Bear Is Broken (30 page)

Then with renewed energy I said, “It doesn’t stop with Christine.
It’s the whole family. Now we know Christine’s father was sleeping
with my mother before her death and that Teddy was accusing him
of murder. Trying to exonerate our father, who suddenly pops up as
the snitch against Santorez. That’s right,” I said, noticing the astonished
look on Jeanie’s face. I was coming unmoored again, losing my bearings,
the way I’d felt just before Keith pushed me, as if the world was
dissolving around me and taking me with it. “What was I supposed
to do, just let them frame Santorez?”

Neither of them said anything. I went on wildly: “Christine
knows that Gerald killed my mother. She’s known it all her life.
Keith knows, too. That’s why he went to Teddy, that’s why they
became friends. Because Keith was curious about the son of the
woman his father had been having an affair with, the woman he
killed while letting her husband get sent away for life. Everything
that’s happened has grown out of Locke’s beating my mother to
death and getting away with it. Except he didn’t get away: Now
Teddy was about to expose him.”

Car took a drink and made a face like he’d swallowed broken
glass. “Leo, it’s a black hole,” Jeanie said. “It nearly swallowed your
brother. He was obsessed with proving your father innocent. Be
thankful he spared you. It was heartbreaking to watch a great lawyer
like Teddy fall again and again for Lawrence’s scams and keep
chasing down leads that proved to be bullshit. Your father’s a master
manipulator who had Teddy wrapped around his little finger. But
you and I both know that Lawrence was far from innocent, that
even the best defense lawyer in the world couldn’t change that fact.
In Teddy’s mind, though, the truth was whatever he could make
people believe, whatever story he could convincingly spin. It was
all very, very sad.”

I said, “But don’t you see, everything grows out of that. We can’t get
justice for Teddy without getting it for my mother. We have to go back
to the beginning. We have to finish the job Teddy started.”

“That’s your business, kid,” Car said. “You don’t want to help us
nail Christine, you don’t have to. But you do have to lie low until we
do what we have to do.”

I sat back into the couch cushions, cupping my drink. “What are
you going to do?” I was almost in tears with frustration at their refusal
to listen to me.

“Get back on her tail for one,” Car said. “I had to let her slip to grab
you this afternoon. Believe me, I didn’t want to do it, but we had to
make you see sense.”

I stared at him, wondering if he’d been there this morning, if he’d
known what was going to happen to me but had held back, preferring
to let me take my chances rather than to show himself to Christine. He
stared back at me. I ran a hand over my eyes, pressing down on them.

“How long did she wait for me in the car this morning?”

“You tell me, kid.”

“Weren’t you there?”

“What’s he talking about, this morning?” Jeanie asked.

“Christine took me to meet Keith at Sutro Baths and I ended up
taking a swim.”

“You must be a pretty good swimmer,” Car said. “You say hi to
Keith like I said?”

“Wait, are you saying Keith pushed you?” Jeanie asked. “And Christine
set you up?”

“Something like that,” I told her.

“I wasn’t there, kid. I wish I could say I was, but I went home to
take a shower.”

I gave a sigh, as if I could expel my tremendous fatigue. “What do
you want me to do?”

It was Jeanie’s turn: “Call her up. Bring her here. Get her to confess
and get it on tape.”

“Pretty simple, really,” Car said.

I found Christine’s number in the sheaf of credit cards and bills I’d
taken from my sodden wallet, now stored in a plastic bag in my
pocket. I went out on the deck, closing the door so Car and Jeanie
couldn’t listen in.

“Do you still want that missing disk?” I asked when she picked up.

“Leo?” was all she could say. She was surprised about something.

Either that I was alive or that I was calling her—or that I had the disk.

“What happened to you?” She recovered her breath. “I waited for
nearly an hour.”

“Really? And then?”

“Then I had to get to class. I left the keys under the seat and took a
cab to Caltrain and took Caltrain to Palo Alto and took the shuttle to
Stanford and walked into lecture ten minutes late without my books.”

I hadn’t looked under the seat. “Do you want the disk?”

“Yes, but you don’t have it. You told me so this morning.”

