Shadow Games by Ed Gorman Read Free Book Online Page B

pushing the jagged edge of the gin bottle right in his face.
    "You want me to cut you up, you sonofabitch ?" she'd screamed. "Then keep your fucking hands off me!"
    She spent the next day calling to apologize for the night before, but by then Puckett knew that their relationship was quickly and grimly coming to a close...
    Not long after that he told her she was an alcoholic. That was the last time they'd gotten together.
    But now, as he thought about Anne, the worst of the memories faded. And he thought, instead, of her little-girl laugh, of her gentleness after lovemaking, of the sad, yet dignified way she dealt with troubles when she wasn't drinking...
    It was good to think of her again, sweet and tender to remember the clean scent of her as she stepped from the shower...and the quick, melancholy brilliance of her smile.
    The phone rang.
    He grabbed it immediately, knowing with a rush of exhilaration who it would be.
    "God. I couldn't believe it when I got out of the studio and saw the note from you," she said. " Why're you in Chicago?"
    "Work."
    "Figures. You still haven't learned how to relax, have you?"
    He laughed. "I guess not."
    "Are you decent?"
    "Depends on who's asking."
    "I am. I'm downstairs in the lobby."
     
    T hree minutes and seven floors later, she knocked on the door. As he opened the door, he caught himself sniffing the air and felt ashamed of himself. He was already assuming she was drunk.
    "Hi, Puckett."
    "Hi, Anne."
    "Surprised to see me?"
    "Very."
    She wore a Dodgers T-shirt under a rust-colored suede car coat. Her white jeans hugged her neat little bottom and her long, slender legs very nicely.
    "I've missed you, Puckett."
    "Ditto."
    She laughed. "Same old 'ditto' routine, huh?"
    Then she was in his arms.
    Neither of them made a move to kiss; they just stood there in the doorway, holding each other, as if they weren't quite sure if they were lovers or just friends.
    She sure felt good, Puckett thought. He'd always been comfortable with her sexually because they liked the same things and liked sex at about the same rate. But it was more than that, of course. He knew, now, just how lonely for her he'd really been.
    He closed his eyes and just held her, liking the familiar smells of her, too, the baby shampoo in the hair, the sweet, subtle perfume, the warm, clean aroma of her flesh.
    "This is really nice," she said.
    "This is better than nice. It's great."
    She giggled. "I just wish we didn't have to go and ruin it all by closing the door."
    God—he'd actually forgotten all about standing in the doorway.
    He led her inside the pleasant but unremarkable room with its pleasant but unremarkable furniture and its pleasant but unremarkable atmosphere.
    Then he just stood there staring at her, a dumb, love-smitten junior at his first high school prom.
    Anne Addison had come back into his life .
     
    T he name of the treatment center was St. Francis Xavier and the name of the priest there, himself a recovering alcoholic, was Father Doheny . Anne had stayed there four months, until she had just about run out of insurance money. At least twice a week she'd started to call Puckett, but always stopped at the last moment because her memory of trashing his living room was too acute. She'd done many things in her drinking years that embarrassed her, but none as much as that. So she hadn't called.
    After she got out of the treatment center, she went home and stayed in her apartment for a full month without leaving or even calling anybody. She was afraid to go out, afraid she wouldn't be strong enough to pass by a bar without going inside and ruining her five months of sobriety.
    Then an editor called one day and gave her a freelance assignment, an interview with a European director staying in Malibu. Anne specialized in serious journalism about the film industry.
    The interview was a real trial. Besides the fact that the director spent almost their entire time together trying to seduce her, she watched as he consumed