A Bullet Apiece

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Book: A Bullet Apiece Read Online Free PDF
Author: John Joseph Ryan
didn’t mean milk.
    Damn. I had killed the scotch.
    â€œI’m afraid not. But look, I can run to the package liquor down the street.”
    â€œNo, please don’t. I shouldn’t anyway. I quit last year. Tom hasn’t, though.”
    â€œHasn’t? Or didn’t?”
    She blanched.
    â€œMrs. Hanady, my buddy on the force said that there was no death certificate for your husband.”
    â€œNo, there wouldn’t be. He’s alive.”
    â€œDid you not tell Miss Reyes that your husband had died?”
    â€œI did. At the time, I couldn’t think on my feet.” Although I found this hard to believe, I let her continue. “Besides, he might as well be dead.”
    â€œWhy do you say that?”
    â€œBecause the bum is always off somewhere. He’s barely in Rachel’s life. Not to mention mine.”
    â€œI saw a photograph of the three of you at the school. I have to admit you all looked happy.”
    She grimaced. “That was a happy time. Tom was home more often. Rachel had gotten used to our home, our life. I had quit drinking.”
    â€œWas alcohol a problem?”
    â€œIt was. I was just…. You see, we had tried for years to have a child. Finally, a doctor told me that I couldn’t have children. I was devastated. Tom took it well at first, but then something changed in him. He was travelling at the time, making more trips to Colombia. So, I wallowed in alcohol when he was gone. When he returned, he could see something was wrong. I think he chalked it up to infertility, and that just seemed to sour him more.”
    â€œHow long did this go on?”
    â€œFor several months. But then he came back from a trip with flowers. For me. He took me in his arms like he did when we first married, and I fell in love all over again. Excited by his spontenaity, I laughed and asked, ‘What? What is it?’ He swung me around and said, ‘We’re going to have a child! We’re going to adopt!’ I was so taken aback that I cried. He told me all about the opportunity in Colombia, how there were so many sweet children in desperate need of a mother and a father. We shared a bottle of Dom Perignon to celebrate. It was the first time in a long time I’d felt so good.”
    â€œWhen did you make the trip to Colombia yourself?”
    â€œI don’t know. Maybe three months later. We’d found out who Rachel’s birth mother was, and I wanted to meet her.”
    â€œAnd did you?”
    â€œYes. She was almost a child herself, barely nineteen. She was so beautiful and shy. It was important to me to see her.”
    â€œWhy did she give Rachel up for adoption?”
    â€œShe’s poor. So many of them are. They work on the banana plantations. Many of them live right on the edge of the fields, in shacks. Tom looks for the best supervisors; he really does.” An unexpected defensive note entered her voice. “But he can only pay so much himself, in order to turn a profit here in the States.”
    â€œI see. Where is Tom now?”
    â€œI thought he was in Colombia. He’s been gone the past week. I’ve been taking Rachel to pre-school all this year. It’s been very difficult—being away from her while she’s at school, that is. But all the other mothers insisted it was a good thing. All of them in the charity send their children there.”
    â€œWhat charity is that?”
    â€œOrphan Care. We raise money to help families adopt children from Central and South America.”
    â€œSounds noble.”
    She blanched and plunked her cup on the desk, sloshing coffee over the side. “It
is
. And you don’t need to say it like that.”
    â€œI didn’t mean any harm, Mrs. Hanady. I meant what I said. What I don’t get is why you don’t have a nanny.”
    She glanced out at her car, like she was now doubting her decision to hire me. I looked outside, too. The rain was abating.
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