Read Online Mystery Dance: Three Novels by Scott Nicholson - Free Book Online Page B

but I can’t talk to her about the heavy stuff.”
    “Well, I’m here whenever you need me.”
    Renee’s throat caught and the tears welled up without warning. She stuck a finger behind her glasses and brushed at her eyelashes. “I can’t do this much longer. I want Jake.”
    “Didn’t he get weird after Christine?”
    Renee’s chest clenched around her heart. “Yeah. He went AWOL, but I was so focused on Mattie that I hardly noticed.”
    “He’ll work it out in time. He’ll see how much he needs you. You know what I’ve always said about men.”
    Renee barked a half-sob, half-laugh. “‘They can’t see the light because their heads are up their butts.’”
    “In the meantime, you need to invest that money. What’s done is done but you still have to live.”
    “I guess so.”
    “It’s what Mattie would want.”
    “Sure.”
    “And, if worse comes to worse, you can always ditch Jacob and move in with me.”
    “You’re not my type. You’re too emotionally stable and your place is too messy.”
    “Yeah, that’s always been my problem.”
    A shadow broke the sunlight that slanted through the curtains. Someone was outside her door. Her apartment, like all the others at Ivy Terrace, had a private entrance. The top stories were accessed by a shared set of stairs, but each had its own deck. She waited for a knock but none came. It must have been an errant courier.
    “I’d better be getting back to work,” Kim said, tugging Renee back to the phone.
    “Things crazy at the lab?”
    “You know how blood is. People just can’t seem to live without it.”
    “Okay, thanks for letting me whine.”
    “Renee?”
    “Yeah?”
    “I hate to say this, but you made a million the hard way.”
    “I’d pay a hundred times that to have Mattie back.”
    “I know. It just seems a little strange, that’s all. Like a silver lining in a black-as-hell cloud.”
    “Yeah.” She didn’t want to start crying again. “Oh, there was one thing I wanted to ask you, since you’ve been here awhile. Do you know anything about Joshua Wells?”
    “Jacob’s brother? I’ve only been here a few years longer than you. I heard some stories, but apparently he left town years ago.”
    “What kind of stories?”
    “The usual, troubled-rich-kid stuff. Vandalism, shoplifting, drugs, soliciting hookers. What, Jacob never told you?”
    “I guess he was ashamed. He’s always going on about living up to the Wells name.”
    “Get that man some help. Get both of you some help. Now I’ve really got to run. I have some Type O that’s just crying out to be HIV-negative.”
    “Bye, Kim.” She hung up and looked at the window again.
    The shadow was back. The deck planking squeaked with footsteps. She wondered if Davidson was snooping around. She was about to go to the door when the phone rang.
    She looked from the door to the phone. Ivy Terrace was upscale, safe. And she had locked the door. She always locked the door. It was Jake who was careless about such things, like leaving the sliding glass door open on the night of the fire–
    She picked up the phone. “Hello?”
    The line hissed with empty electronics. Four seconds passed.
    “Kim?” she said.
    “It’s me.”
    “Jake! I’ve been worried sick. Where are you?”
    “The place I said I’d never go.”
    “What? You sound terrible. Do you have a cold?”
    “I got another present for you.”
    “I don’t want a present. I want you to talk to me.”
    Jacob’s voice grew fainter. “Special delivery.”
    He added something she couldn’t hear because a car with a busted muffler roared through the parking lot outside.
    “Jake, we need some counseling. We need to work things out. About the money and about us.”
    “Mattie,” he said.
    “Yes, that, too. We need to return her to the dirt. It’s something we should do together, no matter how you feel about me.”
    “My daughter.”
    “Mine, too.”
    “I didn’t know.”
    “Jake, are you okay? Please don’t tell me