The pharmaceutical CEO had put his car into a valet service to get the bacon and coffee cleared off the seats. He was now stuck in a cab in traffic and, hearing the horns, wondered if his company headquarters had been blown up. He asked his driver to put on the Penny Lock phone-in. He’d make it up to Tamy by saying he’d heard her show that day and thought she’d produced it very well. He’d tell her she really did a first-rate job. He’d take her out to breakfast tomorrow. He made some reservations.

238

I pressed the radio to my ear. Did Beth say anything? Request a record at the last?

Edward stopped too. Wondering whether to run to the river.

Beth had jumped into a lake once before. He’d fished her out. She screamed at him and told him to leave her alone. She jumped in again and Edward had fished her out again. She told him to piss off home. He stayed by the side of the lake, though, and pulled her out four more times until Beth was too exhausted to jump anymore. He took her home and hid all the sharp things.

Beth told him not to interfere in her projects ever again.

He was glad she wouldn’t get mad at him this time. He was too far away from the river to help.

237

Beth handed the phone back to Dan. His batteries had gone dead.

Dan Bronski took Beth Davies’s hand and asked her if she saw any boats on the river.

“What?” said Beth, shouting over the noise of car horns.

Dan said it didn’t matter.

Beth said she wasn’t really going to do anything, she was just looking.

Dan said he knew.

“So doesn’t your phone work now?” asked John.

“No.”

John abandoned them and ran across the bridge. He could get a cab to KKRC from the other side.

236

Line six. “Yeah, she jumped, I reckon.”

Line four. “I don’t think she did. I think the doctor did an excellent job.”

Line three. “I think if she didn’t jump, she should’ve, she sounded whiny.”

Line eight. “My uncle died while constructing the bridge, he was hit by a girder.”

Line ten. “Perhaps the car horns startled her, some are pretty loud.”

“If you’re okay, Beth, call us back. We’re on air until five. Let’s take a break.”

Ali Bronski nodded and crossed her fingers and toes.

235

Life insurance, Burrito Palisade, Dial-a-cab . . .

234

Edward despised himself for making a crappy bomb that didn’t blow up and didn’t mess up the skin of the pharmaceutical CEO and didn’t disfigure him so much it made him want to jump into the East River. He pictured the Brooklyn Bridge in his head and he fantasized about the CEO jumping off it and he realized that jumping off the bridge would take some doing and if Beth had managed it then she was a resourceful woman who was a credit to the Wiltshire family.