Zero at the Bone (4 page)

Then he’d asked the same question George Bob had asked: “Don’t you have some family who could help out?”

She’d glanced down at the drawer containing the letter.

“No,” she’d said into the phone. “No family.”

As she massaged the tight cords in her neck, she thought about it.

No family.

Her mother had always impressed on her that they had no family except one another. Whenever Katherine had brought up the subject, Leanne had sat her down and reminded her that they were alone in the world. Katherine’s father was a maniac they would never see again. And her grandmother, Leanne’s mother, had disowned them forever when they moved to Boerne, had warned them never to come crawling back to her for anything. Leanne’s father had died when Leanne was sixteen and her only brother, Cooper, was nothing but a toady, always currying his mother’s favor.

“My mother’s a greedy, selfish, unforgiving woman,” Leanne would say. “A spoiled, indulged woman who inherited a fortune and vowed never to give a penny of it to us. Anyway, we would prefer to starve to death rather than go groveling to her for anything.”

Then Leanne would flash her dazzling smile and say gaily, “Anyway, the two of us are a family, aren’t we? We’re happy as we are, sufficient unto ourselves.”

Sure, Katherine thought, sufficient until the next man came along. Thank God all that was over and she didn’t have to feel that abandonment anymore, now that she was grown up. But now, today, with these problems weighing her down, she felt strangely like that child cooking her own dinner, not knowing when her mother would come back.

Katherine stood up from her desk and looked out the kitchen window to admire the billowy clouds in her big sky. Family? Who needed it!

She heard the purr of a car pulling up to the kennel, then the slamming of doors, and the high twangy voices calling. “Yoo-hoo, Kate, Joe. Higgins, where are you?”

Oh, no! The sisters Kielmeyer, come for their dog.

She looked out the window. There they were, dressed in their usual floral traveling outfits and sensible shoes. They had known her when she was a girl, before she had decided to call herself Katherine instead of Kate. They were old friends and usually she was delighted to see them, but today she didn’t know if she could face them. Would it be better to let them see Higgins first? Or to rush out and try to explain everything before they saw the damage? But it was too late now. They were already bearing down on the kennel.

Katherine called her dog. “Come on, Ra. You had something to do with this. Let’s face the music together.”

3

JUDITH held the squirming Higgins on the shelf of her ample peach-flowered bosom. To a stranger it would look as if she were squeezing the life out of the little dog because his bright pink tongue dangled from his squashed-in black face. But Katherine had never seen him with his tongue in.

As Katherine walked across the lawn, Ra ran forward to greet the women. Politely, he sat at their feet to receive his accustomed praise. Hester, the smaller sister at two hundred pounds, and the more talkative, leaned over and rubbed his ears vigorously.

Ordinarily Katherine would be delighted to see them back, but not today. “Welcome home,” she said. “As you see, we had a problem while you were gone. But Dr. Burris says he will be fine.” She watched their faces apprehensively while she spoke. For ten years Higgins had boarded with her when the sisters were out of town. Since they traveled for four months every year, and since they paid double the usual rate for Katherine and Joe to give special attention to Higgins, he was a major and dependable source of income.

Both of them were staring at her, waiting. Katherine had never seen them look so severe, their sagging faces set into stony silence.

“It happened Tuesday—a freak accident,” Katherine said. “He was out running with Ra. You know, exercise to keep his weight down, as we talked about. First Ra would chase Higgins, then Higgins would chase Ra.” Katherine was pleased to note that both sisters looked a little softer at the vision of their darling playing with a friend.

“There was a garbage bag waiting for Joe to put out at the curb. Ra jumped over it when Higgins was chasing him and Higgins tried to jump it, too. But you know his legs are shorter and he didn’t make it and landed right on top of the bag. There was a broken bottle in the bag that cut him through the plastic.”

Katherine’s eyes started to fill with tears when she described it. The scene had been awful—bloody and dominated by pitiful yips of pain. Best they didn’t hear about that. “It was a very long cut. Well, you can see that, but fortunately not too deep. I know you both have a great deal of confidence in Dr. Burris, and he knows Higgins well, so we took him into San Antonio, to Dr. Burris’s house, since it was after office hours. He disinfected it and put in fifteen stitches.”

