“Christ,” Alex whispered hoarsely. “Just the mailman.”
He eased himself up straight and shook his hands to relieve the tingling tension. Then, laughing softly, he walked over to the front door and kicked at the pile of mail. It was mostly bills, from what he could see. He was about to leave them there when one return address caught his eye. He bent down and picked up the envelope, holding it at arm’s length as he read the address aloud.
“Midwestern Bell… hmmm.”
Sliding his forefinger under the flap, he quickly tore it open and scanned the enclosed sheets. On the third page, he saw a string of calls credited to Harry’s phone credit card number. Running quickly down them, Alex noted their points of origin—Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
“Well all right,” he whispered. “At least it’s a start.”
He had no doubt who had made these calls, and the pattern was obvious: Cindy was driving east with his kids. If these calls had been made a week ago, before the billing date, then—obviously—she had arrived at her destination. Without a map in front of him, he didn’t know what other states Cindy might have traveled through, but at least he now had something tangible. If he could wait another month until the next billing came, he could take a look at the return number and pinpoint exactly where Cindy was calling from. It was just going to take patience, and Alex knew he had plenty of that!
Chuckling to himself, he slid the telephone bill back into its envelope, folded it in half, and stuffed it into his pants pocket, thinking—What the hell? Why not let Harry get a few late payment charges? He jumped and spun around on his heels when the telephone in the kitchen suddenly rang. Moving quickly, he went back into the kitchen and stood stiffly beside the counter while he counted out the second, third, and fourth rings. Then the answering machine clicked on.
“Hi. You’ve reached 9924. If you got the right number, you also got the wrong time. You know what to do. Leave a message after the beep, and well get back to you as soon as possible.”
Alex was tempted to answer the call. At worst, he could pretend it was a wrong number, but he decided against that and waited while the machine wound ahead. After a few seconds—seconds that filled Alex with a tight, winding tension—the machine let out another irritating beep. Then, after another second or two, a woman’s voice began to speak.
“Hi yah, doll-face: The plane just landed here in Chicago, and I already miss you. Look, doll, I’m sorry about not getting out to see you yesterday afternoon, but I was way too busy, getting packed and all. I just couldn’t get away. Honest, I wish I could have seen you again before I left. Ummm, just thinking about you makes me feel so-o-o horny. I hope you don’t find a replacement for me while I’m away.”
She paused a moment and laughed a short, sniffing laugh. Alex had no idea who this woman was, but one thing he knew—this sure as hell wasn’t Cindy’s voice.
“But don’t worry, honey-bear, I trust you to save yourself for me; but—well, them’s the breaks, I guess. Oh, it’s just that I miss you so much already, and it’s going to be a long, long week. I wish I could’ve backed out of going to this damned convention in the first place! Believe me, I tried, but my boss was being a real dick-head about it. You know how he can get. So anyway, we’ll just have to wait until after I’m back, okay? I know you’re disappointed. Believe me, I am, too, but my flight gets back next Friday, a week from tomorrow, and you know, I was hoping we coul—”
The answering machine suddenly clicked off and beeped once, cutting her off in mid-sentence. Again, Alex felt like smashing the shit out of the machine as he stood there and stared at it numbly, watching the tape rewind.
“Goddamn!” he shouted, shaking his hands in frustration. It didn’t take much for Alex to figure out that Harry must be getting a little action on the side. “Come on, tell me more! Tell me more!”
It had just been starting to get interesting when the woman—whoever she was—got cut off. He couldn’t imagine the woman who could bring herself to call pudgy, balding Harry Toland “doll-face” and “honey-bear.”
The machine stopped rewinding. Alex huffed with frustration as he shook his head and stared at the silent telephone. “Well, well, well,” he whispered, sniffing with laughter. “I’ll be goddamned, you old son of a bitch! I never would’ve thought you had it in you.”
He knew Cindy was on her way to “the lake,” and this chick had been calling from Chicago. While this was all very interesting, especially considering that this was the “perfect family” that was trying to get custody of his kids, the phone message still hadn’t given him anything he could use.
He didn’t jump or shout with surprise when the telephone started ringing again. His only reaction was a tightening in his stomach and a slow, sly smile that spread across his face. After four rings and the same, lame message, the woman’s voice started talking again.
“Hi, honey-bear. It’s me again. I don’t know what happened there. We got cut off somehow. Probably the damned hotel switchboard operator. Anyway, as I was saying, my flight gets back on Friday—not tomorrow, but next Friday, around one o’clock in the afternoon. Write it on your calendar, okay? I was thinking, just for old time’s sake, you know, that we could meet one last time out at the Buzzy Bee. My car will be parked at the airport, anyway, just across the river, so I could drive straight over there after the plane lands. I could be there—oh, say two-ish. What do you think? That’d be a nice welcome home for me. I know, pretty soon we won’t have to sneak around like this, but I thought it would be fun to have one last fling at our place, you know? Give me a call sometime during the week and tell me what you think. Call me a dozen times during the week. You can reach me at the downtown Hilton Towers in Chicago. I’m in room 1237. I guess I’d better go now. I hope I hear from you soon. Bye, now… I miss you.”
