She still held the phone in her hand and she still didnt call.
What then? Nothing? Backed blindly into a corner by that bastard again, and again, do nothing?
But call Joe? Have him sympathize, see what it was she should have seen, understand what it was she should have understood? Have him know how shed been played, this time and the time before?
No.
Cheeks burning, she stared at the ghostly peonies. She couldnt call Joe.
But do nothing?
The peonies seemed to reach toward her, out of the dark. Friend or foe?
Theyre just flowers. Joe had said that years ago, spreading his slow smile, when shed told him the daisies hed brought in seemed to lean away from the lantana as though they didnt want to be in the same vase. They dont have opinions about each other the way we do. Hed moved the stems around, and everything was harmony again.
In the twilight Ann lifted the phone and dialed, but not Joe.
Lowry.
Greg, Im glad I caught you. We need to talk.
Pause. The hell we do.
Youre going to want to hear this.
I dont want to hear anything from you.
Youre wrong. Ill come in. Fifteen minutes.
Dammit, Ann, dont make it worse.
Fifteen minutes. Greg, its a bombshell.
Like the last one?
Im on my way in.
Goddamm it! He hissed out a breath. All right, but not here. I dont want to be seen with you.
A lot of that going around.
What?
Nothing. Where do you want to meet? Sunset Park, maybe?
The Village. Dublin Six, on Hudson Street. You know it?
Ill find it. Im not making it worse, Greg. Im going to make it better. She clicked off and trotted down the steps to hail a cab.
Dublin Six turned out to be a bar where the action was going strong. Irish fiddle music and after-work drinkers flowed out the open front to the sidewalk. On the curb, Ann flinched. The jolly crowd, the noise and bustle: usually right up her alley, but now she felt like she was facing an icy stream when she was already freezing and exhausted.
But she waded in. Figuring Lowry wouldnt want to be planted with her where all the world could see, she bypassed the outdoor tables, found a secluded corner, ordered a pinot grigio. Greg Lowry arrived just after her wine did.
Ann He pulled out a chair.
Greg, just listen.
No, you listen! Whatever you want, you cant have it. Just coffee, he snapped at the waitress, who raised an eyebrow and backed away.
A couple of things have come up, Ann said.
I dont want to hear them. I only came here to keep you away from the office. I have a career Id like to salvage. And believe it or not Im trying to do you a favor, too.
How did Sonny ODoul know to call me?
What the hell what are you talking about?
ODoul called me when he found the chain. Why me?
Lowry looked at her as though shed asked why the earth was flat. You were the investigator on the case.
He didnt know that. Someone had to tell him.
So someone told him.
It was Glybenhall Ann stopped, waited while the waitress set Lowrys coffee down. Glybenhall told ODoul that Dennis was off the case and I was on. He told him, if he had anything to say to DOI, to call me. He gave him my direct line.
So what? And more important, how do you know?
ODoul told me.
When?
This morning.
Are you fucking nuts? Even in the swirling racket, heads turned. Lowry dropped his voice. You went to see ODoul? Are you crazy?
That chain? Morgenstern made it, like all the other pieces. None of them are fakes. The bling we found at Glybenhalls, its Kongs. But that chain ODoul claims he found isnt. Morgenstern made it for Glybenhall.
What are you talking about?
Kong was never on that roof. He was only on the Mott Haven site once, before the first accident, the scaffold collapse. He never went back. And Blowfish hasnt been down to the river in two years. He never saw anyone down there, no white man with Kong. That was a lie. It was all a trap, Greg. And I fell right into it.
Lowry gave her a long, level stare. Its loud as hell in here. Im having trouble understanding you. It sounds as though youre saying youve been talking to witnesses in this case. I know you wouldnt do that when youre on desk duty. Must be the noise.
Dont you get it? Why do you think he produced the gun so late, and it was the wrong gun? And the jeweler, and Blowfish, first one story and then another. It wasnt that he got to them after. He had them from the beginning. It was the whole point!
What was?
