The First Wives Club (46 page)

All those fucking aerobics classes were paying off because she made it easily through the doors, which, though narrowing, were still wide enough to let her paSS. Of course, she was narrowing, too—she hadn’t cheated once on her bet with Elise, and she could tell she was a lot slimmer. Elise hadn’t been drunk, as far as she knew, so it seemed she wasn’t cheating either.

But as Brenda stepped farther into the elevator, she saw someone who was. She knew her instantly, though they had never met &ce-to-face.

Shelby Cushman. Morty’s society wife, was embracing a good-looking man, her hands cupping the crotch of what looked like an expensive pair of slacks. Brenda had seen Shelby’s picture too many times to forget it, though now the Southern mouth was open and this hunk had his tongue deep into it.

“Oops,” Brenda muttered to herself, and turned to the front of the car.

No question of what she’d seen, but the suddenness of it and the intensity of the atmosphere in the elevator car shook her. For a moment, upset as she was about Elise’s phone call, she smiled. Why should she be surprised that Morty’s little shiksa was cheating on him while he was in jail? It looked like lunch at the Rainbow Room, with an appetizer on the elevator. Brenda knew what dessert would be. But I got problems of my own, she thought, and this ain’t one of them. In fact, it was a reason to rejoice. There was a God.

In case she had any doubt about what she’d seen, when the elevator stopped at Elise’s floor, Brenda turned and looked at the little tart and her hunk as she got out. Neither Shelby nor the guy looked at her.

Brenda wondered who he was, and how she could find out.

But then she was on Elise’s floor, and remembering why Elise had called her here. “Elise! Elise!” she called. “What happened? How much have we lost?”

Annie stuck her head out of the cubicle that she had started to use as a writing room. ‘Oh, Brenda. Elise told me about the Mitsui stock.

I’m so sorry.

Are you okay?”

“Okay? Hell, no,” Brenda spat. “That schmuck Stuart Swann gave us the wrong dope. Gil wasn’t interested in Mitsui. That must have been a blind. We lost money big time.” She thought of her million dollars, her freedom money, now drained away. Christ, how could this have happened?

“Elise is very upset,” Annie told her. “She’s been working over the computer all morning.”

Hearing her name, Elise stepped out of her office. “Don’t panic, Brenda,” she snapped. She looked pale, though she wasn’t perspiring.

She didn’t like losing money, either.

“I’m not panicking,” Brenda snapped back. “I’m beyond panic. I’m somewhere around frenzy right now.” Brenda felt like crying.

“Everything I had I put into Mitsui, and now you’re telling me it’s gone south?” Sure. Easy for Elise to say don’t panic. What was a million dollars to the snow queen? “I mean it, Elise. This means I lost e-erything.”

“I know,” Elise said, and Brenda could see her concern now. “It was a stupid move on my part.”’ Great, an apology.

As if that would pay the maintenance or the phone bill.

“Listen, Elise. Please. What can we do?” Brenda pleaded, trying to sound reasonable.

”Yes, what does this mean, Elise? I feel responsible. After all, I supplied the tip from Stuart,” Annie added. Brenda knew Annie had no money to invest, in fact she’d been agonizing over her own financial plight. Still, Brenda was happy to see Annie upset for her.

“We invested in Mitsui believing that this was Gil’s takeover target,” Elise explained. “Uncle Bob checked it out with someone at the Exchange and felt it was worth the gamble. Now we find out that Gil obviously has no interest in Mitsui, because the stock went to the basement this morning. There’s no demand for it out there.” Elise paused. “So Brenda and I and Uncle Bob have lost much of what we put into it. I was incautious, and I’m very sorry. It’s my fault.”

Brenda sighed. ‘Oh, well, it’s not your fault. It’s mine. I shouldn’t have gambled with the grocery money.”

“Well, I’d like to make it up to you.” Elise, taking a deep breath, continued, “I’d like to pay you back.” She looked at Brenda.

“What?”

“I’d like to make up your losses.”

Unbelievable. The ice queen was offering her money. Boy, for Elise that was a big deal. Brenda couldn’t get over it, but she also couldn’t accept. “Forget about it. I’m no welsher. I’m a big girl, Elise.”

Elise nodded. “I’ve been giving this some thought this morning, Brenda, and I think there might be something you’ll agree to. It would actually help me out and move me closer to club goals.”

“Then that would make you a miracle worker,” Brenda said.

“Yes,“Elise said slowly. “I don’t mean we haven’t lost the money Ye put on Mitsui. We have. But there is a way you can recoup your losses, Brenda, and I can help.”

