Love on the Rocks

Chapter Six

The ringing of the telephone teased through the thickness of her morning sleep, dragging her up to consciousness though she tried to cling to the blessed peace of slumber for just a little longer. It was Keith.

"How about a trade?"

"A trade? What are you talking about?"

"The kid for the jock."

"You're out of your mind. Go back to bed. It's six a.m." Tamara was waking up fast.

"Hey, I would, but I can't. I'm at an all-night donut shop at the north end of town. Great coffee."

She was alarmed. "Have you been up all night?" It wouldn't be the first time. In the past he had gone without sleep for days at a time, working himself up into a state of frantic excitement and frenzied activity. At those times he would lose all perspective of what passes for normal, phoning his friends in the middle of the night or dragging her out of bed at three a.m. to go downtown to an all night bar. In the beginning it had been part of his crazy charm, but in the end the charm was gone and only the craziness remained.

He ignored her question. "I've been thinking. I get Danny, and you can have your new boyfriend. Deal?"

"How very generous of you," Tamara answered dryly. "There will be no trades, no deals. Just go back to the city. Get out of my life. Forget we exist."

"Look, Tamara," Keith continued in a more serious tone of voice. "If you don't want to deal, then I take Danny anyway and your boyfriend ends up with a couple of broken legs."

A surge of fear passed through her body; she knew he wasn't making idle threats. "Did you have anything to do with Ben Lucan and the car? Tell me!"

"The lush? Yeah, I met him at Hal's Diner, an all-night bar on the highway. Stealing the car was his idea. All he needed was a little encouragement."

Even though she had suspected it, the confirmation shocked her. "You killed him!"

"No way. He killed himself. I wasn't even in the car."

"The police might have a different opinion," Tamara said angrily.

"Oh, you won't tell on me. Remember what happened the last time you called the police?"

She certainly did. It had been at the end of one of his wake-a-thons. She had tried to get him out of the apartment, both Keith and the woman, Simone, but they had refused to budge. In desperation she had called the police, a stupid move on her part, because the police could do nothing. After they had gone she tried to leave with Danny, and Keith had thrown him down the stairs.

He didn't wait for her to answer. "I'll tell you what. Think it over. I'll be in town for awhile. But then I'm taking Danny with me. It'd be easier for us to make a deal, but just keep in mind I'm taking him anyway. He's my kid. You had no business taking him away."

"The court declared you an unfit father! It was your own fault!"

But he had gone. The phone was dead.

Tamara called the principal to make an appointment as soon as she got to work, but the woman couldn't see her until after lunch. She had a meeting with a parents' committee in the morning, and even though she sensed the urgency of Tamara's request she wasn't able to change the time of the meeting.

"The parents are in a tizzy. Our Strawberry Festival is on Saturday, and the whole town's coming."

"But I won't take up much of your time. It's very important," pleaded Tamara.