Part 12 (2/2)
No thanks to his wife, Charlene Tall, gaunt, and designer-dressed, she radiated the war and looked like she never unclenched her knobby jaw Behind her back, Bear's staffers called her Cruella DeVille
”Why did those two ever get , backslapping Bear in bed with Charlene, whoselike cellophane stretched over a Tupperware bowl
”Plastics,” Kip said
”Plastic surgery?”
”No, plastic products Charlene is the heiress to her faills”
”Bear married her for her ed ”It's how rich people stay rich”
As far as I could tell, Charlene and Bearas far apart fro to Kip, they didn't share a bedroom even on those rare occasions when they were both in the sa out in the Brenner cottage, I raided Charlene's closet Once I'd gotten to know Charlene, I discovered that her apparent coldness was a cover for a shy, introverted nature At heart she arenerous, and I didn't think she'd object toher clothes in my hour of need
Charlene was heavily into swarays, sli I could find that didn't look as though it had been dyed eek-old nettle leaves: a pale yellow Oscar de la Renta sweater I ditched my Jockeys for a pair of Charlene's underpants and hooked on one of her bras Too small I hauled myself back into Labeck's undershi+rt Why trade comfort for 32AA underwires? I shoehorned ratefully ditched Labeck's clodhoppers, and tugged on a pair of Charlene's LL Bean sneakers The shoes were too long and narrow for unboats
Sprawled atop Charlene's bed, muffin observed the fashi+on parade It'd been hours since he'd tried to bitehim here was actually kind of sweet He hadn't even snickered when he'd seen me naked I flumped down on the bed, and to my surprise muffin crawled over and nuzzled my neck Tentatively I extended a hand and stroked his fuzzy head He thuave a little grunt of pleasure, rolled over and exposed his belly, writhing ecstatically as I rubbed it He wriggled his way ontofest for a while I swear he purred
”This is all the further I'o until we're married,” I told hiet the hint”
We went to the kitchen muffin waited expectantly while I ran tap water into a shallol and set it on the floor for hie of franks that still looked fresh, took one out, and gave it to ulps, licked his chops, and looked athe'd ever had Vanessa probably kept her babies on a diet of wheat gerood for you,” I explained to izzards”
He looked at me Didn't care
”You can have a half,” I said
Whilethe warranite countertops, the polished eucalyptus cabinets Rows of cookbooks le spine spattered with Kool-Aid or globbed with frosting And there, nestled between Julia Child and James Beard, was a shi+ny black screen
It was a wafer-thin stand-alone computer monitor whose hard drive, I discovered, was hidden in the cabinet beneath Its keyboard rolled out on a wooden desktop, and a cute little doctor's office-type stool wheeled out for sitting
Of course the coed and even if it was accessible, it would be swaddled in layers of security
I jiggled the mouse, then jumped as the screen flickered to life It wasn't dead, just dorlected to turn off the computer when the house had been shut down A recipe for avocado soup appeared on the screen Welcome, Jelka! enthused the computer
Who was Jelka?
Jelka, Jelka, Jelkaa hazy irandmotherly woman with a heavy Slavic accent came to me Jelka Braz, that was it! She was the Brenners' Serbian cook, who lavished paprika on every food she served, including French toast and ice creaetting to shut down her co-on security
My fingertips tingled Infore itself Magic box, ic box, tell me what I want to know
Well, what did I want to know? Answers to the questions I should have asked four years ago instead of relying on an overpriced lawyer to doon with my husband in the feeeks before his death, when he was buying Maseratis and luxury suites
Follow theKip's financial records When we'd first beenaccount, but that had ended in a big blohen Kip had overdraice in amy payroll office for an advance on salary From that point on, we'd each kept separate accounts Had that been the beginning of the end, only I'd been too blind to see it at the tiotten hold of Kip's bank records after I'd gone to prison, but there was no way I was ever, ever going back in that house again Her do-it-yourself electrocution kit had blown up, but she ets froiant dental drills, fingernail extractors
It didn't matter anyway; paper state was available online My hands shook as I typed in the nao off and Treasury Depart But all that happened was that Kip's bank snippily inforer available
Okay, fine There's more than one way to ski froo
I went to Kip's online appoint-in and password, ordered the site's sentry, the cyber equivalent of Freda Scherured he would have used some form of his own name
KipVonnerjohn
Access denied
Kvonnerjohn
Fuhgeddaboudit
I thought about what I knew about my late husband Well, he was late; he operated on Kip ti to be fast and easy
KVon, I typed It sounded like a rapper
In like Flynn!
Password, nagged the co-in: Cassius7, the naolden retriever, who'd been seven years old when he died
The calendar opened to a blast froether here: business s, car maintenance dates, client calls, tee times, dentist appointmentsweeks and months flew by as I scrolled In June of the year he'd been killed, P began appearing It didn't require a emore
June 4: River Hills Squash Club 2 pm P
June 10: Lunch with P 12:30, Yacht Club
June 13: Pick P up at 7 for Jersey Boys I scrolled on through the su it was ridiculous to feel hurt that I hadn't rated aresentful nonetheless