Flamethrower - Maggie Estep [39]
Ruby rolled her eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes. You know I’m right.”
Ruby shrugged.
“I’ve got another set soon anyway.” Lucio got to his feet then reached down to pull Ruby to hers.
She regretfully watched him pick up his T-shirt, brush it off, and put it back on.
“Cheer up, now we’re friends,” Lucio said. “And you need a friend right now. I heard Bob fired you.”
Ruby let herself smile. “True,” she said.
“Hello, friend.” Lucio kissed her on the cheek.
“Hello,” she said.
“Come on then.” Lucio took her elbow and guided her back toward the boardwalk.
Outside the sideshow, Lucio pecked Ruby on the cheek. She watched him walk away. His athletic ass was a thing of beauty.
Ruby was slightly less miserable as she let herself into the building and climbed the stairs. She didn’t really care that Ramirez and Elsie’s door was closed or that the cats didn’t bother to greet her. She put on one of her beloved Einstürzende Neubauten CDs and went into the kitchen. The cats surfaced and she fed them. She stared inside the fridge, willing something palatable to appear. Nothing did. She put a banana, yogurt, and orange juice in the blender and had herself a drinkable dinner. She had just rinsed out her dinner glass when the phone rang.
“Yeah?” Ruby realized she’d taken to answering her phone like an angry person. Probably because, right now, she was an angry person. A depressed loner. A miserable wretch.
“Ruby, it’s Tobias.”
Ruby felt nauseous.
“You there?” Tobias asked.
“Yes,” Ruby said after a long while. “Where are you?”
“Still at large,” he said breezily.
“What can I do for you?” Ruby asked, more for something to say than out of any actual will to do anything for the guy.
“Could you help me find Flamethrower?”
“Flamethrower? What?” Ruby thought of the flashy chestnut colt who’d been a very nice racehorse a few years earlier. What the horse had to do with the price of beans, Ruby didn’t know.
“My wife,” Tobias said. “It’s a nickname. Sorry.”
“Flamethrower is her nickname?”
“Yes. It’s a long story.”
“Ah,” said Ruby. “She still hasn’t turned up?” She felt a small ping of curiosity.
“No.”
“Does she know where to find you?”
“She has a phone number to reach me, yes.”
“You think she’s in trouble?”
“Trouble?”
“I mean, is that why you’re looking for her?”
There was a long pause. “It’s possible, yes,” Tobias said. “She had a relapse just two years ago.”
“Relapse?”
“You know the cliché about all psychiatrists being nuts?”
“Sure.”
“It’s a cliché for a reason.”
“What are you telling me?”
“Jody has spent time in institutions. Not just as a doctor. She’ll be fine for years at a time but then, boom, she relapses.”
Ruby was both titillated and appalled. “Why? What’s wrong with her?”
“I can’t really go into all that right now,” Tobias said. “What’s more, she has all our money.”
“Ah,” Ruby said. “Sounds like you’re fucked.”
“Well put,” Tobias said. “But the fact is, I have nothing to live on. I’m hoping to talk sense into my wife’s head. If she doesn’t want to come back from wherever it is she’s gone, then maybe at least she’ll give me some money.”
“I sincerely doubt that, Tobias,” Ruby said coolly.
“Please don’t be mean.”
“I’m not. Just stating the facts.”
“Yes, I suppose,” he sounded whimpery.
“How’s your leg?” Ruby asked, softening slightly.
“Still gone.”
Ruby laughed. “I hope you got medical attention.”
“A physician friend is helping me. Stretching the skin of my stump. Thank you for asking.”
Ruby was curious about this but didn’t pursue it.
“Ruby?”
“Yes?”
“Can you please help me find my wife?”
Ruby took a breath. “Why me? Hire a professional.”
“You’ll have a better result. Namely that my wife might actually talk to you if you find her. I’ll pay you of course.”
“With what?”
“I have a little stash.”
“Keep your little stash. You’re going to need it. Anyway, I’m not qualified to find your missing wife,” she added.
“Not what I hear.”
“Not what you hear about what?”
“Jody told me you helped nail someone for a horse-killing insurance scam. Genuine private detective work.”
“Oh yeah. That