“Well, that sounds like a boring day. Almost as bad as mine’s going to be.”
“Court again?”
“I wish. Trial’s in recess Fridays. That means I get to spend the day doing paper. Catching up. And I better get started. I’ll see you, Terry. Remember what you said. You’ll call me first with the news.”
“You get the news,” he agreed.
She finally hung up and he flopped back on the bed, the phone clutched to his stomach. After a few minutes of trying to recall the dreams of the night before, he lifted the phone and called information to get the number of the emergency room at Holy Cross.
After calling and asking for Graciela Rivers, he waited nearly a minute before she picked up. Her voice was clipped and urgent. He had obviously called at a bad time. He almost hung up but guessed that she might figure out it was him.
“Hello?”
“I’m sorry. I must’ve caught you in the middle of something.”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Terry.”
“Oh, Terry, hi. No, it’s not a bad time. I just thought it might be something about Raymond. I usually don’t get calls here.”
“Then I’m sorry I alarmed you.”
“It’s okay. Are you sick? You don’t sound like you. I didn’t even recognize your voice.”
She forced a laugh into the phone. He thought she felt embarrassed that she didn’t know his voice.
“I’m lying on my back,” he said. “You ever do that when you’re calling in sick? You know, it makes you sound like you really are sick.”
This time her laugh was legitimate.
“No, I never tried that. I’ll have to remember.”
“Sure. It’s a good tip. You can use it.”
“So what’s up? How are things going?”
“Well, on the case not so good. I thought we had something yesterday but then we hit a bit of a stall. I’m going to rethink things today,”
“Okay.”
“I was calling because I was wondering about tomorrow. You know, whether you were thinking of bringing Raymond down so I could take him out to the rocks.”
“The rocks?”
“The jetty. There’s good fishing off there. I walk out most mornings and there’s always people there, lines out.”
“Well, Raymond hasn’t stopped talking about it since we left the other night. So I was planning on it. As long as it’s still all right with you.”
McCaleb hesitated, thinking about Bolotov and wondering if he could possibly be a threat. But he wanted to see Graciela and the boy. He felt a need to see them.
“It sounds like maybe we should do it another time,” she said then.
“No,” he said, the specter of Bolotov disappearing from his mind. “I was just thinking. I want you to come down. It will be fun. And I could make up for that dinner I was supposed to cook the other night.”
“Then good.”
“And you two should stay over. I’ve got plenty of room. Two staterooms and the salon table collapses and becomes a third bed.”
“Well, we’ll see. I like to keep some constants in Raymond’s life. Like his bed.”
“I understand.”
They talked about the arrangements a little further and she agreed to come down to the marina the following morning. After hanging up, he continued to lie in bed with the phone sitting on his stomach. His thoughts were on Graciela. He liked being with her and the thought of spending all of Saturday with her made him smile. Then the thought of Bolotov intruded again. McCaleb carefully considered the situation and decided that Bolotov was not a threat. Most spoken threats were never carried out. Even if Bolotov wanted to, it would be difficult for him to find
Those thoughts led to the next question. If he was not a suspect, then why had he run? McCaleb thought of Winston’s explanation the night before. Bolotov had not been the shooter but he was probably guilty of something. He ran.
McCaleb put it aside, rolled out of bed and finally got up.
After he had gotten one cup of coffee down, McCaleb went down to the office and gathered up all of the reports and the tapes and brought them back up to the salon. He then opened the slider to air out the boat and sat back down and began methodically going through all of the videotapes associated with the case.
Twenty minutes later he was watching the shooting of Gloria Torres for the third time in a row when he heard Buddy Lockridge’s voice from behind him.
“What the hell is that?”
McCaleb turned around and saw Lockridge standing in the open door of the salon. He hadn’t felt him come aboard. He grabbed the remote and flicked off the television.
“It’s a tape. What are you doing here?”
“Reporting for duty.”
McCaleb stared blankly at him.
“You told me yesterday you’d need me this morning.”
“Oh, right. Well, I don’t think I’m-I’m just going to work around here today, I think. You going to be around later if something comes up?”
“Prob’ly.”
“Okay, thanks.”
McCaleb waited for him to leave but Lockridge just stood there.
“What?”
“Is that what you’re working on?” Lockridge asked, pointing at the tube.
“Yes, Buddy, that’s it. But I can’t talk to you about it. It’s a private matter.”
“That’s cool.”
“Then what else?”
“Um, well, when’s payday?”
