CHAPTER 13

THE WORRY LINES ON BOTH THEIR FACES TOLD me they were terrified. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

Steve seemed to have aged ten years in the past five minutes. “Want to finish dinner?” He tried a small smile. “I promise I won’t make you eat your vegetables.”

It was a lame attempt at levity, but I think we all needed some sort of relief. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m really not all that hungry. I’m sorry about wasting such a nice steak. Can I take it home?”

My request cheered them up. Professional chefs hate to ruin meals. Asking for the remaining steak told them I liked the dish, and that I trusted them.

“Of course!” Suzie said. “As soon as I pour you something to drink, I’ll get the steak wrapped up for you.”

The iced tea was sweet and I let it pool in my mouth to help rid myself of the persimmon aftertaste. Within minutes, the dining room table was clear. Suzie put down a fresh tablecloth and we all leaned forward over our glasses of iced tea to talk. At the center of the table was the DVD. What I wanted most of all were answers. The DVD might hold some. But I had a feeling that Suzie and Steve held more.

“Tell me why you think the NSA will be ‘tailing’ you.”

They exchanged a look.

“Come on!” I said. “Just tell me. Spit it out.”

Suzie fingered her neckline. “Are you still dating Tom?”

The question startled me into silence. “Uh…”

“Because, first, you have to promise you won’t tell him.”

Alarm bells rang in my head. And they weren’t from eating unripe fruit. “I can’t promise that.”

They exchanged another look. “They probably already know anyway,” Suzie said.

“But what if they don’t? What if the files are lost right now? Or maybe they put all of Minkus’s stuff in limbo. Then we’ll just be opening up a can of worms.”

Their argument zinged my curiosity into high gear.

Speaking very slowly, I asked them again, “Tell me what’s going on.” I stared at Steve-a warning not to beat around the bush any longer. “If you mistook chopped raw persimmon for garlic, there’s got to be something weighing on your mind.”

“A long time ago,” he began, blinking sandbaggy eyes, “back in college, in fact, Carl and I were friends. Room-mates freshman and sophomore year. He was a political science major. I was… well”-Steve gave a wry grin-“I was undecided for a long time.”

I’d had no idea that Minkus and Steve had ever known one another. “Why didn’t you say anything while we were preparing dinner Sunday?” I asked. “You obviously had a copy of our guest list. You should have mentioned something.”

“Well…” Steve dragged the word out. “He and I didn’t exactly part on the best terms.”

I chanced a look at Suzie. From the encouraging expression she was plastering on her husband, I knew she’d heard this story before.

“Go on,” I said.

“There was this girl…”

Uh-oh,I thought. Isn’t there always? “And you both fell for her?”

Steve shook his head. “I wish it were something like that. No.”

I waited.

“She was a nice girl. Mary. She was on full scholarship and she worked really hard to keep at the top of her class. Going to college meant everything to her. She lived on the floor above us.”

I took a look at Suzie. She was squinting, like she knew this would be hard to hear.

Steve took a deep breath. “Mary was actively involved in student government, and was president of the honors fraternity.”

“She sounds like a real go-getter.”

Steve’s mouth twisted. “She was my good friend.”

“Was?”

“More iced tea?” Suzie asked.

At first I thought it was an odd time to interrupt, but when I noticed Steve having a hard time maintaining composure, I took a big drink and said, “Thanks, that would be great.”

When we were all settled again, Steve squared his shoulders. “By the time we were juniors, Mary had become a powerhouse on campus. She was destined to do great things-we all knew it. And we all supported her. She was one of those people who had a thousand things on her plate, but who always could make time for you, if you needed a hand, or help with studying, or advice-whatever. Mary made you feel like you were the most important person in her life at that moment. We all adored her.”

I was starting to have a queasy feeling. “And Carl Minkus?”

Steve spat an expletive. “Carl was a drunken idiot. He and I wasted a lot of our freshman year. By sophomore year, I got tired of the constant partying. It was time, you know?” He looked up at me.

I nodded.

“Carl’s father had been the president of Zeta Eta Theta-the same fraternity Mary was now president of. And Carl was jealous. He was under pressure to bring his grades up.” Steve gave an unhappy laugh. “There was no way he could even qualify for membership, let alone be an officer, but that didn’t stop him.”

This story seemed like something that couldn’t have anything to do with dinner last Sunday, but I let him continue.

“The elder Minkus pulled some strings and-what do you know?-Carl was initiated into Zeta Eta Theta. He called me to brag. Like this was some kind of real achievement.” Steve made a face. “Mary’s hands were tied.”

“He and Mary didn’t get along?”

“Not at all. She was upset about having to initiate Carl. She fought it, hard, because she believed in preserving the integrity of the organization. But once he was a member, she didn’t make waves. She was like that. She fought as hard as she could for what she believed in, but when the battle was over, she gave in graciously.”

Now Steve was squinting. He cleared his throat. “That wasn’t good enough for Carl. He wanted to be president, just like his old man. He had a lot of money, but Mary had brains and guts. She was the epitome of grace under pressure. He made her life difficult but she outclassed him in every way. And then he snapped.”

“Over a fraternity presidency?”

Steve rolled his glass back and forth between his hands. “You have to understand. At the time, this was a very big deal. Every Zeta president since the chapter’s inception had gone directly from college into a solid, lucrative position, thanks to elder ‘brothers’ in the business world. Mary had a spectacular future in front of her.”

“But?”

“Carl kept me updated. With the benefit of hindsight, I think he was doling out just enough information to keep me off track. He told me he had given up his craving for the Zeta presidency and that he had offered Mary an olive branch. He said he would stop badgering her if she’d meet him for coffee to talk about it. She agreed.”

I waited.

“That was the night she disappeared.”

I sucked in a breath so hard and so fast that it made me cough. “What?”

