“A brief one.”
“What did she say to you?”
“She said she was waiting for Thomas to get home. He had gone out with Benji and the others.”
Ah, yes. Nick recalls that Abby was annoyed that Thomas had decided to go out. “Anything else?”
“Not really, no.”
“Did you see anyone else?”
“No.”
“And after you got your champagne, you returned to your bedroom to sleep?” Nick asks.
“That’s right.”
Nick pauses to scribble down notes. She lied to him ten minutes ago; there’s no reason to believe another word she says.
“Let me switch gears here. We found a two-person kayak overturned on your beach. Do you own such a kayak?”
“It belongs to my husband,” Greer says. She cocks her head. “It was left overturned on the beach, you say?”
“Yes. Does that seem odd to you?”
She nods slowly. “A bit.”
“And why is that?”
“Tag is fanatical about his kayaks,” Greer says. “He doesn’t leave them just lying about.”
“Is it possible that someone else used the kayak?”
“No, he keeps them locked up. If the two-person kayak was left out then he must have taken someone out on the water. If he were going out alone, he would have taken his one-person kayak.”
“Any idea who he might have taken out?”
Greer shakes her head. She looks far less confident than she did a moment ago, and Nick feels her losing her grip on the explanation she had so neatly written in her mind.
“I suppose you’ll have to ask my husband that,” she says.
Wednesday, May 30–Tuesday, June 19, 2018
TAG
He takes Merritt’s number but makes no plans to see her again. It’s a one-and-done, a weekend fling, which is how he likes to keep things with other women. There have been half a dozen or so over the course of his marriage, one-or two-night stands, women he never sees or thinks of again. His behavior has nothing to do with how he feels about Greer. Or maybe it does. Maybe it’s an assertion of power, of defiance. Greer entered the marriage with more money and higher social standing. Tag has always felt a touch inferior. The prowling around is how he balances the scales.
When he gets back to New York, two things happen. One is that Sergio Ramone calls. Tag considers letting the call go to voice mail. He fears that Sergio has learned that he took Merritt to the wine dinner and he’s calling to express his disapproval. But then Tag reminds himself that taking Merritt to the dinner was done with Greer’s blessing.
“Hello,” Tag says. “Sergio, how are you?”
It turns out that Sergio is calling for a very different reason. His contact at Skadden, Arps has told Sergio that there’s grumbling within the litigation department about Thomas Winbury. He isn’t pulling his weight, apparently. He takes long lunches and unscheduled vacation days. He often leaves work at five o’clock when other associates stay until nine or ten at night. At his last review, he was given a warning, but he’s shown no improvement. There’s talk of letting him go.
Tag sighs. Thomas has always put in just enough work to get by. Abby’s family is so wealthy that Tag suspects Thomas wants to get fired. He’ll work for Mr. Freeman in the oil business. He’ll move to Texas, which will break Greer’s heart.
“Thanks for the heads-up, Sergio,” Tag says. “I’ll have a talk with him.” He hangs up before Sergio can ask him how the wine dinner was and then he swears at the ceiling.
A few nights later, Thomas and Abby come for dinner at Tag and Greer’s apartment. Greer has made a leg of lamb and the apartment is redolent with the smell of roasting meat, garlic, and rosemary, but as soon as Abby enters the apartment, she covers her mouth with her hand and bolts for the bathroom.
Thomas shakes his head. “I guess she’s gone and ruined the surprise,” he says. “We’re pregnant again.”
Greer reaches out for Thomas, but they all know to limit their reaction to cautious optimism.
Tag shakes Thomas’s hand, then pulls him in for a hug and says, “You’ll make one hell of a father.” No sooner are the words out of his mouth than Tag doubts their veracity. Will Thomas make a hell of a father? He needs to buckle down at work, start setting an example. Tag nearly brings Thomas into his study to tell him as much, but he decides, in the end, to let the occasion be a happy one, or as happy as it can be with a woefully sick Abby. He’ll talk to Thomas another time.
That night, Tag can’t sleep. He slips from bed and goes into his study. His three home studies—the one in New York, the one in London, and the one on Nantucket—are sanctuaries dedicated to Tag’s privacy. No one enters without permission except the cleaning ladies.
Tag takes out his phone and scrolls for Merritt’s number.
She answers on the third ring. “Hey, Tag.”
Her voice brings it all back. There is noise in the background, voices, music—she’s out somewhere. It’s two o’clock in the morning on a Wednesday night. Tag should not be pursuing this.
“Hey yourself,” he says. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
She laughs. “I’m downtown at this speakeasy thing. It looks like a laundromat but there’s a secret door, a code word, and voilà, you enter the underworld. Do you want to come join me? I’ll tell you how to get in.”
