Infernal Affairs by Jane Heller

Author:Jane Heller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682303559
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2016-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The phone rang at seven-thirty on Wednesday morning. It was Ben.

“Are you all right, Barbara?” he asked, his tone concerned, brotherly.

All right? I thought ruefully as I wound a strand of my hair—my long, straight, blond hair—around my finger. There was nothing all right about me. I was all wrong—from my bogus Barbie doll looks to my supposed “hot streak” at work. The whole thing was fake. I was fake. A fraud. An impostor. A creation of the devil.

“I’m fine,” I told Ben, wishing I could tell him the truth. “Why?”

“Because I got a call from Jeremy last night. He said you went over to his house and acted like a complete nutcase.”

“That was sweet of him.”

“He said you were going on and on about some real estate deal and when he tried to shut you up, you started making these wild accusations.”

“They weren’t wild, believe me.”

“What do you mean? Did Jeremy try anything?”

“Try anything?”

“Yeah. Did he come on to you?”

“No,” I said.

“That doesn’t sound like Jeremy. I’ve never known him to be alone with a woman and not come on to her.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or insulted.

“Since you know him so well, Benjamin, why don’t you tell me about him,” I said, wanting to be talked out of believing that Jeremy was Satan’s cover in Banyan Beach. Despite David’s confirmation that Jeremy was fronting for the devil and despite the rather incriminating remarks Jeremy himself had made to me, I had my doubts. For starters, there was Jeremy’s oh-so-politically correct stance on the environment. Would the devil, who had probably never met a river he didn’t want to pollute, actually allow his cover to speak out against pollution? Then there were the corrupt, back room deals that Jeremy had insisted went into the development of the River Princess. Would the devil, who was as corrupt as it gets, really let his cover go around town exposing corruption? And what about the business of Jeremy’s donating the money he made from The Fire Ants concerts to the Save the River Initiative? Would the devil, the very antithesis of faith, hope, and charity, permit his cover to behave in such a charitable manner?

“Why ask me about Jeremy?” said Ben. “You’ve known him as long as I have.”

“I know him but I don’t really know him,” I said. “What sort of person is he? Behind the macho image, I mean.”

“He’s the most decent guy there is,” said Ben. “He’s always fighting for the underdog and standing up for what he believes in. His methods may piss people off, but his heart is in the right place. I really admire him.”

“But he acts like such a jerk sometimes,” I pointed out.

“Who doesn’t?” Ben countered. “So what if he isn’t the type of guy that Mom and Dad approved of. He didn’t go to Harvard and he never shed the redneck accent and he doesn’t care if he’s on somebody’s Best Dressed List. He’s just Jeremy. What you see is what you get.

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