High Crimes by Joseph Finder Read Free Book Online

it?”
    “Well, they’re on public property. They’re respecting the curtilage.”
    “The who?”
    “Curtilage. The area of privacy around a dwelling. They’re not trespassing. They have the right to be there.”
    “What about your freedom of—I don’t know, freedom not to be molested by goons?”
    Claire half smiled. “Of course, maybe I could go to court to get a 209-A restraining order against them. Make ’em stay a hundred yards away from me.”
    “Yeah,” Jackie said, “I bet that would go over big, trying to get some local judge to order the federal government to back off. I don’t think so.”
    “I called Tom’s office,” Claire said. She returned to the table and, stomach tight, tried to regain an appetite for the dinner Jackie had cooked. “Apparently Tom left e-mail messages for his chief trader, Jeff Rosenthal, and his assistant, Vivian, telling them he had to make a sudden, very hush-hush business trip out of the country. Said he’d be gone for a week, maybe longer. They were wondering what’s going on, because everyone at Chapman & Company was questioned at home by FBI agents asking lots of questions about Tom and his whereabouts.”
    “That must’ve made ’em suspicious.”
    “To say the least. Tom told them in his e-mail that the FBI might be questioning them in connection with a security clearance. I don’t think they were convinced.”
    “No,” Jackie said, “I bet not. They’ve got to be wondering, just like we are.”
    *   *   *

    Annie went to bed without any trouble, and Claire and Jackie sat in the enclosed sun porch, both smoking. Jackie sipped at a tumbler of Famous Grouse; Claire, in an oversized Gap T-shirt and sweatpants, drank seltzer.
    “Well, Annie seems to be holding up okay with Daddy gone,” Jackie said, exhaling a lungful of smoke through her nostrils.
    “She’s had her difficult moments,” Claire said.
    “You’re not surprised she’s difficult sometimes, are you? Don’t forget, you did read Rosemary’s Baby while you were pregnant. What if she’s really the spawn of Satan?”
    Claire smiled pallidly.
    “You holding up okay?” Jackie asked.
    Claire nodded. “I don’t know what to think. I asked Ray Devereaux to look into it, see what he came up with.”
    “They’re telling you he used to have a different name , a different identity—you think they might be telling you the truth?”
    “You know him, Jackie,” Claire said. “You know he’s not a murderer.” Claire put her cigarette down in the ashtray.
    “I don’t know him,” Jackie replied. “Obviously you don’t know him either.”
    “Oh, come on !” Claire cried. “You have good character judgment—so do I. Look how much time we’ve both spent with Tom in the last three years. How can you say you don’t know him?”
    “Or is it Ron?”
    “Fuck you.”
    “Look, we know he can get pretty angry. He’s got a temper. We’ve all seen it. You remember when we were driving down to the Cape and this car cut in front of us, cut us off, and Tom just about lost it?”
    “He didn’t lose it.”
    “Oh, come on, his face got red, he cursed the guy out, took off after him. It was terrifying! You were yelling at him to calm down, and finally he did, but … Remember?”
    “Yeah,” Claire said wearily. “So what? He’s got a temper. Does that make him a murderer? Okay, he lied to me about his past—but does that make him a murderer either?”
    “Jesus, Claire, how much do you really know about him? I mean, you’ve never met his family, right?”
    “Not true. I met his father, Nelson, at the wedding and once after that, when we visited him at his condo on Jupiter Island, Florida. But, look, I think I met Jay’s parents only once.”
    “And you’ve hardly met any friends of his.”
    “Friends? Guys in their forties rarely have more than a couple of friends, haven’t you ever noticed that? Men aren’t like women. They get married and get buried in their jobs and sort of