Christopher Smith - Running of the bulls

“If you ask nice, she might be willing to help you,” Hines said. “Maybe even tell you what happened last night to Maria Martinez and her daughter.”

Not before helping herself to my wallet, Marty thought. Unlike Hines, Patterson helped no one without first being handed a check. “I’d rather you tell me about Martinez.”

They were on West End Avenue now, moving Uptown at a speed that was twice the legal limit. “What little I’ve heard ain’t gonna help you, my friend. Right now, my life is Wood and will be until I find the pervert that took her head. Just talk to Patterson. She’ll know what’s up with Martinez and Hayes. Patterson might be dirty, but she’s sharp. If you play her right, she might help.”

Hines cut right, narrowly missed the side of a delivery van, and cruised to a stop in front of Gloria’s building.

“Thanks, Mike.”

“No problem, man.”

Marty left the car and pushed through the building’s revolving doors. The doorman rose as Marty stepped past his desk. “You just missed them, Mr. Spellman. They left ten minutes ago.”

Marty felt a sinking in his gut. He promised the girls that he’d be here. He knew what his absence would mean to them. “Did they say where they were going?”

The man shook his head. “Just that they were going out.”

“Were they alone?”

“They were with Ms. Spellman’s new friend. They left in his car.”

Marty felt a rush of anger. He had never been late picking up the girls. Gloria knew that. She could have waited for him. “Would you leave her a message for me, Toby?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Tell her I’ll be here next weekend at noon to take my daughters to lunch.”

The man wrote the message down on a yellow slip of paper. “Anything else?”

There was plenty Marty wanted to say to Gloria, but it would be to her face, not through this man. He turned to leave. “Just tell her I won’t be late,” he said. “And thanks, Toby. I appreciate it.”

At home, there were two messages left on his machine-the first from a Sister Mary Margaret asking for a handout, the second from his ex-wife informing him that he was late, but not to worry, Jack was taking them all to lunch. Marty went into the kitchen, grabbed a can of Diet Coke from the fridge, cracked it open, knocked it back.

Unbelievable.

He’d call Mary Margaret back with a contribution, but as far as Gloria was concerned, she could go to the very place the good Sister feared most.

He was hungry. He went to the refrigerator, took out the fixings for a turkey sandwich, carried it all to the counter. He sliced and he spread and he stacked. He was cutting the sandwich in half when the service telephone rang. He licked mayonnaise from his fingertips and reached for the phone. “Carlos,” he said. “Talk to me.”

“Jennifer Barnes to see you, sir.”

Marty laid the knife on top of the sandwich. He and Jennifer had agreed to talk at eight. What was she doing here now? “All right,” he said. “Send her up.” He hung up the phone and waited for the doorbell to ring.

It didn’t.

The front door clicked shut and Marty heard the familiar sound of her heels clicking down the hallway. Jennifer stopped in the kitchen’s arched doorway and simply stared at him, her face flushed, as if she’d taken the stairs.

“How?” he asked.

She reached into her purse and removed the key he once gave her in a rush of affection. She held it up, a winking curve of metal. “I never gave it back,” she said. “I just held on to it. Don’t ask me why, I’d only lie. Do you want it back now?”

“I don’t know,” he said tentatively. “Why are you here?” He knew why she was here. He could see it on her face.

“Oh, Marty,” she said. “Why do you have to ask so many damn questions?”

She came over to where he was standing and kissed him hard on the mouth. Still kissing him, she tugged at his shirt and started unbuttoning it, her fingers brushing his nipples, skimming his chest, smoothing the thin trail of light brown hair that snaked down his stomach to his groin.

Marty moved to speak, but Jennifer put a finger to the lips. “Don’t,” she said. “Why ruin it? Just let it happen. We both want this.”

Later, in bed, exhausted and sucking air, Marty looked up at Jennifer as she slowly slid off him. “My God,” she said. “The neighbors must be looking for wolves right now. You didn’t hold back at all. You actually let yourself go.”

“I was horny.”

“That wasn’t it,” she said. “You’re different. I saw it this morning. You’ve changed. You’ve never come like that.”

Marty smiled at her. “I am different,” he said, patting his flat stomach. “About ten pounds different, right around my middle.”

“That’s not it,” she said. “You’re more relaxed. Your guard is down. You seem more settled. It’s as if you’ve let something go.” She lifted the damp hair off his forehead and combed it back with her fingertips. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Why did you leave?”

At some point, he knew she’d ask that question, but he was surprised by the suddenness of it here. “I don’t know if I can answer that,” he said tentatively.

“Can you try?”

He owed it to her, but how to get it out properly? “I needed to get my act together,” he said. “When I met you, I was still in love with Gloria. We had two kids together. I love my kids. I miss them every day. I thought maybe there was another chance for us-even a third chance. Until I straightened my head out, I decided it was cruel to be in a relationship with you if all of me wasn’t here for you.”

“Where do you stand with Gloria now?”

“We’re finished,” he said. “We have been for a while.”

“Are you in love with her?”

Marty thought about that, thought of all the years and all the guilt and all the love won and all the love lost, and wondered what it all had meant. Was he a better man now for having loved Gloria? Besides his daughters, had anything good come out of those thirteen years together?

“I’ll always love her,” he said. “She gave me Katie and Beth. We have a history that I can’t just swipe away. But she’s changed into somebody I don’t recognize. She wants to be something else. She wants to be a celebrity, which I don’t understand. It’s a different kind of love I feel for her. It’s not sexual, but based on our past. We made two fantastic girls together, and that’s about all we got right. Does that make sense?”

Jennifer bent to kiss him on the lips. “I always knew you were a good man. I waited for you, you know?”

“You waited for me?”

She shrugged. “I love you,” she said. “I’ve always been in love with you. Of course, I waited for you. I knew at some point you’d come around and we’d give it another try.” She paused. “If that’s what you want.”

Marty was still for a moment. He felt overcome and grateful, but not confined. He realized he also loved her. And for the first time since he’d known her, he told her so.

Spocatti threaded through the crowds on lower Fifth, Maggie Cain so close he could reach out and slice her throat.

He’d been tailing her since early afternoon and he was enjoying it. She was attractive. Dark brown hair falling to her shoulders and swinging like scarves. Olive green shorts, white shirt, matching green shoes, legs tanned and shining in the sun. The scar on her cheek made him go weak with the mystery of it. He wondered how she smelled and how she tasted. She reminded him of the only woman he had ever loved, dead now ten years by his own hands.