Depth (21 page)

“I can . . .” he said slowly. “But are you sure you want to know? I never had real parents, exactly, but it seems like a weird thing to go looking into. What if I find something—I wouldn’t say bad, but . . . something you wouldn’t want to know?”

“You won’t,” Simone said. “You’ll get some files and some information, but you won’t know what it means. I’ll know.”

“So?”

“So, you can’t hold anything back, and anything you do tell me—I won’t blame you. That’s what you’re looking for, right?”

“And I don’t want you to be . . . hurt, I guess.”

“I’ll be fine, Danny.”

“You want me to do it right now?”

“No,” Simone said, walking back over to the sofa. “We can do it in the morning. And then I’ll tell you all about the case . . . and then maybe I’ll throw myself in the ocean.” She smiled without meaning to.

“It worries me when people say things like that and smile.” Danny stood, and Simone lay down on the sofa, pulling the blanket over her.

“Thanks, Danny.”

“Anytime, boss.” He shut the light and padded quietly to his bedroom. Simone closed her eyes. Outside, she could hear the ocean washing softly against the building. It was so dark in this room—nothing but waves and black.

THIRTEEN

A HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLE
WOKE
her up, and, for a moment, Simone forgot where she was. But then it all came back at her like the vibrant slashes on Linnea’s arms, and she lifted herself up on the sofa so she was sitting. Danny was in the kitchen, and the whistling was from a tea kettle.

“You have coffee, too, right?” Simone said.

“I do, but only decaf,” Danny said. Simone frowned. “I have the Internet in my head. It’s hard enough getting to sleep as is.”

Simone groaned and put her head in her hands. Her hair streamed over her face, bright red in the morning light.

“There’s a coffee boat that docks right down the bridge in the mornings. If you need it, go get yourself a cup.”

“I will in a minute. Can I shower first?”

“Sure—right there.” Danny pointed at the bathroom and poured himself some tea. Simone showered quickly, splashing the water over her face until she felt awake. When she got back out, Danny was sitting on the sofa, drinking his tea and staring ahead vacantly.

Simone sat down next to him, toweling her hair. He glanced over at her, anxiously, then went back to staring ahead.

“What’d you find out?”

“I . . . I looked into your dad like you asked. It was just hacking NYPD files. You probably could have done it yourself . . .”

“Probably,” Simone admitted. “But I don’t like computers. That’s why I have you.”

“I do so love the way you make me feel like a complete person, after my time being raised as a tool for the government.”

“You’re just angry I didn’t bring you those naked photos of deCostas.”

He looked at her, his eyes focusing on her, his brain going offline. “You’re really not good at apologizing, are you?”

Simone stopped drying her hair and raised her eyebrows. “I was just kidding.”

“I know, but it was a little over the line, considering you’re the only one who knows how not-human I am. But I don’t mind that. I’m just making an observation. Did you apologize to Caroline?”

“I sent her a bunch of straws.”

Danny laughed in a way that seemed a little cruel. “That’s something, anyway.” Simone stared at him in silence, and he looked away for a moment.

“What did you find out about my dad?”

“You sure you want this?”

“Yeah . . . And hey. I am sorry—you know, if I offended you with that crack. You are a person.”

“Your dad and Kluren had an affair.” He said it quickly, like he’d been holding it in.

Simone looked down. “How can you know that from hacking a server?”

“Kluren admitted it.” Simone felt her face go warm. “They had an affair. Your dad broke it off. They figured it out when Kluren asked for a transfer, asked her flat out. They were both reprimanded, and Kluren was demoted. They were going to demote your dad, too, but he went for early retirement instead.”

“And that’s when my mom left, too.” Danny didn’t say anything. Simone felt a chuckle leave her mouth, but the rest of her was cool. “Never make assumptions,” she said quietly to herself.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Simone looked up at Danny and smiled.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, thanks. I’m just going to get that coffee,” Simone said, heading for the door.

“Okay. And sorry about your dad.”

She didn’t turn around as he said it but paused before opening the door. Then she kept walking.

Outside it was bright and clear, the sort of day that makes happy people smile and inhale deeply and unhappy people go back to bed. The light glared off the water, hurting her eyes. She put her hat on and kept her face down, pacing to the end of the bridge, where a small coffee boat run by a man with a large mustache was docked. She got a hot black coffee and sat down on the edge of the bridge, her legs over the edge. There was only a cheap rope railing, barely noticeable, and she stared through it at the ocean, drinking. When the coffee was nearly done, she lit a cigarette and called Caroline at work. She picked up after three rings.

