By the time they accompanied Lacey out of the room and were told they could see Patrick, the tension between Ann and Jonathan had reached the saturation point. It was after midnight and Ann was exhausted and on edge. Filled with hurt and confusion, she grappled with the idea that Patrick might have been trying to sabotage Baby Talk N Glow.
“Right down there,” the policeman said, pointing at a narrow hallway leading off the bullpen.
Patrick was being held in a room with a cage. There were four green plastic chairs, a single, barred, grime-streaked window. The walls were shades of old concrete, mottled gray and brown. As soon as Ann stepped over the threshold, the reek of him hit her—the sour sweat of fear and vomit laced with cognac. He’d taken off his suit jacket; it was hanging on the back of a chair. His white shirt was torn at one elbow, while a streak of something black cut a diagonal line across his chin.
With seventeen years of pent-up anger, Ann moved close and slapped him. “What the hell have you done?” she demanded.
Jonathan came up behind and gripped her shoulders, pulling her back.
“Don’t touch me,” she warned, twisting from his grasp.
To her disgust, Patrick began to cry. His face contorted and he dropped his head so his chin hit his chest.
“Maybe we should all calm down,” said the other man in the room, someone Ann had barely noticed.
Now she looked at him. He was scarecrow thin and very tall. His clothing seemed to both balloon and bag on him. He had wispy, straw-colored hair, and he wore heavy, dark-rimmed glasses. His eyes blinked myopically behind the lenses, but his gaze was steady.
“You’re Frank Ketch,” she said.
He nodded. “I think I can help, if you’ll let me. Patrick tells me he doesn’t have the funds himself to retain me.”
Ann’s gaze jumped to Pat again. “What did you do with the hundred thousand?”
His head snapped up but his gaze cut away guiltily. “Ah, Jesus,” he said. “Jesus Christ.”
She heard Jonathan’s intake of breath behind her. Patrick had taken the money. But why?
Ann couldn’t stand the smell of him, but she went down on her haunches beside his chair. She had to see his eyes. “Look at me,” she said. “Where is it? Damn it, what did you do with it?”
“That’s not the issue here, Ann.” Jonathan’s voice was raw.
“It is,” Pat said hoarsely. “I mean, it could be. I think someone is trying to … ruin me.”
Ann felt woozy, as if she could keel over at any moment. “What are you saying? That someone is blackmailing you? Who?”
“Richard Salsberg. He’s a lawyer I went to for help in arranging the bank loan. I gave him the first fifty. It should have been done. He called today and wanted more.” He was still drunk. He was slurring his words and rambling.
“What kind of a bank would—” Ann broke off, the words gathering like thorns in her throat. “Oh, dear God.” She spun away. She couldn’t look at him.
A whining tone came to Pat’s voice. “Every other bank turned us down. I had to do something drastic.”
Ann jerked back to him. She hadn’t known it was possible to be this angry. “No, everyone else did not turn you down! You never even went to Margin! You had an appointment with them that you didn’t keep!”
“Fuck you, Ann,” he spat suddenly. His gaze went feral and shot to Jonathan. “Or is that your job?”
She didn’t actually see Jonathan move. There was a blur in a corner of her vision. Then Patrick was out of his chair, hoisted in the air by his shirtfront. Jonathan shook him viciously, then thrust him back down.
Ketch took a step as though to move between them, then apparently thought better of it.
“Pat.” Jonathan’s voice was a low, dangerous vibration. “You’re not exactly in a position to be alienating someone who might be willing to help you.”
Patrick looked in Ann’s direction. “If she had just backed off on the doll, none of this would have happened! It’s you, Ann. It’s always about you, from the day you walked into our lives!”
“Knock it off!” Jonathan warned.
The room pitched into silence. Jonathan had come to her defense again, Ann realized, and she didn’t know what make of it.
“What do we do now?” Jonathan asked Ketch.
“First, you retain me,” the lawyer said.
“Of course. How much?”
“Twenty-five thousand to start. It’s non-refundable, even if he’s not held over for trial. If he is, I’ll need another twenty-five. Then ten when half of that is whittled away, and so on until this is resolved.”
“Give me until the end of business tomorrow.”
Ketch nodded. He looked at Patrick. “I’m afraid you’ll be staying here tonight.”
Pat had folded into his chair. Now he came out of it like someone had set it on fire. “No, I can’t! I didn’t do anything. The cocaine isn’t mine. I know nothing about that subpoena from Hong Kong!”
“I could get a judge to hear this tonight on the DUI but not on the cocaine charge. I’m sorry. These things take time.”
Ann thought Patrick was going to grab the lawyer. “I keep telling you! I don’t know where that cocaine came from!” He looked like he was going to cry again. “Salsberg is doing this to me. I don’t know why.” He turned bleeding eyes to Jonathan. “Don’t leave me here alone.”
Jonathan stared at him for a heartbeat. “Well, I’m sure as hell not going to cozy up to you in that cell,” he said, sticking a thumb in the direction of the cage.
Patrick focused on the wire mesh. He blanched, covering his face with his hands.
“Look—may I speak to you in private?” the lawyer said, motioning Ann and Jonathan to step outside.
Once in the hallway he advised them that Patrick was in no condition to respond to their questions tonight. “Let him sleep it off,” he suggested. “Once he sobers up I’ll get more out of him.”
Ann turned, abruptly began to walk away. Her head was splitting. Her world was coming apart, yet she regretted her impulsiveness. She shouldn’t have struck Patrick, shouldn’t have allowed her feelings to get the better of her.
Her footsteps echoed. Despite the harsh words between them, she half-wished Jonathan would catch up to her, whisper something kind in her ear.
But silence followed her outside. Ann stood quietly for a moment, feeling completely alone, wondering what the future had in store for them all.