The Tomb (Repairman Jack)

He winked at her. 'Maybe next trip, okay?'

Vicky smiled and Jack noticed that a second tooth was starting to fill the gap left by her missing milk tooth.

'Okay. You coming back soon, Jack?'

'Real soon, Vicks.'

He hoisted her onto his hip and carried her to the front door where he put her down and kissed her.

'See ya.' He glanced up at Gia. 'You, too.'

She pulled Vicky back against the front of her jeans. 'Yeah.'

As Jack went down the front steps, he thought the door slammed with unnecessary force.

12

Vicky pulled Gia to the window and together they watched Jack stroll out of sight.

'He's going to find Aunt Grace, isn't he?'

'He says he's going to try.'

'He'll do it.'

'Please don't get your hopes up, honey.' She knelt behind Vicky and enfolded her in her arms. 'We may never find her.'

She felt Vicky stiffen and wished she hadn't said it, wished she hadn't thought it. Grace had to be alive and well.

'Jack'll find her. Jack can do anything.'

'No, Vicky. He can't. He really can't.' Gia was torn between wanting Jack to fail, and wanting Grace returned to her home; between wanting to see Jack humbled in Vicky's eyes, and the urge to protect her daughter from the pain of disillusionment.

'Why don't you love him anymore, Mommy?'

The question took Gia by surprise. 'Who said I ever did?'

'You did,' Vicky said, turning and facing her mother. Her guileless blue eyes looked straight into Gia's. 'Don't you remember?'

'Well, maybe I did a little, but not anymore.'

It's true. I don't love him anymore. Never did. Not really.

'Why not?'

'Sometimes things don't work out.'

'Like with you and daddy?'

'Ummm...'

During the two and a half years she and Richard had been divorced, Gia had read every magazine article she could find on explaining the breakup of a marriage to a small child. There were all sorts of pat answers to give, answers that were satisfying when the father was still around for birthdays and holidays and weekends. But what to say to a child whose father had not only skipped town, but left the continent before she was five? How to tell a child that her daddy doesn't give a damn about her? Maybe Vicky knew. Maybe that's why she was so infatuated with Jack, who never passed up an opportunity to give her a hug or slip her a little present, who talked to her and treated her like a real person.

'Do you love Carl?' Vicky said with a sour face. Apparently she’d given up on an answer to her previous question and was trying a new one.

'No. We haven't known each other that long.'

'He's yucky.'

'He's really very nice. You just have to get to know him.'

'Yucks, Mom. Yuck-o.'

Gia laughed and tugged on Vicky's pigtails. Carl acted like any man unfamiliar with children. He was uncomfortable with Vicky; when he wasn't stiff, he was condescending. He’d been unable to break the ice, but he was trying.

Carl was an account exec at TBWAChiatDay. Bright, witty, sophisticated. A civilized man. Not like Jack. Not at all like Jack. They’d met at the agency when she’d delivered some art for one of his accounts. Phone calls, flowers, dinners had followed. Something was developing. Certainly not love yet, but a nice relationship. Carl was what they called a 'good catch.' Gia didn't like to think of a man that way; it made her feel predatory, and she wasn't hunting. Both Richard and Jack, the only two men in the last ten years of her life, had deeply disappointed her. So she was keeping Carl at arm's length for now.

Yet...there were certain things to be considered. With Richard out of touch for over a year now, money was a constant problem. Gia didn't want alimony, but some child support now and then would help. Richard had sent a few checks after running back to England—drawn in British pounds just to make things more difficult for her. Not that he had any financial problems—he controlled one-third of the Westphalen fortune. He was most definitely what those who evaluated such things would consider a 'good catch.' But as she’d found out soon after their marriage, Richard had a long history of impulsive and irresponsible behavior. He’d disappeared late last year. No one knew where he’d gone, but no one was worried. It wasn't the first time he’d decided on a whim to take off without a word to anyone.

And so Gia did the best she could. Good freelance work for a commercial artist was hard to find on a steady basis, but she managed. Carl was seeing to it that she got assignments from his accounts, and she appreciated that, though it worried her. She didn't want any of her decisions about their relationship to be influenced by