"I doubt he's going to be of much help. He also may be the busiest man on the planet, so good luck getting in there."
"He's not around now, by any chance, is he?"
"He's in London today."
"How about Ellis? He in London, too?"
"No, Ellis is domestic only."
"Then where do I find him?"
There was a moment of silence from Daniel French. He looked down at his shoes, uncomfortable, before twisting his neck a bit to the side and saying, "He's not in today."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"Sick?"
"I don't know," French said quietly. "He didn't come in today."
"Is that standard operating salesman procedure? To not come in on Fridays?"
"Sometimes," French said. "During the summer."
"And he doesn't need to tell anyone?"
"He told his secretary that he wouldn't be reachable today."
"Dan," Justin said slowly, "the guy is the key contact in your company for someone who was murdered last night, and you didn't think it was worth mentioning until now that he's missing?"
"He's not exactly missing. He's probably at a meeting somewhere."
"How about his assistant? Would she know what meeting he's at?"
"I checked with her before you got here. I assumed you'd want to speak to Ellis."
"And?"
French sighed quietly. "And she doesn't know where he is, either."
"Can I ask you a question, Dan?"
French was looking down at his shoes again. "Yes."
"Did you Google me before we met? Or have your people check me out?"
"Yes."
"Find some pretty interesting stuff, did you?"
"Yes, we did."
"Found some fairly violent episodes in my past?"
"Yes."
"I hope you don't think this is out of line," Justin said quietly, "because you've been very nice and very helpful and I appreciate it. But you should have paid more attention to your research, because I'm not someone to fuck with and you just fucked with me. I'm not sure why and it doesn't really matter. But my advice is don't do it again." He smiled brightly. "Was that out of line?"
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Daniel French said.
"You can tell me who Ellis St. John's assistant is and you can take me to her. And then get the fuck out of my way."
They were given a small room down the hall from the big conference room. Ellis St. John's assistant was an attractive if somewhat husky young woman named Belinda Lambert. She had large, round, brown eyes that seemed to be pleading for someone to take her away from all this. Anywhere. Although preferably anywhere that included a bedroom. Justin didn't take the plea personally. He had a feeling that request had been made many times before.
Belinda wasn't overly helpful once Justin made it clear he wasn't taking her anywhere, although she was polite and her concern about her boss seemed genuine. When Justin had ascertained that she really didn't have any idea where Ellis St. John might be-she'd tried calling his cell phone several times as well as his apartment and had e-mailed his BlackBerry, all to no avail-he tried to get her talking about St. John in general terms. She was evasive about delving into his personal habits. She did say that she was sure he wouldn't stay away too long because of his two cats.
"He loves those cats," she told him. "Binky and Esther, that's their names. I mean, you wouldn't believe the way he treats them. Buys them presents and cooks for them. It's kind of crazy. But sweet, too, don't you think?" He agreed it was very sweet, and when he asked who fed them when he was away, she said, "I do. They don't like me as much, though. I'm more of a people person than an animal person. But I'll feed them tonight and for the weekend. Well, I guess I'll feed 'em as long as he's away."
"You know he won't be home this weekend?"
"That's what he said. That I wouldn't be able to reach him today and he'd be gone all weekend."
"When he told you this, did he sound upset?"
She thought for a moment. She had on a strange reddish-purple lipstick and her thought process involved licking the lipstick with her tongue and then leaving smudges of it on her white, white teeth. "No," she said. "I'd say he sounded kind of happy. You know, excited. I got the feeling it was a hot date or something."
"Does Ellis have a car?"
"No," she said. "You know, I told him he should, I mean he goes away all the time on weekends. Fire Island, the Hamptons, Bucks County. He says he'd rather rent."
"Do you make his reservation for him when he rents?"
"I don't have to," she explained. "At least during the summer. He has a standing reservation at Hertz on Thursdays. The one that's just a couple of blocks from here. If he doesn't want a car, then I cancel the day before."
"Did you cancel on Wednesday?"
