Free John Saul by Guardian Page B

just give me a call.” As he started down the steps, a thought that had been flitting through MaryAnne’s mind for the last hour suddenly came to the fore.
    “Charley?” The rawboned lawyer paused at the bottom step and glanced back. “I’ve been thinking. Obviously I’m going to have to be here for a while. I wonder if perhaps I shouldn’t have my children come out.”
    Charley Hawkins grasped what she was saying. “Just let me know. I’ll arrange for the tickets. And I’ll have a checking account set up for you at the bank tomorrow morning. If you come into the village, just stop in and sign the cards, or I could bring them up for you.”
    “I’ll come in,” MaryAnne replied. “And thanks, Charley. I’m very glad that Ted and Audrey chose you to be their attorney.”
    A crooked smile creased Charley Hawkins’s cheeks. “And I’m glad they chose you to take care of Joey. Of course, I wasn’t too worried. One thing about Ted and Audrey—they were never wrong about people. Have a good night.”
    When he was gone, MaryAnne closed the door behind her, then leaned against it for a moment, finally releasing the steel grip with which she’d held her emotions in check. For a moment she felt as if she might faint, but then her strength came back to her, and she went upstairs to checkon Joey. He was stretched out on his bed, fully dressed, his big dog lying beside him.
    “Joey?” MaryAnne said, stepping into the room. “Are you asleep?” There was no reply from the boy, so she went over to the bed, pulled the large Pendleton blanket at its foot up to cover him, then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Take care of him, Storm,” she whispered as she switched off the light. “He needs you right now.”
    Almost as if he understood her words, the big dog thumped his tail on the bed and pressed closer to his master.
    Leaving the door ajar, MaryAnne went back downstairs and began wandering through the rooms on the lower floor. In the den, her eyes came to rest on a double silver frame that held pictures of Audrey and Ted, and she made no attempt to wipe the tears that began to run down her cheeks.
    Finally she settled herself at Audrey’s desk, picked up the phone, and dialed her own number in New Jersey. On the third ring, Alan picked up.
    “It’s MaryAnne,” she said. “I wanted to let the kids know I got here all right.”
    “I’ll tell them,” Alan replied. There was an uncomfortable silence, their quarrel that morning still fresh in both their minds. Then Alan spoke again. “Are you okay?”
    “Considering the circumstances, I suppose I’m all right,” MaryAnne replied. She hesitated, then went on. “But I’m going to have to be here for a while, and I think maybe you should bring the kids out.”
    She heard a dark chuckle from her husband. “Right,” he said. “I’ll
just
call the travel agent and order up some tickets. First-class. Jesus, MaryAnne, we barely have enough money to live on, and you want me to fly us all out to Idaho for a couple of days?”
    “Alan, I’ve got some money,” MaryAnne began, but before she could go on, her husband interrupted her.
    “You’re kidding! You mean you’ve been whining at me about money every month for the last year, and you’ve been
saving
it? What the hell is going on with you? You’ve been acting like you were at the poorhouse door!”
    His words froze MaryAnne. Should she tell him whathad happened, what the terms of Ted and Audrey’s wills were?
    And then she remembered Eileen Chandler.
    I’ll never be able to trust him, she thought. If I tell him about the money now, I’ll never be able to trust him again. I’ll never know if he wants to come back to me, or just to the money.
    “It’s been tight, but I’ve still managed to save a little,” she said, her voice cold. “There’s enough for the plane tickets, and I don’t want to argue with you. But I want my children with me right now, and you can either bring them or send