
“Throw this in the equation,” Matt said. “Don’t do it. Just think about it. You tell her you’ll meet her but you want to meet her alone. Set up the meet. I’m there. I arrest her. Then we tell the FBI where to find Chenowith. You tell Jennifer not to say one goddamn word until she has a lawyer. Then the lawyer delivers his little speech to her.”
“I’ll think about it. Matt, it doesn’t sound credible.”
“I’m still thinking out loud. If she had the money—all the money, what you have and what you think she’s going to give you—”
“They wouldn’t believe that.”
“It doesn’t matter what they believe, or, for that matter, what they know. They have to convince the jury, and that’s not as easy as it looks in the movies. Maybe they’d let her cop a plea. Prosecuting a young mother with a baby in her arms isn’t easy. And they want to win this bad.”
Susan looked at him intently. He saw that she was beginning to accept the argument.
“What I said Susie, is that I’m thinking out loud, and that’s all.”
“I understand,” she said.
“Changing the subject,” Matt said. “You want to go back out to Hershey tonight for our anniversary? Or would you rather have a quiet evening at home with room service in the Penn-Harris? I know the Penn-Harris has oysters.”
She blushed, which he found both sweetly touching and somehow erotic.
“At home, unfortunately. My home.”
“Christ, no!”
“You’ve met Mommy. Mommy thinks you should come to dinner, so you’re coming to dinner. You know what she’s like.”
“Yeah, I know what she’s like. Penny’s mother is just like her. And so is Chad’s mother. And Daffy’s. Bennington apparently has a required course in how to be a three-star bitch.”
“Right now, we can’t afford to antagonize her, Matt.”
“And afterward?”
“Mommy had a motherly word of advice for me when she telephoned to tell me we’re having dinner at the house. After dinner, when you are sure to suggest we go to the club or someplace, I’m to politely turn you