Love Always (14 page)

“You all right?” Brown said.

The wheels on the passenger’s side were clearly sunk in mud. Pasani’s arm that he had used to brace himself throbbed.

“Yeah,” he said.

The back door of the big car flew open, and a girl jumped out. She looked terrified. Pasani was going to leave it to Brown to discuss it with her. Brown actually looked nervous. He got out of the car.

“Hello,” Brown said, walking forward. There was movement in the back of the car. Brown froze, then put his hand on his holster. There was a minute in which both he and the girl stood there. The girl was holding … Pasani couldn’t see through all the branches crisscrossing the windshield. He bumped into Brown’s seat and stepped out the door.

“Hold it,” Brown said, walking forward.

It was a camera she was holding.

Pasani could hardly believe his eyes. The man was naked, trying to pull on his pants. The girl—she was only a girl—was crying.

“Get out of the car,” Brown said. “What’s going on?”

The man started to get out. He had his hands in the air, as though Brown had told him to do that.

“What in the hell is this?” Brown said, turning to face Pasani.

“We’re taking pictures. We’re not doing anything,” the girl said. “You can search the car and everything. We’re not doing anything wrong.”

“Pictures?” Brown said. He saw a bear head and jumped back. It was a rug. The man had put the wrong leg in his pants and had to step out and try again. While he was doing this, the girl put her hands over her face and started to cry. Pasani’s heart sank. His fingers hesitated on his holster. This was serious, whatever it was. Nothing could be worse, when he was with Brown, than having something happen that Brown hadn’t seen on TV.

I
T
was late at night on Monday when Lucy got home and got the call from the police station. The first thing she did when they hung up was to try to call Hildon; as she feared, Maureen answered the phone. “Lucy,” Maureen said, “I must tell you that you have disturbed my sleep. This is not a proper time to make a phone call, and I am within my rights to hang up.” She hung up before Lucy could say anything.

Lucy cursed and reached for her car keys. They were not on the table. Of all times to lose her car keys. She took a deep breath and tried to remember where she had put them. As she was moving piles of magazines on the table, the idea hit her that she could get someone else to call Hildon. She called Noonan and woke him up. “This is important,” Lucy said. “I can’t explain right now. Do me a favor: call Hildon and have him call me. Will you?”

“Why can’t you do it?” Noonan said.

“I just can’t. I’m sorry to bother you, but this is very important.”

“Hang up,” Noonan said.

She put the phone down and waited. It hit her for the first time that it might be wise to call a lawyer. She sat on the sofa, still without the keys, and wondered who knew a lawyer that she could call. A bee buzzed up and down the window glass. Looking at the bee, she saw the keys, partly hidden beside the television. She snatched them up. Her hand was trembling. She pounced on the phone when it rang.

“What’s the game?” Noonan said.

“What game?”

“I called Hildon’s, and Maureen answered, and she had a little speech about the polite hours to place phone calls.”

“She wouldn’t put Hildon on?”

“No.”

“Shit. She did the same thing to me. That’s why I had you call.”

“Is everything all right?” Noonan said.

“I’ve got to get Hildon,” Lucy said.

“Call her back and yell if it’s important.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I don’t understand anything about the way heterosexuals relate to one another,” Noonan said. “I never have and I never will.”

“Listen,” Lucy said. “Can I come over and pick you up? I’ve got to go to the police station and I’m afraid to go alone.”

“What is it?” Noonan said, his voice changing entirely.

“According to Nicole, it’s nothing. It’s—it seems awful. I can’t keep talking. She’s waiting for me.”

“I was asleep,” Noonan said. “I took a sleeping pill.”

“You’re awake now, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Noonan said.

“I’m coming over,” Lucy said. “This is important. Jesus—this had better be as easy to explain as Nicole said. She was off parking with Edward, apparently. You don’t think it was anything other than that, do you?”

“Don’t ask me,” Noonan said. “She’s not exactly naïve.”

