Read Online Death Gets a Time-Out by Ayelet Waldman - Free Book Online

back then. They both came out positive. I wanted to check again about fifteen years ago, when they began using the DNA test, just to be sure, but Jupiter would have none of it. He was over eighteen by then, and I couldn’t force him. Perhaps,” Polaris said, turning to his lawyers, “we can resolve that issue now, while he’s in custody.”
    “If you like, I can speak to the prosecutor about it,” the older attorney responded, and then glanced meaningfully in my direction. “I think we should discuss this later, in private.”
    Polaris nodded. “Let’s.”
    “I understand that Jupiter grew up with you,” I said.
    At that moment, the man who had left the room at Polaris’s signal came rushing back. He carried a small wooden tray with an iron teapot and a single miniature, black teacup.
    “Thank you, Aldebaran,” Polaris said. The assistant poured a cup of tea and handed it to Polaris.
    “Do you drink green tea?” the Very Reverend asked me.
    “Sometimes,” I said. My old trainer Bobby Katz had been a big green tea drinker.
    “It’s a tonic with remarkable curative powers; brought to us from the heavens. Studies have found it to be effective atreducing incidences of cancers. It’s also quite soothing. I recommend it.”
    I could certainly stand a little soothing, although I’d always thought that tea grew on bushes, rather than dropping from the sky. “I’ll give it a try,” I said. “We were talking about Jupiter, how he grew up with you, rather than with his mother.”
    “Roberta abandoned the boy. That and her weak genetic legacy are surely what have made him what he is. She left for India when my son was an infant. Some kind of pilgrimage, she said, although I imagine she was seeking mind alteration rather than transcendence. She never returned. Or perhaps she did, but not to her child. I remember someone saying that she became the third or fourth wife of a Saudi Arabian oil sheik, but that might just be a rumor.” He sipped his tea and frowned. “Aldebaran, if the tea steeps for any more than forty-five seconds, it takes on a rather unpleasant, bitter flavor, as you know.”
    “I’m so sorry, Very Reverend Polaris. Shall I make you a new pot?” Aldebaran asked, his lips pursed in concern.
    “It’s fine. I’ll drink this. Just remember next time.” Polaris smiled gently at the man, who blushed, and then slowly smiled back, his face transformed with something that looked almost like rapture.
    “Of course, of course I will.” If he had bowed and scraped any lower, he would have gotten rug burn on his chin.
    “So Jupiter lived with you?” I continued.
    “Yes.”
    “And where was this? In Topanga?”
    “In the commune in Topanga for a while. And then in Mexico.”
    “Mexico?” I said, pretending I knew nothing about their time there.
    “Yes. After Roberta made her great escape, I met a girl at the commune. A very lovely girl.” His voice grew soft and I could swear his eyes were misty. “
This
girl I married—as soon as she would have me. We moved together to Mexico.”
    “Why did you move to Mexico?”
    He laughed. “Why not? We were free spirits. We went where the wind blew us. A group of people were heading down to San Miguel de Allende and we decided to join them.”
    “And you took Jupiter?”
    “Of course. And Trudy-Ann’s little girl, Lilly.”
    “The four of you moved down to Mexico,” I prodded him.
    “Yes. San Miguel is a remarkable place. A true spiritual nexus.” He seemed to enjoy his recollections, was almost lost in them. “We lived in a massive old colonial mansion that we rented for no more than a hundred dollars a month. You know,
Chloe
would have loved it. I’ve never really thought of that before. She was a true aficionado of Mexican art and furniture. She was a woman with brilliant taste, was my young wife.” He waved his hand around the room. “She designed this room herself.”
    I glanced at the sun-filled room and murmured appreciatively. I