Home Free (8 page)

“I thought you said you were going out with
Murphy tonight. You need to be prepared.”

“I am prepared. I said we had a date. I
didn’t say I was going to bring him home and fuck him till next
Thursday.”

Pauline and I were drinking iced tea in my
living room, our feet up on the coffee table. I finished the cheese
and crackers five minutes before she arrived. She’d stopped by
after work, as promised, to find out why I was looking into calls
made to Danny’s phone numbers. I’d given her the nickel tour of my
new house, and she made a big production of looking for condoms in
my night table. There was one. Only one.

“How long has it been?”

“Well, let’s see...” I thought back.

“Forget it. If you can’t remember, it’s been
too long.” That much I knew.

She opened her purse and dug around, pulling
out a mascara and a stun gun before finding what she was looking
for.

“Here, take these.” She handed me a pack of
five condoms, which I threw on the coffee table.

“Why do you have a stun gun?” I asked.

She shrugged. “You never know. There’s
weirdos out there.”

Uh-hunh.

School was out and Danny worked at the gravel
yard, shoveling gravel all day in the sweltering heat until it was
time for baseball practice or a game. By contrast, I lived the life
of leisure. I worked at the mall, doling out ice cream cones and
banana splits at Baskin Robbins three afternoons a week. But my
primary occupation was working on my tan. I would lie out by the
pool for hours, reading fashion magazines and romance novels, or
sometimes Pauline and I would ride our bikes out to the lake to sun
ourselves and do our part to drive the local boys crazy. The good
life.

Danny would appear out of nowhere when nobody
was home, or else he’d call and invite me over for an iced tea. To
this day, I have a hard time ordering an iced tea in a restaurant,
for fear of what the waiter will do. Danny was still dating Sherry,
and I was still dating Derek, and that was just fine with me. I
felt like I had the best of all possible worlds - a safe,
non-threatening boyfriend who didn’t give my father heart
palpitations, and mind-blowing sex with a guy no one would believe
had ever even noticed me. The only negative was that I couldn’t
talk to anybody about it. Danny had never asked me to keep our
relationship, if that’s what it was, a secret. I was the one who
didn’t want anyone to know. And as much as I wanted to tell Pauline
every sordid detail, somehow I just couldn’t. So I explained my
periodic good moods as a result of lots of fresh air, and let it go
at that.

Pauline and I had gone to watch the baseball
game one night. My mother was proud of how supportive I’d become of
my brother, going to watch most of his games when I’d never cared
about them in the least before. Truthfully, I had no idea what
position Kevin played. The game had ended, and Pauline and I were
heading to the parking lot when one of the umpires stopped us. Boys
were always stopping Pauline. She went into flirt mode, and I stood
around looking goofy, waiting for the exchange of phone numbers so
we could leave. Danny came up behind us, whispered in my ear some
very interesting things he thought he might like to do to me
sometime soon, then walked on past. My face flushed and my knees
got a little wobbly and Pauline ended the conversation with the ump
immediately, squeezing my arm and steering me towards the car.

“Did Danny Salazar just hit on you? Oh my
god! What did he say?” I could see her mind racing. This would be
big news, if it were true.

“Why would Danny Salazar hit on me? Am I
blonde? Do I giggle uncontrollably? Is half my body weight in my
chest?”

Pauline nodded. “You’re right. Jeez, for a
minute there, I almost thought that disgusting display at the
kissing booth was for real.”

“Honestly, Alex, I know you’re going through
a dry spell, and fantasies are good and all, but couldn’t you come
up with something a little more believable? I mean, you and Danny
Salazar?
Please
.”

“It’s true. You almost figured it out
once.”

Pauline scoffed.

“Look, I’m telling you the truth, and you’re
just going to have to believe me, whether you want to or not.”

“Not a chance. I want proof.”

“Well, you could call and ask him. Or you
could ask Kevin, I guess.”

“Kevin knows? How come he didn’t tell your
parents?”

“He figured it out, but that was right before
Danny left for college, so I guess he thought there was no sense in
ratting me out at that point.” I omitted the part about how Kevin
had figured it out, because it was sort of gross and
embarrassing.

