I moved back into the living room and sat down on the couch. I entertained myself by looking at the family photographs in silver frames that had been placed on the nearest end table. Children or grandchildren. There was no way to sort out which personal touches belonged to the condominium’s owner and which had been brought in by Teddy and Kim to help them feel at home.
There was also a small stack of promotional brochures for what must have been the infamous condominium where Stella’s husband died. I was curious to see what million-dollar real estate was looking like these days. I picked up the brochure on top; a four-fold color spread showed the living room with its high coffered ceiling, wood-burning fireplace, and abundance of light, the gleaming kitchen, the marble-lined bathrooms, the bedrooms, the gracious outdoor patio with its view to the ocean in the distance. The accompanying sales pitch was one I could have written myself. The word “stunning” loomed large.
A glossy library book about Tiffany jewelry rested open on the arm of the couch. The cover featured a necklace that looked like a baby’s bib, dense with diamonds, emeralds, and gold filigree. I didn’t realize Teddy had returned until she said, “I know what you’re thinking, that we’ve hardly fallen on hard times living in a place like this.” She carried a bottle of white wine and two wineglasses that she placed on the coffee table.
“Crossed my mind.”
“Kim and I are housesitting for a friend. We’re like gypsies. We pick up every few weeks and move to another encampment.”
“But you don’t pay rent.”
“True enough.” Her gaze drifted to the book about Tiffany jewelry. In one easy motion, she closed the book and set it on the floor by her chair.
I kept my expression disinterested. “How long have you been here?”
“A month. We have another month to go; maybe more if she extends her stay abroad.”
Even in the harsh sunlight streaming through the windows, I was struck anew by her facial structure, with its angular planes, the prominent nose with the bump at the bridge. And all that excessive hair. It was a rich mahogany shade with glints of red, thick and layered, with some of the strands forming ringlets. If she was wearing makeup, it wasn’t evident. I watched her use an auger-style opener to remove the cork. It was the same wine we’d enjoyed that night at the Clipper estate.
“Still drinking good wine, I see.”
“Oh, please. I don’t care how low you sink, there’s no excuse for bad Chardonnay.” She poured wine in my glass and then filled her own. She lifted hers in a gesture of goodwill and took her first sip, then eased into the adjacent chair. “Kim tells me you spoke to Ari.”
“Yesterday afternoon. The place is in a state of upheaval.”
“Stella’s doing, I’m sure.”
We were skipping from topic to topic, but it kept the tone light. I said, “I expected Kim to be here.”
“It would only complicate the conversation. She’s off at the gym lifting weights. We have a facility here in the complex, so it doesn’t cost us anything. That’s the sort of thing we have to worry about these days.”
“I can only imagine the shock.”
She had the good grace to laugh, but I knew I shouldn’t push her too far. She was living in “reduced circumstances,” and while her lifestyle was luxurious compared to mine, I felt some sympathy for her lot.
“You and Kim have been friends for a long time?”
“More so now than we were in the ‘olden’ days. Back then we traveled in the same social circles, but we didn’t know each other well. In a curious way, we had nothing in common. Then Bret got caught embezzling from the investment firm he worked for and he went to prison. Now we’re migratory birds.”
“Must have been difficult for her.”
“Very. They’d always lived well, and Kim assumed his outrageous salary was legitimate. Part of the fault was hers, of course, because she was strictly hands-off when it came to their personal finances. She didn’t want to be bothered, and Bret was happy to let her think it was all too complicated to explain. She was lucky to find a job. She’s like me in that she has no marketable skills.”
“She can answer the phone graciously. That’s no small accomplishment.”
“She has good breeding to recommend her, which is more than I can say for myself. Also to her credit is the fact that she knows so many of the company’s clients, which is both the good news and the bad. She says she feels like she’s being pilloried in the public square, where her shame is on permanent display. No one says a word, but she knows they’re all thinking the same thing: that she must have known he was stealing. That she’d enjoyed their ill-gotten gains and now she could take her licks the same way he did. She’s a criminal by default.”