“And I think, like many men, he needed the girl to truly fall for him. He liked them young. So my guess is he was developmentally stunted, stuck in that stage when a boy gets off breaking a girl’s heart. Like in high school.”
“Could be.”
“It’s just a theory,” Big Cyndi said.
“Okay, this is all interesting, but what does this have to do with the other tattoo-the one that Suzze had too?”
“The design appears to be original artwork of some kind,” Big Cyndi said. “So Ma Gellan theorized that Suzze and Gabriel became lovers. Suzze got the tattoo and-to impress or fool her-Gabriel got one too.”
“So it was temporary?”
“There’s no way to know for certain,” Big Cyndi said, “but it is certainly, based on his past, a strong possibility.”
Esperanza was standing in the doorway. Myron looked over at her. “Thoughts?”
“Just the obvious,” Esperanza said. “Suzze and Gabriel were lovers. Someone posts a tattoo that both of them wore with a message about the paternity of her child.”
“Kitty admitted that she posted it,” Myron said.
“That might add up,” Esperanza said.
“Why’s that?”
The office phone rang. Big Cyndi moved back to her desk and put on her sugary-sweet voice. “MB Reps.” She listened a moment and shook her head at them, pointing to herself: She could handle it.
Esperanza signaled Myron to follow her into her office. “I got Suzze’s mobile phone records.”
On television, they make getting phone records seem difficult or, for the purposes of the plot, that it takes days or weeks. In truth, it could be done in minutes. In this case, it would take even less. Suzze, like many of MB Rep’s clients, had set up all her bill paying via MB Reps. That meant that they had her phone number, her address, her passcodes, her social security number. Esperanza was able to get the calls online as though it were her own phone.
“Her final call was to Lex’s cell, but he didn’t pick up. I think that he may have been on the plane flying back. But Lex had called her earlier in the day. Right after that-this is the morning before Suzze died-she also called an untraceable disposable mobile. My guess is, the police will believe that she was calling her drug dealer to set up a buy.”
“But that wasn’t the case?”
Esperanza shook her head. “The number matches the one ol’ Crush gave you for Kitty.”
“Whoa.”
“Yes,” Esperanza said. “And maybe that’s how Suzze got the drugs.”
“From Kitty?”
“Yep.”
Myron shook his head. “I still don’t believe it.”
“What don’t you believe?”
“Suzze. You saw her in here. She was pregnant. She was happy.”
Esperanza sat back and looked at him for several beats. “Do you remember when Suzze won the US Open?”
“Of course. What does that have to do with anything?”
“She’d cleaned up her act. She focused solely on her tennis, and bam, right away, Suzze wins a major. I never saw someone want something so badly. I can still see that final cross-court forehand to win, the look of pure undiluted joy on her face, the way she threw her racket up in the air and turned and pointed at you.”
“At us,” Myron said.
“Don’t patronize me, please. You’ve always been her agent and her friend, but you can’t be blind here. I want you to think what happened next.”
Myron tried to remember. “We had a huge party. Suzze brought the trophy with her. We drank out of it.”
“And then?”
Myron nodded, seeing where Esperanza was going. “She crashed.”
“Big-time.”
Four days after the biggest victory of her career-after appearing on the
She thought that winning would change her.
“Just when things were at their best for her,” Esperanza said, “she started using again.”
“And you think that’s what happened here?”
Esperanza raised one weighing hand, then the other. “Happiness, crash. Happiness, crash.”
“And her visit to Karl Snow after all the years? Do you think that’s a coincidence?”
“Nope. But I think he brought up a lot of emotion. That plays for her using, not against. Meanwhile I checked the addresses you gave me from Suzze’s GPS. The first, well, you figured that one out-Karl Snow’s ice cream parlor. The rest are all easy to explain, except I don’t have a clue about that second one.”
“The intersection in Edison, New Jersey?” Then: “Wait. Didn’t you say Kitty’s disposable phone was purchased at T-Mobile in Edison?”
“Right.” Esperanza brought something up on the computer. “Here’s the Google Earth satellite picture.”
Myron looked. A ShopRite. A Best Buy. A bunch of stores. A gas station.
“No T-Mobile,” Esperanza said.
But, Myron thought, worth a drive anyway.
23
Myron’s car Bluetooth picked up his cell phone. He spent the first half hour on the phone with clients. Life doesn’t stop for death. If you ever need proof of that, head back to work.
A few minutes before arriving, Win called.
“Are you armed?” Win asked.
“I assume you upset Herman Ache.”
“I did.”
“So he’s involved with Gabriel Wire?”
“It would seem so, yes, except for one thing.”
“What’s that?” Myron asked.
“I presented him with our theory about them controlling Wire via blackmail and gambling debts.”
“Right.”
“After several minutes,” Win said, “Mr. Ache finally admitted that our theory was correct.”
“Which means?”
“Herman Ache would lie about what he ate for lunch,” Win said.
“So we’re missing something.”
“Yes. In the meantime, arm yourself.”
“I’ll pick up a gun when I get back,” Myron said.
“No need to wait. There is a thirty-eight under your seat.”
Terrific. Myron reached under his seat, felt the bump. “Anything else I need to know?”
“I birdied the last hole. Shot two under par for the round.”
“Talk about burying the lead.”
“I was trying to be modest.”