“Elise, just tell me how,” Brenda begged. She had calmed down considerably since seeing Elise’s genuine concern for her predicament.

“I feel somewhat responsible for your investment, Brenda. I mean, despite my anger at Gil I should have discouraged you from putting up your whole nest egg. What I and Uncle Bob lost we could afford to lose. We probably needed the tax break anyhow.”

Brenda interrupted. “Wait a minute, Elise. Thanks for your concern, but I told you I’m a big girl. You did try to dissuade me from investing, remember? But I’m the one who insisted. So, you’re not responsible.” Brenda wanted to be fair to Elise. After all, she was becoming a good friend.

“Well, at any rate, Brenda, I’ve got a proposition. How would you like to buy Bill’s collections from me?”

Brenda thought Elise was losing it. She hadn’t been drinking, had she?

No, her eyes were clear.

“You mean his china and antiques and stuff? Bill’s collections must be worth a couple of million at least, Elise. How could I buy them? I’m broke.”

Elise smiled. “When Bill left, he signed an agreement that instructed me to sell off his collections—you know, his Imari, his antiques the muskets, stamps, coins—everything. He was being a gentleman about it all. The stuff is spread all over my houses. Well, I told him I didn’t know the exact value of the stuff, so he told me he respected my judgment and would accept whatever I chose to pay or got for it. I could buy what I wanted and I was going to put the rest up for auction at Sotheby’s. I’m just to deduct my expenses and send him the balance.

He was being very magnanimous.”

“So?” Brenda asked, still not getting the point.

“So, Brenda, why don’t you and I agree on a price, then it’s all yours.

And if you were able to resell them at a huge profit through Duarto, well, that’s just free-market enterprise, isn’t it’?”

“Elise, what do you have up your very expensive sleeve?” Brenda asked cautiously. She was beginning to enjoy this, even if she didn’t quite understand what it was.

”If you were to offer me a fair price, say one dollar, Brenda, I would consider it. In fact I’d accept it.”

“One dollar! Holy shit, you got it, Elise.” Brenda laughed out loud.

“But is that legal?”

“Absolutely. He even put it in writing, and I checked with my lawyers.

I’ll accept whatever you can get for it, less expenses.” So, the way I figure it, he’ll wind up owing me a couple of thousand dollars since I will have to calculate the expense of packing and shipping to the new owner.” Elise smiled for the first time that morning. ‘I’ll just send him a bill.”

”Elise!” Annie gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

“Just watch me!” Elise said. “That’s it, then. Done deal. And you’re a witness, Annie. Brenda can’t back out now.” Turning to Brenda, Elise said, ‘There’s just one stipulation. You must invest the proceeds in a business of your own.”

“What? Another fat lady boutique?” Brenda sneered.

“Find a small company that needs capital, buy in, and help run it,” Elise said.

Brenda’s eyes lit up. “Like Paradise/Loest?”

Elise leaned back and laughed. ‘Brenda, you are a very astute businesswoman.

Yes, Paradise/Loest would be the perfect company for you.”

Brenda laughed and said, “It’s a deal.” She hugged Elise, then the two women shook hands. “I’ll have Duarto call you and arrange to pick up the stuff.

He’ll know just what to do with all that crap. Some very newly rich people are going to pay a bundle for those things.”

Brenda felt the tension suddenly lift. “Whew!” she breathed, and collapsed into a chair. “I nearly had a stroke over this. But that still leaves us with a problem. We got Bill nicely on this, and you saved my ass, but Gil remains unscathed. If Mitsui isn’t his target, what is?”

The three women looked at each other. Annie remembered her meeting with Gil, and the way he had dismissed her. “He can’t go unpunished.”

“Brenda,” Elise asked, “aren’t you working with Duarto on the Griffins’ apartment renovation? Maybe it would be a good idea if you got in there with Duarto and nosed around again. You might come up with something.”

“Hey, I’m strictly back-office stuff. I’m organizing his records and accounts-it’s the Augean stables—but Duarto goes there every day or so. Mary is constantly on the phone to him about one thing or another.” She paused. “He’s such a good pal, I can’t risk getting him in trouble. But I’ll ask.” Turning to Annie, Brenda added, “Boy, fuck that Stu Swann. He can take his insider info’ and blow it out his ass.

Don’t date him, Annie. The guy’s a loser.”

“No fear. Now tell me how to get rid of him.”

“Oh, is he becoming a pest?” Elise asked.

