Easy Prey

“By God, I’m gonna have IA look into this. Brace a few people. I’m not gonna have this shit. I’m not going to have it!”
    Lucas said, “I can tell you one thing. This morning I asked you guys to send a couple more people over to watch Rodriguez. We better put a serious net around the guy now. I mean, forget about Jael Corbeau and Catherine Kinsley—he’s gotta be number one on this other fruitcake’s hit list.”
     
 
LUCAS WENT BACK to his office, found two notes. One read, “Call Jael.” The other, “Call Catrin.”
    He called Jael, who said, “The dozen long-stemmed roses you sent to my house haven’t arrived yet.”
    “I’m sorry, I thought . . . uh . . . well, I mean, I thought you were supposed to send them to me. I’ve been waiting,” Lucas said.
    “God, he’s such a wit,” Jael said. “I need a man with wit . . . maybe. So . . . anything going on? Can I get out of here?”
    “Not yet.” He told her quickly about the leak in the department. “It’ll be on the news.”
    “What’re you doing tonight?” she asked. “I mean, this isn’t another proposition. I’d like to rejoice in the blood of the lamb.”
    “What?” He was confused.
    “This guy who’s trying to kill me—he’s preaching at some church tonight,” Jael said. “I’d like to see him. One of your guys here did, and it’s supposed to be something else.”
    “Man, I don’t know,” Lucas said. “That might not be such a good idea.”
    “C’mon, don’t be a stick-in-the-mud,” she said. “Besides, you can bring a gun. And I’m going nuts. Let’s get the sports car, let’s go see him.”
    “I’ll call you. Things are going on over here. If I can get away . . . maybe.”
     
 
HE CALLED CATRIN; she was on a cell phone, and answered in her car. “Let me pull over to the side,” she said. Her voice was showing stress; he thought she might have been crying.
    “What happened?” But she’d put the phone down.
    A moment later, she came back. “Well I told him that I thought we had some problems, and that I was thinking of going away, that I thought I might want to be by myself for a while. You know what he said?”
    “I don’t--”
    “He said, ‘Well, whatever you think you have to do. Let me know.’ It was like I wasn’t sure I could make it to lunch.”
    “Catrin, I really can’t advise you, I just don’t know--”
    “He just walked away from me,” Catrin said. “Now I wonder if he isn’t having an affair or something. It was like he was waiting for me to say something.”
    “If the guy has any sensitivity at all, if he knows you at all, then he knew something was coming,” Lucas said. “It’s like waiting for the ax to fall. When it does, there isn’t much to say. You know about everything that anybody might say. . . .”
    “Lucas, what are you talking about? We were married for more than twenty years.”
    “When we were talking at lunch . . . when you asked if you were just screwed . . . I mean, look at your old man. If he argues with you, he’s being domineering and he’s not letting you lead your own life. If he doesn’t argue with you, but is absolutely supportive, tells you to do whatever you want, then he’s being patronizing and you feel like your life is a hobby, because he’s got all the money and you’re going to London for plays, and all that. And if he lets you go, he doesn’t care. So—I mean, when you talk about being screwed, he’s about as screwed as you can get. Whatever he does is wrong.”
    “It sounds like you’re on his side,” she said. There was an undertone of disbelief.
    “Absolutely not. Look, half of my friends have been divorced, and most of the other half are fucked up. I’m fucked up. I’ve been through this . . . Jesus. I’m on your side, Catrin, because we’re old friends. If I was your husband’s friend, I’d be on his side, because nobody’s right or wrong. And in that case, you’ve just got to go with your friends.”
    “Well, I talked to one of my girlfriends down here—actually, I had lunch with three of them, my best friend and a couple that I’ve always been friends with—and I knew by the way one of them was acting she’s on Jack’s side.”
    “That’s gonna happen,” Lucas said. “And some old friends of Jack’s will be on your side. That’ll surprise you, too. You said you belong to a golf club?”
    “Yes.”
    “What’s gonna amaze you is, a couple of his male friends are going to put the moves on