Blood Test by Kellerman, Jonathan

enough for a judge to understand. Your report was really good.”

“Thanks. If you send me cases I won’t turn you

down.”

She finished the second glass. “Very mellow, isn’t

it? Comes from a tiny little vineyard up in Napa.

Three years old and still operating at a loss, but the

place is turning out limited bottlings of very fine

reds.”

She got up and walked around the room. From

the pocket of her robe she removed a pack of Virginia

Slims and a lighter. For the next few moments

she stared at a wall decorated with diplomas

and certificates and dragged deeply on the cigarette.

“People really manage to fuck up their lives,

don’t they? Like Miss Bright Eyes Moody. Nice

country girl, moves to town, for a taste of excitement,

gets a job as checker at Safeway and falls in

love with the macho man in-lace undies–I forget,

what is he, a construction worker?”

18 Jonathan Kellerman

-“Carpenter. For Aurora Studios.”

“Right. I remember. Builds sets. The guy’s an obvious loser but it takes her twelve years to figure it out. Now she’s extricating herself and who does she hook up with? The loser’s clone.”

“Conley’s a lot more mentally intact.”

“Maybe so. But take a look at them side by side.

[‘wins. She’s being pulled to the same type. Who

knows, maybe Moody was a charmer too in the

beginning. Give this Conley a few years, he’ll turn.

Bunch of losers.”

She turned and faced me. Her nostrils flared and

the hand holding the cigarette trembled almost imperceptibly:

alcohol, emotion, or both.

“I hooked up with an ass-hole and it took me a

while to get out of it, Alex, but I didn’t turn around

and do the same damn thing first chance I got.

get smart.”

boy Did my divorce, did

order

was

Any

wrong Balo

ery other week with some ploy to reverse the order. In the meantime Moody will harass Bright Eyes

and if it keeps up long enough the kids will be

permanently screwed up,” She walked back to her

desk with a long graceful stride, took a compact out

of her purse and powdered her nose.

“On and on. He’ll drag her through the system,

she’ll bleat and weep, but she’ll have no choice.”

Her expression hardened. “But I don’t give a damn.

In two weeks I’m out of it. Retirement with pension.

I’ve got some investments of my own. And one

big money-loser. A tiny little vineyard up in Napa.”

She grinned. “This time next year I’ll be in my

cellar sampling the vintage until I reel. If you travel

that way, be sure to drop in.”

I’ll make it a point to do that.”

She looked away from me, talked to her diplomas.

“Do you have a lady friend, Alex ?”

“Yes. She’s in Japan now.”

“Miss her?”

“Very much.”

“Figures,” she said good-naturedly. “The good

ones get snapped up.” She rose to indicate the

audience was concluded. “Good to meet you, Alex.”

“My pleasure, Diane. Good luck with the vines.

What I tasted was great.”

“It’s gonna get better and better. I can feel it.”

Her handshake was firm and dry.

My Seville had cooked in the open parking lot

and I pulled my hand away from the heat of the

door handle. Midway through the motion, sensed

his presence and turned to face him.

“S’cuse me, Doc.” He was looking into the sun

and squinting. His forehead was sweat glossed and

darkened to mustard

“I can’t talk now, Mr. Moody.”

“Just a sec, Doc. Just lemme connect with ya.

Lemme zero in on some main points. Communicate,

you know.” His words came out in a rush. As he

spoke, the half-closed eyes darted back and forth,

and he rocked on his boot heels. In rapid succession

he stuffed, grimaced, bobbed his head, scratched

his Adam’s apple, and tweaked his nose. A discordant

symphony of tics and twitches. I’d never seen

him this way but I’d read Larry Daschoff’s report

and had a good idea what was happening.

“I’m sorry. Not now.” I looked around the lot but

we were alone. The rear of the court building faced

a quiet side street in a run-down neighborhood.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *