The Ivory and the Horn

'Thanks.'

Jilly looked around the side of her easel, her welcoming smile turning puzzled.

'Jim?' she said.

'I hope I'm not interrupting anything,' he said.

So this was Jim Bradstreet, Wendy thought as she continued on her quest for a caffeine hit. He wasn't as handsome as she'd imagined he'd be, but there was a warmth about him that was directly evident. Mostly, it had to do with his eyes, she decided, the laugh lines around them and the way his gaze had immediately sought her own.

Behind her, Jilly laid down the paintbrush she'd been using. Wiping her hands on her jeans, which left new streaks of a dark red on top of the other paint already on the material, she sat Jim down on the sofa and introduced him to Wendy. Wendy offered him coffee which he luckily refused, since there was barely one cup left in the carafe.

'Well, this is a pleasant surprise,' Jilly said. 'I didn't think you even knew where I lived.'

Wendy brought her coffee over to where they were sitting and curled up on the end of the sofa opposite Jim. That was Jilly, she thought. Always happy to see anybody. Sometimes Wendy thought Jilly must know every third person living in the city— with plans already formed to meet the rest.

'I looked the address up in the phone book,' Jim said. He cleared his throat. 'Uh, maybe I should get right to the point. I've been kind of worried about Brenda ever since you called yesterday. You see, I got the impression that you didn't even know she was out of town.'

Jilly's eyebrows rose quizzically, but she didn't say anything. Wendy stared down at her coffee. She hated getting caught in a lie— even one so well-intentioned.

'Anyway,' Jim went on, 'when she called me last night, I tried to find out where she was staying, how long she'd be gone— that kind of thing. I was trying to be surreptitious, but I could tell she felt I was grilling her and she acted very evasive. We hardly talked for more than five minutes before she was off the phone.'

Nice-looking and kindhearted, too, Wendy thought. Obviously concerned. She wondered if he had a brother.

Jilly sighed. 'Well, it's true,' she said. 'We didn't know anything was wrong until yesterday when we found out her phone was cut off and she'd lost her job.'

'But it's the paper that's sent her out of town,' Jim began before his voice trailed off. He nodded. 'I get it,' he added, almost to himself. 'She just didn't want to see me.'

'I don't think it's quite like that,' Jilly said.

'She's been avoiding everybody,' Wendy said. 'I haven't seen her in three weeks.'

'And you say she's lost her job?'

Jilly nodded. 'Brenda will probably hate us for telling you about any of this, but you seem to care for her and right now I get the feeling she needs all the people she can get to care about her.'

'What— what's the matter with her?' Jim asked.

'We don't know exactly,' Jilly said.

With Jilly having opened the Pandora's box, Wendy realized she couldn't hold back herself now. She just hoped that it wouldn't put Jim off and that Brenda would forgive them.

'Brenda's got a serious case of low self-esteem,' she said. 'Way serious. She's always had money problems, but now we think she's quit smoking and gone on some weird crash diet. If you've done either, you probably know how it can make you a little crazy. With everything coming down at once on of that— losing her job, obviously way broke— God knows what she's thinking right now.'

'She never said anything...'

'Well, she wouldn't, would she?' Wendy said. 'Do you lay all your problems on a woman you've just met— especially someone you might like a lot?'

'She said that?' Jim asked. 'That she likes me a lot?'

Wendy and Jilly exchanged amused glances. It was almost like talking to Brenda, Wendy thought. That'd be the first thing she'd center on as well.

'When you were talking to Brenda,' Jilly asked. 'Did she say where she was staying?'

Jim shook his head.

'Well, I might be able to fix that, Jilly said. 'Or at least, Lou might.'

She got up and dug her phone out from under a pile of newspapers and art magazines and dialed a number.

'Who's Lou?' Jim asked Wendy.

'A cop she knows.'

'Yes, hello?' Jilly said into the phone. 'Could I speak to Detective Fucceri, please? It's Jilly Coppercorn calling.' She listened for a moment, then put her hand over the mouthpiece. 'Great,' she told them. 'He's in.' She removed her hand before either Wendy or Jim could say anything and spoke into the phone again.

'Lou? Hi. It's Jilly. I was wondering if you could do me a favor.

'That's not true— I called you just last week to ask you out for lunch but you were too busy, remember?

'How soon we forget.

'What? Oh, right. I want to get an address to go with a phone number.

'Well, no. I don't have the number yet. I need that as well.'

Wendy sat fascinated as she listened to Jilly deal with number traces and the like as though she were some TV private eye who did this all the time. Jilly passed on Jim's number and the approximate time of Brenda's call to Lou, then finally hung up and gave Jim and Wendy a look of satisfaction.

'Lou'll have the address for us in about half an hour,' she said.

'Can anybody do that?' Jim asked.

Wendy just looked at him. 'What do you think?' she asked.

'What's the big deal?' Jilly asked. 'All I did was ask a friend to do us a favor.'

'But only you would think of tracing Brenda's call,' Wendy said.

'But everybody knows that the phone company keeps records on that kind of thing— don't they?'

'And only you would know who to ask and have them actually do it for you,' Wendy finished.

Jilly waved her hand dismissively. 'Anybody want some breakfast?' she asked.

Jim glanced at his watch. 'But it's almost noon.'

'It's also Sunday,' Wendy told him. 'Normal people are only just waking up about now.'

'So call it brunch,' Jilly said.

***

It took Lou closer to an hour to get back to Jilly, by which time they'd all eaten the somewhat complicated Mexican omelet that Jilly had whipped up for them with her usual careless aplomb. Wendy and Jim were cleaning the dishes and Jilly was back behind the easel when the phone finally rang.

'You're sure?' Jilly said when she had finished writing down the information he had given her. 'No, no. I'd never think that. I really appreciate your doing this, Lou. It's just such a weird place. Yes, I'll tell you all about it next week. Thanks again.'

She hung up the phone and then stared at what she'd written.

'Well?' Wendy said. 'Aren't you going to tell us where she is?'

Jilly shrugged. 'I don't know. The call was made from a public phone booth in the parking lot of a general store up Highway 14.'

'A general store?' Wendy said.

' 'Ada & Bill's General Store.' It's almost in the mountains.'

Wendy's hopes fell. 'That doesn't tell us anything.'

Jilly nodded her head in glum agreement.

'I've got a car,' Jim said. 'Anybody want to take a drive up there to see if we can find out more?'

All Jilly had to do was change her jeans for a clean pair and comb her tangled hair with her fingers. Wendy was dressed and ready to go in a record five minutes.

23

Everything stands still when the rusalka appears. She's tall and gaunt, a