"How old was he when he disappeared?"
"Well, they said later on that he was sixty years old. That,s what the papers said when they started really looking for him. But I never dreamed he was that age. He didn,t look a day over forty. I was forty myself when he disappeared. If he was a day older, well, you couldn,t prove it by me. But come to find out, he,d been born in 1932. That was news to me. Of course he wasn,t born here, you understand. He was born overseas, and came out here later on. I knew him for a good fifteen years, I,d say. That,s about right. I never could quite figure out how he could have been sixty years old. But that,s what they said."
Reuben only nodded.
"Well, I,ve got to get going," Galton said finally. "This coffee,s warmed me up. I only came to check on things, make sure you,re all right, and by the way, did that fella ever find you, that old guy, that friend of Felix,s?"
"What fella?" asked Reuben.
"Marrok," said Galton. "I saw him a couple of nights ago down at the Inn. He was having a drink down there. And he asked if I knew when you were coming back."
"Tell me about him."
"Well, he,s been around for years. He was Felix,s friend, as I said. He always stayed up here at the house when he came, at least until Marchent would throw him out. She did that from time to time. Marchent couldn,t stand him, really. But she always let him back in. He,ll be coming around, probably just out of respect for Felix and the family, that,s all. He,s not nosy. He probably just wants to know the house is all right, in good hands. I told him it was in very good hands."
"Marchent and he didn,t get along?"
"Well, they did when she was a little girl, I guess, but after Felix disappeared, I don,t know. She wasn,t too keen on him and one time she told me she,d get rid of him if she could. My wife, Bessie, said that he was in love with Marchent, you know, coming on to her and all, and Marchent didn,t like it. Marchent wasn,t going to stand for any of that from him."
Reuben didn,t respond.
"And the brothers hated him," Galton said. "He was always getting the brothers in trouble. They,d be up to something, stealing a car, getting some liquor, you know, that they weren,t old enough to be buying, and he,d turn them in.
"Their father couldn,t much stand the man either. Abel Nideck was nothing like Felix Nideck, no, nothing at all. He didn,t run Marrok off, he just didn,t have the time of day for him. Then of course they weren,t here a lot of the time and neither was Marchent. Marchent argued for him for Felix,s sake, I figured. Sometimes he slept in the back bedroom upstairs, and sometimes he slept out in the woods. He would camp out there in back. Liked to do that. Liked to be alone."
"Where did he come from? Do you know?"
Galton shook his head. "There were always people coming to see Felix, friends of his from ... heck, all over the world. This fella,s Asiatic, Indian perhaps, I don,t know. He,s kind of dark skinned with black hair, very well spoken, like all of Felix,s friends. But he certainly was too old for Marchent, though he was like Felix, you know, he doesn,t show his age. I know how old he is because I remember. He was here when Marchent was a little girl." He looked to each side as though someone was going to sneak up on him and then he said in a confidential voice, "I,ll tell you what Marchent said to Bessie, she said, ,Felix told him to look out for me, to protect me. Well, who,s going to protect me from him!, " He drew back laughing, and swallowed another mouthful of coffee. "But he,s really all right. Why, when Abel and Celia were killed, he came up here and stayed with Marchent so she wouldn,t be alone. That,s about the only time she ever really needed him, I suppose. Didn,t last that long. You sure as hell don,t have to let him hang around this place, you know. This place is yours now, son, and people have got to get used to that. It,s not Felix,s house. Felix is long gone."
"Well, I,ll be on the lookout for him," Reuben said.
"Like I was saying, he isn,t really a bad fella. Everybody knows him around here. He,s just one of those strange international drifters that was always around. But this is your house now."
He walked Galton to the door.
"You come down to the Inn tonight if you want to have a drink with us," he said. "We,ll be celebrating that the cat that got my dog has been got!"
"The Inn? Where,s the Inn?"
"Son, you can,t miss it. Come on down to Nideck. Nideck,s got one main street. It,s right there."
"Oh, the bed-and-breakfast, yes, I saw it the first day I came up here," Reuben said. "It was for sale."
"Still is, and will be for a long time to come!" Galton laughed. "Nideck,s twelve miles inland. Why would anybody ever come to a bed-and-breakfast in Nideck? You join us tonight. We,d love to see you both there."
Reuben shut the door behind him and went into the library.
He opened the folder with the papers that Simon Oliver had sent him pertaining to the house. There was a handwritten list of contractors and service people that Marchent had made for him during that last hour before she,d been killed. Just maybe ...
He had the copy somewhere.
He found it.
He went down the list quickly. There it was, Thomas Marrok. "Friend of the family who appears from time to time. May ask to sleep in the woods out back. Old friend of Felix. Up to you. No special favors recommended. Your call."
He went upstairs and found Laura in her office.
He told her everything Galton had told him.
They got into the Porsche and drove down to Nideck.
There was a cozy dinner crowd in the main room of the Inn when they entered. It was rustic, with rough wood walls and an old man in the corner playing a guitar and singing some mournful Celtic song. The place had red-and-white-checkered tablecloths and candles.
The innkeeper was in his little office, with his feet up on the desk, reading a paperback novel and watching a rerun of Gunsmoke on his little TV.
Reuben asked him if he knew a man named Marrok, and if the man had had a room here in the last week.
"Oh yeah, he,s been around," said the man. "But he didn,t stay here, no."
"You don,t know where he comes from, do you?" asked Reuben.
"Well, he travels all over, to hear him tell it. I think he said last night that he,d been in Mumbai. I know one time he said he,d just come back from Cairo. I don,t know that he has a permanent home. He always got his mail at the old house, as far as I know. Wait a minute, I think he got a letter here today, as a matter of fact. Postman said he had no authority to be delivering his mail up there any longer. Left it here in case he comes back."