by Maggie Estep
Ruby was surprised to hear him call Jody by the nickname she’d assumed was a private thing between her and Tobias.
“She’s in bad shape,” Elliott said. “I mean crazy.” He’d stopped what he was doing and was looking right at Ruby. “I mean bad crazy.”
“Where is she?”
“In my room.” Elliott motioned toward a little green bungalow almost identical to the one he’d lived in at Belmont.
“Can I go see her?”
“It’s fine with me but be careful. She was violent last night.”
“Violent?” Ruby was getting seriously alarmed now.
“I told you. She’s bad crazy.”
“Okay,” Ruby said. “Thanks.”
Elliott shrugged.
Ruby walked over to the bungalow and put her ear to the door. She didn’t hear anything. She knocked.
Nothing happened.
She knocked again.
“Elliott’s not here,” a muffled voice finally said.
It was her. Ruby was relieved.
“Jody, open up. It’s me, Ruby.”
The silence was thick.
“Jody?” Ruby called out. “I need to talk.”
“Ruby?” Jody’s voice sounded weak.
“Yeah, can you open the door?”
“Just a minute,” Jody said, barely audible.
It was more than a minute. A lot more. As Ruby listened to the muffled sounds of Jody rustling around, she started worrying about Spike locked inside the Mustang. It wasn’t too hot a day, and she’d left the windows open a few inches, but still, she didn’t like leaving him alone. Someone might break into her car to steal him. He was that cute.
“Jody?” Ruby ventured after three or four minutes had passed. Nothing. Ruby was about to knock again when the door opened a crack.
If Ruby hadn’t known the face belonged to Jody, she never would have recognized her psychiatrist. The once-lustrous red hair was dull and snarled. The face was so puffy the features were blurred. The vivid blue eyes were barely visible under swollen red lids.
“Why are you here?” Jody whispered. She hadn’t opened the door more than a crack.
“Tobias asked me to find you.”
“What does he want?” Jody was blinking wildly, as if she hadn’t seen daylight in weeks.
“To know you’re okay, for one. Can I come in?”
“I’m not okay and I’ve had enough.”
“Enough of what?” Ruby asked.
“Enough of people bothering me.”
“Just let me come in for a minute,” Ruby insisted. It wasn’t like her to insist, to infiltrate someone’s hideous private moment like this. But Jody looked bad off.
Jody slowly opened the door, moving aside enough to let Ruby squeeze through. She was wearing stained light blue pajamas and athletic socks. She closed the door after Ruby, went right to the bed, and got under the covers.
The dark green walls didn’t exactly cheer the place—and it wasn’t a hotbed of cheer to begin with. There was snarled dirty clothing and take-out containers. The only light came from an incongruously large TV tuned to The Weather Channel.
“Mind if I sit?” Ruby asked, motioning at the lone chair in the place, a metal folding chair with clothing draped over the back.
“Go for it,” Jody said.
Go for it?
“Why did you come here?” Jody asked. She kept looking past Ruby.
Ruby turned her head to see what was so fascinating. The only thing there was a sink. She sat down and tried to get Jody to meet her gaze.
“Jody,” Ruby said softly, “what are you doing here? What’s all this about?” She motioned at the dingy room. “You’ve run away from home? With Violet’s groom?”
“I’m very tired,” Jody said.
“Aren’t you embarrassed?” Ruby had pulled her chair a little closer.
“Embarrassed? About what?” Jody cocked an eyebrow. It was the first sign of animation Ruby had seen.
“About me seeing you like this?”
“I look that bad?”
“I’ve seen you look better.”
At first this seemed to worry Jody. Then she shrugged slightly and pulled the covers all the way up to her chin. She looked like a psychotic twelve-year-old.
“What does Toby want me for?”
“He’s worried about you.”
“He wants some money. That’s more like it,” Jody said it resentfully. “Do you know how tired I am of all this?”
Ruby decided she wouldn’t even try to answer that. “Tobias paid me to find you, and I needed money so I did it. Now I’ve found you. I’ll tell him where you are. He really is worried about you,” Ruby said.
