“Henry Barrister would have been about…”
“Yeah.” She adjusted her hat, and set down what looked like a wicked pair of scissors. “Eighty. I was doing some modeling at the time, andcaught his eye. I went out with him a couple of times. Why not? He was sweet to me, attentive. When he asked me to marry him, I was…” She laughed. “‘What?’ But he told me he was tired of playing the field—that’s how he phrased it. He laid it out. He wanted a marriage partner. He wanted someone beautiful, trustworthy, someone on his arm, someone to help host his dinner parties, travel with him, share his bed. And he’d make it worth my while—his phrase again.”
“Which meant?”
“A lump sum payment once it was official, a kind of annual salary for every year of marriage—as long as I didn’t cheat. He didn’t want any more kids. I’d have a generous stipend, I guess you’d call it, for wardrobe and other personal expenses.”
“So it was basically a business arrangement.”
“On one level, yes. He was offering me millions and a lifestyle that was way beyond mine. I was never going to be a supermodel. I could have all that if I wore a ring, slept with him, and stayed faithful. We didn’t love each other, but we liked each other.”
She paused a moment, clipped some dead-looking flower off at the head, and tossed it in a bucket with other dead-looking flowers.
“Honestly, I really liked him. He was so interesting, and powerful, really. And for a few years, it was pretty damn good. Henry showed me the world, and the kind of world I’d only seen in vids or read about.”
She lifted her shoulders. “Anyway, he started looking around. Jesus, the man’s cruising toward ninety, and it wasn’t enough he had a wife who hadn’t hit thirty. We didn’t fight about it, but I told him it wasn’t right. I’d been faithful, and he wasn’t being faithful, and that wasn’t right.”
She sat, picked up a shiny red cylinder, and sipped from it.
“He said that’s the way it was, and I said it broke the deal. We didn’t argue about it, it was a kind of no-hard-feelings deal, it’s been nice, now it’s done. He gave me a settlement, and I have to say, it was more thanI’d have asked for. The thing is, we still liked each other, so there just weren’t any hard feelings.
“Henry even came to my wedding. I met Liam a couple years after the divorce, and that was love. Still is. But I came into that, thanks to Henry, with my own. Liam’s a successful man, but I had my own this time. We’ve got a really good life, a couple of terrific kids who drive us both crazy about half the time. And now that they’re both in school, I’m going to start my own business. Gardening and landscaping. I like being a wife, a mom, and I’m going to like having my own business. I have all that because of Henry.”
“You were married almost seven years. Did you know about the vault?”
“It’s true about that?” Blowing out a breath, she shoved back the brim of her hat. “I thought that part was crazy bullshit.”
“There is a vault in his home office at Barrister House, and it contained over forty stolen items. Art, jewelry.”
“I didn’t want to believe it. I never saw that side of him. That’s not really true, is it?” she murmured. “Henry liked things. I mean to say he…covetedisn’t the right word because he could get them. Important things, things most people couldn’t begin to afford to have. He’d buy me jewelry because he liked me wearing something that would pop your eyes out when we went to events or hosted a party. I knew that, didn’t mind that. It was part of the deal.”
“Ms. O’Ryan, my impression is you and Henry Barrister had and maintained an intimacy—not sexual, but in a friendship.”
“We did. We’d talk now and then. When the kids came along, he’d send presents for their birthdays, for Christmas. I appreciated that.”
“As a friend, he never mentioned the vault or its contents.”
“No, he…”
“What?”
“I don’t know if it means anything. The last few years, before he died,he seemed more frail—his mind, I mean. We’d talk on occasion during the year, and I noticed that. He did say, a couple of times, that he had things put away he wished he’d given me. That I was the only one who’d been his true friend as well as his lover, and he was going to arrange something.”
“Did he?”
“No. Honestly, I think he forgot, or was just rambling some.”
“Any idea who he might have told?”
“He trusted me, so I really think I’d have been the first choice there. But the one he was looking around at when we were married? Well, she wasn’t the only one, but she sticks in my mind. There was something off about her, something too smooth. I even told him to watch out for her. ‘You watch out for that one, Henry. You want to be really careful there.’ But he didn’t listen.”
“Do you have a name?”
“No, I’m sorry. I probably knew it at some point. I think we were in France, maybe Italy, and hosting a party. A big one. I think—I can’t be positive—but I think that’s the first time I saw her. Gorgeous blonde, young. Several years younger than I was. I doubt she was more than about twenty, but she’d been around.”
She winced. “That sounds catty.”
“No, it’s an impression.” And Eve wanted just that. “Do you have more?”
