He looked up at her. He contemplated her as if he meant to never forget her in that light.
“You gonna be teaching again in the fall?” he asked.
Her mouth fell open. She didn’t think she could endure much more of this. “Math and English,” she said.
“It’s nice there, huh?”
“Better than Blessed Sacrament,” she said.
He smiled. “It’s a tough racket, teaching.” It sounded like he was talking to himself.
“I could use some English myself,” he said, a little sadly. “I don’t express myself too good. Well. Too well. See what I mean?”
She took a deep, slow breath. She could hear Todd breathing, too.
“You know what you gotta have in this life?” he said. “You gotta have ability. You gotta have luck. You gotta have the balls to arrive at your own conclusions.”
“Bruno, what do you want?” she said. “C’mon.”
“C’mon?” Bruno said. “Come on?”
“I mean—”
“What am I gonna be, a headline? ‘Bruno Found in the River’? ‘Bruno Washes Up on the Beach’? Is that what’s gonna happen? Because you found some money and you want to hang onto it?”
“I didn’t find any money,” Joanie said.
“Did you kill Tommy Monteleone?” he asked.
She looked at his shoes. She looked at Todd, but he was looking away. “It was an accident,” she said.
“And you lied about that. All along,” he said. “All the things we talked about. You watched me go through this all along.”
The three of them were quiet. Bruno rubbed his nose slowly with both hands.
“What was I supposed to tell you?” Joanie said in a low voice.
“This was me,” Bruno said. “This wasn’t the cops, this wasn’t your fucking mother. This was me.”
She shrugged. She swallowed again.
“I sat there talking with you, thinking we were getting somewhere, and all along you were thinking, What a fucking jerk.”
“I wasn’t thinking that,” Joanie said.
“Get away from me,” he said, and she realized she had her hand out to him.
Todd had his arms crossed and was rubbing them with his hands. He cleared his throat. When Bruno looked at him, Joanie watched him try to make himself completely still.
Bruno turned back to her. She would not swallow again, no matter what. “And what about the new washer-dryer?” he said. “You saved your pennies in the piggy bank?”
She was stunned, flustered at having that dragged into it. “Sandro and Nina helped us out with that.”
“Sandro and Nina helped you out.”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s the truth.”
He smiled again. “The truth.”
“The truth.”
“You never saw any money?”
“I never saw any money.”
He sat there nodding. Todd started breathing again. “Well,” Bruno said. He slapped his thigh. “I apologize for the inconvenience.”
She watched him closely. “Bruno—” she said skeptically.
“No,” he said. “That’s what you say, that’s what you say. I got no choice but to believe you.”
He stood up. He looked around the room at the mess. “Hey, listen,” he said. “You ever do decide to leave town, you let me know. I’ll help you run a tag sale for all this stuff. We’ll split the profits.”
“Bruno—” she said.
“Yeah yeah yeah,” he said. He headed to the door. He turned. “Todd,” he said, and pointed at him. “Be well.”
“Are you in trouble?” Joanie asked. She didn’t want to extend the conversation, but she had to know. “I mean, does this have to do with the people you work for?”
“Yeah,” Bruno said. “The people I work for. Long time ago.”
“You and Tommy and Joey Distefano?”
“It was a while ago,” Bruno said, almost dreamily. “And Mark Siegler. You remember Mark Siegler?”
She felt sick. “Mark Siegler?” she said. “What happened to Mark Siegler? I thought he had that heart thing.”
“He was killed,” Bruno said. “In a calamity.”
“A calamity?” Joanie whispered. “What kind of calamity?”
“Heart,” Bruno said. “Though I think a big pipe before that. Big steel pipe.” He left. She heard him going downstairs. She heard Audrey pad into the den in anticipation, getting out of his way.
The back door opened and shut, but she still didn’t hear his car. She listened a minute longer and then went to the top of the stairs. It was quiet. She tiptoed down and peered into the kitchen, tipping her body to see down the hall better. Everything was quiet. She crossed to the kitchen window and looked out through the curtains, but she couldn’t see anything. His bottle of champagne was on the table, where he’d left it.
She walked to the back door, thinking a horrible joke was about to be played on her. She found it locked. She tested it anyway, and looked out again, both hands on the knob.
Bruno swung into view from the side of the window, and she shrieked and fell back into the coats.
He looked in on her, then held up his hand in a wave and headed off down the driveway.
She slumped to the floor, kicking the shoes and sandals they’d piled there in various directions.
Todd was peeking into the kitchen.
“You all right?” he asked.
She closed her eyes and nodded. She swallowed, as if finally she could. “He scared me,” she said.
“Is the door locked?” Todd asked.
She nodded again. She opened her eyes.
“You okay?”
She stood up. She swiped at her rear and thighs, as if she’d been sitting in dirt.
“May be we should call somebody,” he said in a frightened voice.
She went to the phone and started dialing. When she finished, she looked at the clock. It was twelve-thirty.
Her father answered.
“Dad,” she said. She didn’t know what to say next.
“You all right?” he asked. She could hear him trying to get his voice back.
“I wake you up?” she said. She suddenly felt stupid.
“’S all right,” he said. “What’s up?”
“Mom there?” she asked.
“Hold on,” her father said.
They seemed to be fighting over the phone. Joanie couldn’t make out what they were saying. She heard a little of her mother’s voice.
“Your mother doesn’t want to talk to you,” her father said.
“Oh — We had a fight,” she said, trying to explain. She made a disappointed noise with her tongue.
“Call her back tomorrow. She’ll be all right,” he said.
She held the receiver near her chin. Her heel was bobbing and she was looking at Todd.
“You sure you’re all right?” her father said.
“Yeah. Go back to sleep,” she said. “Dad?” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks,” she said. She hung up.
She stood looking at Todd in the light from the hallway.
“I’m scared,” Todd said.
“We’ll be all right,” she said. “What’s he gonna do?”
“I’m scared,” he said. “Let’s go over their house. Let’s go over there.”
She was going to tell him she’d have to call her father back again, but she saw his face, and her heart went out to him. “You wanna go over?” she said.
“Just for tonight,” he said.
“Okay,” she said. “Brush your teeth and grab a shirt for tomorrow.”
He stood staring at her. He was starting to cry again.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I told.”
Before she could hug him, he turned and ran from the room.
They’d be all right, she thought. Years from now, she meant. They loved each other too much to not be all right.
She got her toothbrush from the bathroom downstairs and underwear and a T-shirt from her bedroom dresser. She decided against hunting up a little bag, figuring it wasn’t that much to carry loose.