Page 160 of One of Us Is Guilty

She hurled the key into the churning water.

Then turned to look back at the Hamptons house.

A red blaze of fire had eaten through the roof and was sending black smoke into the night.

66

Eddie

I hadn’t been to Fort Washington Park in a long time.

I used to come here as a kid. To this exact spot.

The spot where I now saw Vanessa waiting for me.

The sun was going down over the Hudson River. All the impressive might of the George Washington Bridge hung above me, and just ahead, standing on a hook of land that anchored one of the great pillars of the bridge, was a little red lighthouse.

Vanessa leaned on the black railings that surrounded the lighthouse. I first came here as a kid because I’d read a picture book calledThe Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridgethat my mom had borrowed from the public library for me. I couldn’t believe there was a real lighthouse, so small, and yet so brave, and I had to see it for myself.

I never got tired of looking at the thing. It was made up of steel, painted bright red, with a conical top and a railing around the light. I’d heard you could get a tour of the lighthouse, but I’d never had the time. It was only forty feet high, and had been rendered redundant when the George Washington Bridge had been built, and its lights lit the river for all passing barges and boats.

Still, the lighthouse stayed.

It was a plucky underdog. If any building in this city exemplified New York and its people, it was that little red lighthouse.

‘Why did you want to meet me here?’ asked Vanessa.

The weather was mild, but she still wore a long coat, with black boots, black gloves.

And held a small red leather purse in her left hand.

It was a Valentino purse – I recognized the branding – and it was the same red as the lighthouse, almost as if she’d chosen it to match.

‘It’s quiet,’ I said. ‘And I like it here. I thought we could have that talk.’

‘Sure,’ she said. ‘What do you want to talk about?’

‘Your late father-in-law, for one. I thought you might tell me the truth. I think you owe me that.’

‘I paid you, and I can’t thank you enough for helping me, but what else can I say? You’re a lawyer. Don’t you have rules? How do I know whatever I say will be confidential?’

‘You answered your own question. I’m still your lawyer. Client confidentiality. Anything you tell me, I will take to my grave. Unless you tell me you’re going to harm someone, then I have an obligation to help prevent that. But as far as anything that happened in your past goes – my lips are sealed.’

‘Alright, I’ll play along for now. I do owe you that much.’

‘That was a serious fire at the Hamptons house. How did it start?’

‘Who knows? You’d met Julian, he never had a cigar out of his mouth. The fire department think it had something to do with that.’

We were about five feet from one another, and there was nobody else around at this time of the early evening. The river was calm, and the birds were circling over the bridge.

‘Is that what the arson investigator found?’ I asked.

‘Cause is unknown, but probably the cigar they said. Patrick was very grateful to the East Hampton Fire Department for all their efforts to save his father. I believe he made a large donation to their fund.’

I nodded, and then noticed there was something on the ground, behind Vanessa’s boots. The light was fading, but I had a good idea what it was.

‘And your divorce?’