Page 90 of A Week Away

When I finally arrived in Los Angeles it was past eight and the sun had been down for about an hour and a half. As I was waiting for the shuttle to Lot B, I noticed a trash bin. I walked over and dumped Charles Henderson’s credit card and temporary license. I sincerely hoped he’d never see a bill and never have to pay for the damage I’d done to his balance.

It was less than a half an hour from the airport to Long Beach. Rush hour had ended an hour before. When I got to our neighborhood, I drove around for another ten minutes looking for a parking space. Normally, that would have driven me up the wall. But that night I almost didn’t want to find a spot. But I did. Four blocks away.

My front door was unlocked. A blessing since I hadn’t been looking forward to knocking on my own door. When I walked in, Junior and John were there sitting with Ronnie at the dining table. They were playing cards. When he saw me, Junior said, “I’m teaching them three-handed pinocle.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because card games are just what the doctor ordered when someone disappears for a week.”

I wanted to kill him, but I was too busy dying myself. Every second that Ronnie didn’t get up and come over to me was killing me. He was staring at me but he wasn’t budging.

Trying to change the direction of the conversation, I asked, “So what did I miss?”

“The upstairs bathroom sprang a leak,” Junior said. “I was the one who discovered it. The wall in the stairwell began seeping blood.”

“Rust from the pipes,” John said.

“Well, it looked just like blood.”

“Sounds expensive,” I said.

“It’s fine,” Ronnie said.

Still, I felt guilty. I’d put several thousand dollars on our credit card. Ronnie had one he kept just for the houses, but it still was going to be a challenge to get them all paid down again.

“The plumber though…” Junior said. “Perfection.”

“Junior kept making passes at him,” John said.

“I didnot.”

“You mentioned you’re single at least three times.”

“That’s considered a pass? My god, in the seventies you’d have to get on your knees and unzip someone’s pants before it qualified as a pass.”

Then Ronnie said, “All right boys. Evening’s over.”

“Well, I never—” Junior started to say.

John said, “Don’t.”

“… I never got to say how much we miss having you two around the house.”

“Well, now you’ve said it. We should go,” John said.

The two of them got up and quietly walked out of the apartment. Ronnie picked up some glasses they’d been using and took them into the kitchen. When he returned, he said, “I told everyone you had a family emergency in Michigan. I don’t think anyone believed me.”

“It’s a bit vague.”

“When you think up a better lie, make sure to tell me.”

Yikes, that was bad.

“I’m sorry.”

“Lydia’s desperate for you to call. They’ve got a bunch of new cases. Something about a jailhouse snitch in Orange County.”

“She told you that?”