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By Root 1034 0

No, nothing like that.” Puma looked at each of our faces, then sighed. “All right. Fine. Mr. Livingston grabbed me once, when I went to his office alone to thank him for paying a tournament fee and travel expenses for Biko to compete. My mother usually went to thank him, but she was having her first battle with the cancer back then—I guess this was about four years ago. So I went instead. And since she was sick, I didn’t tell her what happened. I didn’t want her to get up out of her bed and go storming into the foundation to give him a piece of her mind. Which she would have done—and in her pajamas, too!” Puma smiled for a moment as she remembered her mother’s feisty nature, then continued, “I jumped out of my skin and shoved him away when he tried to kiss me. But I think I was more startled than shocked. I knew his reputation by then. He made passes at lots of women. Anyhow, it was embarrassing, but he certainly didn’t get rough or mean about it. He sort of laughed it off. And he never tried it again. Although . . .”

“Although?” Max prodded.

Puma looked at me. “You know how some men can just . . . make you uncomfortable? Because they stand too close when they’re talking to you, or keep touching you when there’s no reason to?”

“Yes. I know.” What woman didn’t?

“It was like that. It was never threatening, but it was . . .”

“Intrusive?” I suggested.

She nodded. “I hardly knew Mr. Livingston, and I didn’t see him often. Sometimes at a special event at the foundation, or once when he came to see Biko compete in a tournament. That kind of thing. But when I did see him, the way he looked at me . . . Well, I always wound up, oh, checking my neckline, thinking maybe it was too low or that my bra must be showing. You know the sort of look that I mean?”

“I do. I get that look from some of the wiseguys when I’m waiting tables at Bella Stella.” Since they tipped me well, and I needed the money, I put up with it; I had to be practical. And since Martin Livingston’s generosity was so important to the Garland family, Puma had to be practical, and so she had put up with it, too. I said, “But that kind of thing seems a lot more reprehensible coming under the guise of philanthropy.”

“Oh, the philanthropy was genuine,” Puma said quickly. “He really was a good man in many ways. He cared very deeply about Harlem and the African-American community here, and he did a lot of good. In other ways, though . . .” She shrugged. “Well, everyone has their flaws, and at least his weren’t cruel or destructive. Just, uh . . .”

“Sleazy?” I suggested.

“I was going to say rambunctious.”

“Oh, I think Esther nailed it,” Jeff said. “Sleazy.” He had his own flaws, but rampant promiscuity and ogling women to the point of making them uncomfortable had never been among them. And I could see that the idea of the old man pestering Puma bothered him. I recognized the signs of Jeff’s attraction, having long ago been a recipient; he was definitely drawn to Puma.

An interesting dilemma, considering how uncomfortable he seemed to be with her religion.

Then again, I was a secular Jew interested in a practicing Catholic who thought I might be a dangerous lunatic. So I should probably eschew snarkiness about other people’s love lives.

Turning my thoughts resolutely away from the cop who wouldn’t date me, I said, “And being filthy rich probably made it easier for Martin to indulge in his, er, hobby.” After all, more women would fool around with a sixty-year-old billionaire than with a regular joe of the same age. That was the way of the world.

“Like I said, he had a reputation for that kind of thing.” Jeff said to Max and me, “I think I told you that Catherine was his third wife? Well, they say his first wife got tired of his philandering, so she left quietly in exchange for a huge settlement. The second wife supposedly knew what she was getting into and looked the other way. I guess there are compensations if your cheating spouse is rich and important. But then his hot and heavy affair with Catherine turned into the real thing, and so he left his wife for her.