Gold Hill (11 page)

“
Good news,” Tanesha
said.

“
You have enough money to
fulfill your child support for the rest of the year,” Schmidty
said.

“
Bad?” Jeraine
asked.

“
You don’t have much
else,” Schmidty said.

“
Worse?”

“
You owe the IRS a lot of
money,” Schmidty said. “That’s most of the problem. You haven’t
paid taxes in at least five years.”

“
Yes I have,” Jeraine
said. “I’m always proud to pay my taxes. I love my country and I’m
happy to pay my share. I write a check and send it to my
accountant.”

“
Who deposited in an
off-shore account,” Schmidty said.

“
He ripped me
off?”

Schmidty nodded.

“
Can we get it back?”
Jeraine asked.

“
He disappeared around the
time your team from the record company was arrested,” Schmidty
said. “You’re not the only artist in this position. Every single
one of the record company’s artists is in the same position. The
accountant had been talking to the IRS this whole time. He told
them it was you, all of you, who wouldn’t pay. It’ll hit the press
tonight. It’s a big mess.”

“
What do we need to do?”
Tanesha asked. “Jer can’t work next year. What can we
do?”

“
You’ll have to sell your
homes or let the bank take them,” Schmidty said. “You did a number
of things right, Jeraine. You own the apartment in New York, the
house in Aspen, and the condo you’re living in outright. You own a
number of solid stocks and your investment in the LA restaurant is
sound. You’re in better shape than most people we find in this
position.”

Schmidty smiled at the
panicked look on Jeraine’s face. When Jeraine didn’t respond,
Schmidty pressed on.

“
Our tax attorney spoke
with the IRS today and believes they’ve reached an arrangement.
They’ll take the houses as collateral until you sell them. Seth
already said he’ll buy his old apartment back, so that’s one. I bet
your Dad will buy the Aspen house. They use it five or six times a
year and all week when he plays the Jazz Festival. So that’s two.
We’ll arrange for you to stay where you are until your dream house
is ready. Then the IRS will take the condo and you’ll be square
with them.”

“
And the rest of them?”
Jeraine asked. “The beach house
and . . . ”

“
You have so little
invested in them, our suggestion is that you let the bank take
them,” Schmidty said. “We’ve gone through the rest of your assets
and believe we can come up with the rest of your debt. We’ll have
to sell the stocks and your portion of the restaurant.”

“
What debt?” Jeraine
asked.

“
Looks like food, hotels,
bar tabs, clothing, for . . . six, seven people, two
cell phone service contracts . . . ”

“
The record company paid
for that,” Jeraine said.

“
It’s not in your
contract. It was in your contract until . . .
um . . . ,” Schmidty rifled through some
papers. “Two years ago. You signed a new contract for more money.
The record company charges an extra percentage point for those
fees. They gave you the percentage point and you took on the
debt.”

“
You’re saying I’m broke,”
Jeraine said.

Schmidty nodded.

“
You have just enough to
cover your child support contracts through the end of the year. You
still own the rights to most of your songs. You’ll get royalties
off that work,” Schmidty said.

“
Royalties are nothing,”
Jeraine said. “The record company
takes . . . ”

“
Most of it,” Schmidty
said.

“
What do we need to do?”
Tanesha asked.

“
We’re going to have to
negotiate your child support for next year. Why are you paying
three hundred thousand a year?”

“
I thought it was a
percentage thing,” Jeraine said.

“
No,” Schmidty said.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars a month is not child support. It’s an
executive salary.”

“
They’re my kids!” Jeraine
said.

“
You can’t afford it now,”
Schmidty said.

“
But we can pay through
the end of the year?” Tanesha asked.

“
Right,” Schmidty said.
“With your permission, we’ll mediate with the mothers. Do you have
any custody time?”

“
They won’t let me see my
boys,” Jeraine said.

“
Do you want to spend time
with the boys?” Schmidty asked.

“
Yes, absolutely,” Tanesha
said. “Can you work that out?”

Jeraine looked at her and
she smiled at him.

“
We’ll add to the
conversation,” Schmidty said. “See what we come up
with.”

“
How’m I gonna pay to sort
that mess out?” Jeraine asked.

“
I’ll take care of it.
That’s what you pay me for,” Schmidty said. “We run a bill. You pay
a percentage toward the debt off everything you make until it’s
paid off. Easy. Takes a couple of years.”

“
We don’t want to owe
you . . . ” Tanesha said.

“
It’s part of the deal.
Don’t worry,” Schmidty said. “Listen, don’t be discouraged. You’d
be surprised how many artists are in this position when we take
them on. I’ve been an agent full time for three years and I’ve done
it five or six times, at least, so far. My Dad has a whole system
in place – lawyers, accountants, negotiators, stuff like that. I
just make the calls and it all happens.”

“
We appreciate your help,
Jammy,” Tanesha said. “We’d be lost without it.”

“
Of course. The one thing
I didn’t see . . . ” Schmidty rifled through
some papers. “Did you pay for the new house yet?”

Jeraine shook his
head.

“
Who did?” Schmidty
asked.

“
Jake Marlowe.” Jeraine’s
voice was marked with panic. He pressed his hand against his
forehead as if to trying to make his words come out. “I’m I ‘sposed
to pay him when he’s done. How’m I gonna do that, Miss T? How’m I
gonna . . . ”

“
Listen Schmidty, we need
to go,” Tanesha said. “Can you send me everything?”

“
Sorry,” Schmidty said. “I
know it’s rough. But trust me. In a few years, you won’t remember
this ever happened. We’ll talk tomorrow?”

