Donna Tartt - The Secret History

'When?'

'About an hour ago.'

'You don't think they've done anything, do you?'

'We shouldn't jump to conclusions,' said Henry. He was looking out at the roof of the bookstore, which was sheeted in ice and glittered in the sun. 'What we want is for Camilla to drop in on Cloke and see if she can find out what's going on. I'd go myself, except I hardly know him.'

'And he hates me,' said Francis.

'I know him a little.'

'Not well enough. He and Charles are on fairly good terms, but we can't find him, either.'

I unwrapped a Rolaids tablet from a roll in my pocket and began to chew on it.

'What's that you're eating?' said Francis.

'Rolaids.'

Till have one of those, if you don't mind,' Henry said. 'I guess we should drive by the house again.'

This time Camilla came to the door, opening it only a crack and looking out warily. Henry started to say something, but she gave him a sharp warning glance. 'Hello,' she said. 'Come in.'

We followed her inside without a word, down the dark hail into the living room. There, with Charles, was Cloke Rayburn.

Charles stood up nervously; Cloke stayed where he was and looked at us with sleepy, inscrutable eyes. He had a sunburn and he needed a shave. Charles raised his eyebrows at us and mouthed the word 'stoned.'

'Hello,' said Henry after a pause. 'How are you?'

Cloke coughed – a deep, nasty-sounding rasp – and shook a Marlboro from a pack on the table before him. 'Not bad,' he said.

'You?'

'Fine.'

He stuck the cigarette in the corner of his mouth, lit it, coughed again. 'Hey,' he said to me. 'How's it going?'

'Pretty good.'

'You were at that party at Durbinstall on Sunday.'

'Yes.'

'Seen Mona?' he said without any inflection whatever.

'No,' I said brusquely, and was suddenly aware that everyone was looking at me.

'Mona?' said Charles, after a puzzled silence.

'This girl,' Cloke said. 'Sophomore. Lives in Bunny's house.'

'Speaking of whom,' said Henry.

Cloke leaned back in his chair and fixed Henry with a bloodshot, heavy-lidded gaze. 'Yeah,' he said. 'We were just talking about Bun. You haven't seen him the last couple days, have you?'

'No. Have you?'

Cloke didn't say anything for a moment. Then he shook his head. 'No,' he said hoarsely, reaching for an ashtray. 'I can't figure out where the hell he is. Last time I saw him was Saturday night, not that I thought about it or anything until today.'

'I talked to Marion last night,' Henry said.

'I know,' said Cloke. 'She's kind of worried. I saw her in Commons this morning and she told me he hasn't been in his room for like five days. She thought maybe he was at home or something, but she called his brother Patrick. Who says he ain't in Connecticut. And she talked to Hugh, too, and he says he's not in New York, either.'

'Did she speak to his parents?'

'Well, shit, she wasn't trying to get him in trouble.'

Henry was silent for a moment. Then he said: 'Where do you think he is?'

Cloke looked away, shrugged uneasily.

'You've known him longer than I have. He's got a brother at Yale, doesn't he?'

'Yeah. Brady. Business school. But Patrick said he'd just talked to Brady, you know?'

'Patrick lives at home, right?'

'Yeah. He's got some kind of business thing he's working on, a sporting goods store or something, trying to get it off the ground.'

'And Hugh's the lawyer.'

'Yes. He's the oldest. He's at Milbank Tweed in New York.'

'What about the other brother – the married one?'

'Hugh's the married one.'

'But isn't there another one who's married, too?'

'Oh. Teddy. I know he's not there.'

'Why?'

'The T-man lives with his in-laws. I don't think they get along too well.'

There was a long silence.

'Can you think of anyplace he might be?' said Henry.

Cloke leaned forward, his long, dark hair falling in his face, and knocked the ash offhis cigarette. He had a troubled, secretive expression, and after a few moments he looked up. 'Have you noticed,' he said, 'that Bunny's had an awful lot of cash around the last two or three weeks?'

'What do you mean?' said Henry, a trifle sharply.

'You know Bunny. He's broke all the time. Lately, though, he's had all this money. Like, a lot. Maybe his grandmother sent it to him or something, but you can be damn sure he didn't get it from his parents.'

There was another long silence. Henry bit his lip. 'What are you trying to get at?' he said.

'You have noticed it, then.'

'Now that you mention it, I have.'

Cloke shifted uncomfortably in his chair. 'This is off the record, now,' he said.

With a sinking feeling in my chest, I sat down.

'What is it?' Henry said.

'I don't know if I should even mention it.'

'If you think it important, by all means do,' Henry said curtly.

Cloke took a last draw on his cigarette and ground it out with a deliberate, corkscrewing movement. 'You know,' he said, 'that I deal a little coke now and then, don't you? Not much,' he said hastily, just a few grams here and there. Just for me and my friends. But it's easy work and I can make a little money at it, too.'

We all looked at each other. This was no news at all. Cloke was one of the biggest drug dealers on campus.

'So?' said Henry.

Cloke looked surprised. Then he shrugged. 'So,' he said, 'I know this Chinaman down on Mott Street in New York, kind of a scary guy, but he likes me and he'll pretty much give me however much I can scrape up the cash for. Blow, mostly, sometimes a little pot as well but that's kind of a headache. I've known him for years. We even did a little business when Bunny and I were at Saint Jerome's.' He paused. 'Well. You know how broke Bunny always is.'

'Yes.'

'Well, he's always been real interested in the whole thing.

Quick money, you know. If he'd ever had the cash I might've cut him in on it – on the financial end, I mean – but he never did and besides, Bunny has no business being mixed up in a deal like this.' He lit another cigarette. 'Anyway,' he said. That's why I'm worried.'

Henry frowned. 'I'm afraid I don't follow.'

'This was a bad mistake I guess but I let him ride down with me a couple weeks ago.'

We had already heard about this excursion to New York.

Bunny had bragged about it incessantly. 'And?' said Henry.

'I don't know. I'm just kind of worried, is all. He knows where the guy lives – right? – and he's got all this money, so when I was talking to Marion, I just '

'You don't think he went down there by himself?' said Charles.

'I don't know. I sure hope not. He never actually met the guy or anything.'

'Would Bunny do something like that?' said Camilla.

'Frankly,' said Henry, unhooking his glasses and giving them a quick swipe with his handkerchief, 'it strikes me as just the type of stupid thing that Bunny would do.'

Nobody said anything for a moment. Henry glanced up. His eyes without the glasses were blind, unwavering, strange. 'Does Marion know about this?' he said.

'No,' said Cloke. 'And I'd just as soon you didn't tell her, okay?'

'Do you have any other reason for thinking this?'

'No. Except where else could he be? And Marion told you about Rika Thalheim seeing him at the bank on Wednesday?'

'Yes.'

'That's kind of weird but not really, not if you think about it.

Say he went down to New York with a couple hundred dollars, right? And talking like he had a lot more where that came from.

These guys'll chop you up and put you in a garbage bag for twenty bucks. I mean, I don't know. Maybe they told him to go back home and close out his account and come back with all he had.'

'Bunny Joesn t even have a bank account.'

'That you know of,' Cloke pointed out.