“No, Betty got rid of them.” He looked at Leland a moment. “Maybe you know it, maybe you don’t, but Betty’s had a rough time since their divorce.”

“I’m getting that idea.”

“I want to help you. I don’t like to see any man die. If I tell you things in confidence, I want you to understand.”

“I will.”

“It took Betty a while to get rid of those pictures, okay?”

“Thanks.”

“I mean that she had them around. In the bottom of a drawer.”

“That’s what I thought you meant. He married again, too. Did you know that?”

“Sure. A little Italian girl.”

Mrs. MacIver kept them informed. Leland wondered what Kaminsky thought of her. “By his second wife’s account, they were happy together. Coming when it did, his death doesn’t figure at all.”

“He was a complicated man,” Kaminsky said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to us—to Betty, and through her, to me.”

“Can you explain that?”

He tapped his cigarette. “It’s hard. I should try. I’ll tell you, Joe, I’m still rocking from the news. I never liked what I heard about the guy, and all of a sudden there you are telling me he’s dead.”

“I understand that, Murray.”

“You working for the widow?”

“That has to be confidential.”

“You answered me. She deserves to know. How is she fixed, by the way? Did he leave her anything?”

Leland asked, “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m an electrical engineer.”

“She doesn’t need anything,” Leland said.

“Why did you want to know what I did?”

“Professional ethics. I like you, but I can’t get in the habit of giving out information for free.”

Kaminsky laughed. “You want a cup of coffee?”

“I just had one, but I wouldn’t mind another.”

“Does the old lady know? Mrs. MacIver?”

“I wanted to ask you what you thought of her,” Leland said.

“Let’s go in order. You answer my question first.”

“She’s known since August.”

“And she never said anything.” Kaminsky nodded to himself. “We shouldn’t be surprised by that, either.” He paused, staring at the coffeepot on the stove. “Mrs. MacIver is a funny kind of woman, Joe, very proper, very refined. Something happens to her as you get to know her better—she comes apart before your eyes. Maybe—we think—she’s getting senile, very slowly. It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it.”

Leland told him about the near-miss with the front door.