“Well, he keeps calling.”

“Annie has a boyfriend, Annie has a boyfriend,” Brenda sang. She was almost giddy with relief. Everything suddenly looked bright again, thanks to Elise.

And Annie. What good friends. Then she remembered and stopped.

“Speaking of boyfriends, guess who else does?”’ she asked, and told them what she’d seen on the elevator.

“When the cat’s away … ,” Elise began.

“The mouse fucks like a bunny,” Brenda finished for her. “Isn’t nature beautiful?”

“Now, remember, Duarto. You’re going to keep chickie for me while I take a look through their desks,” Brenda told Duarto as they rode in the wood-paneled elevator to Mary and Gil’s penthouse. Today Brenda was a woman with a mission.

“What ees cheeckie,’ cara? I thought I was going to be chour lookout.”

“Same thing, Duarto. But you had to have grown up in New York in the fifties to know that.” Brenda sighed and continued her lesson. She knew even if Duarto raised his eyes to the heavens, he always enjoyed stories of her childhood.

“When I was a kid,” she said, “whenever the teacher left the room, one of the kids always stood chickie’ at the door to warn us when the old bat was coming back so we wouldn’t get caught making noise, tearing the place apart. So that’s what youre doing today. You’re standing chickie for me while I see what I can find in Gil’s or Mary’s desk.

Got it?”

“Eet’s like what Ethel Mertz do for Lucy Ricardo, no? I love that chow. I love Desi Arnaz.”

Brenda turned her head to him in disbelief. “Desi? You loved Desi?”

“Chure. He was my idol.”

“You’re the only one I know, Duarto, who loved the Lucy’ show for Desi Arnaz.

Nothing personal, but that’s weird. I mean, how many times can you listen to Babalu’?”

“Eet was not only hees singing, cara. I owe everytheeng to heem. Hees style.

Hees humor. I learn to speak my Engleesh from watching Desi .”

“That explains evelything, Duarto.”

The elevator came to a stop on the penthouse floor and opened onto the Griffins’ private foyer. Duarto pressed the buzzer as the elevator door closed behind them, then he turned and said to Brenda, “There ees no one here today, except Preence, the butler.”

“Preence? Oh, you mean Prince.”

”Yes, that’s what I say, Preence, but really, he’s just another queen.”

Just then the door opened and revealed a gaunt man in his forties.

“Preence,” Duarto cooed, “we’ve come to take some measurements for wallpaper.”

”It’s about time,” the man snapped. “Mr. Griffin wants the job finished. He’s adamant about it.”

Stepping into the apartment and looking around the gallery, Brenda said, “We’re really speeding it up. We’re working overtime. But you can go back to polishing the silver or whatever you were doing. We’ll be quiet as mice and out of here in just a few minutes.” She looked Prince up and down. ‘Nice apron,” she said, and walked down the corridor toward the Griffins’ shared office.

When Duarto caught up to her, she said in a whisper, “An English butler, for chrissakes. I never even saw an English butler before, except in movies.”

“Thees one eesn’t really Engleesh. He’s Irish, but ees passing. He say, who would hire an Irish butler?”

When they walked into the office, Brenda paused and looked around. She hadn’t seen it since the furniture had arrived and the storage boxes were unpacked.

“Oh, Duarto, it’s lovely. It really is.” Brenda turned to face him.

‘I’m so proud of you.”

She took in the rice-papered walls, the needlepoint rug, the raw silk curtains Walking around the room, she said, “They don’t deserve such beauty.” Brenda walked over to the exquisite antique partner’s desk that stood elegantly between the French doors to the terrace. “And this desk is gorgeous, Duarto.

What a find.”

“Mrs. Greeffeen said to make thees a very personal work space. That they spend almost as much time een thees room as een the bedroom.”

Looking over at the desk, he continued, “So I figured they needed a king-sized desk.” Duarto looked down at his watch. “What exactly are chou looking for, cara?”

Brenda had her index finger on her chin. “I’m not sure, Duarto. But something that will tell us what Gil is up to with a Japanese company.

There was a reason he allowed that leak of Mitsui. I don’t know what I’m looking for, but I’ll know it when I find it. Now you go outside in the hail and pretend you’re measuring for wallpaper. If Prince comes snooping around, let me know. Give me a signal.”

“Chure, but what kind of signal?”

“I don’t know, Duarto. Just start singing or something. Anything,” and she pushed him out, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him. She w2ked over to the desk once again and began opening drawers. What am I looking for? she thought. She wasn’t so optimistic now.