Flamethrower - Maggie Estep [30]
Ruby wanted to tell the guy that if he expected to get paid, he shouldn’t have cut Tobias’s leg off. She wanted to ask him why he’d done it. But she didn’t.
“So you’re going to find Tobias and shoot him?” Ruby regretted saying it the moment it was out of her mouth. The man had a gun after all.
“Just threaten.” The guy smiled, unperturbed, showing off his crooked teeth. “Until he pays me. Providing I ever find the fucker.”
“Oh,” Ruby said.
“What are you going to do when you leave here, Ruby Murphy?”
His mentioning her leaving here implied he wasn’t going to kill her.
“I don’t know,” Ruby said honestly.
“No use reporting me to the cops,” the guy said. “I mean, you can if you want to, but I’d be long gone by the time they got here.
“You’re pretty unflappable, huh?” The guy added. He seemed to be admiring Ruby, was looking her up and down as if he’d decided she was a tasty morsel.
“I flap as easy as the next girl,” Ruby said. “I’m just containing myself right now.”
“Wise girl. Anyway, I wouldn’t shoot you.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You might as well go. I’m going to get going myself.” The guy stood up and pulled his button-down shirt over the back of his pants where he’d tucked his gun.
Ruby hesitated.
“Go ahead. Get your bike and go,” the kidnapper said.
She didn’t wait to be asked twice. She rolled her bike out to the Mustang, took off the wheels, and stuffed everything into the Mustang’s small backseat area. She glanced at the house, saw the kidnapper standing in the doorway. He waved. Ruby smiled weakly, got in her car, and drove.
She found the nearest store, double-parked the car, and ran in to buy a pack of Marlboro Red. She got back in the Mustang and smoked two cigarettes in a row before she could stop shaking.
Then she headed for Belmont.
RUBY PULLED IN the main stable gate and drove over to Ed’s shed row. She still felt awful. Belmont wasn’t working its magic. Even the sight of the horse laundry drying over the railing in front of Ed’s barn didn’t make her feel much better. Usually, just having a reason to think the phrase horse laundry made her happy. Not today.
Ed was sitting in his office with his back to the door. He was shuffling papers. The army cot in the corner was unmade, and dirty clothes were strewn over it. His hair hadn’t been combed in days.
“Ed,” Ruby called out softly.
He flipped around as though he’d just heard a ghost. Looked at her the same way.
“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked.
He said nothing. She could see him taking in her bandaged forehead. But still, nothing.
“Ed?”
“Why?” he said, “Why’d you do it?” His face was drawn down, sinking toward the earth.
“Do what?”
“You know exactly what.”
“You mean Tobias?”
“Tobias? Who’s Tobias?”
“Tobias,” Ruby protested, “Jody Ray’s husband, that Tobias.”
“You’re fucking him too?”
“What?”
“I’m too upset to talk,” Ed said. His green eyes looked colorless.
“Upset? Why? What happened?”
“I can’t talk about it yet.”
“You have to, or we’re headed for a major disaster.”
“We’re already there.” He was looking right through her.
“Tell me what the hell this is about.” Ruby’s chest was constricting. She’d never seen Ed like this. They’d been through some things before, but he’d never seemed this distant.
“Ruby …” He looked down at his feet.
“What?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“Find out what?”
“This,” Ed said. He reached for a manila envelope and extracted two 8-by-10 photographs. “These were mailed to me here. And they don’t make me feel great about our future.” He thrust the prints at her.
Ruby glanced at the photographs. There was something familiar in them. Then she realized she was in the photographs. With Triple Harrison. Appearing, in fact, to be making out with Triple.
“What the hell is that?” Ruby asked. She felt her mouth fall open. She didn’t have the strength to close it.
“Looks like Triple Harrison to me.” Ed wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“This is some sort of really bad joke.” Ruby felt cold