THE PAIN OF OTHERS (5 page)

Arnold stopped in the doorway of the master suite.

Waited a full minute.

Nothing but the white noise of the shower.

In the time it took
Letty
to step out from behind the door and peek into the hall, Arnold had disappeared.

She held the shotgun at waist-level and started toward the master suite. The half-speed fog of her hangover was replaced with a throbbing vigilance and a metal taste in the back of her throat that had come only a handful of times in her life—fights in prison, the three occasions she’d faced a judge to be sentenced, her father’s funeral.

She entered the master suite again. Steam poured out of the bathroom and Arnold stood in the doorway with his back to her. She felt lightheaded and weak, unable to summon her voice just yet, not fully committed to the idea of being in this moment.

Arnold walked into the steamy bathroom and
Letty
edged farther into the room, past the unmade bed and the stair climber, the shotgun trained on Arnold’s back through the open doorway, slightly obscured in the mist.

“You have a shotgun pointed at your back.”

He flinched at the sound of her voice. “Don’t turn around. Don’t move. Drop the gun.” Arnold didn’t move, but he didn’t drop the gun either. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’ll tell you again.” It clattered on the tile. “Kick it away from you.” The gun slid across the floor, coming to rest against the cabinets under the sink.
Letty
closed the distance between them, now standing in the bathroom doorway, close enough to smell the remnants of his cologne. “Keep your hands out in front of you and turn around.” When he saw her, his eyes betrayed only a glimmer of surprise. “Sit down, Arnold.” He sat at the base of the shower as
Letty
stepped into the bathroom, clouds of mist swirling between them.

He said, “What are you, a cop?”

“I was in your room yesterday afternoon when you and Chase came in. I hid in the closet. Heard everything you said.”

“So you’re a thief. That means we can work this out.”

“How’s that?”

“Can I get something out of my pocket?”

“Slowly.”

He reached into his fleece jacket, withdrew a set of keys, let them jingle. “The 4Runner’s new. There’s a briefcase with twenty-five thousand in cash in the front seat.”

“I know about the briefcase.”

“I can just go home. That’s a good score for you
Letty
. Bet you never had a payday like that.”

“And you go back to doing what you do?”

He smiled, shook his head. “The people I work for…if they want someone dead, that person’s going to die. It’s
their
will that causes it to happen. Not mine. They pull the trigger. I’m just the bullet. The damage. And I’m not the only bullet. So really,
Letty
. Why get yourself tangled up in this? You’re a thief, a
tweaker
. You been to prison?”

“Yeah.”

“So why not stay out of the affairs of the spoiled rich? Why do you care so much to interfere? To put yourself at risk, which you’ve done?”

“Late at night, when you’re alone, do you ever feel like somewhere along the way, you crossed this line you didn’t see? Actually sold your
self
out?”

Arnold just stared at her as the shower beat down on the stone.

“I thought I was completely lost,
Arnie
. And then I found myself hiding in that closet in your room, and I saw a chance to go back to the other side of the line.”

Letty
heard the closet door swing open. Daphne came and stood beside her.

“My husband paid you to kill me?”

Arnold made no response. Daphne walked over to the sinks, bent down, picked up his gun.

“You shouldn’t touch that, Daphne. The police are coming.”

“Not yet they aren’t.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re an ex-con. I don’t want you taking any flak considering you were stealing from the guests of the Grove Park Inn when you got involved. Take his car and his money. I’ll call the police after you’re gone.”

“That’s your money, Daphne.”

“No, it’s Chase’s.” She aimed Arnold’s gun at him. “Keys.”

He tossed them to
Letty
.

“I don’t want to leave you here alone with him, Daphne.”

“I’ll be all right.” She took the shotgun.

“I’m not leaving you.”

“You saved my life,
Letty
. I’ll never forget it. Now go.”

Five days later, at 6:01
p.m.
, Chase
Rochefort
stepped off the elevator, dressed to the nines in a light grey
Coppley
and a cobalt Oxford, engaged with his
iPhone
as he breezed through the lobby of the neo-gothic Jackson Building whose twelfth floor housed his law practice—
Rochefort
,
Bloodsworth
& Sax, LLC. The stunning redhead followed him out onto the street, sprouting her umbrella against the drizzly Friday evening. Trailed him along South Pack Square to North Market, and then several blocks to the intersection with
Woodfin
, where
Rochefort
entered the Sheraton Hotel.

He sat at the corner of the chophouse bar, letting his Chilean sea bass turn cold and drinking double Powers on the rocks with twists of lemon like his life depended on it. Halfway through his sixth, the barstool beside him opened up and
Letty
claimed it and ordered a glass of Merlot.

