think there was any way he would’ve ever spoken to the old man again. But his mother, with her abundant patience and open mind, had explained to him she understood the disease of alcoholism and the pressures his father had been under during his career in the Navy. It’d been a slow process, but his father’s open adoration of Lauren and Charlie had given Stallings the incentive to risk getting to know him again.
Now sixty-four years old, he was a shell of the belligerent bully Stallings remembered as a child. The hard- drinking, loudmouth jerk had evolved into a conscientious and surprisingly funny older man. He had not had a drink in six years and moderated a number of different groups to help the homeless and alcoholics in the wide area of Jacksonville’s southern downtown. The municipal football stadium and St. Johns River bordered the southern edge of his father’s little kingdom. Stallings’s office sat within his father’s kingdom, but he had never run into the old man. Now Stallings realized he hadn’t been looking for him and could’ve very well seen him without recognizing the old man on a number of occasions.
He parked his Impala directly in front of the tall, run-down but stately rooming house where his father had a single room on the second story in the rear of the building. As Stallings walked up the pathway he noticed his father sitting on one of the comfortable chairs on the covered porch of the large house. Two other men sat on a low sofa with a plastic cover.
His father laid a hardcover book he was reading in his lap and smiled as Stallings approached and took the straight-backed wooden chair next to him.
“Hello, Johnny. What brings you by this time of day?”
“Just wanted to see how you were doing.”
When his father smiled and his cloudy eyes seemed to clear, Stallings caught a glimpse of the younger man he had known.
Stallings’s father said, “How’s that girl of yours doing?”
“Which one?”
“The one you married, goofy.”
“Dad, we talked about this. She and I are separated right now.”
The older man looked down and shook his head. “That’s a shame. I really like Helen.”
Stallings was about to casually correct him when he realized the old man had no idea he’d confused Stallings’s sister with his wife. He checked quickly to make sure his father hadn’t slipped back onto the sauce, leaning in to sniff his breath.
Stallings said, “Her name is Maria. Helen is your daughter.” He said it lightly, hoping it would clear his father’s head.
The elder Stallings gave a grin and a quick wink. “Just pulling your leg, son.” He tapped the side of his head and said, “I’m as sharp as ever.”
Even with the comment from his father, Stalling decided to use the visit to make sure the old man hadn’t lost a few steps mentally.
Buddy enjoyed the few minutes he spent talking with Mary. She explained the difference between the dental hygienist and assistant as well as several of the key points of protecting your teeth.
She said, “You have good teeth and a very friendly smile.”
“Thank you very much. I appreciate the compliment. How long have you worked here?”
“Almost ten years.”
“There is no way. You must’ve started here when you were fourteen years old.” He wasn’t just flattering her; she did have a very youthful-looking face.
“You are a charmer. I’ve been here since I was twenty-two years old and graduated from the program out at the community college.”
He liked her friendly manner and now that he looked, she had a few wrinkles, which gave her face a very gentle character. He said, “Maybe we could grab a cup of coffee sometime?”
Her smile already told him his answer. “I’d love to. I’m on vacation for two weeks starting Friday so maybe Friday evening. Otherwise we’d have to wait nine days until I got back from my cruise to Cancun.”
“Who you going on the cruise with?”
“I’m trying something new and spending the first three nights of the cruise alone, then meeting three girlfriends when they get on in Cancun. It was the only way we could all work out being together and I didn’t want to waste a half a week of vacation. It’s very exciting.”
Buddy did the math and realized this was an opportunity he couldn’t ignore. As long as he kept things quiet, no one would realize he’d be the last person she saw before she missed her departure. That would give him several days to spend with the lovely Mary before he had to worry about anyone missing her.
He looked up and forced a gentle smile on his face, saying, “I’d love to meet you somewhere Friday evening.”
TEN
It was early evening and Patty Levine sat on the floor of her Jacksonville condo watching a Rodney Yee DVD and trying to master one of the more advanced yoga poses involving balancing on her hands with her torso lifted off the blue mat on top of the light carpet. She breathed in through her mouth and out through her nose, trying to fill her belly with air as well as her diaphragm. She cleared her mind and did everything Rodney said to, and still she felt like shit.
Patty plopped down onto the mat, placing her right foot across her left leg, and twisted her whole upper body, catching her reflection in the mirror of the open closet door in the hallway. She had no idea why she was so critical of herself. She generally didn’t care what others thought and her parents were perfectly reasonable about most aspects of her life. It wasn’t until she had gotten serious about gymnastics and started to compete at a high level that she expected more and more of herself. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and although it wasn’t the most glamorous look, she liked her blond hair. But she’d always been self-conscious about her wide-set eyes and the scar at the bridge of her nose she’d received falling off a balance beam her senior year in high school. She bared her teeth to her image in the mirror and, despite most of them being straight and white, all she focused on was her left incisor, which turned slightly outward. She shook her head in disgust and followed the next move on the DVD. That Rodney Yee could really spread his legs.
She muttered, “This is bullshit,” knowing it had a lot more to do with her own choices in life than with anything Mr. Yee was telling her on the DVD she had picked up at Target for $19.95. She could remember a time, before she started to compete nationally in gymnastics, when she had enjoyed all kinds of exercise and stretching. Now it seemed like one more thing to cram into her already busy day. But she knew the real issue, the core of her problem tonight, was her back pain and her desire to refrain from using one of the assortment of painkillers she had stashed in her bathroom medicine cabinet. She’d let her normal prescription run out but couldn’t bring herself to dispose of the random pills she’d acquired over the years. Soon those would be exhausted too. That was why she was forced to do yoga in an effort to relieve lower back pain that had been building since midmorning.
The frantic pace she had kept with Stallings all day didn’t help her in any way either. They’d hit a dozen different places where Leah Tischler might have been seen. The only person who’d been of any help was Liz Dubeck, the manager of one of the downtown motels. Patty could tell Liz was attracted to Stallings’s good looks and charming manner. That wasn’t anything unusual. What surprised Patty was Stallings’s interest in the pretty motel manager. Sure, he didn’t say anything and avoided any questions about her after they left the motel, but Patty knew her partner as well as anyone and this was the first time since his separation he’d shown any interest at all in another woman.
Patty twisted and crossed her legs in an effort to stretch out the middle of her back. There was definitely an improvement, but she could feel the constant throbbing still coming from lower down her back. If she’d known this would be the result when she was thirteen and practicing one hundred backflips a day, she might not have had the enthusiasm that didn’t wane until her second year at the University of Florida. But that was her nature. She threw herself into anything she undertook.
The fact that Tony was working late and she had no real hope of seeing him for anything more than a few
