Blue Screen (22 page)

A
S WE ROLLED
across the causeway, Erin said, “I didn’t want the police.”

“I know,” I said. “But there was no other way. They had me outnumbered.”

Jesse turned sideways in the front seat to talk with us.

“Where would you like to go?” Jesse said.

“Go?”

“Yes,” Jesse said. “You’re out of there, where would you like to go?”

“You said you were taking me to the police station.”

“I made that up,” Jesse said.

“We used that to get you out of there,” I said. “Now, if you’ll tell us what you need and where you want to go and why, maybe we can help you.”

“I…”

Rosie wiggled down between us and got herself comfortable. Erin looked down at her.

“Why do you take this dog everywhere,” Erin said.

“I love her,” I said. “Tell us what you need.”

Erin tried to think of what she should do. We waited.

As we reached the other side of the causeway, Erin said, “I have to see Gerard.”

“Where is he?” I said.

“Here,” Erin said.

“Here where,” I said.

“Here, Boston, in a hotel.”

Suit looked at Jesse; Jesse nodded. Suit headed straight out past the beach at the end of the causeway, not right to downtown and police headquarters.

“What is he doing here?” I said.

“I called him,” Erin said. “I have to see him.”

“Why?”

Erin’s breath came heavily, as if she’d just finished a sprint. She didn’t speak. I didn’t press her. We rode in silence for a while. Erin’s breathing didn’t improve.

Finally she said, “My life is falling apart. I’m falling apart…. My sister’s dead…. If I play baseball, I’ll be a laughingstock…. Buddy says if I don’t play, I won’t make any more movies…. He says I’m already a laughingstock as an actress…. I have to do ugly sex things with him…. I need Gerard. I have to see Gerard.”

“Because?” I said.

“Because he loves me. He’s the only one. He loves me. I have to see him.”

I looked at Jesse. He raised his eyebrows, but he nodded.

“Okay, we’ll take you to him. Where is he?”

“He won’t like there being anybody else.”

“It’s the only way you’ll get to him,” I said.

There were tears on Erin’s face. I took her hand again. Our held hands rested on Rosie’s back. If Rosie minded, she didn’t say so.

“Make a deal with us,” I said.

“I got nobody else,” she said. “Just Gerard.”

“And us,” I said.

She turned her head away from me and stared out the window of the car at the expensive houses we were passing.

“Gerard came all this way,” I said, “because you called him.”

Erin nodded.

“We came and got you out of Buddy’s house,” I said, “because you called me.”

She nodded again.

“Jesse and I will go in with you. The four of us will sit down, you and Gerard, me and Jesse. We will talk this out. We will find a way to help you.”

“Stop the car,” Erin said. “I want to call him and I don’t want you to hear me.”

Suit looked at Jesse. Jesse nodded. Suit pulled the car over. Erin got out with her cell phone and walked twenty feet away.

“What if she runs,” I said.

“Suit is like a gazelle,” Jesse said.

“When did that happen?” Suit said.

“Maybe it’s me that’s like a gazelle,” Jesse said.

Erin spoke for a while on her cell phone. Then she folded up her cell phone and walked back to the car.

“He’s at the Four Seasons,” Erin said. “He gave me the room number.”

“And he’ll wait?” I said.

“Gerard loves me,” she said.

Her breathing was better.

“So he’ll wait.”

“Yes.”

“Do you love him?” I said.

“Love him?”

“Yes.”

“I…I…don’t even know what that means,” Erin said. “But I have to see him.”

I nodded.

“My guess would be,
yes,
” I said.

W
E SAT IN
the living room of Gerard’s small suite, with a view of the Public Garden, and across Charles Street, the Common. Erin sat beside Gerard on a couch.

“I wanna thank you for getting her out,” Gerard said.

I nodded. Jesse nodded.

“Why didn’t he want you out?” I said.

Erin looked at Gerard. Gerard nodded.

“He was afraid I’d tell people I wasn’t good at baseball,” Erin said. “And I said I would if I wanted. And maybe I’d tell people what a sick pig he was in bed.”

“Why did he want you so badly to play?” I said.

“Because he said the team was losing money, and if he could bring in a bunch of people to see me play, then he could pump up the price and sell it.”

Gerard was quiet. He looked at Jesse, and Jesse looked back at him. There seemed to be some sort of male appraisal thing going on.

“Why did he want to sell it?” I said.

“He said it was my fault, that he had to get some money to pay off a guy who had lost a fortune backing my
Woman Warrior
movies.”

“Moon Monaghan,” I said.

She looked at Gerard. Gerard nodded.

“Yes,” she said.

“You didn’t lose him money,” Gerard said.

“Buddy says so.”

Gerard didn’t answer.

“And what happened to Misty?” I said.

Jesse and Gerard looked at each other some more. Erin was silent.

“Come on, Erin,” I said. “We’ve come this far. We can’t help you if we don’t know the score.”

She shook her head. I waited. Gerard was rubbing his chin with the back of his hand, still looking at Jesse.

“I killed her,” he said.

“No,” Erin said. “No, he didn’t.”

And then I knew. I didn’t know why yet. But I knew.

“You killed her,” I said.

“Yes.”

“Erin,” Gerard said. “Shut up. She’s just trying to protect me.”

“Or vice versa,” I said. “How did it happen, Erin?”

