Bloodline

He looked at her. “Patient? What’s patient got to do with it?”

  “Everything. It’s not one of your strong points. Just…thanks for putting up with me.”

  As she hurried Vicky downstairs, Jack remained on the bed, staring out Vicky’s window at the still-bare trees and feeling low. Worse than low. Like a rat. And a cowardly one at that.

  Patient? Of course he was patient. He would be patient with her under any circumstance. And considering how he was the cause of all the trauma that had befallen her and Vicky, how else could he be?

  But she didn’t know that. Because he hadn’t told her. Yet.

  Gia, the accident that killed our baby, that almost killed you and your daughter, that left the two of you with broken bodies and battered brains, was no accident.

  When would be a good time to say that? When would it be okay to tell her it had happened because he cared for them, because they mattered to him, because the baby carried his bloodline?

  Would there ever be a right time?

  “Dollar for your thoughts?”

  Jack jumped. “Hey.”

  Gia looked down at him. “You seemed a million miles away.”

  “Just thinking.”

  Her eyes bore into his. “Didn’t look like happy thoughts.”

  He shrugged. “They weren’t. Can you think of much to be happy about?”

  She smiled. “I’m alive, Vicky’s alive, and it’s been great having you stay with us. So look on the bright side.”

  Yeah. The bright side: moving in here to take care of them after they were released from rehab. Not easy, but maybe the most rewarding thing he’d ever done.

  She kissed the top of his head. “Okay, we’re heading for the bus stop, then I’m off to OT.”

  “Want me to drive you?”

  She shook her head. “A cab’ll have me there by the time you degarage the car. See you for lunch?”

  “It’s a date.”

  “Got anything planned for the morning?”

  “Probably hang with Abe.”

  She looked down at him. “No business?”

  “No business.”

  “What about that lady who wants help for her daughter?”

  “Hmm? Where?”

  “I just saw it on the screen downstairs. She sounds worried.”

  Jack shrugged. “I’m on hiatus.”

  “You’re bored is what you are. You’ve made our troubles your troubles, but we’re coming out of those troubles. You need a break.”

  Couldn’t argue with that. The less and less Gia and Vicky needed him, the more restless he’d become.

  Gia squeezed his shoulder. “Why don’t you see what she wants.”

  He looked up at her. “I believe I’m having an out-of-Gia experience.”

  She laughed—a sound he didn’t hear nearly enough these days.

  “Seriously,” he said. “This doesn’t sound like you.”

  “Maybe it’s a new me. I know spending all your time hanging around here or at Abe’s isn’t you. I know who you are. I thought I could change you but I realize I can’t. I’m no longer sure I want to. You are who you are and I love who you are, so why don’t you go out and be who you are?”

  Jack stared at her. She meant it—she really meant it. A crack about the lingering effects of brain trauma leaped to mind but he quashed it. Not funny.

  “Maybe I’m not so sure who I am anymore.”

  “You know. It’s in your blood. See what the lady wants.”

  “Doesn’t sound like my kind of thing.”

  “Maybe not, but it’s her daughter.”

  The last word hung in the air.

  Daughter…like Vicky was to him, emotionally if not legally…like Emma would have been if not for…

  He remembered the message: I need to keep my daughter from making a terrible mistake.

  Like what? Getting involved with a guy like me?

  No…he wasn’t going there again. He’d been there too many times.

  “Maybe I’m not on hiatus. Maybe I’m retired.”

  A wry smile: “Then why are you checking the Web site? As a matter of fact, if you’re retired, why keep it up and running at all?”

  “Maybe I just haven’t got around to shutting it down.”

  “And maybe you need a diversion, Jack. Go on, give her a call. If it’s not in your ballpark, simply beg off.” She kissed him and headed for the door. “Gotta run. Think about it.”

  He sat a moment longer. When he heard the front door close he forced himself to his feet. Lots of inertia lately. Too long since he’d awakened with his own agenda for the day.

