Killer Swell

18

Kate’s service wasn’t that different from other funerals that I’d been to. All Hallows Catholic Church sits atop Mount Soledad, overlooking the La Jolla shoreline, but even the view couldn’t change why we were there. Lots of flowers and crying, and everyone wishing they were someplace else.

The one exception was that her husband threatened to rip my head off.

The service had ended, and Carter and I were out in the courtyard next to the church, watching the Criers receive condolences from friends and family. I hadn’t wanted to come. Not that anyone ever wants to attend a funeral, but Kate’s death felt too close. I wasn’t ready to bury her. But I realized that if I was going to figure out what had happened to her, I was going to have to get used to doing things I wasn’t ready to do.

“They look wrecked,” Carter said, watching Marilyn and Ken nod and shake hands.

“Yeah.”

“You gonna talk to them?”

I shook my head. “Not here. They’ve got enough to deal with today.”

Carter nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I don’t think Marilyn would care to see me anyway.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Was the last time you saw her…”

“Yep.”

“The whole I-jump-farther-”

“-if-I’m-naked episode,” Carter confirmed.

The week before Kate and I broke up, Kate’s older sister, Emily, was home from UCLA with some friends having a party. The UCLA coeds had immediately taken to Carter, and he’d responded in kind. They’d dared him to jump off the roof of the Criers’ house into the pool. He’d claimed he could only do it naked because he jumped farther without any clothes on.

Unfortunately, Marilyn Crier had walked out onto the patio just in time to see Carter soar over her into her pool. Naked.

“An unforgettable performance,” I said.

“Legendary,” he said. Then he tilted his head. “Hey. Didn’t you and Emily-”

“Shut up,” I said, cutting him off.

Almost as if she’d heard us, Emily Crier emerged from a group of people near her parents and came toward us.

“Noah,” she said, a tired smile forcing its way onto her face. “It’s good to see you.”

We hugged briefly, and I was surprised by how little she’d changed. Slightly taller than Kate, she was still model thin. Her blond hair looked yellow in the sunlight, cut slightly above her shoulders. Soft brown eyes. She wore a black sundress with expensive-looking black heels. Put a bikini on her and she could’ve been back cheering for Carter in the pool that night.

She put a hand on Carter’s arm. “You are still…huge.”

Normally, he would have had at least fourteen responses to that statement, most of them obnoxious and funny. But maybe the most startling thing about Carter could be his sense of civility.

He nodded. “Good to see you, Em.”

She returned the nod, and an awkward pause engulfed the three of us like a bubble.

“I’m sorry, Emily,” I said finally. “I really am.”

“Thank you,” she said, shading her eyes from the sun. “It’s…I don’t know.”

She looked around the courtyard for a moment, watching her parents shake more hands. She kept snapping the fingers of her left hand softly, trying to burn the nervous uncomfortable energy that comes from losing someone close to you.

She turned back to me. “Dad hired you, I hear.”

“He did. After your mother hired me.”

She laughed and shook her head. “That is a partnership I never would’ve bet on.”

I watched her father, forcing a smile as he hugged an older woman. “Me either.”

“Was Mom a complete bitch to you?”

“Not complete. Partial, maybe.”

She groaned. “I doubt that.”

“Which one’s Randall?” Carter asked, scanning the crowd.

Emily spotted Kate’s husband first. “Over there. Tall, handsome.” She paused and the finger snapping came to a halt. “Huge bastard.”

I recognized Randall speaking with two other men.

“He’s not so tall,” Carter observed.

“Bastard?” I asked, surprised by Emily’s comment. “You don’t like your brother-in-law?”

Her stare was still locked on Randall. “Have you met him?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you think?”

I glanced at Carter, but he was looking at Randall, too. “Seemed alright.”

Emily turned to me, the soft brown eyes now hard as slate. “He’s a prick, Noah.”

Her face flushed, her anger gathering itself. “Phony two-faced prick. He didn’t love Kate.”

