Beach Wedding(62)

If that were the case, why have me picked up at all? Especially in such a dramatic and intimidating way? Had he reconsidered? Or was it a bluff? A big scare tactic to set me up for a bribery attempt?

If he wanted to spook me, it was working, I thought as I glanced back at the headstones. I was spooked.

After another ten minutes walking down the lovely street, I came across a little hotel and went in and asked to use a phone. I called Viv, who drove straight over and picked me up. I thought she was going to kick my ass, but when I got into the car, she cried as she embraced me.

I told her everything. What had happened the night before. About the arrest. I thought she’d cream me for all the risks I had taken, but again, she surprised me.

“I’m just glad you’re safe. What’s going to happen now?” she said.

“I have no idea,” I said.

“What do you think is going on?”

“Obviously something very strange,” I said as she pulled out of the driveway and headed toward the house.

When we got back, we saw Tom standing at the beach house’s front steps.

“Terry, what the hell is up? Everything okay? You got arrested?” he said, handing me my phone.

I looked at Tom. There was no way I was going to explain everything to him this close to his wedding. He had way too much on his plate already.

Heck, I wasn’t telling anybody now about what I’d learned. No way, no how. Being Irish and therefore an expert on wakes and weddings, I knew the best policy was always to arrange them just one at a time.

“No, no, man. I’m really sorry. It was a joke. An old friend from school heard I was in town. His brother’s a cop. They just played a practical joke on me. That’s all.”

“By arresting you?”

“It’s just a cop thing. We’re all nuts. Sorry for worrying you.”

“That’s complete bullshit,” Tom said, shaking his head and smiling. “Honestly, you need a lawyer? I know you’re up to something, Terry. Do you need my help?”

“No, no, Tom,” I said. “Or at least not yet. Believe me, I’ll tell you first thing when and if I do.”

“Okay, then, I guess. Everyone’s out at the pool if you guys want to join them.”



85

For the rest of that day and the morning of the next, I decided to lie completely low with my family.

Not sure what these maniacs were going to try next, I decided that Viv and Angelina and I needed to stay behind the high secure walls of the estate until further notice. I even turned my phone off and placed it in a cigar box wrapped in tinfoil to disconnect it from the cell sites.

After lunch, we all went out on the side lawn for an epic game of tailgate toss.

As the beanbags flew and red Solo cups stacked up, the new Brit side of our family had all the kids in stitches.

It was Toby’s and Gordon’s revenge for all of us making fun of them at the softball game. They had acquired a soccer ball from somewhere and were playing a game of monkey in the middle with the entirety of the little cousins, including Angelina, playing the part of the screaming monkeys.

I mean, the kids didn’t have a chance. Toby was especially talented. When one of my sister’s kids came forward, he spun the ball up his leg somehow and balanced it on his forehead like a trained seal.

In the late afternoon after this hilarity, I was back upstairs in the bedroom after my shower when I relented and turned my phone back on.

“Now, why did you do that, you idiot?” I said to myself as I looked at the screen.

There were twenty texts from Courtney.

What I did next was even more idiotic. I hit the button to call back.

“What the hell happened, Terry? You were arrested yesterday?” she said.

“Not really. I was picked up, but I wasn’t booked.”

“What? What the hell is going on? Who picked you up?”

“The East Hampton PD, I think.”

“You think?”

“They were in tactical stuff and weren’t very talkative.”

“What? Like a SWAT team? Why would they pick you up?”

I almost laughed. My midnight trip to Tapley’s was something I was never telling anyone. Even partners. Even old pals. My mom and dad didn’t raise no dummy.

I’d have to make up something to tell her, I thought. Tomorrow.

“It’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll tell you in person. Let’s meet tomorrow.”

“Terry, now’s not the time for being cryptic. This is going off the rails. These people have lost it. This is getting actually dangerous now. You have to be straight with me,” Courtney said.

Getting dangerous now? I thought. No, this had gotten dangerous the second I laid my hands on Kelsey’s files and lifted the cardboard lid off what was looking like one of the biggest cans of worms ever buried.

No, it was actually even before that, I thought.

This had gotten dangerous the second Viv had dropped the RSVP to my brother’s wedding in the mail.

“Terry, are you there?” Courtney said. “We need to meet now.”

I looked over at my lovely worried wife as she came in with my daughter.

“Tomorrow, Courtney,” I said, and I hung up.



86

Catch Me Kenny’s was a seaside dive bar in Montauk off West Side Drive across from the Star Island Yacht Club.