Equivocal Death (29 page)

down . . .

4

Engrossed in her thoughts, Kate didn’t notice the man who’d 5

come in behind her. He ordered a coffee and then, cup in hand, 6

headed over to where she was sitting.

7

“D’you mind if I have a seat?”

8

Kate started at the sound of his voice. “Oh! Sure.” She 9

scootched to one side of the lumpy couch to let the stranger sit 10

down.

11

“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. He was tall, with curly dark 12

hair that tumbled over his forehead. He was wearing a black 13

leather jacket and jeans. He seemed slightly familiar, though she 14

wasn’t sure why.

15

“Do I know you from somewhere?” she asked.

16

He studied her face, then shook his head. “I don’t really think 17

so,” he said. Then, with a smile, he turned away.

18

Sipping her coffee, Kate stared outside at the midtown office 19

brigade. On days she was in good spirits, rush hour could seem al-20

most festive. Today it seemed meaningless. She looked at her cof-21

fee mug, at the milky brown liquid inside. She was trying to ignore 22

the man beside her, but she couldn’t seem to blot him out. It was 23

distracting to have someone so close. It wasn’t like there weren’t a 24

bunch of free seats. Would she be rude to get up and move?

25

“Hey, which of these do you like best?” The voice seemed to ex-26

plode in her ear.

27

“Sorry, I scared you again.” His teeth were very white, his eyes a 28

smoky green. He was holding two photographs.

29

It wasn’t like she really had a choice. Kate leaned forward and 30

looked. Both of the 8 x 10 prints showed the same exotic scene. A 31

massive ancient building on a river. Kate examined the pictures for 32

a long moment, surprised at what she saw.

33

“Did you take these?”

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“Yeah.”

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“They’re good.”

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“Thanks,” he said. He really had a very nice smile.

1

Kate turned her eyes back to the prints. She’d toyed with pho-2

tography herself for a time, taken several courses back in college.

3

Even fantasized about making it her profession. But looking at 4

work of this caliber, she knew she’d made the right decision. She 5

could never have been this good.

6

“Umm, this one, I think,” Kate said, pointing to the picture on 7

the right. She looked over at her neighbor with a new respect.

8

“Where were these taken?”

9

“In India. Varanasi. The Hindu holy city.”

10

“India.” Kate had an image of a plane, wings dipping low in the 11

sky. “Isn’t that strange. I dreamed about India last night.”

12

“Ever been there?” he asked.

13

“No,” Kate said. She felt an unaccountable wave of regret. Now 14

what was
that
about? “How long were you there?”

15

“Three weeks. On assignment.”

16

“Really!” Kate no longer felt tempted to leave. She noticed an 17

open box of prints. “Are those all yours?”

18

He nodded.

19

“May I look?”

20

One by one, Kate examined the prints. Most of them looked 21

like India — temples, markets, camels — but at the end came sev-22

eral seascapes.

23

“These last two, they’re different.”

24

“Those were taken closer to home. I live in Sag Harbor. On 25

Long Island.”

26

“Beautiful.” Kate looked at her watch. Almost 9:30. “I really 27

need to get to work.” Reluctantly, she handed back the photo-28

graphs.

29

“You work around here?”

30

“Yes, I’m a . . . a lawyer,” Kate said. She felt suddenly self-31

conscious, as if she should explain herself. She waited for the in-32

evitable lawyer joke, but this time it didn’t come.

33

“What kind of law?” Howell asked.

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“I work for a firm, in litigation.”

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“Which firm?”

2

“It’s called Samson & Mills.” Braced for a barrage of questions, 3

Kate was relieved when Howell let it drop. Of course, he lived out 4

on Long Island. Maybe he hadn’t heard.

5

Putting on her cape, she lingered a moment, thinking about the 6

pictures. “So do you ever show your work around here?”

7

“As a matter of fact, I have an exhibit now. In Sag Harbor. At 8

the Cavanaugh Gallery.” He casually extended his hand. “I’m 9

Sam, by the way. Sam Howell.”

10

“Kate Paine.” His hand was large and warm. “Do you ever have 11

shows in the city?”

12

“Nothing planned right now. But Sag Harbor’s an easy day trip.

13

It’s nice this time of year. The tourists have all gone home. You 14

should think about coming out.”

15

16

17

Half an hour later, Kate was editing her memo when the ringing 18

phone made her jump. Still reading, she reached for the receiver.

19

“Ms. Paine?”

20

“Speaking.”

21

“This is Detective Valencia.” A pause. “I’m returning the mes-22

sage you left me.”

23

“Oh! Right. I called you last night.” Kate took a moment to shift 24

modes. It was a little dizzying, this moving back and forth between 25

the worlds of corporate law and urban violence.

26

“What can I do for you?”

27

“It’s probably nothing,” Kate said. “But I was getting my hair 28

trimmed this weekend by this guy who cuts hair for a lot of the 29

women associates here. He’s sort of a strange character. Anyway, 30

he told me that Madeleine —”

31

“I’m sorry, Ms. Paine, I don’t mean to interrupt, but are you talk-32

ing about Hercules Spivak?”

33

Spivak.
Kate realized that she’d never known Hercules’s last ort 34

name. “How did you —”

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was dry. “We spoke to him. At his loft.” She paused. Kate tried to 1

imagine Valencia’s reaction to Hercules’s artistic oeuvre. Had she 2

noticed the Barbie doll?

