So now that my story was filed to the office, I felt I needed to make amends. I went into the kitchen and poured myself some coffee. Sarah came up to me, hugged me from the side, leaned her head into my shoulder. I gave her a squeeze back.
“You’ve filed?”
I said yes. “I figure I’ve got about a half hour before they start calling with stupid questions.”
“At the outside,” Sarah said.
“I’ll take advantage of the lull before the storm to give Trixie a call.”
“She called, while you were away, to ask about your father. To see if he’d really been eaten by a bear. I set her straight.”
“Good.”
“Zack?”
“Yes, hon?”
“Promise me. No more of this. This is not our life.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
I nodded and glanced at the clock on the wall. Saturday night, eight o’clock. There was a very good chance Trixie might be with a client, but if she didn’t answer, I’d just leave a message.
I went back into the study, dialed Trixie’s personal number. She picked up on the second ring.
“Hey,” I said.
“Zack,” Trixie said. “How’s your dad?”
“He’s okay.”
“Sarah said. But she said there were some other problems. Did everything go okay?”
“Things…are okay. If I weren’t so tired, I’d tell you all about it now, but as they say in the newspaper biz, you can read all about it tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“Listen,” I said. “I kind of had to rush off when we were having lunch Tuesday, and maybe I’m wrong, but I had the feeling there was something you wanted to talk to me about.”
It was quiet at the other end of the line.
“Trixie?”
“Yeah?”
“If I’m sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong, tell me. You just seemed, I don’t know, like there was something you wanted to get off your chest.”
Another long pause. Finally, she spoke.
“I’m in trouble,” Trixie said.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks, as always, to my agent, Helen Heller, and the Bantam Dell gang, particularly Irwyn Applebaum, Nita Taublib, Micahlyn Whitt, and Shawn O’Gallagher. And to Neetha, Paige, and Spencer, best gang ever.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LINWOOD BARCLAY is the author of Bad Move and Bad Guys. He is a columnist for the Toronto Star and lives with his family near Toronto.
His website is www.linwoodbarclay.com.
