is expected.”
Jim hit the power button on the remote as his picture was shown on the screen and the television flicked off. He didn’t want to hear anymore.
“ How did they know about you?” he said to Roma.
“ They found the car, wrecked.”
“ And when Eddie, that’s my boy,” Edna said, “found the bodies and called the police they assumed, since Roma’s car was near my house and since you had just killed three people in the police station less than an hour earlier, that you might be connected with the two dead men in my living room, so they checked for your fingerprints.”
“ How do you know all this?”
“ We didn’t turn it off before the end of the story,” Roma said.
“ I keep getting in deeper.”
“ Well, I can damn sure set them straight about the dead men in my house. I’ll just ring up the police and tell them what happened. I’ll tell them that I’m still alive, too.”
“ What do you think, Jim?” Roma said.
“ I think Edna’s right, you two should go back and explain it all to the police. Once they see that you’re still alive and you explain about the two dead men in Edna’s living room, and how it was self defense, they’ll know I’m no serial killer. And once they find out those two attorneys were fakes, they’ll know they came into the police station to kill me, and that would be self defense, too.”
“ What about the dead policeman?” Roma asked.
“ If you can make them believe someone is trying to kill me, then they’ll believe those men killed the policeman.”
“ So all we have to do is go back and tell our story and everything will be okay?” Roma said.
“ Should be.”
“ Then why don’t you come with us?” Roma said. “That seems the smartest thing to do. If you’re guilty, you’d never turn yourself in. With us as witnesses and your surrender, they’d have to believe us.”
“ I’d like nothing better, but someone sent those men after me and he’ll do it again. I believe it was Bernd Kohler. I can’t prove it and until I can, I’m not turning myself in.”
“ He’s right,” Edna said, “but you’re still going to need help.”
“ I have to do this on my own. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to either of you.”
“ I know one way I can help,” Edna said. “I can get you some identification and credit cards. You don’t look that much like my son, but you have the same nose and you both have blue eyes and he has that bushy beard. It might work.” She went to the phone.
“ Who are you calling?” Jim asked.
“ Why Eddie of course,” she twinkled. “He’ll come right up with his passport, drivers license and credit cards.”
“ How do you know he won’t call the police?”
“ For the same reason that I’m helping you. He got home because you stayed on the ground, alone, covering that chopper. Like me, he owes you a debt that can never be repaid.”
Jim didn’t try to stop her as she made the call, because he knew she was right. Without ID he wasn’t going to get very far. He sat on the bed next to Roma as Edna made the call and watched a gecko dart across the wall.
“ It will be all right,” he told Roma, as Edna Lambert talked in the background.
“ I hope so,” she said. “I really hope so.”
“ Oh, and Eddie,” they heard Edna say, “bring a spare eye patch.” She hung up and faced the couple sitting on the end of the bed. “He’s leaving right now, he’ll be here in four hours.”
They spent the next hour going over all their options, but in the end they agreed that Jim was right. The best thing would be for the women to return to Long Beach and try to clear him. Once it was decided, there was nothing more to be gained by discussion. The women went back to their room to rest and wait for Eddie Lambert.
Jim lay on his bed and stared at the connecting door. He half wanted Roma to come through it and he half feared she would. Twice he got up and started for it and twice he went back to the bed.
He could only imagine what was going through her mind. Was she eager and afraid? Or did she regret what had happened? Was she watching the door from the other side, like him, and, like him, was she thinking about her twin sister.
He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.
“ Go to her,” Donna thought.
“ I can’t,” he thought back and then he shut Donna out of his mind.
The phone woke him from a restless sleep a few hours later.
“ Hello.”
“ Eddie’s here,” Edna said.
“ I’ll be right over.”
When he went over he was introduced to Eddie Lambert. His wild hair, beard and muscular build made him giant looking, but he was no taller than Jim and his eye patch gave him a menacing look, till he smiled and the twinkle in his single eye glowed. He dressed in Levi’s, running shoes and a flannel shirt, the kind surfers wore. His handshake was firm and friendly. Jim liked him immediately.
“ Mom explained the whole thing.” He handed Jim a passport, credit cards, driver’s license and an eye patch. “With this on and your short hair, you could probably pass for me. Anybody looking at the picture would have a hard time figuring out what I really looked like under all this hair.” He had a low easy voice.
“ I hope this doesn’t get you in too much trouble.” Jim flipped the passport open and agreed. It would be hard, at first glance, to tell that Jim was not the same man in the photo. If he wore the eye patch, he could probably pass all but the most thorough of inspections.
“ Naw, if anything happens because of it, I’ll just say I thought I left my wallet at work. That’s why I didn’t report it missing.”
“ I’ll pay you back for anything I might have to charge on your cards.”
“ It’s not necessary. I owe you.”
“ I appreciate it, but I can afford it and I’d feel better if I could pay you back.”
“ If it’s what you want, but you don’t have to.”
Jim looked at Eddie’s running shoes.
“ I’ve got a pair of shoes that are about a size too tight and they’re killing my feet.”
“ Mine are eights. Sorry,” Eddie said, looking at Jim’s large feet.
“ They looked small, but I had to ask,” Jim said.
The group spent a few minutes making small talk, before Jim retold the events of the last two days for Eddie’s benefit.
“ So if it was you,” Jim asked Eddie, “would you go after Kohler or go to the police?”
“ Go after Kohler,” he said, without hesitation.
“ That’s how I feel. I just wanted to hear somebody else say it.”
Fifteen minutes later, after having decided that Eddie would take the girls back at first light, Roma asked Jim to take a walk with her.
“ Where to?”
“ To the mini market on the other side of the highway. I’ve got a sweet tooth that I very rarely indulge, but tonight I feel like a candy bar.”
A walk across the highway in tight shoes was the last thing he wanted to do, but Roma was going to be spending the remainder of the night with Edna and he was going to be bunking with Eddie, so it was probably the last time they’d get to spend together till this was all over.
“ I feel kind of like I’m having sex behind my momma’s back,” Roma said as soon as they started out.
“ We could get our own room.”
“ No, then I’d feel cheap.”
He put his good arm around her and felt a little rebuffed when she shrugged away, laughing like a little
