her.'
'I knew something was going on,' she offered in an attempt to save face. Apparently there was a tough side to Louise Blake. 'I could feel it. As if there were eyes on me everywhere I went. But no, I didn't see anyone. Not that I'd know them anyway. I've never seen this Petoskey.'
'What're your feelings, Harve?' Rink asked.
Harvey rolled his head on his broad shoulders, turned down the corners of his mouth. 'Don't like it one bit, Rink.'
Harvey had my complete agreement. To Louise, I said, 'In your letter to Jennifer Telfer you said that you thought John was in some kind of trouble. Was it because of something specific he said?'
Louise shook her head. 'He didn't say anything. That was the problem. What bothered me more was the way he was acting.'
'What do you mean? You said he was frightened.'
'Yeah, he was kind of jumpy. A car would pull up and he'd sneak to the window, peak out a corner of the blinds, that kind of thing. He couldn't sleep too well, either. Tossed and turned all the time, jumped at any noises from outside.'
'Did you ask him what was wrong?'
'Of course I did. But he wouldn't tell me. Just said he had something on his mind.'
'But you didn't push him about what it was?' I asked.
'No. I just thought it was to do with him starting a new job. Maybe it was too much for him to handle or something. You know, like the pressure was getting to him?'
'John started a new job?'
'So he said. Told me he was doing a bit of driving for a local firm, delivering to customers, that sort of thing. I didn't press him about who it was for. He looked a little embarrassed at first.'
'Why'd he be embarrassed about a driving job?' I asked.
'Wouldn't you be embarrassed? To end up as a delivery boy's a bit of a comedown, don't you think?'
'Is that the way you saw it, Louise?'
Her gaze snapped onto me with power-drill intensity. 'That's not at all the way I saw it! What do you think I am?'
'Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I was just wondering if he'd got the notion in his mind that he'd let you down, and that was why he was acting so jumpy around you.'
She exhaled noisily.
'Maybe he did have it in his mind, but he never mentioned it to me. Anyway, he wasn't jumpy around me; he was jumpy around everything else
'You said he was acting like he was watching for someone?' I prompted.
Louise shook out her hair again.
'Not just like he was watching for someone,' she said with a wave of a finger. 'More like he was waiting for something to happen.'
'Or something to arrive?' Rink asked.
'Yes.' The momentary anger had gone from her eyes. 'John said
that if anything ever happened to him, you would know what to do, Mr. Hunter. So . . . I mean, do you?'
I swirled the coffee in my cup, pondering the patterns of froth as if it were a psychic's divining tool. I saw less in the coffee swirls than I already knew. Which wasn't much. Finally, I switched my gaze to her face. My exhalation told her everything. 'I haven't seen or heard from John since he left England; I was hoping you'd be able to bring me up to speed on what he'd been up to since coming here.'
Louise's shrug was noncommittal.
'We just got by. I took a job at a beauty salon. John went from job to job. Nothing startling really. Parking valet. Stacking paint at a warehouse. Fast-food cook.' She ticked off the jobs on the fingers of one hand. 'Then, most recently, this driving job.'
'But you don't know who for?'
'No.'
'Was he delivering locally?'
She shrugged again. 'Sometimes he'd be away for a few days, so I guess he got a few long-haul jobs. Don't know where he went, though. He'd phone from a motel or something, but he'd never say where he was. I didn't think to ask. I wasn't really that bothered.'
'You weren't that bothered? Were you having problems with your relationship?'
Louise looked at me sharply. The power drill on overdrive. 'Are you asking if he was seeing someone else?'
'Was he?'
'No.'
'How could you tell?'
'Believe me, a woman knows these kinds of things.'
