5
“MARCO!”
“Polo!”
“Marco!” yelled Kelly and Libby together.
“Polo!” shouted Kevin.
“Let’s get him!” cried Kelly, lunging toward Kevin with Libby on her back. Libby shrieked, and Kevin dove for the bottom of the pool. Kelly’s hand grazed his foot as he swam by.
“Gotcha!”
Kevin came up laughing in a spray of water droplets that arced through the air like a scattering of diamonds. Kelly watched as the drops seemed to freeze and turn in the sun against the blue sky. A perfect, unrepeatable, irreplaceable moment in time. She spent her life searching for these moments, these suspended instants of joy that shimmered among the despair, fear, hatred, and loneliness. She gazed at her kids, their faces bright with water and sunshine. They were her salvation, her hope, her entire reason for being.
It wasn’t an overstatement. If not for them, she would make any number of different choices right now. She would gladly risk her own life to serve the higher purpose of putting her husband in jail. But she would never do anything that would put her son and daughter at risk. And so that meant Plan B. Porter’s death—she couldn’t bring herself to admit it was murder—changed things in a big way. She had been working out an idea. But first she needed to get some information.
“Okay, kiddos, out of the pool,” sang Kelly, sliding out of the water and grabbing two towels. A glass door off the patio surrounding the pool opened directly into their motel room. Kelly showered the chlorine off the kids and set about helping them dress in clean clothes.
Kevin looked up from tying his shoes. “Where are we going, Mom?”
“Library, then dinner. You ready?”
The Nogales, Arizona, library had been recently remodeled with, it appeared, the bulk of the budget going toward a comfortable children’s section and computer terminals with Internet access. Kelly had no trouble installing Kevin and Libby on two fat purple pillows, a stack of books next to each of them. She found a computer in an adjacent area where she could watch the children while she searched. Sliding into the chair, she typed
Jake Brooks
in the Google search template.
First things first: Find out more about Jake Brooks, and understand why he was speaking on Porter’s behalf. She remembered Porter laughing joyfully when he spoke of Brooks. But she had to get to know him for herself. The first dozen results were transcripts of, and references to, TV appearances:
Entertainment Tonight
and
Larry King Live
, among others. Kelly clicked on one.
Announcer’s voice-over : Trouble in paradise tonight as the on-again, off-again relationship between British supermodel Alva Mayhill and attorney-to-the-stars Jake Brooks seems to be on the rocks again. The couple was spotted leaving in separate cars after an argument outside a Los Angeles restaurant.
The forty-two-year-old Brooks, who has been voted one of People magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive,” was recently in the news for his gutsy defense of Julie Groton, the notorious textiles heiress accused of killing her brother. Brooks won the case, called “unwinnable” by many observers.
Mayhill and Brooks met last winter at the Aspen home of Randy Carlen, a Nevada billionaire. Friends say the pair have a fiery relationship but are very much in love.
Kelly checked the date. The transcript was two years old. She lingered on a still picture of Jake, noticing his intense eyes, high cheekbones, and salt-and-pepper hair. He was holding a door open for a beautiful woman who was flashing a dazzling smile at the camera. Jake’s expression was more serious than the model’s, but it was not shy. Kelly could tell he had a love/hate relationship with attention, but one thing was for sure: He knew his way around the front side of a camera lens.
She opened a dozen more links and scanned the articles. According to them, Jake’s mind was “brilliant,” “formidable,” “razor-sharp,” “photographic,”
“MARCO!”
“Polo!”
“Marco!” yelled Kelly and Libby together.
“Polo!” shouted Kevin.
“Let’s get him!” cried Kelly, lunging toward Kevin with Libby on her back. Libby shrieked, and Kevin dove for the bottom of the pool. Kelly’s hand grazed his foot as he swam by.
“Gotcha!”
Kevin came up laughing in a spray of water droplets that arced through the air like a scattering of diamonds. Kelly watched as the drops seemed to freeze and turn in the sun against the blue sky. A perfect, unrepeatable, irreplaceable moment in time. She spent her life searching for these moments, these suspended instants of joy that shimmered among the despair, fear, hatred, and loneliness. She gazed at her kids, their faces bright with water and sunshine. They were her salvation, her hope, her entire reason for being.
It wasn’t an overstatement. If not for them, she would make any number of different choices right now. She would gladly risk her own life to serve the higher purpose of putting her husband in jail. But she would never do anything that would put her son and daughter at risk. And so that meant Plan B. Porter’s death—she couldn’t bring herself to admit it was murder—changed things in a big way. She had been working out an idea. But first she needed to get some information.
“Okay, kiddos, out of the pool,” sang Kelly, sliding out of the water and grabbing two towels. A glass door off the patio surrounding the pool opened directly into their motel room. Kelly showered the chlorine off the kids and set about helping them dress in clean clothes.
Kevin looked up from tying his shoes. “Where are we going, Mom?”
“Library, then dinner. You ready?”
The Nogales, Arizona, library had been recently remodeled with, it appeared, the bulk of the budget going toward a comfortable children’s section and computer terminals with Internet access. Kelly had no trouble installing Kevin and Libby on two fat purple pillows, a stack of books next to each of them. She found a computer in an adjacent area where she could watch the children while she searched. Sliding into the chair, she typed
Jake Brooks
in the Google search template.
First things first: Find out more about Jake Brooks, and understand why he was speaking on Porter’s behalf. She remembered Porter laughing joyfully when he spoke of Brooks. But she had to get to know him for herself. The first dozen results were transcripts of, and references to, TV appearances:
Entertainment Tonight
and
Larry King Live
, among others. Kelly clicked on one.
Announcer’s voice-over : Trouble in paradise tonight as the on-again, off-again relationship between British supermodel Alva Mayhill and attorney-to-the-stars Jake Brooks seems to be on the rocks again. The couple was spotted leaving in separate cars after an argument outside a Los Angeles restaurant.
The forty-two-year-old Brooks, who has been voted one of People magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive,” was recently in the news for his gutsy defense of Julie Groton, the notorious textiles heiress accused of killing her brother. Brooks won the case, called “unwinnable” by many observers.
Mayhill and Brooks met last winter at the Aspen home of Randy Carlen, a Nevada billionaire. Friends say the pair have a fiery relationship but are very much in love.
Kelly checked the date. The transcript was two years old. She lingered on a still picture of Jake, noticing his intense eyes, high cheekbones, and salt-and-pepper hair. He was holding a door open for a beautiful woman who was flashing a dazzling smile at the camera. Jake’s expression was more serious than the model’s, but it was not shy. Kelly could tell he had a love/hate relationship with attention, but one thing was for sure: He knew his way around the front side of a camera lens.
She opened a dozen more links and scanned the articles. According to them, Jake’s mind was “brilliant,” “formidable,” “razor-sharp,” “photographic,”
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