"Getting caught up in Riddleman's murder was frightening," I blurted out, over coffee.
"Wasn't that some sort of sex crime?" Amanda asked, leaning forward excitedly.
The ohs, and ahs, went around the table and I wished I hadn't said anything, because everyone was looking at me, and expecting more.
Over dessert the talk around the dinner table had turned to murder, and it wasn't surprising as Kirk Glendenning, the famous murder mystery writer, was staying with our hosts, the Luckmans.
The truth was that for a while I had been more than frightened. And in answer to Amanda's question, well I knew there had been a lot of sex just before the murder but as to why it was committed I had an idea that it had more to do with cigars.
"If I hadn't been somebody in this town, and had a good lawyer available right away I am sure the police would have tried hard to pin it on me at the beginning," I said seriously, remembering when I had realised how serious my situation might be and had got scared.
"Why was that?" Kirk asked. "Why was it so frightening."
'Because I had no alibi. Now what does a crime writer do about setting up an alibi that is watertight?" I asked, wanting the conversation to move on.
"We all know you were there that night," Maria said, "Larry and I saw you. You were singing. But why on earth did the police think you might have been involved?"
There was silence in the room, and someone coughed. I think it was me.
"No real reason, I was just there and at first they didn't know who I was. They thought I was a nobody or. . um. And Riddleman was a very rich and powerful man. And they knew that his guests that night were also all rich and well known around here, so they didn't want to have to start questioning them and causing themselves aggravation."
Randall Luckman changed the subject then and I helped him. But later after dinner Kirk Glendenning cornered me and asked me into the Luckmans' study with him.
"Do you mind my asking you, what really happened that night. As far as you know of of course? And just how you were caught up in it?" Kirk wanted to know but asked politely, and I wondered if the creative wheels were turning under the crop of silver streaked curls he sported.
"I was singing that night at the function," I replied, most of the people at the dinner table knew something of what had happened already and could tell him. "And afterwards I did some partying and then fell asleep in the stables behind the house. I woke up to find two policemen looking down at me."
What I didn't say was that I had been naked and hungover, with the cum of the dead man and his companion filling my stomach, when they had found me. I had given a fairly accurate outline of the night's main events to the police in the interview room at the Newcastle police station. But I had never told anyone the more interesting details of the sex I'd had that night.
But for some reason I told a lot more to Kirk Glendenning that night, than I had told anyone previously.
"I was into my second last number when I saw them. Riddleman was a big man, and he was over by one of the French doors that let onto the terrace. He was moving a thick cigar about in his mouth suggestively and I was having trouble keeping my eyes off him," I told him, remembering more about that night than I had for years.
"I've never smoked, but cigars had always fascinated me. Our host was big and powerful with a reputation for rough sex, and useful to know. I also hadn't missed the dark Latin looker standing by the next set of open doors fucking his good Cuban cigar slowly in and out between his lips as his eyes held mine."
Unfortunately those eyes had me getting hard, and my dick was straining against my well fitted black evening pants. I was getting uncomfortable standing there in front of the crowd trying to maintain my composure, and finish my last song for the night. I couldn't even attempt to ease the pressure or cover my growing erection in the position I was in, standing next to the grand piano in front of a crowd of 200 of the best citizens Merewether Heights had to offer.
I have an excellent tenor voice. But I had decided in my mid twenties that I would never make it big as a singer. I knew that decision was due more to my distaste for the constant struggle unknowns have in proving themselves, and the experience of two years spent living in hotels and short term holiday flats with neurotic young sopranos, than to any failings in my own talent.
In short, I liked the comfortable easy life and had finally taken up the opportunity to enter the family business at a senior level. But the desire to sing was still strong, and though it was eight years since I'd given up the professional dream, at the time of Riddleman's murder I was still performing regularly. I sang voluntarily with two choirs, and occasionally I sang at private functions. I still do. And I've always demanded a very sizeable donation to my favourite charity from anyone wanting me to perform just for them, which ensured I wasn't called on to do every wedding in town. But I was still kept busy.
That night's performance had been requested some months before and I had been surprised, as I had never met Riddleman personally and would have expected some shapely female in something low cut to be more to the taste of the older Merewether Heights crowd there. But then again the evening's host, Oscar Riddleman, was a slightly mysterious man, who apparently liked to have anything he took a fancy to. And I have been told that back then I was still quite fanciable.
I hit the high note at the end of my last song of the evening, and closing my eyes managed to hold it long enough to impress the crowd. They clapped me a bit more enthusiastically than politeness required, which gave me a lift that added to the sexual heat I was already feeling.
Riddleman was heavy set and looked to be in his early fifties, more muscle than fat I thought, with a full head of grizzled dark hair and sharp dark eyes. While I was politely taking the applause he sucked on his cigar, and turned it around between his full lips, and moved it from side to side in his mouth as he smiled at me, and looked me up and down. He had stripped me naked with that look, and I wasn't really keen on him but occasionally I liked that sort of powerful domination.
But then my eyes were drawn back over to the Latin. He was the perfect Latin playboy type, lean, tall and dark haired with dark smouldering eyes and a seductive smile. And removing his cigar from his mouth he give me a big smile just then and shook his free hand as if he had burnt his fingers. I smiled back. He was telling me I was hot. And his eyes travelled down my body and stopped at my crotch and the smile got bigger. I knew I was showing, and just smiled back. I knew he'd like what I had down there. .
Phew. I was mesmerized by the cigar play and didn't know which one to look at. Then Riddleman jerked his head, indicating the door beside him, and turned and walked outside. I looked over to the Latin as I left my place beside the piano, and saw he was also slipping outside on to the terrace and I pushed through the crowd to follow him.
Outside the semicircular raised terrace was lit by hundreds of colourful candle filled paper lanterns, and in their gentle moody light I found the Latin leaning on the balustrade at the top of the wide staircase that swept down to the rose garden. He smiled and pulled a big, thick, hand rolled Cuban cigar from his inside picket as his eyes locked on mine. The big cigar was rolled delicately between his fingers and sniffed slowly, before it was gently wrapped in his full lips, where he twisted it about wetting it, and moved it in and out before he lit it. Then he was sucking it to a bright glow before a thin wisp of smoke rose up from the tip, as he removed it from between his lips and exhaled.
"A fine performance," he said, with a big grin.
I smiled back at him, "I aim to please," I said.
"Riddleman likes to be pleased," he replied, and he laughed, but then he was heading down the staircase and I followed him.
Our host was nowhere in sight. The tip of the Latin's cigar danced in and out of my sight as we left the rose lined path and crossed the lawn beyond. Then the cigar tip disappeared and a moment later I reached a gate in the hedge surrounding the garden, and went through it.
"Several witnesses apparently remembered seeing us leave the terrace," I told Kirk. "I was amazed at what people at the party had noticed. And fortunately after I had told my side to the police they had found plenty of them to support the parts that mattered."
Beyond the gate was a short shrub lined path where the smell of gardenias hung heavy in the air. Then I was in a cobbled yard and a high gabled building was before me and the cigar tip was wavering as a door opened, letting out a wash of light. I entered the stable building ahead of the Latin, and inside was my other cigar-loving admirer Riddleman. But not looking like his guests remembered. He was now sitting on a tartan rug that was tossed over a pile of hay bales, and he was leaning back with his pants and shoes off and his legs spread wide, showing me what he had to be proud of.