"No. So I guess he picked it up."
"You have his cell phone number, Belinda?"
She nodded and rattled off the number. He picked up an office phone and dialed it. After several rings, a recorded message came on, a man's voice saying, "You've reached Ellis St. John. I'm not available, but if you leave a message I'll call you back as soon as possible." When Justin heard the tone, he said, "Ellis, this is Justin Westwood, I'm chief of police for East End Harbor in Long Island. Please call me as soon as you get this message. It's very important." He gave his home number and his cell number, and hung up. And he made a note of St. John's cell number.
"I'm sure he'll call you back soon," Belinda Lambert said. "He's very good about calling back."
Justin nodded. Then he asked about Ellis's relationship with Evan Harmon. There was a noticeable hesitation and a slight off-center smile on her lips, so when all she said was, "It was fine," Justin couldn't let it just stop there.
"Can you elaborate?"
"On what?"
"On their relationship." He knew that even assistants on Wall Street made six-figure salaries. Justin decided that Belinda was overpaid.
"What is it you want me to say?" she asked.
"I want you to tell me the truth. Did Ellis and Evan get along?"
"Sure."
"How do you know?"
"Because they spoke on the phone constantly. And they got together all the time. And…"
"And what?"
"Look, Mr. Westwood-"
"Chief Westwood. I'm a police officer, Belinda, and this is a homicide investigation-do you understand?"
"Yes, it's just that Ellis can be… well… he won't like it if I tell you certain things."
"Such as?"
She gave him an I-may-be-dumb-but-I'm-not-dumb-enough-to-fall-for-that look. Justin didn't change his expression, just waited.
"Look," she said, "I could get fired."
Again, Justin stayed quiet. Apparently silence was the one thing Belinda couldn't bear.
"I think Ellis is in love with Mr. Harmon." She shook her head as if she couldn't believe she said it out loud. But now that she had, it made it easier for her to keep going. "I mean, he never said that or anything, but you can just tell that kind of thing."
"How could you tell?"
"He would get so excited when Mr. Harmon called. You know, he'd, like, spruce up, fix his hair or something, like Mr. Harmon could see him, even though he was just on the phone. And Mr. Harmon could ask him to do anything. I mean, like anything. You know, run an errand for him or take someone to dinner, and Ellis would just get so excited."
"Ellis is gay?"
"Well, yah," she said. "I mean"-and she lowered her voice to finish-"you know, this is a weird place. It's kinda like the army, you know-don't ask, don't tell. It's a real guys' place, so Ellis isn't like some queen or anything. I mean, I don't know if everyone knows."
"But you know."
"I work for him. But even if I didn't, I'd know."
"Because you can just tell?"
"Just like I can tell you're straight." She maneuvered her breasts just a bit so they seemed to jut
ahead a little straighter and she smiled at him with her abnormally white teeth. "You know, I kind of like the fact that you're, you know, maybe not in such great shape. I'm not big on the gym rat types. I'm a little bit zaftig myself. Maybe you noticed."
"Belinda, let me ask you something…"
"Sure, you might as well take advantage of me while I'm feeling so blabby." The white from her teeth flashed even brighter. The dark lipstick stain on the upper row made it look as if she'd just bitten into an extra rare and bloody steak.
"Was Ellis ever violent?"
"Ellis? With me?"
"With anyone."
"God, no. Well…"
"What?" he said.
"I never saw him violent. But once he couldn't come into the office, he said he was sick. I went to his apartment to bring him some work and he wasn't sick, he was pretty marked up, you know, like a black eye and some cuts and stuff. I figured it was, well, you know, a rough trade or something like that, but he'd definitely been in a fight."
"Does he have a temper?"
