exchanged her trademark blond curls for a more mode cut that would
require a new source of income just to pay for all the makeup she was
going to use, but she looked great.
Come in. Want a drink?
“I’d love a drink, kid, and right now I could use six of ”em but I
gotta say no. My in-laws came over, and we’re about thinking about
either playing cards with ”em or shooting ”em. It depends on their
attitude.” Of all the people Felina knew in her day-to-day life, Alice
was the only one, other than Clint, who understood sign language. Given
the fact that most people harbored a prejudice against the deaf, to
which they could not admit but on what they acted, Alice was her only
girlfriend. But Felina was happy and would have given up their
friendship if Mark Kasper-Alicson, for whom she had learned sign
language-had not been born deaf
“Why I came over, we got a call from Clint, asking me to tell ya he’s
not on his way home yet, but he expects to get here soon.”
“So late?”
“maybe by eight. “Since when does he work so late?”
“They’ve got a big case. That always means some overtime.
“ya it’s
“He’s going to take ya out to dinner, and says it’s been an incredible
day. I guess that’s about the case, huh? Must be fascinating, married
to a detective. And he’s sweet, too. You’re lucky, kid.”
“Yes. But so is he.
Alice laughed.
“Right on! And if he comes home this late another night, don’t settle
for dinner. Make him buy ya diamonds.”
Felina thought of the red gem he had brought home yesterday, and she
wished she could tell Alice about it. But Dakota & Dakota business,
especially concerning an ongoing case in which the client was in
jeopardy, was as sacred in their house as the privacies of the marriage
bed.
“Saturday, our place, six-thirty? Jack’ll cook up a mess of his chili,
and we’ll play pinochle and eat chili and drink beer and fart till we
pass out. Okay?”
“Yes.”
“And tell Clint, it’s okay-we won’t expect him to talk.”
Felina laughed, then signed: He’s getting better.
“That’s ’cause you’re civilizing him, kid.”
They hugged again, and Alice left.
Felina closed the door, looked at her wristwatch, and saw that it was
seven o’clock. She had only an hour to get ready for dinner, and she
wanted to look especially good for Clint, not because this was a special
occasion, but because she always wanted to look good for him. She
headed for the bedroom, then realized that only the automatic lock was
engaged on the front door. She returned to the foyer, twisted the thumb
screw that slid the dead bolt home, and slipped the security chain in
place.
Clint worried about her too much. If he came home and found that she
hadn’t remembered the dead bolt, he’d age a year in a minute, right
before her eyes.
so AFTER BEING off duty all day, Hal Yamataka responded to a call from
Clint and came to the offices at 6: Tuesday night, to stand a watch in
case Frank returned after the rest of them had left. Clint met him in
the reception lounge and briefed him there over a cup of coffee. He had
to be brought up to date on what had happened during his absence and
after he heard what had gone down, he again wistfully considered a
career in gardening.
Nearly everyone in his family either had a gardening business or owned a
little nursery, and all of them did well, most of them better than what
Hal made working for Dakota & Dakota, some of them a great deal better.
His folks, his three brothers, and various well-meaning uncles tried
repeatedly to persuade him that he should work for them or come into
business with them, but he resisted. It was not that he had anything
against running a nursery, selling gardening supplies, land scape
planning, tree pruning, or even gardening itself But southern California
was not the place.
the term “Japanese gardener” was a cliche not a career, and he couldn’t
abide the thought of being a kind of stereotype.