Vegas Heat (9 page)

“Turn around, Sage, go back to the gas station,” Fanny ordered. Sage slammed on the brakes and made a U-turn in the middle of the road. The moment the car stopped in front of the little market, Fanny was out of the car, running inside. She fumbled with her wallet and withdrew a picture of Simon. She held it up to the young clerk. “Was this man just in here?”

“Yes, ma’am, not five minutes ago. He bought some dog food, dog treats, newspapers, and cigarettes.”

“Has he ever been in here before?” Fanny thought her heart would thunder right out of her chest.

“I’ve never seen him.”

Fanny ran back to the car. “It was Simon. Sage, take this road and see if you can overtake him. It was Simon!”

“Mom, he could have turned off anywhere. He’s got ten minutes on us. I’m doing it, I’m doing it,” he said at the anguish on his mother’s face.

“No one ever pays any attention to me,” Sunny said, biting into the muffin she’d taken to go.

“Can’t you drive faster, Sage?” Fanny demanded, her head out the window as she tried to scan the highway.

“Mom, I’m going eighty now. Get your head in here before someone going ninety clips it off. He could be anywhere, Mom. There were five turnoffs and all those side streets he could have turned on. Let’s stop at a gas station and see if he’s listed in the phone book. We can check with the utility company, too.”

“Just keep driving, Sage. It was him. I can’t believe this.”

“I can,” Sunny chirped from the backseat. “Things like this happen in the movies all the time. Picture this, we find him and I go into labor and deliver twins. Everyone lives happily ever after.”

“I wouldn’t blame Tyler one bit if he divorced you. You need a muzzle.”

“You’re just ticked off because I saw him twice, and you didn’t believe me either time. I bet he’s living on some mountaintop. All by himself with those two little dogs. He only comes down off the mountain for dog food, cigarettes, and newspapers. He’s probably living off the land, thin as a rail, unhappy, wondering where it all went wrong.”

“That’s enough, Sunny,” Fanny said. Her voice was as shaky as her insides.

“The interstate is up ahead. What do you want me to do, Mom?”

“Pull over to the side of the road. I need to think.”

The occupants of the car remained silent as Fanny squeezed her eyes shut. So close and yet so far away. Sage was right, he could be anywhere. Better to go back and hire a private detective to locate Simon. At least now she knew the general area he was in. Sunny was probably right about Simon living on a mountaintop. Simon loved the mountains. How like Simon to get two dogs.

“Go back to the airport, Sage. Birch will be waiting for us. I can always come back here when we aren’t so pressed for time.”

“Are you sure, Mom?” Sage asked.

“I’m sure. None of us needs this today on top of everything else.”

“Mom, can I say something?” Sunny asked.

“Of course, Sunny.”

“I remember Uncle Simon talking about a place called Stallion Springs one time. I think it’s somewhere in the Tehachapi Mountains. He said he owned some land there and one day he was going to build a cabin. We were little when he said that. I don’t even know why I remember it.”

“He never mentioned it to me. It’s a place to start. We’ll find him.”

“Only if he wants to be found,” Sunny muttered under her breath.

Simon Thornton threw down the newspaper he’d been reading. The two little dogs at his feet immediately dragged it off. In ten minutes it would be in shreds and then one or the other would poop in the middle. Normally he’d just shake his head and laugh. Not today. Today he was out of sorts. Today he was seeing his nieces and nephews everywhere. He’d had his usual nightmare about Ash three times in the past week. He was thinking too much, and he hadn’t slept well since the day he walked out of his New York office.

“Cabin fever,” he muttered to the dogs who ignored him. They were on the financial page now, growling playfully at one another. Maybe it was time to move on. The question was, where? “I always wanted to see Oregon,” he muttered again. He hated it when he muttered to himself. If he didn’t watch it, he’d become a wilderness recluse. Like he wasn’t one already What he should do was go into town and call Malcom and maybe Ash and maybe Fanny. Just to say hello. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t do that. What would be the point?

The point was ... he was tired of fishing, tired of hunting, tired of sitting here on the front porch of someone else’s cabin doing nothing. Actually, he was goddamn sick and tired of things not going his way. He should be building his own cabin so he could freeze his ass off in the winter. He was drinking too much, too. Drinking so he could sleep. When he did sleep all he did was dream about Fanny and Ash. When he wasn’t dreaming about them he was dreaming about his mother and his youth.

