"Hey, Jake, I thought you was big time now. Tall in the saddle and all that. I mean, you got this new housing development going up. Got to be some bucks coming in."
Up at the construction site, two Mexicans were dropping shingle scraps over the side of the roof, hollering out warnings in Spanish in case any workers were on the ground below. It was the kind of careless action that made Jacob glad the safety inspectors only came around at the first of each month. He'd have to talk to the contractor. Even though he wasn't responsible for any worker's compensation claims, a few accidents would push up his liability insurance rates. "How did you know I was working again?"
"I got wheels, remember? And I got eyes."
"Where are you?" Jacob had assumed Joshua was staying out at the estate, waking up at noon and working up to a good drunk by four o'clock. Half the day spent in bed with Carlita, with the occasional time off for runs to the convenience store for Budweiser and Marlboro Lights. A million dollars was plenty of money for that kind of life. Even working in tandem, Joshua and Carlita would never be able to spend it all before either their livers or their lungs gave out.
"Been keeping an eye on my investment," Joshua said.
Jacob's stomach clenched. He rose in his seat and scooted out of the cab, kicking the chicken's head to the dirt. What if Joshua were outside Renee's apartment right now, or watching her in the laundry? Maybe they had followed her to the grocery store or post office, and were lying in wait to pop up and introduce themselves.
"Where, damn it?" Jacob said.
"See, there's this funny thing about twins. No matter how far apart they are, or what gets in between them, they somehow get tugged together. Like God meant it to be."
"Don't you dare talk about God. If God were real, my daughters would be alive and we never would have been born."
"That don't make no sense."
"You're watching me, aren't you?" Jacob paced around the truck, scanning the woods behind the construction site. The property above M amp; W's planned subdivision belonged to a Texas corporation. A few logging roads crisscrossed the mountaintop, but their entrances were gated. Joshua's behemoth Chevy would never manage those rutted roads.
"It was Carlita's idea. She's got a thing for you, you know."
"No. That was a long time ago. A different lifetime."
"That same life where you killed your mom?"
Jacob had to restrain himself from hurling the cell phone across the field. "Where are you?"
"You'll see us when the time is right. Now, about that money you owe me."
"Why can't you be happy with what you have? You got the property and the house, and whatever you left across the state line. That's more than you ever deserved."
"Except Dad left you about eight million, if I remember right. Daddy didn't believe in share and share alike, and I reckon you didn't, neither."
"Go away. Please. I've paid you back enough."
"Damn it, Jake. You still ain't figured it out. It ain't about the money. It's about the fun."
"Screw you."
Carlita was back on the phone. "Hey, what's this about fun? It's been a long time, hasn't it, gringo? Is your wife taking caring of you?"
"You don't have any business here, Carlita." Jacob was helpless against her. He felt as if he was over a bottomless pit, clinging to a thin rope with slick hands. Unbidden, that feeling from the hospital swept over him, the one of being submerged in dark, suffocating water. Down in the silent cold where they couldn't get him.
"But we have so much more to share," Carlita said, taunting him. "I mean, the boy of fourteen didn't know what he was doing. I'll bet your wife has taught you a few tricks since then."
Jacob heard her cigarette lighter click before she inhaled. The sound triggered flames in his head. Joshua must have whispered something to her because he heard the muted buzzing.
"Josh said to say, 'Where there's smoke,'" she said. "I don't know what it means. You are both muy loco. Made for each other."
"Let me talk to him." A sick feeling wended through Jacob's stomach, a fiery snake of unease.
"Remember under the bridge?" Carlita said. "I know you do. A boy never forgets something like that."
Jacob stabbed the 'End' button and folded the phone. He sat on the truck's bumper, not trusting his legs. The grinding of the chain saws merged with the buzzing in his ears, and every hammer blow from the roof drove nails into his skull. The phone rang again. And again.
Six times.
They were watching.
He activated the signal and pressed the phone to the side of his head.
It was Joshua. "Ain't that just like a woman? They won't let bygones be bygones."
Then his tone changed, the clumsy rural grammar vanished. "But the past does have a price, brother. Remember that."
The signal died.
Jacob loosened the top buttons on his flannel shirt and then breathed into his hands, hoping his hyperventilation would fade before he passed out. He worked his way back to the cab, supporting himself using the truck's frame. He had just settled into the driver's seat and closed his eyes when shouts arose from the house. The words were in Spanish, and Jacob didn't immediately grasp their meaning. Then the word " fuego " stood out.
Fire.
Billows of black smoke erupted from the open squares of window frames. The roofers scrambled down the ladder, their tools forgotten, the paper from the bags of shingles fluttering in the breeze. The crew leader, a muscular white man in a gray, mottled tank top, ran out of the structure's interior. The other carpenters raced to the water drums, filling five-gallon buckets and hurrying back to the house. The crew leader grabbed one of the buckets and started to enter the building, but the heat forced him back. Flames were already visible, licking around the front door that had just been installed.
Jacob tried to move, but it was as if cement had been poured into his veins and solidified there, creating a dense and immovable weight. He finally was able to move his lips, completing the phrase Carlita had suggested.
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Renee ran the vacuum cleaner over the rug, lost in the hum of tidiness. The windows were open and the breeze caused the curtains to lift and swell. Renee preferred the fresh air and the scent of the pines that grew along the creek outside. The sunlight gave the room a soft, feathery aspect that she found pleasing.
They wouldn't be in the apartment much longer. She had enjoyed their time together here. It had reminded her of the days in Jacob's college apartment, cluttered and crowded and close. Back before Mattie and Christine and-
She would not think of those things. The future mattered, not the past. They were already planning on building a new home. Jacob wanted a larger house than the one that had burned, but Renee wasn't sure she wanted something so big and empty. However, the nest wouldn't be empty forever. After all the pain and sacrifice in their lives, they were due some happiness.
She flipped the vacuum cleaner switch then stooped to check the floor. When Jacob came home after visiting a job site, he often tracked mud across the carpet. She had asked him to take off his boots at the door, but the apartment had no foyer and she was just as bothered by the dirty boots sitting out in the open as she was by the footprints. She tucked the vacuum cleaner in the closet. In the new house, she promised herself, the closets would be deep enough to keep everything out of sight.
She checked her watch. Twenty minutes to get to the office by the end of lunch break. She'd been unsure about working for M amp; W, but Jacob's enthusiasm had won her over. Now she was glad she'd taken the job, because she saw her husband several times during the day and they often ate lunch together. Twice they'd even sneaked away to the apartment and had daytime sex just like in the early years of their relationship. A suffused glow had been born inside her, a feeling that she was rebuilding him. She now had a noble purpose, one that would help heal the wounds caused by the loss of her children. The saving of one man might make up for her failure to save two children. Maybe that counted in God's eyes.