The Crimes of Jordan Wise

would be a tolerable price to pay to keep my freedom.

It was almost eight thirty before the doorbell rang. Muggy night, overcast, storm clouds making up on the horizon; the barometer had been falling steadily since mid-afternoon. A salt-laden northwest wind was already blowing at around twenty knots. I had the doors and jalousies open and all the fans running, but the house still sweltered with a sauna-like stickiness.

Cutter wasn't late on purpose, it turned out. His face had a dark-red flush, and he was breathing heavily and wiping away a coating of sweat, when I opened the door. The yellow shirt he wore over white ducks showed dark stains under the arms and down the front.

'Whew,' he said, 'that's some goddamn climb. That last set of steps almost did me in.'

'You walked up here?'

'No point in renting a car. I won't be on this island much longer and I'd probably have gotten lost anyway. But I'd've grabbed a hack if I'd known what a ballbuster of a hike it was.'

I led him into the living room. He stood fanning himself with his hand, looking around. 'No air conditioning?'

'No. Just the ceiling fans.'

'How the hell do you stand the humidity? It's like a fucking oven in here.'

'You get used to it.'

'Not me, brother. All those clouds piling up, smells like rain.'

'Storm forecast for tonight.'

'Well, I'm not hoofing it down those steps in the rain. You can drive me back to my hotel.' He went to the open terrace doors, stepped out briefly as if to make sure there was nobody lurking around out there, and came back inside. 'I could use a cold beer,' he said.

'I don't have any beer.'

'A drink, then. Gin and tonic, vodka tonic, something cold.'

'Only liquor I have in the house is rum.'

'Rum. All right then, rum. What've have you got to mix it with? Tonic, juice?'

'Water and ice, that's all.'

'Christ. You're some host, you know that?'

At the sideboard I poured twice from the cut-glass decanter of Arundel, added ice cubes to my glass, ice and water to his. He took a long pull, made a face.

'I don't know what you see in this stuff,' he said. 'Tastes like cough medicine to me.'

'Don't drink it if you don't like it.'

'Let's get down to business. Where's the money?'

'Manila envelope on the coffee table.'

He moved over there, scooped it up, sat down with it in one of the rattan chairs. I followed him, perched on the sofa, and watched him open the envelope, dump the rubber-banded packets onto his lap, riffle through each one. Then he let me see his crooked grin.

'Five thousand on the nose, all fifties and hundreds. I figured you'd come through, but I had to be sure. Good man, Jordan.'

'I asked you not to call me that.'

'Yeah, okay, whatever.' Cutter put the money back into the envelope, slugged more of his drink and then rolled the wet glass across his forehead. He was still oozing sweat, his face still red-flushed with prickly heat; the wet spots on his yellow shirt hadn't dried any. 'How the hell can you stand this climate? Even at night, you can hardly breathe.'

'It isn't always this muggy.'

'Well, you can have it. Closing in on winter up north, but I'd rather freeze my ass off than suffocate any day.'

'Where do you live, up north?'

'Uh-uh,' he said, 'you don't need to know that. All you need to know is what I tell you. Now here's the deal, Jordan. Tomorrow—'

'Richard. My name is Richard.'

'Jordan, Richard, who the hell cares?'

'I care,' I said.

'Just shut up and listen. I wasn't going to spring this on you for another day or two, but I've had enough of this shithole. I'm leaving as soon as I can rebook my flight. And when I go, I'm taking the second installment with me.'

I tightened up inside. 'What do you mean, second installment?'

'You think all I wanted was a paltry five thousand? Uh-uh. This was just a test.'

'How much more?'

'Another twenty-five.'

'Twenty-five thousand!'

'Nonnegotiable and no arguments. Then I'll go away and you can stay here and keep on drying out like old shoe leather.'

'Until the next time, the next installment.'

'Don't worry about that,' Cutter said. 'You just go back to your bank tomorrow and draw out the twenty-five thousand and have it waiting for me here when I call you. Fifties and hundreds, same as the first installment.'

'I don't have that much in my account.'

'Then get it from the one in the Cayman Islands. A wire transfer doesn't take long.'

' . . . How did you know about the Cayman account?'

'How do you think? Same way I found out everything else about you.'

'Not by asking around, you didn't,' I said. 'Nobody on this island knows about that account but me and my bank, and they wouldn't give out the information.'

'Well, somebody else knows.'

I got it then. All at once, like a rocket going off inside my head. Crazy coincidence, hell. Y factor, hell. Yplus x equals xy squared—that was the real equation here. My hands had started to shake. I pressed them together, hard, between my knees.

'Annalise,' I said.

His face bunched into a scowl. 'Who?'

'Blue eyes. Jesus, I should've known. She always was partial to men with blue eyes.'

'Huh?'

'She told you. That's how you knew about the Cayman account. About Jordan Wise. About the steps from downtown, too—you couldn't have figured out the way up here just from looking at a city map, or been able to find this house in the dark. You're not from San Francisco, you never laid eyes on me before that bump in front of the bank. She told you where to find me, told you everything. You're in this together, you and Annalise.'

He didn't try to deny it. 'Oh, what the hell,' he said. 'She didn't want you to know, but you figured it out anyway and I don't give a shit. That's right, me and Annalise.'

'How long have you known her?' I could barely get the words out.

'Three months, if it matters.'

'Living together?'

'Uh-uh. I had enough of that.'

'What about her?'

'What do you care?'

'Where does she live? New York City?'

'Never mind where. None of your business anymore.' The grin was back on his mouth. Now that the truth was out, he was openly enjoying himself. 'She's some piece,' he said.

'Some piece.'

'You were lucky to hang on to her as long as you did, you know that? Woman like her.' The grin widened into