Bloodlines by Jan Burke Read Free Book Online

woman he had ever seen caught his eye and motioned him inside with a wave.
    She greeted him with a warm smile and said, "You must be Mr. O'Connor. I'm Big Sarah. Come on in, right this way, honey. Handsome Jack hisself called and told me you'd be coming. Do you need to wash up?"
    "Yes, thank you, ma'am," he said.
    "What fine manners! The gents is straight back there, near the phone."
    In the men's room, he took off his thin jacket and washed his hands and arms up to the elbows, carefully avoiding one place on his left arm. Fascinated by a cloth towel that was dry when you pulled on it, even though it seemed to be just one towel looped on a continuous roller, he considered trying to pull on it until the wet side showed up again. But it made such a noise, he stopped after three tries. He used a little more water to finish combing his hair, then-- remembering to be on his best manners, and certain that Big Sarah would check up on him--thought to wipe down the sink. But here the towel mechanism was found to have a shortcoming--the towel couldn't reach the sink. He used his handkerchief instead.
    When O'Connor stepped out of the washroom, Corrigan was standing next to Big Sarah, who was laughing at some joke he had just made. The only other customer in the place had left. Corrigan noticed O'Connor and smiled.
    "Let's get some food in him, Sarah."
    "Two specials, comin' right up," she said. "You like fried chicken, Mr. O'Connor?"
    "Yes, ma'am," he answered.
    They sat in a booth, and it was all O'Connor could do not to run his hands over everything, to feel the smooth leather of the seats or the shiny tabletop. He followed Corrigan's example with the napkin, resisted the temptation to keep straightening his flatware.
    Big Sarah brought Jack a cup of coffee and O'Connor a glass of milk. He didn't take a sip of it until Jack took a sip of his coffee.
    O'Connor thought that Jack would want to hear his secret information right away, but instead Jack asked, "Won't your mother wonder where you are?"
    O'Connor shook his head. "No, sir."
    Jack looked skeptical.
    "She's working tonight. She does for a lady--cooking and cleaning and sometimes minding the lady's little girls. They're just babies, the girls."
    "You've been to this house?"
    "Oh no, sir." But he blushed.
    "Hmm. But you might have taken an unofficial look at the place, maybe followed her to work one day, just to see if it was a good place for her to work?"
    Looking at the table, he said, "Might have."
    Corrigan smiled. "And your father? Does he work nights, too?"
    Eyes still averted, O'Connor said, "No, sir."
    Corrigan took out a cigarette and lit it. He watched the boy balance his fork on its edge, then put it down flat, then pull his hands away from the table. Jack waited.
    "He was a roughneck," O'Connor said, meeting his eyes at last.
    "Your father worked in the oilfields?"
    O'Connor began to repeat the story as he had heard Maureen tell it so many times. "My da came from Ireland to Las Piernas to be a roughneck. Before I was born. Before Maureen was born. When Dermot was two."
    "And how old is Dermot now?"
    "Seventeen."
    "So your father must have been here at the beginning of the boom."
    O'Connor nodded. "Pat--his cousin--got him signed on with one of the big oil companies on Signal Hill. Pat works up in Bakersfield now."
    "And you help out by working for the paper."
    He shrugged. "A little."
    Big Sarah brought the chicken dinners. It was more hot food than he'd had on his plate in a long time, but O'Connor, just having thought of his family, suddenly felt as if eating it would be a selfish act.
    Sensing the problem, Corrigan said, "Sarah's feelings will be terribly hurt if you don't finish every bite."
    O'Connor nodded, and after a few bites, tucked into the meal in earnest. The boy finished his supper before Corrigan was halfway through his own, so Corrigan handed him a menu and told him to choose a dessert.
    "Apple pie," O'Connor said, but continued to read the menu.
    "You