Setting me up. Her voice was steady but she had to swallow before she could go on. Because of because of the past. He wanted me to find huge amounts of evidence, because he knew Id buy it. He wanted us to arrest him! Because hed already set the case up to fall apart. So when it did, he could sue. Its all about the money, Greg. It always was.
Jesus Christ, Lowry said, voice full of wonder. You really are obsessed with Glybenhall, just like he says.
No! No! He knew youd all think that. Thats why he did it this way. Goddammit, Greg, he set us up!
Lowry, tight-jawed, picked up his coffee. He drank it as if it were medicine. When he put it down he said, Ann, you have to help me out here. You have to back off.
Thats what he wants. Thats what the lawsuits for.
No, the lawsuits for fifty million dollars! Lowry flared, then went on quietly, patiently. Ann, youve shown incredibly bad judgment. Earlier, and especially now. But Im sure thats all it is. I dont think you planted any evidence
Of course I didnt!
I know that! I dont think you did anything at all thats actionable. Certainly nothing criminal.
Criminal?
You must know Mark Shapiros looking into making a case against you. Standard in situations like this, to cover the departments butt. They did it with Joe Cole, had a case ready to go, but the DA liked the NYPDs better.
Both were garbage. And sos this. Mark Shapiros worrying about covering the departments butt? Three people are dead
One accident and two unrelated gang killings.
You cant believe that. The sabotage
Construction accidents.
Oh, come on! You read Sandy Weisss report.
Expert witnesses can be wrong.
Greg, you cant just sweep this under the rug!
Goddammit, Ann, get ahold of yourself! Hands around his coffee mug as though to keep it from escaping, he dropped his voice. What are you telling me? That Walter Glybenhall went to a huge, complicated amount of trouble to make Ann Montgomery look like an idiot?
No. He went to all this trouble for a multimillion-dollar settlement and a Teflon coating.
What does that mean?
Look at it! No city agency will dare touch Glybenhall now! After a false arrest for homicide and a giant lawsuit? Building permits, licenses, variances, waivers, theyll fall all over themselves giving him what he wants. Any site in New York and anything he wants to build on it. Block A, in Harlem. Corrington was working with us
With you!
Yes, yes, with me! And because of that hes disgraced. Hell never get that site, he may even have to resign from his foundation. You think that wasnt part of the point, too? A huge dollar settlement is nice. But look what else Glybenhall gets! Corringtons been put in his place, Glybenhalls shown Charlie Barr whos boss, Im ruined and Glybenhalls untouchable. Untouchable! Think of what thatll be worth over the years. Other developers will be coming to him, people who werent giving him the time of day will be begging to be part of his projects. Hell be king! Greg, he engineered this from beginning to end.
Lowry sat unmoving. Quietly, he said, The trouble with this theory of yours besides the fact that its insane the specific trouble is that Glybenhall would have to have known Dennis would be moved off the case and you put on. Because when all this started you were still in Siberia. Where I wish to hell wed left you.
And why didnt you?
Because I wanted you back! Because you were good. I thought. Before I knew you were crazy.
So you just hauled me in from the boonies?
Are you shitting me? I busted my ass lobbying Shapiro for you. Jesus, talk about digging my own grave.
And he said, Sure?
No, hes a lot smarter than me, obviously. He said maybe. He said lets wait until we have Lowry stopped abruptly.
Ann forced herself to say nothing, to not move, though she felt like a lava flow trying to keep from coursing down a mountain.
No, Lowry said. Slowly, deliberately, he went on, If you are assigning any part in your paranoid fantasy to Commissioner Shapiro, Id suggest you reconsider.
Greg. Ann heard the tremor in her own voice. Just look at it. As a cop. As though you didnt know any of these people.
Lowrys gaze was stony. You need to get help, Ann. You may be a danger to yourself. Youre certainly a danger to my department and me.
Why would Shapiro agree to put me on this case, this sensitive case? A loose cannon like me? He and Glybenhall had to know each other from the power-player tuxedo circuit, over the last twenty years. Glybenhall cooked this up and sold it to him!
The Commissioner, Lowry said, agreed to put you on this case because I asked him to. Because, I can see now, I temporarily lost my mind.
