Мэри Эндрюс - The Newcomer

Ava edged Joe away from the microphone. “Aloha everyone, and welcome to our twenty-eighth annual evening of Aloha Bingo at the Murmuring Surf. I’m Ava DeCurtis, sole owner and proprietor of the Surf, and my handsome son Joe here is your caller tonight. That beautiful young lady at the back of the room, my assistant manager Letty, will be circulating the room and checking numbers and solving any issues. I assume y’all know the rules, but let me repeat—the first person I recognize as calling out bingo will be the winner of that game. Prizes will not be awarded until the numbers of each card are verified and approved by me. Also, and please remember this point, don’t piss me off. Play nice, or go home.”

Joe reclaimed his place. “Okay, we’re gonna start off the evening with a straight bingo. First to cover five numbers horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins.”

Ava spun the wire cage holding the numbers, and the game was off.

“O-72,” Joe called.

Letty circled the room, greeting the regulars and smiling at newcomers.

“Hey Letty.” Merwin Maples summoned her to the table where he and Trudi were seated. He and his wife had four cards assembled on the tabletop.

Ruth and Billie Feldman sat across from the Mapleses. They had twelve cards neatly lined up in rows. Billie Feldman presided over a colorful village of rubber troll dolls. She had an array of fat plastic felt-tip bingo markers and was glaring at Merwin, whose plastic cup of Hawaiian punch was bumped up against the troll village.

“N-43,” Joe called.

“Got two, Billie,” Ruth said, pointing to the card with those numbers.

“What’s up, Merwin?”

He gestured at the dolls. “Can you tell her to move those creepy damn dolls? She’s taking up the whole tabletop. I can’t even concentrate on my cards with all those things.”

Billie Feldman didn’t look up. She was using a marker to slash N-43 on her cards. “Shove it, Merwin,” she said. “You don’t like it, move to another table.”

“G-54,” Joe intoned.

“Bahahahaha,” Ruth chuckled, pointing at the corresponding number on one of the cards Billie had just colored.

“There are no other tables,” Merwin complained. He gestured around the room. “It’s a full house.”

“O-63,” Joe called.

Trudi stabbed at one of their cards with her forefinger. “We got one, Merwin. Pay attention.”

Billie colored numbers on her cards. “Yeah, Merwin. Quit yer bitching and pay attention. Not that it’ll do you any good.” She pointed at her cards. “I got the winning combination right here.”

Letty peered over her shoulder. She saw three cards that only lacked one more winning number.

“Come on B-7. Or G-48,” Ruth chanted, rubbing her hands together. She held out one of the troll dolls to Billie, who kissed the top of its head for luck.

“I-29,” Joe called.

Oscar Jensen erupted from his chair the next table over. “ Bingo! ” he yelled, waving his hands in the air. “Bingo, bingo, bingo!”

With one hand, Billie swept her losing cards off the table, knocking over Merwin’s half-full cup of punch in the process. The sticky red liquid dripped off the table and onto his lap.

“Oh, sorry,” she said, dabbing ineffectively at the mess with a paper napkin.

Letty hurried away from the simmering feud to check Oscar’s card, matching the numbers on the screen against the numbers on his card. “We’ve got a winner!” she called to Ava.

“Oscar, you get a six-pack of Sprite and a free round of putt-putt at Island Golf,” Ava said.

“What? I don’t want no stinkin’ Sprite,” Oscar griped. “What about the cash?”

“Sorry, you won the warm-up game. Next game is a cash prize,” Joe answered. “Ten dollars and a genuine Murmuring Surf souvenir tote bag. This one is a postage-stamp game. Cover any four numbers in a contiguous block on your card. Okay, let’s roll. O-75.”

The next hour passed in a flash. The bingo players were a raucous, rowdy bunch. They cheered and booed and played blackout, four corners, black diamond, and half a dozen other variations of the game that Letty had never heard of before. In between games they bought cards and claimed prizes and argued (in vain) with Ava over who was first to call bingo.

At eight, Joe called for a fifteen-minute break, and people surged toward the buffet and the bar.

“How’s it going out there?” Joe asked, offering Letty a glass of lukewarm white wine.

“It’s crazytown,” Letty reported. “I never knew people could get this worked up over winning a Pancake House gift card. Merwin and Billie Feldman almost got in a fistfight because Merwin bitched that Billie was invading his territorial imperative.”

“Bingo is serious business,” Joe said. He looked up and grinned as Oscar Jensen approached. “Speaking of loony tunes…”

“Joe, Joe,” Oscar said. He tugged at the cop’s arm. “I was taking a smoke break just now, and I saw some guy, skulking around outside, peeking in windows.”

“Where?” Joe said.

“Out there. He was looking in the window of the office. I saw him.”

“Show me,” Joe said. He looked over at Letty. “Tell Mom she needs to take over calling numbers. It’s probably nothing, but stay here, and don’t let anybody leave.”

He bolted out of the room, with Oscar trailing behind.

Letty looked out at the darkened parking lot, where the Murmuring Surf’s cheerful neon sign blinked off and on, spilling pink and green and blue reflections onto the pavement. She retrieved her purse from beneath the card table and called Vikki Hill.

“Hi,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Just checking to make sure you guys are okay.”

“We’re fine,” Vikki said. “Your kid’s still alive. We’ve had Popsicles and popcorn, and watched a lot of PAW Patrol. I tried to convince her of the moral superiority of Scooby-Doo, but she’s a stubborn little thing. Just put her to bed and she’s already snoring. How’s it going with Aloha Bingo?”

“It’s okay.” Letty hesitated. “One of the regulars thinks he saw somebody lurking around outside, peeking in the window at the office.”

“Shit,” Vikki breathed. “Does he need me to go out there? Or call the local cops?”

“Not yet,” Letty said. “The old guy who reported the prowler is kind of a kook. Easily excited. Joe’s out there now, checking things out. I’m sure he’ll call you if he needs you. He made me promise to stay in here for now, but the minute he comes back, I’ll head home.”

With the break over, Ava resumed calling numbers. Letty continued patrolling the room, glancing out at the parking lot every chance she got. Ten minutes later, Joe returned.

“If there was anybody out there, he’s gone now,” he reported. “I got my flashlight, checked under cars, around the pool, down by the beach. Everything’s quiet. I called it in to dispatch too, and they sent a unit by. Nothing. Fina promised she’d have night watch roll through here on the hour tonight.”

“Did Oscar give you a description of the prowler?”

“Tall guy, but everybody looks tall to Oscar. He was dressed in dark clothes. And a baseball cap.”

“Rooney,” Letty said, feeling her scalp prickle.

45

JOE SIDLED UP TO HIS mother as she was escorting the last bingo player to the door of the rec room. “Where was Isabelle going tonight?”

Ava looked startled. “She and Sierra were going to meet friends someplace for burgers, then she said they might go to a late movie. What’s going on, son?”

“Oscar thought he saw someone prowling around outside the office about an hour ago,” Joe said. He explained about calling for a patrol unit and his fruitless search around the property.