Kaminsky regarded him a moment. “Now see, that’s the way the old lady is. She told Betty that she received a long letter informing her of the marriage. And she hasn’t told Betty that he’s dead, either. Maybe she thinks that Betty shouldn’t know, or that as long as Betty’s resentment of MacIver is alive, she’s on good ground emotionally. I have trouble understanding it myself, but it’s the only guess I can make about this. As I said, she doesn’t understand anybody. Maybe this is the way she’s worked it out—and maybe not.”

“She’s gotten worse in recent years,” Leland suggested.

“That’s right. She used to belong to clubs. She doesn’t anymore.”

“Did her son contribute to her support?”

“Not that I know of. He didn’t have to, that’s for sure.”

“Why is that?”

“The old man left her a bundle twenty years ago. Maybe she’s down to the scraps, but Betty knew exactly what was there when she was married to Colin, and there was plenty.”

Leland had to think of the description of the senior MacIver that Norma had related to him. He said to Kaminsky, “You called him a scuffler.”

“He was, but he made a couple of good scores. So have I, for that matter. In the market. He made his in real estate. I hear things in my business—you know, the exotic stocks.”

“Do you know any more about the father?”

“Just that. He made his money in the real estate boom here in the twenties. He wasn’t alone.”

Leland asked, “Now, what about the divorce?”

“Colin asked for it, and eventually did the filing. He sprung it on her one night. ‘I want a divorce.’ She was in love with him. He had been out of school a while and they were beginning to get ahead. She’d thought that they would begin to live. He wanted a divorce and she said no. She said no for half a year, and then gave up. In a little while she met me and we were married pretty quickly. It cost her a lot of money to marry me. He was paying her enough to make some women think twice.”

“I’d like to have the figures,” Leland said.

“He gave her four thousand dollars not to contest the suit and sent her four hundred a month after that. There wasn’t any real agreement, but he sent it. She had letters and bank statements that would have looked good in court. That doesn’t do him justice. On money, he could be counted on. If he said he was going to do a thing, he did it.”

“He could make a thing like that clear enough for her to believe it?”

“He wasn’t a scuffler. He didn’t tell her anything, but all the time they were married, he handled the money, and they never had trouble for a minute. He worked it up into quite a little bit, considering their savings. It was the way he conducted himself around money. He made the right moves. That’s really all I can tell you.”