  He ambled downstairs and into the study where he stood and stared at the screen.

  Someone said you might be able to help me…

  She’d included her phone number.

  What mistake do you think your daughter’s going to make, lady? And why do you think a stranger will be able to do anything about it?

  Okay. He’d bite. Couldn’t see any down side to giving her a call.

  3

  “Nu?” Abe said as Jack approached his perch at the back of the store carrying a paper bag. “Two days in a row—what’s the occasion?”

  A lot had changed in Jack’s life since January, but not Abe’s place. The Isher Sports Shop—with its high shelves precariously jammed with dusty sporting goods that no one ever saw, let alone bought, the scarred counter at the rear, the four-legged stool where the proprietor perched in his food-stained white half-sleeve shirt and shiny black pants—remained a constant star in his firmament.

  “Nowhere else to go.”

  “And on me you chose to bestow your presence.”

  “I figured you’d be lonely.”

  “So this is charity?”

  “It is.” He emptied the bag onto the counter. “And so’s this.”

  Abe picked up the package of bagels and stared. His raised eyebrows furrowed his largely naked scalp—his hairline had started retreating with the glaciers.

  “What’s this? Low-cal bagels you bring me? What’s a low-cal bagel? And whipped low-fat cream cheese? Why do you torture me?”

  Jack ignored the question because Abe already knew the answer: His ever-expanding waistline concerned Jack. Not for aesthetic reasons—a skinny Abe would be a frightening sight—but he worried it would shorten his best friend’s life.

  “Have you weighed yourself recently?”

  “I was on the scale just yesterday.”

  “And? What did it say?”

  “I couldn’t see it. My belly was in the way. They should design these things so people like me can read them.”

  “Come on, Abe. If it could speak it would have screamed in pain.”

  Abe sighed. “I did see the number. Very high.”

  “As much as one of the moons of Jupiter, I’ll bet.”

  “When I read it, I had to face an inescapable fact.”

  “That you need to diet, right?”

  “No. That I need a new scale. My old one is obviously broken.”

  Jack closed his eyes and shook his head. “You sucked me right into that one, didn’t you.”

  “What can I say? I’m shameless.”

  “Why do I even try? Next time I’ll stop at Muller’s on the way.”

  Abe grinned. “An elephant ear you’ll bring me, right?”

  “Right. Maybe we’re due for some comfort food.”

  “‘We’?”

  “Had that dream again last night.”

  “Oh.” Abe opened the bagel package, adding, “It could be maybe you’ll keep on having it until you tell her.”

  That startled Jack. Could it be? No…

  “Doesn’t explain the watcher and how he seems to trigger the dream. But I fully intend to tell her the whole story. I just need the right moment, the right circumstance.”

  He’d been searching for that moment and circumstance for months now. Was it simply cowardice?

  “You’re afraid of her reaction?”

  “You
think I should be?”

  “I don’t know. A terrible thing was done to her—to both of you, and Vicky as well. You’re not to blame, but…”

  Yeah…but. His only blame was loving her, but would she see it that way?

  “She’s lost her baby and almost robbed of her livelihood. She’s having a hard enough time accepting those losses—and that’s while believing herself the victim of a terrible accident. So how the hell is she going to handle knowing….?”

  Abe stared at him. “The truth?”

  “Yeah. The truth: That the hit-and-run was intentional, and not simply to hurt her, but to kill her and the baby simply because of their connection to me, because they mean something to me.” Something, hell—everything. “What’s that going to accomplish besides causing more pain, and more fear?”

  “If truth she wants, truth she should have. The longer you wait, the harder it will be when this right moment you mention comes—if it ever does. Maybe it’s come and gone already.”

  Maybe it had.

  “She’s improving, getting closer and closer to where she’ll be able to paint and illustrate again. Once she can do that she’ll feel she’s able to exert a little more control over her life.”

  “Why? She should be different from everybody else?”

  “I hear that.”

