This Is How It Really Sounds Read Online Free PDF

and turned to her. “I’m sorry. I’m Paul Gutterman. Peter and I started at Goldman Sachs together, back before he was notorious.”
    He hadn’t seen Gutterman in at least ten years. He was stuck in his memory as a slim young man with pale skin and dark wavy hair. Slightly nervous, slightly intense in his manner. They had indeed started at Goldman at the same time, but Gutterman had always been just a step or two behind him their entire six years together: his accounts a bit smaller, his access to the bosses less fluid. He didn’t live in the city, like the other young fellows out to conquer the world, but instead commuted in from Long Island, always eager to get back to his heavyset young wife. Gutterman was the specter of the going-nowhere career that inspired Harrington to work extra late and extra hard. Now his old rival had gained weight, no longer the reedy man with the boyish face of fifteen years ago. “So what’s going on, Paul? How’s…” He miraculously pulled down the name of Gutterman’s wife. “Diane?”
    Gutterman’s pallid features lost their shine. “We’re separated now, actually.” An uneasiness took hold of him. “You know”—he shrugged—“things happen. People change…” He recovered. “What about Sheila? Is she here in Shanghai?”
    â€œNo, that’s over.”
    â€œYeah,” Gutterman said. “I guess I read about that.” His next words were almost smug: “You had a kid, didn’t you? A little boy?”
    A sharp and familiar sense of dread swept through Harrington’s body. He could feel Camille looking at him. “Conrad. He’s thirteen now. They’re living upstate.” He shuddered. “So what brings you to wicked, wicked Shanghai?”
    â€œWell…” A weakness undermined Gutterman’s voice. “This is supposed to be where the action is, right?”
    â€œDid Goldman send you over? I mean, are you still with them?” Harrington could see Kell behind Gutterman’s back, drawing his finger across his neck in the “Cut!” sign.
    â€œNot exactly.” Again, Gutterman’s eyes flicked to the side. “I’ll tell you later. What are you doing here?”
    Harrington let it go. “Me? Not much. Kell’s got a couple of schemes going, and I help out a little bit on that.”
    â€œYour last scheme got you number three on New York magazine’s list of ‘Ten Most Deserving of Indictment.’”
    Harrington fielded it perfectly. “You mean I’ve slipped to number three?”
    â€œHey!” Kell defended him loudly. “Peter here just helped some boys with very pricey educations find out exactly how smart they really were. They should be thanking him.”
    Camille had moved closer into the group. “Tell me about this.”
    â€œIt’s complicated,” Kell said.
    â€œI understand complicated things,” she answered calmly.
    â€œIt’s so complicated,” the lawyer lied, “that even I don’t understand it, and I’m his partner.”
    â€œLet’s just say Peter and Kell had a few unhappy counterparties when they closed down their last venture,” Gutterman explained.
    â€œHey. Hey!” Kell raised his arms. “Everything I did was completely legal at the time I did it.”
    Camille smiled. “I can see you are a man of great virtue!”
    â€œAnd I can see you’re an excellent judge of that.”
    He tilted his empty glass to his mouth, and his eyes watched hers above the rim.
    â€œThank you, Kell.” Harrington turned to Camille. “I’ll explain it later, if you’re interested, but it’s a fairly boring story. I’ll get us some drinks. Kell, you’re having water, right?”
    â€œYeah, with a side of scotch.”
    He took their orders and wove through the crowd to the bar at the