I had forgotten that Marino had taken one of his many bad choices in women on a three-day cruise. Their relationship didn’t last much longer than that.
“I don’t care how important this is;” I said. “There’s no way I’m getting on a plane and flying to France when I don’t know what . . .”
“Hold on a second,” he cut in, politely but with authority. “Senator Lord? Sir, are you there?”
“I’m here.”
“Frank?” I said in amazement. “Where are you? Are you in France?”
I wondered how long he had been conferenced in and listening.
“Now listen, Kay. This is important,” Senator Lord told me in a voice that reminded me of who he was. “Go and go right away. We need your help.”
“We?”
Then Talley spoke. “You and Marino need to be at the Millionaire private terminal at four-thirty. That’s A.M. your time. Less than six hours from now.”
“I can’t leave right now . . .” I started to say as Lucy filled my doorway.
“Don’t be late. Your New York connection leaves at eight-thirty,” he told me.
I thought Senator Lord had hung up, but suddenly his voice was there.
“Fhank you, Agent Talley,” he said. “I’ll talk to her now.”
I could hear Talley get off the line.
“I want to know how you’re doing, Kay,” my friend the senator said.
“I’ve got no idea.”
“I care;” he said. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Just trust me. Now tell me how you’re feeling.”
“Other than being summoned to France and about to be fired and . . .” I started to add what had happened to Lucy, but she was standing right there.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Senator Lord said.
“Whatever everything is;” I replied”Trust me.”
I always had.
“You’re going to be asked to do things that you’re going to resist. Things that will scare you.”
“I don’t scare easily, Frank,” I said.
31
Marino picked me up at quarter of four. It was a heartless hour of the morning that reminded me of sleepless rotations in hospitals, of early days in my career when I was the one who got the calls for cases nobody else wanted.
“Now you know what it feels like to be on midnight shift,” Marino commented as we cut through icy roads.
“I know all about it anyway,” I replied.
“Yeah, but the difference is, you don’t have to. You could send someone else to scenes and stay home. You’re the chief.”
“I’m always leaving Lucy when she needs me, Marino.”
“I’m telling you, Doc, she understands. She’s probably gonna be heading up to D.C. anyway to deal with all this review board shit.”
I hadn’t told him about Dorothy’s visit. It would have served no purpose other than to set him off.
“You’re on the faculty at MCV I mean, you’re a real doctor.”
“Thank you.”
“Can’t you just go talk to the administrator or something?” he said, punching in the cigarette lighter. “Couldn’t you pull some strings so Lucy could go in there?”
“As long as Jo isn’t capable of making decisions, her family has complete control over who visits and who doesn’t.”
“Fucking religious wackos. Bible-banging Hitlers.”
“There was a time when you were pretty narrowminded, too, Marino,” I reminded him. “Seems to me you used to talk about queers and fags. I don’t even want to repeat some of the words I’ve heard you use.”
“Yeah. Well, I never meant any of it.”
At the Millionaire jet center the temperature was in the low twenties and hard, icy wind grabbed and shoved me as I collected luggage out of the back of the truck. We were met by two pilots who didn’t say much as they opened a gate to lead us across the tarmac, where a Uarjet was hooked up to a power cart. A thick manila envelope with my name on it was in one of the seats, and when we took off into the clear, cold night, I turned off cabin lights and slept until we landed in Teterboro, New Jersey.
A dark blue Explorer glided our way as we climbed down the metal steps. It was snowing small flakes that stung my face.