“No problem, Ms. Cindy. I’ll have someone there in five.”
Chapter 98
CINDY WAS DELIGHTED with herself. She described her raincoat and umbrella to Wysocki, folded her phone, put it in her pocket, and ducked back into the building, where she could see the traffic through the glass doors.
In five minutes, almost on the nose, a yellow Crown Vic pulled up and the window rolled down. She ran out to the street and immediately recognized the round face of the driver.
“Lady,” he said with a grin. “You called a cab?”
“Al, I didn’t mean you should come yourself, but thanks a ton. You’re too nice.”
Cindy closed her umbrella, reached for the door handle, and opened the back door.
“I was going off duty,” Wysocki said as Cindy settled into the backseat. “Happy to help you out. Hey. I gotta share this with someone who isn’t going to get jealous. Where are we going?”
Cindy gave Al Susie’s address, Jackson and Sansome, and leaned her umbrella against the door so the water would drip onto the mat.
“Share what?” Cindy asked, grabbing tissues from her pocket and blowing her nose.
“This is my lucky day,” Al told her, stopping at the red light on 2nd. “I won the lottery.”
“What?”
“Yeah, five hundred thousand dollars.”
“Come onnnn. You’re kidding me!”
“Seriously, I just kept playing my lucky numbers, and yahoo! — I won. I’m quitting tomorrow morning when I see the boss. This is Al Wysocki’s last fare. I got a bottle of schnapps,” he said. “Share a toast with me to my new life?”
“I don’t know how that’ll mix with Sudafed.”
“Hey, just a sip. It’ll do your cold good.”
“Okay, then. Hit me,” Cindy said. “You must be mind-boggled. Five hundred grand! So what are your plans?”
Wysocki opened the twist-off cap on the flask of high-octane spirits, poured Cindy a few ounces into a small plastic cup, and handed it to her through the partition.
“I’m going to buy a sailboat,” he said. He clinked the bottle against her plastic cup.
“To your new life,” she said.
“Thank you, Ms. Cindy. Yeah, I’ve been going to the boat shows for about eleven years. I know just the one I want.”
Cindy smiled and said “What … kind of … boat?”
“I want to get a sailing yacht. Small one, handmade, wooden hull,” Al said, looking at Cindy in the rearview mirror as the light turned green. He said, “You okay, back there?”
“No …,” she said slowly, casting her eyes toward Wysocki’s mirrored reflection. What was wrong with her? She was having trouble focusing. “I … feel …”
Wysocki grinned.
“You should feel great,” he said. “You were looking for me, missy. And now you’ve found me.”
Chapter 99
CLAIRE AND I were at Susie’s, all by ourselves, alone. First Yuki had blown us off, and now Cindy was a no-show; no show, no call, no nothing. Getting stood up by both of them had never happened before.
Claire said of Yuki, “Stop worrying yourself. That girl needs to get naked with a man every now and then. You know that, Lindsay. It’s good for her.”