Page 54 of Old Money
I nod, looking down at the table, pretending to consider this. The fire crackles in the background, even louder in my sudden quiet.
“What?” Jamie asks. He waits. He puts his beer down and tries again. “Alice, what?”
I picture the drawer full of diaries. All except for 1999.
“Okay,” I say softly. “There’s something I haven’t told you. Something I found in Brody’s office.”
Jamie leans closer.
“I didn’t tell you because—I mean, Jamie, I know you want to help. But this is your job. I don’t want to—”
He stops me with a wave.
“Psssh.Are you kidding? You’ve spent, like, three hundred hours in Mr. Brody’s office. I figured you weren’t scanning wine lists the whole time.” Jamie leans, eyes wide again. “So did you find it?”
I hesitate another moment, then cave. He’s right; it’s been three hundred hours. I can’t waste all summer down there.
“No.” I sigh. “I found the drawer, but 1999 is missing.”
“Huh?” Jamie’s face turns perplexed. “What do you mean?Allthe ’99 reports?”
“Reports,” I repeat slowly. “You mean his diaries. That’s what’s in the drawer.”
“Oh God. Brody’s little daybooks? No, he keeps a record of the day’s events, because he thinks it’s part of the job.”
“Stop, what? How do you know all this?”
“Because he told me! He thinks it’s part ofmyjob too. He gave me a whole song and dance about it when I got promoted. All the bullshit about keeping a daily record for posterity—but, of course, nothing indiscreet.” Jamie mimes a Brody-esque frown. “ ‘If it shouldn’t be spoken of, best not write it down.’ ”
I sit, trying to parse through this Brodyism.
“It means you leave the bad stuff out,” Jamie translates. “You save that for the incident report. I’m guessing you haven’t found that yet.”
I’ve never even heard of it.
“What’s an incident report?”
“Seriously?” Jamie asks, looking genuinely incredulous. “It’s—yeah, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Brody writes up every member infraction for the board’s review.”
“All of them?” I sit back. “Every incident?”
“Every incident he knows about—so, yeah, probably most. If it’s bad enough, the member has to sit before the board.”
“All because of whathesays happened.”
Jamie shrugs again.
“The great and powerful Brody. Anyway, something involving a dead body? I’d say that got written up real quick.”
A wild surge of hope floods through me—then passes in an instant.
“And probably got thrown in the fire, on the orders of the great and powerful Whit Yates.”
Jamie bobs his head, weighing this.
“Could be. But Brody’s more of a keeper than a tosser.”
You don’t say.
