The Alibi Man

Chapter 14

In my imagination I had always visualized that I would be prepared for this moment, that I would have the upper hand when this circumstance arose, that I would know exactly what to say. I pictured myself as being strong and in control, unaffected by the sight of him, and looking like a million damn dollars. And Bennett Walker would be the one taken by surprise, rattled and shaken, unable to speak. But that wasn’t what happened.

He came through the door with a sense of purpose, his attention on his friend and alibi, Juan Barbaro. Time and lifestyle had chiseled some lines into his face but in a way women would find attractive. He still had all his hair-dark, wavy, falling in his eyes. He still had the body of an athlete-tall, broad-shouldered, trim hips. He was impeccably dressed-white slacks, black jacket, black-striped shirt opened at the throat. The dashing social scion, disheveled just enough to be sexy.

He glanced at me with not one shred of recognition in his eyes.

I was a very different person from the girl he had known. Gone was the wild mane of black hair, the ready-for-trouble smile, the glint of excitement in my eyes. I had been vibrant then, flush with first love, innocent-if not in fact, in spirit.

Twenty years is a long time. A whole lot of life had gone on since I had last seen him. Still, a part of me was offended he didn’t know me on sight, that he hadn’t stopped dead in his tracks, gone pale, started to stammer. Had I been so unimportant to him that he had never imagined this moment? Out of sight, out of mind. A bad memory best left in the past.

“Juan, my man,” he said, grabbing Barbaro’s hand and pumping it like a politician. “Could I have a moment-”

“Where are your manners, friend?” Barbaro asked. “I have a lovely lady on my arm, if you haven’t noticed. Why would I leave her for an instant to be with the likes of you?”

“I’m sorry,” Walker said at me, not to me. “But I-”

Barbaro ignored him. “Elena, this is my very rude friend, Bennett Walker. Bennett, my lovely companion for the evening, Elena Estes.”

He saw me then. He looked at me for the first time and saw me. There was the stunned, guarded look I had been wishing for.

“I’ve never known you to be at a loss for words, Bennett,” I said, as if I were calm.

“Elena.”

He wanted the floor to open and swallow me. He wanted to turn and go back out the door. Do-over, without the woman who had tried to put him in prison.

“You know each other?” Barbaro said. “Why would I be surprised? Is there a beautiful woman within fifty kilometers you don’t know, my friend?”

“Oh, I knew Bennett back when,” I said, enjoying the apprehension in Bennett’s eyes. “Or so I thought.”

“Elena,” he said again. “It’s been a long time. How are you?”

“Is that the best you can do?”

“Yes, at the moment.”

“To think you used to be so quick on your feet.” I glanced at Barbaro from the corner of my eye. “Ben used to be able to talk his way out of anything. Isn’t that right, Ben?”

He said nothing.

“I’m upset, to answer your question,” I told him. “A friend of mine was found murdered this morning. Imagine my surprise to discover you were seen with her the night she went missing.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” he said. He was pissed now. I could tell by the way he tilted his head, set his jaw, avoided looking at me.

“Well, some things never change,” I remarked.

“If you could excuse us for a moment, Elena, I need to have a word with my friend.”

He put a hand on Barbaro’s shoulder, ready to draw him aside.

“Getting your stories straight?” I asked sweetly. Stupid of me, but there it was. Sometimes I can’t help myself.

Barbaro seemed bemused but content to watch the fireworks, his gaze bouncing back and forth between us as if he were watching a tennis match.

Walker took a moment to compose himself, breathing in, breathing out. He was very aware of the two couples that had just come upstairs from the restaurant and stood talking not ten feet away.

“I don’t need a story,” he said quietly, stepping a little closer. I didn’t retreat. I wouldn’t. I looked him in the eyes, knowing that would make him uncomfortable.

“You don’t think so? An unconscious alibi witness?” I shook my head. “Not good, Bennett. Although at least he can’t dispute your version of events.”

“Elena, I understand that you’re upset,” he said. “But I didn’t have anything to do with that girl’s death, and I resent you implying otherwise, especially considering other people can hear you.”

I actually laughed. “Oh, my, what would the neighbors think? Can’t have me tarnishing your sterling reputation. You are just un-fucking-believable,” I said, lowering my voice.

“Twenty years and you still hate me.”

“There is no statute of limitations for what you did, Bennett. Not with me.”

“Despite what you choose to believe, I was exonerated.”

“What an interesting reinvention of history.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you, Elena. Not here, not now.”

“Well, when you find you have room on your dance card, do pencil me in. There’s just nothing like reliving old times,” I said sarcastically.

I slid my gaze away from him to Barbaro. “Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me. It’s been a very bad, very long day. I’ll see myself out.”

I walked away and out the door, past the valet stand. I had parked in the lower lot. A Glock 9mm lived in a secret panel in the driver’s door of my car. I couldn’t take the risk of the gun falling into the hands of a minimum-wage sixteen-year-old bored with waiting on rich people.

“Elena!”

