“What’s to talk about? Are the kids okay?” he asked her.

“They’re fine. Jenny called today from L.A. and she had just talked to Jared. He’s fine too. That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“It’ll have to wait.” He went into the bedroom and came out with his shoes on. “George is up at Kasey’s and not feeling too good. He doesn’t want to alarm Jolene so I’m going to go up there.”

“We should call an ambulance.”

“He says it’s not that bad. He’s resting out front. I’ll just run up and check on him.”

You do that, Debbie thought. She heard the car start up.

In the bedroom, she pulled out the bedstand drawer and she’d known it somehow, but it was still a shock-the Smith & Wesson he kept there was gone. So he had to bring his gun to help poor old George, that clinched it.

“Jolene?”

“Hi.” Jolene was washing dishes, judging by the noises on the phone.

“Where’s George?”

“He had to go out and get something.”

“What?”

“Whadda you mean, what? Razor blades or something.”

“He make any calls first?”

“A couple. From the bedroom. I couldn’t hear. What’s up?”

“I’m calling Tory, then I’ll call you back.” She dialed the Eubankses’ number.

“Where’s Darryl?”

“He’s taking David over to Mid-Valley to get some cough syrup. Poor David has the flu, I guess, and he’s such a mess he asked Darryl to drive.”

“How long ago did they leave?”

“Why, I can see the car pulling out of David’s driveway right now.”

“Stay by the phone.”

Debbie grabbed her purse and ran out to the pickup. The men drove by as she shut the door and pulled herself down in the seat. Then she revved ’er up and headed up Esquiline, their taillights faint in front of her.

With so little traffic, it was easy. She was kicking herself for not bringing Jolene along, but there hadn’t even been time to think, and Jolene had the little girls. Darryl and David pulled into the Kasey’s parking lot and she saw her pistol-packin’ husband had beat them to it, and there was George’s old sedan too.

She was very upset. She was mad, mad at everything, mad at being patronized and blown off and kept in the dark by Sam. But she drove right on by like they did in the cop shows, then parked over by the travel agency. She sneaked back over to the convenience store. They were leaning against the wall away from the road and the streetlight: George, Darryl, David, Ted, and her Sam.

She didn’t round the corner. She heard them talking and she rested behind a flower bush not fifteen feet from them, trying not to breathe. She pushed her hair back behind her ears and cupped a hand behind the left one and listened harder than she had ever listened to anything in her life.

Finally, after about ten minutes, they broke up. Debbie heard cars start up and leave the lot.

She was alone, sitting in the flower bed hugging her knees like a little girl. She let out a moan that could be heard from here to San Francisco.

33

E ARLY THE NEXT MORNING, DAVID SAT close to Britta’s head in the hospital room, his head in his hands.

The flowers people had brought the week before drooped in their cheap vases. The neighbors came, and the women Britta worked with at the travel agency. That was it. Britta had no friends in the Valley. The people had come out of duty and the flowers were duty flowers.

He had taken her away from her whole life in New York, the flying, the laughter, all the things she needed, and made her a prisoner of the luxury he offered.

She had retaliated. He had known they couldn’t go on living in the Valley, that he had made a mistake.

He had married her quickly and taken her to a place where he would be comfortable. As time went on, she never flagged, but her brashness turned to recklessness and her gaiety took on a bitter edge. It happened gradually and he tried not to notice. He was enjoying wallowing in his depression, feeling sorry for himself, the way he had gotten what he wanted since childhood.

But now, in this sterile room with its wilted flowers, he had to notice that hardly anyone cared besides him that she was hurt. It made the fact that he had set in motion the attack on her all the more dreadful.

She hardly seemed to breathe. Her head was wrapped in bandages and under those bandages was the frightful wound that had been inflicted on her. Probably a baseball bat, the doctor said. Her pretty face was drawn and white.

He hadn’t called her parents in Reykjavik. He would, soon. He just couldn’t stand to talk to them, the guilt in him was so sharp and acrid.

“… David…”

Was he dreaming?

Another small noise from the bed. He lifted his head and saw that her eyes were open.

“Britta, Britta, my darling…”

She was trying to whisper something. He put his ear close to her mouth and heard her say “So I’m alive?”

“Yes, you’re going to be fine, you’ve had a terrible… a terrible…” he jabbered.

“My God. Alive.” Her chest heaved. She was trying to laugh. “… I remember everything…”

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry, I…”

“… David?”

He began stroking her forehead, trying to calm her. She still gazed at him with such open eyes, as if she had never seen him before.

“… Take… me away.”

“Oh, yes. Where shall we go?”

“I… don’t know. My wonderful… idiot…” Her eyes fluttered and closed. For a moment he thought she was dead.

But she had only gone to sleep. She will live, he thought in wonder, and he ran out into the hall, calling for the nurse passing by.

Debbie was pouring out margaritas for the four of them, her hand shaking so it made the crushed ice rattle in the frosted pitcher. The sun beat down right through the canvas umbrella onto Jolene’s frosted hair and worried expression. Tory had moved under the eave of the house for the shade.

“Sit down, now,” Megan said. She pulled out a chair with padded blue patio cushions and Debbie sank into it. Under her makeup her face was distraught.

“You said it was important,” Megan reminded her.

“Oh, yeah, it’s important.”

“Well?”

“Don’t push her, Megan,” Tory said. “You always push too hard. It’s something awful bad, isn’t it, Debs?”

“Yes,” Debbie said, and tears began to flow.

“We’re gonna help, whatever it is,” Jolene said. “Is George involved in this trouble?”

Debbie nodded tearfully.

“Is Ted part of this?” Megan said sharply, taking her cue from Jolene.

Another nod. Megan sat back in consternation. Debbie took crushed ice out of her glass and rubbed it into her forehead. “So’s Sam. And David.” She took Tory’s hand. “So’s Darryl.”

“Well, lay it down for us,” Jolene said in her practical way.

“They met last night. At Kasey’s parking lot. Around the side, away from the Valley Road. They gave you all some excuse like Sam gave me.”

“They met? Why didn’t they just get together at one of our houses?” Tory said.

“Just wait. I followed them. I wanted to know what they were doing.”

Jolene said, “Why, you sly thing.” She was holding her glass tightly.

“And I heard-”

“Uh huh, uh huh-”

“Listen.” So she told them what she’d heard from the bushes.

“… in,” somebody said. Maybe David.

“We turn him in, we’re turning ourselves in.”

“I don’t care, Sam. He almost killed my wife. I can’t let him get away with that.” That was David for sure.

“He’s taking us on one by one,” Sam said. “You guys have that figured out yet? Ted, who you think that fire on Robles Ridge was aimed at?”

“Megan and me?” Ted said. “Our house site? Really? He could have burned down half of Southbank Road!”

“He told me forty-eight hours to pay up or he’s gonna do something worse,” Sam said.

“Well, I’m not paying a thing.” David again.