The Queen of Cool (7 page)

“
Fine, but be nice,” Lisa
sneered at Manny.

“
You should probably ask
again,” Lo said.

“
Did you kill your husband,
Donald Downs?”

“
No.” Lo shook her head to
emphasize the point.

“
Just no?”

“
What else can I say?” Lo
asked. “My life revolved around Don. Every good thing that happened
in my life came through Don. He was everything. I…”

Lo swallowed hard to keep from crying.

“
I couldn’t … wouldn’t
have… killed him. I’d rather die myself and have him live. But I
wasn’t given that choice.”

“
Even if he was having an
affair?”

“
We would have worked it
out,” Lo said. “I wouldn’t have killed him over it. I just wouldn’t
have. Plus, I’m having a really hard time with the affair thing. I
mean, my insecure self freaks out and Tiger Wood’s wife said she
didn’t know. But Don wasn’t a professional golfer, and my rational
self thinks it’s bullshit.”

“
Why’s that?”

“
It’s just so out of
character,” Lo said. “So not Don. Have you found
evidence?”

“
No,” Manny said. “We
haven’t. And his friends say what you say – just wasn’t like Don to
cheat.”

“
What about this
Jean-Jean?” Lo asked.

“
I can’t go into it, Lo,
but there’s no evidence they were intimate.”

“
I still hate her,” Lo
said.

“
That’s your prerogative,”
Manny said. “I had a long chat with his ex, Sue Ellen.”

“
I can only imagine what
she said,” Lo said.

“
I was surprised. She said
that when she was married to Don, he lived like he had…” Manny
looked down to read from his written notes on a pad of paper. “A
cloak of aloneness surrounding him. She said they argued about it.
A lot. He kept everyone at a distance. He was closer to the kids
than her but… When he met you, it was like the wall fell down. Sue
Ellen said she was so jealous that you were able to get
inside.”

When Lo sniffed, Manny stopped reading and
looked up at her. Lisa put her arm around Lo.

“
Don’s mom died when he was
two or three,” Lo said through her tears. “His dad was only
interested in the three B’s: ‘Booze, Broads, and Bureaucrats.’ Or
that’s what he used to say. Don was like a chess piece to be
shuffled from nannies to boarding schools to Harvard, then JFK and
back to Harvard for Law School. Henry wanted him to be a Senator
like he was. Don didn’t have family. He just had
himself.”

“
And when you
met?”

“
It was like we were made
for each other, two halves to one whole,” Lo said. “I felt that way
right off. Like I belonged with him. Now, I’m just a broken
half.”

Lo wrapped her arms around her stomach and
began to sob. With Lisa’s arms around her shoulders, Lo rocked back
and forth with pain. Manny’s hand went to Lo’s leg. Lisa’s oldest
daughter ran out of the house with a box of Kleenex and ran
back.

Clutching the Kleenex box, Lo was able to
catch her breath.

“
I’m sorry,” she
whispered.

“
No, Lo, I’m sorry,” Manny
said. “I have to ask you more questions. Is that all
right?”

Lo nodded.

“
Did you guys ever fight?”
Manny asked.

“
Everyone fights,” Lo said.
“We never fought about anything very big. Don suffered from
jealousy quite a bit. It was a real struggle for us early on, but I
learned to accommodate and he learned to trust or ask. That was our
rule – either trust me or ask me. If you don’t do either, you can’t
complain.”

“
Jealous, yeah, I heard
that,” Manny said. “Did you know he came to see me before you got
married? Wanted to know if I was going to have a problem with your
marriage?”

“
Really?” Lisa
asked.

“
Remember how I worked at
the self serve?. He was there being all Don Downs – ‘Now son, I’d
understand if you were interested in Lorraine but…’”

Manny laughed.

“
What did you say?” Lisa
asked.

“
Who?” Manny
laughed.

Lo punched him in the shoulder.

