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Jimmy Cunniff told me one time that Mike Tyson used to say everybody had a plan until they got hit.
The best I can do to respond, all I got in a courtroom that has gone completely still, is this:
“Fuck.”
It just comes out. I meant it to be under my breath.
Not even close.
“Ms. Smith!”Judge Jackson Prentice says, swinging his gavel to back that up.
Otis Miller has been playing me all along.
Gay.
I’d come here looking to establish plausible doubt and now there’s no plausible doubt, none, about that. Unless we’re all supposed to believe he’s telling the world he’s gay in open court just for laughs.
Miller, smiling now, says, “This isn’t the way I wanted to make things official, but that good-looking blond guy in the second row is my partner. Has been for the past six months or so. We’ve been spending most of that time in the city, because he’s directing a new play.”
I can’t stop him.
“I’d been alone for the past few years when Mitch and Kathy Gates rented their house, after a bad breakup. The truth is, Kathy Gates had been helping me get through it.”
At this point, the good-looking blond guy offers a small, self-conscious wave as everybody in the room turns to him.
And then I am no longer speaking under my breath in Judge Jackson Prentice III’s courtroom.
“Fuck…fuck…fuck,” I say before the judge is fining me for contempt of court.
I deserve it.
But not because I’ve got a dirty mouth.
Because I’m the one feeling as if I just got screwed.
Forty-Seven
Jimmy
THE JUDGE CALLS Arecess after he hits Jane with contempt for her language. When they’re outside, Jimmy apologizes for not knowing about Otis Miller being gay. She says that it sounds like only his partner knows. And maybe Miller’s ex-wife, and that neither one of them thought to ask her if her ex likes guys better.
Jimmy tries to lighten things up by telling her that Miller and Kevin make a cute couple. She tells him she’s in no mood. Jimmy says he can see that.
“Oh,” she says, “now you’re a great detective.”
They both know Jimmy never planned to spend the whole day in court; he’s on his way to the city to meet up with his old partner, Mickey Dunne. As curious as Jimmy is to see how he can change the subject and make something out of what turned into a shit day for her, he calls for an Uber, then takes the 3:20 train to Penn Station out of Riverhead.
It’s for the best, he knows. As much as Jane Smith hates being surprised in court, she hates looking bad. She knows Otis Miller made her look bad.
Worse, the guy played her. Had really been playing her all along.
“Call me with some good news” was the last thing she said to him. “Or else.”
Jimmy has nothing more than his gut to go on that the guy stalking him is ex-NYPD. His gut and his ear. Jimmy is sure he heard Bronx in the guy’s voice. People from out of town, Jimmy knows, think all NewYawkaccents are the same. But Jimmy knows there is more than one. Brooklyn doesn’t sound like Queens. Neither one of those boroughs has ever sounded like the Bronx to him. Or Staten Island.
Manhattan? Manhattan is all of them at once.
He’s settled in a window seat by now. The seat next to him is empty, always a joy on the LIRR. He smiles. Still something about going to the city.