“I have it, and I’ve seen it, and I’m ready to deal. Just so that you
know I have it, the video was taken in Martha’s apartment. You probably
didn’t know the camera was there, or you would have untied that knot
a lot sooner. Maybe you waited a little longer the next time. Maybe one
of those times you waited a little too long and had to call your brother
to come rescue you. That’s what the police would probably suppose.”

She gave a plaintive sigh. “I want it.”

“Good. Then meet me at Teddy’s place in two hours. And bring
your checkbook.”

After we’d hung up I remained standing on the deck, looking out
into the watery daylight under the trees. After the initial surprise in
her voice she’d recovered quickly, as if nothing had happened beyond
what she’d claimed: that she’d waited for me, gotten annoyed, then
made her own way down to Stanford. Maybe that was exactly what
had happened. Maybe Teddy’s house would lift up off its foundation
and float away to the moon.

Back in the living room Jeanie lay on the couch holding her drink.
Car was sitting on the floor with a briefcase that was all foam rubber
inside with notches to hold what looked like eavesdropping equipment.
“Booty call successful?” he asked.

“She’ll be here in a couple of hours. I don’t suppose one of you
would mind taking me back to the city to get Teddy’s Rabbit, so she
doesn’t wonder how the hell I got over here?”

They shared a glance; then Jeanie put her drink on the floor and
sat up. “I can take him. Unless you trust me to get this place wired
for sound.”

“You go,” Car said without looking up.

“I checked with the hospital while you were on the phone,” Jeanie
said as we merged onto the freeway.

“And?”

“No change.”

I was silent. There was nothing to say.

“So what’s your plan?” she finally asked.

“I guess I’ll apply to PD offices around the Bay. If Teddy dies, then
maybe also So-Cal, the Central Valley.” I didn’t look at her, not wanting
to see the disapproval on her face at this thought. “A change of
scenery would do me good.”

“With Christine, I meant. What’s your plan for making her talk?”

“Oh.” I waited, but nothing came to me. “I guess I’ll ask if she killed
Marovich. If she says yes, I’ll ask her if she shot my brother. If she says
yes, I’ll ask her if she’s going to shoot me.”

“Don’t count on us to swoop in and save you.” Jeanie hesitated, then
went on: “Look, I’d be glad to make some calls for you when all this is over.”

“I think I’d rather you didn’t.”

“You’re pissed at me for what? For Car?” For about a mile she drove
with her eyes fixed on the road ahead, her hands tightly gripping the
wheel. Then she said, “You have no right to be angry with me about
him. Other things, maybe, but not that.”

She was right. She didn’t owe me anything, and I had no reason to
blame her. Why then did I feel this paralyzing resentment, this childish
blame? I only knew that I did feel it and that the feeling kept me
from apologizing.

We drove the rest of the way in silence.

After I’d driven the Rabbit back to Canyon and Jeanie had left with
Car, I sat out on Teddy’s deck and had another martini. I didn’t want
to be inside. Car had assured me the entire house was wired: They
would hear everything spoken in there, and everything would be recorded.
The deck was the only place in the house where I could feel
alone, and I needed to think. I’d let them believe I’d go along with
their plan to record Christine, but I hadn’t come this far to blindly
follow anyone’s lead.

I wondered what justice would mean to Teddy. Now that I was the
one in the victim’s chair, I knew for certain that an eye for an eye was
not an empty concept. I couldn’t make Teddy better or get back Caroline
or recover those lost years, but I could get revenge. Not against
Christine; I didn’t care about Christine. I wanted what Teddy wanted,
our mother’s killer. And I wanted to believe what Teddy had believed,
that the killer was Gerald Locke.

From where could that cold man have summoned the rage to do
the damage I’d seen in the crime scene photographs?
It was dusk when I heard the purr and clatter of a car coming up the
hill. Turning in my chair, I looked through the house and saw Christine
walking up, a Safeway bag dangling from her fingers.

She didn’t knock. According to the plan I should rise and meet her, so
that we could end up sitting inside with the microphones, but Car and
Jeanie didn’t care about setting up Gerald Locke. They wanted Christine,
and if I gave them the evidence they needed, they’d go straight to the
police. The cops would take over, and I’d be left with no leverage over
Gerald and no control over what happened to Christine. I stayed where
I was. To get Gerald, I needed her help. Maybe I was even willing to let
her off the hook if she helped me finish the work Teddy had started.
Or maybe I’d fallen for her and wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe I’d
rather sleep with her than put her away.

