Bad Business

by Robert B. Parker

  I paused and looked at them. Then I looked at Hawk.

  "I always hoped," I said to Hawk, "that I'd have a case where one day I could use the phrase `cause a stir on Wall Street.' "

  "Not much left to live for," Hawk said.

  "So," I said to the group again, "it's a kind of race to get their money out before the company went bankrupt. And they're winning the race, but Rowley gets an unfortunate case of conscience. We're destroying a great company, he says, employees will lose their pensions, he says, we can't do this, he says."

  I stopped and looked at Eisen. "Something like that?" I said.

  E isen didn't speak. He just shook his head, trying to look bemused and disgusted. He looked scared to me.

  "So he says he's going public, going to tell the SEC, whatever, and, Bernie, you find that unacceptable. It'll cost you millions of dollars. It might cost O'Mara and Devaney millions of dollars, in any case, you have to do something. My guess is that you went to O'Mara, and O'Mara turned to his in-house serial killer, and Lance, of course, is about to wet himself at the prospect of indulging his hobby and pleasing his lover at the same time."

  When I said "lover" Ellen Eisen's head jerked around toward O'Mara. I looked at Hawk. He raised his eyebrows and nodded. He'd seen it too.

  "You didn't know that Darrin and Lance are a couple?" I said.

  E llen looked at O'Mara.

  "Darrin?" she said.

  "Matters of the heart know no restrictions," O'Mara said.

  I t was limp, but the best he could do. I think he knew it was limp. I think he knew it was all going to go south, and take him with it. And I think he had given up, and most of what he did now was reflexive motion. Ellen stared at Lance.

  "Him?" she said.

  O'Mara didn't bother to answer.

  "And just what was going to happen to us when the time came?" Ellen said.

  This time Bernie's head jerked around. "What time came?" he said.

  I looked at Hawk. He grinned. It was beginning to boil.

  "When you got the money," she said.

  "Money?" Bernie said.

  "Ellen," O'Mara said.

  "Fuck you, you goddamned fairy," Ellen said.

  I t was going great.

  "What was going to happen when we got the money?" Bernie said.

  "I was leaving you." "With him?" Bernie said.

  "Yeah, isn't that fun, I was going to troll off into the sunset with a fucking queer."

  "I think I proved to you, Ellen," O'Mara said, "that I could love you as well as any man."

  This time it was Lance's head that jerked around.

  "You didn't say anything about fucking her," Lance said.

  Better and better.

  "I had to," O'Mara said. "It was just until . . ." He made a little trailing-off flourish with his hand.

  "You were fucking my wife?" Bernie said. "You son of a bitch."

  "Until the money?" Lance said.

  His voice bubbled with something more complicated and much nastier than anger.

  "What money?" Bernie said.

  O'Mara pressed his head against the back ofliis ch:cir und tilted his chin up and closed his eyes. Ellen sat beside him on the couch. Her face was white. Her eyes looked sunken and dark.

  "When you finished cleaning out Kinergy we were going to take the money and go away," she said.

  Her voice was thin and flat and tinny.

  "Take the money? How the fuck were you planning to take the money?"

  E llen turned the dark sunken stare to O'Mara, who still sat with his eyes closed, his face toward the ceiling.

  "Darrin said he'd arrange so I'd inherit the money."

  I smiled at Lance.

  "And we'd get married."

  I shot at Lance with my forefinger. "That be you?" I said to him.

  "You motherfucker," Lance said to O'Mara. "Have me kill her old man so you could fuck her and get the money?"

  With his eyes still closed, O'Mara spoke in a voice without affect.

  "It would have been only temporary," he said.

  Bernie was rigid on the couch. His eyes were wide. There was a small twitch near his left cheekbone. His hands lay on his thighs, the fingers splayed stiffly.

  "My God," she said. "You were going to have him kill me." Her voice had gotten higher and she was pressing her hands against her stomach as if she were in pain.

  "And you were going to have him kill me," Bernie said.

  Y ou could barely hear his voice. No one else said anything. I glanced at Hawk. He seemed peaceable, leaning against the wall, his lips slightly pursed, so that I knew he was whistling something quietly, to pass the time. The silence expanded. Time to prime the pump.

