Chow Down by Laurien Berenson Page A

nodded. “He came outside and told me what had happened. At first I didn’t believe him, I was sure he must have been mistaken. I had just been with Larry five minutes earlier. I couldn’t imagine that he could be gone. Especially in the manner in which I was told it happened.”
    Faith and I had an appointment inside. If we were to be on time, we needed to get moving. But now what Lisa had said brought me up short. I dropped my hand and gave Faith a silent signal to sit.
    â€œWhy do you say that?” I asked.
    â€œLarry would not have liked me to talk about this before. But now that he’s gone, I suppose it doesn’t matter. My husband suffered from vertigo. Heights made him very uncomfortable. Usually he avoided places like that stairwell. It came as a great surprise to me that he would have chosen to go there.”
    And yet he had. That was clear to both of us.
    â€œPerhaps he didn’t want to take Yoda on the elevator?” I suggested.
    â€œWe had come up on the elevator. Yoda doesn’t mind. She’s traveled all over the country with us. She goes wherever we do and it’s never been a problem.”
    So much for that theory. In that case, what had Larry been doing in the stairwell? Could he have ducked in there for the purpose of holding a private conversation with the person I’d heard him speaking to?
    â€œIt’s not surprising to me that Larry lost his balance and fell,” Lisa said. “Just being in that stairwell would have made him dizzy. And with Yoda in his arms, he wouldn’t have been holding on to the banister. I can’t imagine what he was thinking.”
    â€œAre you sure your husband’s death was an accident?” I asked gently.
    â€œOf course.” Lisa didn’t seem offended by the question, but she didn’t give it much credence, either. “How could it have been anything else?”
    â€œI was just wondering because I thought I heard voices right before Larry fell.” And a scream, I thought, but I didn’t add that. “I thought maybe he was talking to someone . . .”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œI don’t know. They were pretty high above me. I couldn’t hear what was being said.”
    Lisa was shaking her head, as if trying to make sense of this new information. “And this person Larry was supposedly with . . . He wouldn’t have tried to help him? To prevent him from falling?”
    Actually I’d been thinking just the opposite. But right that moment, looking at Lisa’s pale face and dark, red-rimmed eyes, I would no sooner have brought up that possibility than I would have kicked a defenseless puppy.
    Besides, I thought, Lisa’s revelation about her husband’s vertigo had cast the incident in a whole new light. Maybe I was the one who was wrong. Perhaps I’d been entangled in so many mysteries, that I’d begun to see evidence of wrongdoing where it didn’t even exist.
    Belatedly I realized that Lisa was still holding the glass door. I reached out and took it from her.
    â€œYou and Faith are having your private interview this morning?” she asked.
    â€œRight.” I glanced at my watch. “We’re running a little late.”
    â€œDon’t worry, I was just up there. The Reddings had the appointment ahead of yours and they seemed to have a lot to say. I’m sure nobody’s noticed that you haven’t arrived yet.”
    â€œSo you came to speak to the contest committee. Does that mean you’ll be withdrawing Yoda from the competition?”
    Nothing I’d said earlier—offering my condolences, describing what I knew of her husband’s fall, implying it might not have been an accident—had thrown Lisa. This did.
    â€œPardon me?” she said.
    â€œI just thought that since—”
    â€œYou thought wrong.” Lisa didn’t wait for me to finish. “Yoda is a strong competitor and so am I. She is