“Myron represents his partner.”
“So?”
“I know in the past that you handled his gambling debts.”
“And you think that should be illegal? It’s fine if the government sells lottery tickets. It’s fine if Las Vegas or Atlantic City or a bunch of Indians take bets, but if an honest businessman does it, somehow that’s a crime?”
Win tried very hard not to yawn. “So, do you still handle Gabriel Wire’s gambling?”
“I can’t see how any of this is your business. Wire and I have legitimate business arrangements. That’s all you have to know.”
“Legitimate business arrangements?”
“That’s right.”
“But I’m confused,” Win said.
“About?”
“What possible legitimate business arrangements involve Evan Crisp guarding Wire’s house on Adiona Island?”
Still holding his driver, Ache froze. He handed it back to the caddie and snapped the white glove off his left hand. He moved closer to Win. “Listen to me,” he said softly. “This is not a place you and Myron want to interfere. Trust me here. Do you know Crisp?”
“Only by reputation.”
Ache nodded. “Then you know it won’t be worth it.”
Herman gave Win one more hard glare and returned to his caddie. He put his glove back on and asked for his driver. The caddy handed it to him and then headed toward the woods on the left because that was the real estate Herman Ache’s golf balls seemed to favor.
“I have no interest in hurting your business,” Win said. “I have no interest in Gabriel Wire, for that matter.”
“So what do you want here?”
“I want to know about Suzze T. I want to know about Alista Snow. I want to know about Kitty Bolitar.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Would you like to hear my theory?”
“About?”
“Let’s go back sixteen years,” Win said. “Gabriel Wire owes you a substantial sum of money for gambling debts. He’s a drug addict, a pleated-skirt chaser-”
“Pleated?”
“He likes them young,” Win explained.
“Oh. Now I get it. Pleated.”
“So glad. Gabriel Wire is also-more important to you-a compulsive gambler. In short, he’s a mess, albeit a profitable one. He has money and tremendous earning potential, ergo the interest owed keeps compounding. Are you with me?”
Herman Ache said nothing.
“Then Wire goes too far. After a concert at Madison Square Garden, he invites Alista Snow, a naive sixteen- year-old girl, back to his suite. Wire slips her Rohypnol and cocaine and whatever other drugs he has lying around, and the girl ends up leaping off a balcony. He panics. Or perhaps, being that he is such an important asset, you already have a man on the scene. Perhaps Crisp. You clean up the mess. You intimidate the witnesses and even buy off the Snow family-whatever it takes to protect your boy. He owes you even bigger now. I don’t know what ‘legitimate business arrangement’ you made, but I imagine Wire has to pay you, what, half his earnings? That would be several million dollars per year minimum.”
Herman Ache just looked at him, trying very hard not to fume. “Win?”
“Yes?”
“I know you and Myron like to think you’re tough guys,” Ache said, “but neither one of you is bulletproof.”
“Tsk-tsk.” Win spread his arms. “What happened to Mr. Legal? Mr. Legitimate Businessman?”
“You’ve been warned.”
“By the way, I visited your brother in prison.”
Herman’s face fell.
“He sends his regards.”
22
Back at the office, Big Cyndi was at the ready.
“I have some information on Gabriel Wire’s tattoo, Mr. Bolitar.”
“Let’s hear it.”
Big Cyndi wore all pink today with enough blush on her cheeks to coat a minivan. “According to Ma Gellan’s extensive research, Gabriel Wire had one tattoo. It was on his left thigh, not his right. This may sound a little strange, so please bear with me.”
“I’m listening.”
“The tattoo was a heart. That tattoo itself was permanent. But what Gabriel Wire would do is fill in a name temporarily.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“You have seen what Gabriel Wire looks like, correct?”
“Yes.”
“He was a rock star and an absolute major yummy, but he had a certain predilection.”
“That being?”
“He liked underage girls.”
“He was a pedophile?”
“No, I don’t believe so. His targets were fully developed. But they were young. Sixteen, seventeen.”
Alista Snow, for example. And now that he thought about it, Suzze T, back in those days.
“So even though Gabriel Wire was a tasty rock star, he often needed to convince a girl that she meant something to him.”
“I’m not sure how the tattoos fit in.”
“It was a red heart.”
“So?”
“So it was plain inside. Just red. Gabriel Wire would then take a Sharpie and write in the name of the girl he was pursuing. He would pretend that he had gotten the tattoo especially for that particular girl.”
“Wow.”
“Yes.”
“Talk about diabolical.”
Big Cyndi sighed. “You wouldn’t believe the things men will do to land some of us hotties.”
Myron tried to process this. “How did it work exactly?”
“It would depend. If Gabriel wanted to close the sale immediately, he would actually take the girl to a tattoo parlor that night. He would tell her he was going to the back room and to wait for him. Then he’d draw in the name. Sometimes he would do it before a second date.”
“Sort of, say, ‘I care about you so much, look, I got a tattoo with your name on it’?”
“Precisely.”
Myron shook his head.
“You have to admit,” Big Cyndi said, “it is sort of genius.”
“More like sick.”
“Oh, I believe that was part of it,” Big Cyndi said. “Gabriel Wire could have any girl he wants-even young ones. So I ask myself, why would he go to all that trouble? Why not just move on to the next girl?”
“And?”
