04 The Kaisho by Eric van Lustbader

Author:Eric van Lustbader
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Thriller, General Fiction
ISBN: 9780007330980
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1992-12-31T17:00:00+00:00

IN THE ENSUING SILENCE the crash of a dish slipping out of a waiter's hand was stunning, but Margarite's eyes never left Croaker's. There was a defiance there that made him believe this was the first time she was confessing this horror.

'He beat me and what's worse I let him do it. I didn't complain, didn't go to Dom, didn't take my daughter Francine and leave. Instead, I stayed and submitted.'

'Why?'

She smiled, but the brittleness had returned, and he had the impression that if he reached out and shook her now she would shatter into 10,000 pieces.

'That's the billion-dollar question, isn't it?' She dabbed at her lips again, but there was no longer anything to wipe away. 'Maybe I felt I deserved it, marrying against my brother's wishes.'

'Dominic was against the marriage?'

'Very much so.'

'Why?'

Margarite shrugged. 'Maybe he knew Tony better than I did. But I was determined then. I thought I knew it all. Or maybe I was hell-bent to defy Dom. Who knows anymore?'

'Yet Dominic named Tony his successor.'

Margarite watched him with her wide-apart eyes. 'I'm going to have to start calling you Detective again.'

He smiled at her. 'It's what I do, ma'am. Detecting's in my blood.'

That made her laugh. The owner came with more garlic bread, but she declined, and he cleared the plates away. She ordered espresso for them both.

Because he didn't think she was going to answer his previous question. Croaker said, 'If I might ask, what's the current state of your marriage?'

She was thoughtful for some time. Her eyes were leveled at him, and he could see now that they were the color of amber. 'We co-exist. But I think that's the state many married couples find themselves in.'

The noise level in the diner rose as a bunch of high-school kids slouched in, gangly-legged, jeans-clad, Walkman-armored. The espresso came, along with cordial glasses of Sambuca, compliments of the owner. Margarite turned and caught his attention right away. She blew him a kiss, which caused the widest smile Croaker had ever seen.

She turned back to him, said abruptly, 'I think Dom had a love-hate relationship with Tony. He could admire the legitimate practice he had built up all on his own while still recognizing all of Tony's faults.'

'Which are?'

She toyed with her espresso cup. 'He's impulsive, often too aggressive; he has an inflated sense of his own importance.'

'And what about your brother? What were his faults?'

'The Feds I've talked with think they know more about him than I do,' she said.

'Lucky for me I don't come with that bias.'

Those amber eyes regarded him in that very intimate way. 'You're the first man I've met since Dom who thought my opinions were worth a damn.' She plucked a coffee bean out of her Sambuca, placed it into her mouth, bit down on it without wincing. 'Dom was a devil and an angel, all in the same breath.' she said. 'You know it never made a difference to either of us that he was my stepmother's child. When my father officially adopted him, that was it.

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