Acts of Violet(42)
CAMERON FRANK: How did Violet justify it?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: Oh man, she was clever. Damn clever. All the complaining I’d been doing about the paparazzi, living under a microscope—she turned it around on me. Said getting married was something she didn’t want to cheapen with public scrutiny. Said it was too important. I was such a sucker for buying into her bullshit. Still, I went along with it. When she threw in a prenup, I went along with that, too. We got married in California, in secret, just like she wanted, in December of ’98.
CAMERON FRANK: Was there much of a honeymoon period?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: We spent a long weekend in Palm Springs after the civil ceremony, then went back to work. But in the broader sense … I mean, I don’t know what was going on in her head, but I guess I felt closer to her. Violet seemed to feel bad about excluding my family from the wedding—she didn’t get to meet them when we were in Cali—so she cut down on the partying and made an effort for us to have more quiet time together. It was nice. It almost started to feel like a normal life. Then she had to leave for Peru.
Violet swore she’d be safe—private plane, bodyguards, the works—but she could have no outside contact while she was away. The whole thing sounded sketchy, but what could I do?
CAMERON FRANK: What did you do?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: I tried to put it out of my head and not think the worst, which was that it was some kind of ruse to have an affair. Up to that point, Violet had been out on a few dates, but she always told me about them, and it was nothing serious. I had no choice but to trust her and trust that this was just business. I visited my parents and sisters, met my newborn nephew. Came back to Vegas and drank a lot until my wife came home.
CAMERON FRANK: And how were things after that?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: They felt … off. Violet acted like she was trying to be on her best behavior with me. Or the version of her she thought I liked the best. She stopped baiting me into stupid arguments and playing practical jokes. It was a little Stepford Wife-y. The most she’d say about the trip was that everything went smoothly.
It still seemed like something was bugging her, though. She was definitely more preoccupied. And a lot more fidgety. It used to be that we could watch a movie as long as she had a deck of cards to keep her hands busy. After the trip, she couldn’t sit through a half-hour show without needing to get up, walk around, do something. Days off were the worst for her, so she started booking TV guest spots and film cameos, mostly in LA and New York. Sometimes I went with her, but the extra travel wore me out after a while. So did the late dinners, parties, and clubs, which I skipped out on more and more. I suggested we start hiking again, but she said she was tired of all the same old trails, which wasn’t like her at all. Then she decided the nightly performances weren’t enough for her. She wanted to do a smaller, more intimate show, but to keep it off the books. Her contract entitled her to have additional suites reserved for her, at the Kintana and affiliated resorts, so she started using them for secret close-up shows.
CAMERON FRANK: How involved were you with those?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: Not at all. Close-up magic is more a solo operation. I didn’t get why she needed to do it. I wanted a life outside of performing, whereas performing was Violet’s life. She said it was about putting away enough for us to have a secure future, but once you’re earning millions, how much more security do you need? And the pace she worked at seemed unhealthy. She couldn’t have been sleeping more than a few hours on nights when she did the close-up shows, which were happening more and more often. And during the day, she was holed up in her workshop. Or off filming another “special appearance.” I barely saw her.
CAMERON FRANK: Were there any more mysterious trips?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: There were. A couple months after that first one, she was summoned again. This time, to somewhere in the Caribbean, another one of those off-the-radar things. At that point, she was so overworked, I thought she was headed for burnout, so I hoped it could also be a vacation of sorts for her. Part of me still wondered why I couldn’t join her, what she might be hiding. One time, I walked in on her arranging stacks of cash in a suitcase.
CAMERON FRANK: What was that about?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: As if I’d ever get a straight answer. Here she was, looking like she’d just robbed a bank, telling me not to worry, to pretend I didn’t see anything. She left with the suitcase, came back a few hours later and refused to say a word about it. If I tried to bring it up again, she’d either blow up at me or give me the silent treatment. I stopped asking about it. But all these things, they added up. Everything she did behind my back chipped away at the trust between us. At the time, I thought it was a rough patch, something all marriages went through. But things only got worse and worse. Violet’s nervous energy increased, to the point where I wondered if she had a drug problem.
CAMERON FRANK: Did you discover any substance abuse issues?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: Here’s the crazy thing. I never saw Violet take anything besides vitamins. But her whole thing with vodka …
CAMERON FRANK [STUDIO]: Violet Volk claimed to not drink any alcohol except for vodka, and not just any vodka, but a special home brew she carried around in a silver flask with a diamond-encrusted double V. It was from a recipe passed down several generations, unique in that it was brewed from peas instead of potatoes, and Violet quickly negotiated a deal with a craft vodka distillery on the Jersey Shore. Volk Vodka remains one of the top three vodka brands today, with all proceeds going to support wildlife preserves.