“I know.”
“I can’t believe I’m boo-hooing like this. It’s embarrassing.”
“Shouldn’t be.”
“But it is.”
“Hell, I cry, Brett.”
“Does it mess up your eye makeup?”
“Absolutely.”
She smiled, said, “I could call the cops, and maybe do something there, but a hooker, I don’t think they’re going to be all that concerned. They were, this Big Jim wouldn’t be doing business like he’s doing.”
“Some cops are concerned,” I said. “Most. It’s just not that simple. Guys like Big Jim know how to do bad business and have people know it’s bad business, and still get away with it.”
“Then I’ve got to go get her. Hap, I have to.”
“I know.”
The light lunch was at Brett’s place, a tunafish sandwich with sweet apple slices in it, ice tea with lots of ice and no sugar, potato chips, and sweet pickles forked from a jar. We sat at the kitchen table and ate slowly and talked awhile, tried to figure what to do.
I said, “You know this isn’t going to be a walk in the park?”
“Yes. I know.”
“We’re not going to drive up there and say ‘We’ve come to get Tillie. Sleepover is finished.’ It’s not that easy.”
“I know.”
“It could turn ugly.”
“I understand that. I’m not askin’ you …”
“You are and you aren’t,” I said. “We’ve been over that. I’m not saying I won’t go. I’ve already said I would. All I’m doing is warning you. We go up there, it could still turn out bad for Tillie.”
“You think, as is, it’s going to get better?”
“No, I don’t. I guess I’m actually telling you what you can expect for yourself. It might be best you stay here, let me go.”
“I wouldn’t let you go by yourself.”
“Leonard and I would go.”
“You don’t know he’ll go.”
“Yes, I do. But if he didn’t, couldn’t, I’d still go. And this is more something me and him can handle.”
“You’re sure?”
“No. But it sounds good.”
Brett turned her glass of ice tea around and around in her hand, said, “I can’t let you go by yourself. You go, with or without Leonard, I go too.”
“What about your job?” I asked.
“What about yours?”
“I can leave it. It’s not like I wasn’t looking for a job when I found that one.”
“I can get off too.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. It might make my supervisor’s butt hole suck wind, but I’ve got some more vacation time coming. I need to get off, I can.”
“All right,” I said. “But you got to consider some things. These guys, they probably knew Tillie, all right. They may have worked for this Big Jim, but we don’t know they’re telling the exact truth.”
“I guess I have some doubts, them driving all the way down here for five hundred dollars.”
“Actually, I buy that,” I said. “Scum like that, they’ll do anything for a buck. They’ve probably robbed and looted every damn thing they could on their way down here. They figured since they were en route to Mexico, they might as well stop by and pick up five hundred bucks from you. We don’t even know for sure Tillie wants you to come get her, or that she told them to ask for five hundred dollars. They may just know you’re her mother, and nothing else. This could all be some story they made up. A grain of truth here and there, like a couple of whole corn kernels that have passed through the bowels on their way to becoming shit.”
“That’s metaphorical talk for you think they could be lying a lot. Right?”
“Right.”
Somehow we drifted toward the bedroom, and it was very cool in there, and the sheets were soft and sweet-smelling and Brett was warm and even sweeter, and I kissed her lips, then her breasts, pausing to roll my tongue around and over her hard nipples. I ran my tongue down the length of her long legs, and kissed where she had shaved herself, then I kissed everything else there was to kiss, rolled her on her stomach, moved her legs apart, and entered her.
Brett had the CD going, playing
