Beyond Suspicion

“I’ll deliver it to your hotel tonight,” said Fahid. “Then we’re square, right?”

“We’ll never be square. You assholes cost me my biggest contract ever.”

“What?”

“Those bastards I lined up from my Miami office. They cut me off. And it’s your fault. You and your fucking West Nile virus.”

He turned and stomped on Aman’s bloody foot, drawing one last cry of pain.

Fahid said, “Yuri, I’m sorry about this.”

“Not half as sorry as those boys who pulled my contract are going to be.”

He tucked his gun into the holster hidden beneath his shirt, dropped twenty dollars’ worth of Paraguayan guaranies on the chair to cover the beer and the smashed table, and walked out of the restaurant, leaving Fahid to tend to his bloodied partner.

33

•

At 8 A.M. Jack was ready to leave for the courthouse. Cindy had gone into the studio two hours earlier, something about morning light being best for an outdoor shoot. He went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee to go. Cindy’s mother was at the table reading the paper.

“Have a good one,” said Jack.

“Mmm hmm,” she said, her eyes never leaving the crossword puzzle.

Jack started out, then stopped. “Evelyn, I just wanted to thank you.”

“For what?”

“For letting Cindy and me stay here with you.”

She looked up from her newspaper. “You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my daughter.”

If the words hadn’t completely conveyed it, the tone made it clear that she wasn’t doing it for his sake. “Can we talk for a minute?”

“What about?”

Jack pulled up a chair and sat across the table from her. “You’ve been cool toward me ever since this old audiotape surfaced. Cindy has obviously gotten past it. What do I have to do to make things right with you?”

“There’s nothing you need to do.”

“Nothing I need to do, or nothing I can do?”

“My, that’s the kind of question that certainly brings matters to a head, isn’t it?”

Jack looked her in the eye and said, “I wasn’t unfaithful to your daughter.”

“That’s between you two.”

“Then why are you making me feel as though I’ve done something wrong?”

“If you feel that way, then maybe you have.”

Jack knew that it was probably best to back away from controversy, the way he always had with Evelyn. But this time he couldn’t. “Do you wish I had?”

“Had what?”

“Cheated on Cindy.”

“What?

“Do you?”

“What kind of ridiculous question is that?”

“One that you’re trying not to answer.”

“Why would I ever wish that on my own daughter?”

“You still didn’t answer, but here’s one possibility: so that she’d leave me.”

Her voice tightened. “Do you really want to have this conversation?”

“It’s time, don’t you think?”

She looked away nervously, then lowered her eyes and said, “It’s nothing against you, Jack. Honestly, I don’t think you’re a horrible person.”

“Gee, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“There was a time when I said nothing but nice things about you.”

“And then things changed.”

“Esteban changed everything,” she said.

Five years after the attack, the mere mention of his name still made his skin crawl. “Cindy told me how you feel. That her nightmares will never end so long as she’s with me.”

“She was attacked by your client.”

“That was when I did death penalty work. I don’t anymore. Haven’t for years.”

“The association is still there. Always will be. Cindy needed to make a break from all of that, and she didn’t.”

“She’s happy with the choices she made.”

“She’s more fragile than you think.”

“She’s stronger than you think.”

“I’m not just talking about Esteban.”

“I know what you’re talking about, and I’m nothing like her father.”

She paused and settled back into her chair, as if suddenly aware that the intensity of the exchange had her leaning into the table. Her voice dropped to a softer but serious tone. “Do you know why my husband committed suicide?”

“I didn’t think anyone really knew why.”

“Do you know what his death did to our family?”

“I can only imagine.”

“I didn’t ask you to imagine. I asked if you knew.”

“No. I wasn’t there.”

“Then you don’t know Cindy. And you shouldn’t pretend to know what’s best for her.”

The words angered Jack, not only because they hurt, but because it was so evident that she’d felt that way for a very long time. “You were right from the outset, Evelyn. We shouldn’t have had this conversation.”

“It was so u

“Some things are better left unsaid.”

“Yes. Especially when we both know I’m right.”

Jack grabbed his mug of coffee and left the house, down the front steps and across the driveway, thankful for a fast car as his squealing tires carried him away from Cindy’s mother and her painful truths.

34

•

Jack returned from a hard-fought morning in federal court feeling pretty good about himself. A suppression hearing had gone his way, and it was gratifying to know that, despite the personal hassles, he was still able to do impressive work for his clients. Even the guilty ones.

Jack had barely settled into his office when Rosa popped in from across the hall. It was their habit to kibitz after a court hearing, and he was eager to share the details. She beat him to the punch.

“Jessie Merrill named you in her will.”

Jack did a double take. “Named me what?”

“A beneficiary.”

The words almost didn’t register. He hadn’t really been focusing on the probate of Jessie’s estate as of late. In fact, he’d given it little thought-perhaps too little thought-since he’d spoken with Clara Pierce, the personal representative. “That can’t be.”

“I just got off the phone with Clara. Apparently she’d rather deal with your lawyer than with you.”

“What did she say?”

“There will be a reading of the will today in her office at three-thirty. You’re invited, since you’re a beneficiary.”

“Did she say what I’m getting?”

“No.”

“Then it’s probably the Charlie Brown special.”

“She intimated that it bolsters your motive to murder Jessie. That hardly sounds like a lump of coal.”

“You don’t think she left me the money, do you?”

Rosa considered it. “It seems incredible. But I’m begi

“I’ll vouch for that.”

“I’m saying something a little different. I’m talking about the kind of mental impairment that’s medically verifiable.”

“Do you know something I don’t know?”

She walked to the window and said, “I hear the medical examiner is about to issue a report.”

“I hadn’t heard.”

“Nothing’s official yet. But I have it on pretty good authority that higher-than-normal levels of lead were found in tissue taken from her liver and kidneys. You know what that means, Jack?”

He was looking at his lawyer, yet it was as if he could see right through her. “Jessie did have lead poisoning.”

“At one time, yes. It was no longer in her bloodstream by the time she died, but traces of it had deposited in her major organs.”

Jack was talking fast, his thoughts getting ahead of him. “Okay, she really was sick at the outset. But that doesn’t prove that there was no scam. Somebody, somewhere along the line, got the bright idea to take lead poisoning and turn it into a phony case of ALS in order to dupe a group of viatical investors. Maybe it was her idea, maybe it was her doctor’s. Maybe it hit them both at the same time while they were lying in bed together.”

“I agree with you, but that’s not my point.”

“What is your point?”

“Lead poisoning has other ramifications, medically speaking. Even personality problems. Paranoia, hallucinations, irritability.”