“You, of all people, should be interested in this, Irene. Your husband’s life is in his hands.”
“So he dated someone from a rival town. Not something that exactly rocks my world, Samuel.”
Cassidy opened his eyes now, seemed to come back into focus. “Not much to that, is there? How’s Faye doing?”
Samuel laughed. “Who cares?”
“Well, you seem to depend on her quite a bit.”
“She isn’t important. Women are not important, Cassidy. Even the beautiful ones. Especially them. Now, the young woman you loved was — you’ll forgive me, Cassidy — she was rather plain.”
“She’s not our concern at the moment,” Cassidy said, but the tension was back in his voice.
“She is if I say she is.
“You get that from those jealous women you talked to?” Cassidy asked. Something was still not right.
“No, I saw her picture in her high school yearbook. She wasn’t even Miss Personality or any of the other things they give to the ugly girls.”
Nothing.
“Look,” I said, “as fascinating as this is—”
“Shut up!” Samuel said. “No one is talking to you. No one. Cassidy, aren’t you going to defend her?”
Silence.
“I don’t need anyone to defend me,” I said.
“Once again, Ms. Kelly, you are butting in. No one is talking about defending you. I meant Johnnie.”
“Johnnie?” I asked. Cassidy was pale, and a fine sheen of sweat covered his forehead and upper lip.
“Yes, isn’t that delightful? A Texas name. Johnnie Lee Meadows. Can you believe someone would force a girl — an ugly girl — to go through life with that name?”
“She wasn’t ugly,” Cassidy said. There was steel in his voice now.
“Plain. Totally unremarkable.”
“No, there you’re wrong.”
I felt panic rising. If I spoke, I angered Samuel, which might in turn cause him to harm Frank. My only hope seemed to be to get through to Cassidy. I wrote another note: “Come back to me. Please. I need your help.”
He read it, seemed to snap back out of whatever spell Samuel was weaving.
“You surprised me, Cassidy,” Samuel was saying. “I thought you’d have your pick of the girls.”
“I did,” he said. “Tell me, how did you meet Faye?”
“I can’t seem to make you understand that she is no longer of interest to me.”
“Well, we’re even, then. Johnnie Lee is dead, and she’s been dead for many years.”
“It still hurts, doesn’t it, Cassidy?”
“Of course it does, Samuel. You still feel sad about your father, right?”
“Yes, but to be very honest, Julian was the greater loss. My father betrayed us. All of us. But Julian didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
“You knew Julian pretty well, I guess.”
“Yes. And I look forward to seeing him again.”
Cassidy hesitated only slightly before saying, “Tell me about him.”
“He’s dead, and soon we will be, too. Perhaps Detective Harriman will be joining us. That’s up to you. Good- bye, Cassidy. I’ve enjoyed knowing you.”
“Samuel—”
But Samuel had hung up.
The cell phone rang before I could ask Cassidy what the hell had happened.
“Yes, sir,” he said. He listened, smiled broadly. “I was hoping that would be long enough,” he said. “That confirms the address, then. I’m on my way—”
He paused, listened again. He lost the smile. “Sir….”
He glanced over at me, then looked down. “Certainly. I understand. Yes, I’ll explain.”
He hung up, and it was a moment before he looked up at me. “Samuel talked long enough to let us trap the number,” he said. “Between that and the information from the contractor, they’ve got an address. They’re already getting set up down there. There’s a plane waiting at the Kern County Airport. It will get you home faster than driving will. An officer will meet you at the Las Piernas Airport and take you to the site. I’ll warn you that they probably won’t let you close, but—”
“Cassidy,” I interrupted.
“I won’t be going with you,” he continued.
