“Oh,” Parminter said.
“The fact of the matter is that I just didn’t count on you being so interested in what had happened to Terry,” she added.
“He was my friend.”
“Yeah, you hadn’t talked to him in years so I’m sure you were close,” she said sarcastically. “But he was a nice guy. Just not exactly stable, if you know what I mean.”
Parminter could see quickly just how he had been played. Now that he knew her true role in Terry’s life, everything fell into place.
“So, at the estate, you weren’t really scared of the security guard. You just thought he might blow your cover.”
“Exactly. I was the one who hired him.”
“And the guy at the bar?”
“That was just some random guy. I needed a cigarette and wanted to leave and have sex with you but I changed my mind. I thought you might think it was a bit strange.”
“I would have.” He looked at her closely. “I didn’t think you smoked.”
“Just add that the list of things you didn’t know about me,” she said smirking. “And do you want to know something else
“What?”
“I’m not Mexican. And my name isn’t even Marisol.” She smiled.
“So, what is it?”
She rolled her eyes. “You could always look it up, John. It’s not like I’m hiding anything. Everything has been right there in front of you all along. If you had just looked.”
Parminter shook his head. He just didn’t know how he could have been so easily duped.
“Oh, but I didn’t lie about everything. I am a lawyer. It’s a good degree to have in this field.”
Parminter didn’t know what to think. “But you’re so young to have achieved all this.”
“Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not that young, John. I’ve just got good genetics.” Marisol, or rather the person he knew as Marisol, then took a deep breath. “Look, John. He knew he didn’t earn any of this and he was getting harder to control because of it. He wanted to tell the world about Nate Geralds. He had too much of a conscience. Too much pride. I couldn’t really let him go forward with his story, about how I had manufactured his whole persona. A lot of people were and still are depending on those books to sell.”
“I can see that,” Parminter said, considering his words.
“It’s like this, John. A lot of people think they’re failures when they’re really not. They have this insecurity that they aren’t what people really think they are. The problem with Nate was that this was true. He really wasn’t what people thought he was and after a while, it really began to bother him.”
“Still, do you really think that he needed to kill himself?” Parminter asked.
“That’s the problem with guilt. It doesn’t make you feel good about yourself.”
Parminter realized that this had probably never been an issue for Marisol. “But even so. This is kind of a big deal. It just wasn’t necessary for him to die. I mean wouldn’t that story alone been enough to sell even more books?”
“It’s true. There would have been a bump in the beginning because of people’s curiosity. But eventually it would have all faded. I mean look at what happened to Milli Vanilli.” She stopped for a second. “Besides, he never would have gone for it. He was too proud. He felt too guilty.”
Parminter shook his head. “I just can’t believe this.” But he really wasn’t surprised.
Marisol suddenly became animated. “If you want to blame someone, blame damned ghost writer, Klatch! He was always in his ear about it. Making him feel bad and telling him how unfair it was. He should have just kept his mouth shut and cashed his check. He was getting rich off him just like the rest of us. He was the one who really drove him to it. He was the one who put those ideas in his head.”
“But you had the most to gain and lose from it, right?”
She didn’t say anything for a moment while she weighed her words. “Aside from the publisher, yes.” She then took a sip of her coffee. “You have to understand that he was my first big score. I was an intern when I found that manuscript and I held onto it until I became an agent. I was the only one who knew then just how big it could be but I also knew that there was no way anyone would buy that book if people knew that someone like Klatch had written it. So I came up with the concept of Nate Geralds and sold it to the publishing house and after that I made it into the phenomenon it became. It was what made my name as an agent.”
“So, when you were saying he met some really shady people when he was modeling, you were talking about yourself.”
“I never used the term shady.”
Parminter thought about it. “I see. But you took one look at him and he ticked all the boxes.”
“Yes, he was good looking and was rugged, but not too rugged, if you know what I mean.” She said and smiled. “Or too smart.”
“But since he wasn’t really a writer, why couldn’t you have just made him go into seclusion so he wouldn’t have had to be in the public making any more appearances? Why couldn’t you just have let him disappear?”
Marisol sighed. “I tried that, but he wouldn’t have any part of it. The thing about it was that he was okay with it at first, but after a while, it really began to get to him that he couldn’t ever be honest about what he was and what he did for a living. ‘I’m living a lie filled with false words,’ was how he put it.” She rolled her eyes. “He was so melodramatic at the end.”
“I can see how he would feel that way. It would be very stressful to always think that you have to hide who you really are.”
“Eventually, after he started drinking, he stopped caring about keeping it a secret. He started to blab to people about it. No one believed him, of course. They just thought he was pulling their legs. But eventually they would have believed him if he kept on with it and he would have blown the lid off of everything. I even started fucking him to try to sway him, but he was just inconsolable. He was bound and determined that he was going to do the ‘right thing.’”
“I looked his sales figures up. His books weren’t doing as well as they once were either, right?”