  Jack polished off his bagel and grabbed Abe’s copy of the Post. He flipped through it in silence while Abe studied Newsday.

  “Here’s something,” Abe said. “A fellow named Walter Erskine died in Monroe Hospital the other night.”

  Jack frowned. “So?”

  “Says he’s survived by his sister, Evelyn Bainbridge, of Johnson, New Jersey. Your hometown already.”

  It hit with a flash. “Crazy Walt! He lasted this long? I thought he would’ve boozed himself to death long before now.” He shook his head. “Harmless guy, but nutty as a Payday.”

  “Says he’s going to be buried in Arlington.”

  “Yeah, he was a vet. Medic in Nam, if I remember.”

  Too bad. He had fond memories of Crazy Walt, and unaccountably warm feelings for him…a vague recollection of Walt saving his life as a kid. Or maybe not. Kind of a blur. So many things from back then were blurred.

  Rest in peace, Walt. You sure didn’t have much when you were alive.

  After a while Abe said, “Oh, I got a call last night from Doc Buhmann.”

  “Who?”

  The name rang a bell but Jack couldn’t place it.

  “My old professor. I sent you to him when that Lilitongue thing was causing all that trouble.”

  “Right, right. The guy from the museum.”

  Peter Buhmann, Ph.D., associate conservator of languages in the division of anthropology at the Museum of Natural History, professor emeritus at the Columbia University Department of Archaeology. Blah-blah-blah. They’d met only once, briefly, at his office in the museum.

  “How’s he doing?”

  “Well enough. Getting ready to retire to Florida come the end of the year. He was asking about you.”

  “Me? Why?”

  “Since he met you he can’t stop thinking about the Compendium of Srem.”

  “Oh?” Jack felt a prickle of unease across his nape. “Why is that?”

  “Something about you intrigued him, he says. A scholar you weren’t, yet you were asking about legends only scholars—and damn few of them—have even heard of.”

  “I guess I neglected to mention that my interest was personal and my knowledge firsthand.”

  “Yeah, but he sensed something, a feeling that you were speaking from experience. He wants to know if you ever found the Lilitongue or the Compendium.”

  Jack knew Abe was the soul of discretion, but Buhmann was one of his revered professors from college. He might have said more than he should have.

  “What did you tell him?”

  Abe shrugged. “What else? I said I’d ask.”

  Jack’s small lift of relief annoyed him. Should have known better. But the last thing he needed was a bunch of academics sniffing around, looking for him and whatever he might have found.

  “Tell him I’ve got zorch.”

  “Lie to that old man? He hasn’t got long to live, you know.”

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “I should ask? But he told me he didn’t have too long left, and how he’d go to his grave happy if he could see the Lilitongue of Gefreda or the Compendium of Srem before he died.”

  “Well, I can’t help him with the Lilitongue—no one can—and as for the Compendium…” Jack shook his head. “Probably best if I keep that under wraps.”

  “From an old and fading man you’re hiding it? Isn’t he the one who put you on to the Compendium? As I recall, if you hadn’t found it, you never would have known how to—”

  Jack held up his hand. “Point taken.” He scratched his jaw. “You think he can keep his mouth shut?”

  “Like a clam, he’ll be. Like a stone. He just wants to see it, touch it maybe. This is for him, not for posterity.”

  Jack considered. He did owe the old man…

  “All right then. Maybe I’ll drop in on him this afternoon and let him have a peek.”

  Abe clapped his pudgy hands and grinned.

  “Excellent. This is a mitzvah you do. You won’t regret it.”

  Jack hated when people said that.

  4

  Jack stepped into his apartment and sniffed. The air carried a musty tang. Not all that unusual after being closed up for a while. The old wood and old varnish on his Victorian wavy oak furniture gave off subtle but pleasant odors. The must came from the other junk arrayed on the walls—treasure in his eyes, though most other people would consider it junk. Or maybe junque.