The speaker rattled with a long, loud kissing sound that ended with a rising smack.
“I love you!”
“Yeah, and I love you, too, baby,” Alex said.
He took the phone bill from his pocket and, grabbing a pen from the counter, scrawled on the back of the envelope: “Buzzy Bee—Chicago Hilton—rm 1237—back next Friday, 1:00.”
He had no idea what—if anything—he could do with this new information, but it was something, and he was happy as hell to have it just in case something occurred to him later. At the very least, if there was ever a custody hearing, he could confront Harry with this evidence that he’d been having an affair. That would certainly blow Cindy’s snug little world right out of the water. She deserved it, the little bitch!
Before leaving the house, Alex wanted to do something else, like write a message on Harry’s appointment calendar or erase the phone messages or something else just to toy with Harry’s mind, but he finally decided against it. Instead, he carefully put the pen back on the counter right where he had found it, straightened up the kitchen, and then left by the back door, checking to make sure he had left no tracks on the floor before he locked the door shut behind him.
The sun was starting to set as he crossed the lawn to the Street and headed around the corner to where he had parked his car. He wasn’t worried. He had no idea what he was going to do next, but he knew if he took his time he’d think of something.
Chapter Eight
Trapped Wasp
I’m probably making a very big mistake here!
The thought echoed inside Cindy’s mind as she followed the heavy-set, sweating man up the creaking flight of steps to the second floor landing. The air in the apartment building was hot and dry, like the inside of an oven.
Krissy and Billy were only a step or two behind her. Both of them remained silent, except for Krissy’s initial comment upon entering the building that she didn’t like the “ucky” smell. Cindy wasn’t sure if the smell was from the hall or the man, but she shushed the little girl with a wave of her hand. She had wanted the kids to wait in the car, but Billy had insisted that, since they might be living here, too, they had a right
to check it out with her.
She couldn’t very well argue the point.
The apartment building was on Coyne Street, off Forest Avenue in downtown Portland. After days of driving around the city, Cindy had a pretty good idea where it was in relation to everything else. The adjacent houses looked neat and well-cared for, and there was a church right across the street, which she took as indications that the neighborhood might be at least half-decent. After spending three days running down newspaper ads for furnished apartments to rent, she was so tired and frustrated, she thought at this point she’d settle for just about anything.
This was the slight change in plans she had mentioned to Harry a few days before in her phone message to him.
She still hadn’t had a chance to talk it over with him personally, but during the drive east, along with everything else she’d had to think about, she had decided not to go directly to his uncle’s cottage on Little Sebago Lake. She remembered the camp from her one previous Visit to Maine years ago, and she realized—finally—-hat one thing that had been bothering her throughout the trip was that she didn’t want to live in such an isolated situation.
Not with two kids.
They were used to living in Omaha which, although it was no New York City, was still a busy place. She and the kids were going to experience enough stresses, strains, and emotional upsets trying to live together like a real family, so why put any more strain on anyone? She had decided that it would be much better to settle in a town or city where the kids could eventually make friends and go to school and do all the normal things kids did. Besides, if the police and FBI were looking for her, and she was trying to “disappear,” she could blend in a lot better in a city… even one as small as Portland, Maine. If she hadn’t been so timid about being on her own, she might have even tried Boston or New York. She had no doubt that folks living in the small towns around the lake would take notice of her right away and perhaps start asking embarrassing questions. Living in the city, they could maintain their anonymity, but she would still be close to some kind of haven—if she needed it. And anyway, they probably wouldn’t even be staying in Maine once Harry sold the business and joined her. More than anything else right now, what she wanted for Billy and Krissy was as close to a normal life as she could provide. That wasn’t going to be easy, considering everything they had been through so far!
The man paused outside the door with a tarnished brass number “3” nailed to it. The yellowing paint was flaking off the door in potato chip-sized pieces. Only one nail remained, so the number hung at a cockeyed angle, revealing a ghost of the number in bone white, where the door hadn’t been repainted.
The man’s baggy pants flapped like a flag in a stiff breeze as he fished around in his pockets for his key ring.
“Ahh—got it,” he said triumphantly, after sorting through the keys and producing the one he wanted. He wiped the sweat from his face on his forearm, then slid the key into the lock. The tumblers turned with a harsh grinding sound, and the door latch popped. Cindy almost laughed aloud when she reminded herself to get some graphite to loosen up the lock. That’s what comes from living with someone who runs a hardware store. Her smile vanished, though, the instant the door swung open, and the strong smell of close, stale air and… and something else wafted over Cindy. Sucking in her breath, she followed the man into the apartment. When she glanced back at the kids, she saw that Krissy was pinching her nose shut, but at least she hadn’t said anything.
The living room walls were covered with dingy, red wallpaper that had a faded floral design. It was bubbled and peeling near the ceiling, which showed evidence of some serious water damage. The hardwood floor creaked underfoot and was worn to a sickly yellow hue of aged varnish. The chipped and gouged windowsills were littered with dead flies and spider webs. Cindy had to stop herself from opening a few windows just to air out the place.
