California Fire And Life

48

Pam was sober that night, Letty says.

She and Jack are sitting at an outside table at Pirets, beside the main entrance to South Coast Plaza.

"She was at a meeting that night," Letty says between sips of her iced tea. She picks up the glass and the paper napkin blows away in the hot, dry Santa Ana wind. "She was sober then. The meeting broke up at 9:30, then she went out for coffee. With eight other women. She was sober then."

"That doesn't mean," Jack says, "that she was sober at four the next morning."

Jack's drinking a Coke. The good folks at Pirets had to search long and hard to find a soda that didn't have the word Diet in front of it. They got it done, though.

"She told her AA friends she was scared," Letty says. "Scared that Nicky was going to kill her. They told her to call the cops. They begged her to stay with them; she said it would just postpone things."

Jack says, "So she went home and the fear and anxiety drove her to the bottle."

"After Nicky left, she didn't keep any booze in the house."

"She bought a bottle of vodka-"

"I checked every liquor store on her route home," Letty says. "I talked with everyone who worked that night. Nobody remembers her."

"You're good."

"I'm motivated."

"Forget about it," Jack says.

"Forget about what?" she asks.

She knows just what he's talking about.

"About getting custody of the kids," Jack says.

"If I get him convicted of murder…"

Jack shakes his head. "You're a long way from there. Say it is an arson – how did Pam die? Ng's got it as an OD. Say you can make the next step, say it's murder. You have nothing puts Nicky there. Say you somehow manage to cross that bridge – I don't know how, but say you do – say you get Nicky convicted of murdering Pam… Mother Russia is still the declared guardian. Mother gets the kids."

"She was in on it."

"She provided an alibi," Jack says.

"So they'll take the kids from her."

"No, they won't," Jack says. "Besides which, the murder conviction isn't going to happen. Even if you could develop enough information to embarrass Bentley into moving off his call, or enough that the Sheriff's would have to reopen. Or enough to get the DA interested."

It's a long shot. A long shot to get a criminal investigation, a longer shot to get them to charge, a regular NBA three-pointer to get a conviction, because the evidence is getting colder every day.

And Letty knows all this, she just doesn't want to know it yet.

No, Nicky and Mother Russia keep the kids.

Nicky gets away with murder.

"So what are you going to do?" Letty asks. "Drop it?"

"No," Jack says. "I'm going to do my job. I'm going to investigate the claim. I'm going to see if Nicky Vale had the motive and opportunity to set the fire and kill his wife. If I find sufficient evidence, I'll deny the claim."

"And that's it?"

"That's it."

"The worst that happens to Nicky is he doesn't get paid for killing her?"

"I'm sorry."

"But it works for you, huh, Jack? You don't care what happens to the kids. All you care about is that the claim doesn't get paid, right?"

"That's my job," Jack says.

It's not all I care about – it's all I can do.

Letty gets up, says, "Same old Jack."

"Same old Jack."

"Well, same-old Jack," she says. "I'd like to tell you to go to hell, but you're the only chance I have. If you deny the claim, maybe Nicky will sue you for bad faith. Then maybe there'll be a jury verdict that says that Nicky killed Pam. A family court judge would have to take 'judicial notice' of that verdict in a custody hearing."

"That's a very long shot."

"So do your job, Jack," she says.

Like he'd do anything else.

She tosses her napkin down on the table.

"And get a life," she says.

Right, Letty, Jack thinks. Tell me to get a life.

As you walk out, take it with you.