  He jammed his finger into the soil in the pink Shmoo planter as he passed. Nothing stuck. The little ivy plant was thirsty. Had to remember to add water before he left. He glanced at the framed official membership certificates in The Shadow and Doc Savage fan clubs and straightened the Don Winslow Creed on his way to the oak secretary.

  Once there, he angled it out from the wall and removed its rear panel. An array of pistols adorned the top, side, and rear walls of the hidden space within. A rolled-up ten-by-twelve-inch flap of skin lay to the left, next to the Compendium of Srem. A Ruger SuperRedhawk chambered for .454 Casulls rested atop that.

  Jack slipped the book free. Big and heavy, its covers and spine made of some sort of stamped metal.

  With the secretary closed and returned to its original position, he placed the Compendium on the paw-foot oak table but did not open it. Something about the way the characters blurred and swam for an instant whenever he peeked inside made him queasy.

  Instead he pulled his Tracfone from a pocket along with a slip of paper. He dialed the number Christy P. had left. She picked up on the third ring.

  “Yes?”

  “Christy? This is Jack. You left this number on my Web site.”

  A pause, then, “Oh, yes. Repairman Jack.” Her tone was hesitant. “Interesting name. Did your mother pick it?”

  “No, and neither did I. But it gets the job done. You mentioned something about your daughter and a mistake?”

  “I think I’m having second thoughts about hiring someone for this via the Internet.”

  Smart lady.

  “Consider having third and fourth thoughts while you’re at it. But my site isn’t the sort people find by accident. Someone must have sent you. Who?”

  “Jeff Levinson. You know the name?”

  “I do.”

  Jack had hired on a few years ago to take care of a recurrent swastika problem at Jeff’s delicatessen.

  “He speaks very highly of you. But still…”

  “Your call, lady.”

  “I don’t know…”

  He could almost hear her chewing her lip.

  “Maybe I can help you make up your mind if you tell me what you need done.”

  “How’s that going to work?”

/>   “Because maybe I’m not interested.”

  A brief pause. “Interesting tactic, playing hard to get.”

  “Not a tactic. I am hard to get.”

  Especially these days.

  “I like that. I suppose we should meet then. I want someplace public because—”

  “You haven’t told me yet what you need done.”

  “So you’re really serious about that.”

  “Some fixes I can do, some I can’t. No sense in both of us wasting our time.”

  Even this phone call was beginning to sound like a waste of time.

  She sighed. “Okay. She’s involved with an older man.”

  Hoo-boy. Jack glanced at his watch. How much time had he just wasted?

  “So?”

  “He’s old enough to be her father.”

  “So?”

  “Can you say something else?”

  “I’m waiting to hear something I can do something about. Affairs of the heart do not fall into that category.”

  “Dawn’s eighteen and he’s in his mid-thirties. Twice her age.”

  Jack’s age.

  He tried to imagine a relationship with an eighteen-year-old. What the hell would they talk about? What could he have in common with someone who hadn’t finished her second decade, who was basically a high school kid? Sure, fantasy cheerleader sex and all that, but you needed something more to fill the down time.

  Or did you?

  He guessed coming so close to being a father—of a daughter, no less—could be affecting his perspective.

  “I don’t see how hiring me is going to help, Christy. What are you looking for? Someone to break his legs? Shoot him? That’s not the way I work.”

  At least not unless someone really had it coming.

  “No, nothing like that! I want to get something on him. Something that’ll let my little girl see him for what he really is.”

  “You already know what he really is?”

  “Well…no. But there’s got to be something. There’s always something, right? Besides, I get a bad vibe from this guy.”

  Time to end this.

  “I suppose. But what you need is a private investigator. Someone who can—”

  “I’ve already been that route.”

  “And?”

  “Long story. Look, Jeff said you were tops—pricey, but tops—and just the guy I need. Can’t we just sit down and talk over the details? I probably shouldn’t say this, but money isn’t an object. I’ve got money. It’s results I want.”