3

“Then this probably isn’t anything new. It’s just that he used to 4

be a paralegal at Samson. I didn’t know that before. He worked 5

with Madeleine. He also cut her hair. She was actually his first 6

Samson client.”

7

“I see.” said Valencia. Her tone was neutral. Kate couldn’t tell if 8

she was surprised. “Aside from his prior acquaintance with Ms.

9

Waters, is there anything else about this man that seems signifi-10

cant to you?”

11

“Well, if you were down at his loft, you probably noticed 12

his . . . artwork.”

13

“Yes.” Again, the same dispassionate tone.

14

“There was this one piece that caught my eye,” Kate said. “A 15

Barbie doll that sort of reminded me of Madeleine. It was partly 16

the coloring, I guess — pale skin and dark hair. Also, the way that 17

the hair was arranged, sort of rippling out from her head. Anyway, 18

he’d done this really brutal thing to the doll, stabbing her again and 19

again with knitting needles. There must have been six or seven of 20

them, sticking out from the body. And it made me think . . .”

21

Kate’s voice trailed off.

22

“I did see the doll,” Valencia said. Her voice had softened a bit.

23

“Ms. Paine, do you have any reason to think that Hercules had any 24

recent dealings with Ms. Waters?”

25

“No. Like I said, it’s probably nothing.”

26

“Is there anything else that comes to mind, anything that wor-27

ries you?”

28

Kate paused for a moment, recalling Hercules’s looming form as 29

he watched her descend the stairs. “No,” she said finally. “I don’t 30

think so.”

31

“Well, please don’t hesitate to call back if you think of anything 32

else. We need all the help we can get. Oh, and Ms. Paine? I 33

wouldn’t want you to worry too much about Mr. Spivak. He was 34 sh

out of town the night that Ms. Waters was killed.”

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1

As she hung up the phone, Kate was feeling sheepish. Andrea 2

was right: she needed to get a grip. She returned her attention to 3

the memo, erasing all other thoughts.

4

She’d been working intently for some time when she was star-5

tled by a knock on the door.

6

“Greetings,” said Peyton. “Hope I didn’t frighten you.”

7

Already, Kate felt at a slight disadvantage. Peyton had a way of 8

doing that. Today, he was wearing a dark suit and bow tie, along 9

with a pair of tiny glasses with hexagonal steel-rimmed frames.

10

The glasses were a calculated risk, an ironic twist to the starched 11

propriety of his clothing. Against all odds, it seemed to work.

12

“So let’s see what you have.” Peyton settled into a chair and 13

folded his hands before him. Kate recognized the gesture immedi-14

ately: vintage Carter Mills.

15

“I’ve summarized the relevant law on sexual harassment,” Kate 16

said, handing him her current draft. “I’m still finishing up one sec-17

tion — the standard by which a claim is evaluated. Basically, the 18

conduct at issue has to be both subjectively and objectively outra-19

geous. In other words, it’s not enough that a given plaintiff was 20

outraged by what happened if a so-called reasonable woman would 21

not also have been. And vice versa. If a reasonable woman would 22

have been outraged, but this particular plaintiff would not have 23

been — again, there’s no cause of action.”

24

“So, if we could show that Friedman was less sensitive than most 25

women to sexually aggressive conduct, that should help us, right?”

26

“Exactly.”

27

“And what about the state law claims?”

28

“I’m still looking into them.”

29

“What can you tell me so far?”

30

Kate glanced at her notes. “In the first section, I’ve considered 31

the various grounds on which we could move for pretrial dismissal 32

of the sexual harassment claims.”

33

“And?”

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“I don’t think we have any really strong arguments. The action reg 35

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is timely. Well within the statute of limitations. And Friedman 1

properly filed with the EEOC before moving to federal court.”

2

“So where does that leave us?”

3

“As I see it, we have two main avenues of defense. First, we’ll 4

want to show that Friedman had no problem with Thorpe’s behav-5

ior. That she was a willing participant in whatever went on. That 6

in itself should dispose of her claim. Second, as I was just saying, 7

we’ll argue that Thorpe’s conduct wasn’t outrageous. And that, 8

even if it might have been seen that way by some women, it 9

wouldn’t have been seen that way by Friedman. Based on what 10

Carter says — and on our meeting yesterday with Linda Morris —

11

I think we’ll have strong arguments on all of these points. Still, 12

they’re all factual issues, and that means we can’t get a pretrial dis-13

missal.”

14

“What’s this about the First Amendment?” Peyton was pointing 15

to a footnote.

16

“It’s a thought I had,” Kate said. She felt a surge of intellectual 17

pleasure in Peyton’s quick grasp of the issues. He’d rapidly zeroed in 18

on the one innovative section of what was, for the most part, a 19

pedestrian summary of current law.

20

“It’s like this,” Kate said. “To prevail on her sexual harassment 21

claim, Friedman has to show that Thorpe’s advances were unwel-22

come. My point is that this kind of factual showing should be a lot 23

more difficult here than it would be in other workplace situations.

24

Everyone knows that
Catch
is basically a sex magazine. When 25

Friedman took a job at
Catch,
she had to assume that the work-26

place atmosphere would be sexualized. How do you put out that 27

kind of magazine if you’re prohibited from discussing the subjects it 28

contains? It’s like Thorpe said — what did she expect,
Good
29

Housekeeping?
”

30

Peyton looked reflective. “Isn’t that basically arguing that she 31

assumed the risk of sexual harassment? That’s a common-law doc-32

trine. It sounds like you’re trying to import common law into a fed-33

eral statutory regime.”

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