Ghosts In the Heart. Michael J.D. Keller

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СКАЧАТЬ a solitary life is not the same think as being lonely.”

      “It is for you Alex. You can’t fool us. We care too much about you to let you go on the way you have. I watched you tonight. You were having a good time, you enjoyed the company, the conversation, the food. Until something in that music disturbed you, you actually looked happy.”

      Brenda turned her head to look directly into his eyes. Mckenzie almost flinched from the emotional intensity of her gaze. He had stared without reaction into the faces of profound evil on more than on occasion as a policeman. At this moment, however, the affectionate expression of a young pregnant woman, the caring look of compassionate nurse, bored directly into his heart.

      “So here it is Alex. Peter and I care about you. I won’t say you can’t chase us away but you are going to have to work at it really hard. Like it or not, you are our friend. Peter and I don’t give up our friends without a fight.”

      There was a sudden silence on the deck as if Brenda had expended every bit of the energy she possessed in her declaration. Then she hugged him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his chest. For a moment Alex stood frozen into an immobile pose before he awkwardly, hesitantly patted her shoulder.

      The male voice broke the silence. “So what do you think you are doing Mckenzie? Hitting on my wife?”

      Mckenzie looked over Brenda’s shoulder at Peter, who was standing in the doorway, arms crossed against his chest with a broad grin shining on his face.

      Alex dead-panned his reply. “I was just explaining to her that if you continue to be such an absolute disappointment, she could always move in with me.”

      Peter laughed once again relishing the Mckenzie dry wit that regularly passed over the head of his co-workers. He took Brenda’s arm and mimicked a show of pulling her away from Mckenzie’s embrace. “Come on Brenda. We had better take this guy home while our marriage is still intact.”

      Mckenzie felt a furtive sense of pleasure sneak back into his consciousness. It was the same aura of affectionate companionship that had enveloped him at the table, conversing with these two young people, their friends and their acquaintances. Laughter, teasing, and the occasional serious discussions had abruptly created an atmosphere of shared community. The carefully built walls of isolation with which he had surrounded himself for years had cracked. Perhaps he could rebuild them and regain the austere reserve that he had always seen as a key part of his character. But walking between Peter and Brenda, Mckenzie realized that even if those barriers were replaced, the Stewarts were going to be at the gate pounding incessantly, demanding entrance.

      Back in the restaurant the goodbyes and good nights were brisk but still warm and well punctuated with firm handshakes and soft kisses on the check. “Come back and see us soon Alex” Sandy whispered into his ear. Mckenzie realized with no small portion of surprise, that he was nodding a smiling acquiescence to a request that might have sounded like a trite cliche in another mouth. It seemed that neither Sandy nor Mathew could exhibit anything except genuine sincerity in their farewells.

      As they walked across the now empty parking lot toward the Stewart’s vehicle, Peter looked at him with an expression of tentative hope. “Did you enjoy your dinner?”

      What am I supposed to say? Mckenzie thought. No, it was agony and I never want to do this again. Say something like that and watch Peter and Brenda’s faces collapse like children being told that Christmas had been cancelled.

      “Yes Peter, I had a very good time. I liked your friends.” One again, to his surprise, Mckenzie realized that he was being truthful. Or maybe he had just drank too much wine.

      “Matt and Sandy are great people” Brenda agreed. I’m just afraid their restaurant isn’t going to make it.

      It probably won’t Mckenzie thought as he settled again into the Escalande’s back seat. A new restaurant was always a problematic enterprise and the competition along the waterfront was fierce. Still they might yet succeed. Even if they didn’t, he had sensed a strength in the Yeungs that drew on their relationship with each other. Like Brenda and Peter, they were sustained by a foundation to their lives they had constructed together. They could weather disappointment and push on to the next challenge as long as they had each other. That realization sparked a feeling of satisfaction in Mckenzie’s mind that marched just ahead of a quickly suppressed spasm of envy. “Wimp” his father’s voice snarled.

      Mckenzie glanced at the illuminated fact of his wristwatch. It was approaching 2:00 a.m. It was little wonder the traffic had become lighter as they drove back toward the bridge and the city beyond.

      “Before we take Alex home, can we swing by the Asian Market on Webster? They have got that Hoisin sauce that no body else in town carries.”

      “Already getting pregnant women food cravings? Peter teased.

      “Smart ass” Brenda answered. “No, I need it for a vegetable stir fry dish I am making when Alex comes to dinner next week.”

      “When I do what?”

      “You are coming to our place for dinner next Saturday. Didn’t you know that?”

      “Evidently I do now” Mckenzie replied with a note of resigned bemusement. The Stewart tag team had won another victory.

      “Good” Brenda said triumphantly. Peter almost choked trying to stifle a laugh.

      Passing over the bridge and entering the city, Peter turned toward the Marina district. Brenda’s repository of special sauces was slightly nondiscript grocery store with a small parking lot in front. It had once been something similar to a 7-11 but now the glass front had been bricked in. There were faint splotches on the bricks where graffiti had been half heartedly cleaned away. The glass double doors were adorned with posters and notices slapped up haphazardly. Some were already peeling away. The Asian Market did not stock elegant ambience.

      As the car came to a stop Brenda unsnapped her seat belt and opened the door. “If you two will sit here, I’ll just be a second.” Without waiting for a response Brenda was off in pursuit of her dinner ingredients. Glancing at the store, Mckenzie’s eyes followed her as she walked briskly past the door and toward the front of the store. He could see a bored night clerk look up as she approached and smile. It was hard not to smile at Brenda Stewart.

      You are a lucky man Peter, Mckenzie thought. He might have said it aloud but Peter suddenly laughed. Holding up Brenda’s purse he observed that unless she expected to get her sauce for free, he had better take her some money. The dome light of the Escalande came on as Peter opened the door and set off in pursuit of his wife.

      Alex leaned his head against the back seat and closed his eyes. Despite his jests with Brenda earlier about being old, he did feel quite tired. For a moment he thought he might actually doze off. The fatigue was instantly forgotten.however. when the pulsating sensation of a vibrating cell phone in his pocket restored his full mental alertness. Only the department called on this phone.

      Flipping open the phone cover he saw that a text message awaited him. He punched the key to bring it into view on the screen and immediately smiled a wolfish grin of satisfaction. They had caught Brian “Big Bo” Casto, the key link to a brutal murder for hire scheme he had been chasing for months. Well now Brian, Mckenzie thought, you and I are going to have a nice conversation as soon as I can get to the jail.

      It might have been his excitement over the welcome news; it might have been a bit of residual fatigue from a very long day; it might have been simply a rare bit of clumsiness, СКАЧАТЬ