Cockeyed

These people were both calculating and delusional, and it was becoming clear that the worst they were likely to do was shame and embarrass an old lady whose additional years of experiencing embarrassment and moral shame were limited. But they weren’t limited quite enough. Mother Rita was, according to Hu

adoring mother from being humiliated, if not hauled into court.

The store room we were standing around arguing in was uncomfortably hot without air-conditioning. It occurred to me to invite the Brienings over to the nearby Subway outlet for a cool drink, and where I might shove both of these vicious little creeps into the cooler compartment, if Subway had one, and jam the door shut. But they might not die. They might wrap themselves in coats made of doughy sub buns and survive on American cheese. And I would be convicted of attempted murder.

So instead I said, “Rita Van Horn is missing from the nursing home. She left this morning around eight, and no one knows what has become of her. A search has been organized. If you wrote her a letter that precipitated some kind of emotional crisis in Rita, you will bear a heavy responsibility for whatever has happened to her.”

They gawked. “Nobody escapes from those places,” Clyde said. “Rita must be hiding on the premises.”

Arletta added, “Have they checked the bookkeeper’s office?

If the safe is in there, where they keep the residents’ valuables, that would be the first place I would look.”

I said, “Do you people seriously believe that Hu

“We not only believe it,” Arletta said, “we are counting on it.

We are expanding our store here in the fall, and we have been in touch with Crossgates about leasing space at the mall. In addition, as we told Nelson, we are pla

“You’re talking about fPAAC?”

Looking smug, Arletta said, “You betcha.”

“But if the lottery commission revokes Hu

70 Richard Stevenson

Clyde stood looking serene, and Arletta smirked some more. “Well, of course they aren’t going to take Hu

So I am confident that Hu

I said, “Of course, if something bad has happened to Rita Van Horn, you people are up the creek.”

“Has she really run off?” Clyde asked, looking nervous.

The two of them stood watching me with sudden apprehension, and that’s when I concluded that even if they hadn’t snatched her, the letter they had sent her renewing their threats had shoved Mrs. Van Horn into some awful tailspin that was likely to end up badly hurting her as well as everyone else involved.

ChAPteR ten

Back at the house on Moth Street, Hu

Friends had gathered at Hu

Mrs. Whitney, whose real name, Art confided to me, was Guy Snyder and who was an accountant in the New York State Department of Taxation, was also serving as press liaison. For word had spread that the aged mother of the lottery billionaire had gone missing and reporters were gathering out front on the sidewalk. Among them was a crew from Focks News that included the field producer Jane Trinkus, as well as a new cameraman and two armed bruisers from the Focks security department in New York. They spent much of their time palavering with the two Gray Security guards Hu

Other media representatives had also been in touch, Hu

had seen Hu

Hu

I said, “Hu

“Define in. ”

Art said, “When we lived in New York, a soldier who hung out at the Stonewall used to drive us over to Fort Dix and sneak us in to cheer up the troops. That’s how Fort Dix got its name.

Hu

“We thought about calling it Fort Cox.”

“Or, if the Army found that too risqué, Fort Erection.”

“I don’t see how they can say gays in the military would be bad for morale,” Hu

“I’m surprised,” I said, “that none of your old Stonewall pals have turned up in recent days to lend support. Or maybe just looking for a handout like so many others.”

“A few have called with congratulations,” Hu

Art said, “We haven’t heard either from the ten thousand people who said they were there that night but actually weren’t.

CoCkeyed 73

Or from the ones who stood on the other side of Christopher Street in nicely dressed little groups going tsk-tsk-tsk, why are these tawdry queens misbehaving like this, why don’t these embarrassing lowlifes go home and write their congressman?”