The Concrete Pearl by Vincent Zandri Read Free Book Online Page A

headstrong girl to do?
    I got back in the Jeep, feeling a drop of sweat drip down the center of my chest. The realization began to sink in. I wondered what had to finally give way for man or woman to suddenly abandon their life. Just split the scene Jean; slip out the back Jack…
    What the fuck? Farrell hadn’t gone fishing.
    He was gone baby gone.
    He wasn’t coming back.
    Farrell was…
    Gone from PS 20.
    Gone from his Aviation Industrial Park offices.
    Gone from his home and his trophy wife.
    Gone from father-in-law Peter Marino.
    Gone from A-1 Environmental Solutions.
    Gone with the school’s two-hundred large plus my ten.
    I looked down at my hands gripping the steering column. My knuckles were white and cramped. Heart pounded against sternum. If you could’ve seen through my clothes and skin you wouldn’t see the blood running through my veins. You’d see it shooting.
    I had nowhere else to go other than back to the jobsite. There was no other place to go looking for Farrell. Maybe it was time to do what I should have done earlier that morning when I found out Jimmy had split the scene. I pulled out the Blackberry and punched in 9-1-1.
    I held my thumb on the SEND button. My thumb trembled. The early summer sun beat down on me. The Blackberry began to vibrate against the palm of my hand due to an incoming call. The sudden vibration startled me.
    Two choices appeared on the screen. ANSWER or IGNORE.
    I recognized the incoming number. It was Marino Construction. I hit SEND, placed the phone to my ear.
    “Harrison.”
    “Ms. Harrison?”
    It was a woman’s voice. Bobbie, the red-headed receptionist.
    “Please, I have to make this quick. But I was here when Mr. Farrell emptied out his offices on Saturday.”
    “How would you know?”
    “I was in the office catching up on some paperwork. Jimmy was packing up his office next door. Rather, he was overseeing a moving company do all the work. He brought some boxes here to Marino Construction. He met with Peter inside Peter’s office. They argued.”
    “About what?”
    “I couldn’t tell really, they were flinging so many names and accusations. But I do recall something that stuck out.”
    “I’m listening Bobbie.”
    “They were doing a lot of screaming. About money, cuts, fair shares and Tina. They argued about another girl too. I think her name is Natalie. It was like they both had an interest in her, whoever this Natalie is.”
    “Whaddaya mean an interest?”
    “You know, like their eyes are set on a woman besides Tina. And that wouldn’t be right.”
    I rolled my eyes even though she wasn’t there to see them.
    “What else can you tell me?”
    “They fought over a baby.”
    My stomach did a flip at the sound of the B word.
    “What baby?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Is Tina pregnant?”
    “I don’t know. Peter hasn’t said anything.”
    “Why you volunteering this information? Why place yourself and your job at risk?”
    “Because I thought you should know. And like you said, ‘Ain’t no I in We.’”
    “Thank you Bobbie,” I said.
    She hung up.
    “A baby,” I whispered to myself, picturing Tina pressing the palm of her hand against her exposed flat belly. Or maybe it was the mysterious Natalie who was pregnant? Pregnant with Jimmy’s or even Peter’s baby.
    I gave up on redialing 911. What the hell was the nature of my emergency anyway? The nature was that something else was going on besides Farrell simply splitting town.
    I backed out of the Farrell driveway, contemplated doing something that seemed entirely stupid, but that at the same time made perfect sense: heading north to Lake Desolation. Maybe Farrell hadn’t really gone fishing in the pure-sportsman-outdoorsy-one-with-Mother-Nature sense of the word. But what’s a skull-strong construction babe to do?
    She goes fishing with the one lead she’s got left.
     
     
     

Chapter 9
     
    Driving.
    Highway 87 north until I came to exit twelve just below Saratoga Springs.
    From