Michael Crichton - State Of Fear

"I am not sure it was a nervous breakdown."

"It must have been," Drake said. "What else could it have been? My God, the man disowns his life's work, and then goes out and kills himself. By the way, you can forget about any documents that he signed yesterday. Under the circumstances, he obviously was not in his right mind. And I know," he added, "that you wouldn't argue the point differently. You're already conflicted enough, doing work both for him and for us. You really should have recused yourself and seen to it that any papers were drawn up by a neutral attorney. I'm not going to accuse you of malpractice, but you've shown highly questionable judgment."

Evans said nothing. The threat was plain enough.

"Well, anyway," Drake said, resting his hand on Evans's knee, "I just wanted to apologize. I know you did your best with a difficult situation, Peter. And amp;I think we're going to come out of this all right."

The plane landed in Van Nuys. A dozen black SUV limos, the latest fashion, were lined up on the runway, waiting for the passengers. All the celebrities hugged, kissed air, and departed.

Evans was the last to leave. He didn't rate a car and driver. He climbed into his little Prius hybrid, which he'd parked there the day before, and drove through the gates and onto the freeway. He thought he should go to the office, but unexpected tears came to his eyes as he negotiated the midday traffic. He wiped them away and decided he was too damned tired to go to the office. Instead, he would go back to his apartment to get some sleep.

He was almost home when his cell phone rang. It was Jennifer Haynes, at the Vanutu litigation team. "I'm sorry about George," she said. "It's just terrible. Everybody here is very upset, as you can imagine. He pulled the funding, didn't he?"

"Yes, but Nick will fight it. You'll get your funding."

"We need to have lunch," she said.

"Well, I think"

"Today?"

Something in her voice made him say, "I'll try."

"Phone me when you're here."

He hung up. The phone rang again almost immediately. It was Margo Lane, Morton's mistress. She was angry. "What the fuck is going on?"

"How do you mean?" Evans said.

"Was anybody going to fucking call me?"

"I'm sorry, Margo"

"I just saw it on TV. Missing in San Francisco and presumed dead. They had pictures of the car."

"I was going to call you," Evans said, "when I got to my office." The truth was, she had completely slipped his mind.

"And when would that have been, next week? You're as bad as that sick assistant of yours. You're his lawyer, Peter. Do your fucking job. Because, you know, let's face it, this is not a surprise. I knew this was going to happen. We all did. I want you to come over here."

"I have a busy day."

"Just for a minute."

"All right," he said. "Just for a minute."

Margo Lane lived on the fifteenth floor of a high-rise apartment building in the Wilshire Corridor. The doorman had to call up before Evans was allowed in the elevator. Margo knew he was coming up, but she still answered the door wrapped in a towel. "Oh! I didn't realize you'd be here so soon. Come in, I just got out of the shower." She frequently did something like this, flaunting her body. Evans came into the apartment and sat on the couch. She sat opposite him. The towel barely covered her torso.

"So," she said, "what's all this about George?"

"I'm sorry," Evans said, "but George crashed his Ferrari at very high speed and was thrown from the car. He fell down a cliffthey found a shoe at the bottomand into the water. His body hasn't been recovered but they expect it to turn up in a week or so."

With her love of drama, he was sure Margo would start to cry, but she didn't. She just stared at him. "That's bullshit," she said.

"Why do you say that, Margo?"

"Because. He's hiding or something. You know it."

"Hiding? From what?"

"Probably nothing. He'd become completely paranoid. You know that."

As she said it, she crossed her legs. Evans was careful to keep his eyes on her face.

"Paranoid?" he asked.

"Don't act like you didn't know, Peter. It was obvious."

Evans shook his head. "Not to me."

"The last time he came here was a couple of days ago," she said. "He went right to the window and stood back behind the curtain, looking down onto the street. He was convinced he was being followed."

"Had he done that before?"

"I don't know. I hadn't seen him much lately; he was traveling. But whenever I called him and asked when he was coming over, he said it wasn't safe to come here."

Evans got up and walked to the window. He stood to one side and looked down at the street below.

"Are you being followed, too?" she said.

"I don't think so."

Traffic on Wilshire Boulevard was heavy, the start of afternoon rush hour. Three lanes of cars moving fast in each direction. He could hear the roar of the traffic, even up there. But there was no place to park, to pull out from the traffic. A blue Prius hybrid had pulled to the curb across the street, and traffic was backing up behind it, honking. After a moment, the Prius started up again.

No place to stop.

"Do you see anything suspicious?" she asked.

"No."

"I never did either. But George didor thought he did."

"Did he say who was following him?"

"No." She shifted again. "I thought he should have medication. I told him."

"And what did he say to that?"

"He said I was in danger, too. He told me I should leave town for a while. Go visit my sister in Oregon. But I won't."

Her towel was coming loose. Margo tightened it, lowering it across her firm, enhanced breasts. "So I'm telling you, George went into hiding," she said. "And I think you better find him fast, because the man needs help."

"I see," Evans said. "But I suppose it's possible he isn't in hiding, that he really crashed his car amp;. In which case, there are things you need to do now, Margo."

He explained to her that if George remained missing, his assets could be ordered frozen. Which meant that she ought to withdraw everything from the bank account into which he put money for her every month. So she would be sure to have money to live on.

"But that's silly," she protested. "I know he'll be back in a few days."

"Just in case," Evans said.

She frowned. "Do you know something you're not telling me?"

"No," Evans said. "I'm just saying, it could be a while before this thing gets cleared up."

"Look," she said. "He's sick. You're supposed to be his friend. Find him."

Evans said that he would try. When he left, Margo was flouncing off to the bedroom to get dressed before going to the bank.

Outside, in the milky afternoon sunlight, fatigue overwhelmed him. All he wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. He got in his car and started driving. He was within sight of his apartment when his phone rang again.

It was Jennifer, asking where he was.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I can't come today."

"It's important, Peter. Really."

He said he was sorry, and would call her later.

Then Lisa, Herb Lowenstein's secretary, called to say that Nicholas Drake had been trying to reach him all afternoon. "He really wants to talk to you."

"Okay," Evans said, "I'll call."

"He sounds pissed."

"Okay."

"But you better call Sarah first."

"Why?"

His phone went dead. It always did in the back alley of his apartment; it was a dead spot in the cellular net. He slipped the phone into his shirt pocket; he'd call in a few minutes. He drove down the alley, and pulled into his garage space.

He walked up the back stairs to his apartment and unlocked the door.

And stared.