Bad Business

5

The little guy's name was Elmer O'Neill, and his card said he conducted discreet inquiries. Me too. He arrived at my office the next morning right after I did.

"You got any coffee?" he said.

"I'm about to make some," I said.

"Good."

He sat in one of my client chairs with his legs crossed, while I measured the coffee into the filter basket and the water into the reservoir and turned on the coffeemaker.

"Your name's Spenser," he said.

"Yep."

"You know mine."

"I do."

The coffeemaker gurgled encouragingly. I put out two coffee mugs and two spoons, and some sugar, and a small carton of half-and-half. Elmer looked around my office.

"You must be doing okay," he said.

"Because my office is so elegant?" I said.

"Naw. The place is a dump. But the location-must cost you some rent."

"Dump seems harsh," I said.

E lmer made a gesture with his hand as if he were shooing a fly.

"It's why I'm in Arlington," he said. "Costs a lot less and I can still get in town quick when I need to."

The coffee was done. I poured it out.

"You find out my client's name yet?" I said.

"He lives in Manchester," Elmer said. "And after we talk I can check his plates at the registry."

I nodded.

"His name is Trenton Rowley," I said. "He's the CFO of a company in Waltham called Kinergy."

E lmer nodded as if that meant something to him. He set his coffee cup on the edge of my desk, took out a small notebook, and wrote it down.

"Who's the woman?" I said.

"Ellen Eisen," he said. "Husband works the same place."

"Kinergy?"

"Un-huh."

"And they live in the new Ritz condos off Tremont Street."

"And you were going to check her plates at the registry if I didn't tell you."

"Might anyway," I said.

"Shit," Elmer said. "You don't trust me?"

"He hire you?" I said.

"Yep. Rowley's wife hire you?"

"Un-huh."

E lmer leaned back a little in his chair so that the front legs cleared the floor. He rocked the chair slightly with his toes. "Well," he said. "We know they're fucking."

"We know they spent time together in a hotel room," I said.

"Oh hell," Elmer said. "A purist."

"Didn't you say everything had to be done right?"

"That's because I didn't know if I could trust you."

"How unkind," I said. "My client will want something more solid than the shared hotel room. She plans to 'get-everything-he-has-the-philandering-bastard.' "

"My guy just wants to know is she cheating on him," Elmer said.

"His name is Eisen?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Sometimes women keep their, ah, premarital name," I said.

"Ain't that horseshit," Elmer said. "Guy's name is Bernard Eisen. He's COO at, whatsitsname, Kinergy."

"Small world," I said.

"So," he said. "I guess we should tell the clients."

"I'd like to let themselves dig a deeper hole," I said. He drank a little more coffee.

"That's 'cause your client wants more than mine does."

"True," I said. "But if you tell yours then I probably won't be able to get what my client wants."

"But my client will settle for what I know now."

"An ethical dilemma," I said.

E lmer frowned a little.

"Don't run into many of them anymore," he said. "You got more coffee?"

I poured him another cup. He added a lot of sugar and half-and-half, stirred it slowly.

"There's another little thing," he said.

"Well," I said. "Two cups of coffee ought to buy me something."

He grinned.

"Somebody seems to be tailing Mrs. Rowley, too."