X (Kinsey Millhone 24)

I kept my expression disinterested. “How long have you been here?”

“A month. We have another month to go; maybe more if she extends her stay abroad.”

Even in the harsh sunlight streaming through the windows, I was struck anew by her facial structure, with its angular planes, the prominent nose with the bump at the bridge. And all that excessive hair. It was a rich mahogany shade with glints of red, thick and layered, with some of the strands forming ringlets. If she was wearing makeup, it wasn’t evident. I watched her use an auger-style opener to remove the cork. It was the same wine we’d enjoyed that night at the Clipper estate.

“Still drinking good wine, I see.”

“Oh, please. I don’t care how low you sink, there’s no excuse for bad Chardonnay.” She poured wine in my glass and then filled her own. She lifted hers in a gesture of goodwill and took her first sip, then eased into the adjacent chair. “Kim tells me you spoke to Ari.”

“Yesterday afternoon. The place is in a state of upheaval.”

“Stella’s doing, I’m sure.”

We were skipping from topic to topic, but it kept the tone light. I said, “I expected Kim to be here.”

“It would only complicate the conversation. She’s off at the gym lifting weights. We have a facility here in the complex, so it doesn’t cost us anything. That’s the sort of thing we have to worry about these days.”

“I can only imagine the shock.”

She had the good grace to laugh, but I knew I shouldn’t push her too far. She was living in “reduced circumstances,” and while her lifestyle was luxurious compared to mine, I felt some sympathy for her lot.

“You and Kim have been friends for a long time?”

“More so now than we were in the ‘olden’ days. Back then we traveled in the same social circles, but we didn’t know each other well. In a curious way, we had nothing in common. Then Bret got caught embezzling from the investment firm he worked for and he went to prison. Now we’re migratory birds.”

“Must have been difficult for her.”

“Very. They’d always lived well, and Kim assumed his outrageous salary was legitimate. Part of the fault was hers, of course, because she was strictly hands-off when it came to their personal finances. She didn’t want to be bothered, and Bret was happy to let her think it was all too complicated to explain. She was lucky to find a job. She’s like me in that she has no marketable skills.”

“She can answer the phone graciously. That’s no small accomplishment.”

“She has good breeding to recommend her, which is more than I can say for myself. Also to her credit is the fact that she knows so many of the company’s clients, which is both the good news and the bad. She says she feels like she’s being pilloried in the public square, where her shame is on permanent display. No one says a word, but she knows they’re all thinking the same thing: that she must have known he was stealing. That she’d enjoyed their ill-gotten gains and now she could take her licks the same way he did. She’s a criminal by default.”

“What about you? Your life’s taken a distinct right-hand turn.”

“No need to remind me. I went to Los Angeles one weekend, thinking life was fine. I returned Monday morning and discovered my husband and my best friend had been screwing around behind my back. I’m still not sure which makes me the more furious, his betrayal or hers. Stella was fun. She had a catty side and she skewered everyone in private. She’s a great mimic and absolutely without mercy. Serves me right for laughing so hard on so many occasions. Now I’m the butt of the joke.”

“Not in Ari’s eyes.”

“Ari,” she said, and shook her head.

“How long were you married?”

“Seventeen years. He was married once before. Three kids, and I adore them. That’s been hard on all of us. Well, not Ari so much as the kids and me.”

“He said they were barely speaking to him.”

“Good. I’m glad. Anything less and I’d feel bad about myself.”

“You want to talk about our meeting at the Clipper estate?”

She smiled. “That was well done, wasn’t it?”

“When you chose me, was that random or just my bad luck?”

“Oh, no. I looked into it. There aren’t that many women private eyes in town. In fact, you were the only one, so that much was easy. I drove past your office and I could see from the neighborhood that it wasn’t high-toned. I’m sorry for the deception, but please remember, you did get paid.”