1 Margarita Nights (25 page)

“It’s Sherri . . . it’s Sherri.” He turned away.

My heart was going like a pile driver. I swung off the bed, eyes fixed on Andy, ready for any sudden moves on his part as I edged towards the door, my bag clutched to my chest. “Can’t sleep anymore.” I dug the room key out of the pocket of my jeans and put it on the table by the door. “I’ll be back,” I promised, not knowing if it was true. “Stay here, Andy.” His eyes never left the silent television.

A maid, dressed in jeans and a tee advertising Spanky’s bar, was using her key to open the door of a service cupboard to start her rounds. What would Andy do if she knocked on the door or, heaven forbid, if she used a passkey to enter?

“Just skip number twenty-one today, okay? My friend is ill.”

“Sure, honey,” she said.

At my apartment a white card was stuck in the edge of the door, a calling card from Detective Styles. He must have come for me at the crack of dawn. If he had intended to arrest me would he leave a card? I looked over my shoulder for the patrol car waiting to pick me up. Nothing. I turned over the card. He’d written, “My office—ten o’clock.”

Yeah, right. Talking to Styles only made my situation worse. I flipped it onto my pile of mail. If Styles wanted me, he’d have to come and get me. I wasn’t going near him voluntarily. I headed for the shower, Ruth Ann’s daughter to the end. Ruth Ann thought being clean would make any situation better and as I stood toweling off my hair I decided that in this small thing, she was right. In nearly fifty years of living and trying, she was bound to get one thing right even by blind luck.

I called Marley.

“I haven’t been able to talk to the doctor,” she told me.

“The first time I got the answering service and then I got his nurse. She won’t even acknowledge that Andy is a patient of Dr. Steadman’s and she says the doctor won’t talk to me.”

“At least they know there’s a problem. I’m going to try calling him.”

“Watch your tongue, Sherri.”

“In case I annoy him?”

“I know your temper.”

“If he’s not going to help with you being polite then my being nasty won’t make the situation worse.”

“Just try the sugar before you pour acid on him.”

“If I ever get near him.”

“Call me when you can. Oh, I forgot, you’re the one that doesn’t have a cell phone. Why don’t you stop by and pick up mine?”

“Now there’s a good idea. For the first time in my life I actually want one.”

“I have a patient waiting for me. Come by and pick this up, I’ll leave it at the desk, and if you need support tonight I’m there, although to tell you the truth this situation scares the hell out of me.”

“Me too.” I was with him less than twenty-four hours but even that had been too much. I wasn’t sure I could face him again but did I have any other choice? I remembered something else. “I picked up some tapes from Andy’s. If I drop them off at the desk, will you go through them tonight and see if there’s anything on them about Jimmy?”

“Sure,” agreed Marley. “Anything else?”

“Since you asked, how’s your love life?”

“Better than yours.”

“Oh god, I’m not going to end up in something disgusting in pink satin, am I?”

“Never! I’m thinking blue,” she said and hung up.

I dialed Peter’s number. “I hate to ask you this but can we have a couple more nights? I’ll pay. Well, eventually I’ll pay. I just can’t pay you right now.”

“Take what you need, Sherri.” He didn’t even offer to take it out in trade. “Thanks, Peter.”

I left a message with Dr. Steadman’s nurse. “Andy is at the Pelican Motel, right next to the Kit Kat Klub on Tamiami Trail. Unit twenty-one. Would you ask the doctor to come by please? Andy’s in real bad shape. I’m afraid he might become violent.” Even saying it felt like a betrayal. If all else failed, was I willing to say Andy had attacked me to get him committed? It was an idea I was toying with. Betraying a friend to save my own ass didn’t sit well with me, but what was a stay in a mental ward compared to death by electric chair?

“I’ll pass on your message,” the nurse told me. It sounded like it hurt her to say it, but then this was probably more than she should be saying—admitting that Andy was a patient— and breaking some kind of medical oath. Being mean-spirited, I wasn’t real grateful for this small favor.

I went to pick up the damn cell phone.

Dr. Zampa was handing a file to the receptionist. He frowned.

“Hi, Sherri,” Carla said and reached under the counter for the cell phone. “Marley’s with a patient.”

“We should talk,” Dr. Zampa said and marched away. I guessed he expected me to follow.

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” he said as he closed the door behind me.

His office was small and he was between me and the exit. I told myself not to annoy him. “What idea would that be?”

“I didn’t have anything to do with Jimmy’s death.”

“Tell it to the police.”

“There’s a cop that plays golf out at Windimere. He told Rollins, who spread it around, that Jimmy’s death was no accident.”

He waited for me to confirm it. I waited for him to get to the point.

He sighed heavily. “Look, Jimmy and my wife were friends. That’s all. I didn’t like you coming around the house and suggesting anything more. I didn’t like you upsetting my wife.” “How did you like Jimmy buying into Windimere?” His jaw tightened.