Tanesha nodded and hung up
the video phone connection. Jeraine was rotating his head back and
forth on the table.

“
What is it?” she
asked.

“
I . . . ” Somewhere between mad and sad,
he shook his head and broke down. “Everything . . .
everything’s fallin’ apart. Everything I worked all this time for.
I . . . ”

“
Nothing’s falling apart,”
Tanesha said.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
We have each other,”
Tanesha said. ”For the first time ever, we have each
other.”

“
Gonna be bad,” he shook
his head.

“
Why?”

“
I was gonna be a doctor
with you,” he said. “I was gonna take care of
everything.”

Tanesha watched him
struggle for words. He shook his head.

“
What about your school?”
he asked.

“
My Dad is paying for
school,” Tanesha said. “He agreed to pay for it after I postponed
last year. He was really mad when I didn’t tell him we were out of
money. But I didn’t know he had any money.”

“
Your Dad
has . . . money?”

“
He got a big settlement
from the state,” Tanesha shrugged.

“
You don’ need me?” His
face held a bone crushing pain.

“
I don’t need your money,”
Tanesha said. “I know it’s hard. I know that every plan you made
has now fallen apart. But we’re all right.”

“
What about our house?”
Jeraine asked. “I was gonna buy you your own house
and . . . ”

“
We’ll talk to Jake,”
Tanesha said. “He probably already knew.”

Jeraine repeated the
gesture he’d used before to indicate Jake had psychic
powers.

“
All this stuff – it’s our
past,” Tanesha said. “Let’s sell what we can and get rid of the
rest. We’ll start from scratch.”

“
And the bills?” Jeraine
shook his head.

“
They’ll get paid,”
Tanesha said. “I can still work at Denver Health. We’ll get help
from our families.”

“
No. No. No way,” he said.
“I’d rather jump off.”

He hopped up from his chair
and walked to the three foot high security wall on the edge of the
balcony.

“
Why?” Tanesha
asked.

He looked over the edge at
the ground twenty feet below.

“
Why does it matter so
very much to you?” Tanesha asked. “Why are you like
this?”

“
Like what?”

“
Saying all this crap is
worth more than us, than our life, than your life.”

“
Isn’t it?”

“
No,” Tanesha said. “It’s
just stuff. Maybe you should try living without it for a while.
You’d be surprised at how little of it you really
enjoy.”

He shook his head at
her.

“
How about this? Before
you jump off the building, why don’t we talk to Jake and see what
he can do? We’ll talk to my Dad, your Dad, and our friends to see
if they can help us. I know you don’t like to believe it but we’re
connected to all the people who love us. Once we know who we can
count on, we’ll decide if we want to jump off the
building.”

“
We? Why’d you jump off
the buildin’ with me?”

“
You don’t really get it,”
Tanesha smiled. “I already jumped off the roof.”

He shook his
head.

“
Just think about it.” She
walked to him, took his hand, and led him off the balcony to their
bedroom. She pulled the curtains and undressed him. He stood naked
next to the bed.

“
Why you treating me like
a damn child?”

“
Because your head hurts,”
she said.

“
How do you know my head
hurts?”

“
Because you’re talking
like ignorant Mr. It, not my husband,” Tanesha said. “Now get in
bed and I’ll get your meds.”

When she came out of the
bathroom, he was in lying on his back in the bed.

“
We’ll rest a while and
then go to the house and stop by the party,” Tanesha gave him his
medication and some water. He took the pills while she undressed.
She spooned around him.

“
You jumped off the roof
to be with me,” he said.

“
I did.”

“
Did you land
yet?”

“
Nope, still in flight,”
she said.

“
Then I’ll join you,” he
said. “We’ll jump out of this life and
into . . . ”

He was asleep. Smiling, she
rested her head on his shoulder. When every girl had a dream of
Prince Charming taking her away to a Magic Castle, Tanesha longed
for someone to grow old with. She reached up to kiss his cheek and
held on tight.

Chapter One Hundred and
Ninety-Four
.
 
.
 
.
 
Off

Thursday early morning —
2:15 A.M.

When Jackie cried, Valerie
lifted her from the bed and slipped out of their bedroom. She was
about to sit down on their couch when she remembered that Sandy was
usually up at this time too. She held Jackie close and crept out of
the apartment. She paused in the kitchen to listen. The house was
absolutely still.

“
This is stupid,” she said
in a low voice.

She was turning to go back
to the apartment when Jill came down the stairwell from the
loft.

“
There you are,” Jill
said. “I was just going to look for you.”

“
For me?” Valerie
asked.

Jill smiled. She gave
Valerie a light hug.

“
Sandy and Rachel are
waiting for us,” Jill said.

“
Sandy?” Valerie tried to
appear uninterested.

Jill smiled at Valerie’s
pretense.

“
Come on,” Jill said.
“We’ll help.”

Jill turned away from
Valerie to walk into the living room. Valerie stared in her
direction.

“
Help? What help do I
need?” Valerie asked.

Sandy stood from the living
room couch and smiled at Valerie. The warmth of Sandy’s smile was
enough to draw Valerie into the room. Jill sat in an armchair and
Sandy sat on the couch. A wood fire snapped and flickered in the
fire place. Valerie came to the edge of the furniture
grouping.

“
We thought you might feel
a little lonely,” Sandy said.

“
Lonely?” Valerie blushed.
She kept her voice breezy and added, “How can I be lonely? There’ve
been people around all day
and . . . ”

Sandy smiled at
her.