by Harlan Coben
A pang. “Clu said that?”
“I wanted a change,” Enos continued. “My agent. He treats me well, no? And he made me a rich man.”
“I don’t mean to knock the importance of good representation, Enos, but you made you a rich man. An agent facilitates. He doesn’t create.”
Enos nodded. “You know my story?”
The thumbnail sketch. The boat trip had been rough. Very rough. For a week everyone had assumed they had been lost at sea. When they finally did pop up, only two of the eight Cubans were still alive. One of the dead was Enos’s brother Hector, considered the best player to come out of Cuba in the past decade. Enos, considered the lesser talent, was nearly dead of dehydration.
“Just what I’ve read in the papers,” Myron said.
“My agent. He was there when I arrived. I had family in Miami. When he heard about the Cabral brothers, he loaned them money. He paid for my hospital stay. He gave me money and jewelry and a car. He promised me more money. And I have it.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“He has no soul.”
“You want an agent with a soul?”
Enos shrugged. “I’m Catholic,” he said. “We believe in miracles.”
They both laughed.
Enos seemed to be studying Myron. “Clu was always suspicious of people. Even me. He had something of a hard shell.”
“I know,” Myron said.
“But he believed in you. He said you were a good man. He said that he had trusted you with his life and would gladly do so again.”
Another pang. “Clu was also a lousy judge of character.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Enos, I wanted to talk to you about Clu’s last few weeks.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you came here to recruit me.”
“No,” Myron said. Then: “But have you heard the expression killing two birds with one stone?”
Enos laughed. “What do you want to know?”
“Were you surprised when Clu failed the drug test?”
He picked up a bat. He gripped and regripped it in his hands. Finding the right groove. Funny. He was an American League pitcher. He would probably never have the opportunity to bat. “I have trouble understanding addictions,” he said. “Where I come from, yes, a man may try to drink away his world, if he can afford it. You live in such stink, why not leave, no? But here, when you have as much as Clu had …”
He didn’t finish the thought. No point in stating the obvious.
“One time Clu tried to explain it to me,” Enos continued. “‘Sometimes,’ he said, ‘you don’t want to escape the world; sometimes you want to escape yourself.’ ” He cocked his head. “Do you believe that?”
“Not really,” Myron said. “Like a lot of cute phrases, it sounds good. But it also sounds like a load of self-rationalization.”
Enos smiled. “You’re mad at him.”
“I guess I am.”
“Don’t be. He was a very unhappy man, Myron. A man who needs so much excess … there is something broken inside him, no?”
Myron said nothing.
“Clu tried. He fought hard, you have no idea. He wouldn’t go out at night. If our room had a minibar, he’d make them take it out. He didn’t hang out with old friends because he was afraid of what he might do. He was scared all the time. He fought long and hard.”
“And he lost,” Myron added.
“I never saw him take drugs. I never saw him drink.”
“But you noticed changes.”
Enos nodded. “His life began to fall apart. So many bad things happened.”
“What bad things?”
The organ music revved immediately into high gear, the legendary Eddie Layton opening up with his rendition of that ballpark classic “The Girl from Ipanema.” Enos lifted the bat to his shoulder, then lowered it again. “I feel uncomfortable talking about this.”
“I’m not prying for the fun of it. I’m trying to find out who killed him.”
“The papers said your secretary did it.”
“They’re wrong.”
Enos stared at the bat as though there were a message hidden beneath the word Louisville. Myron tried to prompt him.
“Clu withdrew two hundred thousand dollars not long before he died,” Myron said. “Was he having financial problems?”
“If he did, I didn’t see it.”
“Did he gamble?”
“I didn’t see him him gamble, no.”
“Do you know that he changed agents?”
Enos looked surprised. “He fired you?”
“Apparently he was going to.”
“I didn’t know,” he said. “I know he was looking for you. But no, I didn’t know that.”
“So what was it then, Enos? What made him cave?”
He lifted his eyes and blinked into the sun. The perfect weather for a night game. Soon fans would arrive, and memories would be made. Happened every night in stadiums around the world. It was always some kid’s first game.
“His marriage,” Enos said. “That was the big thing, I think. You know Bonnie?”
“Yes.”
“Clu loved her very much.”
“He had an odd way of showing it.”
Enos smiled. “Sleeping with all those women. I think he did it more to hurt himself than anyone else.”
“That sounds like another one of those big, fat rationalizations, Enos. Clu may have made self-destruction an art form. But that’s not an excuse for what he put her through.”
“I think he’d agree with that. But Clu hurt himself most of all.”
“Don’t kid yourself. He hurt Bonnie too.”
“Yes, you’re right, of course. But he still loved her. When she threw him out, it hurt him so much. You have no idea.”
“What can you tell me about their breakup?”
Another hesitation. “Not much to tell. Clu felt betrayed, angry.”
“You know that Clu had fooled around before.”
“Yes.”
“So what made it different this time? Bonnie was used to his straying. What made her finally snap? Who was his girlfriend?”
Enos looked puzzled. “You think Bonnie threw him out over a girl?”
