“Real estate agents making drug deals? Dirty sweat socks?” Jase asked. It all seemed surreal.
“Sweat socks and underwear,” the cop said. “He left the drugs in empty apartments and condos for other real estate agents.” He pointed to Luis. “He wrapped them in this guy’s dirty socks and underwear.”
“Well, how do you like that?” Luis said. He sounded annoyed. “He wasn’t into my socks after all. He just wanted them to stash his drugs. If I ever see him again, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”
“Please stop talking,” Jase said. “We’ll straighten this all out at the police station.”
The other cop started to read Luis his rights.
“I don’t even take aspirin,” Luis said. “And I don’t think selling my used sweat socks and underpants to an old man is a crime. I just thought he was a collector.” Then he looked at Jase.
“Jase, do something. I’ve never been involved in drugs or anything else that’s illegal. They can’t arrest me for something I didn’t do. Can they?”
Jase knew Luis well enough by then to know he wasn’t a drug dealer. “Calm down,” he said. “I’ll take care of this. It’s just a misunderstanding.” Then he turned to the cop next to him and asked, “Why am I handcuffed? I only met the man once.”
“We’re taking you down for questioning,” the cop said.
* * * *
When the police carted them down the stairs, poor Mr. Gordon stood on his landing and pressed his palm to his chest. “That’s it,” he shouted. “I want you both out of my building. No more nice guy here. I run a quiet building and I don’t want anything to do with police or criminals. I’ve had it.” Then he placed his palms over his ears and shouted, “And no more noise.”
By the time the police dragged them into the station, there were a few photographers and reporters snapping photos and shouting questions. Jase went up to the desk and asked if he could place a call to his attorney while Luis stood in the background and posed for the photographers.
He smiled and batted his eyelids, acting both innocent and surprised. In spite of the handcuffs around his wrists, he answered their questions as if he were walking down the red carpet for an awards ceremony.
But he stopped smiling when he heard Jase shout at the cop behind the desk. “I’m not playing games,” Jase said. His voice was deep and even; his expression was blank and stoic.
“My name is Jase Nicholas, of Nicholas Virgin Enterprises, and I demand a phone call to my attorney, Jared Swartzman. You have no reason to hold me here in handcuffs. My wallet and my ID are in my back pocket. I was traveling today and I have my passport there, too.”
When Jase mentioned the name Jared Swartzman, the room went silent. Jared Swartzman was one of the most revered lawyers in the country. He’d just won a high-profile case involving a famous celebrity that people were still talking about. And when one of the cops pulled his passport and wallet out of Jase’s pocket, he looked it over and said, “Looks like he’s telling the truth. He is, in fact, Jase Nicholas.”
The cops looked back and forth at each other. The cop behind the desk shouted, “Get those handcuffs off him now.”
After a moment of silence, one reporter moved forward and asked, “Are you the Jase Nicholas? Jase Nicholas, The Virgin Billionaire?”
Jase nodded at him and said, “That’s exactly who I am. And if I don’t get a phone this minute, I’m going to sue the city and I’ll have everyone in this room terminated. I’m a personal friend of the mayor, and I don’t think he’d like knowing that one of his friends was treated this way for no reason at all.” He gestured to Luis. “And as far as I can see, you don’t have any evidence to prove he was involved.”
The cops looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. The photographers started taking pictures and the reporters shouted questions.
Luis laughed and shook his head. Evidently, he was the only one who didn’t believe Jase was telling the truth. “Stop fooling around, Jase,” he said. “You’re only going to get us into more trouble and we haven’t done anything wrong. I’ll call Melvin. He’ll get a lawyer and everything will be okay.”
Jase shrugged. “I’m not fooling around,” he said. “I’m Jase Nicholas, The Virgin Billionaire.” He looked into Luis’s eyes.
“And I’m Prince William,” Luis said, waving an invisible cigarette; speaking with a bad Bette Davis accent.
Jase lowered his eyes and his voice softened. “I’m The Virgin Billionaire. I’ve been living on the Upper West Side because I wanted to find out what it would be like to be anonymous. I wanted to find out who I really was. I’ve been so high profile for so many years I’d forgotten what it was like to be just a normal person.” He was speaking to Luis, not the rest of them. He didn’t care what they thought.
Luis blinked. “You’re actually the Jase Nicholas? The guy who started Virgin Alaskan Spring Water, then went on to start all those other multi-billion-dollar companies?” He leaned forward and looked closer. “The Virgin Billionaire has long hair and a beard. He looks like a renegade from the 1960s. I’ve seen photos in magazines and I’ve seen him on talk shows. He was invited to the Queen of England’s jubilee celebration and he sat with Sir Elton John.”
Jase lifted his eyebrows. “I had my hair cut short and I shaved so no one would recognize me,” he said. “I tried to tell you the truth in the library that day. But you wouldn’t listen. You blew me off for Melvin. You told me you were moving to Vancouver. I was planning to tell you tonight, but here we are.”
Luis took a step back. He lowered his eyebrows and clenched his fists. “I see,” he said.
“I’ll bet you had a good time slumming it these past few months with me. I’ll bet you had more than a few good laughs at my expense, Mr. Virgin Billionaire.”
Jase’s jaw dropped. “You don’t see. You don’t understand. I never laughed at you. I’m in love with you. I wanted to tell you many times, but it never seemed right.”
“I would have found out anyway,” Luis said, leaning forward. “I would have seen photos of you and read things about you eventually.” He spread his arms apart and tilted his head. “All you had to do was tell me the truth. I wasn’t after your money. With you, it was never about money.”