Now Hester had taken Higgins from her sister and restrained him in her arms so she could study the long jagged cut with the black stitches. Her forehead was squeezed down over her eyebrows.

Katherine stopped to catch her breath. She still had no idea what they would do—drive away and use another kennel in the future? Spread the bad word among their numerous friends? Report her to the Humane Society for neglect?

There was silence as the sisters absorbed the news and explored the injury with gentle fingertips. Finally Hester spoke. “How did the little fellow behave during this emergency?” she asked, pressing her crinkly, powdered cheek gently against the dog’s injured side.

“Oh,” Katherine said, “he was splendid. After the initial shock, he was very brave, lay quietly in Joe’s lap so he could hold a towel to the cut to stanch the bleeding. No complaining at all.”

Both sisters smiled at their dog.

“I feel so bad about it,” Katherine said, discovering as she spoke the words how really bad she did feel. “Higgins and Ra have always played together when Higgins is here and … well, this was a bad accident. He’s due at Dr. Burris’s the day after tomorrow to have his stitches removed. The cut seems to be healing well. Oh, and there’s an antibiotic salve to put on twice a day.” They both nodded at her. “It will leave a scar, he says.”

Hester handed the dog back to her sister. She approached Katherine, stretched her arms out wide, and wrapped them around her. “It must have been dreadful for you, Kate. You’re so fond of him. And then to have to worry about how we would feel when we saw him. He can be so clumsy sometimes, just a knucklehead really.”

Judith said, “You must let us reimburse you for the vet bill. Dr. Burris doesn’t come cheap.”

“Oh, no,” Katherine said. “That’s my expense.”

“Well, we need to collect his things and get this boy home,” Judith said. “Did you have a chance to work on his manners, Kate?”

“Yes, before the accident we did. Put him down a minute and I’ll show you.”

Judith deposited Higgins on the ground gingerly. He stood there on his short bowed legs, his tongue protruding, his cork-screw tail curled tight against his fat rump. Katherine moved to stand directly in front of him. In her gruff dog-training voice, she commanded, “Higgins, sit.” Higgins immediately dropped his rear end the three inches to the ground.

Both Hester and Judith let out a squeal of surprise.

“Good boy,” Katherine said. “Higgins.” She waited until she established eye contact with the dog. “Down.” Higgins thought for a second longer than she liked, and pushed out his short front legs so he was lying down.

“Oooh, good boy,” Hester said. “Kate, it’s wonderful. I don’t know how you do it. I wish we’d asked you to train him sooner. It just never occurred to us that he could be trained. He’s always been so … opinionated about things.”

When Joe had loaded all Higgins’s toys and his bed into the trunk of the Cadillac and Judith had written a check and tucked it into Katherine’s shirt pocket, Hester hefted herself in under the wheel. Judith climbed in next to her with Higgins in her lap. “Oh, it’s so nice to be home,” Hester said through the open window. She looked at the fields of wildflowers and sighed. “I don’t believe there’s a place in all Europe as beautiful as your place, Kate.”

Katherine was surprised by a surge of tears welling up like a force of nature, as if from an underground spring.

“Oh, my dear, what have I said?” Hester wailed.

Katherine couldn’t speak. She held up her hand—a request for time to gather her composure.

“Come sit in the car with us for a minute so we can talk,” Judith said, reaching behind her to open the back door of the Cadillac. Katherine got in obediently.

“I’m going to give us some air.” Hester started the engine, rolled up the electric windows, and turned the air-conditioning on full-blast. The sisters both swiveled their heads toward the back seat, waiting.

Katherine sat for a long minute with her head down. She was not accustomed to telling her problems to anyone. It was always better, she’d found, to keep them private. But for the first time in her life, a swell of emotion was threatening to overwhelm her. She finally found her voice and began to talk. Once started, she couldn’t stop.

She began with her morning visit to the bank and the impending foreclosure.

“That George Bob Rainey should be ashamed of himself,” Hester said. “He could give you some more time. He’s probably got himself a buyer interested.”

