“ Me too, Mom.”
“ I should never have gotten remarried.”
“ After what you and Dad had, you were bound to be disappointed.”
Scott once told his mother that her marriage was a lot like the Reagans’. Husband and wife adoring each other and basically ignoring their children.
She didn’t deny the charge, saying simply that little tadpoles need to swim on their own, or something to that effect.
She tilted her head toward the ceiling and exhaled a puff of smoke. “So what’s your proof this wasn’t an accident?”
“ Seventeen minutes. The car’s clock stopped at 10:18 P.M. Macklin called 9-1-1 at 10:35. What was he doing for seventeen minutes?”
“ Maybe he was in shock.”
“ Paramedics say he was fine.” Scott smiled, letting her know he’d covered that base, just like good old Dad would have done. “Say, have you eaten? Kristin’s stopping by with cheeseburgers.”
“ Cheeseburgers?” Making the word sound like “herpes sores.”
“ And fries.”
“ Kristin never did learn to cook, did she?”
“ Don’t start, Mom.”
“ I’m amazed she’s kept her figure. Must have been all that exotic dancing.”
“ Mom, she was a Laker Girl.”
“ So she was. A regular Isadora Duncan.”
“ If you want a burger, tell me now, and I’ll catch Kristin at the In ‘n Out.”
“ I’d rather eat glass.” She tapped cigarette ash into an empty coffee cup. “What makes you think Macklin didn’t dive into the water and pound on the car windows for seventeen minutes?”
“ He never claimed he did. Not a word to the cops at the scene or in the hospital. What does that tell you?”
“ His silence is inadmissible.”
“ I’m just saying, would an innocent man keep quiet?”
“ Maybe. If he had to think things through.”
“ Why? To plan his lies for trial?”
“ To tell a painful truth that would nonetheless prove his innocence.”
“ What are you talking about?”
“ The holes in your case.”
“ Hey, Mom. It’s one thing to play devil’s advocate, but I’ve been over this a hundred times. There are no holes.”
“ Do you remember the night of the crash?”
“ Hard to forget. The sheriff called me at home. I was at the scene in fifteen minutes.”
His mother exhaled a perfect smoke ring. She’d learned the trick from his father. “Did the lovely Kristin go with you?”
He thought a second. “No. She wasn’t home.”
“ Ten-thirty at night. Where was she, donating blood at the Red Cross?”
“ It was a Thursday. Girls’ night out. Racquetball.”
“ Was she there when you got back?”
“ Of course. I didn’t get home until nearly dawn. Kristin was asleep.”
“ How was she in the morning?”
“ I don’t understand the question, Counselor.”
“ Yes, you do. I always told your father you were brighter than you appear.”
“ Gee, thanks Mom.”
“ Was Kristin stiff or sore? Was she visibly injured in any way?”
“ What’s that got to do with-”
“ The witness shall answer the question.”
Fine, he’d play along. “I wouldn’t call it an injury. She had a bruised cheekbone from getting hit with a racquetball.”
“ Easily covered, I suppose, by all that Estee Lauder foundation she trowels on.”
The intercom rasped with a woman’s voice. “Honey, can you buzz me in?”
“ Only if you’re bringing food.” Scott hit a button and heard the lock double-click open.
“ We haven’t much time,” his mother said. “Don’t make me go through this when you already know the answer.”
“ Mom, I swear I don’t even know the question.”
“ You’re in denial, Scottie.”
“ Of what?”
“ Let’s say that Mrs. Macklin was supposed to be traveling that fateful evening. But a marine layer rolled in, and the Lear couldn’t get out of the municipal airport.”
“ Okay, she’s fogged in.”
His mother laughed, the sound of church bells pealing. “Oh my, yes. Was she ever fogged in. Anyway, she comes home and finds her husband in bed with a young woman. The woman was astride the miscreant in what I believe they call the cowgirl position, and sure as shooting, her whoops and hollers would have been appropriate for a rodeo.”
Scott heard the door to the anteroom open. “Honey,” Kristin called out. “I’ll be there in a sec after I get some Cokes from the fridge.”
“ Take your time.” He turned to his mother. “Your story doesn’t make sense. If Mrs. Macklin catches her husband in flagrante delicto, no way she’s going to sit down and have a drink with him.”
“ She doesn’t.”
“ So what’s with his fingerprints on the glass?”
“ I assume she put Seconal in her whiskey, downed it, then dropped the glass. Her husband simply picked up the glass, perhaps to sniff it, or maybe he’s a neat freak.”
They could hear Kristin in the next room, the sound of ice cubes rattling out of a tray.
“ You’re saying she committed suicide,” Scott said.
“ Tried to. OD’ed into a semi-conscious state.”
“ So what’s she doing in the car with her husband?”
“ What’s down Santa Ynez Road? Three miles past the site of the accident.”
He considered the question. “The Cottage Hospital.”
“ Exactly. If I were defending the case, I’d say Dr. Macklin felt enormous guilt over causing his wife’s suicide attempt. He picked her up, carried her to his car, her blouse catching on that damn thorny bush. He’s driving to the hospital at 70 miles an hour when he lost control on a curve and plunged into the canal.”
“ So why didn’t he pull her out of the water?”
“ Because he only had time to rescue one person, and no matter how heavy his guilt, he was in love with someone else. Stated another way, his wife was second on his triage list.”
“ Wrong. There was no else in the car.”
“ You mean there was no one else there when paramedics arrived. Dr. Macklin didn’t call 9-1-1 until his paramour — a lovely term, is it not? — left the scene. There’s your seventeen minutes.”
“ So who’d he rescue? Who’s this paramour?”
“ How about a woman who hit her cheekbone on the dashboard when the car went into the water?”
He shook his head and his shoulders sagged. Of course, he knew. He just couldn’t accept it. Not that or the knowledge of his own cowardice. He’d never challenged Kristin, and he’d never confronted his own unethical conduct. He wanted to punish Macklin. Not for homicide, because the man wasn’t a killer. No, he wanted to punish Macklin for cuckolding him.
“ So what do I do now?” he said.
“ Scott, who are you talking to?” With a dancer’s graceful gait, Kristin waltzed into the conference room in black yoga pants and a florescent orange sleeveless sports top. She carried a tray of food and drinks.
“ Tell me!” he yelled.
“ Tell you what?” Kristin asked. “What are you upset about?”
“ Mom, what do I do?”
“ Oh Christ.” Kristin dropped the tray on the table, spilling a soda. “Not this again.”
“ Mom!”
He could still see Gayle Gardner Macklin, but her image was fading.
“ Mom, don’t leave me. Please!”
Trembling, Kristin said, “Scott, you know your mother drowned in that car.”
“ No! She’s here now.”
“ Honey, you spoke at her funeral and bawled your eyes out.”
Scott propped one hand on the conference table and struggled to his feet. He brushed past his wife without even seeing her.
“ The judge should never have allowed you to handle the case,” Kristin said. “I knew something weird would happen.”
His legs felt rubbery as he staggered out, leaving behind his trial bag, the pleadings, the exhibits. His wife.
“ Scott, where are you going?”
She sniffed the air. “Did you start smoking again?”
No answer. He was gone.
A moment later, Kristin dropped into a chair. She examined a coffee cup on the table. Inside, a half-smoked cigarette. The tip still glowing.