Sideswipe (15 page)

"Copiers are best. A Xeroxed letter looks like the typed original nowadays."

"I may suggest that to the committee next time, although there's no urgent need for funds. We only have one abused child in the program so far, and we're sending him up to the Sheriff's Boy's Ranch in Kissimmee for the rest of the summer while his mother dries out in Arizona. She's paying the tab for both ranches, the one in Kissimmee and the one in Tucson."

"When did you get interested in abused children, Helen?"

"I'm not, really. But I thought I should serve on some kind of committee, and this is less onerous than some of the others. What I really want to get on is the Heart Fund Ball Committee, but there's a waiting list a mile long for that one."

"I met a man on the beach the other morning, Helen, who told me you still have an apartment at the Supermare. A guy named E. M. Skinner. D'you know him?"

Helen laughed, shook her head, and dampened the flap of an envelope with a sponge. "I know him all right. He has the penthouse, and he was president of our condo association for almost a year before we got rid of him. When the condo first opened, he was the only owner who wanted to be president, so we all voted for him. But he was a busybody and started making all kinds of foolish rules, so the other members of the board, especially Mr. Olsen and Mary Higdon, got him voted out. Mr. Olsen's our new president now, and Mr. Skinner's no longer even on the board. One of the rules he wanted, for example, was a wristband with your apartment number on it. You were supposed to wear it at the pool at all times. This band, he claimed, would keep tourists and strangers from using our pool without permission. The manager, Mr. Carstairs, knows everyone in the building and doesn't need to check a wristband to see if you're a resident or not." She put her envelopes down. "But I'm a little annoyed that Mr. Skinner told you about me. Why would he tell a stranger he met on the beach that I still have my apartment there?"

"I told him I was Frank's son, that's why. But I was surprised that you still had an apartment there."

Helen looked toward the hallway, and then lowered her voice. "I'll tell you a little secret, Hoke, but don't mention it to Frank. Okay?"

"How secret is it?" Hoke sipped his drink. "Frank and I are a little closer now than we've been in some years, and I don't want to jeopardize our relationship. After all, he's made it possible for me to stay here on the island--"

"I'll tell you, and if you want to tell him you know, it won't hurt him any. It might embarrass him a little, but that's all. When we went to Nassau on our honeymoon we were supposed to get married there, but we didn't. We both needed our death certificates from our former spouses in order to get a license. We didn't bring them along, so we couldn't get a license without them. We'd already sent out announcements that we were married, so we had our honeymoon anyway. Then, while we were there--a week in Nassau's like a month anywhere else, you know--and we got to talking, we decided not to go through with a wedding. After all, what difference would it make? Except for making our lives more complicated legally? In the long run, marriage would cost us both money, you see. Of course, everyone thinks we're married because it was in the newspapers, but by remaining single I still get my homestead exemption on my condo at the Supermare, and he gets an exemption on this house. That saves us twenty-five thousand a year apiece. We also save on our income taxes. They're punitive for married people, as you know. Anyway, that's the secret, or our little secret, and if you want to tell Frank you know, go ahead. But please don't tell anyone else."

Hoke grinned, leaned over, and kissed Helen on the cheek. "I'll carry your secret to the grave, Helen. I, too, have lived in sin, and it's better than being married."

"Sin has nothing to do with it. It's just common sense and economics. I have plenty of money, and I don't need Frank's. We've both made out separate wills, and that'll take care of everything if one of us dies."

"Inasmuch as Frank is thirty years older than you, it shouldn't make much difference."

"Frank's in pretty good shape, Hoke."

"Thanks to you. I was glad when you two got married, Helen. Although I knew about the girl friend he had in Lantana. He used to see her two or three times a month, even when my mother was still alive."

"Well, he doesn't have a girl friend in Lantana any longer. And that's no secret. I put an end to that by threatening to tell her husband."

Hoke finished his drink and shook his head. "Don't tell me anything else, Helen. I'm trying to simplify my life, and everything I'm learning today makes it more complicated."

Helen laughed. "Let me show you one more secret. Come on. Follow me."

"Do I need another drink first?"

"No." She laughed. "Come here."

Hoke followed Helen to the kitchen, and then through the kitchen exit to the two-car garage. Helen pointed to a girl's Schwinn ten-speed bicycle that was leaning against the garage wall. The bike was painted Latin red, and there was a brass nameplate on the slanting bar of the frame. THIS BICYCLE WAS MADE ESPECIALLY FOR AILEEN MOSELEY was engraved on the brass plate.

"Frank bought it for Aileen so she can ride up here any time she wants and use the pool. Do you think she'll like it?"

"Of course she will. But it'll make it that much harder for me to get rid of her. Oh, I don't mean that the way it sounds. I love Aileen, but I think she should be living with her mother. Now that she has a bike, it'll be that much harder for me to persuade her to go out to California."

"There's no hurry about that, Hoke. We both think Aileen should stay with you for a while. You've had a difficult time for a few days, and you need her--or someone--with you for a few months. When school starts, she can catch the bus into junior high in Riviera Beach."

"I don't think Patsy'll take her back anyway. There isn't a helluva lot of room in our efficiency, but she seems happy enough."

"Why shouldn't she be? I'd've given anything to live alone with my father when I was her age. And in a way, I'm doing that now, living with Frank." Helen blushed and turned away. "I hardly ever saw my father when I was a girl. I was away at school most of the time, and he was too busy making money to have any time for me."

"Well, at least I'm not making any money." Hoke grinned. "Apparently the less money you have, the more likely you are to have your children living with you. That ballplayer my ex-wife married makes three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year with the Dodgers."