“How much was it going to cost him to get a piece of it?” His lips thinned.

“Maybe I should tell the cops just how upset you were about Jimmy and your wife.”

“Don’t threaten me.”

“How much?”

“Jimmy was going to put up three-quarters of a million. We all had to give up some of our shares so he could buy in.” “Why? Why was everyone willing to let Jimmy buy in?”

“Because we’re bleeding to death out there. We need money to stay afloat until we can start building houses.”

“Where was Jimmy getting that kind of money?”

“He said he was in a land deal. The money would be available within three months.”

Harry’s Diner was just across the road from Dr. Zampa’s office.

A bonus. I went for coffee and stepped through the door as Harry was yelling through the passway at Val, “Fill those sugar containers.” He started to turn away as she sauntered towards me, ignoring him. “And come and get this box of napkins.”

She rolled her eyes to heaven. “Maybe I should just shove a broom up my ass and sweep the floor while I’m at it.”

“I heard that,” Harry yelled.

Not only was this the best java in town, it also had the best comedy act.

A handsome gray-haired man came up beside me as Val handed me the takeout. “Hi, Sherri,” he said. Blank.

“I’m Hayward Lynch. Clay introduced us at the Sunset.”

“Oh, yes. Sorry about that. I’m normally real good with names and faces but my brain is on holiday at the moment.”

“A beautiful woman doesn’t remember me.” He placed his hand over his heart, “I’m shattered.” He smiled to show he’d survive.

“Do all Clay’s friends hang out here?”

“They do if they want to have lunch with Clay.”

“Are you in real estate too?”

“Gridiron Developments. Have you heard of it?” There was something in his eyes, swift and fleeting, like the shadow of clouds skimming across water on a windy day. I was conscious of how closely he watched me. It must be important to his ego that I recognize the name. “Yes, of course,” I lied.

I was tempted to wait for Clay but it wasn’t the time or place for a warm reunion. “Look, I’ve got to run. Andy is waiting. Say hi to Clay for me.”

I was nearly back to the motel when the penny dropped. Gridiron Developments owned the property behind the box stores—the company that didn’t like eagles getting in their way.

I got my courage back, well most of it anyway, telling myself it was just the sudden waking up and finding Andy looming over me that freaked me out. Embarrassed now by my reaction, I was determined to banish my doubts, telling myself over and over, “Andy would never hurt you.” With the “be nice” voice of civilization screaming down the voice of self-preservation, I headed back over the bridge to the mainland.

I called Ruth Ann while I waited in the takeout line at the Chicken Roast. “Where’ve you been, honey? I’ve tried and tried to get you.”

“I know, Mom, I’ve just been busy with things.”

“Oh my, this has hit you hard, hasn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You called me Mom. That means you’re really upset. Do you want to come home for a bit?”

I started to laugh. “No, Mom. At the moment I’m spending my time with Andy. He’s going through a bad patch.”

“Oh, Sherri, darling, I don’t like that. That boy just isn’t right in the head. He’s liable to do any crazy thing.”

“He wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Now you don’t know that. It isn’t safe.” She’d once seen Andy in full flight and she’d never quite forgotten the sight. I think her Baptist background whispered of demon possession and she more than half believed those old superstitions. “There’s no telling what he might do.”

Frayed nerves hyped my uncertain temper. “Yeah, just like there’s no telling what a drunk might do. But that never stopped you from bringing them home and holding on, did it?”

There was silence at the other end.

“Sorry,” I said. “I haven’t been sleeping too well. That was out of line.”

“That’s okay, dear.” Her voice was a soft whisper that hurt more than a curse.

I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t okay for people to dump on her, me included. But I already had enough problems I couldn’t solve without trying to correct Ruth Ann’s character flaws. She’d spent her life being a doormat, stepped on and beat on—she wasn’t going to change now. Besides, the woman truly believed that there was goodness in everyone and it only took enough love from her to bring it out. It was only Andy that Ruth Ann was unwilling to cut some slack.

“Look, Mom, I’m in a checkout line. I have to go. I just wanted you to know that there’s a memorial service for Jimmy on Thursday morning.”

“I’ll pick you up.” Her tone of voice said there was no dissuading her without turning really nasty. I stilled the sharp words that sat on my tongue waiting to jump out and bite her.

I told her the details and added, “I don’t know if I’m going.”

“You have to go. You’re still his wife.”

“The clerk has almost finished running through my groceries. I’ll call you and let you know what I’m going to do. Bye.” I hit the End button. With footwork like mine I should have tried out for football, not cheerleading.

Someone had taken my parking place in front of unit twenty-one so I parked across the lot and stared at the door, trying to decide what was waiting for me. There was no way of knowing, but a crab of anxiety was clawing at my insides. Andy’s bizarre behavior was threatening at the best of times and today wasn’t anywhere near that. Normal had disappeared with the
Suncoaster
, leaving me swimming in peril, real or imagined, jumpy and ready to overreact.