| |
ANGELA RAISED HER GLASS to me as I walked toward her, seated on the other side of the bar at Barrington’s Restaurant.
Her eyes widened as I walked closer. “What happened to your face?”
I touched one of the many bruises I had on my face. “Brian Mason stopped by my boat for a drink.”
I sat down on the padded leather stool next to Angela.
The bartender, Kyle, came right over and wiped down the space in front of me with his eyes down on the bar. He looked up with the same look Angela had on her face. “Christ, Henry. Everything all right?”
I nodded, with half a smile. “Nothing a double Jack couldn’t fix.”
He slapped his hand flat on the bar. “You got it...double Jack, two cubes.”
I turned to Angela as she continued to stare at me, her eyes moving all around my face. “Are you going to tell me what happened? Did Brian really do that to you?” Her eyes went down to my hands, folded in front of me with red, sore knuckles. “Is this where you tell me I ‘should see the other guy?’”
I huffed out a slight laugh and looked ahead, watching Kyle as I waited for my drink.
Angela looked straight ahead. “He’s one of the best bartenders in the city, you know. And he’s quite the looker, isn’t he?”
I turned to Angela. “A looker?”
She shrugged. “You don’t have to be a gay man to appreciate another man’s looks.” Her eyes moved along the bar. “See all these women? They’re all here for him.”
I looked back and forth, seeing just as many suits and ties as well-dressed women. “Looks to me there are just as many men.”
She winked and put her hand on my arm. “There are. Why do you think they’re here?” She nodded toward Kyle. “It all starts with him. The women come in...the men follow. That’s why I’ve always said attractive employees are good for business.”
Kyle put my drink down in front of me and I grabbed it, took a sip and turned back to Angela. “Did John ever hang around here?”
“He used to. Just like what I said about the women coming here...men like John would follow. Like a hound tracking a scent. He’d come here, usually looking to get laid. I’m sure it worked out for him once or twice. But when I started hanging around, he didn’t come in here anymore.”
“Was this while you were married?”
She shook her head. “No. He was more discreet when we were married. But barely.”
“Are you saying he wasn’t faithful?”
Angela gave me a look and rolled her eyes. “I hope you ask better questions of your suspects.”
“I hadn’t asked you about your marriage. That’s all...just a simple question I thought you could answer without—”
“I’m playing with you, Henry. Do you always take things so seriously?” She swiveled her seat toward me as her knees brushed against my thigh. I could feel her staring at me, waiting for me to react.
“Of course John cheated on me. A man with three different wives is usually going to have trouble being faithful, don’t you think?” She lifted her glass from the bar and held it by her mouth, her elbows down in front of her. “He slept with his second wife, Theresa, while we were still married.” She turned and gave me a look. “Not that I didn’t see that one coming.”
“What happened?”
She sighed. “Do you really need me to rehash that old story?”
“You don’t have to, but...”
“Well, we were at a conference out in Tennessee. It was for the International Insurers Association. We’d go every year, and a bunch of us would get together. We all knew each other over the years, so it would be like a big family reunion. Once in a while someone would drop out of the business or die... Otherwise, it was always the same crowd. We’d party for three nights straight, then go back to reality and see everyone again the next year.”
“Theresa was in this group?”
Angela nodded. “It’s funny, but at the time I considered her a good friend. We actually kept it touch throughout the year. But she was always flirting with John. Although she’d flirt with all the men. But I always knew she had something for John.” Angela pulled out her red lipstick and ran it over her lips. “She had Nate at the time, too.”
“At the conference?”
Angela laughed. “No. What I mean is she was a single mom. He must’ve been nine or ten at the time. But we all used to joke behind her back, she was looking for a daddy for Nate. Problem was, the men she was after were usually married.”
I finished my drink and gave Kyle a nod as I slid my glass across the bar. “So, did John and Theresa—”
“Listen, and I’ll tell you.” She sipped her drink and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “One night, I ended up feeling sick. Not from too many drinks, but sick. I had the flu or whatever it was. And the last place I wanted to be was stuck in a hotel room with a fever of one-hundred-and-two.”
“Did you leave?”
