Gargantuan_ A Ruby Murphy Mystery - Maggie Estep [59]
I nodded even though I was only half listening. As I looked around the living room, I noticed some win photos from Aqueduct hanging on the wall. I guess Ava saw me looking.
“My husband,” she said.
It had crossed my mind to be worried that maybe Ava was interested in me so I was relieved to hear about the husband.
“He’s a rider,” she added. “We’re separated though.”
I looked toward the little girl, who was still sitting on the couch with my dog lying worshipfully at her side. Grace seemed oblivious to the mention of her father though. She was absentmindedly patting my dog’s head.
“Looks like someone made a new friend,” Ava said, but neither Crow nor Grace glanced up.
I guess I got a little more comfortable as the strange evening progressed. Ava eventually started pulling out containers of leftover Chinese food from the fridge and reheated their contents for dinner. It wasn’t particularly good but I was grateful for the free food. As we ate, Ava chatted idly about bad weather, my boss Carla, and mortgage rates, as if she’d known me all her life. The kid didn’t have much to say at all and to be honest, didn’t seem particularly bonded to her mother, though she sure as hell bonded with my dog. When, an hour later, Ava started harping on Grace to get ready for bed, to my horror, the kid took Crow with her. Ava didn’t even think to ask me if it was all right, so I just had to stand there, trying to look nonchalant as my dog’s toenails clicked against the wood floor as he followed the little girl to her room.
A few minutes later, Ava handed me a blanket and a pillow.
“You’ll be all right?” she asked, indicating the couch.
I nodded.
“Good night then,” she said. There was sadness in her smile though I couldn’t imagine I had anything to do with it.
I lay there for quite a while listening to the sounds of Ava getting ready for bed. She ran water in the bathroom and traveled several times between the bathroom and the bedroom. At last, I heard her bedroom door close. I hoped to hear Crow’s toenails on the floor but I didn’t. I lay staring into the darkness until I was sure that both Ava and Grace were asleep. I got up, walked softly down the hall to Grace’s room, opened the door and looked in at my dog. He was curled on the little girl’s bed, happy as could be. I went back to my couch, thought of Darwin, and eventually fell asleep.
BIG SAL
18.
Ten Kinds of Trouble
It’s a blisteringly cold morning here on the Belmont rail and I’m feeling useless as I try keeping an eye on Attila. Any number of deadly things could happen to him on the track and I wouldn’t be able to intervene. All the same, short of getting on a horse and riding next to him, this is the best I can do.
I borrowed my wife’s tiny binoculars that she bought when she went on a short-lived opera kick, which at the time I couldn’t understand at all but now, thanks to Mr. Schoenberg, I have empathy for. I put the binoculars to my eyes and focus on Attila, who, between his bright orange safety vest and the fact that he’s on the lone gray horse on the track, isn’t hard to pick out.
I keep my eyes glued to man and horse for a few seconds then peruse the rest of the track. It’s business as usual though, a bunch of horses and riders, all of them looking like they belong there. I put my binoculars down for a minute and fish for a piece of gum in my jacket. I don’t even like gum but lately I’ve been wanting to smoke so I guess gum is better than putting the old poisons back in the old lungs. I’m just starting to get morbid, thinking of my wife’s crazy hormonal desire for me to knock her up, when an excited Attila is suddenly right in front of me.
“You see him go?” he yells down at me from atop the gray horse.
“Looked good,” I say even though my attention was