A Farewell to Legs: An Aaron Tucker Mystery - By Jeffrey Cohen Page 0,93
to bet that you won’t tell them the whole story, and they won’t print it, so I’m reimbursing you ahead of time. You won’t want to admit your embarrassing role in this, and you won’t want to soil the reputation of good old Steph Jacobs, who’s been on your pedestal since you were sixteen. Here.” She put the money in my inside jacket pocket.
“You think my taking the money proves that I’m as bad as you? That I’d kill an innocent man and live my life with a lizard like Legs Gibson for money?”
She knelt back down next to me, and whispered in my ear. “It’s not just the money,” she said. “I actually love him.” I looked at her, and couldn’t stop myself.
“Why?” I asked, and she shrugged. Then Stephanie stood up and started toward the door. She stopped, turned, and walked to Mahoney, who looked up at her in wonder. Then, Stephanie leaned down and kissed him hard on the lips for a long moment. When the kiss was finished, she turned on her heels and walked briskly out the hotel room door without looking back.
Mahoney and I stared at each other for a while, then he broke into a wide grin.
“See?” he said. “I told you she liked me better.”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
We didn’t bother to scream for the longest time, although Mahoney did make one spirited attempt to wiggle his chair over toward the desk and dial the phone with his tongue. When that didn’t work, we sat and waited. I screamed once, but that was only because I hadn’t gone to the bathroom before they taped us to the chairs. When he found out why I was screaming, Mahoney gave it a try, but neither of our hearts was in it.
Lucky for us, Barry Dutton checks his voice mail on Saturdays, and two Midland Heights cops (with two New Brunswick cops along for the ride) found us in the room about an hour and a half after Stephanie and Legs had left. I told them what had happened, but even Mason Abrams (who also checked his messages, and had called Barry in the interim) couldn’t get the Feds to Newark Airport before whatever flight they had taken was long gone.
The cops cut us loose. I told them about the money in my jacket, that it was a bribe meant to keep us quiet, and they took it for evidence. I made sure it all went into a plastic bag, and was counted before it was marked. I didn’t want anyone to think I’d taken a dime.
It did make me wonder about Gail Rayburn, though. Here, someone had asked me to compromise my values, and offered me a good deal of money to do it. I had given serious thought to keeping my mouth shut about it, and Mahoney would have backed me up.
Ten grand is a lot of money in my neighborhood. But the thought of having ten thousand of Legs Gibson’s dollars paying for my son’s summer camp just didn’t feel right.
We got home about five, and Abby made both Mahoney and me tell the whole story out of the kids’ earshot. This was easy, since Ethan was in his room playing video games and Leah was at Melissa’s house, handing over E-LIZ-abeth, whom she decided scared Warren too much. Warren had, in fact, refused to walk into Leah’s room, causing her much mental anguish. So the lizard went to live across the street, with another of its own kind. Those worms didn’t stand a chance.
“You two really are a pair of detectives,” she said with great sarcasm. “If Ms. Cleavage and her husband hadn’t decided to let you live, I’d be explaining to the kids how their Daddy would not be coming home anymore.” She actually got a little moist in the eye at that suggestion, and she clenched her teeth with anger at our foolhardy actions. Then, being a Jewish woman, she began cooking. She started water boiling for pasta.
“We had a backup plan,” I said. “I was going to be so witty and charming that she’d fall in love with me and ditch Legs.”
“But she liked me better,” boasted Mahoney.
“Nice plan,” said my wife.
“What can I tell you, Abby?” I said. “I relied on my feelings. I never really thought that we were in danger. They were much more intent on showing us how superior they were than in killing us. And they’ve gotten everything they wanted.”