“Well, as you can see, you got steam heat—works just fine in the winter,” the man said, waving one hand to indicate the living room. “Utilities are separate from the rent. ’Course, there’s no air conditioning. It’s usually not hot like this to warrant it. The windows-well, most of ’em have screens, so you can catch a breeze off the ocean most of the time.”
The ocean, Cindy thought, shaking her head in amazement. After living all her life in the mid-west, it seemed so strange to realize that the Atlantic Ocean was so close!
As they moved slowly through the apartment, the man continued to rattle on about it. He sounded bored, like this was a litany he had repeated a hundred times before. Cindy took in less than half of what he said as she followed along behind him with the kids in tow. She could clearly see that the place had its problems, but the only clear thought in her mind was— Will we be safe here?
“As you saw, the couch ’n easy chair, coffee table and end tables in the living room all come with the place. Not in the best of condition, but—hey, they’ll do. Couple of lamps. Probably no light bulbs in ’em. Down the hallway, here, there’s one bedroom on the left and two on the right. All of ’em have single beds and mattresses.”
Cindy poked her head into the first room and glanced around.
“They’re a little small,” the man said, “but there’s plenty of bureaus and closet space. ’Course, you can store stuff in the attic, too, but I don’t guarantee its safety. There’s a table ’n four chairs in the kitchen there. Refrigerator and dishwasher. Both of ’em work.”
As if he has to point that out, Cindy thought.
“And there’s a washer ’n dryer ’round back in the hallway. Bathroom’s down there on the left. Just a stand-up shower, though, cause—well, when you look in there, you’ll see where we had a bit of a problem with the bathtub leaking.”
Cindy nodded as though she had been listening to everything he was saying, but she had been giving the apartment a quick once-over, evaluating it for herself. It wasn’t anything close to what she had been expecting, considering the rent this man was asking for it. What was his name? She’d talked to so many people over the past few days, she couldn’t even remember.
I can’t believe the price he’s asking, she thought, but based on everything else they had seen over the past few days, this almost seemed like a bargain.
Almost.
“ ‘Course, you’re within walking distance of the grocery store, which is a big benefit. ’N the kids’ll be able to walk to school right up through high school. Now I don’t expect you to make up your mind right here on the spot, but I have to tell yah—there’s a young married couple that’s interested in the place who said they’d be back to me by four o’clock this afternoon, so if you think you might want it…”He let his voice trail away as he looked expectantly at Cindy. “Tell you what, I’ll wait outside so you can a little look around on your own. Take your time, ’n if you have any more questions, don’t be afraid to ask.”
Cindy opened her mouth, about to ask if there was a cockroach or mouse problem, but she let it pass. They watched the man walk back down the hallway and out the door, then listened as the heavy tread of his feet descended the stairs.
“Well…? What do you think?” she asked, turning to Billy and Krissy.
Krissy just stood there, a look of perplexity on her face. At least she was no longer holding her nose, Cindy thought. Billy, on the other hand, had spent the entire time moving quickly from room to room, sticking his head into every closet and banging open the bureaus and cupboards. He regarded Cindy with an expression of stern seriousness.
“Well, I think of everything we’ve seen, it’s probably the best,” he said in a low voice. “Still… it isn’t very much.”
“No, it isn’t,” Cindy said. “But we aren’t talking about staying here forever, either. Krissy—?”
“I dunno” Krissy said, shaking her head so her blond hair swished at her shoulders. “I just don’t like the smell. It reminds me of something.”
Cindy smiled, happy that the little girl would offer her opinion on anything.
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“Then again,” Billy went on, “it would be nice to have someplace to settle after staying in all those motel rooms.”
“I know what you mean, partner,” Cindy said, letting her smile widen as she turned back to him. She was trembling inside and felt so knocked off-balance herself, considering that they had been reduced to actually considering a place like this, that all she wanted to do was scoop them both up into her arms and cry.
“Well, I don’t know if this ‘other couple’ he mentioned is for real or not, but—”She shook her head and wiped the sweaty hair away from her forehead. “I think we’ve seen pretty much everything else in Portland. Do you agree?”
Billy cocked one eyebrow and nodded, a slight tick that instantly reminded Cindy of her dead sister. When she turned to Krissy to ask what she thought, she. gasped with surprise. Krissy, who had been there just a second before, was gone.
“Krissy?” Cindy said in a high, tight voice;
A cold, tingling sensation flashed up her backbone. She wasn’t able to keep the razor-edge of panic out of her voice as she looked up and down the corridor and shouted again.
“Krissy!”
2
“Thank you for calling MCI. This is Ms. Costello. How may I help you?”
“Hello,” Alex said into the telephone.
He took a deep breath and wedged the receiver tightly against his ear with his shoulder. Staring blankly at some middle distance, he continued to doodle on the first page of Harry’s phone bill. While he was dialing, he had drawn a distorted woman’s face that didn’t look quite human and was now drawing several arrows through it.
“Ahh, who would I speak to about a question regarding my most recent long distance phone bill?”
“Just a moment, please, and I’ll connect you with the billing department.”
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