at him. On TV, Jodi Taylor was strong and resilient and exuded confidence. But that was TV, and this was real. I guess they don't put you on the cover of People for being real.
They came into the motor home without knocking, Beldon Stone first and his two assistants in trail. Beldon Stone had a great hawk nose and tiny eyes, and he looked like he wanted to swoop down and eat someone. Sid plastered on a big smile and said, "Hey! Bel!" and offered his hand, but Beldon Stone ignored him. Stone looked first at me, then at Jodi, and then at Sid, and you could tell that he read it before the first word was spoken. "Well," he said, "it seems someone else is in on our little secret."
Jodi said, "I'm sorry, Bel." A voice like a child.
I said, "Okay, Markowitz, the gang's all here. Knock off the bullshit and tell me what's going on."
Beldon Stone said, "Yes, Sid." His voice was resonant and smooth and filled with authority. "Tell us how this gentleman conies to know our secret." He said it to Sid Markowitz but his eyes never left me, as if I were a potential adversary and might attack him.
Sid identified me as a private investigator who had been recommended by Peter Alan Nelsen. He used Peter's name at least six times in the telling, as if that might take the edge off. He said, "Jodi couldn't just let it hang there, Bel. She had to know if all this stuff Rebenack was saying was true. You can understand that, can't you? She hired this guy to find out if it was true.
Everything was Jodi, even the business about not telling me the whole story. Putting the blame on her. When Markowitz was finished weaseling to Beldon Stone, he looked back at me. "Rebenack was threatening to sell the stuff to the tabloids. Hey, all the guy wanted was thirty grand and thirty grand's nothing to keep the lid on something like this, so we paid him. Everybody agreed." He glanced at Beldon Stone like he expected Stone to chime in with how much he agreed, but Stone was silent. Markowitz said, "I don't see what you're so pissed about, Cole. We were paying this guy, and we wanted to find out if what he had was really real." Really real. "We didn't wanna stir the water, so we didn't hip you to the whole deal. So sue us. We wanted you to go into this with a fresh eye. That makes sense, doesn't it? We wanted to see if you'd get to the same place as the goof with the hair. If he had bupkis, you didn't need to know. If it was emmis, then you'd confirm it and we'd know it's real.
Okay, it's real. We know what we wanted to know and you got paid. Whattaya makin' a case for?"
"The goof with the hair was found murdered two days ago. He was probably murdered because I was in something that I should"ve known about but didn't."
Sid Markowitz rolled his eyes. "Oh, a fuckin' blackmailer was murdered! What a loss!"
I grabbed Sid Markowitz and pushed him against the table and the woman in the short skirt made ee-ee noises and the younger guy tripped over himself trying to get out of the way. Markowitz tried to back away from me, but there was no place to go. "Lemme go! Lemme go! There's witnesses here!"
Everything seemed to slow and grow silent. My eyes felt large and dry, and my shoulders felt swollen. The woman in the short skirt kept making the noises, and I pressed Markowitz back into the table, but once he was there I didn't know what to do with him, as if he was suddenly beside the point. Jodi Taylor said, "I'm sorry we lied to you. I didn't know what else to do and I'm sorry."
I let go of Markowitz and stepped away from him. I was breathing hard and blinking, but my eyes still felt dry. I said, "Maybe it hasn't dawned, genius, but when an extortionist turns up dead, they always suspect the extortee."
Markowitz said, "Hey, we didn't even know!"
Beldon Stone had not moved. I guess people at his level grab each other all the time. He said, "The gentleman who was extorting Ms. Taylor is dead?"
"Yes."
"And his documents?"
"I have them."
He nodded. "And what do you want?"
"I don't know." My head began to ache, and that made me even more