Читать книгу Cast a Blue Shadow - P. L. Gaus - Страница 18

5

Friday, November 1

8:45 P.M.

MARTHA swiped her plastic night pass through the magnetic reader at her dorm’s front entrance, pulled the heavy oak door open, and climbed the stairs to her third-floor suite. She pushed through the door, switched on the lights, and startled her roommate, who was tangled in the arms of her boyfriend on the couch, finishing a joint. Her roommate, only mildly embarrassed, grumbled, “Turn out the lights, would you.”

Martha switched off half the ceiling lights and sat in an old armchair, across a coffee table from the two lovers. She fanned at the smoke in front of her face and said, “Hey, Wendy. Will. Got any more of that?”

Wendy sat upright on the couch, and Will fumbled for a pouch, mumbling something unintelligible. Wendy poured out marijuana on a paper, rolled it, licked the edge, pressed it shut, and twisted the ends, handing the joint across the table. Martha took a book of matches from a dirty ashtray, lit the joint, drew on it heavily, and held the smoke in her lungs, passing the joint back to Wendy. When she finally exhaled, she eased back in the armchair and said, “You didn’t think I was coming back.”

Wendy brushed stringy blond hair out of her eyes, passed the joint on to Will, and said, “No. Sonny’s not with you?”

“Back at the mansion. He’s with his mommy.”

Wendy raised her eyebrows. “You two had a fight?”

Martha shrugged. “Not so much a fight as a surrender. His mother told me off, and he said I should take his car. I wanted to leave anyway.”

“What’s he doing?”

“Beats me.”

“You going back out?”

“Not while she’s there.”

There was a knock at the door. Martha got up reluctantly and opened the door. There stood a young man in a blue Amish blouse, black vest, and heavy denim jacket. He held a black felt hat in his hands.

Martha said, “Oh, it’s you.” She turned around and walked back into the room.

The Amish man said, “A fellow let me in. Can we talk?” followed by something in Dutch dialect. Martha answered in kind, and waved him into the room.