She crossed Pacific Coast Highway at the Main Street light and continued on to the bike trail that ran through the beach. She still had Mrs. Emerson’s key card, so getting in would be easy.
“Hey, look out!” Someone shouted and Jazz jumped aside as a couple of older kids flew by on mountain bikes.
“Watch where you’re going!” she shouted after them, but they didn’t hear. She watched till they were out of sight in the dark, then she was alone on the bike trail. Spooky. And there was no moon. Real spooky.
She’d lived by the beach all her life and she’d been on the trail lots of times after dark, but never alone. When she was alone, she always came home the front way, straight across PCH at Main Street, then past the guard shack. She looked through the chain link fence when she reached the condos. Everything inside seemed normal. No sign of the Ghost. And no sign of her dad. It looked safe. She ran her hand along the fence till she got to the gate. She keyed the gate and slipped in without a sound.
She dashed to C building, was about to take the stairs up to the clubhouse, when she heard footsteps. She leaned back against the building, arms at her sides, palms against the stucco wall. Her hands were cold, her feet sweating in her running shoes. She inched along the wall till she was under the stairs.
Someone was just the other side of the building. Then all of a sudden that someone was in front of her, standing at the foot of the stairs. The outside light from an apartment on the second floor shone down on Gay, making her face glow like an angel’s.
Gay dropped to her knees and held her arms out. Jazz burst into tears and ran into them.
“It’s okay. I’m here.” The child looked like she’d been living on the run, like a homeless waif. She was scared.
“Don’t let him take me away. Please don’t let him.” Jazz was trembling, covered in cold sweat.
“Don’t worry.” Gay hugged her tight, killing the shivers. But could she kill her fears?
“He’s horrible, promise!”
“I promise, Jazz.” Gay hated to say it, but she agreed with Jasmine. Her father was horrible. She wondered what Margo had ever seen in him.
“You mean it?” Jazz pulled back, looked into Gay’s eyes. “Really?”
“Really. Now let’s get inside and get you into a hot bath.” Gay broke the hug. “Okay?” She led her to the safety of her living room. Sonya was waiting, sitting on the couch. The TV was on, a video, but the sound was off.
“You’re staying with us till your mom gets back. No one’s gonna take you away.” Gay was worried about how long Margo was going to be. She’d said she’d be back on Saturday before noon. The woman was a cuckoo clock without springs, but she was usually punctual.
“Not even my dad, you promised.”
“Especially not him.” Bruce Kenyon didn’t stand a chance in hell of getting the girl, no matter how long Margo took to get back.
“Thank you.” Jasmine jumped up on the sofa next to Sonya, the bath apparently forgotten.
“But I gotta tell you, I’m worried about your mom. She said she’d be back this morning.”
“No way,” Jasmine said. “She’s starting back at midnight. She said so, so she could be back in time to take me out to breakfast tomorrow morning.”
“I could have sworn she told me today before noon.”
“She probably did,” Sonya said.
“Yeah,” Jasmine said. “That’s my mom, sometimes she messes up.”
She messes up a lot, Gay thought, but she wasn’t going to say it. She crossed her fingers, something she hadn’t done since she was a little girl.
“Why are you doing that, Mom?” Sonya said.
“For luck, wishing Margo a safe journey home.” The girls crossed their fingers, too. Both hands.
Chapter Five
Maggie opened her eyes and was surprised to see that the dance floor was crowded. A slow song was playing, the Beatles’ ‘Yesterday.’ She saw Horace with the ferret face dancing with a woman wearing a long dress. Except for a quick memory flash of his large friend, she didn’t think anything of it. The Lounge was crowded as it was every Saturday, like all the popular pickup places in the Shore.
“You ready to go?” Gordon pushed away from Maggie, met her eyes. “It doesn’t look like Nick’s coming.” Maggie saw tension wrinkling his forehead. His lips were tight. His hand was quivering.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing?” he said.
“Don’t give me that, you’re the original Mr. Poker Face. Besides, you’ve been Mr. Smooth all afternoon, what’s up?”
“Mr. Smooth, Mr. Poker Face.” Gordon laughed.
“That’s better. Now, what is it? You’re worried about something. What? And why all of a sudden?”
“The thought of taking Fred down to the pet store just flashed through my mind. It kind of gave me the shivers for a second there.”
“I can understand that, Ricky loved that bird. You probably feel giving him away is like giving away a part of Ricky.”
“Maybe.” He sighed loud enough for her to hear over the music. “You wanna get outta here?”
“Yeah.” Maggie looked at the Budweiser clock behind the bar. It was almost 7:00. They usually left when it started to get crowded. Maggie liked to dance. Gordon did too. So that’s what they did while Nick, who thought dancing was something pygmies did in Africa somewhere, played at being Mr. Important at the bar.
She usually walked home laughing and joking between the two of them, but not tonight. Was Nick out somewhere with that redhead? Was she making that drug buy? Did he have a film crew with him? Or was he in another bar somewhere buying her a drink? Was that why he hadn’t come back to the Lounge as he’d promised?
She linked an arm with Gordon and started for the door. Outside, the darkness covered her mood like early evening fog. The sun had been blazing when she’d gone into the Lounge. Now it was gone. There was no moon.
“We really went to town tonight,” Gordon said. “It kind of made me feel young.”
“You are young,” she said. He wasn’t, but he didn’t seem old. She started down Corona Avenue toward the beach. She wanted to tell him about the baby, but she’d already made her mind up about it, so there didn’t seem to be any point.
He squeezed her arm as they turned at Ocean Avenue. The gentle surf, tamed by the breakwater, lapped up onto the sand on the other side of the street. A car went past, slow cruising, then another. At first Maggie didn’t get it, then she saw the Whale up ahead.
“I’m going in alone tonight.” Gordon was tense. He seemed eager.
“Really?” She was uncomfortable and now she knew it wasn’t just giving away Ricky’s bird that had him tense earlier. He’d been thinking about going into the Whale by himself.
“Ricky’s been gone for over a year, it’s time.”
“Sure you don’t want me to come in for a bit?” She’d been in so many times with him she was a regular. She’d have a drink or two with Gordon, meet some of his friends. Maybe dance to a couple of slow tunes. But tonight he wasn’t going in for a drink and to meet friends. He was after something more and it bothered her. It shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help her feelings.
“No, I’ll be alright.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.” He smiled at her, started for the bar, turned back at the door. “I’ll be fine, really.” Then he was inside and she was alone with the night.
“Damn,” she muttered. She was more than uncomfortable. She was jealous and that didn’t make any sense. She stared at the door, half expecting him to come back out, but he didn’t.
She should go home, she told herself, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to face an empty house if Nick wasn’t there and she didn’t want to face him if he was. Thoughts of the baby filled her head, then the thought of it dead crept in. Abortion, she sighed, the coward’s way out. Was she going to give up on her baby the way she’d given up on racing?
She wrapped her arms around herself, hugged herself and told herself it was the chilly night making her shiver and not the thought of losing her child. But she didn’t believe it, couldn’t and never would be able to convince herself.