Read Online Goodnight, Irene by Jan Burke - Free Book Online Page B

— from now on, people would have to invite me out for dessert if they wanted to meet me here.
    Wrigley finally agreed to a very slight increase in my former pay, and I felt that after hoodwinking him into buying us dinner and begging me to do everything I wanted to do, I should be satisfied. We shook on it. I had to wipe sauce off my hand afterward.
    Lydia excused herself for a moment and I got a little panicked that with her gone, Wrigley would wax romantic to seal the deal.
    “Excuse me,” I said, “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Lydia, but you have a peppercorn stuck in your front teeth.”
    “Why, thanks for letting me know,” he said. “That’s so embarrassing.”
    He then took out a slim silver object which I first took to be a cigarette case. He opened it and took out a length of dental floss, and using the polished lid as a mirror, proceeded to floss his teeth at the table.
    “Nothing beats good dental hygiene, I always say,” he said between teeth.
    Let bygones be bygones, I thought to myself, trying not to watch.
    Lydia finally got back. She had missed the demonstration of Wrigley’s table manners completely. Michael brought our check and told Lydia he hoped she had enjoyed her evening and would return soon, and left the check. I was sure Wrigley would stiff him his tip.
     
     
    A S WE CROSSED the parking lot, I could see that Lydia was dying to tell me something. As soon as we were in the car, she revealed that Michael had asked for her phone number.
    “He said he’d call when he got off work tonight, about eleven.” She frowned for a moment. “I suppose I shouldn’t get my hopes up. He’s quite a bit younger than I am. He might not call.”
    “Don’t talk yourself into or out of anything yet, kiddo. Enjoy it.”
    “You’re right. I’m not going to spoil it.”
    I thanked her for paving the way for my getting everything I could hope for out of Wrigley, and she laughed so hard at my description of Wrigley’s flossing that I didn’t even think about her driving.
     
10
     
    W HEN WE GOT HOME , there was a message for me from Frank on the answering machine, asking me to call him. He sounded weary on the tape. He wasn’t in at headquarters, but they said he was expecting my call, so they would contact him out in the field.
    About fifteen minutes went by, and the phone rang. It was Michael. He was still at the restaurant, but was calling Lydia to ask if she’d like to go out Thursday night. He worked Fridays and weekends, so that was his next night off. She said yes, hung up and was bouncing off the walls in excitement for the next half hour. Cody, whose affections for Lydia had been won with lasagna, got in the act and started tearing through the house as if he were being chased by a pack of wild dogs.
    Sometime around twelve o’clock Lydia and Cody finally wound down. We were sitting together on the couch, scratching Cody’s ears and catching up on newsroom gossip, when Frank called. Lydia handed the phone to me.
    “Hi, Frank.”
    “Hello, Irene. Do you have a few minutes?” That weary tone again.
    “Lately I haven’t been booked at midnight. What’s up? You sound kind of down.”
    “Do I? I’m okay, just tired. Can’t keep the hours I did when I was twenty-three. Anyway, I need your help with something. We’ve got copies of O’Connor’s handwritten notes and you were right — they’re in some kind of code. Do you know how to read it, or am I going to have to hire a cryptographer?”
    “I can usually make out most of it.”
    “Great.”
    “Can you get copies of what you have to me?”
    “Yeah. You going to be up for a little while?”
    “Yeah, probably. Lydia’s catching me up on the latest rumors at the
Express
. Did you want to drop them by on your way home?”
    “If you don’t mind…”
    “See you soon.”
    We hung up and I let Lydia know what was up.
    It took Frank about thirty minutes to get over to the house. Lydia had fallen asleep on the couch