October Snow (45 page)

Max brightened considerably. “Ooh, that would be perfect.”

She was satisfied for the moment, and Jo was relieved. She was growing weary of sidestepping their questions. It was hard enough, giving no indication whatsoever of what the night would hold.

She glanced at the dashboard clock. “We can stop by the apartment, check on things, and still be at Barley’s by ten.”

Max stretched, then checked her reflection in the visor mirror. “I think I may grab a quick shower.”

“That’s fine.” Jo realized it would give her an even better opportunity to lose her. “Take your time, because I’m going to do the same. We’ll shoot for eleven. It’ll be good to take it easy for a night, huh?”

Max sighed. “You got that right.”

They were quiet then, until they pulled up to the house. “Wow,” Max mumbled, “this seems like a lifetime ago.”

Jo felt her way down the hallway–the lights were out again. She fumbled a bit to unlock her door in the dim light.

Swinging it open, she waited to hear Daisy jump off of the bed, and then resisted an urge to run from the apartment as the silence cut through her.

She went straight to the kitchen, digging in her pocket for her phone, and her heart leaped as she saw two messages. She knew that they had to be from the boys. She needed to hear their voices, needed it desperately at this point.

The messages were from Jack, the usual heavy breathing. Her impulse was to smash the phone against the wall, but she couldn’t. Everything tonight would turn on having that phone on her. “
You
,” she said, “do
not
win this one, Car-boy.” She kicked the refrigerator, hard enough to send a shockwave all the way to her hip. “Neither do you, Pit Bull.”

She brought John’s number up on her phone, then snapped it closed again.

Where are you
? something inside her wailed, and she remembered the dream.

I didn’t look behind me…because I didn’t want to see that there was no one there
.

“They’re gone,” she said aloud, forcing the reality of it to permeate her mind. “Keith won.”

She went into the bedroom, and her eyes rested on her favorite picture, the photo of the three of them. She snatched it from the table, turning to hurl it against the wall - but the faces of her little boys came to her again, and she froze.

“Oh,
no
,” she whispered. “
Oh, no …
”

She crumpled slowly to the floor, holding the picture to her heart. And she cried, her tears landing on their smiling image as she wept over it, the sobs coming so forcefully that she felt her heart would stop.

Eventually, she calmed herself enough to make her way to the bathroom. She splashed her face with cold water, holding it to her swollen eyes a few times. Catching her reflection in the mirror, she took in her slack expression, the dullness of her eyes. And she wondered why she had ever hoped for anything at all.

Staring herself down, she said, “This time, they lose.”

Back in the kitchen, she emptied her purse on the counter. She picked up Sam’s phone, scrolling to the texts she had saved after taking it from Sam’s backpack.

Jack knows and I want to abort

Better hurry it’s getting late

Okay

I’ll take you. It’s the right thing to do

She scrolled through the texts that she sent to herself from Sam’s phone earlier that day:

You have an appointment at the clinic don’t eat or drink right now

Thanx Jo will it hurt

Hardly at all Ill pick you up in an hour

She checked the time, then sent another to Sam’s phone:

How are you feeling

She waited a few minutes, then sent the next one to herself:

Okay bleeding but not bad

tired tho im so relieved

you were right Jo thanx

“Let’s wrap this thing up,” she muttered.

Get some sleep Ill call you tomorrow

“That’ll do it,” she said, pleased with herself. She erased the texts from Sam’s phone and slipped it back into her purse. Then she checked her own phone for the pictures she would need.

She felt a little crazy as she called him. That was a good thing, she decided. Crazy was a useful thing for her tonight.

“Hello?”

“Hey there, Jack.”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Jo.”

He exploded. “You can’t be calling me! What is this? A
setup
? Trying to get me on the restraining order?”

“Screw the order, Jack. Your cell will show this as an incoming call anyway, so you’re in the clear.”

He was intrigued. The one thing he wanted more than anything else–except to torment Sam, of course–was to get a shot at Josie Kane. “What do you want?”

She sighed, playing with him. “There’s some stuff that you need to know. Meet me at Barley’s. Half hour.”

“No way. This is a setup.”

“I already explained that to you. Okay,” she said, a resigned tone to her voice, “find out the hard way.”

“Wait,” he hurried to stop her from hanging up. “Just tell me.”

“You won’t believe me unless I show you the proof, and to be honest, I don’t feel like wasting my time.”

“What ‘proof’? What are you talking about?”

“I’ll be at Barley’s in thirty minutes. You want to find out what’s happened, then be there.”

He was seated at the bar when Jo walked in, at the second stool from the front door.

Perfect
.

“Jack!”

The bar was slow that night, and she was inappropriately loud. Several people looked up to see who had yelled.

She ordered an amaretto rocks from the young woman behind the bar. “Where’s Bobby?”

“He took the night off.” She slid the drink to her. “Four-fifty, please.”

Jo handed her a ten. “Keep it. Tell Bobby that ‘Josie’ said hi, okay?”

“Will do.” She waved the ten. “And thanks for this.”

She slid onto the barstool next to Jack, regarding him with amusement.

“Okay, I’m here,” he said. “What have you got?”

“Bad news, Jackie.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Really?” he sneered.

You really do need to go away
. “For you, I mean.”

“Well then, tell me.”

“Sammy got away from you.”

He chuckled, pushing his empty glass away. “Sure she did.” He leaned back in the chair, swiveling it back and forth, his hands in his pockets. “No, that isn’t going to happen, Jo.”

“Yeah, that would be one hell of a messy divorce, right?”

He laughed. “Okay, so you know. Still doesn’t matter.”

“Oh. Okay.” She pointed to their glasses as the bartender looked over.

