He held up his glass and stared into the amber liquid, suddenly craving oblivion. All he could think about was Lorraine. Sitting in a sidewalk bar this close to her hotel made his thoughts inevitable.
Finishing his beer, he decided to catch a cab to his own hotel when he strolled by a telephone. Two steps past it, he stopped, turned and went back.
He dialed the operator and put the call on his credit card, then waited for the connection to Boothill, Texas, to go through.
His best friend’s wife answered on the third ring. “Jack, is that you?” Letty shouted.
The connection wasn’t the best. “It’s me. Is Murphy around?”
“He’s vaccinating calves, but listen, I’m glad you phoned. Someone by the name of Thomas Dancy called for you today.”
“Thomas?” he asked in surprise. “I spoke to him last night.” But, in retrospect, he realized that he hadn’t given Thomas a number, a place to reach him. He’d only mentioned the name of Lorraine’s hotel, not where he himself was staying. And Thomas would’ve been able to track down Murphy easily enough; on more than one occasion, Jack had mentioned Murphy and the cattle ranch he owned in the Texas hill country.
“What’s this I hear about you escorting his daughter out of Mexico?” An infant wailed in the background. Their third in four years.
“I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Are you coming for a visit? Murphy would love to see you. So would I.”
“I’m thinking about it,” Jack admitted. One thing was certain: he had to leave Mexico for a while. Get away from the memories and the pain. Reestablish his emotional equilibrium. “Give the kids each a kiss from me,” Jack said, forcing himself to sound as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
“Hold on just a minute,” Letty said. “I’ve got more news for you.”
Jack heard a clank as she set the telephone aside. Almost immediately the baby’s cries ceased. News? The last time Letty had something to tell him it was about the third addition to their family.
“Are you still there?” Letty asked when she got back on the line.
“I’m here,” he said. He thought of joking that it was costing him five bucks a minute for her to burp the baby, but in reality he wouldn’t have cared if it was ten times that amount. Letty and Murphy were as close as Jack had to a real family, and right now he needed them. Needed to know that couples in love could find happiness in this world.
“Okay,” Letty said, “getting back to that call from your friend Nancy…”
“Dancy,” Jack corrected.
“As long as you know who I mean. He was quite concerned about his daughter.”
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Do you know anyone named Gary… Darn, I can’t think of the last name. Anyway, he’s connected to this Dancy’s daughter, but I don’t think he told me how. Not that it matters.”
Jack stiffened. “I know who you mean. What about him?”
Her voice seemed to be fading, and then it grew loud again. “Dancy said he’d been getting phone calls from this Gary guy, and then today someone entirely different contacted him and claimed to be the same person. Your friend seemed concerned about it.”
Jack’s hand tightened on the receiver. “Go on.”
“There’s not much more to tell you. Dancy left a message at the hotel you mentioned, but you weren’t registered and his daughter hadn’t checked in yet. He didn’t have any way of getting in touch with you, and he seemed pretty upset about all this. He told the first guy everything he knew about the two of you in Mexico City. Now he’s worried, and rightly so, it seems.”
Jack’s mind raced. It could only be one person.
Jason Applebee.
“I’ve got to go,” he said in a rush.
“Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
“I’ll visit soon. I promise.” He replaced the receiver, then stood there thinking about what he’d just learned.
This adventure wasn’t over yet.
Gary knew the minute he drove onto the freeway that he was going to Marjorie’s house, even though his ostensible destination was the mall. He had the perfect excuse to stop by—a signed Ken Griffey, Jr., rookie card that Brice had been dying to see.
He intended to say something along the lines of dropping over because he was in the neighborhood. A stretch and certainly not very original, but he didn’t care. He had to know.
Since their kiss, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. She dominated his every waking thought, and while they’d agreed to put the whole thing behind them, it hadn’t happened. As a result, their working relationship was strained. Their coworkers would soon guess, and Gary felt it was time to clear the air.
Saturday morning had found him restless and at odds. His original intention had been to do a little shopping…but then, why had he taken the baseball card with him? He didn’t know who he was trying to fool. He enjoyed shopping about as much as he enjoyed paying taxes.
When he headed toward the freeway entrance, he admitted that seeing Marjorie was what he’d planned to do all along. Granted, his method lacked finesse. Stopping by unannounced and uninvited wasn’t the most brilliant idea he’d ever come up with. On the other hand, maybe she approved of spontaneity.
He parked on the street, walked up to the front porch and rang the doorbell.
Marjorie came to the door. He could tell she was surprised to see him. “Gary…hi.”
“Hi.” He resisted the urge to say he’d made a mistake and hightail it back to his car. “Is Brice here?” He sounded like a kid, he thought irritably. “I have that baseball card I told him about and I thought he’d like to see it.”
She opened the screen door to let him in. “The signed Ken Griffey, Jr., card? I heard him talking about it to his friends.”