I nodded, glancing over as a couple of kids approached to rent skates.
Gus conducted some business and came back to me, apologizing for the interruption. It was summer and despite the uncharacteristic chill in the air, the tourists were swarming the beaches. I asked him if he had any idea what Bobby was involved in. He moved uneasily, glancing off across the street.
“I got an idea, but I don’t know what to say. I mean, if Bobby didn’t tell you, why should I?”
“He couldn’t remember. That’s what he hired me for. He thought he was in danger and he wanted me to find out what was going on.”
“So maybe it’s best to just leave it be.”
“Leave what be?”
“Look, I don’t know anything for sure. Just what Bobby said.”
“What are you worried about?”
He shifted his gaze. “I don’t know. Let me think about it some. Honest, I don’t know much, but I don’t want to talk about it unless it feels right. You know what I mean?”
I conceded the point. You can always push people around, but it’s not a good idea. Better to let them volunteer information for reasons of their own. You get more that way.
“I hope you’ll give me a call,” I said. “If I don’t hear from you, I might have to come back and make a pest of myself.” I took a card out and laid it on the counter.
He smiled, apparently feeling guilty for holding out. “You can skate for nothing if you want. It’s good exercise.”
“Some other time,” I said. “Thanks.”
He watched me until I pulled out of the parking lot, turning left. In the rearview mirror, I could see him scratching at his mustache with the corner of my business card. I hoped I’d hear from him.
In the meantime, I decided to see if I could lay my hands on the cardboard box the lab had packed up after Bobby’s accident. I drove over to the house. Glen had apparently flown up to San Francisco for the day, but Derek was home and I told him what I needed.
His look was skeptical. “I remember the box, but I’m not sure where it went. Probably out in the garage, if you want to have a look.”
He closed the front door behind him and the two of us crossed the courtyard to the three-car garage that stretched out at one end of the house. There were storage bins built into the back wall. None of them was locked, but most were stacked top to bottom with boxes that looked as if they’d been on the premises since the year oughty-ought.
I spotted a carton that seemed to be a good bet. It was shoved against the back wall under a workbench, marked “disposable syringes” with the name of the medical supplier and a torn shipping label addressed to Santa Teresa Hospital Pathology Department. We hauled it out and opened it. The contents looked like Bobbys, but were disappointing nevertheless. No little red book, no reference to anybody named Blackman, no clippings, no cryptic notes, no personal correspondence. There were some medical books, two technical manuals for radiology equipment, and office supplies of the most benign sort. What was I going to do with a box of paper clips and two ballpoint pens?
“It doesn’t look like much,” Derek remarked.
“It doesn’t look like anything,” I replied. “You mind if I take it with me anyway? I may want to check through it again.”
“No, go right ahead. Here let me get that.” I stepped back obligingly and let him heft the box up off the floor and carry it to my car. I could have done it, but it seemed important to him, so why hassle? He shoved some stuff aside and we wrestled the box into the backseat. I told him I’d be in touch and then I took off
I went back to my place and changed into my running clothes. I was just locking up when Henry came around the corner with Lila Sams. They were walking hip to hip, arms entwined. He was a good foot taller than she and lean in all the places she was plump. He looked flushed with happiness, that special aura people take on when they’ve just fallen in love. He was wearing pale blue brushed denim pants and a pale blue shirt that made his blue eyes look nearly luminous, His hair looked freshly cut and my guess was he’d actually had someone “style” it this time. Lila’s smile tensed somewhat when she caught sight of me, but she recovered her composure, laughing girlishly.
“Oh Kinsey, now look what he’s gone and done,” she said and held her hand out. She was sporting a big square-cut diamond that I hoped was some gaudy fake.
“God, its gorgeous. What’s the occasion?” I asked, heart sinking. Surely, they weren’t engaged. She was so wrong for him, so giddy and false, while he was genuine.
“Just celebrating the fact that we met,” Henry said with a glance at her. “What was it, a month ago? Six weeks?”
“Well, naughty you,” she said with a playful stamp of her little foot. “I have half a mind to make you take this right back. We met June twelfth. It was Moza’s birthday and I’d just moved in. You catered that tea she gave and you’ve spoiled me rotten ever since.” She lowered her voice then to its most confidential pitch. “Isn’t he awful?”
I don’t know how to talk to people this way, exchanging pointless banter. I could feel my smile becoming self-conscious but I couldn’t make it go away. “I think he’s great,” I said, sounding somehow lame and inept.
“Well, of course he’s great,” she said in a flash. “Why wouldn’t he be? He’s such an innocent, anyone can take advantage of him.”
Her tone was suddenly quarrelsome, as though I’d insulted him. I could feel the warning signals clanging away like crazy, but I still couldn’t guess what was coming. She was wagging a finger at me, red painted nails piercing the air near my face. “You, for one, you bad girl. I told Henry and I’ll say it right to your face, the rent you pay is a scandal and you know perfectly well you’ve been robbing him blind.”
“What?”
She narrowed her eyes, pushing her face toward mine. “Now don’t you play dumb with me. Two hundred dollars a month! My stars. Do you know what studio apartments are renting for in this neighborhood? Three hundred. That’s a hundred dollars you take away from him every time you write him a check. Disgraceful. It’s just a disgrace!”
“Oh now, Lila,” Henry broke in. He seemed nonplussed that she’d launched into this, but it was clearly something they’d discussed. “Let’s don’t get into this now. She’s on her way out.”
“You can spare a few minutes, I’m sure,” she said with a glittering look at me.
“Sure,” I said faintly and then glanced at him. “Have you been unhappy with me?” I felt the same sick combination of heat and cold that Chinese-food syndrome produces. Did he really feel I’d been cheating him?
Lila cut in again, answering before he could even open his mouth. “Let’s not put Henry on the spot,” she said. “He thinks the world of you, which is why he hasn’t had the heart to speak up. You’re the one I’d like to spank. How could you take an old softie like Henry and twist him around your finger that way? You should be ashamed.”
“I wouldn’t take advantage of Henry.”
“But you already have. How long have you been living here at that same ridiculous rent? A year? Fifteen months? Don’t tell me it never occurred to you that you were getting
this place dirt-cheap! Because if you say that, I’ll have to call you a liar right to your face and embarrass us both.”
I could feel my mouth open, but I couldn’t say a word.
“We can talk about this later,” Henry murmured, taking her by the arm. He was steering her around me, but her eyes were still fixed on mine and her neck and cheeks were now blotchy with rage. I turned and stared as he moved her toward his back stairS. She was already starting to protest in the same irrational tone I’d heard the other night. Was the woman nuts?
When the door closed behind them, my heart began to thump and I realized I was damp with sweat. I tied my door key to my shoelace and then I took off, breaking into a trot long before I’d had a chance to warm up. I ran, putting distance between us.
I did three miles and then walked back to my place, letting myself in. Henry’s back shades were down and his windows were shut. The rear of his house looked blank and uninviting, like a beachfront park after closing time.