Page 136

"You mean my father?" She nodded. "No."

"Well, let's get started. I promised Chris I'd meet him at seven-thirty. One good thing about Chris is he never asks many questions. Where's the dress?"

"Upstairs where you left it," I said.

She hurried ahead. After she put it on and fixed her hair the way I had described Geraldine's, we got into the car. She sat on the floor in the back.

"Are you sure you can drive?"

"Yes," I said, even though I wasn't. I couldn't stop the trembling inside me. When I took hold of the steering wheel, it helped, but my breathing was so rapid and short, I was a

fraid I would make some terrible error and have an accident. Then what would we do? How would we explain anything?

"Go, go, go," Misty urged. "I'm not exactly comfortable down here."

"Okay."

I started the engine, opened the garage door.

"Oh, no," I said. "It's raining hard."

"That's good. It'll be more difficult for him to see us," she said.

Right, I thought, but it's harder to drive, too. I headed out slowly. As I left the driveway, / glanced around quickly, searching for signs of my father. A car more than halfway down the block did look like his.

"I think he's there. I think he's going to follow us."

"Try to lose him if he does," Misty coached from the back.

I watched the rearview mirror. Raindrops made the window look like shattered glass.

"It's hard to see in this. I can't tell if that car is his." "Forget about him, Cat. Just drive to the hospital."

"What hospital? We never decided!" I cried in a panic.

"Take it easy," she said. She gave me directions to Saint John's and we drove on.

During the whole trip, I never knew if he was right behind us or not. I made so many turns and took a number of side streets. We drove to the hospital, parked, and waited for as long as we thought it would take to get Geraldine checked out. I watched for any signs of him, but saw none. After what we thought was a sufficient time, we drove away with Misty in the front seat.

The rain fell in periodic torrents and then slowed to a drizzle. It was like that in Los Angeles. It could be raining hard ten blocks away and almost not raining where I was. When we arrived at the house, I closed the garage door behind us before either of us got out. Then we went to the living room and Misty took Geraldine's chair. I had her back to the window and opened the shutter just enough for someone to see her silhouette.

"I'll pretend to get you some tea," I said.

"Don't pretend. I could use a cup of something hot." After I brought it to her, she sipped it and smiled. "So? How do I look?"

"I don't know. I guess from across the street you look like her."

"I'll sit here another twenty minutes and then I'll walk out and leave through the back. Of course, I'll change first," she added with a laugh. "It's creepy, but if it works, he'll keep his distance."

"We hope," I said.

"Don't worry about Stuart. You'll have a new boyfriend in a week. I've got some ideas already. Jade wants us to have a meeting about all this tomorrow night," she added.

"Okay," I said, "but don't worry about getting me a boyfriend."

I gazed through the shutters at the street, Maybe he wasn't there. Maybe all of this was for nothing. I suppose we'll know soon enough, I thought.

"I'm going to heat up some soup," I said. "Be right back."