“I don’t know if I want to talk to you,” Caroline said.

“Fair enough. I shouldn’t have, but . . . Did you know my dad had an affair with Kluren?” There was silence.

“That explains a lot,” Caroline said, her voice sounding cautious.

“Yeah.” More silence.

“Look, I have work to do.”

“I’m sorry. I just . . . I saw you in a photo with The Blonde, Marina, and my brain went into work mode. Imagine if I tried to park a boat in the city without a permit.”

“That’s a crap example, Simone. I thought we were friends and then one photo and you think I’m trying to kill you. That’s not friendship. That’s . . . I don’t know.”

“I didn’t want to ask you about it. I didn’t want to put you in a position where you might have to lie to me.” Simone stared at her cigarette, then tapped the ashy end of it into the water.

“This isn’t helping your cause.”

“I just was afraid that if I told you about it, you’d get angry and . . . well, we’d end up where we are.”

More silence. A seagull soared over her, then dove into the ocean like a brick.

“So your plan was a failure,” Caroline said.

“Big time.”

“So you had Danny ask me—”

“No—that was all him,” Simone interrupted. “He found the picture, and I told him to keep his mouth shut. But he’s Danny.”

“Did you think I had anything to do with the case, though? Did you think I’d hired Marina to threaten you?”

“No . . . Can we talk about this in person?”

“Afraid the line is tapped?”

“I’m being closed in on right now. Lot of pressure.”

“I’ll call you back, then. I’ll use the mayor’s fancy encrypted scrambler line. That good enough? Or do you think he’s involved, too?”

“That’s good,” Simone said, and they hung up. The sun beat down on her, making her clothes cling. Her earpiece rang, the little light from under her ear projecting the incoming call from “unknown.”

“Yeah?” she clicked the phone.

“Secure line. I think you were apologizing? Poorly?”

“Okay, I thought maybe you were involved. But I didn’t think you’d sent Marina after me. Marina pointed the gun at me ’cause I was following her. She wasn’t hired to do that. I just didn’t know how you fit in. And I didn’t want to ask you. So I kept investigating. Once I knew how you were involved, I would have told you.” Simone tossed what was left of her cigarette into the ocean. It cartwheeled into the water, one end leaving a trail of sparks like blood splatter.

“Instead of asking.”

“Yeah. That was the dumb part.”

“In case I was involved in something bad.”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t want me to lie to you about it.”

“Yeah.”

Simone could hear Caroline typing something. She took a long sip of the coffee. It tasted bitter and chalky.

“I got your straws,” Caroline said after a moment.

“Did you like them?”

“It’s a lot of straws.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m still pissed.”

“Yeah,” Simone said, closing her eyes. She waited for Caroline to hang up. She didn’t.

“So do you know where my painting is? My parents are asking.”

“
Your
painting?” Simone asked. The sun felt a little brighter on her neck.

“Yeah. We won the auction. Marina said she’d get me the painting as soon as it was recovered, but I guess one of the losers didn’t like being a loser and went after it themselves.”

“You won the auction?” Simone said.

“That’s what Marina said.”

“Sorenson told me he won the painting. In front of Marina. She said he won it.”

“That bitch,” Caroline said.

Simone let the silence hang intentionally this time, and smiled. “I know you’re not my biggest fan right now,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“But maybe you want to tag along when I go visit her?”

“Are you asking me along to watch you interrogate someone I’m angry at in an attempt to repair our friendship?”

“That is exactly what I’m doing.”

“Will you let me hit her?”

“If the opportunity presents itself.”

“Okay. But it’s going to take more than this and some straws.”

“Can I swing by your office? We’ll head over together?”

“Sure. I want to hear all about this case, though. Every tiny detail.”

“I will. I trust you.”

“No you don’t.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder.”

DANNY WAS IN COSTUME
by the time she got back to his place.

“Thanks for letting me crash here,” Simone said.

“Going somewhere?” Danny asked, adjusting his turban.

“I got a lead. Caroline and I are going to check it out.”

“Caroline?”

“Yeah, and if you say the word
trust
I’m going to hit you.” Simone checked her pockets and under the sofa, making sure she had everything. “Caroline is still pissed, but I got my foot in the door, and I’m going to fix this. And solve my case.”