  "So Gavin came to you, Bernie, and raised the issue of financial problems at Kinergy," I said. "And you told O'Mara."

  I saw no reason to mention Adele if I didn't have to.

  "I told Ellen," he said. "That's what Trent did too, the poor dumb bastard. He told her he was going to turn himself in."

  "Ah," I said. "Of course, and, in both cases, she told O'Mara and," I shot my forefinger at Lance again, "who ya gonna call?"

  "Him," Bernie said softly.

  "Correct," I said. "Lancelot de le pistolet."

  "I don't like you calling me funny names," Lance said.

  "I don't give a rat's ass what you like," I said. "You shot Trent because O'Mara asked you to and you shot Gavin for the same reason."

  The saliva at the left corner of Lance's mouth began to trickle down his chin. He started to make the wordless reptilian hissing sound again. I sat back a little in my chair and was quiet, while they all contemplated where they were. Lance looked at O'Mara. O'Mara looked at the inside of his eyelids. Bernie didn't look at anything, and Ellen looked at O'Mara.

  "I think it should be Lancelot du pistolet," Hawk said.

  "Like Lancelot du lac," I said.

  "Oui."

  "You fucking prick," Lance said to O'Mara. He managed to make the words hiss without any sibilants. "You used me to kill people for you."

  With his head tipped back and his eyes closed, O'Mara said, "You like to kill people, Lance."

  "You never cared about me," Ellen said to O'Mara.

  O'Mara was silent for a time, and when he answered his voice was very hoarse.

  "I never cared about anybody," he said.

  No one seemed to have anything to say about that.

  64

  The silence got long. No one said anything. No one went anywhere. Lance drooled a little and O'Mara rested his eyes some more. I knew what had happened now, essentially everything. But I wasn't sure how much of what I knew would stand up in court. Most of the information was the result of what some strict constructionist judge might rule to be illegal search and seizure, and, perhaps, kidnapping. Much of what I knew was the result of inadvertent admission, resulting from shock. Once they got lawyered up, they wouldn't admit anything. I thought about it a little in the silence. I looked at Hawk.

  "I figure you can get two of them," Hawk said.

  I nodded.

  "What we have here," I said, "is a roomfull of culprits, with varying levels of culpritude."

  Nobody said anything. The recent process seemed to have exhausted all of them.

  "Bernie, if you depart, is it possible to rescue Kinergy?"

  "Maybe."

  "Neither you nor Ellen has actually killed anybody," I said. "Though a jury might reasonably conclude that you conspired to do so."

  "A jury?" Ellen said.

  "On the other hand, O'Mara and Devaney are quite clearly murderers."

  "We didn't murder anybody," Ellen said.

  "We got Lance," I said to the group at large. "We have his gun. We'll be able to prove it killed Gavin and Rowley."

  I f it didn't get thrown out as evidence because it was improperly obtained. On the other hand we could probably demonstrate that Lance was a serial killer, and most judges will find a way to convict a serial killer. But all o
f that was for me to know, not them.

  "And Lance will rat Darrin out." I said to Ellen and Bernie. "Which brings us back to you two lovebirds."

  They both looked at me as if the ship had sunk and I had the only lifeboat.

  "Or you agree to testify against Darrin and Lance, and I get the best criminal defense lawyer in the city to help you make a deal with the DA."

  "What kind of deal."

  "One that won't include murder."

  "He's trying to divide us, Ellen."

  "Fuck you," Ellen said to him, "you miserable fag."

  "We can beat this," O'Mara said to Lance, "if we stay strong together."

  "Fuck you," Lance said.

  A consensus.

  "It's our only chance," Bernie said.

  "You spineless bastard," Ellen said.

  "We stay together until it's over," Bernie said. "They can't make us testify against each other."

  E llen blinked. Lance hissed. O'Mara kept his eyes closed.

  "Call that lawyer," Ellen said.

  I got up and walked to the phone on the end table near Lance. As I passed him he lunged at me and bit my upper arm. I yelped and threw him off me and when he lunged back I hit him with a left hook that stopped him, and a right hook that put him on his back. I looked at Hawk.

