"Know her current boyfriend?" I said.
"I introduced them."
"Tell us a little about him," Paul said.
"He's a real
doll. Friend of my brother's. I knew Patty was looking to go out, and I knew Rich was single. So I" Caitlin spread her hands and shrugged. "They really connected, you know, right from the start. It was something. You worried about her? Maybe she and Rich just went off, they were crazy like that, I don't mean anything bad about your mom, Paul, she was just ready for fun anytime. I bet they just went off somewhere for a while on the spur.
"They have a place they usually go?" I said.
"Oh, they'd go anywhere. I don't know. Miami, Atlantic City, Club Med. You name it."
"What's Rich's last name?" Paul said.
"Beaumont. Rich Beaumont." She pronounced it with the stress on the last syllable.
"Where's he live?" I said.
"Over in Revere someplace, I think. On the water. I think he's got a condo on the beach."
"Got an address?"
"No, not really. I don't think I ever knew it exactly."
"Phone number?"
Caitlin smiled and spread her hands. "I'd always meet him through my brother."
"Can we talk with your brother?" Paul said.
"Marty? I don't know what Marty can tell you." "How's your brother know
Rich?"
"I don't know, they play handball together. Double date. I think they did some business sometime."
"What's Rich's business?"
"Consultant."
"You know what he consults in?"
"No, just some kind of consulting business."
"What's your brother do?"
"Marty's a paving contractor. Hot top, you know, that stuff."
"And his last name?" I said.
"Martinelli."
"Martin Martinelli?" I said.
"Yeah. My mother was a lunatic. How about Caitlin Martinelli? My old lady was nuts."
"What was it like being my mother's friend?" Paul said.
"Huh?"
"What's she like?"
"You're her kid," Caitlin said. "You should know-better than anybody."
"I should but I don't. What does she care about?" The question was too hard for Caitlin. She frowned. "What did she care about?"
"Yeah."
Caitlin lifted her shoulders. "Ah" Caitlin waved her hands vaguely.
"She, ah. She liked aerobics. You know she cared about her body, and how she looked. And she knew a lot about makeup."
Paul nodded.
Caitlin had a thread to follow out of her confusion. She tumbled on. "And fun," Caitlin said. "Patty loved to have fun."
Paul nodded again.
"Who were her other close friends?" I said.
"I don't really know her other friends She had a friend named Sonny, was a traffic reporter, you know, from a helicopter."
"Man or woman?" I said.
"Woman."
"She have a last name?"
"Oh, sure. I mean, doesn't everybody? I don't know it, though. Just Sonny."
"Know the station she reported for?"
Caitlin shook her head.
"We'd like to talk with your brother," I said. "Could you give us an address?"
Caitlin looked flustered. "Gee, I don't know. Marty won't be too thrilled.
Marty's a very private guy. Very successful businessman, very private."
"I know his name," I said. "I know his business. I can find him. Will he like me finding him, asking around about him?"
"God, no. Listen. I'll give you his work address. That way you won't be bothering him at home."
"Sure," I said.
She gave me an address on the Revere Beach Parkway in Everett.
"Did she ever talk about my father?" Paul said.
"Her ex-? What's-his-name, Mel? Sure did. She called him a cheap sonovabitch every chance she could. Excuse me, I know he's your dad and all."
"That's okay," Paul said. "I can hear whatever there is to hear. I need to hear it."
"Well, don't worry about her. I'm sure she's off someplace with Rich having a ball. Your mother is a fun lady!"
"You don't think she might go someplace without Rich?" Paul said.
Caitlin looked startled. "No," she said. "Of course not. What fun is it alone?"
CHAPTER 8
SUSAN said, "When Pearl sleeps with you does she get under the covers?"
We were sitting at the same table in the Ritz bar. On a Wednesday with the baseball season dwindling, and the kids grimly back in school. It was raining again. The Ritz bar is a good place to spend a rainy weekday afternoon.
"Of course," I said. "Don't you?"
"I'm not sure all dogs do that," Susan said.
"We shouldn't generalize," I said.
Susan nodded. "True," she said.
I was drinking Sam Adams. Susan had a glass of Riesling which would last her the day. The bar was nearly empty. It wasn't the old Ritz bar. It had been refurbished by new owners into something that looked like an English hunting club, or the last twenty-five hotel bars you'd been in. But you could still
have a table by the window, looking out at Arlington Street and the Public Gardens.
"What do you think about Paul?" I said. "It's not just that he wants to locate his mother. He wants to find out about her."
"He's thinking about getting married," Susan said.
"Yeah?"
"For a kid like Paul whose parents' marriage was a failure, whose own life has made him careful, and introspective, the idea of marriage carries with it heavy baggage."
"His mother really is missing," I said.