“We never saw her again.”

“But…”

He held up a hand. “Carl said he waited for her for hours at a coffee shop. Lots of people there-lots of witnesses. The barista commented that he was surprised Carl didn’t float out of there after all the coffee he drank that night.”

I shook my head. This wasn’t making sense. “You’re trying to tell me-”

“I believe Carl had something to do with Mary’s sudden disappearance.”

“Are you saying she’s dead?”

He closed his eyes for a long moment. “After a few days we heard from her. She left. Went back home. Said she was giving up school for personal reasons-and not to contact her again. But you had to have known Mary to realize this was the last thing she would do. Attending the university was everything to her. She would never have gone without a fight. Something happened that night. I know it. But knowing something and proving it are two different things.” Steve’s eyes welled up. “Kids began calling her a dropout.” Another expletive, this one under his breath. “She was carrying a four-point-oh on a full-ride scholarship. No way would she just drop out.

“All sorts of rumors started-ranging from her being gang-raped to having had a nervous breakdown.” He blinked, and swallowed. “I never did find out the real story, but I knew Carl was behind it.”

Aware that anecdotal stories didn’t prove a person’s guilt or innocence, I was hard-pressed to offer any consolation. But if Steve’s suspicions were right, it certainly made it seem as though Carl Minkus was a poor choice for the NSA. “I don’t know what to say.” I also didn’t know exactly how this impacted Minkus’s death investigation.

“Here’s the thing, Ollie,” Steve said, his voice shaking. “I pushed it. I went after him. I told him I knew he’d done something to Mary.”

“What did he say?”

“What do you think? He told me I was nuts because I had a crush on her and that I couldn’t face the fact that the campus sweetheart had up and left us. He told me that she told him she’d met a guy the week before and she was considering running off with him. A biker. Yeah.” Another bitter laugh. “But the school believed him.”

“What about her family?”

“I called them, once, about a month later.” Steve swallowed and I could tell it hurt. “Mary killed herself. This bright, wonderful girl had taken her own life. I couldn’t believe it. Her father was angry I’d called and told me never to bother them again.” He shrugged. “What could I do? I was a kid. There was no way to make the administration listen to me. And even if they didn’t believe Mary dropped out on her own, they weren’t going to give me the answers I wanted. It was all Carl’s fault. One time, I grabbed him and told him I swore I’d see this through until we discovered the truth.”

“What happened?”

Steve’s eyes were bright red. “Nothing. But Carl-maybe he wasn’t school smart-was street smart. He didn’t give up anything that might point to him. And after a while I just couldn’t do it anymore. I gave up. Eventually I discovered the culinary arts. I started working hard in my major. I didn’t forget about Mary, but I just stopped pushing.”

I patted his hand.

“You don’t understand,” he said, jerking away. “I got a great job out of college.” He stared at me and spoke slowly. “A great job.”

“That’s good.”

“No,” he said. “I got it through Carl’s father. He made sure I landed well. He made sure I had everything I needed.” He shook his head. “He bought me off.”

Suzie looked ready to cry. “I’m sure it was just coincidence.”

Steve slammed the table with a fist. “No. It wasn’t.”

I sat back, unsure where to go from here.

Steve wiped his eyes. “I stopped looking for answers. I failed.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“There’s more,” Suzie said.

I glanced at her, then back to Steve, who picked it up again. “Everything went quiet for a long time. We all worked hard, all graduated. Carl moved into bigger and bigger positions of power, and eventually got to his position at the NSA.” Steve wagged a finger at me. “I always made it a point to keep up with his career. Just in case. I figured Carl forgot about me. Well, at least until Suzie and I got the TV show. Then, all of a sudden, we’re stars.” He smiled. “Small stars, but, you know, kinda well known.”

I nodded.

“Out of the blue, Carl calls me. About a month ago, I think. Wasn’t it?”

Suzie was biting her lip. She nodded.

“He starts out like we’re old friends, but pretty soon he’s gloating, saying that he remembers what his dad did for me all those years back. He tells me that he never had anything to do with Mary leaving school or killing herself, but he always resented the fact that I believed he did. And that’s when he tells me that our positions had been reversed.”

“What?” I was totally confused.

“He says that now that he’s in charge of NSA investigations, he’s going to take a look into my file and see if I’ve ever been involved in any terrorist activities.”

My mouth opened. I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Suzie spoke up. “We didn’t know who the guests were going to be before we scheduled the White House shoot. If we had, I can tell you that we wouldn’t have picked that particular day.”

“I’ve never been involved in any terrorist activities,” Steve said. “But my father was a salesman who traveled extensively to the Middle East. Minkus found that interesting. He said he was going to see me hang.”

“Literally,” Suzie said.

Steve fixed her a look. “Even if he didn’t find me guilty of terrorism-and I don’t know how he could-he could kill my career.” To me, he added, “I think that’s what his ultimate goal was. To see me ruined.”

“That’s a terrible story,” I said.

“And that’s why we think the NSA might be looking at us now that Minkus is dead,” Suzie said. “We had a motive.”

Steve stared at the table. “I say: Good riddance to bad rubbish.”

“Wow.” I knew it would be a while before I could take it all in.

“Don’t tell your boyfriend, okay?” Steve asked. “I mean, just in case Minkus was bluffing. Maybe he wasn’t looking at me at all. Maybe he was just playing mind games. He was always good at that.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Please, just keep this to yourself,” Suzie said. “For now. The news says they’re working really hard on determining the cause of death. As soon as they figure out it wasn’t something he ate”-she tapped on the DVD case-“and they see we didn’t do anything to poison his meal, we should be okay. I don’t think it would be in anyone’s best interests to bring up all this old history.”

I licked my lips, realizing that the feeling had come back to my tongue.

Now only my brain felt numb.