“I thought I was your best friend,” Pauline
whined, looking hurt, “how could you not tell me?”

“I don’t know. I just didn’t want anyone to
know. I mean, it was like a dream, you know? The kind you don’t
want to wake up from, and I was afraid if I told anybody, they’d
point out that I was just hallucinating and Danny wasn’t real. Or
at least, Danny and
I
weren’t real. Let’s face it, I’m not
exactly his type.” As she’d so kindly pointed out not more than
five minutes ago.

“Well, you still should have told me. I guess
I can understand it, though. I mean, shit, Danny Salazar? Your
father would have flipped. I guess the only thing worse would have
been Junior. Course, he was in jail already. Hunh.”

“You’re not mad, are you?”

“I should be, but I’ve decided to let you off
the hook,” she replied, serious, “on one condition.”

“What?”

She leaned forward, eyes huge. “How was
he?”

I groaned. “Jesus, Pauline, I can still have
an orgasm just thinking about him.”

She considered that, then nodded. “Well,
sure, but you have no frame of reference. I mean, you’ve been
married to Max for five years.” She stared at me a second, her eyes
narrowing to little slits. “You’re not thinking about Danny right
now, are you?”

I was, but not in an orgasmy way. I shook my
head no.

“Thank goodness.” She gave a shiver. “Okay,
fine, you’re off the hook. Now tell me what’s going on with him and
your brother, and why you want to know who’s calling him on
Saturday nights.”

I gave her the run-down on what I knew about
what had happened at the body shop. I left out the information I’d
gotten from Jimmy C, since I’d promised him I wouldn’t say
anything, and since it didn’t amount to anything more than
speculation about Junior anyway.

“How’s your brother holding up?”

As if on cue, my brother unlocked the front
door and walked in, his motorcycle helmet under one arm. I had
given him a key so he could water the plants and stuff if I was
ever out of town. Right now, it looked very much to me like I was
home and could water my own damn plants, if I had gotten around to
getting any. He looked at me and grunted. Then he looked at Pauline
and dropped the caveman routine.

“Hey Pauline, how’s it going?”

“Fine. Jeez, Kevin, I’m really sorry about
everything. Are you okay?”

He shrugged. Then he glanced at me and made
the
go away
face. I stuck my tongue out at him. For
crissake, it was my house, and I guessed I could sit in my own
living room if I wanted to. Just then the door opened again and
Jack Murphy walked in. I grabbed the condoms off the coffee table
and stuffed them in my jeans.

“Jesus, haven’t either of you heard of
knocking?”

They looked at me like I had PMS. I needed to
change for my date with Jack, so I hauled Pauline up and herded her
to my room. I heard the guys rummaging for beers, I figured, in the
refrigerator. I peeled off my jeans and threw the condoms in the
drawer. I pulled on a skirt that I thought I could climb into the
truck in without being arrested for indecent exposure, and a pink
t-shirt that said
rock star
in little bitty rhinestones. I
tried on some pink sandals, but it looked too matchy, and Pauline
wrinkled her nose by way of a veto. I kicked the sandals into the
closet and slid my feet into a pair of black platform
flip-flops.

“Better?”

Pauline nodded. “Is your brother seeing
someone?” she asked. She was looking in my mirror, fluffing up her
curly blond mane and wiping away imaginary blemishes from her
cheeks. We’d spent equal amounts of time in the sun throughout the
years, but where I was getting a couple of lines around my eyes,
she still had smooth, flawless skin. Bitch.

I shrugged. I doubted it. Kevin’s track
record wasn’t too great. He usually dated someone once or twice and
then they moved on. He wasn’t a good catch. He was good looking,
about five feet, ten inches tall and well-built in a brother kind
of way, with dark hair and blue eyes like my mom’s. And he was
basically a good guy, just not that motivated. He still worked at
the motorcycle shop as a mechanic, and he seemed content to do that
forever. It paid his bills, but I doubted it would pay for
two-point-one children and a mortgage, a couple of cars and
college, and I was pretty sure most women his age were starting to
look for that.

