Free A Knight at the Opera by Kenneth L. Levinson Page A

reassure Mrs. Markowsky that he wasn't cheating on her. It would have
made her feel better about the whole situation."
    "Can't help you there. I've told you everything I know."
    "Well, I appreciate the information."
    "No problem. And, by the way, assuming your legal assistant is right about you,
do me a favor, will you?"
    "Sure, what's that?"
    "Stay away from the opera," he said in a deadpan. "We don't need any more dead
bodies."
    Great.
    Everyone's a comedian.
    But the call hadn't been a total waste of time. I now knew that the woman seated
next to Markowsky wasn't some random stranger. They deliberately went to the opera
together. But Jonson had a good point. If this was something surreptitious, why meet at the
opera and not somewhere private?
    I was starting to dial Joyce's number, to tell her what I had learned from
Johnson, when Maurice appeared in the doorway to my office. "Got a minute?"
    Cradling the phone, I said, "Sure. What's up?"
    He made a sour face. "Robin McCormick."
    "Your damsel in distress? Who didn't even know she was in distress?"
    He plopped down in one of the black leather chairs across from my desk. "Yeah.
Her."
    "What's the problem?"
    "She keeps calling me."
    "You're not interested?"
    "I don't know. I don't think so. So far, I've been dodging her calls."
    This was completely unlike him. "What's the issue?"
    "There's an old song, 'I Know A Heartache When I See One.' That's the issue. I've
spent more than my share of time with drunks. I'm over that."
    I understood his concern. His father had been an alcoholic, which had indirectly
contributed to the events that wound up getting Maurice dumped as a Bronco.
    "I must admit, she probably wasn't at her best Saturday night. But," I pointed
out, "we don't know whether that was characteristic or just the result of her broken
engagement and barely escaping being crushed by a falling body."
    He growled. "I hate it when you're logical. So what would you do?"
    I grinned at him. "I really don't go rushing in recklessly to every situation, as
you're so fond of claiming. I'd meet her somewhere neutral and see how things went.
Maybe she's just embarrassed about how she was behaving and wants to apologize."
    "Or she could do it again."
    "That's a possibility." I leaned back in my chair, stretching my arms above my
head. "Do you really want to know what I think?"
    He eyed me warily. "Maybe."
    "I think you wouldn't have come in her to ask me if you weren't at least curious
about her."
    "You're right," he said. "I guess it couldn't hurt to give her a chance. Thanks. I'll
let you know how it turns out."
    He was starting out of the office when the intercom sounded. Diana said, "Adam,
it's Joe Stone on line two. He's his usual uncheerful self. More so than usual."
    "Uh oh. I'd better take the call." I gestured for Maurice to stay. As a matter of
principle, I counted slowly to twenty-five before pressing the button to take the call. "Good
afternoon. I was just--"
    Diana was right. He was fighting mad. "Larsen, what the hell are you
doing?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "Interfering with a police investigation. Which, as you know, is a felony."
    I had an inkling where he was going, but I played dumb. "How am I interfering
with your investigation?"
    "I just got off the phone with the man from Semper Security. He said you called
to ask questions about the woman at the opera."
    "That's true. I can't believe he actually called and tattled on me."
    "He didn't. I called him, to follow up on something you don't need to know
about. He's ex-FBI, and he figured I'd want to know about you. So why the hell were you
calling him?"
    "I told you on Monday that Joyce Markowsky had left me a message.
Remember?"
    "Yeah, I remember. So what?"
    "So I called her, and she's hired me to represent her."
    "Why does she need a lawyer?" he demanded. "Because she was the woman at
that opera?"
    "Actually, she wasn't. She tells me you keep calling her and hinting that you
don't believe there was another woman."
    "I