  "Maybe we both should get shots," I said. Then I called Rita Fiore at home.

  65

  Susan sat up front, with me, and Pearl stayed in the backseat, mostly, while I drove to Beverly in the late afternoon, to submit my final bill and report to the managing partner of Frampton and Keyes.

  "So did Rita get a deal," Susan said.

  "It took some doing," I said. "There's two DAs, Middlesex in the Rowley death, and Suffolk in Gavin's demise. But she pulled it off. They testify against O'Mara and Devaney, Bernie resigns from Kinergy and explains all to the SEC. And, as far as the Suffolk and Middlesex counties are concerned, they can walk."

  "Wow."

  "It was an easier deal because it gives them Devaney."

  "His gun did kill them both," Susan said.

  "Yes."

  "And the fact that you obtained a lot of this information somewhat, ah, informally, won't compromise the cases."

  "The Eisen confessions are entirely voluntary, and quite complete," I said. "And Devaney's a serial killer. They'll convict him, which will convict O'Mara."

  "You're surmising?" Susan said. "Or do you know something."

  "Rita has been kind enough to include me in the discussions with both Suffolk and Middlesex."

  "Didn't you once work for the Middlesex DA?" Susan said.

  "Another DA. Another time," I said. "But yes."

  "Can't hurt," Susan said.

  "They fired me," I said.

  "Well, of course they did."

  I parked on Rantoul Street, near Cabot.

  "I'll stroll the baby about," Susan said. "She needs a walk ... and there might be a shop."

  "Meet you back at the car," I said, "in half an hour."

  The receptionist remembered my name when I came in.

  "Mr. Spenser," she said and smiled, "to see Mr. Frampton."

  I 'd have been more impressed if I hadn't called earlier to make the appointment, still it was something. I sat in Frampton's waiting room for just long enough to give the receptionist's chest the attention it deserved when Frampton came out of his office to get me.

  "Come in," he said, "come on in. Damnit you're a bloody genius."

  I gave the receptionist and her chest a self-deprecating look, and followed him in. We shook hands.

  "Well, you did the job," he said.

  "I did," I said.

  "Tell me," he said.

  I told him. It took me maybe ten minutes.

  When I was through he said, "Wow, you really unsnarled a goddamned mare's nest, didn't you," he said.

  "I did," I said, "and I have a final bill for you."

  He took the bill out of the envelope and looked at it and raised his eyebrows.

  "And you didn't unsnarl it cheaply," Frampton said.

  I didn't comment.

  Frampton studied the bill for a little while, and then put it down.

  "Hell," he said, "you earned every penny of it. Would you like a check right now?"

  "Never a bad thing," I said.

  "Done," he said.

  He got out a big checkbook and used a desktop calculator and filled out the memorandum side. The he wrote out a check and signed it and ripped it out and handed it to me.

  "Would you like to talk with Marlene?" he said.

  "No."

  "She'd love to hear all this."

  "That's why I told you," I said.

  "She'll be crushed," Frampton said.

  "She's inherited a lot of dough," I said.

  Frampton smiled.

  "That will help," he said.

  I stood. We shook hands again. I went out through the reception area, said goodbye to the receptionist, and closed the door behind me. I walked casually to my car. I didn't run. I have an iron will. Susan of course was not back at the car in half an hour, which was okay. I hadn't expected that she would be. At about six o'clock she and Pearl came back up Rantoul Street. Susan had some bags, which she put in the back with Pearl. Then she leaned over and kissed me on the mouth.

  "Done?" she said.

  "Done."

  "It was pretty awful, wasn't it," she said.

  "Like maggots in a trash can," I said.

  "What do you suppose will become of the Eisens," she said.

  "For the moment," I said, "they've got each other. That's probably enough punishment."

  "Shall we go to Yanks and have a lovely dinner?"

  "Two martinis and a lovely dinner," I said.

  "And a doggie bag for the baby?"

  "Sure."

  "And then a long ride back to my home where I will make embarrassingly overt sexual advances on you."

  "If it's mostly innuendo," I said, "so we don't offend Pearl, can we talk dirty on the long ride home?"

  Susan kissed me again on the mouth. "Sure," she said.