The Darkness - Jason Pinter [45]
of people are losing their livelihoods. So what gets plastered
on your front page? An old man and his drinking problem."
Paulina laughed, and I felt anger rising within me.
"Jack is news, Henry, and it's time you realized that.
Maybe right now he's a broken-down old man, but he still
has a name. A reputation. And a man with that kind of reputation is beholden to the public. You just don't get it,
Henry. And you'd better soon, because even if Jack is back
he won't be around for much longer. And Harvey Hillerman's paper is going to need someone else to step up and
be the next golden calf. And if it isn't you, like Wallace
hopes it will be, then they might as well declare bankruptcy and use their papers for a grade school art class."
"You called me, and you're lucky I'm here at all. So
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if you want to throw mud, I'll get up and leave. I'll need
a shower after this anyway."
"If you had any intention of leaving without hearing
what I had to say," Paulina said, "you wouldn't have
come in the first place."
I sat there, staring at her, willing my body to stand up and
walk right out of the diner. But after what happened to Brett
Kaiser, after the murder of my brother, I needed something
I could control, something I could follow through to the end.
"Talk," I said. "Why did you call me?"
Paulina sat back and took a long drink of her coffee.
I wondered if she'd had more than one in the time it took
for me to get there. Then she looked at me and said,
matter-of-factly, "A few days ago, I was kidnapped."
My jaw dropped. "Wait...what? What do you mean,
kidnapped?"
"Well, not kidnapped in the usual sense. It's not like there
was a ransom note and the whole thing lasted about an hour
in total. Somebody posing as my driver took me to Queens
and..." I heard a slight choking noise come from Paulina's
throat. I wondered if she was faking this, doing something
to get me to sympathize with her, but deep down I knew it
was real. Paulina Cole was never one to let anyone see her
bleed, and the only thing worse than that would be to
pretend. She wouldn't allow herself to be seen that way.
And I knew whatever had happened to her a few days ago
must have scarred her deeply. "He threatened someone I
care about very much. And I believed him. I still do."
"He just threatened you and left?" I said. "Did he hurt
you?"
Paulina hesitated for the briefest moment before
saying, "No."
I didn't want to press. But I knew she was lying.
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"Not me," she said. "He threatened to hurt someone
close to me."
"You have someone close to you?" I smiled at the dig,
but she did not. And for whatever reason, I felt somewhat
guilty for it. "I'm sorry. Go on."
"My daughter," she continued. "He threatened to hurt
my daughter."
"I'm sorry," I said, feeling an odd combination of guilt
for making light of the situation, and surprise that Paulina
had a daughter. In our brief time working next to each
other, she never had any pictures. Never talked about her.
"That's okay. I didn't ask you here to sympathize with
me."
"Good thing for both of us."
"I asked you here because I want to find the guy who
did it."
I sat there, watching her. "And?" I said.
"And I need your help."
I laughed. "You need my help? What can I do that
you can't?"
"You have friends," Paulina said. "Friends that I
don't have."
"You're talking about cops," I said. She nodded. "It
doesn't matter if they like you or not, this is a criminal
matter and they'll investigate..."
"I can't go to them," Paulina said. "I can't go to the cops."
"Why not?"
"He told me if I did, he would know."
"You think he has an informant in the department?"
"I have to assume he does."
"How do you know he was telling the truth?" I said.
"Because if I assume the other side, and I'm wrong,
my daughter is dead."
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"Dead... You say he threatened to hurt her, not..."
"I was being kind. Maybe to myself, because I didn't
want to think about it. But yes, he threatened to kill her."