Endless Night Part 24

Not that she wanted w.i.l.l.y to stay.

She just didn't want Andy to go.

"Don't believe so, Jacko. Thanks all the same, but I've got a mighty big drive ahead of me. I believe I'll have a soda, instead."

"Pepsi okay?" Dad asked.

"Would you have any sort of a diet cola?"

"I'm afraid not." Dad gave the man an odd look. With good reason, Jody thought. Diet cola? The guy was as skinny as a worm.

"Well, I don't suppose one real soda will kill me." He bobbed his head a few times and winked. "Just don't tell the wife. She's after me to trim down, you know."

"Mum's the word," Dad said.

They sat around the dining room table, each with a hamburger and potato chips on a plate, and either a can or a gla.s.sful of Pepsi. For a while, n.o.body spoke as they customized their burgers with various combinations of mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, freshly sliced tomatoes, pickles and thick slabs of onion.

"Mmm, good," w.i.l.l.y said after his first bite. "Abso-tivly posa-lutely delicious. My compliments to the chef."

Quickly, before a conversation could get a chance to start, Jody asked, "Do you think you'll be able to let Andy come and visit us?"

He tilted his head sideways. "Why, we aren't even out the door yet, and you already want him back! Jacko, you'd better watch out! I think your little lady might have her eyes on young Andy here."

"She could do worse, I guess."

"Dad! It's nothing like that, and you know it."

"Oh, I know. The thing is, Wilson, they went through a lot together last night. Looks to me like it turned them into a team-and when you're on a good team, you don't like to break it up."

"Yeah," Andy pitched in. "It's like we're partners." He frowned at his uncle. "So you've gotta let me come back and see her."

"Now, don't go aiming gottas at me, Andy. I don't respond well to gottas. However, I imagine we'll be able to arrange something along the lines of a visit. After you've settled in, and your aunt's had time to accustom herself to the situation."

"He's welcome any time," Dad said.

"Splendid. Of course, any consideration of a visit will absolutely have to wait until the culprits have been apprehended."

"But Uncle ... !"

"Annndrewww?" w.i.l.l.y tipped back his head as if hoping to make his point by showing Andy the interiors of his nostrils. "We don't argue."

"What if they never catch those guys?"

Jody opened her mouth, but a quick look from her father stopped her from speaking.

"This is not a safe place," w.i.l.l.y explained. "I left my job at eleven o'clock this morning and spent my entire day on the road to come here and take you away because you're in danger here. In fact, it's gone against my better judgment even to stay for supper-which puts us both in needless jeopardy." He smiled and bobbed vigorously at Dad. "Not that it isn't a luscious supper, because it most certainly is. But you tell him, Jacko."

Dad rubbed his left cheek and settled his gaze on Andy. "You'll be a lot safer in Arizona, that's for sure."

"That's coming from a police officer," w.i.l.l.y pointed out.

Jody felt as if she might explode. "Dad! What if the guys don't ever get caught? Does that mean Andy and I never ever get to see each other again in our whole lives? That isn't fair."

Even before she'd finished, her father had begun to pat at the air with his open hand. When her last word was out, he said, "Settle down, honey. I'm not saying that. What we'll do is play it by ear. We can ask Andy to come for a visit as soon as things look stable around here." He faced the boy. "How does that sound?"

"Okay, I guess."

"And I'll call you on the phone tomorrow," Jody told him.

"Will you give them your number, Uncle w.i.l.l.y?"

"We've already got it," Dad explained.

Not much was said during the rest of the meal. Jody worked on her hamburger. She supposed there was nothing wrong with it-that it was probably as tender and juicy and tasty as Dad's barbecued burgers always were-but it filled her mouth with heavy, dry lumps that were hard to swallow. After eating less than half of it, she gave up. She nibbled a few potato chips and sipped her Pepsi.

Andy seemed to be having trouble with his burger, too. He didn't quit, though. He never set it down, but held it over his plate with both hands and stared at it and every so often took a small bite.

He's trying to make it last, Jody thought. He knows he'll have to leave when we're done eating.

Just as Andy finished his burger, Dad asked, "Would anyone like some ice cream?"

"Sure!" Andy blurted. A reprieve.

"I'm afraid we'd better pa.s.s on that, Jacko. Much obliged, anyhow. I'm afraid we've already dallied way too long. We've got that big drive ahead of us." He winked at Andy. "Don't we, young fellow?"

"I guess so."

"You're planning to drive all the way through?" Dad asked.