Barbaro. He jogged to catch up with me. But when he did, he didn’t seem to know what to say. He had the expression of someone who had come in on the middle of a conversation.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what just happened.”

“I’m sure your good friend will fill you in,” I said. “A word to the wise, though: Don’t invest too heavily in giving him an alibi. If I find out he had something to do with Irina’s murder, I’ll make very certain that he pays for it, and I won’t care who gets in my way.”

“That’s crazy! Bennett is a good friend.”

“How long have you known him?”

“Several years. He would never have anything to do with harming a woman.”

“Really? Why not? Because he’s handsome? Because he’s charming? Because he’s rich?” I asked. “For such a worldly man, Mr. Barbaro, you are terribly naive. When you go back in there and sit down to have a drink with your pal, ask him if the name Maria Nevin means anything to him.

“And whatever he tells you, know this: Bennett Walker is a liar and a rapist. I know, because I was his alibi once too.”

He didn’t know what to say to that and wisely chose to say nothing at all.

I turned to open my car door. Barbaro put a hand on my shoulder.

“Elena, please don’t leave angry.”

He was standing too close. I didn’t turn to face him.

“I’m not angry with you.”

“You are angry with the world, I think.”

“Yes,” I whispered, feeling very beaten by the day. Physically beaten. Emotionally spent. His hand moved from my shoulder to touch the back of my head.

“Please don’t try to comfort me,” I said. “I really don’t think I can take it right now.”

“You are always the strong one?”

“I don’t have a lot of choice in the matter. If you’ll excuse me now, I really have to go.”

He moved a step to the side so I could open the car door.

“May I call you?” he asked.

I laughed without humor. “I can’t imagine why you would want to. I haven’t been the most pleasant company.”

“The death of a friend does not create pleasant circumstances. Still… This does not change the fact that you are a beautiful, complex, interesting woman, and I would like the chance to get to know you better.”

“Hmmm… You’re a brave soul,” I said, looking at him. In the film-noir black-and-white light of the parking lot, he was starkly beautiful, and I could feel the sexual energy that rolled off him in waves.

“Fortune favors the brave,” he said, and he leaned forward and kissed me gently, briefly. Just long enough to make me think I might want more.

“You’re naughty!”

The voice came from the far side of my car. A person of indeterminate gender stood in back of the car parked next to mine, staring at us. A woman, I thought from the voice. But there were no other indicators. She was covered in what looked to be a black unitard that exposed only the features of her face, features painted on like a character from Cirque du Soleil. On top of her head was a conical black hat with a pom-pom at the end.

“You’re very naughty!” she said. “Like the others. Very naughty!”

Barbaro took a couple of menacing steps in her direction. “Get away from here, Freak! Go! Go before I call the police and they arrest your crazy ass!”

The Freak curtsied and ran away awkwardly on high platform shoes. She crawled through the pipe gate that led onto the Palm Beach Polo development and was gone.

I turned to Barbaro. “What the hell was that?”

“The Freak,” he said. “Have you never seen the Freak?”

“No. I don’t get off the farm much.”

“She hangs around town. I’ve seen her here before. She’s crazy.”

“I got that.”

“Never mind her,” he said. “Go home and try to get some rest.”

He reached up and touched the left side of my face, gently, I’m sure, though I couldn’t really feel it.

I slid behind the wheel of the BMW and told him my phone number, and I drove away wondering what exactly I had just let myself in for.

I thought of Barbaro’s kiss and felt guilty. I thought of Landry and the moment we had shared outside the barn, how I had wanted to turn to him but hadn’t. And I felt guiltier. Not that I needed to. I had ended my relationship with Landry. He wanted something from me I couldn’t give, wouldn’t give. I’d done him a favor, whether he wanted to see it that way or not.

Maybe a fling with a hot polo star was a way to drive that point home.

Don’t read too much into it, Elena, I told myself. Inasmuch as I planned to use my new connection to Juan Barbaro to dig into this case, for all I knew he was planning to do the same thing. He had been there the night Irina went missing, as had Bennett Walker, and Barbaro’s patron, birthday boy Jim Brody. Perhaps he planned on being the distraction that would take my attention away from his wealthy friends.

I had no doubt that Juan Barbaro could have his pick of wealthy women and gorgeous girls in Wellington. Why pick me?

The lights were out in Sean’s house. I was glad. As much as I loved Sean, I didn’t want to interact with one more person.

I walked into the cottage and didn’t even bother to turn on a light. The moon was waxing toward fullness, giving off enough illumination for me to walk down the hall to my bedroom. I went into the bathroom, turned on the light, and started the shower running. The acrid smell of tension and stale cigarettes clung to me like a film.

I bent over the sink to brush my teeth. When I finished and looked up, I wasn’t alone.

A man stood in the doorway behind me. For a stunned second, I just stared at him in the mirror, then I spun around to face him. He was disheveled but wearing a suit, and the whites of his eyes were red.

“You are Elena Estes.” His voice was accented. Russian.

“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded.

“My name is Kulak. Alexi Kulak.”