Body Rides (46 page)

And decided there was no doubt about it.

A perfect day, a perfect night.

If only I hadn’t dropped her at lunch. God, I wish I hadn’t done
that. It was such a mean, nasty thing to do. Shit! How could I do a thing like that to her? Split her chin open
. . .

He began to cry.

He wrapped his arms around Sue’s back and held her tenderly as he sobbed. Tears trickled down both sides of his face. On the left side, they were stopped by Sue’s head. On the right side, they dribbled into his ear and tickled.

I’ll never hurt her again, he promised himself. I’ll never
let
anyone hurt her. I’ll stay with her forever and protect her from harm.

Like I protected Elise?

He pictured Elise dead.

Again.

And then his mind, going off as if on a whim of its own – to torture him – made a few changes in the horrible picture. The mutilated corpse on the ledge of the tub became Sue.

No! Isn’t going to happen. No way
.

He held Sue gently. He felt her heat and weight, her heartbeat, her breathing. And he felt the crushing loss of her.

Whatever else happens, he thought, we’ll never have another time like this. This was the best. You aren’t allowed repeats.

‘Who the hell says so?’ Sue whispered.

Neal thought for a moment that he had imagined her voice. But then she raised her head and stared into his eyes.

Her eyes were shiny and red.

‘We are too gonna have more good times,’ she said. ‘We are, too. Repeats
are
allowed.’

Then her eyes flooded and she began to shudder and sob.

‘What do you want to do about Mojave?’ Neal asked. It was five o’clock in the afternoon. They’d been on the road since shortly after one, having stayed in their room at the Apache Inn until the noon checkout time, then eaten lunch at the
Puncho Viva
restaurant and spent a while exploring the town, buying souvenirs and some snacks.

‘What
about
Mojave?’ Sue asked, frowning slightly.

‘What do you want to do when we get there?’

‘Like what?’ she asked.

‘It’s where you live,’ Neal pointed out.

Looking at him, she raised her eyebrows. ‘Well, I reckon ya could let me off there and go on without me.’

Her words gave him a sick, sinking feeling. He knew she was joking around, but . . .

Reaching over, she squeezed his thigh. ‘Not that it hasn’t been swell, George.’

‘It’s Neal,’ he told her.

‘Well, shoot! How’d I go and forget yer name?’

Smiling, relieved, he lowered a hand from the steering wheel and pressed Sue’s hand against his leg. ‘The thing is,’ he said, ‘we’ll be passing through. We should probably stop, don’t you think? Don’t you want to tell someone where you’re going? Don’t you have some
stuff
you’d like to pick up?’

‘Nope,’ she said.

‘
What?
’

‘I told ’em I was goin for good.’

‘
What?
’

‘Yup.’

‘No, you didn’t.’

‘Yup, I did.’ She gave Neal the wildest, most gleeful and disarming smile he’d ever seen her make. ‘I says to Sunny, “I’m runnin off with that fella over at table number five.” Sunny, she says, “
What?
” like I lost my marbles. I go, “He’s my dreamboat . . . takin me away forever.”’

Neal gaped at her.

‘Better watch the road, honey,’ she said.

He faced front. ‘You’re making that up. You never said any of that.’

‘Wanta bet? If ya don’t believe me, we can drop in on Sunny. You can ask her yerself. Better still, just use the bracelet on me. Hop on in, and you’ll find out if I’m lyin or not.’

Neal shook his head. ‘That’s all right,’ he said. ‘I’ll take your word for it.’

‘Good. ’Cause that’s sure what I told Sunny.’

‘But you didn’t even
know
me.’

‘I had me a feelin.’

‘My God, you
are
nuts.’

‘Think I was wrong?’

‘No, but . . .’

‘I
mighta
been wrong, but I wasn’t. So, anyhow, we don’t gotta stop in Mojave. Nobody’s expectin me back.’

‘What about all your things?’

‘I told Sunny to keep ’em.’

‘That was generous.’

‘Well, she was rentin me a room. It was all her furniture. I didn’t have nothin . . .
anything
much in it ’cept some duds, and they weren’t much to write home about. She’s got a daughter my size . . .’ Sue shrugged. ‘I just went ahead and told her to keep everything.’

‘Don’t you have keepsakes, or . . .?’

‘Nope.’

‘Nothing?’

‘Nope.’ A corner of her mouth lifted. ‘Now, I got Dart. Dart’s a keepsake, I reckon. All the other stuff ya gave me, too. They’re keepsakes.’

Neal suddenly felt awful for her. He shook his head. ‘How could you
not
have anything? You’re . . . eighteen?’

‘Dependin which i.d. I use.’

‘I’m serious,’ he said.

‘Yer also a guy that takes stuff hard, and I don’t wanta make ya cry again.’

‘Oh, jeez.’

‘Well? It’s the truth.’

‘You were supposed to be
asleep
last night when that happened. I didn’t know you were
spying
on me.’

‘I wasn’t
spyin
on ya, I was on a tour of yer
marvels
.’

‘Ha ha.’

Sue laughed for real, but softly, and rubbed his leg. ‘Anyhow, I
use
to have all kinds of good stuff. But it all got burnt up in the fire. All my keepsakes, all my clothes, my dog Sparkle, my sister Betty. My folks, too.’

Neal turned to her, half smiling – she had to be pulling his leg.

He saw the way she was trying to look cheerful but had a frantic look in her eyes.

‘Oh, my God,’ he muttered.

‘It’s all right,’ she told him.

‘Your . . . whole family?’

