Stranger in Paradise

“There is a developer,” Miriam said, “Austin assures me, who will pay ten million for the Crowne estate, in order to build a resort. Austin says the town will not prevent him.”

“Austin Blake,” Jesse said.

“Yes.”

“The zoning board might have a problem,” Jesse said.

“Austin assures me there will be no problem.”

“He’s your attorney?” Jesse said.

“Yes. Do I need him here now?”

“I have no plans to arrest you,” Jesse said.

“Will you keep my secret?” she said.

“If I can,” Jesse said. “You’ll need to lay off the kids at the estate, though.”

“I know,” she said.

“I’ll use whatever undue influence I have to keep Channel Three from using it.”

She nodded. Jesse thought it might have been a grateful nod.

“What am I to do?” she said.

Jesse took it as a rhetorical question. But she repeated it.

“What am I to do?” she said.

“What if you got the divorce, without selling the Crowne estate?” Jesse said. “And it was still done quietly?”

“I would at least be free to live my life.”

“What would that mean?” Jesse said.

“I…” She stopped, struggling to say what she was trying to say. “I have a relationship with Walter Carr.”

“Which you would be free to pursue?” Jesse said.

“Overtly,” Miriam said.

Jesse dropped his head so she wouldn’t see him smile. This does not bode well for Suit, he thought.

“Does Walter know all of this?” Jesse said.

“No.”

“Any?” Jesse said.

“No.”

“Was his opposition to the Crowne estate project at your solicitation?”

“He was not hard to solicit,” she said. “No one was. Out here we were uniformly opposed to a bunch of little slum kids coming into the neighborhood.”

“Do you know anything about the Francisco woman’s body being found on the Crowne estate lawn?” Jesse said.

“No.”

Jesse looked at her. She looked back.

“I did not,” she said, with a small tremor of feeling in her voice.

Jesse nodded. And then quite suddenly she began to cry. For a moment it seemed to surprise her, and she sat perfectly still with the tears falling. Then she bent forward and put her face in her hands and cried some more. Jesse stood and put a hand gently on her shoulder. She shrank from it, and he took it away. I know the feeling, he thought. Sometimes you don’t want to be comforted.

“Maybe we can work something out,” Jesse said.

He turned and walked down the veranda steps and across the driveway to his car.

Like what?

61.

Esteban was on the vinyl-covered chaise, watching Jerry Springer, when his cell phone rang. He muted the television and answered. Three of the Horn Street Boys were watching with him, passing a bottle of sweet white wine among them. Smoking grass.

“It’s Amber,” a voice said.

“Yeah?” Esteban said. “So what?”

“I’m bored.”

“Yeah?” Esteban said.

He grinned at his friends and made a pumping movement with his free hand.

A skinny Horn Street Boy with tattoos up and down both arms mouthed the word Alice? Esteban nodded and made the pumping gesture again.

“Don’t you want to know where I am?” Amber said.

“I got no interest in you,” Esteban said.

“I miss you,” Amber said.

“Yeah?”

“I could see you if you promise not to send me back.”

“Yeah? Where are you?”

She giggled.

“I’m at the police chief’s house,” she said. “In Paradise.”

“No shit,” Esteban said.

He was still watching the soundless television as he talked to her. The Horn Street Boys who were watching with him didn’t like it when he muted the television. But Esteban was the man, and no one argued with him.

“What are you doing?” she said.

“I’m thinking about how to kill Crow,” Esteban said.

“If I help you, can I come back and you won’t send me to Florida?”

“You walked out on me, bitch. Nobody walks out on me.”

“I got Crow’s cell phone number,” she said. “I could call him, ask him to meet me, tell him I needed help. He’d come.”

“And when he got there…” Esteban said.

“You and the other guys…” Amber said.

“Ka-boom,” Esteban said.

“If I do that, can I come back and not go to my father?”

Esteban paused, watching the soundless Jerry Springer show.

“It’ll go a long way,” Esteban said. “A long way.”

“I miss you,” she said.

“You banging the chief?” Esteban said, and grinned at the other Boys.

“God, no, there’s a couple cops here all day, and the chief and his ex-wife are here at night,” Amber said. “They don’t even let me smoke in the house.”

“Must be pretty horny by now,” Esteban said.

“I’m dying to see you,” Amber said.

“Set that thing up with Crow,” Esteban said. “Let me know.”

“Where should I meet him?” Amber said. “He knows I’m in Paradise.”

“Okay, meet him on that bridge thing, or whatever they call it that leads out to where we dumped your old lady.”

“The causeway,” Amber said.

“Tell him you’ll meet him there,” Esteban said. “He’s got no cover out there, so we can come at him from the other side, drive by, and waste him without even stopping.”

“In the middle?”

“Right in the middle,” Esteban said.

“That’s what I’ll say,” Amber said. “I love you.”

“Sure, baby, love ya, too,” Esteban said. “Call me back.”