Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

what’s good for you.”
    I said, “Mm.”
    Lucy turned back to Teresa. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”
    “I was about to cook.”
    Lucy beamed. “We were just on our way to a very nice restaurant. Why don’t you join us?” She gave my arm a little shake. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”
    I said, “Mm.”
    Winona said, “I want spaghetti.”
    I phoned Border Grill and asked if they could make the reservation for a party of five. They could.
    The five of us went to dinner—me, Lucy, Teresa, Winona, and Charles. We had to take the Saturn. Winona sat between Lucy and me; Charles threw a sauteed shrimp at the waitress, tried to steal a pepper mill, and ate two desserts. The bill came to a hundred eighty-two fifty.
    Mm.

3
    I took Lucy to LAX early the next morning and waited with her at the gate. When it was time to board we held each other, and then she disappeared into the jetway. I went to the observation window, stared at her plane, and tried not to look depressed.
    An older gentleman with a walking stick appeared at the glass next to me and shook his head, glum. “Another visit, another parting.” He shook his head some more. “Me, I never say good-bye.”
    “Good-byes are tough, all right.”
    “They’re permanent. You say good-bye, you’re inviting disaster.”
    I looked at him. “What do you mean, permanent?”
    “The big birds come in, the big birds go out, and you never know what’s going to happen.” He sighed. “I hope nobody put a bomb.”
    I looked at him harder. “Do I know you?”
    He made a shrug.
    “I think I’ve seen you here before.” He was stooped and balding with baggy, old-man pants.
    He shrugged again. “God knows, it’s possible. I spend my whole life in this place, picking people up, sending people off. All without a good-bye.”
    “I’m pretty certain.”
    He patted my arm and smiled. It was a kindly smile, and wise. “That’s where you’re wrong, young man. The only thing certain is death.” He patted my arm again and leaned close. “I hope you didn’t say good-bye. For her sake.”
    Great.
    I left him at the window, walked out to the car, and took Sepulveda Boulevard north through the city, the footloose and fancy-free detective reentering the workaday world. I was missing Lucy already and feeling grumpy because of it, but I was also excited and hopeful. She felt that the job with KROK was going to work out, and, if it did, she and her son, Ben, would move here and then I could see her all the time. Thinking about that made me smile, and the grumpiness faded. The sun had climbed nicely, the air had warmed, and a slight orange haze was building in the east past Baldwin Hills. Perfect convertible weather even with the coming smog.
    I followed Sepulveda north to Washington Boulevard, then turned east past the old MGM Studios to La Cienega when I spotted a gray Chrysler LeBaron edging across the white line three cars behind me. He stayed on the line a few seconds without changing lanes, the way you do when you want to see something ahead of you, and then he disappeared. I thought that maybe it was the same LeBaron I had seen outside Teri Haines’s home, but then I said, “Nah.” I was probably watching too many episodes of
Cops
.
    Fifteen minutes later I parked behind Teri Haines’s Saturn and went to the door. I kind of expected to find the house in smoking ruins, but I guess Charles had passed out from overeating.
Lighten up, Cole. He’s only a kid
. Sure. They probably said that when Attila was a kid, too.
    Teresa answered the door in jeans and pink Keds and an oversized white T-shirt. I said, “Where are Charles and Winona?”
    “I took them to school.” I guess she could read my surprise. “Charles is in sixth grade and Winona is in third. You don’t think I’d let them grow up stupid, do you?”
    “I guess not.” Put in my place by a fifteen-year-old.
    The house was as neat and clean as it had been yesterday, only now it was quiet. A washing machine