“She was going to leave. She told me that she was sick of doing it with Buddy, all the sick shit he liked. And she wasn’t a movie star and she wasn’t going to be a baseball star and she was going to leave me. We been together all our lives. Buddy said, she left, he’d throw me out, too. He didn’t need either one of us.”

She paused.

“That’s all true,” Gerard said flatly. “Except I killed her. Erin called me. She always called me when it got bad. And I came out to talk with Misty. And I grabbed her by the face, trying to reason with her…”

He put his hands up to show how he’d put them on each side of Misty’s face.

“And she tried to twist away and I twisted back and…” He shrugged.

“Her neck snapped,” I said.

Gerard nodded.

“It was an accident. I didn’t want to hurt her. I loved her like a sister,” Gerard said.

“That’s right,” Erin said. “That’s what happened, but it was me. I’m a very strong woman. Stronger than Misty. Gerard tried to talk sense to her but she was crazy mad and like he said, I put my hands on her face…I did it. I didn’t mean to, but I did it.”

Gerard shook his head.

“It was me,” he said.

“And Buddy knew this,” I said to Erin.

“Yes. He said I did anything crazy he’d turn me in.”

“So what did you want Gerard to do?”

“After I killed Misty?”

“Now,” I said.

“I wanted him…I wanted him to kill Buddy and take me away.”

“Too much security,” Jesse said.

“Yep,” Gerard said. “But once she was out of there, I was willing to wait.”

“Why bother,” I said. “Once he’s sure Buddy won’t pay up, Moon will do it for you.”

Gerard nodded and almost smiled.

“Probably,” he said.

“So,” Jesse said. “You both agree that Misty’s death was accidental.”

They nodded.

“But you don’t agree who did it.”

“I did,” Gerard said.

“I did it,” Erin said.

Jesse looked at me.

“That,” Jesse said to them, still looking at me, “could present a very interesting legal dilemma for someone trying to prosecute the case.”

Nobody said anything.

“If you want to go to trial with it,” Jesse said, “I can put you in touch with the best criminal defense lawyer in the state.”

Jesse’s gaze was steady on me.

“And if we don’t want to go to trial?” Gerard said.

Jesse kept looking at me.

“If you deny this conversation and insist you don’t know anything about Misty’s death,” Jesse said, “I’m not sure I got a case.”

“You could work on Buddy,” Gerard said carefully.

“I could,” Jesse said.

“Or,” I said, “Chief Stone and I could admit defeat.”

“Which means what?” Gerard said, even more carefully.

Jesse stood suddenly.

“You and Erin go back to California,” he said. “And don’t come to Paradise anymore.”

I stood and we walked to the door. Erin and Gerard were staring at us. At the door Jesse paused.

“Don’t push it too hard,” he said. “You kill Buddy and I’ll nail you for it.”

Erin said, “Sunny…”

Jesse opened the door.

“Vaya con Dios,” I said.

And we left.

J
ESSE AND
I were in South Boston in my loft, drinking martinis. I had just given Rosie a carrot, one of her favorites, and she was making a lot of noise crunching it up.

“I knew I was soft,” I said. “I didn’t realize you were, too.”

“The woman has been somebody’s product all her life. She’s been having sex with Buddy Bollen for years now.”

“Ugh,” I said.

“I believe her story about her sister,” he said. “And I believe she did it.”

“But Gerard saying he did it bought him a lot.”

“Some,” Jesse said. “Though he too might have noticed the usefulness of the defense.”

“Still, he came when she called,” I said. “Both times.”

Jesse nodded.

“He loves her,” I said. “She loves him.”

“Or something,” Jesse said. “Those are two fucked-up people.”

“And they needed a break,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“So you gave them one.”

“We gave them one,” Jesse said. “I’m not taking the rap alone.”

“I don’t have to stand up in public and say I can’t solve the case.”

“I don’t, either,” Jesse said. “We’ll just keep it open, and in time something else will get people’s attention.”

“Like the murder of Buddy Bollen,” I said.

“That won’t happen until Moon has exhausted everything else,” Jesse said.

“And we’re just going to let Buddy slide? He must have done something wrong.”

“Let’s see what Cronjager’s forensic accountants come up with,” Jesse said. “One way or another, there’s no good news for Buddy in the days ahead.”

I got up and went to the stove where I was making beef bourguignon, one of the three things I could cook. I checked it, lowered the heat a little, made another shaker of martinis, and gave Rosie another carrot. I brought the shaker back to the table and freshened our drinks.

“You are every bit as sentimental as I am.”

“A fool for love,” Jesse said.

“Like me,” I said.

We looked at each other.

“It’ll be an hour or so before dinner is ready,” I said.

“Shall we go out and find an exclusive dress shop?” Jesse said.

“Let’s try for more conventional fun tonight,” I said. “My bed is right there.”

“And what it lacks in exotic,” Jesse said, “it makes up in handy.”

“I think maybe I love you,” I said.

It surprised me. I hadn’t intended to say it. In fact I didn’t quite know until now that I felt it.

“Yes,” Jesse said. “I think I might love you, too.”

“Isn’t that amazing?” I said.

“Yes,” Jesse said. “It is.”

We touched glasses and took a drink and put the glasses down.

“Have you shaved your legs?” Jesse said.

“Every day,” I said, “since I met you.”