While the barkeep poured her wine,
Letty
reached over, patted Chase’s hand, and asked with faux-empathy, “How you holding up?” Searched his face for some tell of the preceding weeks’ stress, but no indication presented aside from a darkness under his eyes that had mostly been erased with
concealer
and the blush of Irish whiskey.

He worked up a glassy-eyed smile, slurred, “We know each other?”

“Well, I certainly know you.”

The barkeep returned with her wine. “That’s ten dollars. Would you like to start a—”

Chase tapped his chest. “My tab.”

“Of course, Mr.
Rochefort
.”

Chase banged his rocks glass against
Letty’s
wineglass and threw back the rest of his whiskey. “Have I sued you before?” he asked, excavating the lemon from the melting cubes of ice, crunching the rind between his back molars.

“No, you haven’t sued me.”

“Good.” He grinned. “I’ve sued half the people in this town.”

The barkeep arrived with a fresh double Powers on the rocks and swapped it out for Chase’s empty glass.

“But I was curious about something,”
Letty
asked, letting her left knee brush against his leg.

“What’s that?”

“I’ve read the
Citizen-Times
cover to cover for the last five days and there’s been no mention of it.” He sipped his new drink,
Letty
wondering about the depth of his intoxication, how much of this was sliding past him. “I’ve called your home. Never got an answer. You and
Skyler
have been living out of this hotel all week, and you come down here and drink yourself into a stupor every night.”

His face paled slightly through the Powers glow. “Who are you?”

“I was there, Chase.”

“Where? What are you talking about?”

She leaned over, whispered in his ear: “Room 5212 at the Grove Park Inn when you met with Arnold
LeBreck
and hired him to murder your wife. I was in the closet. I heard everything.”

He drew back, the noise of the chophouse swelling—thirty separate conversations intermingled with the clink of glassware and china.

She said, “Last Sunday morning, I went to your house in
Montford
. I told your wife everything—”

“Oh Jesus.”

“—and when I left, she was holding a shotgun on Mr.
LeBreck
and on the verge of calling the police. I should never have left her…

“But as I just mentioned, nothing in the papers. No sign of Daphne. So I’m sitting here wondering what happened, but before you answer, let me tell you that I’ve written a letter to the Asheville Police Department providing a firsthand account, and it will be delivered tomorrow by a friend of mine should I become scarce.”

This last part was a lie. She’d only just thought of it.

Chase drained his whiskey in one shot and slammed the glass down on the bar.

“Why won’t you go back to your house, Chase? What did you do there on Sunday morning after I left? What did you do to your wife?”

Chase grabbed the side of the bar to steady his hands. He closed his eyes, opened them again. The barkeep set another Powers in front of him and took away his cold, untouched dinner plate.

“You have no idea what you’ve done,” he said.

“I’m going back to your house,”
Letty
said. “Tonight. Am I going to find her dead? Why won’t you tell me, instead of sitting here in denial, pretending none of this has happened?”

Chase stared down the length of the bar for a full minute, then rubbed his palms into his eyes, smearing a bit of eyeliner.

Another greedy sip of Powers and he said, “I met Daphne after my first wife died.
Skyler
was two, and my parents kept him for a week, made me take a trip. We met in
Oranjestad
. You know Aruba? She could be so engaging when she wanted to be.

“We’d been married a year when I caught the first glimpse of what she really was. Friend of ours had gotten divorced and Daphne was consoling her on the telephone. It was a small thing, but I suddenly realized what she was doing. My wife had this way of talking to you so you’d think she was comforting you when she was actually salting your wounds. I saw her do it again and again. Even with me. With my son. It was like the pain of others attracted her. Filled her up with this black joy. Please,” he slurred. “Don’t go back there. Just leave it alone.”

“So it turns out your wife’s a bitch after all, and you want her dead. That’s so original.”
Letty
had a strong desire to take the Beretta 84 pistol out of her purse and jam it into Chase’s ribs, make him come along with her, rub his face in whatever he’d done. Instead, she climbed down from the barstool, said, “Have a wonderful night of freedom, Chase. It may be your last.”

Letty
parked her 4Runner in the cul-de-sac and walked up the driveway toward the
Rochefort
residence. The rain had further dissolved into a cold, fine mist, and all she could see of the Victorian was the lamplight that pushed through a row of tall, arched windows on the second floor. At the front door, she peered through a panel of stained glass, saw a sliver of the
lowlit
hallway—empty.

She knocked on the door and waited, but no one came.

The third window on the covered porch slid open. She lifted the shade, saw the living room illuminated by a sole piano lamp on the baby grand. Climbed over the back of the upholstered sofa and closed the window behind her.