Flamethrower - Maggie Estep [15]
“And had a leg cut off?”
“It seems rash. But Tobias can be rash. He’s been known to do very sick things.” Jody was completely cavalier, as though loss of limb and kidnapping were commonplace occurrences in her life.
“Why on earth would your husband have himself kidnapped?”
“Because he knew I’d pay. Without asking questions or involving the authorities. And then he would keep the money. He has none.”
“I thought he was well off.” Ruby remembered Violet telling her about Tobias’s small fortune.
“He lost most of it. He gambles, of course. And buys bad stocks. What little is left I control. I had him declared unfit.”
“Oh.” Ruby thought about the Fireball in her front pocket. She knew this wasn’t the time or the place for it. Which made her want it all the more. “Couldn’t he just ask you for some money?”
“He could. But wouldn’t. A fierce and bordering-on-perverse pride,” Jody said, staring out the tall window. “What I don’t understand is his failure to think this through in the slightest,” she added.
Ruby waited. She stared at the greenery outside the windows. She imagined jumping out the window, stripping off all her clothing, running naked through the garden. She thought of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and how she had run naked there on a dare as a teenager. It had felt delicious and raw. Why she was having a sudden urge to run through a garden naked right now, she didn’t know.
“The only valuable thing Tobias has left is the colt. Fearless Jones.” Jody continued, “And he knows I’ll have to sell the horse to get the money.” Jody walked over to the bed and sat down very slowly, as though she suddenly weighed hundreds of pounds. She smoothed her dress across her lap. Ruby wondered if the dress-smoothing was a nervous tic. The way Lance Armstrong pulled at the seams of his bike shorts during particularly taxing moments in a race.
“But this is all just a prank,” Ruby said. “You’re not actually going to sell the horse, are you? You’ll find Tobias and talk him down.”
“Two can play this game,” said Jody. “And anyway, we still don’t know,” she added. “This may not be what it seems.” She motioned at the computer screen. “There is a chance he has genuinely been kidnapped.”
Sun was pouring in through the tall windows, shining right into Ruby’s eyes. She got up from the chair, realized there wasn’t anywhere else to sit, then unceremoniously lay down on the floor and closed her eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“Waiting for it all to go away,” Ruby said.
“Which brings me to my point.”
“What point?” Ruby asked, eyes still closed.
“I’ve fucked up again.”
“How so?”
“I shouldn’t have brought you here.”
“Don’t tell me, I should go now?” Ruby asked, keeping her eyes glued shut.
“Right.”
“You’re not serious?”
“Very.”
Ruby had finally had enough. She got up off the floor, walked to the door, and didn’t look back. Ruby half expected Jody to call out after her, but she didn’t.
Ruby was fuming. She hated being jerked around. In the past, if a boyfriend had exhibited the slightest trace of jerking behavior, she’d left without a second thought. Women friends were supposed to be above that kind of thing, and one’s psychiatrist really didn’t have any business pulling that kind of stunt. But, as Ruby was discovering, her psychiatrist was no ordinary psychiatrist. Nor an ordinary woman. No. Jody Ray didn’t have an ordinary bone in her body. Which didn’t make Ruby any less furious about the jerking.
Ruby had a moment of disorientation when she reached the street. The day was too bright, the kind to make people feel guilty for even a slightly dark thought. And Ruby was having thousands of dark thoughts.
Heading for the subway, Ruby passed Jody’s cream-colored Mercedes. She had an urge to kick it.
Ruby caught the 6 train to the L, riding it nearly the entire length of Brooklyn before switching at Broadway Junction for the A train. On the A there was a gaggle of kids, not more than thirteen years old but loud and completely foul-mouthed. Motherfucker this, suck my dick that, I’m gonna fuck you up the ass, etc.