School Days - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,28

she said.

"I think he probably did it," I said.

"I didn't hire you to tell me he did it," Mrs. Ellsworth said.

"Yes, ma'am," I said.

She sat very straight in her chair, her hands clasped motionless in her lap. She was perfectly groomed and perfectly still. Under her careful makeup, her skin had a healthy, outdoorsy look to it. Her hair was white, not silver, but white, and brushed back softly off her face. She was quite beautiful.

"Did you ever give money to your grandson?" I said.

"Often," she said.

"Large amounts?" I said.

"What might seem a large amount to you," she said, "might seem a very small amount to me."

I nodded. I did the math in my head. "Two or three thousand dollars?" I said.

"I have given him that much."

"Often?"

"No, last winter," she said. "He needed it."

"Did he say what for?"

"No," she said. "And I did not ask. I love my grandson, Mr. Spenser."

I nodded.

"Can you recall exactly when last winter?" I said.

"Not really."

"Did you write a check?"

"Yes."

"Could you look it up?" I said.

"Why is that necessary?"

"I believe he bought some guns with the money," I said. "It might help to know when."

"He did not buy guns," she said.

"Ma'am," I said. "They already have him cold. Grant has named him as the other shooter. He's confessed to it. I don't have to help convict him. Anything I can find out will be useful only on his behalf."

"Or you won't use it?" she said.

"Correct," I said.

She nodded slowly. We looked out through the glass at the slow lawn that declined toward the valley. Along one side was a stand of hydrangea, their big blossoms moving in the soft wind.

"It is four-ten in the afternoon," she said. "Would you care for a cocktail?"

"That would be nice," I said.

She stood effortlessly and walked briskly out of the glass room. I watched the hydrangea blossoms move for a while. She came back with a tray with two glasses on it.

"Gin and tonic," she said. "I suppose I should have asked."

"That will be fine," I said.

She set the tray down on a low table, and I saw that her checkbook was on the tray also. She handed me one of the glasses and took the other for herself. She raised it toward me slightly.

"You seem an honest man, sir," she said.

" 'Let be be the end of seem,' " I said.

She smiled faintly.

" 'The only emperor,' " she said, " 'is the emperor of icecream.' "

"Very good," I said.

"My generation read, Mr. Spenser; apparently yours did, too."

"Or at least I did," I said. "Still do."

"Yes," she said. "I do as well."

She took another pull at her drink. Then she put the glass down, picked up the checkbook, and began to leaf through the register. I sat with my drink. The hydrangea continued to nod in the late summer outside the glass.

"I gave him three thousand dollars on January twenty-first," she said after a time. "How many guns would that buy?"

"Four plus ammo," I said. "And he might have had some left over."

"For ski masks," she said.

"And extra magazines," I said. "Perhaps even a controlled substance."

"Drugs?"

I shrugged.

"I believe none of this," she said.

"No need to yet," I said.

"Nothing will make me believe it."

I didn't speak.

"You believe it," she said.

"I think it likely," I said.

"And you think when he bought the guns in January, he was planning to shoot those people in May."

"I don't know when he was planning to shoot," I said. "I only know when he got the money and when he did the shooting."

"He didn't do the shooting."

"Have you talked to him since the incident?" I said.

"Yes."

"Did you ever ask?"

"No."

"Excuse me, ma'am, for saying so, but you don't want to know."

She looked at her drink, tilting the glass slightly so the ice rattled faintly.

"Jared has always been a silent child," she said. "Perhaps lonely. I don't know. I always felt that everyone pried at him too much. His parents were always after him to tell them more. Where are you going? Who are you going with? Who are your friends? Do you have a girlfriend? What do you wish to become? I felt my role was to offer him respite, a place he could come and be loved and respected, where he could indulge himself in as much silence as he wished."

"Did you spend much time with him?"

"A great deal of time."

"Did he have a girlfriend?" I said.

"I don't know," she said. "Nor do I know about friends or ambitions or fears or hopes and dreams."

"What did