All Dressed in White

23

Twenty-four blocks north, a waiter carried three pounds of rare porterhouse to a table at Keen’s Steakhouse. Nick Young gazed at the perfect char on the outside of the meat and signaled his approval. Once their martini glasses were refilled and the waiter had left, he held up his for yet another toast.

“Oh, why not?” Austin Pratt agreed.

“Here’s to ‘yucks’ and yachts!” They both laughed.

Last year they had both signed with an upscale international boat charter service. From now on in many locations where they might be staying near water, they could request a boat to be delivered for their use to the local dock. Both men really liked small yachts with sleeper cabins, crafts they were licensed to pilot on their own. They had been doing it since the past summer, sometimes together and sometimes separately. They had already taken three boating vacations in the Caribbean.

Nick had a custom-made sign he put over the railing of whatever boat he chartered. It read LADIES FIRST, and he meant it. More ladies than clients set sail with Nick.

Austin had found that the boat was a great way to entertain potential clients, inviting them out for a lunch or dinner cruise. When he took clients out, he hired a captain to run the boat and a waitress who passed drinks and prepared the meal. Following Nick’s lead, he created a sign for his boats, too. The name he chose was LONESOME DOVE.

Austin watched as his old friend downed his martini in one long gulp and signaled for another. Nick’s movie-star looks had obviously attracted the attention of two young ladies seated at the next table. But he worried that Nick was drinking too much.

There was a time when he never would have questioned Nick’s drinking. But he was no longer the small, shy, nerdy kid who moved in across the street when the two of them were seven years old in Baltimore. Even though they were the same age, Nick had become like a big brother, looking after him in grade school when Austin was smaller and less secure than the other children.

It was no surprise to anyone when after Nick applied to and chose to attend Colby College, I had done the same, Austin thought. Nick, naturally popular wherever he was, made sure to include me in his activities. The friends Nick made became my friends.

He did not realize that Nick was eyeing him with some envy.

He looks like a bookkeeper, Nick thought, with those frameless glasses and thinning hair. Where they’d call a woman a “plain Jane,” he’s a “plain Joe.”

While he used to aspire to be like me, in some ways he’s gone further than I have. I’ve done pretty well financially, but he’s outpaced me. Austin is the one already managing one of the hedge fund industry’s largest biotech-focused portfolios. He has homes in Manhattan, East Hampton, and Colorado. He even flies by private jet. Then Nick comforted himself by thinking, But I’m a lot better looking than he is. I’ll catch up to him. Better yet, I’ll surpass him.

Maybe when the check came, he’d let Austin pick it up.

They were halfway through the steak before they began to discuss the phone call they had each received from Jeff.

“I got the impression that Jeff’s mind was made up,” Nick said, his tone grim.

“Me, too.”

“I love him like a brother, but I don’t get that guy. Working like a dog for no money at all. Living in that tiny place in Brooklyn. Knowing a lot of people think he murdered Amanda, why would he stick his neck out like this?”

“He wanted my assurances that I’d sign on to the show if the producer contacted me,” Austin said.

“Should we try to talk him out of it?”

Austin shrugged. “You know Jeff better than I do. You said yourself, his decision sounded final.”

Nick certainly did know Jeff well. We became close friends when we were assigned as roommates our freshman year at Colby, he thought. We were both smart and confident; the girls loved us. But it ended there. Where Jeff was laid back and studious, Nick thought, I never missed a beer bash in four years. After graduation, we went in different directions. While Jeff became a public defender, I went for the money on Wall Street. After law school Jeff started dating the incredibly beautiful Amanda, the girl every guy on campus had been after. Amanda and I had a few dates in college, but it didn’t go anywhere. Nick tried to suppress a smile when he recalled Austin telling him during senior year that he planned to ask Amanda for a date. “Don’t bother, my friend, it’s a lost cause.”

To this day, Nick thought, I am still constantly playing the game of conquests; once I have her, right away I begin to lose interest.

But somehow, different as Jeff and I were and are, our friendship has always worked.

He looked over at Austin. “So are you going to do the show?”

“Sure, if you are. I mean, do we really have a choice? If there was one lesson to be learned from Jeff’s experience, it’s that people will suspect anyone who appears to be looking out for himself.”

“You’re the one who told Jeff to lawyer up,” Nick reminded his friend.

“I was trying to help him. He was so out of his mind worried about Amanda that he didn’t even notice the insinuations coming from the media. Amanda was from an extremely wealthy family, and he was the working-class fiancé. It was only natural that the police were going to suspect him,” Austin said heatedly.

“Hey, don’t get defensive. I know you were looking out for him.”

Austin’s intentions were good, Nick thought, but in many ways he was so hard to read. He has always been that way. Still waters run deep.

Although many had speculated that Jeff had something to do with Amanda’s disappearance, no one had ever suggested the involvement of either of his college friends.

“You know,” Austin said, “the show’s going to ask us some questions that Jeff might not want us to answer.”

“You mean what he said that night after a little too much wine.”

“We never told the police.”

“They never asked us the right question,” Nick said coyly. “It’s not up to us to do their job for them.”

When it became clear that Jeff might be a suspect, he had followed Austin’s advice and hired a lawyer. As his friends, both Nick and Austin decided that they would not lie on Jeff’s behalf, but they also weren’t going to volunteer anything that wasn’t specifically asked of them.

A national television show would probably do a better job than the police had five years earlier. As they knew from when they were questioned, the police investigation could have been much more thorough.

“So if the producers ask the right question,” Austin was saying, “are we going to tell them the truth?”

“It’s up to you what you say. I can’t make that decision for you.”

“Well, we can’t contradict each other.”

“Are you saying you’ll lie for Jeff if I ask you to?” Nick said.

“We’ve got a lot at stake, Nick. Investors don’t want to be associated with someone caught lying in an investigation of a missing woman.”

Nick ate in silence, weighing their options. “It’s really not a big deal. Lots of people have cold feet a few days before they get married. It’s normal. Jeff had every intention of going through with the wedding.”

The night before Amanda disappeared, Jeff had told Nick and Austin that he wasn’t sure Amanda was the perfect fit for him. It was only one comment, and when Nick told him that it wasn’t too late to back out, Jeff quickly reassured him that he was “just nervous.”

“So it’s agreed,” Austin said. “We’ll tell the producers about that comment.”

Nick nodded. “And I’ll make sure Jeff knows that we plan to tell the truth. If he’s going to drag us into this, we need to protect our own reputations, too.”

“Weird,” Austin said. “We’ll all be together again, just like old times.”

“It’ll be just like college. We’ll be chatting up two babes at the bar and they’ll both be after me!”

“Okay, that does it,” Austin announced. “You’re paying for dinner.”

“Oh, did you know that the Grand Victoria added a dock this past year? I’m going to reserve a boat. I have two clients in Boca I want to meet up with.”

“Good idea. I’ll reserve one as well. I’m sure we’ll have some downtime when we’re there.”

As Nick signaled for the check, he did not see the smile that came over Austin’s face.