“Well, that’s true to a point. We knew he was losing some momentum and that people were getting a little tired of that schlocky crap. Even though I didn’t want to admit it, I knew that him killing himself would boost sales. At least for a while.”
Parminter had known the writing business was hard, especially out in Hollywood, but he hadn’t known that it could be quite this cold. It was no wonder that Marisol had been able to drive Terry to suicide.
“Well, of course, I’ve already got a new guy lined up to take his place in the world of sappy romances and the Klatch is already on board. You saw his brownstone. He’s got a lot of debt.”
Parminter didn’t know what to say.
“Honestly, as I said, I wasn’t really trying to make him do it. I just got irritated with how he was acting and told him that he might as well kill himself if he was so unhappy with everything because that was the only way he was going get out of it. That’s all I did, seriously.”
Parminter was sure that there was probably a little more to it than that, but he would be wasting his time trying to get it out of her so he played along. “So that’s what he did? He actually took you literally.”
“Well, you know how gullible he was. And stupid.” Marisol said. “And it turned out I was right. Because of it, we’ve prolonged his career and his family and everybody who directly or indirectly involved is set for life. All they have to do is keep their mouths shut and mind their own business.” She stopped and considered her words. “Besides, he probably would have done it anyway. He wasn’t exactly in his right mind these days.”
“You’re just a cold bitch, you know that?” Parminter said.
“Listen, I didn’t break any laws. I didn’t kill him. He did that. I just told him the truth. I can’t help that he couldn’t take it.”
She was right. As evil as she apparent
ly was, she most likely hadn’t technically done anything illegal. Unethical, sure. But illegal? There was no way to prove anything against her. Also, it was true that Terry was fragile. Parminter knew that not everyone is equipped to survive in this world as long as everybody else. Not everyone is going to make it. Drug addicts were a perfect example of this. They always destroy themselves because they can’t make it through life normally. But still. This was different. Terry needed help. He didn’t need a push into the darkness.
She continued, “You can only listen to someone feeling sorry for himself for so long before you get tired of it. And I was very tired of it. He was upset that he really wasn’t Nate Geralds. He couldn’t accept life as it is. Just like most people out there. He made a good living at this and then he decided that he wanted it to be something else. And it just doesn’t work like that. If people would just accept what they’ve been given, we would all be better off, don’t you think?”
Parminter just stared at her. “You are a sociopath.”
“Well, I think we’re done here, Mr. Parminter.”At that, Marisol stood up. “Well, it’s been pleasant, but not that pleasant. I hope you have everything you need to bring closure to yourself.” Before she walked away, she stopped and turned. “And don’t bother telling anyone about this. No one wanted to believe Terry so why would they believe you?”
“But there’s wasn’t any need to lead me on. I was going to leave,” Parmitner said.
Marisol shrugged. “I guess I just couldn’t help myself.” Then she left.
Parminter watched as she walked out of the restaurant. He shook his head in disbelief. Poor Marisol. So jaded yet so naive. She was depending on what she considered the weakness and stupidity of other people to keep her secret. She should have known better. She would learn that she wasn’t the only person who could play this game. While what she had said sounded like it had come from the imagination of a crazy person, it was just the kind of story people wanted to know about—real or imagined. He really wasn’t a writer any more, but he still had connections. There were a lot of people who would be interested in an exclusive about the tragic story of a former local football player made good. And the details regarding the writing career? Those would be icing on the cake. Regardless of what Marisol had said about how close-lipped the people involved in the ruse were and how they were contractually obligated to keeping their mouths shut about the arrangement, he knew people pretty well. He knew they liked to gossip and if they knew a secret as big as this, there was no way some of them would be able to keep it. Besides, Parminter knew there were a lot more cynical people out there than Marisol believed.
What she had forgotten was that he wasn’t really a part of the story so he didn’t have anything to lose. All he would be doing was pointing a reporter in the right direction. Sure, if the story came out, she wouldn’t go to jail, but she might lose her career or, at the least, be publicly embarrassed. This would also pull a lot of the other people involved down with her. He could call up any number of people and suddenly Marisol’s world would be turned upside down. He thought about how she had said that Terry had described his life as a lie filled with false words. This was true of many things, but most of the time the truth eventually would come out.
The more he thought about it, however, he decided that he would refrain from doing anything. At least for a while. There were all kinds of ways he could screw her on this and the longer he waited, the more of a shock it would be and the more she would have to lose.
Then he remembered that he also had something else he knew about. He also had an inside tip on a Ponzi scheme via his good pal Ratledge. Maybe he should let that one out as well.
No, he figured he would sit on that one for a while, too. Besides, it would be stepping outside the unspoken boundaries he had with the fat man. He had to honor this code after all.
He chuckled about how ridiculous it was that Ratledge had thought he was dumb enough to fall for that scam. But it hadn’t been all bad. At least it had given him a chance to eat some chicken. And see his favorite waitress.
False Words Page 5