“Yes. Everyone has always been worried about me,” Jody said, running her hand over her forehead as if brushing a fever away. “And I’m tired of that too.”
Ruby wondered if there was anything Jody wasn’t tired of. Then she got back to worrying about Spike. The dog had been confined for twenty minutes now.
“Are you a dog person?” she asked Jody.
“What?”
“I have a dog. A puppy. I just got him. He’s locked in my car. I’m worried about him. Can I bring him in here?”
Jody blinked. Her mouth opened slightly then closed again. She was resting her hands outside the covers now, and Ruby saw that the cuticles had been bitten raw.
“Sure,” Jody shrugged, “bring the puppy, yes.”
Ruby rose from the metal chair. “I’ll be back in two minutes,” she told her, wondering if Jody would let her back in.
Ruby walked back around Nancy Cooley’s shed row to where she’d parked the Mustang. She was dazed and a little light-headed. She didn’t want to think about what she’d just found in the bungalow, about the demise of a woman Ruby had trusted to be stable, steady, and constant. It was almost funny.
Spike acted as though he hadn’t seen Ruby in months. He licked and wiggled and bounced. Ruby snapped the leash on and tried to get him to walk at her side. He kept running ahead, nearly pulling Ruby’s shoulder from its socket. A hotwalker was leading a horse by, and Ruby looked down to see if Spike was going to bark or scare the horse. The puppy dropped down to his belly, flattening himself out submissively for what he thought was a giant, dominant dog. The horse walked by. Spike slowly got up and stared after it.
Ruby knocked at Jody’s door. No answer.
“Jody? I’m coming in.” Ruby turned the doorknob. It wasn’t locked. As she opened the door and walked in, Spike bounded forward into the room.
Jody Ray was standing in the middle of the small room, her soiled pajamas were hanging off her, her hair was in her face, and she was laughing hysterically.
19. FLAMETHROWER
Jody was so skinny the laughter shook her body like wind through a bag of sticks. Excited by the laughter, Spike ran over and jumped on Jody, putting his front paws on her thighs.
“Spike, off,” Ruby yelled. Jody looked whacko enough to do something bad to the dog.
“I’m not going to hurt him,” Jody said sharply. The laughter was all gone, and she let herself collapse backwards on the bed. One of her pajama pant legs was hiked up over her knee, and Ruby saw leg hair. She’d stopped shaving her legs. This more than anything indicated Jody’s state of mind. She wasn’t the hairy-legged type.
“Why do people call you Flamethrower?” Ruby heard herself ask. She hadn’t known it was coming.
“Where did you hear that?” Jody sat forward a little and was trying to focus her eyes.
“Tobias. And Elliott mentioned it too.”
“Oh.” She lay back against the pillow. “It was a stripping name.”
“A what?”
“My dancing name. When I was a stripper.”
“What, was every woman under the age of fifty a stripper at some point?”
“Very possibly.” Jody actually smiled. “Just another part of my troubled adolescence. And I seem to remember your having had a brief stripping career yourself.”
“A miserable failure,” Ruby shrugged. She felt a little easier now. They were talking, like old times, Jody remembering particulars of Ruby’s past. The thing that was different was Jody revealing herself.
“How did they come to call you Flamethrower at a strip club?”
“I’d dated the manager,” Jody shrugged. “He’d called me that long before I’d taken my clothes off for money. I suppose he found me passionate.” She smiled a small smile. “Later, Millie, one of my female lovers, came up with the very same nickname without my ever having told her. She said I was always generating heat.” Jody’s eyes had milked over now, and she seemed to be in another world. “Then of course there was Flamethrower the horse. That attractive chestnut colt. I followed his career with interest. Poor Millie,” Jody continued, “poor all of them. I savaged them. You know the way they describe a stud colt as savaging other horses?” Jody looked at Ruby.
Ruby nodded slightly.
“I think you could say the same of me.”
