from hell was far too wiry and nimble and that only made it come at me more furiously.
“Down, Lilly,” my mother said in a matter-of-fact tone. Her voice had gotten lower and huskier from decades of smoking. The beast promptly dropped to the tiled entry hall, head resting on its paws. But it continued staring at me menacingly, growling softly.
“I’m glad she obeys you,” I said. “I think I was about to lose an eye.”
“Nah, she’s a love pooch, aren’t you, Lilly-willie? Come here.” She reached out one arm to hug me. The other one she kept splayed backward, daintily holding her cigarette away from me in two long curved fingers as if she were channeling Bette Davis.
As I entered, the beast got up to follow us, nails clacking on the wooden floor. It stayed so close it kept bumping against my legs. This seemed deliberate, a warning: It could rip out my throat at any time. It was just waiting for its Master to leave the room for a few seconds.
“Gabe here?” I said.
“In his room playing some computer game where you’re a soldier and you kill a lot of people. There’s a lot of bombs and explosions. I told him to put on his headphones. The noise was starting to bug me.”
That was just as well. I didn’t want him overhearing what I had to say. “Do you really want Gabe breathing all this secondhand smoke?” I said.
She squinted at me through slitted eyes as a plume of smoke snaked around between us. “Have you ever seen Call of Duty: Modern Warfare? I think cigarette smoke is the least of his problems.”
“Fair enough.” I tried never to argue with my mother.
“Listen, honey, I know you’re awfully busy, but do you think you could make some time to teach him to drive?”
“He wants to drive?”
“He just got his learner’s permit.”
“What about driving school?”
She scowled at me. “Oh, for God’s sake, Nick, you’re the only father figure in the kid’s life. You’re his godfather. Don’t you remember how disappointed you were when you had to learn from me because your father was gone?”
“I wasn’t disappointed.”
“Lord knows he doesn’t want me to teach him.”
“You’re absolutely right. I’ll do it. Though the thought of Gabe on the Beltway…”
“And what kind of foolishness are you putting in his head about how he shouldn’t look in Lilly’s eyes or he’ll drop dead?”
I shrugged. “Busted. You can also blame me for that vegetarian kick he’s on now. He picked that up from my new office manager.” I smiled, shook my head. “I think he’s trying to impress her.”
“Honey, as long as he’s eating, what do I care. You want me to remind you of some of the things you did to impress girls? How about when you tried to grow a goatee when you were fourteen so Jennie Watson would think you were manly?”
I groaned.
“Are you getting any sleep?”
“I had to work late last night.”
Her condo was very IKEA: comfortable but unstylish. Plexiglas stools around the apartment’s “kitchen nook.” An armchair in some sort of maroon chintz floral pattern next to a matching couch. On the counter was a Boston Globe folded to the crossword puzzle, and a copy of Modern Maturity that looked like she’d actually read it.
I sat in the chintz armchair and she sat at the end of the couch, put out her cigarette in an immaculate stone ashtray.
“Nicky, my book group is meeting in a few minutes, so can we make this quick?”
“Just a couple of questions. When was the last time you talked to Alexa?”
She lighted another cigarette with a cheap Bic lighter and inhaled deeply. “Couple, three days ago. Yesterday Marshall called me to ask if she was here. She’s acting up again, isn’t she?”
I shook my head.
“Gabe tells me she spent the night at her friend Taylor’s house on Beacon Hill—you know her father’s Dick Armstrong, the senator?—but I think we know what that really means. She’s a beautiful girl, and—”
“It’s nothing like that.”
She looked up. “Did she run away?”
“No.”
She studied my face. “Something happened to her,” she said.
I hesitated.
“Tell me what happened to her, Nick.”
I did.
54.
I expected her to be upset.
But I wasn’t prepared for the magnitude of her reaction.
She seemed to crumple, to collapse in on herself in a way I’d never seen before. She gave a terrible anguished cry, and tears spilled from her eyes. I hugged her, and it was several minutes before she was able to talk.