Sunset Express

Pike said, 'Bail. They're pushing hard for bail.'

Lucy was nodding, clicking at her teeth again with her glasses. 'I'll bet he's going to run. If he was willing to give up everything he owns to beat the charge, he's willing to leave it behind. Do you see?'

'Sure.' Maybe I should just sit with Ben and watch television. Let Lucy and Joe figure it out.

Lucy said, 'Maybe they've amended their agreement again, only this time not on paper. Maybe now it's payable on bail.'

I was nodding, too. Mr Getting-on-Board. Mr Getting-with-the-Program. 'Why wouldn't it be on paper?'

Pike said, 'Because payment on bail would indicate a foreknowledge of flight.'

I stared at him.

Lucy said, 'Joe's right. You two are in the picture and you're making trouble. Lester was a problem, and that's more trouble. Maybe Teddy and Jonathan are getting so pressed that they're willing to take the chance on each other.'

I was grinning. 'So once Teddy has the money, he arranges a funds transfer to Brazil while he's still in jail. Jonathan doesn't have anything to do with it. Then, if he's granted bail, he jumps. Teddy will have his freedom, and Green can deny any knowledge of Teddy's proposed flight.'

Lucy nodded. 'That would work. Plus, any communication between the two is privileged and not admissible in court.'

Pike said, 'Ain't justice grand.'

I said, 'Sonofagun,' and held up my hand and Lucy gave me a high five. It felt like we'd done something.'

But then Joe said, 'And there's nothing we can do about it.'

I blinked at him. 'Man, are you ever Mr Wet Blanket.'

Joe watched me for a moment, then stood and went to Lucy. He towered over her. 'You're going tomorrow.'

'That's right. In the morning.'

Pike looked at me, but he spoke to Lucy. 'He's going to miss you. He's done nothing but pine since he got back from Louisiana.'

I said, 'Pine?'

Lucy smiled. 'I like pining.'

Joe frowned at me. 'You must be out of your mind, talking- about this stuff when it's her last night.' He turned back to Lucy. 'I'm going to miss you, too.'

Lucy stood on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. 'Joe, thank you.'

Joe said, 'Hey, Ben.'

Ben rolled over the back of the couch and grinned at him. 'Bye, Joe. I hope you come visit.'

Joe pointed at him, then glanced again at Lucy and walked to the door. The cat saw that Joe was leaving, hurried down the stairs, and slipped out with him. Soulmates.

When Joe was gone Lucy wrapped her arms around me. 'He's so nice.'

'Nice isn't a word often used to describe him.'

'He cares a very great deal for you.'

'Joe's okay.'

She said, 'I care about you, too.'

'I know.' I put my arms around her then and hugged her. I lifted her off the floor and my heart filled, and in a strange moment I felt as if I were fading into a shadow and if I did not hang onto her tight enough I would disappear. I said, 'Want to do something wild?' I think I whispered it.

'Yes.'

'Want to do something crazy?' I said it louder.

'Oh, God, I can't wait.'

Ben said, 'Hey, can I do it, too?'

And I said, 'You bet, bud.'

I put her down, and then the three of us made hot cocoa and sat in the cool night air on my deck and talked about our time together as the coyotes sang.

We talked until very late, and then Lucy put Ben to bed, and she and I sat up still longer, no longer talking, now simply holding each other in the safety of my home, pretending that tomorrow would not come.

CHAPTER 31

I brought Lucy and Ben to LAX at just after nine the next morning. We returned her car to the rental agency, then sat together at the departure gate until the plane boarded, and then I stood with them in line until they entered the jetway and I could go no farther. I watched them until an efficent young woman -in a neat airline uniform told me that I was blocking the door and asked me to move. I went to the great glass windows and watched the plane, hoping to see Lucy or Ben in one of the ports, but didn't. I guess they were seated on the other side. We had spent the morning speaking of innocuous things: It's certainly cloudy this morning, isn't it? Yes, but it will burn off by ten. Oh, darn, I forgot to phone the airline and order the fruit plate. I guess it was a way of minimizing our separation. I guess it was a way of somehow pretending that her getting on an airplane and both of us going back to our lives wasn't somehow painful and confusing.

When the little tractor pushed the airplane away from the dock and out to the taxiway, I said, 'Damn.'

An older gentleman was standing next to me. He was stooped and balding, with a thin cotton shirt and baggy old-man pants pulled too high and a walking stick. He said, 'It's never easy.'

I nodded.

He said, 'Your wife and son?'

'My friends.'

'With me, it was my grandkids.' He shook his head.

'They come out twice a year from Cleveland. I put them on the plane, I always think that this could be the last time. The plane could crash. I could drop dead.'

I stared at him.

'I'm not a young man anymore. Death is everywhere.'

I walked away. Too bad you couldn't get a restraining order against negativity.

Joe picked me up outside the terminal and we drove directly to Louise Earle's. We parked at the mouth of her drive, again went up to her door, and once more rang the bell and knocked. If we knocked much more we'd probably wear a groove in the wood. I was hoping that she might've returned home, but the drapes were still pulled and the house was still dark, and there was no sign that she had come back, then left again. While we were standing there, Mrs Harris came out of her house and made a nervous wave at us. Pike said, 'Looks worried.'

'Yeah.'

We walked over to her. I could see that her face was pinched and frightened, and that she was cupping one hand with the other, over and over. She said, 'That man came back this morning. I thought it was the milkman, they came so early.'

'They.'

'There were three men. They were walking all around Louise's house. They walked around the side. They went in the back.'

Pike looked at me, and I showed her the photograph of Kerris. 'Was this one of them?'

She squinted at the picture and then she nodded. 'Oh, yes. That's the one who was here before.' She bustled to the edge of the porch, wringing her hands, flustered by the dark thoughts. 'They were in her house. The lights came on and I could see them moving.'

'Did you see them leave?'

She nodded.

'Did Mrs Earle leave with them?'

She looked at me with large, frightened eyes. 'What do you mean by that? What are you saying to me?'

'Did she leave with them?'

Mrs Eleanor Harris shook her head. Just once. Imperceptibly.

I said, 'Had Mrs Earle come home?'

She was looking at her friend's house, wringing the hands, shifting in a kind of encompassing agitation.

'Was Mrs Earle at home?'

She looked back at me with big eyes. 'I don't know. I don't think so, but she may have.'

Pike and I trotted around the side of Louise Earle's house and into her backyard. I felt washed in a cold air, the hair along the back and sides of my head prickling, and scared of what we might find. Pike said, 'The door.'

Louise Earle's back door had been forced. We slipped out our guns and went in and moved through the house. It was a small home, just the kitchen and the dining room and the living room and two small bedrooms and a single bath. Papers had been pulled from drawers and furniture shoved out of place and closet doors left open, as if someone had searched the place more out of frustration than with a specific goal. I was worried that we might find Mrs Earle, and that she might be dead, but there was nothing. I guess she hadn't come home, after all. Pike said, 'First Lester, now her. Green's tying off the loose ends to protect himself.'