Fletch Won Read Online Free Page B

Twenty-third, and while I was there, a rack of bourbon got tipped over. It splashed all over an employee and me.”
    Her pale, sad eyes studied Fletch.
    “I haven’t been drinking. Honest. May I sit down?”
    Reluctantly, she said, “All right.”
    He sat in another wrought-iron straight chair. She was in the shade of the table’s umbrella, but he was not.
    “About this five million dollars, Mrs. Habeck…”
    “Five million dollars,” she repeated.
    “… you and your husband decided to give to the art museum?”
    Slowly, she said, “Yussss,” in the hiss of a deflating tire. “Tell me about it.”
    “What?”
    “What about it?” she asked.
    Fletch hesitated. “I was hoping you’d tell me about it.”
    Mrs. Habeck drew herself up slightly in the chair. “Yes, well, my husband and I decided to give five million dollars to the art museum.”
    “I know that much. Your husband is a lawyer?”
    “My husband,” said Mrs. Habeck, “wanders off. Away, away. He always has, you know. That’s something that can be said about him.”
    “I see,” Fletch said politely. He was beginning to wonder how much vodka Mrs. Habeck had slipped into her morning coffee. “He’s senior partner in the firm of Habeck, Harrison and Haller?”
    “I told him he shouldn’t do that,” Mrs. Habeck said, frowning. “Three different
H
sounds. In fact, three different
Ha
sounds.” Still frowning, she looked at Fletch. “Don’t you agree?”
    “Of course,” said Fletch. “Disconcerting.”
    “Gives the impression of inconsistency,” she said. “As if, you know, the partners couldn’t be counted on to get together on anything. To agree.”
    “Yes,” said Fletch.
    “To say nothing of the fact that when people say ‘Habeck, Harrison and Haller,’ what they actually hear themselves saying, underneath everything, you know? is
Ha Ha Ha
.”
    “Ah,” said Fletch.
    “Except the actual sound is
Hay Ha Haw
. Which is worse.”
    “Much worse,” agreed Fletch. His fingers wiped the perspiration off his forehead.
    “I wanted him to take on a fourth partner,” said Mrs. Habeck. “Named Burke.”
    “Umm. Didn’t Mr. Burke wish to join the firm?”
    Mrs. Habeck looked at Fletch resentfully. “Donald said he didn’t know anyone named Burke.”
    “Oh. I see.”
    “At least not any lawyer named Burke. Not any lawyer named Burke who was free to join the firm.”
    “Did you know a lawyer named Burke free to join the firm?”
    “No.”
    Sweating in bourbon-soaked clothes in the sunlight,Fletch’s head was beginning to reel. He felt like he was on a bourbonbed. “Does your husband do any corporate-law work?”
    “No,” she said. “He was never a bit cooperative. He was always arguing in court.”
    There was still no humor in her sad eyes.
    “I know his reputation is as a criminal lawyer.” Then Fletch cringed, awaiting what Mrs. Habeck would make of
criminal lawyer
.
    She said, “Yussss.”
    Fletch blew air. “Mrs. Habeck, did you or your husband have any income other than that derived from his practice of criminal law, and from his partnership in Habeck, Harrison and Haller?”
    “Hay, Ha, Haw,” she said.
    “I mean, were either of you personally wealthy, had you inherited… ?”
    Mrs. Habeck said, “My husband is most apt to wear black shoes. You don’t see black shoes too often in The Heights. He doesn’t like to dress flamboyantly, as many criminal lawyers do.”
    Fletch waited a moment.
    She asked, “You wouldn’t think a man who wears black shoes would be so apt to wander away, would you?”
    He waited another moment. “It isn’t that I’m trying to invade your privacy, Mrs. Habeck.”
    “I don’t have any privacy.” She looked at her green sneakers.
    “It’s just that I’m trying to assess what donating five million dollars to the museum means to you and your husband. I mean, is he almost giving away the proceeds of his life’s work?”
    “Mister, you’re making me sick.”
    “Beg