“Don’t say that,” Lucy said.

“The irony is, I stole these pills from Hildon and Maureen’s medicine cabinet,” Noonan said.

“Should I call a lawyer?” Lucy said. “Why can’t I ever think what to do?”

“Don’t call a lawyer. Let’s go down there and check it out.”

“Okay. Get dressed. I’ll be right over.”

“You already said that. Hang up,” Noonan said.

“Oh God, I hope this isn’t something awful. If Jane finds out about this, she’ll kill me. I’m ready to kill Nicole myself.”

“Goodbye,” Noonan said.

“That goddamn California artist manqué,” Lucy said.

“Are we having a general discussion about your feelings, or are you going to come over?”

“If he’s done anything to Nicole, I’m going to make sure he ends up behind bars.”

“What do you think about Mondale having a woman Vice President?” Noonan said.

Lucy hung up. It was cold outside. She started back for her jacket, but suddenly she didn’t think she had a second to spare. Forty-five minutes had elapsed since she got the phone call. She must have been in shock. She would tell the police that she was in shock. No: then maybe they wouldn’t take her seriously. If Edward had done something awful to Nicole, she was going to have him killed. She should have known that grown men don’t pal around that way with fourteen-year-old girls. All the times he said he had been driving her into town, it must have been a lie. All the movies they said they saw … He was a pervert—he got the assignment from the toy company on purpose, and she was too stupid to figure it out. He wasn’t cooling his heels until he found out whether he was going to New York; he was lusting after her niece. None of it made sense, suddenly. She must have been mad to believe it. She couldn’t tell whether she was shivering from fear or from the cold.

She pulled up in front of Noonan’s. The smell of honeysuckle caught in her throat. The wind was blowing through the small willow trees Noonan had bought at the nursery. She pulled into the gravel driveway. Noonan ran out of the house. The second she saw him she wondered why she had stopped. She was picking up a crazy person to take to the police station with her. As he ran, Noonan flapped his arms like a bird. He threw open the car door and thumped onto the seat. He was clutching a washrag, pressed to his forehead. “Hay fever,” he said. “I put so much Afrin down my nose, I should just chew a cherry at the same time and skip the evening drinks.”

“Jesus,” Lucy said, on the verge of tears for the first time, “this is just awful.”

“She’s all right, isn’t she?”

“I talked to her. She seemed to be all right. Why wouldn’t they let her come home? Isn’t this unlawful detention?”

“Bite your tongue when you get there and listen,” Noonan said. “Don’t make them mad.”

“If he’s done anything to her, I’ll kill him.”

“You want me to drive?”

“No thanks.”

“Then please slow down. I feel like we’re coming in for a landing.”

“Do you have a cigarette?” Lucy said.

He reached in his pocket and took out a silver case. He removed a cigarette and handed it to her. He rummaged around in his pocket, then pushed in the car lighter. When it popped, he pulled it out and held it toward her. She ducked her head and lit the cigarette.

“Did you get a discount on the trees?” she said.

“Yes, thank you,” Noonan said. “I did what you said: I found the most attractive boy there, mentioned your name, and he gave me a ten percent discount.”

“If he did anything to her, I’ll kill him.”

“The boy at the nursery?”

“Edward.”

“Oh. Well, I need to ask you something. Do you want me to go ahead and ask, or just let it prey on my mind?”

“I don’t know what you’re going to ask,” Lucy said.

“Something about Hildon.”

They were in front of the police barracks. She was signaling to turn. Cars passed her in slow motion.

“What about him?”

“Have you been having an affair all this time?”

Lucy faltered. Another group of cars approached, and she couldn’t turn. He was squeezing the washcloth over the bridge of his nose. He reached in his pocket, took out the Afrin, and sprayed. He pinched his nostrils closed. “Oh God,” Noonan said, exhaling through his mouth.

“What makes you ask that?” Lucy said.

“Nigel does that all day long,” Noonan said. “If you ask him what time it is, he asks you why you want to know.”

