his place. Riverside is on its way out to talk to the guy, find out when Frank left. Is Rachel there?”
I handed the phone to her.
So Frank wasn’t out drinking with the Riverside cops. Pete must not have told them that his partner had a fight with his wife. If he had, he might not have convinced Riverside to send a unit out to the junkie’s house. Then again, Pete could make such a pain out of himself, they might issue an APB for Frank just to get Pete off their backs.
I looked at a clock. Quarter after nine.
Rachel’s half of the conversation didn’t take long and was in Italian. I couldn’t understand more than a few pronouns and endearments, but her tone of voice would have been understood in any language: she was trying to calm him down, to ease his worries. Mine escalated in direct proportion. I started to pace.
“So,” she said when she hung up, “you were going to tell me about this old girlfriend.”
“Former fiancee,” I said. “Frank moved from Bakersfield to Las Piernas to be with her. She’s with the highway patrol.”
She waited.
“You know all this, and I don’t want to talk about it anyway. I want to know what’s going on with Frank.”
“Of course,” she said. “But we don’t have any way of knowing what’s going on with him, do we? So we can sit here and stew and let you wear out the rug pacing, or we can distract ourselves.”
I sat down. “Her name is Cecilia Parker. Frank’s mother wishes he would have married her instead of me.”
“Even now?”
“Well, no, maybe not. I don’t know.”
“Cecilia lives in Bakersfield?”
“Yes. She moved back there, and Frank stayed here. They both came from Bakersfield, originally. He was a detective in Bakersfield, met her, and they got engaged. She wanted to take a job here. So he followed her, even though it meant that he had to go back to uniform here.”
“Then she changed her mind about living here?”
“Right. She didn’t give it much of a chance, I guess. At least, that’s how he tells it.”
“From detective to uniform — that’s not easy on anybody,” she said. “Pete told me that Frank made detective in Las Piernas in record time, but still — he gave up a lot to move here. He must have been steamed when she wanted to go back.”
“I don’t know all the details. I know he liked it here, wasn’t in a hurry to go back.”
“But his family is in Bakersfield? His mom and his sister, right?”
The question came close to another area of trouble, and I wondered briefly if Rachel knew that when she asked. That would make Pete three for three. But just in case Frank hadn’t mentioned that problem, I decided she’d have to be more direct.
“Yes,” I said, “Frank’s mom wants him to move back to Bakersfield. And she’s close to Cecilia’s mom.”
“Hmm. I begin to understand. So why did this Cecilia call?”
How much should I tell her? “Just to talk to him about his family, people they knew in Bakersfield. And to tell him that she had some of his things.”
“What kind of things?”
“I don’t know. Records, books, a few papers, I guess. Apparently, she’s splitting up with a live-in boyfriend. Told Frank she ran across some of his stuff when she was packing up to move out. Invited him to come up to dinner some night so she could give it back to him.”
“Invited him to dinner?”
I smiled at her look of surprise. “I see Pete didn’t relate the entire story.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know that Frank’s married now. It hasn’t been so long….”
“Rachel, you weren’t listening. Bea Harriman and Cecilia’s mom are friends. I’ve met her mom. Trust me, Frank’s mom has told her that their hopes have been dashed.”
“Oh.”
“I figured Cecilia could mail his stuff to him, or leave it with his mom. Frank said she wouldn’t do that, and besides, he got the feeling that she needed him. That sent me over the edge. So he tells me I’m treating him as if he isn’t trustworthy. I told him that I trusted him, but I didn’t trust her. He didn’t buy it. I thought it over today, and I guess I decided he was right. Two to tango and all that.”
“What?”
“Worst case, she wants him to come back to her, right?”
“Maybe. Or maybe just
“Whatever. He’d have to want it, too, right?”
Her look of skepticism made me laugh.
“Men!” She said it like a swear word.
“We’re back to what you said a while ago, Rachel. I do trust him. The rest — that’s her problem.”
Rachel shrugged.
