BLIND TRIAL Brian Deer (best novels for beginners TXT) 📖

among the condom wrappers. “I mean, it’s gonna be a great day out there today. And, if I’ve got nothing doing, they’ll send me back to Atlanta. I know it.”

“Ben, I can’t. Honestly. Time’s getting on. I’d love to, really, but I can’t.”

Now they both raised the coffees and gazed at the walls in the longest silence they’d shared while awake.

“Hey. Come here.” His tone sounded businesslike. “Come here for a second and let me look at that list. It’s all totally professional and everything.”

“No, it’s a trick.”

“Course it’s not a trick. Trust me.”

“Only if it’s actually for real.”

“Totally.”

She retightened her robe and sat on the bed’s edge as he relieved her of the envelope, turned the flap downward, and shook out a purple paper flyer.

FROM BEDROOM TO BATHROOM

HOMECARE TO HARDWARE

OAKLAND & FRESNO

PETER GLINSKI

“This’ll do it.”

“Do what?”

“I’ll call him.”

“No, you won’t. What for? There’s no possible reason. That’s all done with.”

She reached for the flyer, but he held it in the air, lifted his butt, and sat on it.

“Ben, that’s stupid. What’s the point?”

“Because, look, if this works, I can definitely swing another day on my assignment. Maybe the whole weekend. Which would be great. This is a good one. Honestly. You don’t have to do anything. I pledge your integrity won’t be compromised in any way. It’s perfect. Otherwise, I’ll be back on the plane this afternoon.”

He slumped on his belly, wriggled toward the clock, and pulled his Samsung from behind it.

“Ben, it’s twenty past seven.”

“Dude’ll be cool. Trust me on this. I know what makes him happy in the morning.”

“Don’t.”

“Hey, sweetheart, gimme a chance here. I don’t want to go home. Relax.”

He tapped out the number Glinski wrote on the flyer and fixed the cheesiest smile.

“Hey, Peter? Yeah? Ben Louviere… Yeah, I know it is. Sorry… You know, Ben? From the hospital? We met yesterday…”

Silence.

He punched up a pillow against the bed’s headboard. “That’s nice of you to say so, but…”

Silence.

“Cool. Yeah, well, as my colleague said, we’re working this survey thing we’re doing, which is pretty dull…”

A longer silence.

“About four times a week, if that’s relevant. Weights, mostly. Some cardio. And I run. Look…”

Silence.

“Yeah. Okay. I got that part. And I was wondering, like, if you could give us your sister-in-law’s number, just so I can fill in this form thing here we got?”

Sumiko watched, suspicious, but helpless. She pointed at the clock and whispered, “The time.”

But he’d seized the initiative and now multitasked, reaching with a foot toward her bathrobe. As he talked, his toes nudged a gap in the yellow flannel, exposing her thigh to his gaze. “Oh, yeah, sorry… We do… Tell me about it… Yeah, very early.”

Silence.

He scrunched his nose and clicked his fingers. “Hang on, my screen’s frozen. I need a writing implement.”

Sumiko shook her head.

He clicked again.

What choice did she have? Or they’d be here all morning. She reached for a ballpoint and passed it.

“Sir… I think, sir, you jest with me. Tell me thou art joking.”

Silence.

He held the pen to his leg.

She watched him, conflicted. This phone call was wrong, but his body was perfect. Not a blemish. He was fit: that was obvious. But not over-the-top. The proportions of each muscle group were perfect. His hair was perfect: raven black, facial stubble, thickening at his chest, thinning to his navel, and a bush not excessively trimmed.

“Yeah, well, that’s a pretty unconventional arrangement, man…”

Silence.

“You’re not serious… Okay, okay… You’re sick, you know that? But then that’s it. Yeah?”

Silence.

“Okay, Calvins… White… Yeah, yeah, right… You got it man… Definitely. You better believe it… Now the info?”

As Glinski talked, Ben’s toes rubbed her thigh. She made a tent over his foot in the flannel.

“Okay… Gennifer Heusch. Gennifer with two ns and one f… Heusch. H-e-u-s-c-h.”

He inked the name above his knee.

“And she’s… Oh, man, gimme a break… Look man, I’m straight.”

Silence.

“Well, if I wasn’t a seriously nice guy and everything, the words ‘sexual harassment’ might come to mind… Does the name ‘Harvey Weinstein’ mean anything to you? Yeah, well okay… But you better stick with the deal now, or I’m hanging up. And what you got then, uhh? You’ll be all alone with your dick in your hand.”

Silence.

“You said… Okay, okay… Seven and threequarters… Yeah, nearly eight, if you prefer… Yeah. Sure… I think accuracy is important… Yeah… Correctamundo… And rock hard for you man. That do it?”

Silence.

“I’m hanging up.”

Silence.

“Alright. You first. Then I will… No… I will… Solemn pledge.”

Glinski talked.

“Okay? Good… Right. Garberville. G-a-r-b-e-r-ville. Humboldt County… Cool. Now the number… Oh, right, sure, what a surprise.”

He pursed his lips, slid onto his back, and held the phone squeezed against the pillow. “Yeah… Okay, they’re off.”

Where could he have learned such behavior?

“You insist on that specific vocabulary?”

Silence.

“Okay man, take this where it feels good.”

He breathed into the phone, as his foot teased her robe, flipping it open to her crotch. “Oh, man… Yeah… Right, yeah… Wow… Now gimme the number. Just gimme the fucking number… Okay?”

Glinski talked more, Ben raised his knee, wrote a number, and read it aloud.

And he still wasn’t done. He’d gotten what he asked for. But instead of hanging up, he stroked his belly. “Yeah right, I’m a good guy… Like I said… Okay, okay. So, what are you wearing then, huh?” He ran his fingers through the hair on his chest. “Oh sure, that’s cool, I’d imagine.”

Silence.

This was nothing she’d be part of. This was shocking, outrageous. But she couldn't simply get up and leave.

“That so? I’m impressed.”

Now his eyes snared hers and, together, they looked. They stared at his seven-and-threequarters. She tried to break away, but her secret sisters were agreed: what they saw was like north to a compass.

“Okay, take it… Yeah.” He was speaking to her. “Come on, you know how I like it.”

She’d made up her mind: she was not going to do it. He’d gotten all of that he was getting. But she smiled, couldn’t help it. She shook her head.

Again, he snagged her eyes and dragged them down.

“No,” she whispered. “Definitely