Things We Do in the Dark(68)

“He pulls up in his father’s old pickup truck, and I see that the back is filled with all his belongings. He gets out of the car, walks over to me, and says, ‘Babe, I’m heading to Los Angeles.’ Just like that. At first, I misunderstood, and I asked him when he was coming back. He said he wasn’t. He had come to say goodbye. ‘The next time you see me,’ he said, ‘I’ll be on the Tonight Show.’ The bastard broke my heart.”

“Oh, Elsie,” Paris says.

“And wouldn’t you know, ten years later, there he was, riffing with Johnny Carson, just like he said he would be. The sonofabitch.” A small laugh. “Yeah, Jimmy could be a real asshole. He had this tunnel vision for what he wanted his life to be, and if anything ever got in the way of that, he could be so cruel. He was incredibly self-centered, which is why none of his marriages ever lasted, and why all of his ex-wives hated him. It’s why I sometimes hated him. But I can’t blame him for all of it. I willingly fixed his problems. I flew wherever he needed me to be so I could clean up his messes, made apologies on his behalf. I knew there were times he was just using me, like a gap filler, something to do while working toward the next great thing that wouldn’t include me.”

Elsie looks out the window again. “But then something shifted. He hit rock bottom. He got clean. Announced he was retiring and moved back here. And things were different this time. He was different. Calmer. Remorseful. Sensitive. He was going to therapy, and really doing the work. We started to get close again … really close. I thought maybe, finally…” She looks directly at Paris, who catches her meaning, loud and clear. “But then he met you.”

Paris doesn’t know what to say. Obviously she hadn’t known any of this, because Jimmy had never told her. From the day they’d had coffee after yoga class three years ago, Jimmy had been so single-minded in his pursuit of her that she’d never even considered there was someone else getting run over in the process. Tunnel vision, as Elsie just said. It explained a lot about how Elsie treated her when they first met.

It explained everything, actually, and Paris sags into her chair.

“I’m glad his last years were happy ones. Up until the end, at least. He really loved you.” Elsie pats Paris’s hand. “Anyway, that was my long-winded lead-up to telling you that I can’t be your lawyer anymore.”

Paris’s head snaps up. “Wait. What?”

“Don’t panic, I’ve made a few calls.” Elsie finishes her wine. “A lawyer named Sonny Everly will be coming by tomorrow at eleven. He’s an excellent criminal defense attorney with twenty years of trial experience.”

“Okay,” Paris says slowly. “I understand. You were being loyal to Jimmy by helping me, but obviously if you think there’s even the tiniest possibility that I might have done it—”

“That’s not why.” Elsie sets her glass down and looks Paris straight in the eyes. “The reason I asked Sonny to step in is because I’m too rusty. I didn’t handle your arraignment as well as I should have. I was caught off guard by the new will, and that happened because I’m too close to the situation. Any other lawyer, that’s the first thing they would have checked, but it didn’t even occur to me that Jimmy would find another lawyer to draft up a whole new will. I missed it, which means I have no business diving back into criminal work. You’ll be in excellent hands with Sonny.”

“Would Sonny have gotten me a lower bail?”

“Probably not, but—”

“Then you did your job, Elsie,” Paris says. “And I’m grateful. But I’m not sure I can afford him. I’ve already leveraged almost everything to pay the bond, which I’ll never get back.” She looks down at the circle of pink diamonds on her left hand. “I guess I could sell my wedding ring. And the Tesla, too, since I can borrow Jimmy’s car.”

“I’m paying Sonny,” Elsie says. “When you’re acquitted, you can pay me back. Fair warning, though: the man is an absolute prick. But that’s what you need. You want someone who’s not afraid to get in the mud and slug it out, and it seems I’ve forgotten how to do that outside of litigation.”

“Thank you,” Paris says. “If you trust him, I’ll trust him.”

“I also called the attorney who drafted Jimmy’s last will and requested a copy. His firm’s reputation is impeccable. The will is valid.”

“That’s bad news for me.” Paris slumps farther into her chair. “All that money makes me look guilty as hell. And what’s the point of being rich if I’m spending the rest of my life in a four-by-nine cell?”

“Tell me something,” Elsie says. “You remember in court, how Salazar implied Jimmy’s drug use might have been a one-time thing? I have to ask you, was Jimmy using again?”

Paris sighs. “Zoe just told me that she caught him doing it once at a taping for the second special. He promised her it would be the only time, to help him get through the last performance. She never told me because he asked her not to, and obviously she was loyal to Jimmy.” She looks down. “I’m ashamed to say I never noticed.”

“Don’t be. Jimmy had decades of practice hiding his addiction.” Elsie frowns. “When did you talk to Zoe?”