towels.
Peter took the deep breaths, then staggered to his feet and shook his finger at me. 'Goddamnit, you're fired. You're off the fucking payroll. I'm gonna make sure you never work again.'
I said, 'Cliched, Peter. I expected more originality from the King of Adventure.'
Peter burped some more and then he lurched out the front door. In a minute the limo pulled away and Pike held out his hand. 'I'd better make sure he gets home.'
I tossed Pike the keys and he left.
Karen Lloyd and I stood without moving in the now quiet house, and I said, 'Peter's idea was good.'
She shook her head.
'It's smart to get the boy out of the picture. It's smart if Peter's gone, too. It would give you more room.'
She shook her head again. 'If he wanted to help, he could just leave. He doesn't need Toby. This is just more of the same old Peter Alan Nelsen bullshit. Peter wanting everything his way.'
'Karen,' I said, 'think about it. They've threatened your life. They made a move on your son. Falling behind in history doesn't rate with getting him out of here. Do you see?'
She made a little blowing move with her mouth and then she crossed her arms and sat on the edge of the hearth, leaning forward so that her elbows touched her knees. She gave me a short glance, and then she looked at the floor, and then she uncrossed her arms and put a hand on either side of her head and squeezed, like maybe she was trying to keep her head from bursting. She said, 'I'm not crazy. I am not crazy.
'Nope,' I said. 'You're scared, but it isn't Charlie DeLuca who scares you, though it should be.'
She shook her head and closed her eyes. 'I'm too tired to argue.'
I said, 'This is your house. You bought the couch and the table and the wood in the fireplace. You secured the loan for your car. You buy Toby's clothes, and you've made a good life.'
She shook her head some more.
'But now comes Peter, and you're scared that it won't be yours anymore. You'll be the woman who was married to Peter Alan Nelsen, and Toby will be Peter's son.'
She stopped shaking her head.
'You're scared of losing yourself.'
Two tears squeezed out of the inside corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. 'You sonofabitch.' She might've been talking to me, but maybe not.
I said, 'Don't think about Peter. Think about Charlie. Charlie is who you have to focus on. Charlie can hurt you and Toby a lot worse than Peter.'
She brought one hand up and rubbed at the tears but still did not open her eyes. 'Do you think I'm stupid?'
'No.'
'It sounds so stupid, worried about losing myself. It sounds weak and silly, like something one of those idiot
I made a shrug. 'Pride isn't male or female. It's human.'
'I'm a vice-president at the bank. I have a real estate license and I am a certified financial planner and I've been president of the PTA twice and vice-president of the local Rotary.' The tears were coming harder.
'Uh-huh.'
'I have a B.A. in finance. I am Toby Lloyd's mother. I will not lose those things.'
'No. You won't.'
'I will not lose who I am.'
'I won't let you.'
She opened her eyes and looked at me.
'Saving selves is one of my best things.'
She rubbed at the tears again and then she put her face in her hands and sat very still. I guess she wasn't convinced.
I used the Scot towels on the floor, then put them in a white plastic trash bag and took the bag out and put it into a blue garbage can in the garage. It seemed twenty degrees colder than it had been at dusk, and the north wind rattled tree limbs and dead leaves and pushed dark shapes across the lawn. Thunder rumbled many miles to the east, a winter storm moving with the front. When I went back inside, Karen Lloyd had gone to bed.
I turned off most of the lights and went down the hall to the room where Joe Pike and I were bedding. Karen Lloyd's room was at the end of the hall in the back of the house, and Toby's room was across from Karen's, in the front. Both of their doors were closed, but I could hear them crying, she in her room and he in his. I felt a very great urge to knock and say the word or make the touch that would make them feel better. I went into my own room and I closed the door.
You do what you can, but you can't do everything.
CHAPTER THIRTY
When I woke the next morning, the sky was dark with clouds and the air was as cold as the edge of a hunting knife. The snow above us waiting to fall was a physical thing, heavy and damp and alive with turbulence.
Toby was sullen and Karen was unhappy and nobody said very much as we went through the house and prepared for the day. Karen drove into the office early and I took Toby to school. Pike stayed at the house, waiting for Roland George to call. Neither Toby nor I spoke on the way to school, but when I dropped him off I told him to have a good day. He didn't answer. It was as if the bad feelings and restless, logy sleep had carried over into wakefulness.
At nine-forty-two that morning Roland George called. I took it in the living room. Pike picked up in the kitchen. Roland George said, 'The Jag you saw is registered to a Jamaican named Urethro Mubata. Came up here in 1981. Fourteen arrests, two convictions, assault, armed robbery, like that. He's mostly in the dope business.'
'Not exactly a good-will ambassador.'
'Uh-uh. He did eight months at Rikers for possession with intent and another fourteen at Sing Sing for attempted murder. When he was at Ossining, he did cell time with a man named Jesus Santiago, another Jamaican. Santiago served out, but Mubata's on parole.'
'Santiago in for pimping?'
'That's it. Sorta curious how this guy Mubata got the forty grand for a new Jaguar when his employment of record is being a busboy at Arturo's Tapas Stand in Jackson Heights.'
Pike said, 'What about Sealy and the cop?'
'Sealy is a hype, registered in the methadone program at St. Vincent's. He's a nobody with a string of minor busts, mostly hijack and street boosting, run a little policy, steal a few stereos, that kind of thing.'
'Is he part of DeLuca's crew?'
'It's not in the files, but it's possible. The guy's a drop of pus, but he's a known associate. Hard to figure, though. Hype like this, Charlie DeLuca shouldn't be having anything to do with him.'
Pike said, 'He shouldn't be having anything to do with a police officer, either.'
'Yeah.' Something hard came into Roland's voice. 'The officer in question is employed by Kennedy Airport Security. He is not undercover.'
'Okay.'
I hung up. Joe Pike came into the living room from the kitchen and said, 'I make it for a hijacking setup. Something coming into Kennedy.'
'It sounds right, but why's Charlie sneaking around? He gets a tip that something worth stealing is coming in, he uses the Jamaicans to pull the heist, then they split the take with him. Big deal. Why does he want to keep it from Sal?'
'Because he doesn't want to split the money.'
