and you might be out here. So I called up and asked for you, and he said you weren’t here, but I could tell he was lying, so I came out. Wrong move?”
“What made you think I’d be out here?”
“I just knew. I know how you think.”
Jesus Christ, I hope not.
He didn’t reply.
“I’m surprised they let you in. You really don’t work for Trans-Global anymore, do you? I mean, you’re on military leave, right?”
“I own the airline,” Pick said. “That probably had something to do with the station manager letting me in.”
“You own the airline like I’m Marilyn Monroe.”
Jesus Christ, she doesn’t know!
“I slipped him twenty bucks from my poker winnings,” Pick said.
Jesus, I can smell her.
“What happened to your shoes? Blister?” he asked.
“No. I didn’t want to startle you, so I took them off. How you doing?”
“After twenty, thirty minutes of solemn contemplation, I decided that Jeanette is not really inside this Container, Human Remains,” Pick said. “So it doesn’t really matter that it’s not covered with the flag.”
“There’ll be a flag tomorrow, won’t there?”
“Probably. I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m not going. I said good-bye to her twice, once over there, and I’m doing it again now. Have just finished doing it, now.”
She took his hand with both of hers.
You don’t really want to do that, Mrs. Babs Mitchell. My high moral character is weakened in direct proportion to the amount of imbibed booze. The needle on the Moral Scruples Remaining indicator is already in the red.
“I’m sorry, Pick.”
“You shouldn’t be. Despite popular legend to the contrary, the real bastards of this world do get what is coming to them. Or don’t get what they would really like to have.”
“I’m not sure I follow that.”
“That’s probably because I am just a wee bit tiddly.”
“I noticed,” she said matter-of-factly. “If you’re really finished, I’ll take you home.”
By that, obviously, you mean home to room 39A in the loony ward.
“I thought I’d catch a cab and go back to the Coronado Beach,” he said. “But I will take a ride as far as the passenger terminal, where I can catch a cab.”
“Why there?”
“Because that’s where the cabstand is.”
“I meant the Coronado Beach Hotel?”
“Because I have an apartment there, where I can have a few drinks in private, and thus not disgrace my officer’s uniform by being shitfaced in a public establishment, or run afoul of the hospital O Club regulations.”
“You have an apartment there?”
“Yeah, I have an apartment there.”
“If you’re ready, I’ll take you there.”
“That would be a very bad idea,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I will not, thank you just the same, take a ride to the passenger terminal.”
“Why would that be a very bad idea?”
“Because I’m having a hell of a hard time keeping from putting my arms around you while standing in front of Jeanette’s casket, and I know goddamn well what would happen in your car. Much less my apartment.”
She looked into his eyes.
“Okay. Now you know,” Pick said. “That’s the kind of a prick I am. And the sooner you get away from me, and the farther away you get, the better.”
“Okay. I’m warned,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“I heard you.”
“But you don’t believe me? Is that it?”
“I had a couple of drinks before I went looking for you,” Babs said. “Time to think very seriously about the dangers of someone like myself being desperate for another man in my life, of someone like you being especially vulnerable to someone like me.”
“And?”
“I had another drink and went looking for you.”
“Jesus, Babs!” he said softly.
“The drinks I had are wearing off, so if we’re going to do this, you’d better get another couple in me pretty soon.”
“I don’t think you know what you’re saying,” he said.
“Yeah, I do. Why not, Pick? Who are we going to hurt?”
“The last thing in the world I want to do is hurt you, add to your problems,” Pick said.
“I know,” she said. She put her hand on his cheek. “Likewise. Who knows? Maybe we can solve each other’s problems. It seems to me worth trying. What has either one of us got to lose?”
“Jesus H. Christ!”
“Come on, let’s go,” she said, and took his hand and led him away from the Container, Human Remains. Halfway to the hangar door, he freed his hand and put his arm around her shoulder. Six steps farther, he stopped, put both arms around her, and kissed her.
[NINE]
APARTMENT A THE P&FE/TRANS-GLOBAL SUITE CORONADO BEACH HOTEL SAN DIEGO,