Home Free (13 page)

I had thought she was an unwed, uneducated,
teenaged single mom with no family and no hope. It turned out her
family was a helluva lot less dysfunctional than mine, and she was
definitely more focused than I was at that age. Or at this age.

“Which pizza place?” I asked when she got to
that part.

“Main Street Pizza.”

“Oh, good, when I call in an order, maybe you
can give me extra cheese?”

She smiled and agreed.

“Here’s the plan,” I said. “You check with
your sister and see if it would be okay for you to hang out at my
place sometimes, when you’re not at school or at work. Do you have
a bike?”

She looked at me like I was a Martian. “Duh.”
Focused, maybe, but still a smart-assed teenager. Thank god.

“Well, I have a new rule not to assume
anything. Anyway, you can come over and work on the computer. I
have all the programs, and I have tutorials for most of them. I’m a
horrible teacher, but the books are good and you won’t have any
trouble.”

Her eyes were wide. “Really? You wouldn’t
mind?”

“Nope, and you can help me with some designs
when you figure the programs out. But I don’t want you to stop
drawing.” I waved Danny’s portrait at her. “You have a real talent,
and you need to keep working at it.”

“Okay.”

I had another thought. “Do you have a cell
phone with a camera?”

She looked embarrassed. “No. We can’t afford
one right now.”

“No problem. I’ll be right back.” I ran out
to the car and rummaged through the glove box and pulled out my
Cannon PowerShot digital camera. I always kept it in my car in case
of accidents that required photographic evidence. One of the few
pieces of good advice Brian ever gave me. Now that I had an iPhone,
the camera was just taking up space. I brought it into the
house.

“Take this and shoot some photos with it,
then when you come over, you’ll have something to work on in
Photoshop.”

“Are you sure? Wow, thanks. I won’t hurt
it.”

She walked me out to the car, and just before
I drove off, she smacked herself in the forehead. “Duh, I almost
forgot. There was a guy at Sherry’s this morning, early.”

“Did you recognize him?”

“I couldn’t really see him. He didn’t go in.
She was on her way out, and he pulled up in his car and talked to
her through the window, and then he left.”

“Did you get the license plate?” Now, why
would she do that? I asked myself. I was the crazy one, not
Angela.

“No, sorry, I didn’t think of it. It was a
sedan, kind of dark. It was new and pretty expensive. I think I’ve
seen it there before, but I’m not sure. It was early and I wasn’t
all the way awake yet. If I see it again, I’ll pay more
attention.”

“No problem. Thanks for telling me.” I
wondered something else. “Does Sherry get many visitors?”

“Nah. Her folks come by once in awhile, when
Lonnie’s at work.” She wrinkled her nose. “I mean, you know. Before
he was dead. They try to convince her to go into rehab.”

“She told you that?”

“Hunh-uh. They came over and talked to Liz
and Stephen about it once, and I sort of overheard. Anyway, they
have a regular car, nothing fancy. Like a Camry, I think. But
that’s why I noticed the expensive car. Don’t see many of them in
this neighborhood.”

“What about Lonnie? I mean, you know. Before
he was dead.” Angela giggled. “He get many visitors?”

She snorted. “Nobody would visit Lonnie.”

“You said something about drugs before.
Didn’t he have customers coming around? Maybe one of them has a
nice car.”

“You were the one who said something about
drugs, not me,” she hedged, her protective facade slipping into
place.

“You asked me why I was visiting ‘Miz H’ and
said it didn’t look like I was buying. I didn’t notice a lemonade
stand, so I assumed you meant drugs.” So there, I thought, mentally
sticking my tongue out at her.

She grinned. “Oh yeah. He sells to his
buddies, a bunch of losers. No high-class clientele. He’s probably
the only drug dealer around - sorry, was the only drug dealer
around - who actually made more money being a night watchman.”

My house was peaceful when I got home, but my
brain wasn’t. The portrait of Danny was haunting. The photo had
been in color, but in the black and white drawing, his face lost
some of its animation and took on a ghost-like quality. I took a
five by seven framed photo of Kevin off the mantle in the living
room and removed his picture and replaced it with Danny’s. I stared
at both photos for a long time, wondering what was going to happen
to them. I went to my room and tucked both pictures into the drawer
of my nightstand.

