Summer Cool

14

Paine saw Terry get out of her car as he entered his building, and he held the elevator until she came in. "How long have you been waiting?" he asked.

Her eyes didn't look at him. "A couple of hours. I tried you at home after the bus took the girls this morning, and then I left a message on your machine."

"I was at a funeral."

"Oh."

"It was Roberto Hermano, the guy Bobby was working with on that drug case."

Now she looked at him. "Did-"

"I don't know what to think. There were things I wanted to tell you yesterday, but you wouldn't let me."

The elevator stopped, and they walked the hail to Paine's office door. Inside, the phone was ringing. Paine got out his keys, but by the time he got the door open the phone had stopped.

"Come on in," he said to Terry.

There was more mail on the floor, and Paine picked it up and threw it on the desk. It was hot and stuffy in the room. Paine threw his jacket on the couch, sat behind the desk, went quickly through the mail.

"I was going to call you yesterday, right after you left," Terry said. She was standing on the other side of the desk, looking down at him. "Last night I almost did. I had a few drinks and went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I almost called you at two in the morning."

"You should have," Paine said.

Terry paused, and then said, "I'm sorry, Jack."

Paine put on a smile. "For what?"

She didn't smile. "I was serious about what I said yesterday. But I shouldn't have done that to you."

"Did the garbage men come?"

A flush of anger or embarrassment came and faded. "Yes. And they'll come next week for the rest."

"My point was, don't you think you're being a bit hasty?"

"In getting on with my life? When people die, you put their things away and go on."

"Bobby's not dead."

Now her eyes were focused straight on him. "To me he is."

Paine looked at her, and she sat down and put her hands in her lap. "I'm sorry, Jack, but that's the way it is. He's gone now. I know he's not coming back I have a life to get on with."

"Terry, I'm going to find him, whether you want me to or not."

She stood, still clutching her hands, and turned away from the desk. "I know you will. But I don't want to know anything about it."

He saw her beginning to sob, and he rose and walked around the desk.

She turned, crying, and fell into his arms. Her hands moved up to her face, trying to stop the tears, but then she let them come and put her arms around Paine and held him close to her.

"Oh, Jack, I don't know what the hell to do. ."

He held her tight, and suddenly she stopped crying and he looked down and her face was there, and she was looking at him with a hard straight look. She looked almost fierce. Tears had flushed her face, and she reached up and held Paine's neck and pulled his mouth down to hers.

Paine tried to stop her, but she held his neck and suddenly Paine found himself opening his mouth and responding. Her kiss was hard and long. Paine tried to fight her, tried to fight himself, but he melted to her, feeling a cloud move down around him, pushing the world out. He held her a long time and her second kiss was not tentative and hard and fierce but warm and soft. Her kiss lessened and she pulled her mouth away from him and when he opened his eyes she was staring at him hard again, in surprise.

"My God, Jack," she said, pushing him away, and Paine stood there as she ran from the office, leaving the door open, and he heard her running down the hallway and then the elevator came and she was gone.

Paine stood still in the center of his office, and felt the cloud that had enveloped him move away and the heat of the office moved in on him again. He felt changed. But the heat was there, and then the phone rang, and he picked it up.

"Paine," he said.

Someone was on the phone, but he heard no voice. He was about to hang the phone up when the voice came back. "Jack, it's Jim Coleman."

It was Jim Coleman, but it didn't sound like him. The bravado, the nervous swagger, the bluster had been replaced by the same purely frightened voice Paine had heard on the tape in Bryers’ office.

Paine said, "Do you know where Bob Petty is?"

"Listen to me," Coleman said. "Please. I want you to meet me. I'll tell you about Petty if you meet me."

"Where are you?"

The silence came back. "I. ." Again silence. The sound of pure fear. "You know the place. The club. You remember the barbecues. I may already have been followed, I don't know. If I leave. ." Again the silence.

"What does 'tiny' mean, Coleman?" Paine said. "Who or what is it?"

"Jesus," Coleman said. "Please, Jack. Just come. Now." Paine heard weeping, and then Coleman hung up the phone.