Are you sure it wasnt his idea?
Until a minute ago, Lowry said, shoving his coffee aside, you were on desk duty. Now youre fired. You have no professional standing and you will stay away from everyone involved with this case. If you have a problem with this, your union rep can call me.
Greg, please! At least talk to the people Ive talked to. Youll see.
Im not talking to anyone! I will not be dragged into this insanity again.
What about Sandy Weiss at Packer?
You will stay away.
Weisss report is still good. Glybenhall has no leverage with him.
Lowry, instead of answering that, studied her for a long moment. Ann? When this started, you told me you thought you had something on the scaffold collapse, and that you were sending it to Weiss at Packer.
What do
If Weiss hadnt seen it yet, why did you think you had something?
The bolt holes
Youre not an engineer. What made you think you had something?
This time it was Ann who said nothing.
Lowrys face purpled. Jesus fucking Christ. Thats what you were doing upstate, isnt it? You took those photos, you took our fucking evidence photos straight to the prison and you showed them to Joe Cole!
Joes out, Ann said quietly. Six months now.
You did, didnt you?
She didnt answer. She heard the fiddle music start up again; she hadnt realized it had stopped. The devil was reputed to play the fiddle, wasnt he?
When Lowry finally spoke his voice was hard. Im about one inch from arresting you. I swear to God, if I dont leave Ill do it right now. And if I so much as hear your name again, Ann, you are fucked. I promise you, completely fucked.
He stood, pushed through the crowd, and left.
Sutton Place
From the tone of Joes messages, their content, and their number three on her cell phone and three at home Ann had known last night that he was worried. Shed gone to bed with that knowledge, tossed and turned with it, and, with it, reached for the shrilling phone as the morning sun stabbed through the window.
Joe?
Are you all right? Why didnt you call last night?
Im sorry. Im fine. It got late.
He was silent, not contesting that, waiting for the answer to the question hed called six times last night to ask.
Its complicated, Joe.
I have time.
And its bad.
We were wrong?
We hadnt thought it through. We hadnt thought about how people can be counted on to make the same mistake over and over again, like a night moth beating its wings against the glass.
There was more? Joe asked. So? That happens a lot. But we were on the right track?
I missed so much.
But you see it now?
Yes. But I cant tell you about it. I have to go.
Ann, whats wrong?
I have to go.
Ann
Jens memorial service is this morning. Ill call you when its over.
Ill be at work.
Tonight, then.
Ill call you, when we take a break.
If you want. Dont worry, Joe, please. Ill talk to you later.
She slipped out of bed and stood at the window. Sun glittered off the East River; it was glaringly bright but she wondered how far into the water it really penetrated. She hadnt meant, when the service is over. Though what it would mean for all this to be over she didnt know.
*
Ann showered quickly, did her makeup, dressed in charcoal gray. She phoned the garage and asked them to bring the Boxster out front. She locked up and slipped her earrings on as she hurried down the hall. Tapping her foot until the elevator doors opened, she flipped through a mental map, looking at the streets and the likely traffic so she could choose the best route. All this rushing, all this velocity; and in the back of her mind the barely acknowledged truth: it was counterfeit. She was on a treadmill, dashing madly forward to outrun the fact that she couldnt move.
She parked in a garage a block from the funeral home. As she rushed down the sidewalk she turned her phone off and dropped it in her bag. Someones phone was bound to ring during the service; these days, during anything, someones always did. But she didnt want it to be hers. Though Jen would have been the first to get a case of the cover-your-mouth giggles over that.
She entered the funeral home through a revolving door. Jen would have found that funny, too. The steamy June morning with its smells of diesel fuel and take-out coffee, its syncopated traffic and shards of conversations, vanished instantly, replaced by thick cream carpet and silent cool. A respectful young man asked whom she was here for and indicated the chapel, his charge to make sure loved ones didnt bow their heads in grieving reverence at the wrong funeral. Although, Ann thought, as a tribute to Jen, whod always treated getting lost as an adventure and never could read a map, that was temptingly appropriate.