The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [181]
“This is not an act.” She shoved hard at his chest. Old angers surged in her. “Are you lying to me? Raffy told me not to trust you!”
Dan caught her hand, holding it tight against him. She could feel his heart. They stood that way for a minute, hearing their own breath.
He looked at her fiercely. “I mean this, trust me. I just heard something from my partner. Somebody in MPD spotted your dad about an hour ago. You want him back?”
Annie stared at him, then at the van. “He got away from them?”
“Yes, but that’s not going to last. They are real serious.” Dan touched her shoulder softly. “And he’s not well, Annie. My partner heard on the street your dad’s seriously sick.” Did she want to make it possible for her father not to spend the last months of his life in prison? If so, she had to trust Dan. Did she believe him?
There was nothing to go on, thought Annie, except his eyes. Clarity, careful thinking, wise decisions—these were the habits of her life. But, somehow deeper than any thought she could fashion was the beat against her palm of his heart.
Near them, a thin teenaged boy was loudly and dexterously shoving shopping carts into a silver chain. Racing them into motion, he stepped gracefully onto the back of the last cart and rode the clattering train he’d created across the asphalt, passing the white van when it pulled out of its parking spot. The boy’s leg stretched out behind him like the god Mercury, flying faster and faster.
“Yes.” Annie nodded. “Help me.”
Dan grabbed her arms. “Okay. Here we go. I said I’d bring you in. So let’s do it. Make it look like you’re arguing. Fight me. But for Christ’s sake, don’t slug me again!”
She let him push her into his truck just as the van drove slowly past them. She saw, in the passenger seat window, a flash of Raffy’s sorrowful face.
***
Chamayra was waiting for them in the Dorado lobby, where her tight shiny orange Capri pants and turquoise La Loca T-shirt was in noticeable contrast to the loose taupe linens of the hotel guests.
“This is all your fault,” she shouted as they walked toward her. It was hard to know whether the accusation was at Annie or at Daniel or both. “Golden Days was my best shot at not dying a waitress and now I’m out on my ass. So gracias! Plus I lose the first man I met this year not a fuckin’ druggie beating up on Wife Number Four!” Chamayra did a rapid dance of rage. “So you get Raffy out of Dade County jail pronto pronto pronto!” She had begun at so intense a pitch that she had no place to go but the physical, which is where she went, jabbing Dan in the collar bone with her short strong fingers.
Snatching her hands out of the air, he pulled them together and to her shock kissed them. The surprise calmed her. “Baby,” he told the quivering woman, “you take a deep breath. I didn’t put Rook in jail and I can’t get him out. My ass is as fired as yours. But I will try to get him out, if you’ll just have a little faith. I will try.” He pointed over at Annie. “Meanwhile, what about her?”
Chamayra glared. “What about her? Her daddy stole that Lexus and got me fired. And why didn’t you tell me Ms. Skippings was the Melissa you’ve been bitchin’ about for two years?”
He put his arm around Annie. “Annie just heard her dad went off the causeway into the bay in Melissa’s car.”
She gasped. “Shit, I saw something about that on the news! I didn’t know it was Raffy’s Jack.”
“Well, I don’t hear any sympathy. Come on, Chamayra, where’s the Love sign? First things first.”
The young Latina woman gave a great shuddering sigh that shook her short frame. Reaching out, she hugged Annie brusquely. “He’s right! Danny, you’re right. I’m out of line. Anybody’s daddy checks out like that, it’s primo.”
Annie felt the woman’s embrace, her short sturdy arms pressing against her and she realized in that moment curiously enough that she’d never before let herself feel the physical presence of other people when they touched her—to shake her hand, to kiss her cheek, to rub her shoulder. Now she let herself