“She didn’t?”
Enos shook his head.
“You’re sure.”
“It was never about girls with Clu. They were just part of the drugs and alcohol. They were easy for him to give up.”
Myron was confused. “So he wasn’t having an affair?”
“No,” Enos said. “She was.”
That was when it clicked. Myron felt a cold wave roll through him, squeezing the pit of his stomach. He barely said good-bye before he hurried away.
CHAPTER 23
He knew Bonnie would be home.
The car had barely come to a full stop when he shot out the driver’s door. There were perhaps a dozen other vehicles parked on the street. Mourners. The front door was opened. Myron headed inside without knocking. He wanted to find Bonnie and confront her and end this. But she wasn’t in the living room. Just mourners. Some approached him, slowing him down. He offered his condolences to Clu’s mother, her face ravaged with grief. He shook other hands, trying to swim through the thick sea of grief-stricken and glad-handers and find Bonnie. He finally spotted her outside in the backyard. She sat alone on the deck, her knees tucked under her chin, watching her children play. He steeled himself and pushed open the sliding glass doors.
The porch was cedarwood and overlooked a large swing set. Clu’s boys were on it, both dressed in red ties and untucked short-sleeve shirts. They ran and laughed. Miniature versions of their dead father, their smiles so like his, their features eternal echoes of Clu’s. Bonnie watched them. Her back was to Myron, a cigarette in her hand. She did not turn around as he approached.
“Clu didn’t have the affair,” Myron said. “You did.”
Bonnie inhaled deeply and let it out. “Great timing, Myron.”
�
��That can’t be helped.”
“Can’t we talk about this later?”
Myron waited a beat. Then: “I know who you were sleeping with.”
She stiffened. Myron looked down at her. She finally turned and met his gaze.
“Let’s take a walk,” Bonnie said.
She reached out a hand, and Myron helped her to her feet.
They walked down the backyard to a wooded area. The din of traffic filtered through a sound barrier up the hill. The house was spanking new, large and innately nouveau-riche. Airy, lots of windows, cathedral ceilings, small living room, huge kitchen flowing into huge California room, huge master bedroom, closets large enough to double as Gap outlets. Probably went for about eight hundred thou. Beautiful and sterile and soulless. Needing to be lived in a bit. Properly aged like a fine Merlot.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” he said.
“You don’t know a lot of things about me, Myron.”
Touché. He looked at her profile, and again he saw that young coed heading into the fraternity basement. He flashed back to that very moment, to the sound of Clu’s sharp intake of air when he first laid eyes on her. Suppose she’d come down a little later, after Clu had passed out or hooked up with another woman. Suppose she had gone to another frat party that night. Dumb thoughts—life’s arbitrary forks in the road, the series of what ifs—but there you go.
“So what makes you think I was the one having an affair?” she said.
“Clu told Enos.”
“Clu lied.”
“No,” Myron said.
They kept walking. Bonnie took a last drag and tossed the cigarette on the ground. “My property,” she said. “I’m allowed.”
Myron said nothing.
“Did Clu tell Enos who he thought I was sleeping with?”
“No.”
“But you think you know who this mystery lover is.”
“Yes,” Myron said. “It’s Esperanza.”
Silence.
“Would you believe me if I insisted you were wrong?” she said.
“You’d have a lot of explaining to do.”
“How’s that?”
“Let’s start with you coming to my office after Esperanza was arrested.”
“Okay.”
“You wanted to know what they had on her—that was the real reason. I wondered why you warned me away from finding the truth. You told me to clear my friend but not dig too hard.”
She nodded. “And you think I said that because I didn’t want you to know about this affair?”
“Yes. But there’s more. Like Esperanza’s silence, for one thing. Win and I theorized that she didn’t want us to know about her affair with Clu. It would look bad on several levels to be having an affair with a client. But to be having an affair with a client’s wife? What could be dumber than that?”
“That’s hardly evidence, Myron.”
“I’m not finished. You see, all the evidence that points to an affair between Esperanza and Clu actually points to an affair between you two. The physical evidence, for example. The pubic hairs and DNA found at the Fort Lee apartment. I started thinking about that. You and Clu lived there for a short time. Then you moved into this house. But you still had the lease on the apartment. So before you threw him out, it was empty, right?”
“Right.”
“What better place to meet for a tryst? It wasn’t Clu and Esperanza meeting there. It was you two.”
Bonnie said nothing.
“The E-Z Pass records—most of the bridge crossings were on days when the Yankees were out of town. So Esperanza wasn’t coming out to see Clu. She was coming out to see you. I checked the office phone records. She never called the apartment after you threw Clu out—only this house. Why? Clu wasn’t living here. You were.”
She took out another cigarette and struck a match.
“And lastly, the fight in the garage when Clu struck Esperanza. That bothered the hell out of me. Why would he hit her? Because she broke off an affair? That didn’t make sense. Because he wanted to find me or was crazed from taking drugs? Again, no. I couldn’t figure it out. But now the answer is obvious. Esperanza was having an affair with his wife. He blamed her for breaking up the marriage. Enos said the breakup shook him to the core. What could be worse for a psyche as fragile as Clu’s than his wife having an affair with a woman?”
