Lady in the Lake

Little Man has started to conflate the concepts of mother and grandmother. His mother used to live with them, but he remembers her often saying that she needed space. His mother promised that soon she would come back for Little Man and his brother, Theodore, with a new daddy for them both. When his grandmother tells him his mother is in another city, Little Man assumes it is Detroit, where his father lives, surmising that his mother could be with him but unwilling to return because, as his grandfather says, “No man wants another man’s babies” (210). Little Man remembers the change in his mother’s appearance, her clothes significantly more elegant and flattering. She brought gifts for Little Man, Theo, and their grandmother and groceries for the family. Little Man and Theodore haven’t been told their mother is dead, but he knows from the tears that were shed and the grief that erupted when a man visited their apartment one day that he will never see his mother again. Though he is scolded for hurting their visitor, he knows that his grandparents are grateful that he made the woman go away. He remembers how his mother hated swimming, but took him so he could learn, and how she always reminded him that he was “the only man I’ll ever need” (212).

Cleo is proud of Little Man for standing up to Maddie Schwartz. Cleo resents the increasing intrusions into her life as Maddie pursues Cleo’s secrets with no apparent appreciation or regard for the pain she is causing and the entanglements she is beginning to unravel. Cleo is astonished that Maddie has proven herself capable of seeing her deteriorating corpse and standing among her possessions in her family home yet proceeding with such brazenness and lack of compassion.

Bob Bauer gives Maddie tickets to an Orioles game, claiming he is unable to attend. Maddie assumes that the tickets are a gesture of thanks, as Bob has published a successful series of stores on the Tessie Fine case. She invites Seth, who has other plans. Instead, Maddie asks Ferdie, but they deem it inappropriate to attend as a couple. Instead they behave as two single ticket holders who have adjacent seats. Maddie is delighted to see how engaged and enthusiastic Ferdie is as he watches the game. That night, Ferdie scolds Maddie for yet again leaving her window open, reiterating that the neighborhood isn’t safe. Maddie reminds him that he chose the location, and he admits that he picked the apartment with his convenience in mind. Maddie is startled when Ferdie informs her that he learned about her visit to Cleo Sherwood’s parents. He urges her to avoid that part of the city and insists that there is nothing in Cleo’s case that warrants pursuit.

Paul Blair, Number Six of the Baltimore Orioles, is in his third year playing for the team. His performance stats reflect his asset as a player, but he knows that the most important measure of his value is the rapport that he has with his fans. He always lingers after the game to sign autographs. A fan a few years older than him introduces himself as Ferdie Platt, addresses him as mister, and tells him, “I just want to shake your hand. […] You are living the life” (221).

Maddie goes to the Flamingo, where the bartender informs her that the owner requires female patrons to be in the company of a man. When Maddie tells him she’s a reporter, he acquiesces to pouring her a drink. She asks him about Cleo Sherwood, and he insists that Cleo’s employment at the Flamingo is unrelated. The bartender is describing Cleo as kind and effervescent when Shell Gordon appears, and Maddie begins addressing her questions to him. “Leave that girl be,” Shell Gordon says, “Hasn’t she done enough harm?” (226). Maddie asks whether the cost of Cleo’s clothing is consistent with the wages paid by Gordon, and he turns hostile, telling her that she needs to leave. Maddie isn’t afraid, certain he wouldn’t dare harm a white woman. Gordon instructs the bartender to remove Maddie from the premises. She stays in place, telling them that they don’t have the right to refuse to serve her, that if they want her to leave, they will have to call the police. When Shell Gordon claims the Flamingo is not the sort of establishment that caters to single female patrons, Maddie laughs at the pretentious overestimation of his club. She then asks the bartender to escort her to her car given the dangerousness of the neighborhood. Maddie pleads for information on the boyfriend she assumes Cleo had, and Thomas tells Maddie that Cleo would want her to leave the man she loved alone. When Thomas discovers Maddie lied about having a car parked nearby, he hails her a cab, warning her that prying into Cleo’s life will bring only trouble.

