A Clean Kill

Twenty-four

Remy felt like a thief as she slipped out of the Fifty-ninth Street entrance of the Plaza Hotel at six thirty a.m. She didn't know whether Wayne was up or not and didn't care. The boys were still sleeping, and after last night she just had to get out of there. She took no special notice of the jogger that paused in front of the movie theater across the street. She hurried down to the corner, grabbed a taxi on Fifth, and didn't talk to the driver as he cruised downtown, then turned east on Fifty-second Street. Lynn was waiting for her on the corner of First Avenue as she'd promised, and had the two dogs with her.

"What's the matter? What happened?" she asked as Remy paid and got out of the cab.

As usual, they were dressed alike, in sweatshirts .and jeans. They carried the same shoulder bags and wore similar Nikes. Floyd, the standard poodle, jumped up and Remy patted him. Roxie jumped as high as she could, and Remy leaned over to pat her, too. "I had a terrible night," she said after a moment.

"Did you have to sleep with him?" Lynn said. Remy knew that Lynn had once been fired from a job after a wife found out about her husband's advances to her. Lynn was particularly sensitive to the hazards of being a live-in.

Remy made a face. It wasn't that. She'd slept with Wayne Wilson many times before. She'd given him blow jobs, whatever he wanted, and didn't think it was a big deal. She didn't dwell on it too much.

"Well, did you?" Lynn couldn't stop asking that question.

Remy brushed it away. "Why did you bring the dogs? Now we can't go in anywhere. I need something to eat."

"Andrew locked them up last night, and they were crying. They wanted to go out, and I needed the excuse. What was yours?"

"Oh, I just left. Al right, I'll have a bagel. Wait for me."

The deli on First Avenue had a bench out front. At the moment no one was on it, so Lynn sat down while Remy went in for coffee and bagels. She came out in less than five minutes with two paper bags, and handed one over.

"Latte and Cinnamon raisin bagel for you, pumpernickel for me," Remy said. She sat down and pulled out her coffee first. She took a sip and grimaced. "Too hot. Okay, how are things with you?"

"Same old, same old. Alison got really crocked last night. She thinks I don't know what she gets up to—the three Ds. Derek wouldn't come over last night, and Andrew didn't show, either. So she was left with drugs and drink. I feel sorry for her."

"Yeah, well. Feel sorry for yourself. Things are very weird, Lynnie."

Lynn chewed on her bagel. "I still feel sorry for her. I can always do something else, get a new job. She's stuck there."

"You better start planning now. You're getting canned today."

"What? How do you know?"

"I heard Wayne talking to Andrew last night."

"Jesus, Remy. What did he say?"

"Well, I couldn't hear everything because I was in the other room, but 1 think Andrew was chewing him out for having me stay there." Remy tossed her hair back and started eating.

"Yeah, well, what did you expect? 1 wouldn't stay there with them for anything in the world, and I don't even want to ask how it is." She raised her eyebrows, asking nonetheless.

"He said Alison had to get rid of you because of the publicity."

"What publicity? Who cares about Alison?" Lynn laughed uneasily. "Why would Wayne tell Andrew to fire me? It's ridiculous."

"Andrew doesn't want any publicity. He wants us both out of the way, some antinanny thing. He doesn't understand that I'm in a special situation, that I'm not a nanny," Remy said.

"Yes, you are." Lynn had one dog on her lap and one at her feet. She occupied herself with them for a moment, then got serious. "Thanks for the warning, Rem, but I'm not the one in trouble. You are, too. You were there yesterday, and you're still there with him. I don't know what you're thinking, but other people are not seeing this as a good thing. Alison thinks you're in on it for sure. You need to get a lawyer, and you need to move out now."

"I didn't do anything wrong."

Lynn made a disparaging noise. "You're not listening! You're staying with him and his two children. You should think about that."

Remy tossed her hair again, then frowned. The jogger who'd been in front of the Plaza was now across the street by the newsstand. She hadn't studied him carefully, but she was sure it was the same guy. "See that guy over there?"

Lynn turned to look where she pointed.

"He followed me."

"Good Lord, Remy, are you sure?"

Remy nodded. "I saw him at the Plaza a little while ago. Wayne says he's being followed, too. The police came to his restaurant last night and talked to the chef, the sous-chef, everybody. He was on the phone with his friends all night."

Lynn stared at the jogger, who was busy reading the newspaper he'd just purchased. "They can tap the phones, you know," she murmured.

Remy took Lynn's hand off the poodle's collar and squeezed it. "Listen to me. It was horrible what happened to Maddy, but I was with Wayne in his restaurant. He was accepting deliveries, counting the boxes, when it happened. A lot of people saw us there. No one can pin anything on us, and I guarantee that he won't let anything happen to me. I can guarantee it."

Lynn's face was full of doubt. "You're sleeping with him, Rem, and you found her. It doesn't look good," she muttered, staring at the cop.

Remy had never admitted that. Now she shrugged. "So what? Derek was sleeping with her."

Lynn shook her head at this answer. "Did you stay in his room last night? The maids will know."

Remy shook her head no, and that was the truth. She never talked about this, but Wayne had his little habits, and losing his wife hadn't changed any of them. He liked to have someone hold his penis at night, massage and have sex with him— sometimes quite athletic sex—but he was never romantic in any way. Afterward, he always wanted to be alone so he could talk on the phone, or be on the Internet all night. Sometimes late at night, or very early in the morning, they used to cook little meals for each other and drink more wine, but that was it. If she'd held out any hope for his being more tender now that Maddy was out of the picture, she would have been seriously disappointed. She played with her hair, acting cooler than she felt about the whole thing.

"Are you really okay?" Lynn said as if she didn't buy the act.

"Everybody asks me if I'm okay. How can I be okay? I found a corpse." She was watching the jogger across the street, and didn't feel good about it. "And a cop is following me." She paused. "And I really liked him." She picked up her bagel and stared at it.

"Wayne?" Lynn pursed her lips. "Don't you like him anymore?"

"Let's just say the way he was talking last night opened my eyes. He doesn't care about anybody but Wayne, that's for sure. We're both kind of screwed," she said sadly.

"What do you mean?' ' Lynn said cautiously.

"Oh, I'm not getting any restaurant job now, and you better find someplace else to live."

The poodle tugged on its leash and Lynn looked anxiously at her watch. "I have to go back now."

"Why?" Remy finally started eating her bagel.

"Because they'll be worried," Lynn said seriously.

"They're going to fire you, idiot," Remy said angrily.

Lynn shook her head. "You don't understand. The girls love me, and Alison has already gone through too many people. She talks about firing me . all the time. It's a form of entertainment for her. But she won't ever fire me."

Remy shrugged. "All right, go back, then, but don't blame me if something happens. She lifted her hand and waved at the jogger. He turned away, pretending not to see her.