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The Suspicion Dina was anxious for the police to catch the guy.
And that's why Adamy was coming, to show Lisa a photo lineup of
possible suspects.
Maybe Kosta can help, Dina thought. After all, he knows every bum on
the boardwalk.
When Adamy arrived he laid out one big sheet of photos on the coffee
table in the center of the living room. It showed a dozen mug shots of
young black men.
"We don't know if your man is among them," he said, "but he might
be."
Lisa stood in front of the photos. Kosta and Dina stood just behind
her.
As Dina stared down at the lineup of photos he realized that he
recognized one of the men. It's Teja, he thought, staring at the photo
of the young light-skinned black man.
Dina remembered that Teja had once been thrown out of Walk-In Charlies,
an arcade run by a friend of Dina's, for fighting. In fact, he
remembered that Teja had worked at Joyland for a few days. Dina's
manager had hired Teja in Dina's absence, and though Dina didn't like
Teja he could see no reason to fire him. But in less than a week Teja
got himself fired by constantly making remarks about Dina in front of
the manager. Teja also hung around Top Shots, so Kosta certainly knew
him. Kosta, also looking at the photos, said nothing. Why doesn't
Kosta say something, Dina wondered. He must recognize Tej a.
"It's him," Lisa suddenly said. "That's the one."
She was pointing to the photo of Teja.
In that moment, when Lisa pointed to the photo of Teja, it was as if
she had given Dina the final number he needed to balance an accounting
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problem. It was also the most shocking realization of his life. Dina
stood behind his sister, and beside his brother-in-law, dazed, as if
he'd been hit over the head, and in seconds his mind reviewed a series
of facts leading to a conclusion that perhaps had already been there
waiting to be discovered.
Lisa had, of course, told Dina about the affair Kosta was supposedly
having with Deidre. Although Lisa was not certain it was true, Dina
was. He had once seen Kosta and Deidre shooting pool together at Top
Shots. It was an innocent enough thing on the surface, and so he had
never reported it to his sister. But even at the moment it happened,
there was something in it that troubled him. It had seemed as if Kosta
and Deidre, in their smiles and their body language, had made too much
effort to say "We're only playing pool" when they hadn't been accused
of anything else. When Lisa had told Dina about Elena's phone call,
the rumor of an affair had resonated with that moment in the pool hall,
and he had been certain that Kosta and Deidre were lovers.
Now Dina made more connections, terrible connections.
He was sure that Kosta was having an affair with Deidre.
He knew that Deidre's closest friend was Lori Henderson.
And he knew that Lori's boyfriend was Teja. (Dina also made another
connection at the time, which, though it was "ncorrect, shows that his
instincts were to link the Kosta/Deidre romance with the assault on
Lisa. Lisa had mentioned that the man who came to the office had a
silver automatic pistol, and Dina remembered being told by Dennis, the
police officer who asked Lisa not to fire Deidre, that Deidre carried a
silver automatic.) Other small things now seemed significant. He
remembered a moment once when Lisa had confronted Kosta about being
seen with Deidre. Kosta had explained that he had picked "them" up at
a bus stop and given "them" a ride home. Now Dina remembered who
"them" was it had been Deidre and Teja.
All of this went through Dina's head while Lisa stared at the photo of
Teja and told Adamy she was sure that was the man. And Dina was almost
certain of something else was Kosta was trying to kill Lisa.
Dina tried to keep cool. He felt as if he were shaking all over, but
nobody seemed to notice. Kosta had gone off to a corner of the room.
He seemed annoyed that Lisa had picked out Teja's photo.
The Suspicion "That's Teja," Dina said after Adamy had left.
Though he had been too stunned to tell the police everything, he now
tried to explain to Lisa who Teja was. "The guy who worked at Joyland
for a while," he said, "the guy who hangs out at Top Shots."
Lisa didn't know Teja, but Kosta certainly did. At first Kosta tried
to stonewall it. "I don't know him," he said. But soon he changed
strategies. "Oh, yeah, Teja.
They call him T. J. Sure." And then he insisted that Lisa should know
him. "Teja," he said, "you know Teja. He used to work at Joyland."
Dina knew what he had to do. He certainly was not going to accuse
Kosta. For one thing he couldn't prove it, and his accusations might
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lead to another attempt on Lisa, or even on himself. For another, if
Dina was wrong, he had to go on living with this man in his family
forever.
After the discussion had grown thin, Dina went quietly upstairs and
called his lawyer. "I have to see you immediately," he said. The
lawyer told him to come right over.
On the way out that morning Dina made a note of the plate number on
Kosta's BMW. He also took plenty of cash with him. He would pay the
lawyer in cash so there would be no written record of the visit.
If Dina turned out to be wrong, he didn't want Lisa to know he had
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