The ladies’ room was sparse and industrial, one stall, a metal wash basin with a plastic soap dispenser attached to the wall, and a hand dryer that looked as if it had seen better days. Standing just inside the door, I dug my cell phone back out of my bag. But then I paused. The bathroom door, made of some kind of metal, seemed kind of thin and flimsy. Someone standing on the other side would surely hear anything I said. To prevent that very thing from happening I stepped over to the basin and turned the water on full blast. In such a small space, the water echoed noisily off all the metal surfaces.
With a hand over one ear so I could hear Jimmy and not the water torrent, I raised my phone to my other ear, calling Jimmy in the process. “Hey, Maddy,” he said, answering on the first ring.
“Jimmy,” I said softly, hoping he could hear me over all the noise. “I only have a minute. What’s this info you have for me?”
Jimmy laughed. “I can barely hear ’ya. Where ’ya callin’ from? A damn rain forest?”
“Ha-ha,” I replied. I didn’t have time for jokes, so I hurried him along. “Just tell me why you called. I’m really in a hurry.”
“Sure thing.” Jimmy’s voice grew serious. “Thought ’ya might be interested to hear your friend was here at Billy’s last night.”
“Huh? What friend?” For a minute my heart stopped, thinking it’d been Chelsea.
But then he said, “That dude you was askin’ about.” He sounded exasperated. “He was at the bar. First time I’ve seen ’im here since before that girl disappeared.”
Well, this was certainly a curious development. His first day out of rehab and J.T. O’Brien shows up at a bar. And not just any bar but Billy’s.
“Was he drinking?” I asked.
“Maddy, the dude was at a bar. What do ’ya think he was doin’?” Jimmy scoffed. “Thought you might also wanna know he spent some time with Zeb too.” He didn’t come right out and say it, but I knew he was trying to tell me J.T. had bought drugs.
Looks like Adam was right; rehab doesn’t stick for J.T.
“By the way that guy is a real dick,” Jimmy added, almost as an afterthought, but with a suddenly venomous edge to his voice.
“Why?” I asked. “What happened?”
“I had to shut the dude off. Wasn’t holdin’ his liquor. At all. He was fallin’ off the stool, real pathetic-like. So I tell him, ‘That’s it, bud. You’re done for the night.’” Jimmy lowered his voice. “Dude didn’t like that one bit. Told me I’d better watch my back. He sounded pretty serious, if ’ya ask me.”
Interesting. Since J.T. had been messed up, I probably would have told Jimmy it was just an empty threat and not to worry. But after experiencing an enraged J.T. firsthand at the café, I wasn’t so sure. J.T. O’Brien had a dark side and was capable of violence. But I didn’t know where J.T. drew the line. Or if he ever even did.
“Did he say anything else?” I asked.
“Nah, but that was enough. He had a look in his eyes”—I knew that look all too well—“Dude just gave me the creeps, that’s all.”
The bathroom doorknob began to jiggle. Damn, it had to be Adam.
Desperate to wrap things up, I whispered, “Jimmy, I gotta go.”
“Cool,’ he said, unperturbed. “I’ll call you if I ever find that picture.”
The doorknob jostled more urgently. “Thanks,” I said quickly and then added, “And Jimmy, please be careful.”
Jimmy was laughing and saying, “Sure thing, see ’ya around,” when I hit the end button.
Adam’s voice rang out from the other side of the closed door. “Maddy? Are you OK in there?”
I tossed the cell into my bag, crossed the small space, and flipped the lever to unlock the bathroom door. Instantly it flew open, and Adam, standing on the other side and not looking happy, eyed me up and down. “What’s going on? You’ve been in here for an awfully long time.”
“Uh,” I began. The water was still blasting away, making things look even more suspicious. Adam walked over to turn it off, and I followed him, saying, “Nothing is going on. I was just…washing my hands.”
Adam was no fool, and the look he gave me confirmed it. “Madeleine, the water’s been running for a good ten minutes. I could hear it outside the door.”
Our eyes met. “Can we just get out of here?” I asked, sighing. “We can talk about it on the flight back.”
He held my gaze and then relented. “Let’s go. But, Madeleine, you are going to tell me exactly what you’re up to. Is that clear?”
I reluctantly nodded, and Adam turned away. I walked behind him, keeping my eyes on his broad shoulders, tension evident in every stride. Damn! He was not going to be pleased to find out I’d been corresponding with the bartender at Billy’s, especially now that J.T. O’Brien was back in the mix.
We boarded the plane in silence, no witty bantering in the cockpit this time.
Once we were airborne, Adam switched the controls over to autopilot and swiveled in his seat to face me. “So, what were you doing in the restroom back at the hangar?”
Here we go.
“Talking on the phone,” I replied, staring beyond Adam to watch the sun sink on the horizon, a fiery orb of red that appeared to sizzle into the skyline.
“And to whom were you speaking that you felt the need to leave the water running at full power? You obviously wanted to keep someone from hearing what you were saying,
