Page 33 of The Lie Maker

“For today,” she said, “why don’t you go by Bill.”

“Okay.” He looked back at me. “Pleased to meet you. You can call me Bill.”

“Bill,” I said.

“Why don’t you come on in and tell me all about myself.”

Nineteen

“What is the point,” Kyle Gartner barked into the phone, “in paying people to look the other way if they aren’t going to fucking look the other way?”

“I know, I know,” said the voice on the other end of the call. “He’s being difficult. I think he’s just holding out for a little more. His kid needs braces or something.”

“Fuck the kid. It’s Daddy who’s going to need a new set of teeth if he doesn’t see reason.”

“I think, if we sweeten the pot just a little, he’ll see things our way. This works both ways, you know. If he blows the whistle on us, we’ve still got him by the nuts for turning a blind eye for so long. His bosses aren’t going to like that.”

Kyle massaged his forehead with his free hand.

“I don’t need this,” he said. “Not now. Christ.”

The voice said, “It’s been a tough year for you.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Your sister was the best. Must be... tough, considering.”

“Yeah.” Kyle paused. “Look, see what you can do with our greedy friend. How are you coming with the other thing?”

“The documents?”

“Yeah.”

“Coming along. Still don’t understand what you need them for.”

“If you need to know I’ll tell you.”

Kyle ended the call, then opened his desk drawer and took out a bottle of pills. His head was starting to pound. He shook out two into his hand and washed them down with the last few drops of scotch in the glass in front of him.

His associate was right. It was tough, considering.

It was strange, losing a twin. Kyle Gartner didn’t believe it was anything like when someone lost a regular sibling. Sure, it could be devastating to lose an older or younger brother or sister, but losing a twin? Someone to whom you felt more than a familial connection? It bordered more on telepathic.

Kyle’s sister, Valerie, wasn’t an identical twin, obviously. He was born with XY chromosomes and she entered the world with XX chromosomes. But you didn’t spend more than nine months in a womb with someone and not have a bond that was special.

He felt he’d lost part of himself when Valerie died two months earlier. And forty-two was far too young. Had she died from a medical condition, Kyle might have worried he was fated to come down with the same thing. But Valerie had not died of cancer or heart disease or a stroke. It wasn’t like that at all.

It was a shock. And yet, it wasn’t as if Kyle couldn’t have seen it coming.

Her problems had started in her late teens. Too much drinking. Pot. Kyle, no stranger to booze and drugs at that age, believed she would move beyond those pastimes. Sure, Valerie had some underlying issues. She’d suffered a loss, just as Kyle had. But Valerie had taken it much harder.

Losing your father was one thing. But to lose him in such a violent way, and for the person who took his life to face no consequences, well, Valerie couldn’t deal with it. That man who killed their father was out there, somewhere, with a new name, a new identity, a new life. Valerie found the only way to handle it was to numb herself. And once she got into the habit, it was hard to break it, no matter how much time passed.

There had been some successes along the way. Stints in rehab. A challenging job that took her mind off her problems. Valerie would get her life together, for a while, but no fix was permanent. The other shoe always dropped.

Two months ago, it had dropped for the last time.

Kyle had lived with a simmering rage, too, for more than two decades, but Valerie’s passing had brought that rage to a boil. But there was more than rage to deal with. Valerie’s death had brought about a kind of reckoning for Kyle. He was second-guessing everything. Not just whether there was any real justice in the world, but bigger questions.