outside the province; Zack went to a small firm in Regina where he got tons of court time, very little supervision, and wasn’t the token guy in the wheelchair. All five of them had lucrative employment offers when their articling year was over. The money was tempting, but none of the members of the Winners’ Circle gave a moment’s consideration to anything other than practising law together.
There had been discussion about the order in which their names would appear on the office door and letterhead. Sensibly they headed off the problem of wounded egos by consigning the decision to fate. Delia Wainberg was a runner, so the members of the Winners’ Circle threw their names into one of her cross-trainers and the boy who delivered the pizza did the honours. No one complained. They moved into an office above a company that made dentures, painted the name Falconer Shreve Altieri Wainberg and Hynd on the door, and looked forward to a glowing future.
After twenty-five years, the glow had dimmed. Zack and Delia Wainberg were still true believers, dedicated to the law as it was practised by Falconer Shreve. Chris Altieri was dead, and after two years, his suicide was still a raw wound in the hearts of those who loved him. Kevin Hynd, having found the practice of law soul-scouring, left the firm for five years while he searched for answers; Chris’s death brought Kevin back to the firm, but he was a changed man whose New Age beliefs did not always sit well with his old partners. And Blake Falconer, the lucky guy whose name had been picked first from Delia Wainberg’s cross-trainer, had turned out to be grimly fated for tragedy.
I met Blake Falconer at the beginning of the last summer of his marriage. Despite the fact that even he had lost count of the number of times his wife had been unfaithful in their fifteen years together, Blake’s passion for Lily was still painfully intense. During the two months when the Falconer marriage ran out its last dark moments, I saw Blake almost every day, and I was struck by the gulf between his public and private lives. Professionally, he was a successful lawyer with a golden touch for real estate and development; privately, he was a driven man trying desperately to hold on to a woman determined to destroy herself. Ultimately, the demons that had driven Lily throughout her life claimed her. Until that night on the tranquil campus of Luther College, I hadn’t realized they had almost claimed Blake as well.
After we found a bench where we could sit while we waited for our daughters, Blake fell silent. I was relieved. I’d heard enough about Cristal to last me for a long while, but it turned out Blake was just gathering his thoughts. Very quickly, he made it clear he needed to talk.
“If it hadn’t been for Cristal, I think I might have killed Lily,” he said. “The first time I went to Cristal’s condo, I was so filled with rage that I could barely function. I’d never been with a prostitute, but I was crazy. Lily had taken off with somebody else – again. This time I saw her actually get into the truck with the man. He was the guy who delivered bottled water to our firm. Of course, Lily, as office manager, had chosen the company. It was called Pure.
“The man’s name was Steve and he was nineteen years old – a bodybuilder and a real smartass. Before that day, when Lily wandered, I’d always been able to force myself into some sort of perspective. I’d think about Gracie and my partners and my friends and my career. But when I saw Lily get into the truck with that cretin… something snapped. I knew I couldn’t take it any more: the humiliation, the rage, the wreckage of everything we were supposed to be to each other. I had never been unfaithful to Lily – not once – but when I thought of her spreading those beautiful legs of hers for that animal…” He swallowed hard. “I wanted her to know how it felt.”
“So you went to a prostitute.”
Blake nodded. “Cristal came highly recommended. She was safe, and she was discreet. She also turned to be my salvation. Everybody knew about Lily, of course, but I never talked to anyone about our marriage – not even Zack, and he’s the one I’m closest to. But from the moment I met Cristal, I knew I could tell her everything, and she would understand.” As he talked, Blake had kept his head down; now he turned and looked into my face. “Cristal made me understand why Lily was so determined to destroy our life together.”
“And what Cristal told you made sense?”
“Given Lily’s past, it did. Cristal said she understood women like Lily because she was like that herself. She said Lily didn’t believe she was worthy of a good life, and so she did everything she could to make sure that she got the kind of life she deserved.”
I remembered how often and how harshly I’d judged Lily. My throat tightened. “Blake, I’m so sorry.”
“You couldn’t have done anything. Lily was determined to destroy us, and she did. At least now I understand why she did it.”
I looked across the lawn. Gracie and Taylor, in their matching Luther hoodies, were running towards us. “Here come the girls.”
“Time to shape up.” He squared his shoulders and tried a smile. “Convincing?”
“You’re in luck,” I said. “It’s dark.”
He gave me a quick glance. “Jo, Zack should know this. I don’t want him thinking Cristal was just another whore.”
“I’ll tell him,” I said.
Gracie barrelled into her father. “Everybody says if it weren’t for the Miraculous Brodnitz Twins, I could have been the game all-star.”
Blake held his daughter’s shoulders. “Life is full of Brodnitz twins,” he said. “But there are rewards for the rest of us too. How about we go to the Milky Way and get some ice cream?” He glanced at me. “Joanne?”
“Why not?” I said. “But I’ll buy. We’ll have to take something for Zack, and he is not a cheap date.”
When we got home, there were two empty liquor bottles by the kitchen door, destined for the recycle, and Zack was putting drink glasses into the dishwasher.
“Looks like you had yourself quite a party,” I said.
“Nobody had any fun,” he said. He spotted the sundae Taylor was carrying. “Is that for me?”
Taylor handed it to him. “Yes, because you missed the game, but the ice cream’s melting, so you’d better eat it fast.”
“That will be no problem at all,” he said. “Thank you, ladies.”
“I’m going to have a shower,” Taylor said. “It was super hot in the gym, but it was a great game, wasn’t it, Jo?”
“It was,” I said. “Why don’t you tell Zack about it?”
Taylor grinned. “Like I know a single thing about basketball. Luther won, and I had a blast. That’s it!” She kissed us goodnight and vanished.
“Hard to believe that’s the girl who made me understand the significance of Monet’s windows,” Zack said, spooning ice cream and butterscotch sauce.
“How did the meeting go?” I asked.
“If the intent was to figure out what the hell’s going on, it was a waste of good Scotch. But you’ll be relieved to hear that our Glenfiddich smoothed the way to some serious male bonding. My group of seven has decided to stick together.”
“Like the seven dwarfs,” I said.
Zack dug into the chocolate ripple. “Are you pissed off?”
“No. Just bemused.”
“If it’s any consolation, these guys are sweating bullets. They’re all guilty as hell when it comes to fidelity to their marriage vows, but they all swear they had nothing to do with Cristal’s death. That said, they’re savvy enough to know that sooner or later the police investigation will turn up their names.”
“You’re all lawyers,” I said. “Someone must have floated the idea of going to the police before the police came to you.”
“Actually, everybody here tonight was a defence lawyer and that means they know how to play the odds. Somebody sent them DVDS of their private activities, which is weird but also legal because there was no threat and no attempt to extort. In short, there is no crime. So the consensus was that the potential loss outweighed the potential gain.”
“So everyone was cool.”
“No. They’re going through hell, waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“And the other shoe would be…?”
“Blackmail – like Cristal tried with Ned.”
“But Cristal’s dead.”