"Oh yeah. He does a lot of yelling and slamming the phone down and stuff like that. But that's not so weird around this place. I mean, you should hear Mr. Berdon sometimes, when he reams somebody out. It's unbelievable. But, you know, I don't want you to get the wrong impression. I mean, Ellis is a fantastic boss. He can be really generous. Like, they don't give assistants BlackBerrys here-it's really weird what they'll cut corners on, you know-and then they'll spend, like, a million dollars on some golf tournament thing…"
"Belinda…"
"But, anyway, Ellis got me a BlackBerry. Like, out of his own pocket, you know. He decided it would be more efficient so, I mean, he paid for an R and W techie to, you know, make all of his stuff work on it and he pays for the monthly bill and everything…" She stopped suddenly and lowered her voice again, this time to a hissing whisper. "Do you think Ellis killed Mr. Harmon?"
"Do you?"
"I don't know. I told you I think he was kind of in love with Mr. Harmon. Why would you kill someone you love?"
Because that someone was married, Justin wanted to tell her. Because that someone didn't love you back. Because that someone was capable of using love to get what he wanted, no matter the cost.
Because it's what people did.
Every minute of every day.
But he said none of that. Instead, he just told her, "Good question."
She nodded, as if acknowledging that her boss was now officially off the hook. Justin realized he wasn't going to get much more out of her, at least for now, so he started to make his move out of the small room but she reached out and put her hand on his arm. He looked down and saw a piece of paper in her hand.
"It's my card," Belinda Lambert said. "It's one of the cool things about this place: even the assistants get business cards." She produced a pen from nowhere and scribbled something on the card. "It's my home number," she told him, "in case you get, you know, some kind of inspiration at night and think of something, you know, you might want to ask me. Even late at night, that's okay with me. I won't mind."
"That's good to know," Justin said.
"Anything I can do to help," she said. "Anything."
When Justin left the Rockworth and Williams building he felt as if he needed a shower. It was a place that was built on secrets and desperation. Not his favorite combo.
But a combo that definitely was capable of leading to a murder, he thought. So as he headed down the street, he called Mike Haversham at the East End station, told him to see if Ellis St. John had picked up a rental car for the weekend. If he had, he told Mike to get the make and plate number and to see if anyone around town had seen it yesterday.
He hung up, thought about Belinda's question to him.
Why would you kill someone you love?
Justin shook his head. He wondered if he'd ever been naive enough to ask such a question.
He didn't think so. But if he had been, it was so long ago that he couldn't remember.
10
Larry Silverbush dreamed about being governor of the state of New York.
He had all sorts of reasons for wanting the job: he had very strong beliefs about certain things and he knew he could be effective in moving those things-as he liked to put it in his speeches-from the theoretical column over to the reality column. He believed in the death penalty and knew it should be applied in many more instances than it was being applied now. He thought the federal government wasn't doing shit for post-9/11 New York City, and as governor he was determined to get what he knew was not only due but crucial. He had programs to bring business back to the state, and he had well-thought-out plans to reduce taxes and reprioritize social programs and feed money to state schools. Oh yes, Silverbush knew he would make an excellent governor and knew, from deep within himself, that he deserved to hold that office. But mostly when he daydreamed about presiding over the New York state legislature, spending much of his time in Albany, and coming home on weekends to bask in his glory, he always wound up fixating on one thing: a car and driver.
Silverbush hated to drive. His mind wandered; he didn't concentrate, which he knew was dangerous. And he had a terrible sense of direction. He got lost when he was on his own, even when going to familiar places. He had trouble remembering landmarks and street names and, if truth be told, left from fucking right. When he became governor he'd never have to get behind the wheel of a car again. It was a thrilling thought. He'd have someone in a nice black uniform driving him wherever he went. And when he finally stepped down from office, he'd make a fortune in motivational speeches and he would be able to afford a chauffeur all on his own.
That was what he wanted and, all in all, he thought it was a pretty reasonable goal-better schools and someone to drive him to the goddamn grocery store-and that's what he was thinking about as he was stuck in traffic, behind the wheel of his own three-year-old Lexus, on his way to Southampton Hospital to meet H. R. Harmon and get a firsthand view of Evan Harmon's mangled body.