One phone call. What was the harm in making one phone call. Enough time had gone by so it wouldn’t seem like he was backwatering. Who should he call, though? Fanny, Malcom, Fanny, Ash, Fanny. It wasn’t right that he wasn’t staying in touch. Things could be happening, things he should know about. Ash’s condition could worsen and the boys wouldn’t know where to locate him. That he needed to know about. Fanny could be sick, Sunny could be having her baby Malcom could be in trouble at the company

Five minutes later he had himself convinced he needed to go back to town. He piled the dogs in the car, his shoulders lighter. He whistled because Slick liked to join in by howling at the top of his lungs. Tootsie usually slept through the whole ordeal.

Simon drove steadily, the miles ticking off slowly as he ran different conversations over and over in his mind. He’d call Fanny first. He’d say whatever came into his mind. Then he’d call Malcom. Ash would be last on his list.

Two hours later, Simon pulled into a Mobil station, where he asked the attendant for ten dollars in change. He was breathing like a long-distance runner when he placed the call to Fanny and got her answering machine. He hung up. His second call was to Malcom whose secretary said he was out of town. He felt his shoulders start to slump. What the hell, Ash was better than nothing. Instead, he placed a second call to Fanny and told the operator to stay on the line, that he wanted to leave a message. He listened to her sweet voice say, “I’m not here, please leave a message and the time you called.”

Simon cleared his throat twice before he could speak, his heart jumping crazily inside his chest. “Fanny, this is Simon. It’s around two o’clock. I just wanted to call to say hello and to let you know I’m fine. I’ve been moving around quite a bit and will probably grease up my sneakers and move again by tomorrow. I think about us all the time and what we had and what we could be having now. You know how much I love you, but I need to tell you again. Perhaps someday when things are right ... will that day ever come, Fanny? I feel sort of foolish talking to a machine. I guess I’ll say good-bye. I think about us every single day. Oh, I got two dogs. Tootise and Slick. They’re great company. Daisy would love them. I’ll call again when the loneliness gets too unbearable. Good-bye, Fanny.”

Ash’s voice boomed over the wire. “Simon, is that really you? I’ve got everyone in the world looking for you. Listen, I got myself into a bit of a mess. I need some help here. Fanny put the squeeze on me, and I’m lucky my ass isn’t in jail. Where the hell are you?”

“Does it matter, Ash? I’m talking to you now. What is it you think I can do for you?”

“You can loan me about fourteen million dollars is what you can do for me.”

Simon threw his head back and roared with laughter. “Ash, if I had fourteen million dollars, I wouldn’t be standing here in a phone booth talking to you. What did you do this time?”

“I told you, I didn’t do anything. Fanny squeezed me out. I bought these riverboats in Biloxi, Mississippi. She went through the roof because the bank gave me the money on my signature without hers. She threw a fit and the damn bank had to close down. A whole bunch of other shit went down, too. I was swinging in the wind, little brother, so I had to cut some deals, and I can’t make good. How much can you loan me?”

“Zip. Squat.
Nada
. How could you do such a stupid thing? Did you involve the kids? You did, didn’t you?”

“Birch went along with it.” Ash’s voice was whiny, full of self-pity. “Are you refusing to help me? You owe me, Simon.”

“Where’s Fanny, Ash?”

“Jesus, you aren’t going to believe this one. Some chick waltzes in here saying she knows where Fanny’s mother is and they all took off and left me here to run things. Ungrateful snots. Do they give a shit about me? No they do not. Birch just up and took the damn plane and didn’t even ask my permission. This is not a considerate family.”

“Fanny finally found her mother,” Simon said, his voice full of awe. So that’s where she’d gone.

“Yeah, the old lady is dying. It’s just like Fanny to rush there to hold her hand.”

“Yeah, Ash, that’s just like Fanny,” Simon said softly

“Where the hell are you, Simon? I need a little help here. I thought we were brothers. Hell, you’re marrying my ex-wife. That has to count for something.”

“Who told you that?”

“Get off it, Simon. Everyone in Las Vegas knows. What I don’t understand is why you left. Did Fanny pull one of her famous stunts on you, too? If she did, you know what I’ve had to put up with. I’m desperate here, and you aren’t making it any easier. Do you want me to beg?”

