Harlan Coben - Just One Look

“Who pays the bills?” Cora asked.

“Jack does most of them.”

“The phone bill comes to the house?”

“Yes.”

“You look at it?”

“Sure.”

Cora nodded. “Jack has a cell phone, right?”

“Right.”

“What about that bill?”

“What about it?”

“Do you look at it?”

“No, it’s his.”

Cora smiled.

“What?”

“When my ex was cheating on me, he used the cell because I never looked at those bills.”

“Jack isn’t cheating.”

“But he may be keeping secrets, right?”

“Could be,” Grace allowed. “Okay, yeah, probably.”

“So where would he keep the phone bills for his mobile?”

Grace checked the file cabinet. He saved the bills from Cascade. She checked under the Vs for Verizon Wireless. Nothing. “They’re not here.”

Cora rubbed her hands together. “Ooo, suspicious.” She was into it now. “So let’s do that voodoo that they do that we do.”

“And what exactly do we do?”

“Let’s say Jack is keeping something from you. He would probably destroy the bills the minute he gets them, right?”

Grace shook her head. “This is so bizarre.”

“But am I right?”

“Yeah, okay, if Jack is keeping secrets from me-”

“Everyone has secrets, Grace. C’mon, you know that. Are you telling me that this all comes as a total surprise?”

This truth would normally have made Grace pause, but there was no time for such indulgences. “Okay, so let’s say Jack did destroy the cell phone bills-how are we going to get them?”

“Same way I just did. We set up another online account, this time under Verizon Wireless.” Cora started typing.

“Cora?”

“Yep.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“How do you know how to do all this?”

“Practical experience.” She stopped typing and looked back at Grace. “How do you think I found out about Adolf and Eva?”

“You spied on them?”

“Yup. I bought a book called Spying for Dodos or something like that. It’s all in there. I wanted to make sure I had all the facts before I confronted his sorry ass.”

“What did he say when you showed it to him?”

“That he was sorry. That he’d never do it again. That he’d give up Ivana of the Implant and never see her again.”

Grace watched her friend type. “You really love him, don’t you?”

“More than life itself.” Still typing, Cora added, “How about opening another bottle of wine?”

“Only if we’re not driving tonight.”

“You want me to sleep here?”

“We shouldn’t drive, Cora.”

“Okay, deal.”

Grace stood and felt her head reel from the drink. She headed back into the kitchen. Cora often drank too much, but tonight Grace was happy to join her. She opened another bottle of the Lindemans. The wine was warm so she put an ice cube in both. Gauche, but they liked it cold.

When Grace got back into the office, the printer was whirring. She handed Cora a glass and sat. Grace stared at the wine. She started shaking her head.

“What?” Cora said.

“I finally met Jack’s sister.”

“So?”

“I mean, think about it. Sandra Koval. I didn’t even know her name before now.”

“You never asked Jack about her?”

“Not really.”

“Why not?”

Grace took a sip. “I can’t really explain it.”

“Try.”

She looked up and wondered how to put it. “I thought it was healthy. You know, keeping parts of yourself private. I was running away from something. He never pushed me on it.”

“So you never pushed him either?”

“It was more than that.”

“What?”

Grace thought about it. “I never bought into that ‘we have no secrets’ stuff. Jack had a wealthy family and he wanted no part of it. There had been a falling out. I knew that much.”

“Wealthy from what?”

“What do you mean?”

“What business are they in?”

“Some kind of securities firm. Jack’s grandfather started it. They have trust funds and options and voting shares, stuff like that. Nothing Onassis-like, but enough, I guess. Jack won’t have anything to do with it. He won’t vote. He won’t touch the money. He set it up so the trust skips a generation.”

“So Emma and Max will get it?”

“Yep.”

“How do you feel about that?”

Grace shrugged. “You know what I’m realizing?”

“I’m all ears.”

“The reason I never pushed Jack? It had nothing to do with respecting privacy.”

“Then what?”

“I loved him. I loved him more than any man I’d ever met…”

“I feel a ‘but’ coming here.”

Grace felt the tears press against her eyes. “But it all felt so fragile. Does that make sense? When I was with him-this is going to sound so stupid-but when I was with Jack, it was the first time I was happy since, I don’t know, since my father died.”

“You’ve had a lot of pain in your life,” Cora said.

Grace did not reply.

“You were scared it would go away. You didn’t want to open yourself up to more.”

“So I chose ignorance?”

“Hey, ignorance is supposed to be bliss, right?”

“You buy that?”

Cora shrugged. “If I never checked up on Adolf, he probably would have had his fling and gotten over it. Maybe I’d be living with the man I love.”

“You could still take him back.”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

Cora thought about it. “I need the ignorance, I guess.” She picked up her glass and took a long sip.

The printer finished whirring. Grace picked up the sheets and started examining them. Most of the phone numbers she knew. Point of fact, she knew almost all of them.

But one immediately jumped out at her.

“Where’s six-oh-three area code?” Grace asked.

“Beats me. Which call?”

Grace showed her on the monitor. Cora moved the cursor over it.

“What are you doing?” Grace asked.

“You click the number, they tell you who called.”

“For real?”

“Man, what century do you live in? They have talkies now.”

“So all you have to do is click the link?”

“And it’ll tell all. Unless the number is unlisted.”

Cora clicked the left mouse button. A box appeared saying:

NO RECORD OF THAT NUMBER.

“There you go. Unlisted.”

Grace checked her watch. “It’s only nine-thirty,” she said. “Not too late to call.”

“Under the missing-husband rule, no, not too late at all.”

Grace picked up the phone and inputted the number. A piercing feedback, not unlike the one at the Rapture concert, slapped her eardrum. Then: “The number you have called”-the robotic voice stated the number-“has been disconnected. No further information is available.”

Grace frowned.

“What?”

“When was the last time Jack called it?”

Cora checked. “Three weeks ago. He talked for eighteen minutes.”

“It’s disconnected.”

“Hmm, six-oh-three area code,” Cora said, moving to another Web site. She typed in “603 area code” and hit the enter button. The answer came right up. “It’s in New Hampshire. Hold on, let’s Google it.”

“Google what? New Hampshire?”

“The phone number.”

“What will that do?”

“Your number is unlisted, right?”

“Right.”

“Hold on, let me show you something. This doesn’t work every time, but watch.” Cora typed Grace’s phone number into the search engine. “What it will do is search the entire Web for those numbers in a row. Not just phone directories. That won’t do it because, like you said, your number is unlisted. But…”