When I got back, she wasn’t there. It was evening now, close to seven, and maybe she was at the Barn, behind the bar, making drinks for people.
I doubted it. With Ruthy dead, Lu would be leaving town, maybe already had. Hitting Tree now would be out of the question. Her back-up “man” gone, possibly murdered, Lu had no choice but get the hell out.
You just don’t hang around when a job goes sour, and it can’t go much more sour than your partner getting electrocuted in a bathtub.
But when I looked in the closet, her things were still there. It was a relief and a disappointment. A relief because the notion of maybe seeing her again was something I hadn’t been able to let go of yet; a disappointment because I’d tried to work this thing around so that she’d be forced out of it. She was supposed to be gone.
The phone was on the wall in the kitchenette. The dirty dishes from the late breakfast I’d fixed were still in the sink. I called the Barn and asked for her. She wasn’t there. I wondered whether that was good or bad, then asked to be put through to Tree.
I wondered if he’d heard about his kid yet.
“Quarry… where the fuck are you?”
So he hadn’t heard. After all, I’d told him to hole up in a motel all day somewhere, and he hadn’t been at the Barn for more than an hour or so probably, and Iowa City evidently hadn’t tracked him down yet. Well, I wasn’t about to break the news.
“Des Moines,” I said. “I won’t be coming out tonight. I’m leaving.”
“There were a couple of cops, just here… They left not five minutes ago. I don’t have to tell you what they were doing here, do I?”
“No.”
“Did you have to… to do that to her, Quarry? My God… I.. I thought a lot of that little girl, I thought she was… I just can’t… my first reaction was I wanted your goddamn throat in my hands, but… if she was what you say she was, Jesus. It’s hard to accept… but I suppose it had to be done.”
“That’s right.”
“And I suppose an… accident is, uh, better than…”
“That’s right.”
“I notice I’m missing a lady bartender tonight.”
“You better replace her.”
“I see. So. You’re leaving. That means you weren’t able to do anything about finding who was responsible…?”
“I found out.”
“Well, shit, man, who? And what’s to be done?”
“It’s been done. You’re better off not knowing the details, but I’ll tell you this… It was someone very close to your son, involved in this narcotics thing just like you imagined.”
“And you’ve taken care of the son of a bitch?”
“He’s been taken care of.”
“Knowing the kind of work you do, Quarry, I’ll just bet he has. Look, I got another call coming in on my other line…”
“You know where to send the money.”
“I’ll do it. And thanks, Quarry.”
“Yeah.”
I put the receiver back, wondering if that incoming call was Iowa City finally getting hold of him. And then Lu came home.