I thought about the man who had visited
Sherry. Maybe she had a fancy side dish, and he killed Chambers out
of jealousy? I tried to picture a fancy side dish having some
interest in Sherry. I couldn’t quite get there. Then I reminded
myself about yesterday’s fiascos and willed myself to let it all
go.

I couldn’t let any of it go, so I called
Pauline at work.

“Pauline Horowitz.”

“I need therapy.”

“Hello. I see. I have some comp time coming
from when I had to work all that overtime last year when the boss
got fired for exposing himself to the UPS man. I’ll take tomorrow
off, and I’ll pick you up at nine o’clock.”

“Thanks.”

I hung up and went back to the raisins.

I was just shutting off the computer when the
phone rang. My mother. I considered not answering, then figured
there was no point in postponing the inevitable.

“How are you, Mom?”

“I hear you had a little spat with your
brother this afternoon. He’s just trying to protect his little
sister, you know. You could have been nicer.” My thirty-five year
old brother had tattled on me.

“Mom, he told me I couldn’t have men in my
house. He was acting like he was my father and I was fourteen. And
besides, he wasn’t trying to protect me, he’s worried about the
stupid election.”

“Well, the campaign is neck-and-neck. He
could use your support. And Jack’s truck is pretty distinctive, you
know. People are bound to notice.”

“For the last time, Mother, he’s a
contractor. They work early hours. He doesn’t spend the night
here.” Anymore. “But even if we were having sex doggie-style on the
front lawn, it wouldn’t be anybody’s business.”

“Alexis! Who says that to their mother?”

“Well, you always take his side.” Now I felt
like I was fourteen.

“Oh, honey.” That was her favorite trick, the
“oh, honey” with just the right mix of disappointment and parental
disapproval. It was the equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard,
and I stifled a shriek. “Well, I hope you’ll be able to behave
yourself at dinner on Saturday.”

Groan. “What dinner?”

“I told you, we need to pull together as a
family. We’re having a barbecue. Two o’clock. And Alexis, try to be
on time this week, okay?”

Pauline arrived ten minutes early Friday
morning, bearing Starbucks decaf mocha lattes and chocolate
croissants. We ate in my office while I checked my email and sent
the draft of the brochure to the senior home. The phone rang. It
was Angela. Her sister wanted to drop by to make sure I had a
suitable environment for her to hang out in. I told Angela to come
over tomorrow at lunchtime, hung up the phone, logged off the
computer and swallowed the last of my croissant.

“Therapy time.”

I locked the door as we left the house. The
morning was already heating up, the last of the dew steaming off
the grass. The jogging man trotted by, eyes down, probably watching
to make sure he didn’t step in dog doo.

“Who runs in this heat?” Pauline asked.

“Who runs?” I countered. I hadn’t gotten
around to joining a gym since I’d moved to Minter. I figured I was
going to have to, sooner or later. There was only one thing of an
aerobic nature I considered fun, and I wasn’t doing that often
enough to stay sane, let alone keep in shape. And if I kept up with
the chocolate croissants, I’d either have to start swimming laps in
my pool or join the gym and get reacquainted with the stair
machine. But under no circumstances would I take up running.

Satan’s house pet was sprawled on the hood of
my car, at a very unlikely angle. I didn’t know why it didn’t slide
off. I went to give it a little push, but the damn thing didn’t
budge and seemed to think I was petting it. Its fur was soft and
felt hot from the sun beating down on it, but the cat seemed
content and didn’t make any move towards shade. Evidently, compared
with hell, Minter wasn’t all that hot.

“I’ll drive,” Pauline said. She had a new,
bright red VW Beetle and was still getting a kick out of driving
it. It was cute. I thought she should paint black polka dots on it
to make it a ladybug, but she said that was stupid.

The mall in Minter is functional, but not
therapeutic. The two anchor stores, Sears and JC Penney, carry lots
of merchandise that I need, but they don’t have mood enhancers or
antidepressants. Consequently, as soon as Pauline and I had gotten
our driver’s licenses, we, along with every other female in Minter,
did all of our shopping forty-five miles to the north, in Modesto.
The mall in Modesto wasn’t going to give Rodeo Drive a run for its
money, but for a quick therapy session, it was passable.

