Chapter 47

GARY EISENHOWER CAME to my office on Monday morning, while I was reading the paper.

“You know,” I said, as he sat down. “I don’t think I’ve ever disagreed with anything in Doonesbury.”

“Doonesbury?”

“Guy’s always on the money,” I said.

“Yeah, right,” Gary said. “Beth Jackson’s husband got killed.”

“I know that,” I said.

“You know anything more?” Gary said.

“He was shot twice in the head in the parking garage at International Place,” I said.

“They know who did it?”

“No.”

“They got any suspects?” Gary said.

“No.”

“What about Beth?”

“She’s got an ironclad alibi,” I said.

“No, I mean, is she safe?”

“Don’t know,” I said.

“You’re not giving her security?”

“Nope.”

“But,” Gary said, “the letter said both of them, and obviously they meant it.”

“She told me to get lost,” I said.

“Don’t you hate when that happens,” Gary said.

“You get used to it,” I said.

Gary grinned.

“Wouldn’t know,” he said. “I see Boo around, maybe he’s looking out for her.”

“Boo?”

“Yeah.”

“Without Zel?” I said.

“Haven’t seen Zel,” Gary said. “Maybe they broke up.”

I nodded.

“Cops talk to you yet?” I said.

“Yeah,” he said. “Detective named Belson.”

“How’d that go,” I said.

“I’m clear,” he said. “I was cultivating a new client. Belson talked with her. Told her he saw no need to involve her husband.”

“New client a member at Pinnacle Fitness?”

He smiled.

“Sure,” he said. “Thing keeps working, you don’t go to something else.”

“You seen Beth,” I said. “Since the murder?”

“Yeah. She’s not devastated.”

“She got the money,” I said.

“Yep, and she’s talking about her and me picking up again.”

“So you’re not exactly devastated,” I said.

“Money’s good,” he said. “But I kind of like it when they ain’t free as a bird, you know? They got a husband and don’t want to leave him, makes everything work better for me.”

“How’s Estelle feel about Beth?” I said.

“She likes her,” Gary said.

“She doesn’t mind your client list?” I said.

“Naw,” Gary said. “Estelle’s pretty cool. The whole blackmail scheme was more hers than mine, tell you the truth.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Gary said. “She used to do some videotape work, training clients, you know?”

“So the hidden cameras were her doing,” I said.

“Yeah,” Gary said. “Behind every successful man…”

“And she doesn’t mind sharing you with other women,” I said.

“No,” Gary said. “She…” He paused. “The first time we started using the hidden cameras and the voice recorders, it was for her.”

“You mean so she could watch and listen?”

“Yeah,” Gary said. “It turns her on.”

I nodded.

“How’d you feel about it?” I said.

“Well, you know, it was a little creepy at first.”

He looked at the back of his hands for a moment. Then he looked up and smiled.

“But I’m a laid-back guy.”

“And your partners in bed?” I said.

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them was the way we looked at it.”

“Until you started the blackmail.”

“It was a good parlay for us,” Gary said.

“You and Estelle.”

“Yeah,” Gary said. “In most deals there’s winners and losers, you know?”

“And your clients were the losers.”

“I suppose,” Gary said. “But nobody got hurt very bad. They liked the sex. I liked the sex. They were married to money. I only wanted some of it. Estelle and me were living pretty high up on the hog. Hell, Beth still wants to be with me, and, by the way, so does Abigail Larson.”

I nodded.

“Abigail’s a drinker,” Gary said.

“Yep.”

“Estelle says it makes her unreliable, and we shouldn’t waste time with her.”

“She still giving you money?”

“Naw, I…” He paused. “I’m a little embarrassed, but I sort of gave you my word on the blackmail.”

“So you won’t take her money?”

“Nope. Beth’s, either. I mean, before her husband got killed.”

“But you’re still having sex,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said. “I figured that wasn’t part of the promise.”

“I like a man with standards,” I said.


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