The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [178]
Annie rubbed her fingers at her temples. “Wait a minute. Back up. Did you say Brad left with Melissa Skippings?”
Rafael nodded vigorously. “Yes! La puta who fired my Chamayra from Golden Days. But I have to be honest, it could be your husband was only waiting with her for valet parking.”
“I doubt it.” Annie burst out laughing, which hurt. “Melissa Skippings. Did you know this? She was married to Dan. I’m serious. They’re divorced.”
“Skippings and Hart, you’re making a joke!” The news stunned him. “Wait’ll I tell Chamayra, if she’ll stop hanging up on me. All the world’s a stage, Annie, or possibly more precisely, cable television. Coffee?”
She was struck once more by how oddly restful it was, talking with Rafael Rook, despite her horrible headache. With a comforting pat of her arm, he offered her more aspirin. “What with all the whips and scorns and fardels of life, even the extra-large bottle of Tylenol from Costco is insufficient. Such a world we live in. Such a world. Grandpapa Simon Rook died for what he thought was America but it turned out to be only the same old bowties and wingtips piling their fortunes on our backs.”
Annie tried to finish the piece of toast but she wasn’t hungry. She had faith that her father had sunk Skippings’s SUV without drowning in it. But where was he now and how would he reach them? What should they do to help him?
Pouring salsa on his scrambled eggs, Raffy danced his fork above his plate. “Look at it this way: That your papa ditched her Lexus is infinitely superior to the alternatives.”
“True.” She sipped slowly at her tomato juice.
“But zindik nit, we have to look at all rational possibilities. It’s possible he was shuffled off. It’s possible Diaz grabbed him and wants to trade him. Jack’s enemies,” sadly suggested the Cuban, “the rotten bastard sons of bitches, if you ask me how much of the milk of human kindness is in them? Not this much.” He held up the heavy brown mug of coffee. “But it’s also possible, and let’s believe it, he just swam away.”
A memory came to Annie. “I used to dunk him in the pools. At the motels where we stayed. He always said he would never drown. I didn’t know this at the time, it had to do with his brother Johnny dying in the family pool. Dad said it wasn’t possible to drown him. He said he could float for a hundred years.”
“Like Mark Antony, dolphinlike.”
They sat a while longer.
Raffy sipped his coffee, nodding in thought. “Okay, here is my plan. You go to the bank in Cuba and get the jewels with the passwords. We put the jewels back in the Queen and we trade the Queen to Diaz for your papa’s debt.” He looked at her sadly. “Or maybe we trade the Queen to Diaz for your papa himself if that s.o.b. has got him for ransom.”
“But if Diaz had Dad, wouldn’t he call you or—”
Suddenly Raffy saw something behind her. Whatever it was made him fling loudly out of his chair, flipping it over. He ran, stumbling past crowded tables, weaving around waitresses as he headed for the kitchen doors. There he collided with an enormous bald waiter with a walrus moustache. With surprising dexterity, the waiter swung a large tray of fried eggs and hash browns out of Raffy’s path. Raffy slid between the kitchen doors.
Looking around for the cause of the Cuban’s abrupt flight, Annie spotted Dan Hart as he moved toward her through the crowded restaurant.
Chapter 46
The Bride Came C.O.D.
The detective made his way through the tables of noisy breakfasters. Maybe it was the blue of his cotton shirt that made Annie feel as if a wave were about to roll over her. When he took off his sunglasses, his eyes added more blue. Reaching her table, he stopped and shook his head in reproach. “You couldn’t wake me up?”
“No,” she told him. “Nobody could. How’d you find me?”
“Got your messages. Saw your rental car out there.” He pointed toward the window with a steel courier case he held. It was the case she’d hidden under her bed when she left. “So, do you know your dad wasn’t Coach Ronny Buchstabe?” he asked her. “Coach Ronny was