‘My cat Fraidy survived. But then he got squished a couple weeks later on the interstate. Him . . . He and I, we hit the road together. Only he didn’t last. That’s ’cause cats’re generally not real bright? That’s a little-known fact. They like to
pretend
they’re regular little geniuses, but mostly they’re dumb as dirt. That’s how come they always get themselves stuck in trees and trapped in places and squished.’

Neal, eyes wet and a lump in his throat before hearing about Fraidy, had been cheered up somewhat by Sue’s denunciation of cats. He took a deep breath.

‘Ya okay?’ Sue asked him.

‘Yeah. It’s just . . .’

‘Shit happens. Ya ever hear that saying?’

‘Yeah,’ Neal said. ‘I’ve probably said it myself.’

‘Well, anyhow, I’m okay now. Sorta. I mean, what’re ya gonna do? Crawl in a hole and die? Not me.’

‘You hit the road?’

‘Yup. Me and Fraidy cat. Only he didn’t last, and I did.’

‘How old were you?’

‘Fifteen.’

‘
Fifteen?
My God, that . . . it’s so young to be on your own.’

‘Well, they were gonna throw me in an orphanage. I didn’t have no use for that.’

‘What about school?’

‘Never went back after the fire.’ Grinning, she said, ‘But I reckon it don’t show.’

‘Only when you open your mouth.’

‘Haw!’ she blurted, and slapped his leg. ‘I’m gettin better, and you know it.’

‘I know.’

‘I’m workin on it.’ She narrowed an eye at him. ‘Betcha never even noticed I quit chewin gum.’

She was right. ‘You stopped? When?’

‘I gave it up yesterday. Haven’t stuck so much as
one
piece in my mouth ever since yer call to Marta.’

‘Really?’

‘When ya called me a gum-snappin twerp with hardly a brain in my head?’

Neal winced. ‘I didn’t really mean . . .’

‘Don’t worry ’bout it. I know ya were just tryin to put her off the scent. But I know ya sorta meant it, too. So I’m reformin myself.’

‘You don’t have to . . .’

‘I wanta make ya happy.’

‘I won’t be happy knowing I forced you to quit chewing gum.’

‘Well . . .’ She shrugged. ‘Maybe I’ll get back to it sometime.’

‘Let’s get back to
you
,’ Neal said. ‘How long have you lived in Mojave?’

‘Pretty near a year now.’

‘And there’s nothing at all that you want to pick up on our way through?’

‘Nope.’

‘No money or jewelry, or . . .?’

‘I’ve got my money with me, all that isn’t in the bank. I’ve got my checkbook. I don’t have any jewelry.’

‘A TV, a radio, books?’

‘Sunny owns the TV. It’s my radio, only I don’t have any more use for it.’ She knuckled the radio on Neal’s dashboard. ‘You got one. I reckon ya got plenty of books, too.’

‘You’re right about that.’

‘You bein a writer.’

‘Do you have any friends?’ Neal asked.

‘That s’posed to be a crack?’

‘I mean in Mojave. Anyone you want to visit on the way through?’

‘Hey, guess what. I’m on my way to Los Angeles, I ain’t
dyin
. I don’t gotta give no last farewells to every Tom, Dick and Harry I ever said “boo” to. Anybody I get to missin, I’ll just call ’em on the phone or come back and visit. L.A. ain’t Mars. I might just be headin back on my own pretty soon, anyhow, if ya dump me.’

‘Dump you? I’m not going to dump you.’

‘Who’s to say?’

‘
I’m
to say. I
love
you.’

‘I know ya do. But things change. Yer gonna be seein Marta when we get to L.A. Ya might just figure I don’t stack up real well . . .’

‘You know better than that; you’ve been inside my mind.’

‘Yer mind can change. Ya figured
Marta
was the true love of yer life till ya met me. So maybe you’ll go back to her, or run into some
new
gal . . . Then I’ll be on my way back to Mojave, more than likely.’

‘That won’t happen,’ Neal told her.

‘Well, I hope not.’

‘It won’t.’

Sue was silent for a while, then said, ‘I don’t s’pose Marta’s just gonna vanish on us.’

‘I doubt it.’

‘What’ll we do about her?’ Sue asked.

‘I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll be getting into L.A. before ten or eleven tonight, though. She doesn’t know when we’re coming back and she has to be at work by midnight, so we probably won’t see her till tomorrow.’

‘Where we gonna go, to yer place?’

‘I’m not sure. It might not be safe.’

‘Maybe that guy ya call Rasputin’ll be there waitin for us, and we can nab him.’

‘He might be. You never know.’

‘I’ll tell ya
one
thing I know.’

‘What?’ Neal asked.

‘We’ve gotta split the reward with Marta when we get it. That’s the only fair thing. I mean, even if ya dump her as yer girl, she has to get her share. She has to get half.’

‘Why is that?’ Neal asked. Even though he agreed with Sue, he was curious about her reasons.

‘For one thing, I like her. She’s nice. I don’t wanta see her get cheated. Besides, she was there for ya after the murder. She took yer side and helped out.’

‘Yeah, she sure did.’

‘I reckon she probably loves ya.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Also, she’s a pretty sharp gal. I got a feelin she might be smarter than
either
of us.’

‘You might be right about that.’

‘So what we’ve gotta do is work together, the three of us.’

Neal nodded. ‘We’ll make a great team,’ he said. ‘Marta’s brains, your guts, and my gun.’

‘Only problem is,’ Sue said, ‘she probably hates me already.’

‘I doubt if she
hates
you. Yet. Right now, she’s just feeling a little nervous. You’re sort of a vague threat to her.’

‘Well, ya made me out to be an imbecile.’

‘Wait till she meets you.’

‘Then she’ll
know
I’m one.’