and took the two Cokes out to the deck, where Julia had her back to me. Instead of the ocean, she was looking at her cell phone and texting someone.
“Incredible view, isn’t it?” I said. “I’ve got this place until April when Gerry gets back.”
Julia finished texting but still wouldn’t meet my gaze. If there was one thing I was familiar with, it was fear, and I recognized it in Julia’s eyes.
“Something’s happened to Caleigh.”
Caleigh (whose name rhymed with ‘gaily’) Nussbaum had been Julia’s best friend since first grade. Marty and Erika Nussbaum’s only child was as close to a princess as American democracy allows.
“She’s disappeared.”
“What do you mean, ‘disappeared’?”
“She’s not at school, she’s not texting back, hasn’t posted on her wall; nobody knows where she is.”
“Did you ask her parents where she is?”
“You know Marty and Erika. Anything they said would be a lie.”
I certainly knew Marty. We used to say about him that the way to tell if he was lying was to see if his lips were moving. I’d met Erika a few times, but she’d made little impression on me, other than being the sort of woman who always defers to her husband.
“When was the last time you saw her?”
I recognized this too: riffling through the mental alternatives before coming up with the most presentable story. How awful to see Julia taking on my worst characteristics.
“At school. Two days ago.”
Somehow, I knew it wasn’t the truth. A liar can usually recognize another.
“Are you sure she’s not just home sick and not answering her phone?”
My suggestion didn’t even warrant a reply.
“What do Jonathan...and Lynda say?” I tried not to choke on the name. Jonathan and I had lived together but never married. We’d talked about it, and each of us wanted to at different times but never simultaneously. He married his next girlfriend quickly. There’d been some overlap. It had been a sore point. To say the least.
“They work for Marty. They’re not going to want to rock the boat.” She turned towards me, and I could see the apprehension in her eyes. “I need you to help me find her.”
I was startled. “Me?”
“You used to write that detective show.” She paused. “And you’re not all caught up in that Hollywood bullshit.”
In my show, Jinx Magruder solved a murder a week. The more scared I was, the braver she became; the more my life spun out of control, the more commanding was Jinx.
“Honey, that was television! Make believe. It doesn’t have anything to do with real life. You should know that better than anybody.” I took a swig of my Coke. “If you’re really worried about Caleigh, tell Jonathan and Lynda. Let them talk to the Nussbaums. It sounds like maybe the police should be involved.”
The sun was warm, but a breeze rippling from the ocean was salty and cool. My palms were starting to sweat, and yet my skin felt clammy. A wave of nausea turned my stomach, and I thought perhaps I should have poured myself that shot of rum after all. I pulled my sweater close to me, hoping Julia wouldn’t see that my hands were trembling.
“There’s this big merger in the works. Poseidon is being bought by Alliance. If it goes through, everyone is going to make a ton of money, including Jonathan and Lynda.”
“But surely, if something’s happened to Caleigh that would be more important than money...”
The words weren’t out of my mouth before she shot me a look that reminded me that to Marty Nussbaum there was nothing more important than money.
“...at least to Jonathan?”
Julia looked out at the ocean, as if weighing how much it was important for me to know. I followed her gaze. A few sandpipers scampered at the shoreline, leaving tiny footprints in the wet sand as the tide rolled towards them and away. A lone seagull flew low over the water.
“If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell my dad?”
Deep inside, where my heart used to be, I felt something stir, something furry, that had slumbered but now stretched and yawned, touched that Julia sill thought she could trust me.
“Of course.”
“Have you ever heard of ‘enjo kosai’?”
“No. What’s that?”
“It’s Japanese. It means ‘paid dating.’”
I waited for what came next.
“It’s really big in Japan. It’s like when older men want to be with teenage girls. They like pay to take her to dinner and buy her presents and stuff. Caleigh was really into it.”
“Wait a minute. What do you mean they want to be with teenage girls?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They really get off on being with young girls. It’s like some sort of father-daughter thing. Except for the sex.”
Somebody told me once that you learn a lot more from kids when you don’t react to what they tell you but just listen without judgment. So I just said, “Oh?”
“It’s like a secret thing. Old guys who are into teenage girls. Caleigh was making tons of money at it. You can make like $1000 a night. Sometimes even more.”
I sputtered on my Coke. “But Caleigh’s parents have all the money in the world. Literally. What does she possibly need money for?”
I remembered the year that Marty made headlines for receiving a bonus worth more than the Writer’s Guild was asking for its entire membership for a three-year contract.
“She won’t even let Caleigh have her own credit card. When you think of what she spends and she won’t even give Caleigh a credit card?” Julia made it sound like child abuse. “She treats Caleigh like one of her dolls that she can dress up any way she wants.”
I remembered now that Marty’s mansion was famous for its enormous size with an extra wing to house the booty of Erika’s compulsive shopping. And that Erika was famous for having a collection of dolls.
“This way she can buy anything she wants. Like, she got two Prada dresses? And three Balenciaga bags. That’s why a lot of girls from my school are doing it. So they can buy whatever they want.”
“Girls from your school?”
“Caleigh got a bunch of us into it.”
I felt my stomach knot. “You too?”
Julia held my eye for only the briefest moment before looking away and shrugging, like it was no big deal. I was speechless. It wasn’t only the
