Flamethrower - Maggie Estep [51]
“Well, dear girl, you’d better head to the IRS window. And I’d better go see about our filly.”
“Did you bet her?” Ruby asked.
“No. I didn’t realize she was going to run second until right before the race.”
Violet didn’t seem particularly upset over missing a twenty-six-dollar place payout on her own horse.
“I’ll give you some of it,” Ruby said, carefully extracting her betting slip from her wallet.
“You certainly will not,” Violet said. “I assume full responsibility for not having faith in my own horse. And now, my dear, I must go.” Violet pecked Ruby on the cheek.
Ruby went to the nearest IRS window to cash her bets. The teller, a middle-aged man with a wild waft of gray hair, inserted her ticket into his machine.
“Nice going,” he told Ruby.
She filled out the paperwork, posed for the IRS photo, thanked the teller, and darted into the ladies’ room to stuff her enormous wad of cash all the way down into her panties. Ruby didn’t exactly look like a high roller, but she’d had a lucrative trifecta ticket pickpocketed from her back pocket at Saratoga years earlier. It hadn’t been this kind of lucrative, but still. She’d been hypervigilant with tickets and money ever since.
Ruby walked out to the parking lot, got into the car, popped another Fireball, then headed home. She was still morbidly alone, but at least she was rich.
14. TRIP
As Ruby stood in the hall unlocking her apartment, Elsie opened her own door and peered out. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her face was puffy.
“You okay?” Ruby asked.
“Sick,” Elsie said minimally, as if speaking might make it worse.
“Do you need something?” Ruby asked.
“I’m out of my special tea,” Elsie said, uncharacteristically forlorn.
“Where can I go to buy you some?” Ruby asked dutifully.
Elsie didn’t say anything, but her eyes filled and enormous tears slid down her cheeks.
“What?” Ruby asked. “What is it? I’ll go get your tea—it’s no bother.”
“It’s not that,” Elsie said between sobs. “It’s the baby.”
“What?” Ruby’s stomach tightened. “What’s wrong?”
“The baby’s fine as far as I know. It’s that I’ll be a bad mother.”
“Oh.” Ruby released the breath she’d been holding. This she could deal with. “Come on in. I have to feed the cats.” She ushered Elsie inside her own apartment and offered her a seat in the kitchen. As Ruby prepared meat for the cats and then brewed some cheap black tea, Elsie vented about impending motherhood, and Ruby made soothing noises.
After twenty minutes, without any input from Ruby, Elsie came around to realizing she probably would do fine once the little tyke came into the world.
“But this tea is disgusting.” Elsie made a face. “Where’d you get that crap?”
“Key Food.”
Elsie rolled her eyes.
“I have a favor to ask,” Ruby said.
“Anything, baby,” Elsie said.
“Can you feed my cats tomorrow and maybe the next day?”
“Where you going?” Elsie frowned.
Ruby told her about the road trip to Pennsylvania. “You’ve still got a copy of my key, right?”
“Yeah, but you know Pietro’s gonna get all wound up if he hears you’re out doing crazy shit again,” Elsie said.
“I’m not doing crazy shit,” Ruby said, exasperated.
“I know.” Elsie reached over to pat Ruby’s hand. “But that’s not how Pietro sees it. He’s very protective of you.”
“Just tell him I’ve gone to my mom’s or something. Don’t tell him I’m up to no good,” Ruby said.
“So you admit it!” Elsie was triumphant. “You are up to no good!”
“Elsie.” Ruby sighed. “I am not up to no good. I lost my job for reasons I don’t yet understand, and now I’m being paid to go find my missing psychiatrist. It’s not no good. It’s just what it is.”
“Ah,” Elsie said.
They heard footsteps in the hall, and Elsie cocked her head. “Pietro’s home,” she said. She slowly rose from her chair, kissed Ruby’s cheek, then waddled out onto the landing to greet her husband.
Ruby shut her door. She turned the overhead light on in the living room, but it still seemed dark in the apartment. She went