Twenty Years Later(78)

“Now there’s a man lost in his thoughts.”

Avery’s voice snapped him back from his trance.

Walt smiled at her. “Just zoning out.”

Avery opened her eyes excitedly and placed a finger to her ear as the two-man band began to play “The Weight,” by The Band.

“I just requested this.”

“Great song,” Walt said, turning to look over his shoulder at the musicians. “I’ve never heard it played with a violin. Sounds good.”

Avery took the stool next to him. “What were you thinking about?”

A loaded question, Walt thought. He spun his glass a few more times before answering.

“The strange road of life,” he finally said. “I was thinking about how we each came to this place in our lives. Sitting with each other here in this empty city.”

Avery took a sip of vodka. “Strange is one word for that road. Really . . . screwed up would be a better descriptor, though.”

“Your road is that bad?”

“Not bad, just complicated,” Avery said. “I was supposed to be a lawyer for my father’s firm. Being on television was never part of my five-year plan.”

“Really? How did the American Events thing happen?”

“By accident.”

Walt noticed her pause, as if she were about to say something before thinking better of it. He felt a sudden urge to tell Avery everything he knew about her, everything he had learned from the dossier Jim Oliver had delivered to him. He wanted to tell her that he knew all about the Montgomery family. That he knew her mother and brother were dead, and that her father had disappeared while under federal indictment. That he knew everything about her past, and that she didn’t need to go through the painful process of sharing it with him or figuring out what not to tell him. That he wasn’t the person she believed him to be, but something worse. Before any of his thoughts formed to words, Avery spoke again.

“Your story about Meghan the other night got me thinking that you and I have a lot in common.”

“How so?”

“We both ran away. You just did a better job of hiding than I did.”

Walt said nothing, just waited for her to continue.

“You’ve been in New York for what? A week now? Have you called her? Does Meghan know you’re in town?”

This conversation had taken a sudden turn Walt hadn’t expected.

He shook his head. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not ready to call her.”

“What are you running from?”

“What are you running from?” Being pressed on his relationship with Meghan had brought an edge to his voice. He was about to apologize when Avery spoke.

“Ever heard of Garth Montgomery?”

Walt had never been a strong poker player, and bluffing was not his forte. He was sure the shocked look on his face when Avery mentioned her father’s name had not gone unnoticed. Still, he did his best to recover.

“The Thief of Manhattan?”

“Shit,” she said with a laugh. “I forgot about that nickname. But, yeah, that’s him.”

“What about him?”

“He’s my father.”

Walt blinked a few times but couldn’t think of a reasonable question to ask.

“Claire Montgomery is my actual name. Claire Avery Montgomery. When I moved to LA to write for the Times, I used Avery Mason in my byline. It stuck.”

Walt shook his head. “Start from the beginning.”

“After my father was arrested and indicted, I had to get out of New York. On top of stealing billions of dollars from innocent people, my father also had a second life with another woman. I don’t know what I hate him more for. To think the man who used to call me The Claire-Voyant One—the nickname he gave me for my supposed ability to see through his bullshit—had a secret life away from his wife and kids was a betrayal worse than anything he could have stolen.”

Walt’s mind flashed to the shredded postcard patched together with Scotch tape he had found in Avery’s room. The message on it had been addressed to the one-and-only Claire-Voyant.

“I knew my law degree was worthless. No reputable firm was going to hire Garth Montgomery’s daughter. So I fell back on my journalism degree. I moved to California and took a job at the LA Times. I broke a big case about a missing kid in Florida, and it got a lot of attention. I was invited to appear on American Events to tell the story. Mack Carter and I hit it off. Soon, I was guest hosting once a week covering other missing persons stories and the like.”

“As Avery Mason.”

She nodded. “I found my niche with a strange combination of morbidly fascinating cases and the inspirational.”

“Like the lady who crashed into the lake and managed to save her four kids.”

Avery smiled. “You really are a fan of the show.”

Walt nodded. He waited for her to continue.

“Last summer, Mack Carter died while on assignment and HAP News tapped me to take over. I agreed because there was no way I could turn the opportunity down. It’s been a year now, and there have been lots of stories about my success after taking over for one of America’s most beloved newsmagazine hosts. I found myself in this sort of whirlpool I couldn’t get out of. No one’s made the connection to my father yet. But sooner or later, someone will.”