“Not now, Michael. When I have it together, I promise, you’ll be the first to know.”
She turned as she spoke, and I could see a splinter of myself reflected in the dark lenses. I wanted more from my client, but I wasn’t going to get it. I could walk, but that didn’t play for me either. Never did.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said. “Take a ride.”
Janet tilted her head toward the street. “My car’s here. How about I make us some dinner? Taylor’s at a friend’s for the night and Mr. Charming is staying downtown.”
I finished my beer and threw down some money. The bartender kept his eyes glued to the set. Maybe Lou’s team was really that interesting this year. Being a Cubs fan myself, I knew better.
CHAPTER 27
D inner was roasted chicken and some salad. Afterward, we sat at the kitchen table with a bottle of wine and cigarettes. That’s when my client decided to tell me how it started.
“He took a dozen eggs out of the fridge.” Janet nodded her head as if I didn’t believe her. I hadn’t said a word.
“We were married less than a month. It was a Saturday morning and I had to take Taylor to a soccer game. Told him I didn’t have time to pick up his dry cleaning.”
She topped off her glass and offered the bottle to me. I shook my head.
“He comes downstairs. Hungover like a dog. Asks me what I said. So I told him again that I couldn’t pick up the dry cleaning. He goes to the fridge and gets the eggs. Grabs me by the back of the neck and sits me down at the table.”
“You try and stop him?”
“Honestly, I didn’t know what was going on. Besides, he was stronger than I knew. At least he was then. So I sat right here. And he cracked an egg. Over my head. Right down my face.”
Janet turned at an angle and took a hit off her cigarette, a single eye fixed on me as she blew a stack of smoke into the space between us.
“He didn’t say anything. Just held my shoulders and head and cracked the egg. First one, then another. Probably about a half dozen in all. Then he left. Went back upstairs to bed. His way of telling me who was boss.”
“What did you do?”
She laughed and I caught a flash of her eyeteeth. “Hard-ass Janet, right? Should have left, run for the door? Well, I didn’t. Mostly because of this.”
Janet waved her glass around the house in Sauganash.
“I didn’t want to lose all this. For Taylor, I told myself. So I cleaned up and I stayed. Course it got worse. The eggs were just the message. After that came the pushing. Yelling. Slaps turned into fists. Rough sex, whenever and however he wanted. You know how it goes. You’ve seen it.”
I took a sip of wine and the two of us sat with things. However they were.
“I knew someday he’d be done with me,” she said. “Then he’d go after Taylor.”
“So it is like that.”
My client nodded to herself and something moved behind her eyes. “Not yet, but it could be. Anyway, I couldn’t take the chance. Couldn’t just wait around.”
“So you came to see me. Almost a year ago.”
“You were a friend. Okay, once we were more than friends.” She took a cautious look up from under her bruises. “You thought any more about that?”
“About what?”
“About us. About what I told you.”
“I try not to.”
“It never would have worked, Michael. You know that.”
“There might have been other options.”
She began to speak, then settled for a hard grimace.
“Let’s not get into this again,” I said. “What’s done is done. In your next life, just tell the guy.”
She shook her head. “It was my body. My decision.”
“Then why do I have to live with it?”
It was a selfish question. One without an answer. One that, once asked, couldn’t be undone.
“We’re talking more than fifteen years ago, Michael. I was a kid. And I was scared.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you were a kid. We both were.”
“You think there’s something more to it?”
“I think you had plans.”
Janet toasted her plans. “You mean I was about the money. That’s why I hooked up with Taylor’s dad right after you. Mr. Board of Trade. Then, Mr. City Hall. Thought a guy with a little bit of green would take care of all my problems. Get a house, nice car. All that security.”
“Not so secure, huh?”
“Take a look around. From now on, I take care of my own.”
“Is that why you looked me up after all these years?”
“You were always strong, Michael. Even when I finally told you about it.”
“And once you told me, I might be more likely to take you on as a client?”
“Is that what you think?”
“You tell me.”
Her eyes had hardened into bits of emerald, polished and shining. “I thought you needed to know what happened. Even if it happened a long time ago. As for the rest of it, if you could help me find some answers to the thing with Johnny, yes, I wanted that.”
“And now?” I said.
“Now, the answers are all there. It’s the questions I need to face up to.”
“In the meantime, we all wait.”
She reached over. Her hand was like leather and cold to the touch. Or maybe it was just me.
“It’s not perfect, Michael. But I can promise you this. When we’re ready, I’ll walk away with my kid and never look back.”
I moved my hand off hers. “Just don’t wait too long.”
“I won’t.” She stood up and stepped close. “We okay?”
I nodded and thought I meant it. She leaned over and ran her lips across my cheek. Then she started to clear the table, as if that would somehow change her life. I watched for a while before wandering into the living room. Mitchell Kincaid’s run for mayor was the second story on the ten o’clock news. Janet came in with the rest of the wine and sat down.
“I saw him speak,” she said. Fox News rolled tape of Kincaid, smiling and shaking hands at a rally.
“What did you think?”
“Honestly?”
“Sure.”
“I thought it must have been what Bobby Kennedy was like.”
I looked at the screen. The crowd around Kincaid was mostly white, mostly young, and mostly female. A little like being at a Beatles concert back when Paul and John shaved once a week.
“That good, huh?”
A college-age woman, hair dyed red and braided tight to her head, jumped in front of the candidate. She wore cargo pants, a white shirt, and a black bomber jacket. The girl lifted up her shirt to reveal a ripped set of abs. Kincaid smiled and signed her stomach as all the other women screamed.
“I didn’t say I’d vote for him,” Janet said. “Remember who my asshole husband works for.”
I picked up the remote and froze the image on the screen. Kincaid was caught in profile, his hand reaching out to tousle the head of a young boy in the crowd.
