The two spoke for only a few minutes, in the privacy of the kitchen. Molly looked close to tears when she returned and handed me the instrument. She ran off to her room, with Betsy following her.
"What's the matter?" I said into the phone, while looking at Molly.
I could tell from Julie's voice, she was either crying of close to it. "I can't get Howie to leave and I miss Molly."
"What's the problem? There's nothing to keep him in Santa Barbara. If he's dead set on questioning relatives, he can do it by phone."
"He's obsessed about his sister's death. Talking to that policeman set him even more. He spent half the afternoon on the phone with his psychiatrist doctor. I keep asking him to get the plane tickets so we could leave but he wants to talk to some distant relatives who don't want to talk to him. He's a mess, Ben. I just want to leave!"
"Can't you convince him we can help him back here? We're his friends; we can think of something."
"He's fanatical about all of Quinn's equipment too. Everything is still just sitting there from the last time we used it. I don't know who is paying for the room; it's God-awful expensive here. Howie refuses to leave without taking all those machines with him. He swears he won't leave them behind."
"No one knows how to use any of it, Julie. Without Quinn the stuff is as useless as an empty bottle."
"He said if Quinn could do his thing, someone else maybe could too. He doesn't want to give up but he's afraid to even touch the equipment much less pack it up. He won't even go down to eat. He just calls room service."
"Tell him to get you a ticket and let him do his thing alone. He's not being fair to you, Julie. Molly misses you and you should be with daughter." Julie began crying in earnest. "Put Howie on the phone, Julie," I said in frustration.
"I don't want to leave him here alone, Ben," she whispered between sobs. "I'm afraid he'll do something . . . to himself. He leans on me like I'm the only person in the world." Howie must have come up to her as his voice replaced hers.
"Ben, I'm sorry!"
"For what, Howie?"
"For everything . . . for how I handled the police-guy, for making Julie stay just a little bit longer, for chasing off Martha and Quinn . . . "
"Take it easy, Howie . . . Martha and Quinn made their own decision; you didn't chase them off."
"Julie should be with Molly; I know, but I don't know what to do. All of Quinn's stuff is here too. No way will I leave it. This business about Annie is killing me so much I can't think straight. Dr. Cohen says I should address the issue, whatever that means. God, I wish you were here! Have you talked to the guy who my cousin Sonia said did it? You said he's out of jail. If he did it . . . killed my sister, maybe he'll tell you what I did." Betsy returned to the room and I held my hand over the phone and turned to her.