They returned to the living room, and Hoke poured a shorter drink. He added ice cubes but skipped the splash of soda. Hoke and Helen were almost the same age, and he had always been comfortable around her, although he had rarely talked to her alone. She was blonde and plump, but not heavy, and she had been a positive influence in his father's life. The old man was thinner and much happier since he married--began living with--Helen. She dressed him better, too. Frank wore slacks and colorful sport shirts now, instead of the wrinkled seersucker suits he had favored, and she had thrown away the black leather bow ties he had worn every day to the store.

"Would you like another pink gin, Helen?"

"I don't think so. We're going to have wine with dinner, so one'll be plenty."

"When was the last time you visited your condo at the Supermare?"

"About a month ago. Why?"

"Was anything missing? Skinner told me that you had some burglaries there recently. The thief's been hitting the empty apartments."

"That's the first I've heard about it, but I haven't been going to any of the monthly meetings."

"Do you have a bolt lock on your door?"

Helen nodded. "A regular through-the-doorknob lock, and a bolt lock too."

"If you want me to, I'll check it out for you."

"I don't keep any jewelry there. Just furniture and furnishings, and a few clothes. Frank and I change clothes there once in a while when we go to the beach. And I have to live there, or be physically present, on January first, to get my homestead exemption."

"When's the last time you went to the beach?"

Helen laughed. "About four months ago. During the season. It's too hot for me in the summer."

"We'd better drop by and check it out."

"I've got some extra keys. I'll give them to you, and you can drop by some morning when you go swimming. In fact, you can use the apartment any time you like, or swim in the pool. I'll call and tell Mr. Carstairs that you're my guest. But Aileen can't use the pool, or even hang around the building. No children are allowed."

"Don't people there have grandchildren?"

"Sure they do, but they're not allowed to visit. The nochildren rule was one of the major selling points for an apartment at the Supermare. A lot of people don't want to have grandchildren around, Hoke, or even their own adult children. Not everyone's like Frank and me." Helen got the extra keys from the center drawer of her desk and put them into an envelope. She handed the envelope to Hoke, and he dropped it into his front pocket. "You'd better get Frank now, Hoke. Take him a drink, and by the time he's finished, dinner should be ready."

"What does he like? He used to drink bourbon on the rocks, or with a little Coke--"

"Give him a Beefeater on the rocks, but put an olive in it. He thinks vermouth ruins a martini."

"He's right."

Helen went into the kitchen, and Hoke fixed his father a stiff gin on the rocks. It occurred to him for the first time in his life, as he headed toward the den, that one of these days, if he was lucky, Frank might leave him the El Pelicano Arms in his will. And if he did, he would be able to stay on the island until he died without any more worries. Even if Frank didn't leave him the apartment house, and left everything to Helen, he was sure that Helen would let him stay on as manager.

But he had better prove that he was worthy of the job by renting out those two empty apartments as soon as possible...

Aileen was shown the new bicycle before dinner, and she kissed Frank, Helen, and Hoke. Hoke had told her that she would not be allowed to drive his car again; now she could go almost anywhere she wanted to go on the island with her bicycle.

"I'll get you a basket for the handlebars," Hoke said, "and you can do our shopping at the supermarket."

"I don't need a basket. I can carry groceries under one arm, and steer with one hand."

"Just don't ride through the mall parking lot," Hoke said. "A lot of sick Yankees back out without looking, and they might run over you."

Aileen ate swiftly so she could ride her new bike, but still she put away two helpings of rare roast beef, with mashed potatoes and gravy, before she excused herself from the table.

After dinner, Frank and Hoke went into the den with their coffee. Frank turned on the cable to a women's mudwrestling match in Buffalo, New York. Frank, who'd only had the cable channels for a few months, had never known about lacrosse, mud wrestling, four-wall volleyball, and knife-, star-, and hatchet-throwing contests until he signed up for cable, so he was still interested in these new--to him--sports. He was also fond of Dr. Ruth's sex show in the evenings, and rarely missed her program.

At a quarter to five, Hoke got to his feet. "I've got to go, Dad. I left a note on my door saying I'd be back at five. Someone might be there looking for an apartment."

"Stick around, son. There's a man coming over after a while I want you to meet. Let Aileen ride back on her bike; she can tell anyone there to wait for you."

Hoke found Aileen outside and told her to take herself and her wet bathing suit back to the apartment house.

"If someone's there, you can show them an empty apartment, but tell them to stick around till I get back."

"I know how to show the apartments, Daddy."

"I know you do, honey, but I want to screen people. I don't want any Latins to get in there for two months or more. Or some drunk. Okay?"

"What's the matter with Latins? Ellita's a Latin."

"Nothing's the matter with them, but our efficiencies are for one or two people, not for families of six or more. There're only two single beds, you know."

Aileen let this pass. "I put a sack of mangoes in the front seat of the car, Daddy. Helen said we could have all we wanted from the tree in the back yard."

"Fine. How're the brakes on the bike?"

"I -know- how to ride it, Daddy--and I won't ride through the parking lot."

Hoke fixed another Scotch and soda in the living room, but he didn't return to the den. He went into the kitchen. Inocencia had cleaned up in there and had gone home. Before leaving she had made four roast beef sandwiches and put them into a sack for Hoke to take home. Hoke took the bag of sandwiches out to his car and put them on the seat next to the mangoes. As he closed the car door, a black Buick Riviera pulled up behind Hoke's Le Mans in the driveway.

"I'm leaving in a few minutes," Hoke called over to the man who got out of the car. "So you'd better let me back out first, then you can pull in ahead of me."

"I'm only going to be here a few minutes myself. You're Sergeant Moseley, aren't you?"

"That's right, but I don't live here. I'm just visiting my dad."

"You're the man I've come to talk with." He introduced himself as Mike Sheldon, chief of police for Riviera Beach. "Your father called me yesterday and said you'd resigned from the Miami Police Department."