“Not at all. Come in. Both of you,” Shelley said.
The room was big and bright, wrapped with eight picture windows—five on the 21st Street side and three on the Queens Plaza side. Directly outside, I could see the steel and stone of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, a magnificent century-old New York City landmark that cantilevered across the East River, straddled Roosevelt Island, and finally disappeared into the skyline of midtown Manhattan.
“I was going to call and give you an update,” Shelley said, “but when I heard you were coming here, I decided it’s easier in person. Have a seat.”
“How’s Spence?” Kylie said as we sat in the two black leather chairs in front of Shelley’s desk.
“Spence is okay, but he’s in full-blown denial,” Shelley said. “As much as I love him, I run a business, and I can’t have him back in the studio until he cleans up his act. He’s a major liability. And on the personal side, I hate seeing him do this to himself, so I’m happier if I don’t have to watch.”
“I understand,” Kylie said. “I wish I didn’t have to watch either.”
“You don’t,” Shelley said. “We have a nice little apartment on East End Avenue. You can move in there for a while.”
“A nice little apartment?” Kylie said. She turned to me. “Zach, you should see it. Tenth floor, view of the river, and it’s got three bedrooms.”
“Two bedrooms and a conference room,” Shelley explained to me, as if calling one of the bedrooms by another name would make it sound smaller. “It’s a corporate apartment. We use it all the time when the big stars fly in to shoot here. It’s nicer than a hotel.”
“Zach, I’ve been there,” Kylie said. “Trust me, it’s nicer than most New York City apartments.”
Shelley shrugged. “So it’s nice. So it’s big. If I had something smaller and not so nice, I’d be glad to give it to you, but this is all I’ve got.”
It was classic old school New York charm, and Kylie smiled. “I don’t know, Shelley,” she said.
“Look,” he said, “we’re between celebrity guests, so the place is empty. It costs us a bundle whether it’s being used or not, so if you move in for a few weeks, you’d be doing me a favor. What do you say?”
She didn’t say anything.
Shelley threw up his hands and turned to me. “Zach, help me out here. Explain to your thickheaded partner that both she and her husband could use a little space for a while. Go ahead. Tell her.”
I turned and looked at my thickheaded partner. “Kylie,” I said, “please explain to your extremely generous friend that I’m only here as moral support, and you’d appreciate it if he didn’t upgrade me to marriage counselor.”
“Shelley, Zach’s right. This is a decision I have to make with Spence.”
“Honey, right now Spence isn’t up to making decisions about anything,” Shelley said. “And if you don’t get a couple of good nights’ sleep, you won’t be up to it either. It’ll be a lot easier for the two of you to sort things out if you each take some time to decompress. Do me a favor. At least take the apartment for a few days.”
Kylie looked at me for an answer. I shook my head. “Sorry,” I said. “This one’s your call.”
She let out a sigh. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll give it a shot. One night. We’ll see how it goes.”
Shelley came around the desk and gave her a hug. “The doorman already has your name. He’ll give you the keys, and I’ll have the concierge stock the refrigerator.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I have no idea how I can ever pay you back, but I owe you one.”
“You want to pay me back?” he said. “Go out and find this crazy Hazmat person. Then me and the rest of this fakakta city would owe you one.”
Chapter 56
“Tieni i tuoi amici vicino, ma i tuoi nemici più vicino,” Joe reminded Teresa before he sent her off to thank Emma Frye for her act of kindness.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer—that, Teresa could live with. But thank her? She wanted to grab the Frye woman by the throat and scream, “How did you get my dead son’s journal?”
Joe gave her instructions on how to play it. “Just be nice to her. Remember, you can catch more flies with honey,” he said.
She loved her husband, but every time he laid that “more flies with honey” line on her, she wanted to say, “Is that how you win people over, Joe? With honey?”