Bad Business

41

I sat in my office, with my feet up, and the window open behind me, while I read the paper. Then I called Healy at 1010 Commonwealth.

"I been thinking," I said.

"Well isn't that special," Healy said.

"When Gavin wanted me to go away he offered me a security job in Kinergy's Tulsa office."

"I've seen you work," Healy said. "I was you I'da grabbed it."

"We have two private eyes who were tailing principals at Kinergy," I said. "And now they've disappeared."

Healy was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I'll get back to you."

Then I went down and got my car and drove up to Gloucester.

I found Mark Silver in a smallish house on the top of a hill on the east side of Lobster Cove overlooking Annisquam on the other side of the cove, and Ipswich Bay beyond it. We sat on his small deck looking at the water. Tomato plants grew in tubs on the deck. He offered me some iced tea. I took it.

"So why you want to know about Marlene?" Silver said.

He had a short haircut and a smooth tan and even features and teeth that seemed too white to be natural.

"You like her?" I said. Mark was careful.

"What's not to like?" he said.

"Well, she's self-absorbed and self-important and insecure and autocratic and dependent . . ." I said.

He grinned.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. You know the beauteous Marlene."

"So do you like her?"

"No, of course not."

"She likes you."

"God knows what Marlene likes," Mark said. "She certainly has tried to get me to jump on her bones."

"And?" I said.

"I'm gay," Mark said.

"She know that?"

"Sure. I'm so far out of the closet I couldn't find my way back to it."

"And she was still after you?"

"Marlene was of the one-good-fuck-from-me-will-cure-him school," Mark said.

"Oh," I said, "that school."

"What's this got to do with her husband's murder?" Mark said.

"I don't know," I said. "I just keep talking to people, see if anything pops up."

"Good luck," Mark said.

I sipped some iced tea. There was a mint leaf in it.

"But you still trained her, even though she was annoying."

"I go house to house," Mark said. "I charge a lot. I'm used to bored upper-class women who think they can fuck me straight."

"Gee," I said. "Maybe I should get gayer."

"Honey," Mark said, "you're straighter than God."

I shrugged.

"But more accessible," I said. "How'd she get on with her husband?"

"He wasn't around much. She didn't talk about him much. When she did she talked mostly about him making money."

"You think they, I don't want to be corny here, ah, loved each other?"

"I think she thought he was a good provider," Mark said.

"You think she was faithful?"

"Wow, you are straight. All I know is she kept trying to straighten me out."

"She ever speak of an organization called Matters of the Heart?"

"No."

"She ever mention anyone named Darrin O'Mara?"

"No,"

"What did she talk about when you were training," I said.

"How smart she was, how good-looking she was, how many men lusted after her but were intimidated, how much money she had."

"I detect a pattern," I said. Mark grinned.

"She after you?" he said.

"Yes."

"Don't mean to pry, but was she successful?"

"You are prying, and no."

"I think she was glad I was gay," Mark said. "Then she could fail to seduce me without feeling like a loser."

"You know her late husband?" I said.

"Never met him. I was always there during the day. He never was."

"She ever talk about Bernie Eisen?"

"Nope.

"Ellen Eisen?"

"Nope."

"Anyone named Gavin? Or Cooper?"

"Like I said, Marlene only talked about Marlene and how fabulous she was."

"It doesn't seem much fun being Marlene," I said.

"Fun? God no. She's like half the women I train. They don't really care about being in shape. They just want a friend." We talked for a while longer while I finished my tea. I learned nothing.

"Crushed mint in the tea?" I said.

"Yes. I grow it myself."

"Good," I said.

He smiled at me.

"A lot of things are," he said.

"Marlene?"

"Marlene's not one of them," he said.