“So how’d you hook up with Mr. Jackson?”
Now Charlie didn’t look so comfortable. “Let’s just say he happened to call one day. I had gotten myself in a little bit of trouble. Nothing real serious, but I was still on parole and it could’ve cost me some serious time inside. He offered to help me out and I accepted that offer.”
“Kind of like I did,” said LuAnn, an edge to her voice. “His offers can be kind of hard to refuse.”
He glanced at her, his eyes suddenly wary. “Yeah,” he said curtly.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and blurted out, “I’ve never cheated on anything in my whole life, Charlie.”
Charlie dragged on his cigarette and then put it out. “I guess it all depends on how you look at it.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, if you think about it, people who are otherwise good, honest, and hardworking cheat every day of their lives. Some in big ways, most in small ones. People fudge on their taxes, or just don’t pay ’em, like me. Or they don’t give money back when somebody figures up a bill wrong. Little white lies, folks tell almost automatically on a daily basis, sometimes just to get through the day with their sanity. Then there’s the big cheat: Men and women have affairs all the time. That one I know a lot about. I think my ex-wife majored in adultery.”
“I got a little taste of that, too,” LuAnn said quietly.
Charlie stared at her. “One dumb SOB is all I can say. Anyway, it all adds up over a lifetime.”
“But not to no fifty million dollars’ worth.”
“Maybe not in dollar terms, no. But I might take one big cheat in a lifetime over a thousand little ones that eat away at you eventually, make you not like yourself too much.”
LuAnn hugged herself and shivered.
He studied her for a moment and then looked once more at the room service menu. “I’m gonna order dinner. Fish okay with you?”
LuAnn nodded absently and stared down at her shoes while Charlie conveyed their dinner order over the phone.
That done, he flipped another cigarette out of the pack and lit up. “Hell, I don’t know one single person who would turn down the offer you got. As far as I’m concerned you’d be stupid to.” He paused and fiddled with his lighter. “And from the little I’ve seen of you, maybe you can redeem yourself, at least in your eyes. Not that you’d need much redeeming.”
She stared up at him. “How can I do that?”
“Use some of the money to help other people,” he said simply. “Maybe treat it like a public trust, or something like that. I’m not saying don’t enjoy the money. I think you deserve that.” He added, “I saw some background info on you. You haven’t exactly had the easiest life.”
LuAnn shrugged. “I got by.”
Charlie sat down beside her. “That’s exactly right, LuAnn, you’re a survivor. You’ll survive this, too.” He looked at her intently. “You mind me asking a personal question now that I’ve spilled my guts to you?”
“Depends on the question.”
“Fair enough.” He nodded. “Well, like I said, I looked at some of your background stuff. I was just wondering how you ever hooked up with a guy like Duane Harvey. He has ‘loser’ stamped all over him.”
LuAnn thought of Duane’s slender body lying facedown on the dirty carpet, the small groan he had made before plummeting over, as though he were calling to her, pleading for help. But she hadn’t answered that call. “Duane’s not so bad. He had a bunch of bad breaks.” She stood up and paced. “I was going through a real bad time. My momma had just died. I met Duane while I was thinking of what to do with my life. You either grow up in that county and die there or you get out just as fast as you can. Ain’t nobody ever moved into Rikersville County, least not that I ever heard of.” She took a deep breath and continued. “Duane had just moved into this trailer he had found. He had a job then. He treated me nice, we talked some about getting married. He was just different.”
“You wanted to be one of the ones who was born and died there?”
She looked at him, shocked. “Hell, no. We were going to get out. I wanted to and that’s what Duane wanted, at least that’s what he said.” She stopped pacing and looked over at Charlie. “Then we had Lisa,” she said simply. “That kinda changed things for Duane. I don’t think having a kid was part of his plan. But we did and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. But after that, I knew things weren’t going to work out between us. I knew I had to leave. I was just trying to figure out how when Mr. Jackson called.”
LuAnn looked out the window at the twinkling lights etched against the darkness. “Jackson said there were some conditions with all this. With the money. I know he’s not doing this because he loves me.” She looked over her shoulder at Charlie.
Charlie grunted. “No, you’re absolutely right about that.”
“You got any idea what the conditions are?”
Charlie was shaking his head before she finished asking the question. “I do know that you’ll have more money than you’ll know what to do with.”
“And I can use that money any way I want, right?”
“That’s right. It’s yours, free and clear. You can clean out Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany. Or build a hospital in Harlem. It’s up to you.”
LuAnn looked back out the window and her eyes began to shine as the thoughts plowing through her head seemed to dwarf the skyline staring back at her. Right that very instant, everything seemed to click! Even the massive number of buildings in New York City seemed far too small to hold the things she wanted to do with her life. With all that money.
Chapter twelve
“We should’ve just stayed at the hotel and watched it from there.” Charlie looked around nervously. “Jackson would kill me if he knew we were here. I have strict orders never to take any of the ‘clients’ here.” “Here” was the headquarters of the United States National Lottery Commission located in a brand new state-of-the-art, needle-thin skyscraper on Park Avenue. The huge auditorium was filled with people. Network news correspondents were scattered throughout, microphones clamped in their fists, as were representatives from magazines, newspapers, and cable TV.
Near the front of the stage, LuAnn cradled Lisa against her chest. She wore the glasses Charlie had bought for her and a baseball cap turned backward under which her long hair was balled up. Her memorable figure was hidden under the full-length trench coat.
“It’s okay, Charlie, nobody’s gonna remember me under all this stuff.”
He shook his head. “I still don’t like it.”
“I had to come see. It just wouldn’t be the same sitting in the hotel room watching on TV.”
“Jackson’s gonna probably call the hotel right after the drawing,” he grumbled.
“I’ll just tell him I fell asleep and didn’t hear the phone.”
“Right!” He lowered his voice. “You’re gonna win at least fifty million bucks and you fall asleep?”
“Well, if I already know I’m gonna win, what’s so exciting about it?” she shot back.