Her voice was sharp. “Are you blaming me for his death?”
“Depends. Did you kill him?”
“Would it help if I said no?”
“It would be a start.”
She smiled, but there was no joy in it. Like the house, it was beautiful and sterile and almost soulless. “Do you want to hear something funny?” she said. “Clu’s beating the drugs and the drinking didn’t help our marriage—it ended it. For so long Clu was … I don’t know … a work in progress. I blamed his shortcomings on the drugs and drinking and all that. But once he finally exorcised his demons, what was left was just”—she lifted her palms and shrugged—“just him. I saw Clu clearly for the first time, Myron, and you know what I realized? I didn’t love him.”
Myron said nothing.
“And don’t blame Esperanza. It wasn’t her fault. I held on purely for the sake of my kids, and when Esperanza came along—” Bonnie stopped, and this time her smile seemed more genuine. “You want to hear something else funny? I’m not a lesbian. I’m not even a bisexual. It’s just … she treated me tenderly. We had sex, sure, but it was never about sex. I know that sounds weird, but her gender was irrelevant. Esperanza is just a beautiful person, and I fell in love with that. Does that make sense?”
“You know how this looks,” Myron said.
“Of course I know how it looks. Two dykes got together and offed the husband. Why do you think we’re trying so hard to keep it secret? The weakness in their case right now is motive. But if they find out we were lovers—”
“Did you kill him?”
“What do you expect me to say to that, Myron?”
“I’d like to hear it.”
“No, we didn’t kill him. I was leaving him. Why would I throw him out and start filing papers if I planned on killing him?”
“To prevent a scandal that would surely hurt your kids.”
She made a face. “Come on, Myron.”
“So how do you explain the gun in the office and the blood in the car?”
“I can’t.”
Myron thought about it. His head hurt—from the physical altercation or this latest revelation, he couldn’t say. He tried to concentrate through the haze. “Who else knows about the affair?”
“Just Esperanza’s lawyer, Hester Crimstein.”
“No one else?”
“No one. We were very discreet.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Because,” Myron said, “if I were going to murder Clu and I wanted to frame someone for it, his wife’s lover would be my first choice.”
Bonnie saw where he was heading. “So you think the killer knew about us?”
“It might explain a lot.”
“I didn’t tell anyone. And Esperanza said she didn’t either.”
Pow. Right between the eyes. “You couldn’t have been too careful,” Myron said.
“What makes you say that?”
“Clu found out, didn’t he?”
She thought about it, nodded.
“Did you tell him?” he asked.
“No.”
“What did you say when you threw him out?”
She shrugged. “That there was no one else. That was true in a sense. It wasn’t about Esperanza.”
“So how did he find out?”
“I don’t know. I assumed he became obsessed. That he followed me.”
“And he found out the truth?”
“Yes.”
“And then he went after Esperanza and attacked her?
“Yes.”
“And before he has a chance to tell anyone else abou
t this, before it has a chance of getting out and hurting either of you, he ends up dead. And the murder weapon ends up with Esperanza. And Clu’s blood ends up in the car she’s been driving. And the E-Z Pass records show Esperanza came back to New York an hour after the murder.”
“Again, yes.”
Myron shook his head. “It doesn’t look good, Bonnie.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” she said. “If even you won’t believe us, how do you think a jury is going to react?”
There was no need to answer. They headed back to the house then. The two young boys were still at play, oblivious of what was going on around them. Myron watched for a moment. Fatherless, he thought, shuddering at the word. With one last look he turned and walked away.
CHAPTER 24
Thrill, not Nancy Sinclair, met him outside a bar called the Biker Wannabee. Honesty in advertising. Nice to see.
“Howdy,” Myron said. Tex Bolitar.
Her smile was full of pornographic promise. Totally into Thrill mode now. “Howdy yourself, pardner,” she cooed. With some women, every syllable is cooed. “How do I look?”
“Mighty tasty, ma’am. But I think I prefer you as Nancy.”
“Liar.”
Myron shrugged, not sure if he was telling the truth or not. This whole thing reminded him of when Barbara Eden would play her evil sister on I Dream of Jeannie. He was often torn back then too, not sure if Larry Hagman should stay with Jeannie or run off with the enticingly evil sister. But hey, talk about your great dilemmas.
“I thought you were bringing backup,” Thrill said.
“I am.”
“Where is he?”
“If things go well, you won’t see him.”
“How mysterious.”
“Isn’t it?”
They headed inside and grabbed a corner booth in the back. Yep, biker wanna-be. Lots of guys aiming for that hairy, Vietnam vet–cum–hit-the-road look. The jukebox played “God Only Knows (What I’d Be Without You)”—the Beach Boys, but unlike anything else the Beach Boys did. The song was a plaintive wail, and despite its pop misgivings, it always struck Myron to the bone, the trepidation of what the future might hold so naked in Brian’s voice, the words so hauntingly simple. Especially now.
Thrill was studying his face. “You okay?” she asked.