“
I said, ‘No sir, I’m
dating Mindy Sue. You’re not stepping on my toes’,” Manny smiled.
“I heard you guys fought over his jealousy. One of his friends said
you trained all these good-looking guys?”

“
The only men I trained
were gay,” Lo said. “That was an easy compromise. Don felt so much
pain… I didn’t want him to hurt like that.”

“
Was he controlling? Did he
hit you?”

“
Don?” Lo said. “No, no
way, never. His father used to beat the crap out of him. Don was
very controlled in his interactions with people.
Except…”

“
Except?”

“
One time he slapped
Alisha. She was sixteen and being really awful. She’d get right up
in his face and scream at him. Well, he lost it and slapped her
across the face. I don’t know who cried harder – Don or Alisha. I
found them clutching each other and crying their eyes
out.”

“
Was he
controlling?”

“
In the way that most men
are, but… he was great. I was really, really happy. I think he was
too.”

“
So he wasn’t a batterer?”
Manny asked.

“
Don? Where did you get
that?”

“
Jealous, in control, rich
guy, young wife, it’s not a crazy leap.”

Lo shook her head at Manny.

“
I lived with them from the
time I was fourteen,” Lisa said. “I never ever saw Don batter
anyone. Ever. You wipe those thoughts out of your mind, Manuel
Rodriguez.”

“
Don really suffered,” Lo
said. “His jealousy was like a pain that ripped straight through
him. My heart broke for him, every time.”

“
What was that Saturday
like?” Manny asked.

“
We woke up, made love...
We were trying for a baby. We had so much fun raising the girls, we
wanted a few of our own,” Lo said. “I wasn’t competing this year in
hopes that we’d get pregnant. We went for a run, then I went to the
gym to see a couple of clients; he went to work. I was at the gym
when I got the call… I think it was a reporter.”

“
Which gym?”

“
Uh, Saturday?” Lo asked.
“Saturday was boxing day, so I’d have been at Armadillo’s on Camp
Bowie. But if you’re asking me if I remember, I don’t. I remember
answering the phone. I remember getting there before they loaded
him into the ambulance. I remember holding his hand. I remember him
breathing funny and… and… then… he was gone.”

Lo took a deep breath. She held it then let
it go.

“
What do you remember
next?”

“
Calling the girls. Getting
the funeral together – the caterer, flowers, undertaker, cars… The
phone never stopped ringing. Wandering around the house at night
with Don’s pillow in my arms…”

“
So anyone could have done
anything that week?” Manny asked.

Lo’s head jerked to look at him. She looked
puzzled for a moment and then nodded.

“
There were a couple of
days when people were everywhere,” Lo said. “Our housekeeper
managed most of the chaos, but she’s almost eighty. And she was a
mess herself. She was one of Don’s nannies when he was a kid. God,
we were all just destroyed by Don’s… death.”

“
Where is she
now?”

“
I don’t know,” Lo said.
“Yazmin said she’d tell me when I was feeling better, but that
everyone was good, healthy. ‘Mr. Downs took care of us.’ That’s
what Yazmin said.”

“
In his will?”

“
He had a living trust,
Manny,” Lo said. “But we didn’t get to any of that before burying
him and I’ve been… ill since then.”

“
I called Don’s lawyer
every day last week,” Lisa said. “None of us can figure out why the
house was foreclosed, or the money held. Do you know?”

“
Feds,” Manny said. “That’s
all I have. The Feds. We lifted some prints from the house. When
our CSU put them through the system, they came up as
Feds.”

“
Feds?” Lo asked. “That
doesn’t make any sense.”

“
That’s what I say,” Manny
said. “The Fire Inspector told me you said: ‘work at work, home at
home,’ but do you know anything about his law practice?”

“
Sure,” Lo said. “We talked
about every case, everything. He just didn’t work at home. That’s
what I meant.”

“
Did he take any cases that
might have caused… all this?”

