Страница 30 из 62
Calvin is almost four, Josie said.
Beth nodded, then blew her nose again.
Mom, she needs an appointment to see her doctor. In the meantime, Josie looked at her sister, Ill talk to Howie if its okay with you. Ill explain whats happening and ask him to hang in there.
Beth blew her nose yet again. I think it might be too late, but thanks, Josie. That would be great. Then Beth mumbled, Im sorry if Ive been mean to you, too.
Josie nearly laughed. Shed been waiting for that particular apology for thirty-one years, and now that shed gotten it, it didnt seem important.
She walked her mother and sister to the elevators and headed back to the newsroom.
As she passed Denises desk, Josie said, Listen, if anyone else comes up here looking for me, tell them Im at a funeral home convention or something.
Will do, Denise said.
Josie made a sharp U-turn. Oh, unless its a really handsome man with gorgeous green eyes and a serpent tattoo that runs up the left side of his neckyou can send him right on back to my cubicle!
Yeah, right. Denise laughed like that was the fu
CHAPTER 12
Be
Besides, hed never really taken the time to see the country. In his forty years of business travel hed only become familiar with five-star hotel suites, private airstrips, Michelin-rated restaurants, and the inside of banks, boardrooms, and manufacturing plants. Their exact geographic location had rarely mattered to him.
And so it was that he found himself just west of Albany around di
He ordered the fish special. He should have known better, of course, considering how far inland hed come. But he topped it off with a piece of warm cherry pie with vanilla ice cream, accompanied by a strong cup of coffee, which more than made up for the fish.
Be
His eyesight wasnt as keen as it had once been, and he found the reflection of headlights on wet pavement especially distracting, but he decided to keep going until he absolutely had to rest.
There was something thrilling about this kind of existence, Be
The sky turned completely black by eight P.M. The rain was coming down harder, and he squinted between sweeps of the windshield wipers. He and the gardeners car had become old friends in the last couple hundred miles, and hed decided the situation was comical, really. The tires were just shy of dangerously worn. The shift did indeed stick, and not just when putting it in reverse. The alternator needed to be replaced, yes, but so did the wipers and a dozen other components. The heater was intermittently overzealous and the defrost had a mind of its own. And here he was, Be
The cat-and-mouse nature of all this made Be
No. Rick Rousseau would be blind to Be
The rain continued, and Be
It was one of those moments in a mans life that went beyond rational explanation. The police hadnt said who owned the motorbike, but Be
But Margot was alive, and Be
Hed failed, of course. Margot was never good again. The ultimate betrayal was that doctors had the skills to drag Rousseau back from the dead, but they left Be
Hed been wrong about that, too.
Be
Be
He clicked through dozens, including Margot as a golden-haired toddler, ru
There was one last photo of Margot, and it was the most heart-wrenching of them all. It was taken just months before the accident. Be
She wore no makeup, yet her face glowed. She was a woman in the prime of her beauty, with plenty of time to turn things around, if she would only apply herself.
Shed shooed Be
Be