Flamethrower - Maggie Estep [48]
Nicky was watching the whole interaction. Ruby wanted to tell him to take a hike.
“Can we talk?” Ruby asked Ed in a small voice.
He stared at her, opened and closed his mouth, then slowly shook his head.
“I can’t. Not yet. Need more time.” He looked down at his work boots.
“Please?”
“Can’t do it. I’m sorry.” He looked at her and, for a moment, was himself. Then he frowned. “Sorry,” he said. He turned and walked away.
Ruby didn’t have any fight left. She made a face at Nicky, who’d continued to stand there the whole time; then she walked away, making a beeline for Violet’s barn.
It had rained during the night, and Ruby wasn’t looking where she was going. She walked through a huge puddle, and her red sneakers got muddy. She didn’t care.
Ruby found the door to Violet’s office open. Henry was at the desk, bent over some paperwork.
“Can I come in?” Ruby asked.
“Huh?” Henry looked up, startled. It seemed to take him a few seconds to process who Ruby was and what she wanted.
“Violet’s not in here,” he said, though this was perfectly obvious.
“Could I wait for her?”
“Sure,” Henry said. A vein in his temple started throbbing. “I was just leaving,” he said, getting up from the desk.
“Please don’t go,” Ruby said.
“Really, I was leaving anyway,” Henry said, barely meeting her eyes.
Ruby tried not to take it personally. Henry had the social skills of a parking meter, and Ruby knew he liked her as well as, if not more than, he liked most people. But that didn’t translate into his feeling comfortable with her in a small space.
Ruby sat down on the couch, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes. She thought about The Crone and Victoria the stripper. She briefly imagined taking Jane with her to get a lap dance from Victoria. Jane had once dragged Ruby to a strip club when one of her yoga friends, a slender Finnish girl named Tanya, had been earning her keep getting naked for strangers. Though Tanya had invited Jane to come see the place, she seemed embarrassed to be seen there in her skimpy, shimmery outfit. Jane and Ruby hadn’t stayed long.
“Are you all right?”
Ruby opened her eyes. She hadn’t heard Violet come in.
“Sorry for the unexpected visit,” Ruby said.
“I always expect you to visit.”
Ruby smiled. “Thank you.”
“You don’t look well. Are you all right?”
“Ed still isn’t speaking to me. And I took a job at a game in the amusement park.”
Violet’s eyes rounded in amazement, and suddenly Ruby didn’t know why she hadn’t called her friend all this time. But Ruby’s instinct was to hide when things got bad, to crawl into a small dark area like a hurt animal.
“It’s been horrible.”
“Tell me,” Violet said. She was sitting in her office chair, palms on her thighs, eyes round and earnest.
Ruby told her.
“And now I have to take a little road trip to Pennsylvania to look for Jody,” Ruby said after she’d recounted most of it.
“Can’t you call her?”
“Doesn’t have a phone there.”
“Cell?”
“I’ve been trying her cell. No good. She probably threw it in the river. At least, that’s what The Crone said.”
“The who?”
“Millicent. The woman I went to see this morning. Tobias calls her The Crone.”
“Oh.”
“She was sort of cronish, but nice enough. And she gave me the address of Jody’s secret place in Pennsylvania.”
“What secret place? Where in Pennsylvania?”
“Some tiny town. I haven’t looked at the map yet,” Ruby said.
Violet was on the verge of asking Ruby something else when Henry came into the office.
“I know I’m forgetting something,” he told Violet.
“I’m sure you are.” She smiled at Henry. “We have a filly running.” Violet turned to Ruby. “Henry’s latest folly is that whenever we’ve got one running, he becomes convinced he’s forgotten something and wanders around like a ghost until post time.” She said it affectionately, but Henry looked slightly hurt.
“I’m not being crazy, woman,” he said, walking out of the office.
“Which filly is running?” Ruby asked.
“Half Mad. She’ll be a long shot. But she’s finally started showing