Katherine went on to tell them what the lawyer had said about Ra being part of the collateral. She even told them about the letter from her father and how she felt about it. They were a perfect audience. They listened attentively, nodding and making little cooing noises at the worst parts, asking questions only occasionally for clarification.

By the time she’d finished, Higgins was asleep in Judith’s lap, making wet snuffling noises with each inhalation.

“So,” Hester said, “in three weeks, the bank will take your house, your land, and your business, including Ra, if you don’t come up with ninety-one thousand dollars.”

Katherine nodded.

“And your father has offered you the cash you need to pay off the loan, but you hate him for his past neglect so you refuse to go collect the money. Do I have it right?”

Katherine said, “But he never even—”

Hester interrupted. “No, I know he didn’t. Kate, our father was the son of a bitch to end all sons of bitches, wasn’t he, Judith?”

Judith nodded so vigorously her tight perm loosened.

“And you know what? I enjoy the money we inherited from him all the more for it. When we go to Rome and stay at the Ritz, I like to think of that cheap, surly bastard sweating it out in the oilfields for the money we’re spending. He beat us just to keep in practice and he used to complain that his life would be better if girls were all drowned at birth. Should we turn down his money because he mistreated us? Hell, no. All the more reason to take it and enjoy it. Kate, you get in your car and drive to Austin now. Let the bastard pay to ease his guilt. Tell him he can begin making it all up to you by saving your dog from foreclosure.”

Katherine had stopped crying. It felt as if there had been a major shift in the earth’s surface and suddenly she were viewing it all from a different place. Why hadn’t she seen it from this perspective herself? It made perfect sense. Why should she suffer for his deficiencies as a father?

Both of the sisters were studying her expression. When they began to chuckle, Katherine realized she had a smile on her lips. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll go.”

“That’s very good,” Hester said, clapping her hands.

“Will you call us, Kate, and let us know what happened?” Judith asked.

Kate opened the door and climbed out of the car. “Absolutely. Be sure to have Higgins practice his sits and downs. Next time he’s here we’ll work on down-stays. He could use that.”

When she shut the door, Higgins woke with a start.

Judith propped him up on his haunches and waved his paw in Katherine’s direction as they pulled slowly out of the driveway. Katherine waved back at him.

*   *   *

A growing elation swelled her chest. She tried to contain it. After all, this was not going to be some big emotional reunion. It was a business transaction. She was going for the money.

She called out to Joe, who was hosing down the kennels, “Joe, can you hold down the fort for me this afternoon? I’ve got to drive to Austin.”

Joe dropped the hose and pushed his abundant black hair back from his forehead. “Okay, but I don’t take out that big Doberman while you gone. I don’t even put a hand in there to feed him. Not me.”

She could barely contain her desire to get on the road. “Tanya can stay in today. I’ll be back tonight.” She started to walk backward as she gave instructions. “You remember that Jack Reiman is picking up Gunner at six. His bill’s on the desk. Don’t forget to give him a flea dip and make him all pretty.”

Joe nodded in his usual long-suffering way. “Yeah, I remember. He be ready. When do I get paid?”

Katherine pulled out the check Judith had tucked into her pocket. To the three-hundred-dollar boarding and training fee, Judith had added another two hundred, a sum that more than covered Dr. Burris’s bill. Katherine breathed a sigh of relief. “Tomorrow,” she called back to Joe. “After I deposit this check. Okay?”

She looked down at Ra frisking at her heels. “Okay, Ra. We’re going to Austin to surprise my father. Out of the mists of the past I am going to appear full-blown, Athena-like, in front of his eyes. We’re going to let the bastard pay his dues. Oh, yes, Ra. The sisters Kielmeyer are right. It is about time.”

It was one o’clock when Katherine saw Austin’s pink granite capitol dome on the horizon to the north. The drive had taken just one hour. In ten minutes she could be at the Austin Zoological Gardens in Zilker Park. She could see her father, talk with him, touch him. After thirty-one years. The idea made her feel shaky. She needed just a little more time to get mentally prepared.

She decided to make a quick side trip—the clandestine drive she had made so many times before. It wouldn’t take long.

That first time, when she was sixteen, she had looked up the address in the phone book, her hands trembling with excitement when she found the name: Driscoll, Anne Cooper, 1007 Woodlawn.