The Perfect Husband - Lisa Gardner [72]
“Call them. Tell then we’re going out for a few hours. Tell them we’re worried about the ‘intruder’ returning. Ask them to send a patrol car to cruise around a bit, say half-hour intervals.”
“I don’t know. . . .”
“Marion, what can it hurt?”
That got her. Marion placed the call while Tess found a light jacket. Tess returned to the living room quickly; she no longer felt like being alone.
Wordlessly they piled into Marion’s car, three people staring out at a black landscape, trying to see what was out there.
“A bar?” Tess declared twenty minutes later, staring incredulously at the neon-clad, rock’n’roll—blaring joint. “J.T., this isn’t a good idea. Why don’t we go to a movie?”
He kept walking. “Crowds are good, Tess, and so is a place with five exits.”
Marion and Tess exchanged dubious glances. J.T. strolled inside, obviously no stranger to the establishment.
Located on a busy street in downtown Nogales, it advertised itself aggressively with loud music and rowdy patrons. At the moment Bruce Springsteen was blasting everyone new eardrums with the loudest rendition of “Born to Run” that Tess had ever heard. Above, a seventies disco ball swirled madly, casting a dizzying array of diamond dots onto a dance floor filled with people who truly knew how to move. The light disappeared at the corners, leaving gaping pools of blackness where she could dimly see couples in various stages of drinking and displaying public affection. Everyone looked Latino.
J.T. cut a clean path through the madness, his gaze watchful. Tess and Marion kept close to him. J.T. raised his hand and pointed to a corner, his lips moving but his words lost in the thundering music. Tess and Marion moved quickly to follow, fading deeper into the hallway, the music receding behind them. New odors assaulted their senses: beer, urine. Sex.
Finally J.T. came to a doorway guarded by tendrils of orange and red glass beads. He held the curtain back and motioned for Marion and Tess to enter. His gaze swept the hall behind them, then he let the curtain drop.
“A video arcade?” Marion huffed. “You brought us here for video games?”
“They’re better than the beer, Marion. Or are G-men too tough for pinball?”
Tess stared. They weren’t alone in the room by any means. It was filled with a huge crowd and electronic sounds. She heard a coin machine dispensing change and the glug-glug of some animated character dying. Several men looked up when they entered, appeared a little surprised, then went back to what they were doing before. There were few women in the room. One of them, scantily clad in a crimson skirt and halter top, looked like hell on wheels sitting at a car game. She’d attracted several onlookers and didn’t seem to mind.
J.T. went straight to a row of older pinball machines and selected one. DEAD MAN WALKING, it said.
Tess shuddered.
“Come on, ladies. It’s hand-eye coordination.”
“I don’t have any, thanks,” Tess volunteered.
With another scowl and frustrated sigh Marion gave up on protesting and sized up the machine. “All right. You’re on.”
“Two out of three?”
“Four out of seven. You’re obviously not new here.”
“High score is mine.”
“Oh, really? How drunk were you at the time?”
“Stone cold sober,” J.T. drawled. “Down here, Marion, pinball’s serious business.”
“Yeah, well, so is cotton,” she muttered.
“Tess,” J.T. said calmly. “Watch the doorway, will you? If anyone white walks in, let me know. I don’t think we were followed, but it’s been a bit since I played cat and mouse.”
J.T. popped two quarters into the machine. Marion cracked her knuckles and stretched out her arms. The two of them got down to the obviously serious business of pinball, but Tess didn’t relax that easily. Her gaze kept darting back to the doorway, just in case Jim Beckett magically appeared.
J.T. was no slouch. He hit five digits before his turn was up, and gave way only after delivering a mocking bow. Marion took over with narrowed eyes and thinned lips. She looked as if she’d gone to war.
She moved too fast, and the first silver ball escaped through the paddles before