Page 23
I walked over to the bank when it opened and deposited half of Cale Hannifords thousand-dollar check. I took the rest in cash, then walked a few blocks to the post office and bought a money order for a few hundred dollars. I addressed an envelope in my hotel room, put a stamp on it, picked up the phone and called Anita.
I said, "Im sending you a couple of bucks. "
"You dont have to do that. "
"Well, to pick out something for the boys. How have they been?"
"Fine, Matt. Theyre in school now, of course. Theyll be sorry they missed your call. "
"Its never much good over the phone, anyway. I was thinking, I could get tickets for the Mets game Friday night. If you could get them to the Coliseum I could send them home in a cab. If you think theyd like to go. "
"I know they would. I could drive them there with no trouble. "
"Well, Ill see if I can pick up tickets. They shouldnt be too hard to come by. "
"Should I tell them, or should I wait until you actually have the tickets? Or do you want to tell them yourself?"
"No, you tell them. In case they have something else lined up.
"Theyd cancel anything to see the game with you. "
"Well, not if its something important. "
"They could even go back to the city with you. You could rent them a room at your hotel and put them on the train the next day. "
"Well see. "
"All right. How have you been, Matt?"
"Fine. You?"
"All right. "
"Things about the same with you and George?"
"Why?"
"Just wondered. "
"Were still seeing each other if thats what you mean. "
"He thinking about getting a divorce from Rosalie?"
"We dont talk about it. Matt, Ive got to go, theyre honking for me. "
"Sure. "
"And let me know about the tickets. "
"Sure. "
It wasnt in the early Post, but around two in the afternoon I had the radio on to one of the all-news stations and they had it. The Reverend Martin Vanderpoel, minister of the First Reformed Church of Bay Ridge, had been found dead in his bedroom by his housekeeper. The death had been tentatively attributed, pending autopsy, to the voluntary ingestion of an overdose of barbiturates. Reverend Vanderpoel was identified as the father of Richard Vanderpoel, who had recently hanged himself after having been arrested for the murder of Wendy Hanniford in the apartment the two had shared in Greenwich Village. Reverend Vanderpoel was reported to have been profoundly despondent over his sons death, and this despondency had evidently led him to take his own life.
I turned off the radio and sat around for half an hour or so. Then I walked around the block to St. Pauls and put a hundred dollars in the poor box, a tenth of what Id received as a bonus from Cale Hanniford.
I sat near the back for a while, thinking about a lot of things.
Before I left I lit four candles. One for Wendy, one for Richie, the usual one for Estrellita Rivera.
And one for Martin Vanderpoel, of course.
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