Hearts of Sand(42)

“You expected him to come and pull a rabbit out of his hat?” Evaline asked.

“Maybe. Something.”

“I really do have something I’m working on here,” Evaline said.

“I think Mike and Jack are going to go crazy if he keeps on like this,” Jason said. “He’s going through those notes line by line. There are a lot of things we didn’t think of, apparently. Really basic things. It’s going to make us look like idiots if it gets out.”

“I doubt he makes a habit of making his clients look like idiots,” Evaline said.

“He doesn’t have to make a habit of it. Somebody just has to hear about it.”

“Like what?”

“Like Caroline Holder telling them about it,” Jason said. “You know how she gets when she gets mad.”

“Yes,” Evaline said. “I know how she gets. I’ve known her all my life. I knew her before you did.”

“I wouldn’t put it past her to call The New York Times.”

“Could I please get back to work now?”

“I’m just keeping you updated,” Jason said. “You said you wanted to be updated, and I’m doing it. If you don’t want to be updated anymore, you can always just say so.”

“No,” Evaline said. “No, of course not. Of course I want to be updated. I need to be updated. Maybe just not every four seconds.”

“He wants to meet you.”

“Fine. He can meet me anytime. It’s just that now—”

Jason hung up.

She put the receiver of her own phone back into the cradle. Then she got up, walked to her office door, and locked it.

There was, she thought, absolutely nothing that she knew anymore that could hurt anyone. It had all happened so long ago, and then things she had known and never told could not reveal where Chapin Waring had been for thirty years, or why she had decided to mastermind those robberies, or where the missing money was. The things she knew were personal, and of importance only to herself. There was still something about the whole thing being raked up again that made her neck feel as if it had been injected with cement.

Sometimes she just wanted to be away from people, away from talking, away from the endless gossip that was the core of Alwych.

It was bad enough having to deal with Tim and Virginia.

It was worse having to deal with something that should have died a few decades ago.

Evaline got up again, went back to her door, and unlocked it.

She had no idea what she’d been doing when she did that, but she did know it was entirely ridiculous.

2

It was only four thirty when Kyle Westervan showed up at Tim Brand’s clinic. It was only an accident that Tim was here this early himself. There was nothing at the clinic Marcie couldn’t handle if he let her.

Tim watched Kyle walk up the long driveway to the clinic.

Kyle was looking the clinic over as he came. He did not seem to be surprised by anything he saw, and he didn’t seem to be put off by it. Tim sent up a thank-you to God for both those things, and then just waited at the top of the rise for Kyle to get to him. He also checked out the suit. The damned thing had to have cost four thousand dollars if it cost a dime. It broke all of what Tim had always thought of as Kyle’s rules.

Kyle reached the top of the rise and took off his sunglasses. He lifted his briefcase in the air and said, “I’ve come loaded for bear. You told me to.”

“I didn’t know if you’d ever been here,” Tim said. “Most everybody else has been at one time or the other. I hit them up for donations.”

“Is that what I’m here for? You’re hitting me up for donations?”

“No,” Tim said. He looked up and down the line. “Let’s go back to the office. I really didn’t expect you this early. It’s a miracle I’m here myself. Don’t you have to put in hundred-hour weeks to get that salary they’re paying you?”

“Most of the time. I’ve been having a rather odd day.”

“I’ve been having a rather odd week,” Tim said. “Come around back. We can actually get some peace and quiet, if not for long.”

“Are they always this patient, the people who stand in line? I’ve seen bank lines that have been more agitated.”

“They’re calm this time of the day,” Tim said, leading Kyle between gurneys and equipment and nurses and cubicles to the corridor in the back where the closest thing to quiet was. He opened the door to his office and stood back to let Kyle pass.

Kyle walked in, looked at the cramped space, and smiled slightly. “I was wondering where the hair shirt was,” he said.

Tim walked in, too, and closed the door behind them. “It’s not a hair shirt, it’s a matter of necessity. You need a big office to impress clients. I have no clients to impress. We need space for other things.”