Blake Crouch - Confidence Girl - The Letty Dobesh Chronicles

6

Riding down to the lobby, Letty watched herself in the reflection of the elevator doors. So did the twenty-year-old boy with an obvious hangover standing beside her. She didn’t blame him. She looked stunning. The little black dress was Chanel. The fuck-me pumps were Jimmy Choo. They made her legs look like stilts. She’d worn wigs before but nothing as finely-made as this one—wavy red hair that fell just past her shoulders. Javier certainly had a well-developed sense of style, but she couldn’t imagine he’d put this ensemble together all by himself.

The elevator doors spread apart. Letty tried to steady her breathing as she walked out into the lobby past a grouping of palm trees in planters.

She glanced at her watch.

3:58.

As she approached the revolving door at the entrance, a man stood up from a leather chair. He wore a black suit and carried the beefy build of a bouncer. Bald, graying goatee, and a sharp skepticism in his eyes. She figured the extra padding under his jacket for a shoulder holster.

“Ms. Kitt?”

“The one and only.”

The man extended his hand and she shook it. “I’m James. I’ll be taking you to Mr. Fitch. Right this way.”

He led her outside to a silver Yukon Denali idling on the curb and opened the rear passenger door. Letty climbed in. The driver didn’t bother to introduce himself. He wore sunglasses and a black suit almost identical to James’. He was younger with a buzz cut and a strong, chiseled jaw that Letty associated with soldiers.

The radio was tuned to NPR and turned down so low that Letty could barely hear it.

James sat beside her.

As they pulled out into traffic, he reached behind them into the cargo area and emerged with a black leather pad. He opened it and handed Letty a sheet of legal size paper. At the bottom, she noticed a line for the signature of Selena Kitt.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“A Non-Disclosure Agreement.”

“For what?”

“For anything that happens from the moment you climbed into this vehicle until you’re returned to Key West.”

She studied the document.

“Looks like a bunch of legalese.”

“Pretty much.”

“You wanna give me the cliff notes since I didn’t go to law school?”

“It says that you agree not to disclose any details regarding your time with Mr. Fitch. Not in writing. Not in conversation with anyone. And if you do, you can be sued for breach of contract in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida.”

“You mean I can’t write a tell-all book and then sell the movie rights about Mr. Fitch’s last night of freedom?” She smiled to convey the intended humor, but James just tapped the signature line with a meaty finger.

“Sign right here, please.”

# # #

They parked at a marina on the west coast of the island, not far from the hotel. Letty walked between her escorts to the end of a long dock. Waited for several minutes while the men took in the mooring lines on a fifty-foot yacht. When they’d prepped the boat for departure, the driver climbed to the bridge. James offered Letty a hand and pulled her aboard. He led her up several steps and through a glass door into a salon.

The pure luxury stopped her in her tracks and took her breath away.

“Please make yourself comfortable,” James said, gesturing to a wraparound sofa.

Letty eased down onto the cool, white vinyl.

“Would you care for a drink?” he asked.

She knew she shouldn’t, but she felt so jittery she figured just one wouldn’t hurt. Might even help to calm her down.

Letty peered around James at a wet bar stocked with strictly high-end booze.

“I see you’ve got Chopin,” she said.

“Rocks?”

“Yes.”

“With a twist?”

“No thank you.”

James crossed the teak floor to the freezer and took out a bucket of ice. Letty leaned back into the cushion and crossed her legs. The engines grumbled to life deep inside the hull. At the bar, James scooped ice cubes into a rocks glass and poured. He brought her drink over with a napkin.

“Thank you, James.”

He unbuttoned his black jacket and sat down beside her.

She could feel the subtle rocking as the yacht taxied out into the marina.

There were windows everywhere, natural light streaming in through the glass. The view was of a colony of sailboat masts, the dwindling shoreline of Key West, and the sea.

Letty sipped her drink. The vodka was nearly flavorless in her mouth with a slight peppery burn going down.

“That’s very good.” She set her glass on the coffee table.

“We need to have a conversation,” James said.

“Okay.”

“You’re aware of who your client is?”

“Mr. Estrada explained everything to me.”

“This is a very important night for Mr. Fitch.”

“I understand that.”

“And you’re here for one reason, Ms. Kitt. To make it as special and as memorable as it can possibly be.” Letty was nodding and trying to find a window to break eye contact. But James’ stare held her. She couldn’t help feeling they were the eyes of a cop. Hopefully an ex-cop. “There are a few topics of conversation that are off-limits,” he continued. “You are not to bring up the case against Mr. Fitch, his trial, or his conviction in any way. You are not to discuss his sentence or anything relating to the prison term he’s facing.”

“Okay.”

“You will not discuss anything you’ve read in the papers or on the Internet. You will not discuss your view of his guilt or innocence.”

“I have no views. No opinions whatsoever.”

“Now I need you to stand up for a minute.”

“Why?”

“Just do it please.”

Letty uncrossed her legs and stood.

James got up as well and faced her.

“Hold your arms out.”

“Are you frisking me?”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing. Mr. Fitch has received numerous death threats since the case against him was filed.”

“And you think I’m packing something in this itty bitty dress?”

“Hold your arms out horizontal to the floor.”

Letty did as she was told and stared out the window while James patted her down, his hands roving over every nook and cranny.

“Jesus, at least buy me dinner first.”

“All right, you can sit, but I will need to search your purse.”

Letty handed over the Louis Vuitton.

The yacht exited the marina. The engines roared to life as they throttled out into open water. She could feel the tension in her gut ratcheting up a notch. Having never learned to swim, being surrounded by water always made her uneasy.

She tried not to watch too intently as James opened the handbag. He removed the contents, one at a time, and lined them up on the coffee table.

Lipstick.

Mascara.

Package of Kleenex.

Hotel keycard.

He paused as he lifted out the mini spray bottle.

“What’s this?” he asked.

Letty’s heart stomped in her chest.

“Just what it says. Breath freshener.”

James held it up to the light, read the label. “Watermelon?”

“Try it if you like.”

James let slip a tight smile and set the bottle on the table. Then he dumped out the remaining items: a condom, a mirror, brush, gum, and two hair bands.

“You left your cell phone. Good.”

James held the interior of the handbag up to the window so the sunlight could strike the black, textile lining.

After a moment of close inspection, he handed her the bag, said, “I apologize for the intrusion. We should be arriving in less than twenty minutes.”

James walked out of the salon. She heard him talking quietly into his cellphone.

Letty returned everything to her purse and settled back into the cushion with her glass. She sipped her drink and turned her thoughts to this man she would be spending the coming hours with. From everything she’d read, Fitch was a monster. His conspiracy and fraud had resulted in the bankruptcy of PowerTech. Fifteen thousand employees lost their jobs. Many lost their life savings. Investors in PowerTech lost billions.