“I brought food,” she called, coming through the house to the door
of the deck when she saw me there. “I figured you’re probably just like
your brother. Am I right? Nothing in the fridge?”

She showed me what she’d brought: three bottles of wine, bread,
several cheeses, smoked salmon, oranges, and apples. She set down the
bags, came out, and met me as I rose with an awkward half embrace,
half kiss, my lips seeking hers, hers avoiding mine.

“What are you going to do, toss me over the railing?”

I don’t know why I tried to kiss her. As a test, I suppose.
She drew back from me as if she’d been burned. “Why would I do
that?”

“Isn’t this as good a place as any to finish the job? I suppose you’ll
wait until I tell you where the disk is.”

I began to unbutton my shirt. Misinterpreting my actions, she caught
my wrists. I pushed her away and finished taking off the shirt, displaying
my injuries.

“What happened to you?” she asked after a pause.

“I took a little swim this morning after you dropped me off. Out
the end of the tunnel at Sutro Baths, down onto the rocks, out into
the cove. I got polished on the rocks for a while, and then the waves
swept me out to sea. A surfer ended up bringing me ashore.”

“It looks like you slid down a gigantic cheese grater.”

“It could be worse. My brains are still on the inside.”

“How did it happen?” Her eyes flashed. “Keith didn’t—”

“He took me down there to kill me. But not until he’d told me that
you were the one who shot my brother.”

There was fear in her eyes. Her voice was weak and breathless. “He
told you that?”

I reached out and slid the door closed. I wanted to hear it before
the others. I wanted to decide. I stood in my plain white T-shirt, the
wounds on my arms itching in the chill, the flesh on my back and side
and hip crawling painfully. “He said it was you, all you. And Martha
drove the getaway car. And you killed Martha.”

“And you believed him?”

“Why shouldn’t I? You lied when you said you gave the disks to
Teddy. Actually they came anonymously in the mail. From Martha,
is my guess. What happened—she tried to shake you down and you
told her to go to hell?”

Christine had moved away to stand by the railing, her back to me.

“Something like that.”

“Teddy was going to turn that video over to the police. Keith
was his client, and where clients were concerned Teddy didn’t make
exceptions. Not even after he slept with you. Maybe he blackmailed
you into it, maybe it was your idea. In the meantime you and Martha
worked out a deal, and Teddy ended up with a bullet in his head.

You showed up at his hotel room, but the disk wasn’t there. Instead
of paying Martha whatever you’d promised her in return for keeping
quiet and helping you get back the disks, you killed her with
Teddy’s gun, the one he kept here. Or didn’t you know about the
gun in his bedside table?”

“I knew about it,” she said in a low voice.

“Marovich was your thesis adviser.”

She turned. “Leo, I didn’t kill him.”

“Of course you didn’t.”

“Let’s go inside. I’m cold.”

Now was the time to take her inside, get her on tape, but that
would have meant handing Christine over to Car and Jeanie and their
ideas about what happened, and losing Locke. Not to mention losing
Christine. “Why don’t you tell me about Marovich first.”

“I can’t tell you inside?”

“You can, but the house is wired for sound. It’s probably better if
we talk out here until you get your story straight.”

She stood looking at me with astonishment and fear.

“You see, Car and Jeanie are convinced you shot Teddy, but they’re a
little short on proof. My job is to make you confess. Maybe you killed
Marovich, maybe you didn’t. I want to be on your side, Christine, I
really do. I told you this morning, I want to help you with whatever
mess you’re in. I like you. But first you’ve got to convince me you
didn’t shoot my brother and that you didn’t set me up this morning.”

“I didn’t,” she said, her voice even smaller.

“Why don’t you start by telling me about Marovich,” I suggested
again.

I put my shirt back on and eased myself down into my chair, warding
off the chill with a long sip of gin. After a moment Christine turned
and came to sit on the deck before me. “It was—sex. There’s not much
to tell. I took a class with him on immersion ethnography. That’s how
I got the idea for my thesis. After the course he hired me on an unofficial
basis as his research assistant. My job was to interview girls. I got
paid, but more important I got to use the interviews for my thesis.