Deep Water Patricia Highsmith (elon musk reading list .txt) 📖

       "I believe so," Mary echoed.

       "Yes," Vic said.

       Then it was Melinda's turn. She had been staring at the floor. She looked up frightenedly at the coroner. "I don't know."

       Coroner Walsh gave her a second look. "Do you believe anything or anyone other than accidental circumstances was responsible for Mr. De Lisle's death?"

       "I don't know," Melinda said expressionlessly.

       "Have you any reason for thinking that any person is responsible for Mr. De Lisle's death?" he asked.

       "I know that my husband didn't like him," Melinda said, her head bowed.

       Coroner Walsh frowned. "Do you mean that your husband had a quarrel with Mr. De Lisle?"

       Melinda hesitated.

       Vic saw Phil frown with annoyance and shift in his chair. Dr. Franklin looked merely sternly disapproving. Evelyn Cowan looked as if she wanted to get up and shake Melinda by the shoulders and give her a piece of her mind.

       "No, they hadn't quarreled," Melinda said. "But I think my husband didn't like him just because I liked him."

       "Did you see your husband," Coroner Walsh began patiently, "make any move at all against Mr. De Lisle?"

       Another hesitation. "No," Melinda said, still staring with a curious shyness at the floor, though her naturally loud, clear voice had made the "No" sound very positive.

       Now the coroner turned to Dr. Franklin. "Doctor, in your opinion was Mr. De Lisle's death due to accidental circumstances?"

       "I have no reason to think otherwise," Dr. Franklin replied.

       Dr. Franklin liked him, Vic knew They had become very well acquainted when Trixie was born. Dr. Franklin hadn't the time or the temperament to be very sociable, but he always had a smile and a few words for Vic when they encountered each other in town.

       "You noticed no marks on the body that might indicate a struggle of any kind," the coroner said rather than asked. An atmosphere of general disapproval of Melinda was thickening in the room.

       "There were very faint red marks around his shoulders," Dr. Franklin said in a somewhat weary tone, "but these could have been made in pulling him out of the pool. Or perhaps during the artificial respiration which Mr. Van Allen administered."

       Coroner Walsh nodded deeply in confirmation. "I saw the marks. Your opinion seems to be the same as mine. And as far as I could discover there were no bruises on his head."

       "No," said Dr. Franklin.

       "And the contents of his stomach? Was there anything which might have caused cramp, any indication of cramp in your opinion?"

       "No, I can't say that there was. There was the smallest bit of food in the stomach, such as a small sandwich that might have been taken at a party. Nothing that should have caused cramp. But cramp is not always caused by food in the stomach."

       "Any alcohol?" said the coroner.

       "Not more than four-tenths of a millimeter of alcohol. That is, per one cubic centimeter of whole blood."

       "Nothing that should have given him any trouble," said the coroner.

       "Certainly not."

       "Yet it is your opinion that Mr. De Lisle's death was due to accidental circumstances?"

       "Yes," said Dr. Franklin. "That is my belief. The specific cause of death was drowning."

       "Could Mr. De Lisle swim?" the coroner asked the whole room.

       Nobody answered for a moment. Vic knew he couldn't swim well. Then Horace and Melinda simultaneously began:

       "From what I saw of him in the—"

       "He could certainly swim enough to keep his head above the water!" Melinda had found her tongue and her volume.

       "Mr. Meller," said the coroner.

       "From what I saw of him in the pool, he was not a good swimmer," Horace said cautiously. "This may or may not have any bearing on what happened, but I saw him clinging to the edge of the pool as if he were afraid to let go, and as Mr. Van Allen said before—confirmed by Mr. Cowan—Mr. De Lisle had said he found the water pretty cool." Horace gave Melinda a glance, not a kindly glance.

       "None of you heard any outcry?" the coroner asked for the second time.

       There was a chorus of "No."

       "Mrs. Van Allen?" the coroner asked.

       Melinda was twisting her white gloves in her lap, staring at the

       coroner: "No—but we couldn't have heard anything with all the noise we were making in the kitchen."

       "There wasn't so much noise," Phil said, frowning. "We'd turned the music off. I think we could have heard a shout if there'd been one."

       Melinda turned to Phil. "You don't hear a shout if somebody's pulled under the water suddenly and held there!"

       "'Melinda!'" Mary Meller said, horrified.

       Vic watched the next few seconds with a strange detachment. Melinda half standing up now, shouting her opinion at the coroner—and Vic felt a certain admiration for her courage and her honesty that he hadn't known she possessed as he saw her frowning profile, her clenched hands—Mary Meller rising and taking a few hesitant steps toward Melinda before Horace gently drew her back to her seat. Phil's long, handsome face scowling, and Dr. Franklin with folded arms, still maintaining his cool disdain of Melinda Van Allen that had begun, Vic knew, with her unreasoning demands and complaints of his treatment of her at the time of Trixie's birth. Melinda was repeating:

       "'Yes', I think my husband had something to do with it! I think he 'did' it!"

       Coroner Walsh's expression was a combination of annoyance and bewilderment. For a moment he seemed speechless. "Have you anything at all—any proof to substantiate your belief, Mrs. Van Allen?" His face had reddened.

       "Circumstantial evidence. My husband was alone in the pool with him, wasn't he? My husband is a better swimmer than Charley. He's also very strong in his hands!"

       Mary stood up, her small face looking even smaller and somehow concentrated in the pursed, tearful mouth, and started to leave the room.

       "I must ask you, Mrs. Meller," the coroner said, "not to