I said, “The kid okay?”
She nodded. “Come in,” she said. “Thank you for coming.”
We went into the hall and up the three steps to the living room. Outside the picture window at the far end of the living room things were beginning to bloom.
“Would you like a drink?” she said.
“Same as last time,” I said. “I’ll take a beer if you have one.”
She went to the kitchen and brought me back a can of Budweiser and a beer mug.
“I don’t need the mug,” I said. “I’d just as soon drink from the can.”
Somewhere in the house there was a television set playing. It meant Paul was probably in residence.
Patty poured herself a glass of sherry. “Sit down,” she said.
I sat on the couch. She sat across from me in an armchair and arranged her legs. I looked at her knees. She sipped her sherry. I drank some beer.
She said, “Was the traffic bad?”
I said, “Mrs. Giacomin, I galloped out here to your rescue. Don’t sit around and talk at me about traffic conditions.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that, well, now that you’re here, I feel a little foolish. Maybe I overreacted.” She sipped some more of her sherry. “But, dammit, someone did try to take Paul again.”
“Your husband?”
“It wasn’t him, but I’m sure he was behind it.”
“What happened?”
“A strange man stopped Paul on his way home from school and told him that his father wanted to see him. Paul wouldn’t go with him, so the man got out of the car and started after him, but there was a policeman at the school crossing and when Paul ran back toward him the man got back into his car and drove away.”
“And Paul came home.”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t say anything to the cop.”
“No.”
“He didn’t-I know it’s corny, but I used to be a cop-get a license number, did he?”
“I don’t think so. He didn’t say anything about it.”
“And he didn’t know the man.”
“No.”
We were quiet I finished the beer. She sipped some more sherry. I looked at her knees.
“Have you told the cops?” I said.
“No.”
“You figure he had some friend of his try to pick the kid up? And the friend was overzealous?”
“I don’t know,” she said. There was a little thigh beginning to show along with the knees. “He knows some terrible people. In his business he knew some very thuggy-looking people. I’m sure it was one of them.”
“Wide lapels? Dark shirts? White ties? Big hats?”
“I’m serious,” she said. “I think he knew some people on the wrong side of the law. Maybe he was on the wrong side sometimes himself.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Oh, I don’t know, just a sense. The kind of people he was with. How secretive he sometimes was.” She spread her hands. “Just a sense. Would you like another beer?”
“Sure.”
She went to the kitchen and got me one and popped the top for me and brought it to me. Then she poured herself another glass of sherry.
“Do you have a plan?” I said.
She was standing now with her legs apart and one hand on her hip looking at me. Vogue magazine.
“A plan?”
“You know, for me. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to stay here with us,” she said.
“Damn,” I said. “You’re the fifth beautiful woman today to ask me that”
“I want you to guard Paul and, the truth, me too. I don’t know what Mel might do.”
“Are you suggesting that he’s capable of anything?”
