SoHo Sins by Richard Vine

Author:Richard Vine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

33

The first real payoff from my meetings with Paul came a week later, when I took Melissa to dinner at Balthazar while her mother, back at the studio, finished work for her impending show. The girl changed her outfit three times, settling at last on a simple black shift. She was convinced that we would encounter Christopher Walken at any moment in the pseudo-French bistro, and she wanted to be ready with just the right touch of casual downtown chic.

“How are things with you and Paul Morse these days?” I asked.

We were seated on a banquette that gave Melissa a commanding view of the cavernous room.

“He’s really nutty now. All he can talk about is how he needs to borrow Mandy’s laptop from me. So he can log tapes or something.”

I fought to keep a poker face. “You have Mandy’s laptop? The one she used to keep by her bed?”

“Uh-huh.” Melissa studied the crowd, occasionally glancing up at one of the big acid-aged wall mirrors to continue her hunt for celebrities. “Is that bad? He’s the one who told me to borrow it from her. He’s been bugging me about it for a long time now.”

“Since when?”

“This summer.” She regarded me coolly, vengefully. “While you were off playing in Europe.”

“What did Paul want the laptop for?”

“I don’t know. At first, it was like he just wanted me to have it. For goofing around online together. Chatting at night.”

“Nothing else?”

“Who knows? Jokes, dumb pictures, some mushy stuff.”

With great difficulty, I kept my voice even. “But then he said he wanted to use it too? Maybe he was just looking for an excuse to come over to your house.”

“Oh, yeah. All the time.”

“In Westchester?”

“In Westchester, in SoHo. He even invited me to his loft in Tribeca.”

“Did you go?”

“No, I was too busy thinking about you. About us.”

“I’m finally good for something then.”

“Just barely.”

“What did Paul say about the computer when he told you to borrow it?”

“He asked me to get it for him and keep it in my room. He said to tell Aunt Amanda that I needed it for a field trip from school.”

“When did you pick it up?”

She looked farther away. “The weekend before she was shot, I think.”

“How was Aunt Mandy then?”

“She was fine. Just awfully restless with Daddy gone. She said, ‘Men never stay home very long, Missy. It’s a phobia they all seem to have. You better get used to it.’ ”

“Was she upset?”

“No more than usual. She got upset a lot.”

Imagining life with Philip, I could understand why.

“And Mandy didn’t think it was curious, your borrowing a laptop from her? Don’t you have one of your own?”

“No, just a clunky tabletop thing. Besides, Aunt Amanda was always lending me stuff, giving me gifts. So I wouldn’t feel gypped and hate her.”

“Did her strategy work?”

“Kind of. Now.”

“Now that she’s dead?”

“Yeah. Is that weird?”

“No. The dead are always easier to love than the living.”

Melissa gave me a questioning look.

“Less hassle.”

She shook her head disgustedly.

“Once you had the laptop,” I said, “did you ever invite Paul over?”

“No.

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