Goodnight, Irene

“No, her daughter was ill today and she couldn’t arrange child care in time. She’s usually here Monday through Friday.”

“Well,” I said, standing up and extending a hand, “I’ll call if I’m out of town, or come by if I’m still in Las Piernas. Thank you for your help, Mr. St. Germain.”

“Please call me Guy,” he said, returning the handshake with a firm grasp. “And please stop by my desk and say hello if you do come in. You have provided a very pleasant change of pace today, even though our acquaintance had such an unfortunate begi

“Don’t worry about it. And I will definitely stop by if I come in, if you promise to call me Irene.” We shook on it and I left him.

As I walked out, Miss Ralston spotted me and started following me again, her long strides catching up to me quickly. She had found her voice again and was chattering away at me. “I’m so sorry, ma’am, I don’t know what got into me. I didn’t realize you knew Mr. St. Germain. I don’t mean knew him-but knew of him, or whatever…” She kept this up, following me all the way out onto the sidewalk. I stopped and turned around, ready to ask her to please forget all about it, when I heard the roar of an engine and noticed something very much out of place: A car was barreling down the sidewalk, headed right for us.

22

ITOOK TWO long ru

A woman who had just missed getting hit as she walked out of the bank started screaming at the top of her lungs. I was shaking, unable to make myself come out from my haven. It took a moment to grasp what had actually happened, and once I did I felt sickened by it.

Eventually I made myself go down the sidewalk to the place where she’d landed. I didn’t have much hope for what I’d find there. It was just as well. She was absolutely motionless, lying face-up with her eyes open, and would have seemed unscathed if it weren’t for the fact that her head was in one of those u

In moments, I saw emergency-room people coming from the hospital across the street, and Guy St. Germain was ru

Next thing I knew, Guy had taken hold of my shoulders and was shaking me gently, shouting, “What happened to her? What happened to her?”

I started crying. “A car-oh, God, have mercy on me, it’s my fault. Sweet Jesus, it’s all my fault-it was me they wanted to kill. It was me. They wanted to kill me.” I was losing it rapidly.

He was taken aback, then put his arms around me and held me, saying, “No, no, chиre-hush.” I felt dizzy and sick; once again, I almost passed out, but fought it off. As if it were happening miles away from me, I felt my own crying become sobs. Guy turned me away from where Miss Ralston lay and held me to his shoulder while they found something to cover her. I concentrated on the weave of the fabric in Guy’s suit and calmed down.

Someone came out of a nearby cafй and gave me a glass of water. It was one of those little kindnesses that make a person feel human again. I washed the taste of being sick out of my mouth, pulled out a Kleenex and blew my nose. I was getting there.

In no time at all, police pulled up, sirens howling. One of the officers gently took me from Guy and sat me down in a patrol car. I asked him to contact Pete Baird. He turned his head to one side and took a longer look at me. “You the lady who was with Frank Harriman yesterday?”

I nodded through a stream of tears.

“Sister, you better think about getting out of town for a few days.”

I had thought about it. I thought about Gila Bend. I thought about ru

I thought about Miss Ralston, and how sarcastic and mean all my thoughts of her had been, when she was just a busybody who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If she hadn’t knocked me down, she wouldn’t be dead. If I hadn’t been walking around in a suspicious ma

I thought of something O’Co

“Irene, “ he said, “do you know what the two saddest words in the English language are?”

“Boo and hoo?” I had guessed.

“No, wise-ass. The two saddest words in the English language are ‘if only.’”

I used to hate it when he’d get into going on and on with all of his quotes and proverbs and old saws, but somehow they always came back to me in times of trouble. And so I left off with the ifs.

By the time Pete got there, I was much calmer; still a little shaky, but calmer.

He sighed. “Hell. I was hoping these jokers would need a little while to regroup. You know, give you a day off.” He turned to one of the uniformed men and asked him to go over and double check on the guard for Frank’s room, and to ask the hospital about tightening security around Ke

“Have you heard back from the sheriff in Gila Bend yet?” I asked.

“Yeah. They said they had been trying to dig up something for O’Co

“I’m thinking of going there.”

“By yourself?”

“My traveling companions aren’t faring too well these days.”

“Don’t start thinking like that, Irene. It’ll make you crazy.”

“That’s what I was just telling myself.”

“Let me run this by Bredloe. Maybe I can work it out so that I can go along. I don’t like the idea of you going somewhere co

“What time is it?” I asked.

“About three o’clock.”

“Criminy. They’re going to think I quit again. I’ve got to get back to the paper.”

“Let one of these guys make sure you get to work okay,” he said, motioning to one of the patrolmen.

The officer walked over and introduced himself as Mike Sorenson. It seemed silly to get in a car for a two-block ride, but I didn’t feel like walking over near the sidewalk where Miss Ralston’s body was still lying.

“You’re Frank Harriman’s friend, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “You know him?”

“Oh, sure. Great guy, Frank. I saw him earlier-he didn’t look so hot, but they said he’ll be one hundred percent before too long. I don’t know, seeing him there just made me boil-really got to me. We all want to nail these bastards. Frank’s a good cop. And he says you’re okay. No offense, but I don’t usually get along so hot with reporters. But if Frank says you’re okay, then you’re okay.”

“Thanks. I wondered if-if people might blame me for what happened to him.”

“Naw, are you crazy? We know who’s who in this mess. Hell, lady, you’re damned lucky to be alive, and you know it.”