Do You Want to Know a Secret? (26 page)
Read Do You Want to Know a Secret? Online
Authors: Mary Jane Clark
Air. Fresh air. That will work. It’s not as if it’s the first time you had one of these things. Rushing to the hospital like a damned fool. That young doctor so smug in his diagnosis. You know it will pass. The tingling sensations of your nervous system run amok.
Breathe, breathe. There, it’s passing. Yes, it’s getting better. The heart is slowing down. Thank God, it’s passing.
A knock at the bathroom door. “Are you all right?”
Yelena couldn’t find her voice. She stared at the door, swallowing hard.
“Yelena. What’s the matter? Open the door.”
She reached for the handle and turned the lock. In a second, he was inside with her. As Pete put his arms around her, he murmured, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me when you were on the phone with Range.” As he kissed her cheek, and then the side of her neck, he kept lying. “Everything’s going to be okay. Don’t worry. Pete’s here, everything’s going to be all right.”
Now, at 4:30 in the afternoon, lying on the couch in her office, Yelena was filled with self-loathing. Why hadn’t she confronted him in the bathroom last night? What came over her, that she would let him guide her back to bed like that, let him have sex with her? Had she no pride or self-respect?
Yelena felt desperate. She had to find out who Pete was talking to last night. Maybe he wasn’t talking about her after all. But what was so important that he had to get up in the middle of the night? She hoped he had been stupid enough to dial direct instead of charging it to his private number. When she got her bill next month, she’d be sure to check for a number dialed that night—the night all the fragile illusions of her desirability were destroyed.
“So there you
have it. The whole sorry tale.”
Dennis crossed his arms in front of him on the kitchen table and laid his head down into them, trying to block out the story he had just told his mother, the only one he could really trust. He was so ashamed!
“Denny, oh Denny,” she was clucking.
He hadn’t wanted to unload his worries, but he needed to vent the desperation he was feeling. So he confessed to her the story of the funds embezzled from New Visions and how Bill Kendall discovered the thievery. Dennis was annoyed when she praised Kendall for making good on the money that was supposed to be in the New Visions treasury and allowing Dennis to pay him back monthly.
“How much did you take?”
“All together? Five hundred thousand dollars.”
“Denny!” She was aghast. “What did you do with all that money?”
He ignored her question. “I’ve been paying the money back, five thousand a month for the last two years. I have no funds for anything else. Do you have any idea what a strain that is?”
Dennis looked around his mother’s modest kitchen and wished he hadn’t asked the last question. Things looked a little strained at her house, too.
“Couldn’t you make more money at work?”
Why had he come here? She didn’t get it. She didn’t understand. As a judge, he was well paid compared to the average Joe, but he wasn’t really making big money by Bergen County standards, and he wasn’t going to be getting any raises.
“No.”
“Couldn’t you have asked Mr. Kendall if he would understand and ease up a bit?”
“I did. I went to him a few months ago and begged him to let me off the hook.”
“And?”
Dennis shook his head. “It was awful. The bastard wouldn’t give an inch. Right in front of his retarded kid, he gave me this pious sermon about stealing from the weak. Tried to make me feel this big.” Dennis pinched together his thumb and index finger.
“But Bill Kendall is dead now,” she said hopefully.
“I know, I know. I thought my problems were over. But he instructed someone else to take over collecting from me. I shouldn’t be surprised, really. He told me that if anything happened to him, there would be a record of the money I still owed. And sure enough, he left one. Now I’m on the hook to some doctor named Leo Karas. He’s blackmailing me, and it’s even worse than with Kendall. He says I have to come up with ten thousand a month. Where am I gonna come up with dough like that? I don’t have that kind of money.”
He didn’t tell his mother about the money still in his safe deposit box. That was earmarked to buy the federal spot. God, if Karas made public what he knew—Judge Quinn would not only become Citizen Quinn, but probably Convict Quinn.
“I do have some money,” he finally admitted, “but even if I pay, it’s never over. With Kendall, at least there was an end in sight, even though it would have taken forever to get there. I’m beside myself. Something’s gotta give. I’ve worked too hard.”
And spent too much, he thought.
“My poor Denny. What are we going to do? If anyone ever found out about this, your reputation would be ruined. The family would be so ashamed! Maybe you should have another cup of tea.”
“
Dr. Karas’s office.”
“Hello. I’m calling from Mr. Hayden’s office at Albert, Hayden and Newsome. We represent the estate of William Kendall. We’re going over Mr. Kendall’s finances and want to make certain that Mr. Kendall’s bill with Dr. Karas is all paid up. Can you help me with that?”
“Certainly. Hold on a moment, please.”
Greedy bastards, those doctors.
The receptionist came back on the line.
“Yes. Mr. Kendall’s bill is entirely paid up.”
“Thank you very much.”
So, Karas wasn’t Bill Kendall’s friend. He was his doctor.
Nate Heller put down the phone.
“Pete Carlson is
trying to trash me. I think he’s the one responsible for the
Mole
story on my breakdown.”
“That’s a pretty strong allegation.”
Eliza stared at the books that lined Dr. Karas’s office wall and went over events in her mind. She knew Pete wanted to bring her down. He’d deliberately asked her a question on air that would embarrass her. He was obviously trying to make himself look good while making her look bad. Eliza was sure Pete was low enough to plant the
Mole
story if he thought it would help his career. She told Dr. Karas her suspicions.
Karas listened. His face showed no reaction but inwardly he seethed. Pete Carlson was despicable! He’d tried to blackmail Bill, saying that he was going to go public with the knowledge that Bill had AIDS if Bill didn’t resign from the
Evening Headlines
anchor post. That had been tearing Bill up in the weeks before he committed suicide. That and the painful end of the love affair with Joy Wingard.
Now, as he viewed Eliza’s strained face, he had little doubt that her interpretation of events was on the money. Carlson would consider her a threat and it wouldn’t be beyond the snake to discredit Eliza and ruin her reputation.
Dr. Karas considered telling Eliza what he knew about Pete Carlson.
If things went any further, he would tell her. But he was still hoping that Eliza could handle this herself and that Pete Carlson would hoist himself by his own petard.
“What do you think? What do you make of what I’m telling you?” she asked urgently.
He had to give her some warning. “Sounds to me like you could be on the right track. Be very careful of Pete Carlson.”