“You mind if I ask him out?”

“Go right ahead. If he brings you back here,
though, I’ll kill you both.”

She made a face, opened the drawer of my
night table and took back all but all but two of the condoms. “I
might need these tonight after all.”

Eew.

We got a booth at Main Street Pizza, Jack
sitting so he could see the baseball game on the big screen TV
behind me, which didn’t strike me as a great start to a date but I
was admittedly a little out of practice, so I wasn’t exactly sure.
I had a clear view of the door, so I saw Danny Salazar the minute
he walked in.

Unfortunately, he also saw me. And Jack.
Across the restaurant, I could see his face go dark, and he turned
to the counter to place his to-go order, then sat on the bench to
wait for his pizza. I kicked Jack under the table with my platform
sandal to get his attention and told him I’d be back. He
nodded.

I plunked myself down on the bench next to
Danny. No one else was waiting for an order. He took in my little
skirt and rock star t-shirt.

“Go back to your contractor, Lex.” He was in
a bad mood.

“No. I mean, I will, but first I want to ask
you something.” He didn’t jump up and run away, so I went on. “Do
you think your brother could kill somebody and set you up to take
the blame?”

He hesitated and then shook his head no. But
I could see the thought had crossed his mind. “No, Mikey wouldn’t
do that to me. I know what it looks like, with him wanting the body
shop land and all, but it has to be something else.” He was trying
as hard to convince himself as he was to convince me, I thought.
“Why do you ask?”

I shrugged. “It seems the cops have no
theories, other than you and Kevin are as stupid as the Thompson
boys, and you were acting on behalf of your brother. But there were
no gummy bears at the body shop, and since it seems unlikely that
anyone is as stupid as Mo and Mark Thompson, I figure there’s got
to be another explanation. One that leaps to mind is that Junior
did it and is letting you and my brother take the fall.”

“Gummy bears?” He shook his head, confused,
then let it drop. “Even if Mikey did kill the guy and set the fire,
which I don’t believe, what possible reason would he have for
screwing me over like that?”

“He could resent you, I guess. Maybe he’s
jealous of all that you’ve been able to do while he was sitting in
a jail cell, killing time, even though you had nothing to do with
him being there. I guess prison can do strange things to
people.”

“We’ve always gotten along pretty well. I
never get the sense he blames anyone besides himself for the way
his life has gone so far. And he’s been a model citizen since he
got out.” He shook his head. “But he used to get mad at the
attention I got when we were kids. People let me get away with
things, and they didn’t hold it against me that my dad was Mike
Salazar, at least not too much. But Mikey never got any special
treatment because people weren’t counting on him to help bring home
another friggin’ baseball trophy. In fact, people always expected
the worst of Mikey, and after awhile, I guess it was just easier to
give ’em what they wanted.”

“I thought he goes by Junior now.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, but the family still
calls him Mikey. Hard to switch, I guess.”

He hadn’t removed his sunglasses when he came
inside, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but it was obvious in the way
he slumped on the bench that he was exhausted. I let the topic of
his brother drop.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m suspended, pending the investigation.
The cops don’t seem to be looking for anyone else, as you pointed
out, except possibly my brother, which only makes them like me even
more, at least for the fire. Your brother might go to jail because
he was stupid enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time,
thanks to me.” He looked across the restaurant at Jack, then back
to me and started to say something else, but evidently thought
better of it and shook his head. “I guess that about sums it
up.”

“How can they suspend you? You haven’t even
been arrested.”

“The fire department takes a decidedly dim
view of its employees
setting
fires. The suspension is with
pay at this point. If they arrest me, it won’t be.” He paused,
looking at my shoes. “Sexy.” That didn’t mean much. Danny thought
salad was sexy.

“Is there anything I can do?” Run away with
you to Mexico? Fix you a sandwich? Make love to you here on this
bench? I was open to suggestions.

He sighed. “Can you turn back the clock? To
before the phone call Saturday night, so I could tell the guy I
couldn’t come over to his office to put my fingerprints all over
the light switches and implicate myself in a murder I had nothing
to do with?”