“Ash, what’s the money for?”

“To pay back the loan. The interest is killing me. They’ll kill me next. You know what those people are like. Do you want my death on your conscience? Mom wouldn’t like this, Simon.”

“Ash, you aren’t a stupid man. Why did you go to those thugs?”

“It wasn’t like I had other choices, Simon. In my condition prison was not an alternative. You know they’ll kill me. You have the money; I know that, too.”

“You know what, Ash, no matter what this family does where you’re concerned, it’s never enough. All you do is demand. We give and give and give and all you do is take and take and take. I will not give you fourteen million dollars to pay to gangsters and thugs. If you needed it for your own well-being, I wouldn’t hesitate. If you needed a kidney, an eye or a lung, I’d be the first in line.” That had to be the biggest lie he’d ever told in his life, he thought smugly. “Sell the goddamn riverboats to someone else and get your money back. I’m surprised you didn’t sink them to collect on the insurance. Oh, Jesus, don’t do that, Ash. Insurance companies are like cops—they can and will find out you did it and you’ll get into some really big trouble. You’re on your own this time.”

The curses were so ugly Simon could only smile in satisfaction. He hung up the phone and got into his car. Tootsie and Slick were all over him, sensing his unhappiness. He shifted gears, his thoughts far away. “I hope meeting your mother was everything you wanted it to be.” Tootsie snuggled in his lap while Slick leaped up to wiggle around on the back of the headrest.

The ride back to the cabin was made in silence.

Cuddling with Daisy, Fanny listened to Simon’s message over and over again. Each time his voice sounded more dear, more wonderful. She thought she was playing it for the ninety-ninth time when the phone rang. She recognized her ex-husband’s irate voice immediately. She knew she should hang up, but even Ash couldn’t bother her today Today Simon called and said he would call again. Her world was right side up.

“Okay, Fanny, I’m going to cut right through to the quick of it. God help me, but I need your help. I’m only going to say this once. If you don’t help me now, you’ll be attending my funeral in a few days. Are you listening to me, Fanny?”

“You’re screaming in my ear, Ash. Of course I can hear you. Aren’t you going to ask me about my mother?”

“No. I don’t care about your mother, and I’d be a hypocrite if I said I did. Why you care about someone who left you as a baby is something I don’t even want to pretend I understand. I need fourteen million dollars in three days or they’ll be delivering my body parts to your front door. That’s the sum total of why I’m calling you. Simon refuses to help me. He called a few hours ago and flat out turned me down. There’s nowhere else to turn. You have to help me.”

“No, Ash, I don’t. Aren’t you being a little dramatic?”

“Maybe you should read the newspapers more often in that ivory tower you live in, Fanny. I am not being dramatic. I admit I made a mistake. Put yourself in my position. I wouldn’t have done well in prison in my condition. You hung me out to dry, Fanny, and we both know it. Do you want my death on your conscience?”

“Of course not.”

“Then give me the money. I’ll find a way to make it up to you. Those riverboats are going to make a fortune.”

“Sell them, Ash.”

“I don’t have time to sell them. I have three days. It was pure dumb luck that Simon called today I’ve been trying to find him for months. He owes me his life, and this is how he repays me. I hate his fucking guts.”

Fanny swayed dizzily. “Ash, I don’t have fourteen million dollars. Everything we own is mortgaged to the hilt. And before you can bring it up, Billie Coleman has already paid two installments on the money she borrowed. We’re just getting by”

“Then tap the kids’ trust funds. You have the power to do that. Fanny, I’m desperate.”

“They’ve been tapped already, Ash. Get it through your head, there’s no money. I’m not a magician, I can’t pull it out of a hat. This is your own doing, Ash. You got yourself in this mess because of your greed. Stop and think now, what would an emperor do in your position?”

“Will you be serious? I’m scared, Fanny. I don’t think I’ve ever been scared in my life except when I had the accident. I’m totally helpless now. Please, you have to find a way to help me.”

“Ash, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to help you. I would if I could. You know that. That’s the reason you called me. I need to think. I’ll call you back in the morning.”

“In the morning! That cuts my time down to two days. I’m sitting on a ticking time bomb, and you tell me you’ll call me in the morning! Jesus Christ, Fanny, that’s not what I need to hear right now.”