We drove down Highway 59 towards the edge of
town. I stared as we passed the gravel yard and the charred body
shop next door. The body shop was deserted, but the gravel yard
appeared to be running at full tilt. I saw a dark car in the
parking lot, along with several white pickups with
Salazar’s
Sand & Gravel
in blue lettering on the doors, and I thought
about the man who had visited Sherry.

When we reached the junction of Highways 59
and 99, Pauline turned north onto 99, a mid-sized freeway that
bisects California lengthwise from south of Bakersfield to north of
Chico. We had been sipping our coffee, listening to the traffic
reports. No slowdowns were reported for our chunk of the road.

Pauline turned off the radio and got down to
business. “So, what are we in therapy for?”

“What aren’t we in therapy for?” I sighed.
“Let’s see. Lonnie Chambers, the dead guy at the body shop, was
shacked up with Sherry Henderson, Danny’s ex from high school. Rory
Blankenship thinks I’m losing my hair. I insulted a perfectly nice,
intelligent girl. I picked a fight with Salazar. I called Jack
Danny
at a rather inopportune moment. My idiot brother
doesn’t think I should allow men in my house. And I have to make an
appearance at the folks’ tomorrow. That about covers it, I
guess.”

She nodded, her face solemn, her hair
swinging in gold waves. “That’s a lot for two days. Maybe you
should try to pace yourself.”

It took most of the forty-minute drive to
catch her up on everything. She freaked out when I told her about
Derek. It appeared I was pushing the limits of best friend
etiquette in the number of things I had neglected to tell her. She
glowered.

“So who beat him up, if Danny was with
you?”

I shrugged. I’d never figured that out. For
all I knew, it was a random, karmic episode. On the other hand,
Danny’s father and uncles specialized in breaking joints for Mario
Casaletto. I’d always chosen to believe that the phone call Danny
made that night was to Sherry, or whoever it was he had plans with.
But maybe he had called one of his uncles.

“Maybe Alex or Louie, I guess.”

“Maybe he called your brother.”

I shook my head. “Kevin would have told the
folks. He would have called the cops. Besides, he didn’t know Danny
and I were together at that point, so it would have been longer
than a thirty-second phone call.”

“He knew already.”

“What?”

“You said if I didn’t believe you, I could
ask Kevin. So I did.” She was smirking.

“You didn’t believe me? You’re supposed to be
my best friend, and you think I’m not good enough to get a guy like
Danny Salazar? Thanks a helluva lot for the vote of
confidence.”

“Well, you know, all the rumors lately about
your mental condition. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t
delusional or anything. It was for your own good.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Kevin knew the very first day, after your
dad asked Danny to leave. Danny told Kevin he was going to marry
you one day and asked him not to say anything about the two of you
to your folks. Clearly Danny could be very persuasive.” She gave me
a look. “But I guess I don’t need to tell
you
that, do
I?”

I wanted to believe that Danny had meant what
he said to Kevin, but with his track record with women, I figured
he had a list of lines to use to get out of sticky situations.
Anyway, I was more surprised by my brother. Not only had he not
said anything to our parents, he’d never even let on to me that he
knew anything was going on with Danny.

“Well, I still don’t think that’s who Danny
called. Besides, when Kevin was busy telling you all my secrets,
wouldn’t he have mentioned Derek if he had known about that?”

Pauline nodded, thinking. “Maybe he wanted to
protect your privacy? Although - ” she stopped mid-sentence and
gave a wrinkly-nosed grimace, and I knew Kevin had told her about
the night I’d always assumed was the first time he found out about
Danny and me, which certainly precluded any possibility of
protecting my privacy.

As we took the mall exit off the freeway, I
blushed and changed the subject. “Enough about me. What’s new with
you?”

“Well, I’m still seeing Kevin, obviously. You
know, Al, he’s a really great guy. And the sex, holy shit - ”

I shrieked, covered my ears with my hands and
made “lalalalala” noises to drown out the sound of her voice.

“I listen to all your stories,” she
pouted.