“
Never,” Lo said. “Don
liked working with people, helping people live better lives. He did
civil work for people – wills, estates, business stuff, a few
environmental cases – stuff like that. He did a bunch of pro-bono
work for people after Katrina. He had a fondness for the Gypsies,
um, the Romani? I think that’s what they like to be called. He used
to say they were the most shit-on people in the world.”

“
He did well?”

“
Really well,” Lo said. “He
gave a lot of work to his partners and associates. Did you talk to
his secretary, Marilyn?”

“
Can’t find her,” Manny
said.

“
She must have come to the
funeral,” Lo looked at Lisa. “Did you see Marilyn at the
funeral?”

“
I was kind of a wreck
too,” Lisa said.

“
Did you try her house?” Lo
asked.

Manny nodded.

“
We have this little house
in Lake Worth,” Lo said. “I never went there because I’m afraid of
the Goat Man.”

Manny laughed.

“
Don’t laugh,” Lo said. “My
Dad was there that night… You know, when everyone saw him. Took a
picture of the Goat Man.”

“
July 9, 1969?” Manny
asked.

“
I’ve always been really
afraid of the Goat Man, so I never wanted to go to Lake Worth. Don
would go up for the day to fish or whatever. But we never spent a
night away from each other. So he’d come home. Anyway, Marilyn used
the house more than we ever did. She’s probably there.”

“
Can you give me the
address?”

“
Sure,” Lo said. “Can’t you
ask his partners about his practice? Surely they must be taking
over his cases.”

Manny looked away from Lo.

“
Can’t you?”

“
The practice caught on
fire the night your house burned down,” Manny said. “Burned to the
ground.”

“
Was anyone injured?” Lo
asked.

“
No,” Manny said. “Thank
God. But everything burned, all the files, records, computers,
everything. Everyone seems a little lost.”

One of the Koi slapped the water. They
turned around to look in the pond.

“
Do you think Don was
murdered?” Lo asked.

“
We don’t have all the
results yet, Lo,” Manny said. “But, yes, I’ve thought he was
murdered from the beginning. It’s not the popular opinion, but it’s
mine. I’m sorry to have to tell you this.”

“
I’ve thought it,” Lo
said.

“
What did you get at the
house?” Manny asked.

“
Do you need to take it?”
Lo’s face reflected her heart sinking horror.

“
No,” Manny said. “No, Lo.
That’s yours. But if you find something suspicious, you’ll call me,
right?”

Lo nodded.

“
What was the book?” Manny
asked.

“
A few years ago, right
after Mandy left for college, Don decided to write down things he
appreciated about me,” Lo said. “Every day, he wrote something he
appreciated about me. He read me one thing every night. It was
supposed to help with his jealousy. Maybe it did. We got really
close that year and just kept getting closer. I don’t think he’d
have thought to ask me to leave competing if it hadn’t been for
that year; he wouldn’t have risked asking the question. God, I
couldn’t have loved him more than when he’d get out that book and
read about… you know, something stupid… my eyelashes or whatever.
After that year, we did that every day – talked about the little
things we loved about each other. Do you need to read
that?”

“
It’s all right, Lo,” Manny
said. “How did the conversation about leaving competitive life
go?”

“
I saw that article on
ESPN.com too,” Lisa said. “Did fitness competitor Lo Downs murder
her husband to stay in the game?”

“
Then you know why I’m
asking,” Manny said. “How did it go, Lo?”

“
Don said something like
‘Would you ever consider stopping competing?’ I said, ‘Sure’. He
said, ‘To have a baby.’ I said, ‘I know.’” Lo smiled. “I think we
said a few more things, but that was about it. He made the
suggestion, and I was all for it. We had to go to the fertility
doctor, so it was easy. I finished in September and we started with
the doctor in January. The Nike contract was to follow a ‘real
fitness pro’ for a year. So it all worked out.”

“
ESPN lying bastards,”
Manny said.

Lo smiled.

“
What else was in the
safe?” he asked.

“
I have the
girls’ baby books and our
stuff
,” Lo said.
“Passports and stuff like that. I was going to give most of it to
the lawyer to see if he could sort it out.”