“Busy morning,” Danny said, sounding impressed. “Weren’t you going to tell me what this case is about?”

“Rain check—later, with beer or whatever.” She stood and turned back to look at Danny in his ridiculous pajamas. The feather in his turban bobbed like a buoy. “I promise. Thanks again. I’ll let you know how it turns out.”

“Call me if you need me.” Simone dashed out the door, her coat tight around her, and headed for City Hall.

THE FLOATING PLAZA
AROUND
City Hall was busier during the day: tourists from the mainland shooting photos, people on smoke breaks by the fountain, and a row of black yachts docked across from the plaza, their bows dipping like praying monks, with a line of drivers standing in front of them like guards. She walked past them into the building, flashed her IRID at the guards, and headed up. She wasn’t a familiar enough face that guards and secretaries stopped to chat with her, but she visited often enough that they knew who she was and that she was allowed in the building.

Caroline’s senior secretary glanced up at Simone when she stepped out of the elevator, then back down at her touchdesk, her mouth a thin line of worry at the prospect of an unscheduled appointment. “I don’t have you on the calendar, but I’ll let Ms. Khan know you’re here. She’ll be out soon, I’m sure.” She picked up the phone and told Caroline that Simone was waiting, then nodded and hung up. “She’s just finishing up a conference call with the mainland.” The secretary leaned forward conspiratorially, clearly excited to have someone new to gossip with. “Some big project they want to do, all very secret. Do you have any guesses?” Simone raised her eyebrows, which the secretary took as a cue to continue. “I think maybe they want to start a whale farm out here. Just think how great that would be.” This was more insight into the mind of Caroline’s secretary than Simone wanted. Thankfully, at that moment, the office door sprang open, and Caroline beckoned wordlessly from inside. Simone shrugged at the secretary and followed Caroline into her office, closing the door behind her.

“So, before we head over to the Four Seasons, you’re going to tell me everything,” Caroline said, leaning back on her desk and closing her arms. She was wearing a gray suit with a white collared shirt. Her mood wasn’t as good as Simone had hoped. She had thought—optimistically, apparently—that by telling Caroline about Danny’s gaffe, they’d be on the road to reconciliation. She wasn’t so sure now.

“Okay,” Simone said. “Can I sit?”

Caroline nodded at one of the chairs in front of her desk. “And if you leave anything out or lie, I will know, and that will be it. I am offering you a do-over. I’m letting you talk to me like you should have talked to me from day one.”

“Okay,” Simone said again, sitting gingerly.

“And you should say ‘thank you’ for that.”

“Thanks,” Simone said, somewhat flatly. Caroline raised her eyebrows, then spun around and went to sit behind her desk.

“From the beginning.”

Simone told her everything, from the case Linnea had hired her for, to the first murder, to Linnea’s body showing up in her office. She found it was easy once she got started—easier than her usual routine of glossing over the truths of her work, withholding information. Caroline watched and listened, her feet up on the desk, her face rarely betraying anything besides interest.

“A map.” Caroline said when Simone had finished. She stood and looked out her window. “I thought it was just some art for the foundation. I didn’t know . . . My parents are nuts, you know that, right?” She turned back and looked at Simone, and for a moment, Simone felt hopeful—Caroline was talking to her. Was complaining about her parents, like she used to. But then Caroline seemed to realize this too, and her mouth became a straight line again. She sat back down at her desk, her back straight, her movements all mathematical, hard geometry. “Why stay on the case?” Caroline asked, after a moment. “When Kluren told you to quit and your client disappeared? Why keep digging?”

“Kluren was fitting me for a prison jumpsuit.”

“Bullshit. Kluren may not like you, but she’s a good cop, religiously by the book, and you know it. She wouldn’t have locked you up without cause. Why did you keep digging?”

Simone looked down, and her hat fell off her head onto the floor. She stared at it a minute, her now loose hair partially obscuring her vision.

“You were involved,” she said after a minute.

“I was involved? So what, you wanted to make sure I wasn’t secretly a criminal mastermind?”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” The hat had fallen at an angle, but with the rim up, so she could look into the hat and its black lining, where a few of her hairs had curled like red ink, words in calligraphy so fancy she couldn’t read it. She heard Caroline get up from behind her desk, and looked up at her. Caroline was looking out the window.

“Okay then,” Caroline said. “Let’s go see Marina. You can tell me your theory on the way.”