“I tried to. Airline couldn’t get me out of there until the next day. Only thing I could do was go to the airport and do standby. Looking back, John was pushing me to go home to be comfortable and get better. But he wasn’t about to leave.” She let out a slight laugh. “I should’ve realized what he was up to...”
“He had no intention of going home with you?”
“John?” She laughed. She straightened in her seat and turned toward the bar, the stem of her martini glass between her fingers. “Turns out, I couldn’t even get a flight on standby. There was no way to get out of there. So my only option was to take a cab back to the hotel.”
I listened to Angela, almost afraid to hear where it was about to go.
“Of course I didn’t check out, since John still had the room. And I’d kept my key-card, which hadn’t been deactivated. I opened the door...” She closed her eyes for a moment then turned to me. “And there’s John’s hairy, naked ass stuck up in the air. I could barely see Theresa, but there she was, those pretty blue eyes of hers underneath him as she looked at me standing there in the doorway...my suitcase in my hand.”
Angela finished what was left of her martini and sat quiet, facing the bar. It was a long time ago, but it was as if telling me brought it all right back, as fresh as the night it happened.
“Kyle,” she said as her voice cracked. She forced a smile for him and pointed to her glass. Her eyes still straight ahead, in a calm voice she said, “There’s business. And then there’s personal. Most people want to keep them separate, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. But it’s not reality.” She glanced at me. “We work most of our waking hours for most of our lives. And for most people, that’s what life is. It’s work. There is no personal and business like they’re two separate lives. It’s one. But somehow John and I managed. It was rough there, for a while. I had to get over what’d happened. And I did. Or else the business, like our marriage, would not have survived.”
I watched her for a moment and could see it was still eating at her. “And here you are...the only person in John’s life who wants to know the truth about what happened to him.”
Kyle put another martini down in front of Angela. She ran her finger around the moist stem. “I believe most people would rather hide from the truth.”
I looked down into my glass, which was somehow empty again, except for the two pieces of ice at the bottom. “So, should I assume John also cheated on Michelle?”
“I’d be more surprised if he wasn’t.”
“But you don’t know for sure, do you?”
Angela shook her head. “No. And I don’t think I care.”
“Not even if it had something to do with what happened to him?”
She lifted her glass and sipped from the edge. “If he did, it would’ve been with someone younger. And I don’t mean someone Michelle’s age, either. I wouldn’t be surprised if he started wondering if she was already too old for him.”
I started to laugh as I glanced at Angela, but realized she wasn’t making a joke.
She said, “Michelle’s thirty-seven. If I had to guess, John’s fling would be with some hot young thing...somewhere in her late twenties.”
“Yeah? What kind of woman that young would go for a man in his late fifties?”
Angela shrugged a shoulder as she held up her glass. “John could be charming when he wanted to be. The man knew how to turn it on.” She sipped again then put her glass down and turned to me. “And John was never shy about telling people how much money he made...even if he had to add a couple of zeros to the real numbers.”
We both sat quiet for a couple of moments as I thought about my conversation with Michelle. “Do you know where John was the Thursday night before that weekend? Michelle said he was out of town...for a meeting with a client.”
Angela looked at me, her face somewhat perplexed. “Michelle said that?” She looked down into her glass then shifted her eyes to mine. “I...I honestly don’t know.”
“She said that was the last time she saw him, face-to-face. Except when he was sleeping.”
Angela was quiet, her eyes a bit narrowed as she seemed to process what I’d said. “Did you say what client?”
I shook my head. “I was hoping you would know. But she did say he was in Georgia, and didn’t come back until Saturday.”
“Georgia? We don’t have clients up there. And why would he stay through Saturday?”
“Michelle said he played golf.”
Angela had her eyes narrowed as she stared straight ahead. “I didn’t always know where he was. He could’ve been out, looking for business. He wouldn’t always tell me.”
“Is there anyone who would know why he was up there? I imagine you keep travel records for the business?”
Angela nodded. “Kayla might know. In fact, lately she’d been going with him to meet potential customers. He used to joke, say the men would sign a contract without even reading it when Kayla was in the room.”