“Why did you ask?” Lucy said.

“I already have my answer,” Noonan said.

Lucy turned off the ignition. The long cigarette ash fell on her leg.

“Yes,” she said. “Don’t tell anybody.”

“I can’t understand why everybody is suddenly so up front with me. Is it because I’m leaving for California?”

“No,” she said. “For some reason, I’ve just started to appreciate you. Why did you ask?”

“After we spoke, I called back. What Maureen did was outrageous. I demanded to speak to Hildon. I said it was an emergency. And do you know what she said? She said, ‘I think it’s quite awful for Lucy Spenser to call in the middle of the night asking for Hildon, just to throw me off, since I obviously think he’s with her. It’s another thing entirely that you’re pimping.’ ”

“She said that?”

“She says outrageous things all the time. At the staff party, she told me that the people who worked with me thought I was murky.”

“I don’t think that,” Lucy said.

“Thank you,” Noonan said.

“I just think that when people express their true feelings, it embarrasses you, and you say things that are crueler than you intend.”

“I don’t intend to say anything cruel to you,” Noonan said. “You’ve always been a real friend.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said, reaching across and putting her arm around his shoulder.

“It’s disappointing that I don’t have a heterosexual impulse in my whole body,” Noonan said. He kissed the top of her head. “I’m glad Hildon is covering the bases,” he said. “Are we going in or not?”

“Did you hear what you just said? And I
know
you didn’t mean it to be insulting. By implication, I was part of your metaphor. And how do you think it feels to be thought of as a base? An inanimate object? A sandbag?”

“Spare me a feminist lecture,” Noonan said. “I’m about to
keel over. I feel like somebody’s got a blindfold over my eyes and is pulling.”

“What do I do when I go in there?” Lucy said. “I’m terrified.”

“Try to act normal. See what they want you to do.”

“Who will I say you are?”

“A homosexual who writes for a magazine,” Noonan said. Lucy got out of the car. Noonan got out his side.

“Leave your washcloth in the car,” Lucy said.

“Sorry,” Noonan said. He went back to the car and put the washcloth on the dashboard.

“You don’t think anything happened, do you?” Lucy said.

“You got mad at me when I answered that question before.”

“You do?”

“It seems probable,” Noonan said.

“What’s going to happen?”

“I’m sure they’ll tell you.”

“I’ll kill him,” Lucy said.

“Stay calm,” Noonan said.

Noonan reached around Lucy and pulled open the door. They were in a small square room, with a high desk to the left. They walked across the dirty linoleum floor to the desk. Lucy smiled. Noonan stood behind her.

“Mrs. Spenser?” the policeman behind the desk said.

On the radio, Cyndi Lauper was singing “Time After Time.”

Instead of the usual anger she felt when she was called Mrs. Spenser, Lucy felt herself growing taller. She hoped that her attempt to look unshaken would not be mistaken for imperiousness. She forgot that Noonan was standing behind her and walked behind the desk. “What is it?” she said.

“Mrs. Spenser, your niece is fine. Did you understand what officer Brown said to you on the phone?”

“Where is she?” Lucy said.

“She fell asleep. She’s fine. We think that you should talk to officer Brown.”

“Where is Edward?” she said.

“You know the man?” the policeman said.

“I’m acquainted with him,” Lucy said. The minute she said it, she realized that it sounded absurd.

“Mrs. Spenser,” the policeman said. “Please have a chair.”

“Isn’t this unlawful detainment? What is the charge?” Lucy said.

“Mrs. Spenser, we are not trying to make a charge at the present moment. We are concerned because we need to determine whether there has been foul play.”

“I’d kill him,” Lucy said.

“Mrs. Spenser, we need your consent as legal guardian to have your niece examined.”

Lucy put her hand over her mouth.

“Mrs. Spenser, please. Your niece is fine. Do you want to see her? She has fallen asleep. Let’s get her, so you can hear her version of the story.”