The drive should have taken fifteen minutes, but it took nearly forty as the Montauk Highway was bumper to bumper the whole way, and he had just decided that he wanted his driver's name to be Matthew-not Matt, definitely Matthew-or possibly Roberto; it might be smart to go ethnic-when the district attorney finally pulled into the hospital parking lot. Harmon was already in the lobby, standing by the admissions desk. Not the ideal situation, keeping H. R. Harmon waiting to see his son in the morgue, but the aging politician was relatively gracious about the inconvenience. Silverbush began mumbling something about the traffic, but Harmon waved the apologies away, just saying, "I'd like to see my son as quickly as possible."
The hospital staff was on high alert, and the two men were ushered into an elevator and taken down one floor to the basement. Silverbush could feel the tension and the hesitation in the older man. As they stepped into the morgue room, he instinctively took hold of Harmon's elbow. Harmon didn't acknowledge the support, but he didn't pull away. He stepped forward as if part of a military parade: stiff and erect, his face an expressionless mask.
The morgue attendant was already standing by a body that was covered by a white cloth. The attendant had clearly been through this routine many times. He looked neither interested nor bored by the proceedings and he did absolutely nothing until Silverbush nodded that they were ready for the viewing. The attendant then pulled the cloth back in a firm, steady movement, revealing the upper half of a man's body.
The district attorney had seen more than a few dead bodies over the years. But as this corpse was revealed he couldn't help himself, he had to turn away. He recovered quickly, forced himself to turn back. He glanced over at old man Harmon, who still remained ramrod straight and unemotional. After several seconds-seconds that seemed like several hours to Silverbush-Harmon stepped over to his son's body. He stood, hovering over him as a parent might over a sleeping child. The father didn't touch the son, just stared down at him as if trying to convince himself that what he was
seeing was real-or perhaps unreal-then turned slowly on his heels and walked out of the room. His gait going out was not as commanding as it had been coming in. He looked weaker, as if the sadness he was feeling and the loss he was experiencing had sapped most of his remaining strength.
Silverbush nodded to the attendant, who quickly drew the cloth back over Evan Harmon's body. The Long Island district attorney turned and headed after H. R. Harmon. The sound of his hard shoes echoed through the room. It was the only sound. Everything else in the room was still and silent.
In the hallway, Silverbush waited as Harmon caught his breath and composed himself. The DA once again held his hand out to grab the older man's elbow, but this time Harmon shook off the aid.
"You have children?" the man known as the senator asked.
"Yes, I do," the DA answered. "Two. The boy's twelve and the girl's nine."
"I've lost two now. Two children dead."
"I-I didn't know… I didn't know you had-"
"A daughter? Jeannie. We called her J.J. 'cause she was such a hot little number it seemed like there were two of her. One J wasn't enough."
"How long ago…?"
"Long time ago. Long, long time ago. She was five. Evan was two, somewhere around that. She had leukemia. Suffered like a sonuvabitch. They told us we should just let her die, that we shouldn't make her go through the treatment, that it would be too painful for her. But we didn't listen. Billi-that was my wife-she said doctors don't know everything. They don't know how much that little girl wants to live. So we took her wherever we had to, did whatever we could. Kept her alive maybe a year longer than otherwise. Maybe. You know what I did the day she died?"
"Got drunk as hell I'd imagine."
"Went to work, played nine holes of golf in the afternoon. She was dead, her suffering was over. Nothin' I could do to help her, no amount of mourning was going to make a damn bit of difference to either one of us. So I did what I always did-went to work and played some golf. It's how you gotta deal with death. You do what you usually do, 'cause nothin' you do's gonna change a goddamn thing."
Silverbush knew it was cold in the hallway, the air-conditioning was on high, but he still found himself sweating. He rubbed his right hand along the back of his neck, felt the dankness. When Harmon spoke again, Silverbush still had moisture on his fingers. It felt undignified and he did his best to wipe his hand, unnoticed, on the back of his sport jacket.
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