“I’m good, Jo.” He indicated his empty glass. “That one was my second already.”

“Too late. She’s pouring.” She motioned the bartender for doubles, then looked him up and down. “You can nurse it if you need to.” She dropped two twenties on the bar as their drinks arrived, nodding for the young woman to keep it. Delighted, she raised her eyebrows, smiling her thanks.

He held his glass up in a salute, then drained it.

She chugged a little less than half of hers, stretching her lips as it went down, baring her teeth. “Wow. I need to start ordering top-shelf. Anyway, does it matter that Sammy and Dave got married last week?”

His glass fell from his hands, tipping over as it landed on the bar. “
What
?”

She grinned. “You know, big fat diamond, white dress, flowers. We had the devastatingly handsome–and I mean,
smokin
‘ hot–David Delaney,” she winked, “spiriting away his beautiful bride–to you, that would be the one that got away–for a hon-ee
-moon
…” She sighed dreamily. “It was the stuff that dreams are made of, Jackie.”

His face was crimson with rage, his eyes slits. “You…lying…
bitch
.”

The bartender took notice then, moving closer.

She lowered her voice. “Take a look.” Jo opened her phone, bringing up a series of pictures from the wedding. “She made
such
a beautiful bride, don’t you think? I’ll bet you’re happy for her, now that she has…Oh, let’s call it a ‘functioning’ man in her life. I heard you have issues in that department. What’d she say about you? Oh yeah…‘Wee Willie called–he wants his dick back.’” She nudged him. “Two words, short-stuff: ‘penis pump.’”

He looked away, running his fist across his mouth. “You better shut up.” His voice sounded oddly childlike to her, and she laughed out loud.

“They just got home today.” She slid her glass to the edge of the bar. “But that’s not even the best half of the story.”

They stared each other down for a moment, then Jo said quietly, “You know what,
idiot
? I think I’ll let you find out for yourself just how bad it sucks to be you. See ya, Car-boy,” she said as she hopped down from the stool, heading for the door.

“Hey!
Hey!
” he bellowed after her, and a few of the patrons who had been watching them stood up.

“Hey, buddy, calm down,” an older man, about sixty, put his hand out as if to stop Jack from following her.

She turned to face the people in the bar, appearing terrified, then ran out the door.

“Damn you…
Jo!
” Jack scrambled off the stool, clumsy from too much alcohol in too short a time, and ran after her. The conversation in the bar went from a low, curious hum to a chaotic din, as the customers voiced their concerns.

“Wow–he looks like he wants to kill her,” someone said.

“Yeah, she’s in trouble there.”

“Did anyone catch his name?”

“Yeah. It was ‘Jack’.”

“I’m calling the cops,” the bartender said, reaching for the phone.

A few people went outside to see if they could help, but they were already gone.

“Jo?” Max knocked a couple of times, then tried the knob, even though she knew it would be locked. “Jo!” She knocked again. Her stomach was starting to turn over inside her as she wondered if she had been duped somehow. It seemed like it, but she couldn’t figure out exactly why.

She headed for the parking area, pulling her phone out. As she feared, Jo’s truck wasn’t there.

Dave picked up on the first ring. “Max. What’s going on?”

“Jo took off.” She explained the situation, and what their plans had been. “And I don’t have a working car. I’m going to walk over to Barley’s. I don’t know where else to start.”

Dave could hear the fear in her voice. “I’m on my way.” He grabbed his wallet from his desk, looking around for his keys.

Sam was beside him, handing them to him. “What happened?” Her voice trembled. They had both been skittish all evening, weighed down with a grim feeling of expectation.

“We don’t know. She stranded Max at the apartment and took off.” He bent to kiss her. “Stay here with Ty. I’ll call you when we know something.”

Max ran through the door at Barley’s, winded and scanning the bar for Jo. She hurried over to the bartender. “Have you seen a small woman, blonde, around fifty…”

“Name’s ‘Josie’?”

“
Yes
. She was here?”

“Some guy–Jack - chased her out of here a few minutes ago. He was pissed enough that I called the cops, because seriously, if he catches her…” She shook her head, looking knowingly at Max.

“Did you see what direction they went in?”

She shook her head. “Sorry.”

“Thanks.” She went out to the street, looking around frantically. It was quiet, with only a few people wandering around in what was normally a busy area. It seemed to Max that the night was unusually dark.

Her cell was going off in her pocket, and she pulled it out eagerly.

“Dave,” she said, “I was hoping it was her.”

“Nothing yet?”

“She was at Barley’s, and Jack…. He chased her out of the place.”

“What happened?”

“She did, said
something
that pissed him off, and when she ran, he went after her.” Her voice broke. “The bartender called the cops, he was that out of control.”

“Think, Max. Where would she have gone?”

“I don’t know…Maybe the apartment? Don’t know why she’d go back there, though…” She turned toward the road to their building, breaking into a jog. “What the hell is she
doing
? Is she setting it up for some kind of self-defense thing to get rid of him?”

He thought about it. “It seems that way, but really, that just isn’t her. She didn’t seem to have that on her mind when we talked tonight.”

“What did she say to you? Try to remember everything.”

“Mostly, she was just evasive. The only thing I remember her saying about Jack was some comment about knowing how to flush guys like him out.”

Max stopped. She remembered the story of New Year’s Eve, of Jo trapping Keith–on tape, for the record. Parlaying that event into a divorce settlement.

You actually engineered all that
?

Hey, you do what you have to
.

“I know how to flush these guys out,” she murmured.

“Yeah. That’s what she said.” He paused. “What is it? What are you thinking?”

In a few lucid, horrifying seconds, it all became clear to her. Jo had gone from depressed, to apathetic, to suicidal.