Free Vineyard Shadows by Philip R. Craig Page A

WRECKED IN ACCIDENT WITH HOUSEWIFE story. It was all my fault! Isyour wife going to be all right? I'm so sorry! It was so stupid of me to send Tom there, but I never imagined that those men would come here. . . . I'm such a coward!”
    I agreed with some of that, but I said, “Forget it. It's just more of that water. Zee and Diana will be fine. What's important now is that we all get shuck of the guys who are after your husband.”
    â€œWhere is he? Where's Tom? Is he all right?”
    I drank off the rest of my thin-tasting beer and stood up. “Let's go for a walk.”
    â€œA walk?” She looked puzzled, but nodded. “All right.”
    When we went out, there was a blue Lincoln sedan parked about half a block up the street behind my truck. It hadn't been there when I pulled into her driveway. We walked away from the car, up the block, passing other big old houses like hers. It was a nice, quiet street.
    â€œWhy are we out here?” she asked.
    â€œProbably for no good reason,” I said, “but I want to be careful. There are at least two people who want to find Tom: Sonny Whelen and a guy named Graham, who says he's a cop. I doubt if either one of them has a satellite system to keep track of the people they're interested in, but it's possible that one or both of them have bugged your house or tapped your phone or car. You can go down to your local magazine store and buy a catalog for the stuff you'd need to do that. It's less likely that they have a big ear listening to us out here on the street, so that's why we're here.”
    She looked around almost wildly. “Do you really think our house might be bugged? I can't believe it. It's like a movie.”
    â€œIt's not a movie,” I said. “It's real life, and your houseprobably isn't bugged. But if it is, you and Tom can't talk without having somebody else hear every word you say. I think you should play it safe. Do you have any money?”
    She looked at me with surprise. “Some. Not much. Our credit cards are used up and I can't pay the bills, but I have a little set aside.”
    â€œI think you should buy a couple of cell phones and use them when you and Tom talk. You keep one here and I'll take the other one with me when I leave and get it to him. That way, nobody can trace his calls and find him. Or at least I don't think they can. When you talk you should both be very careful not to say where he is. Don't ask and don't let him tell you. And don't talk for too long, just in case somebody really can trace his location. Keep your messages short and sweet.”
    â€œBut I want to know where he is! I want to know he's all right.”
    â€œAnd he wants to tell you both things, which is exactly why you have to make sure he doesn't.”
    â€œBut if the house isn't bugged . . .”
    I had to twist the knife a bit. “If you know and the hoods come back, you'll tell again, just like you did last time.”
    â€œOh.” She kicked at a small stone on the walk. “Of course I would. I'm such a coward . . .”
    I felt a kind of tenderness for her and was glad to cast the knife away. “No. Anyone would tell. The person hasn't been born who can stand up to every torture and threat. Don't be hard on yourself. Just don't ask where Tom is and don't let him tell you. That may give us time to get out of this mess.”
    Her arm went around mine and she leaned against me. “You don't have to do this, Jeff, but I'm grateful.”
    Her touch brought back other feelings I thought I'd gotten rid of long ago.
    â€œDon't be grateful yet,” I said. “We're still in the stew.”
    â€œWhy are you doing it at all?” She looked up at me with the soft blue eyes I'd first seen in a college hallway twenty years before and thought I'd since forgotten but hadn't.
    Why, indeed? Was it because I'd never really stopped loving her even after I fell in love with Zee? Or because I wanted her to be