by Susan Isaacs
“What?”
“It never occurred to me that a black gay guy would turn out to be the love of my life.”
“I always knew.”
“You did?”
“Of course. Way back when, when I was this amazing stud with muscles on my muscles and the best Afro north of Niger, I always knew I was going to wind up with a middle-aged female lawyer.”
“Go ahead. Tell me,” Lee said. “It was written on the stars.”
“It was. But most people can’t read that kind of writing until they’re old enough for bifocals. It’s the fine print.”
And as it turned out, the way it often does with choices made with wide-open eyes and wise hearts, it was fine. Not what they had dreamed of when they dreamed, mind you. But very, very fine.
Epilogue
Lily White had the first word but she cannot have the last.
There is only this to add about the Torkelson case. On a Thursday in March 1996, a night when Lee White and Will Stewart, husband and wife, were hearing Un ballo in maschera at the Metropolitan Opera with a group of friends, Carolee Eckhart of Portland, Oregon, went to the police to report that her fiancé, Douglas Wallace, had been missing for forty-eight hours. Ms. Eckhart was fearful he might be hurt. Or worse. His ex-wife was an unbalanced woman, hateful, wanted to see him ruined. No, she had never seen the ex-wife, but she’d overheard her once when she left a message on Doug’s answering machine. Terrible, vile, crazy.
Ted Sato, the detective who took down the information, was new to Missing Persons and quite an eager beaver. He fired question after question. Following nearly an hour of polite interrogation, he discovered that in addition to Mr. Wallace, seventy-five thousand dollars in bearer bonds that had been left to Ms. Eckhart by her grandfather were also missing.
It took Detective Sato only seven minutes on his computer to discover that Douglas Wallace’s modus operandi matched that of Norman Torkelson, and another fifteen seconds to learn that, like Norman, Douglas was six feet five with blue eyes, and knew all the words to “Bright College Years,” the Yale alma mater. Subsequently, Sato had a chat with Detective Sergeant Sam Franklin on Long Island, who predicted, accurately, that the Portland police would never find the bonds, that Douglas Wallace was long gone—and that Carolee should be thankful she was still alive. Some people never learn.
Some people do.
Acknowledgments
In researching Lily White, I spent time in the library, in jail and in court. I also sought help and information from the people listed below. Being a novelist and not a reporter, however, I did not hesitate to twist their facts to serve the needs of my fiction. I thank them for their kindness and apologize for my inaccuracies:
Robert Anderson, Frank Argano, Jim Bartell, Brian Bochicchio, Joan Brenner, Thomas DiNapoli, Jonathan Dolger, Janet Franzese, Eric Gould, Cara Nash Iason, Lawrence Iason, Leonard Klein, Edward M. Lane, Judith Lane, Anthony Lepsis, Ellen Markowski, Susie Miller, Henry Putzel III, Ralph Smith, Sheila Riesel, Cynthia Scott, George Stofsky, Andrea Vizcarrando, Paul Vizcarrando, Claire Weinberg, Mina Weiner, John R. Wing, Jay Zises, Justin Zises and Susan Zises.
Additionally, I am especially grateful for the generosity and incredible patience of three fine lawyers: Arnold Abramowitz, Linda Fairstein and Sara Moss. (And thanks for lunch.)
I thank my assistant, AnneMarie Palmer, for her hard work, her good humor and her commendable equanimity.
The interior designer, Susan Lawton, answered every question I had about antiques, furnishings and architecture with her usual authority and awesome wit.
I appreciate the aid of the librarians at the New York and the Port Washington (N.Y.) Public Libraries.
This is the sixth book for me and my editor, Larry Ashmead. For me, it has been a joyous collaboration. I thank him for his guidance, for the mail, the books, the early-morning jokes—and for giving me all the time I needed to finish the novel as I wanted it finished.
My agent, Owen Laster, has been a fount of wisdom, a rock of strength and a wonderful guy.
I thank my wonderful children, Andrew and Elizabeth Abramowitz, and my daughter-in-law, Leslie Stern, for their love, support and fine editorial advice.
Lastly, my eternal love and gratitude to my own in-house counsel, Elkan Abramowitz. He is (and I’m being objective here) the best person in the world.
About the Author
SUSAN ISAACS has written eleven novels, including her latest, Past Perfect. Her other bestselling books include After All These Years, Compromising Positions, Shining Through, Magic Hour, Close Relations, Almost Paradise, and Lily White. She lives on Long Island.
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Books by Susan Isaacs
Past Perfect
Any Place I Hang My Hat
Long Time No See
Red, White and Blue
Lily White
After All These Years
Magic Hour
Shining Through
Almost Paradise
Close Relations
Compromising Positions
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1996 by HarperCollins Publishers.
LILY WHITE. Copyright © 1996 by Susan Isaacs. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
First Avon Trade edition published 2008.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-02875-4
08 09 10 11 12 WBC/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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