Rebecca Schwartz 05 - Other People's Skeletons

great upheaval of metal and wheels, but he twisted his face around. “Is Adrienne okay?” he said. “Where’s Adrienne?”
    “You killed her, you fucker.” Good-bye Stockholm Syndrome; I wasn’t cutting him one inch of slack. “What did you do with Rob Burns?”
    “Rob Burns? Who’s Rob Burns?”
    “The reporter.”
    “Oh, him. He’s at my house.”
    I swallowed. “What did you do with him?”
    “What do you mean what did I do with him?”
    “He’s dead, isn’t he? You killed him.” I shouldn’t have asked. I felt dizzy, watched his face go out of focus.
    “No, I didn’t kill him. Why would I kill him? I just tied him up to get him out of the way.”
    “You didn’t kill him?” I was aware I was gibbering, also smiling, poor strategy while holding someone at gunpoint.
    “Hey, watch it. Watch it! Let me take that, okay?” The spilled cyclist was trying to get macho. I couldn’t really blame him— my gun was shaking a little— but no late-arriving Ken Doll was getting it away from me.
    “You want to try to take it?” I said. “Go ahead, make my day.” Since I avoid clichés whenever possible, I forebore to add “punk.”
    And so we waited for the cops, Dunson and me, a frozen tableau, as fascinating, judging from the thickening crowds, as the Mona Lisa.
    After about a millennium, the police came.
    A century or so after that, I persuaded them to go get Rob, and three years later, Chris joined us at the police station. A month after that they released us.
    Acting on some good news Chris had brought, we headed for San Francisco General.
    Adrienne had a hole in her shoulder, but she was out of surgery and conscious by the time the three of us could get to her.
    She was dead-white, still pretty doped up, but she managed to smile. “You’re all alive.”
    “You’re the one we were worried about.”
    Her face darkened. “Is Dad okay?”
    “He’s been arrested, but he’s fine.”
    “He shot me. My own dad shot me.”
    “He didn’t mean to, Adrienne. Your dad’s pretty out of it.”
    “For Christ’s sake, Rebecca,” said Chris. “Stop making excuses for him. He’s her dad, and he tried to kill her— she’s got to live with that.”
    Adrienne nodded. “Thank you.” Some of the trouble left her face. I realized that it wasn’t the time to take the side of the man who’d done this to her— and that it must have sounded as if I had.
    “I tried to cover for him,” she said.
    “We know. You must have figured out he’d killed Jason when you noticed the keys missing.”
    “Uh-huh.” She couldn’t seem to say anymore.
    “You’re tired, aren’t you? Do you want us to leave?”
    “No!” Her voice was much stronger. “Please don’t leave me.”
    I felt for her. She was twenty-three, and she’d lost so many people, so much. She’d lost nearly everything. I hoped it wasn’t too late for her, that her life could start again.
    She said, “I found out … I don’t want to die.”
    “You took the pills rather than turn your dad in?”
    She nodded, looking grateful we understood. “And then, when he came to the hospital, I tried to get him to give himself up. And he went nuts. He didn’t know I knew, you see. So he…” She searched for the right word. “He took me.”
    “He kidnapped you.”
    “I guess so. I guess that’s what it was. He locked me in a room.” Her eyes filled, and she fought for control for a minute; then she turned to Rob. “What were you doing there?”
    “I was watching the house. Waiting for you to show up. Then I saw you two doors down.”
    “I got loose and went out the back door. I just stayed in backyards till I thought it was safe.”
    “Brilliant me.” Rob was speaking to Chris and me. “I hailed her, which alerted the old man.” He smiled ruefully. “Adrienne got away, but I didn’t.”
    “I had to get some gas, though, and that slowed me down.
    “Dad went through my things when he took me from the hospital. So he knew about Eddie from a journal I had. I found out where Eddie was from Tommy, who’d already talked to you and Chris, Rebecca. I guess Dad followed me to the park, and we all ended up in the Conservatory at the same time.”
    “He must have talked to Eddie’s wife. That’s how we got there.”
    Adrienne said, “Poor woman. I wish…”
    Her strength seemed to fail then. She couldn’t complete the sentence, but I knew what she wished.
    She wished she could have found someone to love her who wasn’t already