“How do you know?”

She turned back in Randall’s direction. “He was cheating on her. From day one.”

I looked across the courtyard at Randall. I hadn’t pegged him for infidelity when we’d met. I thought there was something off about him, but I didn’t get the sense that he didn’t love Kate.

“How do you know?” I asked.

Emily turned back to me, the anger changing to sadness, tears in her eyes. “Kate and I were sisters, Noah. We talked. I know, okay?” She brought her hands to her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about this now. I’ll see you later.”

She walked away quickly and disappeared into the church. Her reaction made me wonder if old Randall had suckered me into thinking he was a good guy when he wasn’t.

“You think?” Carter asked, his gaze still on Randall.

“I don’t know.”

Randall glanced in our direction, raised his eyebrows in recognition, said something to the men he was standing with, and headed our way.

“But maybe I’ll ask,” I said.

Carter adjusted his sunglasses. “Oh, goodie.”

Randall strode toward us, his eyes visibly red. “Noah, hello.”

We shook hands. “Randall, this is my friend Carter Hamm. He was a friend of Kate’s also.”

They shook hands.

“I’m sorry about your wife,” Carter said.

“Thank you,” Randall said, his voice tight. “Thank you both for coming.”

Carter and I nodded, that awkward bubble again forming around us. The sun felt hot on my neck, and I was sweating in my suit.

“Have you learned anything?” Randall asked quietly, his eyes darting from group to group.

“Not really,” I lied. “This has all happened pretty quickly.”

Randall nodded and smoothed his tie down his chest. “Sure. Please tell me if I can do anything to help.”

Carter glanced at me, and I knew he was waiting for me to say something. I was having second thoughts because we were at a memorial service and I didn’t want to take advantage of someone’s vulnerability.

But Kate was dead and I was frustrated.

“Actually I do have a couple of questions.”

He blinked several times, looking almost surprised that I’d taken him up on his offer, then shrugged. “Alright.”

“The other night you said that Kate didn’t want to be married anymore.”

He nodded. “That’s what she told me, yes.”

“Any more thoughts on why she might’ve felt that way?”

“She didn’t give me anything else,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Never told me what she was unhappy about.”

“Could it have been you?”

He blinked again and shoved a hand into his pocket. “I don’t know, I guess.”

I watched him. “Maybe something you’d done?”

Randall shifted his weight, his impatience starting to show. “Like?”

“What do you do in your spare time?” I asked.

“I don’t follow.”

“Water ski, collect art, knit,” Carter said. “For example.”

Randall glared at him. “Was I talking to you?”

“No. That was me talking to you. Pay attention.”

Randall looked back to me. “Don’t play with me, Noah. Not today. What do you wanna know?”

He’d raised his voice, and several looks were directed toward us.

“You and Kate had a good marriage?” I asked.

His jaw tightened. “I thought so.”

“How good?”

The other hand disappeared into the other pocket. “I don’t know how to answer that. I told you things were strained.”

The sun was high in the sky and aimed directly at us.

“You cheat on her?” I asked.

Randall’s cheeks flexed slightly, his jaw set. His eyes narrowed, and the sun wasn’t the only thing that was hot.

“What the hell is this?” he growled.

“An investigation into your wife’s death,” I told him. “You asked if you could help.”

Randall looked at Carter, who had settled into his imposing-but-nonchalant stance. I thought Randall wanted to hit Carter, but the more I thought about it, that didn’t make sense because Randall didn’t seem like a dumb guy.

Randall looked back at me. “Leave-now.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

His right hand emerged from his pocket, his index finger pointing at me. “This is my wife’s funeral. You wanna fuck around with me? Fine. But not here, not today.”

“Then when?” I asked.

He jabbed the finger in my direction. “How about after I rip your fucking head off?” He spun on his heel and walked away from us.

I looked at Carter.

He adjusted his glasses. “How will you hear his answer if your head is detached?”