“Oh,” said Ruby. She really didn’t want to hear this. “I actually met Millie,” she changed the subject.
“You did?” Jody’s eyes focused.
“She told me about your place in Trout Falls. I went there looking for you.”
“You did?” Jody’s eyes were big and round now.
“Yeah.”
“You’ve gone to a lot of trouble.”
“Sort of, yes.”
“That was kind of you,” Jody said. “Did you see Dolly?”
“Yes, she was there.”
“She’s been through hell,” Jody said. “Two husbands died in front of her.”
“She mentioned one.”
“There were two. The first was a violent death. A holdup in a liquor store in Philly Poor Dolly was right there.”
“That’s awful,” said Ruby.
“It was. I suspect her body went haywire as a result. The fatness I mean. She wasn’t always that way. I think she had to grow a protective layer.”
“Uh” was all Ruby could muster.
“Don’t you go doing that sort of thing.”
“Eating myself to death?”
“No, I can’t imagine your taking that particular path. But whatever. Drinking. What have you. None of it helps.” Jody suddenly fell back on the pillows, exhausted. She closed her eyes.
Ruby let the silence be.
“What’s that smell?” Jody asked after several minutes.
“What?”
“Are you smoking?” Jody sat up.
“No,” said Ruby.
“Something’s burning.” Jody sniffed at the air.
Ruby smelled it then. “What is that?”
“It’s coming from up there.” Jody pointed toward the roof. “Oh,” she added blandly, “smoke.”
Ruby looked up and saw black smoke feathering in from where the roof met the top of the walls.
“Shit. Let’s get out of here,” said Ruby. She picked Spike up off the floor.
Jody was staring at the smoke, not showing any signs of stirring.
“Jody? Come on, we should go.” There was brown smoke mingling with the gray smoke now, and Ruby could hear something crackling.
Jody looked all around but still didn’t get up.
“Come on.” Holding Spike with one arm, Ruby grabbed one of her psychiatrist’s hands and started pulling.
“I’ll be right with you,” Jody said in a small voice. “Just go on.” She waved Ruby away.
“I’m not going to leave you in here. It’s getting too smoky. It’s dangerous. Come on.”
“I said I’ll be right with you. I have to fix myself. I look like shit.”
Ruby was torn. She didn’t want to leave Jody behind, but she didn’t want Spike breathing in smoke either.
“All right, but hurry up,” Ruby said. She opened the door and rushed out. A few feet away from the bungalow, she turned back and looked. The whole roof was engulfed in flames. Nearby, people were pointing and yelling. Some had taken out cell phones.
Ruby put Spike down and went back to the front door of the bungalow. “Jody,” she called. “It’s bad, come on, get out.” Ruby was about to open the door and go back in when there was a huge explosion of heat. Ruby took several steps backwards then tripped and fell, landing on her ass. Next thing she knew, she was staring at a smoldering piece of roofing, and Spike was licking her face. All around, people were shouting. The bungalow’s roof had caved in. Ruby felt someone lifting her by the armpits. She was dragged back a few hundred feet, and someone shoved a metal chair under her just before she collapsed. She found she was clutching Spike’s leash, and the dog was there, looking at her, confused.
Within a matter of seconds, fire extinguishers were being pointed at the blaze, but they had no effect.
It seemed like an eternity before two fire trucks and then an ambulance appeared. It was only then that Ruby realized Jody could not have survived.
Ruby vomited.
ANN JULIAN appeared and knelt down in front of Ruby.
“Who can I call for you?” she was asking.
Ruby shook her head. There wasn’t anyone to call.
“Can you get my dog some water?” she heard herself asking.
“Sure,” Ann said. She turned and melted off into the distance.
Other people came forward. Nancy Cooley A female security guard. Then Elliott. His lips were drawn and bluish, and his eyes took up most of his face.
“She wouldn’t come out?”
Ruby kept shaking her head. Elliott receded.
Eventually, someone brought water for both Spike and Ruby. Then a very short cop was asking Ruby if she was hurt.