"That's the thing about me, I never do anything halfway. It's whole hog or nothing. I believe if you're going for it, you should go full steam ahead, come h.e.l.l or high water, torpedoes be d.a.m.ned!"

"Give me liberty," Jody muttered, "or give me death."

Her father and Andy both looked stunned: Dad shocked by her rudeness, Andy delighted.

But Wilson Spaulding bobbed his head at her, shook a crooked finger, and blurted, "Abso-tivly! Preeeeci-sely! Give me liberty or give me death! That's the sort of gung-ho spirit we like to see. d.a.m.n the torpedoes!" He turned to Dad. "You've sure got yourself a charmer, here."

"Or something," Dad muttered.

Andy laughed, but w.i.l.l.y didn't seem to notice him. "We should take her with us. By force, if necess ry! How would you like that, young lady?"

The eagerness that suddenly brightened Andy's face killed her urge to make a crack. "Thank you for asking, Mr. Spaulding. I can't, though. I've gotta stay here with my dad."

You didn't mean it, anyway, you jerk! You got Andy's hopes up for no good reason at all.

"I'm sorry," she told Andy.

"It's okay. I know you can't come."

Her throat tightened. "I think you oughta have some ice cream." To w.i.l.l.y, she said, "We can make up some cones, and both of you can take them with you. We've got chocolate chip, and Ben & Jerry's Heath ..."

"Oh, I don't think so," w.i.l.l.y said. "Cones can be so messy, and .. "

Her chair crashed to the floor as she sprang up.

"You ignorant son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h! His whole family's been wiped out and you're not gonna let him have a G.o.dd.a.m.n ice cream cone? What the h.e.l.l is the matter with you!"

Even as she yelled, a small voice in Jody's mind was warning, "My G.o.d, listen to you! You've lost it! You've flipped out!"

In spite of the small voice, she blurted it all out, shouting it at the man, spit flying from her lips, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Andy looked shocked, at first. Then he was crying, too.

w.i.l.l.y sat very stiff and still in his seat and blinked at her.

Dad lunged up, rushed around the table, took Jody by the arm and towed her into the hallway. There, away from the others, he hugged her and stroked her hair. "Oh, honey," he whispered. "Oh, honey."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, it's okay."

"I just wanted him to get his ice cream," she blubbered.

"He'll get it, he'll get it. Jesus, honey. Are you okay?"

"No."

"I know, I know."

"He's an awful man."

"He's just odd, that's all. He means well."

"He does not. He's a creep. Oh, Dad. Can't we do something ? Can't we stop him from taking Andy?"

"Andy'll be fine with him."

"No, he won't."

"Honey, honey. They're his relatives. They'll take good care of him. I know you'll miss him, but ..."

"GOODBYE!" Andy yelled. "GOODBYE, JODY!"

"What the ... ?" Dad suddenly muttered.

"DON'T FORGET TO..."

"Come on." Uncle w.i.l.l.y's voice, quick and harsh.

"Andy!" Jody shouted.

And heard a door smack shut.

"Dad, we've gotta ..."

"Shhhh." He stood rigid, holding her tightly.

He's listening.

Oh my G.o.d, he's listening for gunshots!

"Dad!"

"Shhhh."

When the noise came, she flinched. Dad didn't. He stood solid and whispered, "Just the car door." Moments later, a second thud came. An engine whinnied. "They're in. They should be all right."

The sound of the engine faded. "Dad, they're leaving!"

"They're past the risky part." He talked in a whisper, almost as if thinking out loud. "I'd planned to have Wilson pull his car into the garage so Andy wouldn't be exposed. Never expected he'd run off like that."

"It's my fault. It's because I went nuts."

He smoothed her hair. "You're gonna have to watch that temper."

"I know."

"And that language."

"But he made me so mad. It's like he doesn't have any feelings, you know? How could he not let Andy have a cone? He's supposed to be Andy's uncle, you know?"

"The world's got a lot of jerks in it, honey."

"That's for sure."

"When one happens to be a guest in our house, though, you should try to be reasonably polite."

"I know. Jeez. He only left because of me."

"He would've left anyway. Your behavior just speeded him along some."

"I didn't even get to tell Andy goodbye."

"I know, honey. I'm sorry. But look, you can call him tomorrow and tell him goodbye then. Goodbye and h.e.l.lo. Talk to him as long as you want. Remind him he left his jeans here."

Jody gasped. "He did! I forgot all about his jeans!"

"Maybe you can hold them for an exchange of hostage clothes." After a pause, he added, "That was one of my favorite outfits you gave him, by the way."