The Godfather - Mario Puzo [123]
She got to the door just as the bell rang and she called to her mother, “I’ll get it.” She opened the door and the two big men stood there. One reached inside his breast pocket like a gangster reaching for a gun and the move so surprised Kay that she let out a little gasp but the man had taken out a small leather case which he flapped open to show an identification card. “I’m Detective John Phillips from the New York Police Department,” he said. He motioned to the other man, a dark-complexioned man with very thick, very black eyebrows. “This is my partner, Detective Siriani. Are you Miss Kay Adams?”
Kay nodded. Phillips said, “May we come in and talk to you for a few minutes. It’s about Michael Corleone.”
She stood aside to let them in. At that moment her father appeared in the small side hall that led to his study. “Kay, what is it?” he asked.
Her father was a gray-haired, slender, distinguished-looking man who not only was the pastor of the town Baptist church but had a reputation in religious circles as a scholar. Kay really didn’t know her father well, he puzzled her, but she knew he loved her even if he gave the impression he found her uninteresting as a person. Though they had never been close, she trusted him. So she said simply, “These men are detectives from New York. They want to ask me questions about a boy I know.”
Mr. Adams didn’t seem surprised. “Why don’t we go into my study?” he said.
Detective Phillips said gently, “We’d rather talk to your daughter alone, Mr. Adams.”
Mr. Adams said courteously, “That depends on Kay, I think. My dear, would you rather speak to these gentlemen alone or would you prefer to have me present? Or perhaps your mother?”
Kay shook her head. “I’ll talk to them alone.”
Mr. Adams said to Phillips, “You can use my study. Will you stay for lunch?” The two men shook their heads. Kay led them into the study.
They rested uncomfortably on the edge of the couch as she sat in her father’s big leather chair. Detective Phillips opened the conversation by saying, “Miss Adams, have you seen or heard from Michael Corleone at any time in the last three weeks?” The one question was enough to warn her. Three weeks ago she had read the Boston newspapers with their headlines about the killing of a New York police captain and a narcotics smuggler named Virgil Sollozzo. The newspaper had said it was part of the gang war involving the Corleone Family.
Kay shook her head. “No, the last time I saw him he was going to see his father in the hospital. That was perhaps a month ago.”
The other detective said in a harsh voice, “We know all about that meeting. Have you seen or heard from him since then?”
“No,” Kay said.
Detective Phillips said in a polite voice, “If you do have contact with him we’d like you to let us know. It’s very important we get to talk to Michael Corleone. I must warn you that if you do have contact with him you may be getting involved in a very dangerous situation. If you help him in any way, you may get yourself in very serious trouble.”
Kay sat up very straight in the chair. “Why shouldn’t I help him?” she asked. “We’re going to be married, married people help each other.”
It was Detective Siriani who answered her. “If you help, you may be an accessory to murder. We’re looking for your boy friend because he killed a police captain in New York plus an informer the police officer was contacting. We know Michael Corleone is the person who did the shooting.”
Kay laughed. Her laughter was so unaffected, so incredulous, that the officers were impressed. “Mike wouldn’t do anything like that,” she said. “He never had anything to do with his family. When we went to his sister’s wedding it was obvious that he was treated as an outsider, almost as much as I was. If he’s hiding now it’s just so that he won’t get any publicity, so his name won’t be dragged through all this. Mike is not a gangster. I know him better