Unsympathetic Magic - Laura Resnick [113]
Jeff shook his head and disconnected his call. “Biko’s not answering.”
“I’ll try to reach him, too,” I said.
“Good,” said Jeff. “Maybe if we tag team him, we’ll get a hold of him. I’m going to call Puma, too. If anyone can bring that kid to his senses, it’s her. Right now, she’s probably still at the ceremony, but she’ll check her messages later.”
“Puma!” I said suddenly. “We haven’t seen her all night! And she would realize how confused we are by what just happened to Lopez. She would help us.”
Jeff said impatiently, “We need to put Lopez on the back burner and—”
“Jeff, where was Puma?” I said, the truth suddenly clear to me. “Not there.”
“Of course she was there. She’s the one who told me I’d better be there, or . . .” Jeff’s eyes widened as he realized what I was saying. “Oh, shit. You mean she’s missing? That’s why we didn’t see her in the hounfour?”
“She wasn’t at the service!” I said. “She dashed out of the training room—”
“Because you had upset her,” Jeff pointed out.
“—and we haven’t seen her since,” I said. “Biko left the room a minute or two behind her, and we haven’t see him since, either.”
“You think something’s happened to Puma?” Jeff said, alarmed.
“If something did,” I said, “it would explain Biko going berserk.”
“I’m calling her.” Jeff dialed and held the phone to his ear.
There was a standard amount of friction and exasperation between the Garland siblings, but it was obvious they were close. Moreover, Biko had been the man of the family virtually all his life and, especially now with his mother dead, he obviously took his role as Puma’s protector very seriously. I had no doubt that he was capable of rash acts and violence if he thought his sister was in danger.
Jeff frowned and shook his head. “I’m getting her voice mail.” He left a message for Puma, saying we were worried about her safety and Biko’s whereabouts and asking her to call him immediately. When he hung up, he said to me, “But I don’t get it. How would Puma being in trouble explain Biko attacking Frank? Puma and Frank have never even met.”
“I have no idea why one thing might have led to the other,” I said. “So you need to go find Frank.”
“Esther is right,” said Max. “We must get a clear account of events from Mr. Johnson.”
“Lots of luck with that,” Jeff muttered. “Did I mention the word hysterical?”
They left to go find Frank. I watched from my window as they walked rapidly away from the building, heading toward Tenth Avenue, where they would hail a cab. (Poor Max, I thought. He’d been in a lot of moving vehicles lately.) Max was clutching his straw hat to keep it from flying off his head, and I noticed some paper garbage tumbling madly across the street. It was getting really windy out there. I hoped that meant the heat would break soon.
I went back into the bedroom to resume my vigil beside Lopez. Sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, I picked up my phone, called Biko, and left an urgent message on his voice mail. Then, with nothing else to do, I called Puma, too. No answer, of course. Where was she?
I felt a deep sense of dread as I recalled how trusting of the mambo she was.
Looking at Lopez’s slack, motionless body, I tried to take comfort from Max’s conviction that the mambo was not responsible for his condition.
If my former almost-boyfriend had been asleep instead of passed out, I would have appreciated this quiet time alone together, as he lay peacefully on my bed while I got to look at him all I wanted, without interruption or arguments. With his body sprawled out in unconscious surrender, his smooth torso exposed by his open shirt, and his face innocent and serene, he would look irresistibly tempting to me under almost any other circumstances. But given the events that had led to his current condition, a heavy weight of fear sat on my chest every moment that I gazed at him now. I knew I wouldn’t breathe easily—let alone be able to spare serious attention for Biko, Puma, and Frank—until and unless Lopez awoke and seemed all right.
I wondered again if I should get him to