3 A Brewski for the Old Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

reserve on the coffee maker. When I picked up a serrated knife and the bag of bagels I’d taken out of the freezer the night before, Marley stepped in. “I’ll drive Lace to school. You go back to bed before you hurt yourself,” she said, taking the knife from my hand.
    “What, you don’t like my sweet morning face?”
    “It’ll sour the milk. Go.”
    I leaned against the counter, one bare foot resting on the other. “Thanks, Marley.”
    “Thank you. I’m more than happy to eat your bagels.” She turned to look at me, then dropped the knife on the counter and whispered, “What’s going on?” She jerked her head in the direction of the den, leaving no doubt what she was talking about. “What’s up?”
    My voice was as soft as I could make it. “Ray John Leenders is back in town.” Her eyes got round.
    “He lives with Rena and Lacey.”
    “Shit.”
    I grinned at her fall from grace. Any crack in her Mother Superior act always pleased me.
    “Sorry to dump on you last night when you’ve got this,” Marley whispered. While Lacey did homework I’d heard all about the rocky road to sainthood and her split from David as I finished the wine.
    “It’s all right. Your hurt is new, mine’s old.”
    “No,” she shook her head in disagreement. “I just don’t think that’s true.” Her face wrinkled in thought. “Your hurt never stopped.”
    In a way it was true. Ray John’s abuse was like a scar on my soul and on my memory. I turned away from Marley. “I’ve been working out just how I’m going to handle the meeting I intend to have with Ray John.”
    Marley said, “Leave it until tonight and I’ll go with you. I can’t get away this morning. I’m booked solid.” Marley is a dental hygienist in a busy dental practice, often working long hours and a half-day on Saturdays to keep up. “I’ll be done about six, I’ll go with you.”
    “Nope. I’m going to see him this morning. Alone.”
    “Don’t be silly. You can’t go alone.”
    But I wouldn’t be alone. I was taking an old friend, but not one I could tell Marley about. “I want to do this my way,” I said. Marley started to argue but Lacey came out of the den, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved tee-shirt and carrying her backpack, ready for school.
    I waited until I knew Rena had opened the store and then I put on a fanny pack, wearing the pouch at the front where it would be nice and handy and where the replacement for my daddy’s sixteenth birthday present, my special friend, a nice little Beretta, resided. Just to be sure Ray John would be alone, I swung by the store and saw Rena’s beige sedan in the parking lot. Then I went to the neat little ranch house on Blossom Avenue.
    Florida in September is pretty much like living in a sauna. At ten-thirty in the morning the day was already blistering hot. The humidity was way up there but I had the air conditioning cranked up so the sweat trickling down my side was from fear, not the weather. With each block my anger and conviction was seeping away like a spilled drink, to be replaced by gut-wrenching dread. I didn’t want to do this. Should I wait for Marley? But I was afraid by six-thirty, even with Marley holding my hand, I’d probably find it impossible. Besides, I didn’t want witnesses. Marley was way over on the sensible side of the upright-citizen path and what I had in mind wasn’t even in the same county. Ray John needed to be spoken to in a language he understood.
    The lift bridge was up, waiting for a yacht to clear. A line of cars piled up behind me, boxing me in so I couldn’t change my mind and turn around and run back to the Sunset. Panic was squeezing the air out of me. I took deep breaths and waited. The idea of facing this man again set my heart pounding in my chest until I was afraid I would have a heart attack.
    Could you die from anxiety? I had no idea. The bridge slowly went down. I could go.
    The big ass SUV, with the oversized tires, was in the driveway. I