Elsinore Read Online Free Page B

brought her here every night I could. She was twenty. I was forty-five. And she was more of a woman than the grandmas at the other tables. I was the boy, Holden. I was the boy. Jealous. Petty. Stupid. I had a private army watching. They sat with her at lunch counters. She begged me to stop. ‘Please,’ she said. I read into that remark. I saw secret lovers. I doubled the detail of men and women who were following her. I collected all the notes, bound them into books. It was like a library of precise gibberish.”
    â€œI know what you mean. I get crazy when I’m in love. But couldn’t you have stopped yourself, Mr. Phipps? Did your army come up with anything that could incriminate your girl?”
    â€œNot a word.”
    â€œAnd that still wasn’t enough?”
    â€œNo. I was the greedy sort.”
    Food appeared at the table. Bread, cheese, omelettes, apples, and a soufflé. Demitasse that was almost as delicious as the coffee in Rome, where Holden had done some piecework for Schatz. He had an omelette with grapes in it. The bread crumbled in his fist like cake.
    â€œEven as I started to lose her, Holden, I was happy. I had a picture of her life, from moment to moment.”
    â€œBut you’re not happy now.”
    The old man ate his coffee with a spoon.
    â€œIt was inevitable. She ran away, married an accountant in Rochester. I wrecked his firm. He had no idea what was happening. The poor man committed suicide.”
    â€œAnd the girl?”
    â€œWent out of her mind, Holden.”
    â€œWhat was her name?”
    â€œJudith Church.”
    â€œShe still alive?”
    â€œYes. She’s a baby … sixty-seven.”
    â€œAnd you want me to find her? Is that what this breakfast is about?”
    â€œFind her, man? I know where she is. You think I’d ever lose sight of her?”
    â€œDid she recover her senses?”
    â€œOf course,” Phipps said. “The woman wasn’t a lunatic. She was under distress.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you court her again?”
    â€œBloody logical, aren’t you, Holden? I did court her again. She wouldn’t have me. Said I’d ruined her life. Hated my smell. Hated the look of my face. But that’s how I am. I manipulate. Stocks. Bonds. People.”
    â€œWhere is she now?”
    â€œRight in New York.”
    â€œAnd you want her back?”
    â€œNo, no. That’s not the point of the story. We were talking about my restaurant. I shut it down after Judith went to Rochester that first time. I couldn’t bear to watch people eating under this roof while she was away. I wanted to murder them all, the bloody bastards, chewing their steaks.”
    â€œThat’s a bit eccentric for a businessman. Why didn’t you keep off the property?”
    â€œI couldn’t. I’d open my eyes and imagine her eating at a table with other men.”
    â€œI studied accounting, Mr. Phipps.”
    â€œI know. Three semesters at Bernard Baruch College. I had you investigated. I always do that when I consider hiring someone.”
    â€œYou didn’t let me finish,” Holden said. “You were making a fortune from the place, right? You could have sold it, but you didn’t want to. Then why didn’t you come up to this joint wearing a blindfold, so you wouldn’t have to imagine looking at your lady?”
    The old man started to laugh and coffee dribbled from the edges of his mouth. A waiter arrived with an enormous napkin. Phipps seized it and patted his mouth. Then he returned the napkin and banished the waiter to some far corner of the restaurant. “I like you, Holden. I like you very much.”
    â€œI still don’t understand what I’m doing here. I can’t help you with your darling. I don’t kidnap women, Mr. Phipps. And three semesters at Baruch doesn’t qualify me for any of the outfits you run.”
    â€œYou’re valuable to me.”
    â€œHow?