“No,” Ruby murmured. “I’m fine. When can I leave?”
“Not for a while yet. I’m sorry,” the cop said, “the detectives are going to need to speak with you. We need you to identify a suspect.”
“Suspect?
“Security caught some idiot trying to speed out the stable gate the wrong way. Had accelerant in his car.”
“Oh,” said Ruby.
Spike had crawled under the chair Ruby was sitting on. He’d stretched out and was napping comfortably. Ruby closed her eyes. Maybe she could somehow nap too.
“Ruby.”
She’d actually drifted off for a few seconds, but the sound of that particular voice would have woken her from a coma. It was Ed. She stared at him, unsure if he was really there. “How did you get here?” was all she could think to ask.
“Drove.”
“But how’d you know I was here?”
“Violet called me a couple of hours ago, told me what you were up to, and talked some sense into me. Ruby, I’m sorry. I had a crisis. I’m over it. But I’ve been an idiot.”
“Yes,” Ruby said, “you have.” As Ruby looked up at Ed, Spike scrambled to his feet and started licking Ed’s hand.
“Whose puppy?
“Mine.”
“What?”
“I adopted him last night.”
Ed’s mouth opened half an inch, but he thought better of saying anything. He offered Ruby his hand and pulled her to her feet. As she looked up at him, he put his palms on top of her shoulders. She let him.
“Could we take you over to the security office now to identify a suspect?” A cop had come over.
“I didn’t see anyone, but sure, I’ll look,” Ruby said.
“Apparently you filed a complaint about this individual.”
Ruby was so dazed it took her a few seconds to put two and two together and realize it was her stalker.
She was glad Ed was with her as she walked into the small security office. One of the guards gave Spike a funny look but said nothing.
The black-haired guy she’d seen behind the wheel of the Honda so many times was sitting in a chair with his hands handcuffed behind him.
“Ruby Murphy,” he said, apparently unfazed by the fact that there were cops everywhere. “You don’t remember me, do you?” He stared at her. His eyes w
ere cold blue marbles.
“Am I supposed to?”
“When you fuck up someone’s life, you should remember. Least, that’s the way I see it.”
In one awful moment, Ruby realized who he was.
“Frank,” she said. He had dyed his hair and lost some weight, but it was him. The one-time boyfriend and associate of Ariel DiCello, an unstable woman who had hired Ruby to find out that Frank was not only cheating on her but was a for-hire horse assassin as well. After the whole unpleasant thing had come to a head and the Feds had stepped in, Frank had been convicted of fraud and shipped off to prison. What he was doing out already, Ruby couldn’t imagine. Nor did she understand why he was holding her to blame.
“I’ve been waiting for this.” Frank narrowed his eyes.
“Waiting for what?”
“To get revenge.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Ruby said.
Ed was standing right by Ruby’s side, speechless. Even the cop who’d escorted them over seemed fascinated and was letting Frank babble on.
“That’s not how I see it,” he said. “Now you know what it feels like.”
“What what feels like?”
“To lose everything you value. To live in fear. To have everyone doubt everything you say and do.”
“You sent those pictures to Ed?”
“Sure.” Frank actually smiled.
“And you stole money from the museum?” She asked, keeping an eye on the gun.
“Couldn’t resist.”
“How’d you get in there?”
“Paid my admission like everyone else. You were sitting right there at the register.”
Ruby felt her mouth opening and closing. She’d been doing a lot of that lately.
“You were the guy who told me the trash was on fire?”
“Yes.” Frank smiled even wider, proud of his work.
Ruby remembered wondering about the weird-looking bearded man at the museum a few weeks back. He’d told her the bathroom trash was on fire. She’d gone in to find a cigarette butt smoldering in the wastebasket and had wondered if the guy who’d told her about it had actually been responsible. Then figured that was silly. But Frank had done it. He’d started a fire, drawn her away from the register, and apparently pilfered the large bills Bob kept stashed underneath the cash drawer.
“Why?”