Page 35 of Goodbye Girl
“No, no, it’s fine,” she said, moving his margarita to her side of the table. “If you have to take it, take it. And if it matters, I had very little to do with the Tyler McCormick case. The FBI was out of that investigation almost as soon as we got in.”
That jibed with what Detective Cruz had told him. “Thanks for sharing that,” he said. “I’ll make this quick.”
The call had gone to voicemail. Jack walked to the other end of the garden terrace, where he could talk in private, and dialed her back.
“I spoke to my client,” said Ellis.
“And?”
“Shaky has decided not to pursue the civil case in Florida until after the criminal case against Imani is concluded in New York.”
Jack tried not to convey his surprise—shock, actually. By the time the criminal case played out in New York, the civil suit would be moot. Shaky was effectively dropping his lawsuit.
“That’s good news,” said Jack.
“Just to be clear, this is purely a strategy decision. It has nothing to do with Tyler McCormick.”
“Understood,” said Jack.
“And don’t get cocky,” she said. “As soon as this case goes back to court, your client will be on the ropes with her knees wobbling. Just to make sure you understand, I had another batch of text messages couriered to your office today. Take a gander. Judge Stevens didn’t think much of the sixteen messages we showed him, but these are another ball game.”
Had he downed his watermelon margarita the way Andie had inhaled hers, Jack probably would have said something like, “Ooh, I’m scared.”
“Good night,” was all he said, and the call ended.
Jack’s gaze drifted toward the bay. Through the narrow, vertical slats between high-rises, he could see almost as far as Isola di Lolando, the island that never was, where the body had been found twelve years earlier. Then he turned away from the railing and started back toward his wife, the first FBI agent to arrive on the crime scene.
Nothing to do with Tyler McCormick,thought Jack, tucking his phone away.Right.
Chapter 13
Theo placed a tall glass on the table before his favorite customer. Great-uncle Cy was in his nineties, but he still came by the club every now and then. Climbing up onto a barstool was difficult at his age, so Theo kept a small table near the stage on permanent reserve for the club’s namesake. Saturday was jazz night, but the musicians were on break.
“This ain’t right,” Cy said.
“Ginger beer, three ice cubes,” said Theo.
“Not that,” said Cy, pointing to his copy of theNew York Timeson the table. It was open to an article about Imani’s “go pirate” campaign and the criminal charges brought by the U.S. attorney in New York. “Explainthisto me.”
Theo let his other bartender know he was “taking five” and joined his uncle at his favorite table, the one that still had a matchbook from the long-gone Cotton Club under one of the legs to keep it from wobbling.
“It’s a complicated thing,” said Theo.
“Nothin’ complicated about telling people to steal someone else’s property. It’s just wrong.”
“It’s her music.”
“It ain’t her music,” said Cy. “If I build you a car, and then I sell that car to you, can I still drive that car? No! I have to build a new car.”
“I hear what you’re saying,” said Theo. “Taylor Swift re-recorded her masters to get around her contract.”
“I was talking about Frank Sinatra. He did it first. But good for Taylor. Your friend Imani needs to get her butt in the studio, stop whining, and do the work.”
“It’s not whining. A lot of artists agree with her.”
“Like who?”
The answer was in the article, and it concerned Theo to think the old man had forgotten what he’d just read. Or maybe he just didn’t believe theNew York Timeswhen it reported that hundreds of artists were retweeting Imani’s “go pirate” message. Some, like Imani, were trapped in onerous contracts with their first label. But even artists who opposed piracy under any circumstances stood in support of Imani’s First Amendment right to free speech. The most influential supporters of all were the world’s richest and most visible musicians, who made their real money not from music, but from clothing lines, perfume, jewelry, and the like. The royalties they might lose to an uptick in music piracy was chump change compared to the earnings from a joint venture with a French luxury goods conglomerate or a sponsorship with a cosmetic company. In fact, “standing in solidarity” with Imani’s “go pirate” campaign made them all the more controversial and interesting to their fans.