Thomas Ludlow serves as the Flamingo’s head bartender, but his true value lies in his capacity as sentinel, muscle, and fixer for Shell Gordon, who is involved in sex work, gambling, and loansharking and has begun to delve into the illegal narcotics trade. These endeavors allow him to continue operating the Flamingo, but he has strict boundaries for his beloved club. The man Cleo had fallen in love with, Ezekiel Taylor, known as “EZ,” is one of Gordon’s favorite regulars. Gentle, quiet, and generous, Ezekiel operates a successful chain of dry-cleaning locations. Thomas considers Ezekiel one of the nicest people he has ever known and wants to protect him from Maddie. Though in his own way he too was in love with her, Thomas liked both Cleo and Ezekiel so much that he was happy for them both. Shell Gordon, who believed that Ezekiel’s prominence could translate into a senate seat that Gordon could use to his own advantage, was furious. He explained that Ezekiel needed to break off the relationship. Instead, Ezekiel and Cleo began to see each other in secret. The situation escalated when Cleo began hinting that she was going to confront Mrs. Hazel Taylor, Ezekiel’s wife. Gordon gave Thomas the order to dispose of Cleo, threatening to dispose of Thomas too if he failed to complete his task.

Cleo never called Thomas Ludlow by his nickname, Spike. To her, he was always Tommy. She is cryptic, saying that she underestimated him and doesn’t hold him accountable for what happened, but neither will she apologize to the man who got to keep his life while hers was destroyed.

Maddie offers to make Judith a dress in the bold, psychedelic new color stories of the current fashion. Judith says she’ll think about it, and Maddie is nearly insulted until she reframes her disappointment as pity. Maddie, though several years older, is far more in vogue than her younger friend. Maddie tells Judith that Shell Gordon kicked her out of the Flamingo for asking questions. Judith suspects his apprehension must be related to Ezekiel Taylor, the candidate Gordon is supporting in a local election. Judith has heard that Ezekiel’s businesses launder not only clothing but also money. Judith, whose own brother’s secret relationships with other men she has always wordlessly accepted, tells Maddie that Shell Gordon is also rumored to be a “Baltimore bachelor.” The two explore the notion that Cleo may have been removed from the equation for threatening Ezekiel’s wholesome image. Judith suggests that Maddie meet with her brother, who is well versed in Baltimore politics.

Don is confident Judith knows he is not attracted to women, but he is amused by the thought of their mother’s reaction if he were to marry someone with Maddie’s notoriety in the Jewish community. He worries about their parents’ reaction should Judith decide to marry one of the redheads she is dating. Don disagrees that Shell Gordon posed a threat to Cleo, countering that it would have behooved Gordon to keep Ezekiel happy. Don stresses the ubiquity of politicians who maintain relationships outside of their marriages. Ezekiel Taylor is not a candidate with enough contention to warrant scrutiny. Don finds Maddie bumbling and transparent, unsuccessfully disguising his disdain. Afterward, he stops into a gay bar he frequents, where he notices another regular, Shell Gordon, sitting in the back.

Maddie is relieved that her meeting with Don was not a veiled attempt to set them up romantically. Since leaving her marriage and beginning work at the Star, Maddie has encountered men who do not feel obligated to treat her the way they did “Mrs. Milton Schwartz.” She has concluded that the majority of men, no matter their racial identity, religious beliefs, or socioeconomic status, operate according to an ingrained loyalty obligating them to protect each other. Hailing a cab, she gives the driver the address of the Taylor home, emboldened in her decision to confront the wife of Cleo’s lover in a kind of redemption for failing to confront her own past lover’s wife.

The Taylors’ home is elegant and historic. Mrs. Hazel Taylor doesn’t have a housekeeper to answer her door; she doesn’t trust her husband, Ezekiel. Three years before, her husband had brought a young man and woman to their home and tried to persuade her to accept live-in help. She vetoed the idea. Maddie introduces herself as a reporter from the Star interested in Cleo Sherwood’s disappearance. Hazel pretends not to know who Cleo is and, offended, shuts the door in Maddie’s face, disgusted by the audacity Maddie displays in ringing her doorbell a second time. Hazel had heard Cleo’s claims that Ezekiel was going to leave his wife and marry Cleo. Hazel imagines that if she had accepted the young couple as live-in servants, her husband might have satisfied his appetites in a more discreet manner, but it was an arrangement she could never allow. She blames Cleo for her own death, highlighting Cleo’s recklessness and naiveté.

Cleo admits to admiring the requisite gall that spurned Maddie’s confrontation with Mrs. Hazel Taylor, but she is wise enough to recognize that Maddie has crossed a treacherous threshold. “Do you realize that’s why I’m dead, Maddie Schwartz? Because I talked about doing that, nothing more” (261). Cleo never had the chance to discover the consequences of doing for herself what Maddie has done for her in pursuit of a byline, but Cleo reflects with dread on the untold ramifications.