Both parents are doctors. The girl was a student at Yeshiva University.”
“I’ll go,” Jimmy said. “I’ve always wanted to see how the other half lives.”
“I’ll go with him,” said Lee.
Butts gave Krieger an evil smile. “Looks like you and me will have a cozy little time together holding down the fort.”
Krieger returned a steely smile. “I look forward to it, Detective.”
C HAPTER T EN
T he Adlers lived in Waccabuc, a well-heeled neighborhood near the upscale town of Katonah, a few miles from the Connecticut border.
“Get a load of this, Angus,” Jimmy said as they drove past rambling white clapboard houses snuggled against the rolling hillsides of Upper Westchester. The homes were elegant, roomy and expensive-looking, sitting on gently sloping lawns bordered by rows of majestic oak trees.
Jimmy nodded toward a three-story Cape Cod–style mansion festooned with tiny white fairy lights. “There’s some major money here.”
“Yeah,” Lee said, wondering which of the tasteful nineteenth-century houses were home to Wall Street swindlers, drug kingpins and real estate developers who financed cheap, ugly high-rises so they could live in sequestered Old World luxury.
“Wonder how much of this money is legit?” Jimmy said as they passed a golf course bordered by looming maple trees.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Lee said.
Jimmy smiled. “We always did think alike, you and me. I mean, considering you’re a Round Eyes.”
Round Eyes was the derogatory term some Chinese people used to describe Caucasians.
“Hey, watch it,” Lee replied. “You don’t want me to tell my mother that you’re prejudiced, do you?”
“Don’t threaten me,” said Jimmy. “Or I won’t invite you over to dinner.”
“Your dad is an amazing cook.”
Jimmy’s father used to run a restaurant in Chinatown that was very popular with the locals. He’d sold it to a cousin some years ago but continued to give advice to the kitchen staff, often immigrants who spoke only Mandarin Chinese.
“I know, and my mom didn’t even marry my dad because of his cooking.”
“Okay, I’ll bite,” said Lee. “Why did she marry him?”
“Because of his enormous—”
“Oh, here we go,” Lee groaned.
“I’m just saying ,” Jimmy said, keeping his eyes on the road.
“I can’t believe I actually missed you. What was I thinking?”
“Oh, Angus, stop being such a dour Scot. Leave that to your mom.”
Lee smiled. Jimmy always cheered him up. Since his bout with depression, a lot of people treated him with kid gloves, but not Jimmy. He was the same pain in the ass he had always been, always looking for trouble and very often finding it.
“Seriously, how have you been?” Jimmy asked, not taking his eyes from the road.
“Can’t complain, because if I did—”
“No one would listen. No, I mean it—how have you been?”
Lee looked out the window as the car zipped past a meadow bordered by a low stone wall. “Good days and bad days.”
Jimmy nodded. He had the good taste not to pry too much, to back off when it was called for. “Any news about your sister?”
“No. It’s a cold case by now.”
“Hey, cold cases get solved all the time.”
“Not when there’s no evidence—and no body.”
“Seriously, no evidence at all?”
“They had some leads early on that went nowhere. It’s like she just dropped off the face of the earth.”
Jimmy shook his head. “Man, that’s rough. I know if anything happened to my little brother, I’d freak.”
“How is Barry?”
“He’s doing pretty good. Thanks for asking.”
Jimmy’s younger brother, Barry, was severely autistic and lived at home with his parents. He was something of a savant with numbers and had memorized pi to a thousand decimal places. It was people he had trouble with—the simplest social exchange could leave him baffled and perplexed. He idolized Jimmy, who was fiercely protective of him.
“Here it is,” said Jimmy,
Aiden James, Patrick Burdine
David Stuckler Sanjay Basu