The Tipsy Gull, page 13
part #1 of Danny Barbosa Series
She heard the front door open and tensed, peeking out the door, she saw Jessa go into her room. What would she have done if it was him? He’d never cheated on her before and she wasn’t sure how to confront him. When had he worn those pants? It was the day of his DUI. Anger flashed in her eyes, and she punched his pillow before flinging it across the room. This enforced her decision. Jessa and she would fly back to the Philippines. Tala phoned Jojo to let him know, and he said he’d book the flight for them. It’d be in the next couple of days.
She contacted Jessa’s school, and they excused her for the first two weeks. Tala knocked on her daughter’s door and entered the bedroom. “Hon, your Lola Gladys is sick. I’m going to fly back to see her.”
Jessa’s eyes grew wide as she sat up. “Is she okay? I want to go to the Philippines, too. Please, Mom!”
Tala smiled. “Yes, you’re going with me. I already called the school and they’ll send your assignments by email.”
Jessa threw her arms around her. “Thanks, Mom. Ooh, I have to call Lara and Cameron.”
Jessa’s enthusiasm was contagious and the two babbled about the trip before the reason for it crept up on Tala. She put her head down. “Anyway, I have a lot to do, so I best get started.”
“Lola will be okay though, right Mom?”
Tala took a deep breath and squeezed Jessa’s hand. “Yeah, she will, and she’ll be happy to see us.”
Jessa reached for her cell phone when Tala stood. “Was Dad able to get the time off, too?”
Tala forced a smile. That cheating bastard isn’t invited. “No, I’m afraid not. It’ll be the two of us, along with your Tito Jojo.” The time away would be good for her to decide where things were going with Danny. As she made a list of things to do, she contemplated how to break the news to him. I’ll start a fight.
***
Danny arrived home from his AA meeting and lunch with Paul and headed straight to the fridge. He grabbed a beer, plopped down on his recliner, and put on the NFL network.
Tala came out from the bedroom to tell him they needed to talk, then headed back to their room. With a deep sigh, he followed her.
“How was your meeting?” Tala crossed her arms and glared at the beer. “Aren’t they supposed to help you quit drinking?”
“It’s just one beer. I don’t believe this.” He shook his head, “I went to the meeting like you wanted and now you’re complaining.”
“Like I wanted? No, Danny. You went because you got the damn DUI and you have to.”
“Whatever.” He turned to leave.
“Wait!” Tala slumped down to the edge of the bed and her lip quivered. “There’s something else. Jojo called me today. Mama’s sick and they don’t know if she’s gonna make it.”
“Oh, love. I’m sorry.” He sat next to her and put his arm around her. “Do you want to visit her? I don’t know how much time I could get off, but I’ll try. We’re not making much progress on this damn case anyway.”
Tala moved his arm from around her and took a deep breath. “We are going to see her, Jessa and me. Not you.”
He winced, looking confused. “What do–”
She interrupted. “I can’t take any more of this. Three weeks ago, you came home drunk at two in the morning without even calling. Then it happens again.” She stood up and paced in front of the bed. “Next thing I know, you’re in jail for drunk driving.”
“I know, but–” Danny started.
She stopped pacing and held her hands up. “No! Let me finish while I can.” She squeezed her eyes tight for a moment. “I worried all night, scared to death something happened to you. It took a drunken call at three in the morning before I knew where you were. You didn’t even have enough sense to call a cab.”
Danny put his head down.
“I prayed AA would help, at least a little. But no, you went straight to the beer when you came home. Everything’s happening at once and I feel like I’m going to have a nervous breakdown.” She sat back down and pressed her palms over her eyes, then slid them down together into a steeple over her mouth. “I need time away from you. With Mama sick, I can use FMLA for work.”
He looked up. “You mean you’ll go back to living in the Philippines?”
“No, Danny. I’m not going to live there. I have friends here, not to mention my career, and Jessa’s starting school in a couple of weeks. I’m planning on staying a month, Mama needs me right now…and I need space.”
She mentioned her job, friends, and Jessa’s school but not him. He lowered his eyes in defeat and nodded.
“There’s more.” Tala spun away in a huff. “I know about Jenny.”
Her comment hit him like a blind-side tackle, knocking the wind out of him. He sucked in air and avoided her eyes. “Nothing happened with her.”
Tala stopped pacing and marched straight at him. “Thanks for making me feel like a woman? You’re going to sit there and deny it?”
Danny lowered his head and repeated, “Nothing happened.”
“How the hell do you expect me to believe that?”
He hated himself for this pain he brought her and turned to leave. At the doorway, a wadded piece of paper hit the wall and fell to his feet. She stormed past him, and headed to the bathroom, slamming the door shut.
Danny unraveled the paper and read the note from Jenny. He knocked gently on the bathroom door. “Open up, Tala.”
“Go away!”
With a sigh, he spoke through the door. “Listen, I never slept with her. Jenny tended bar at The Tipsy Gull the night I got my DUI. We spent the evening talking, that’s all. She told me about her life with her father and I told her about my job, and about you.
“Bartenders do that, they listen to people. She must have slipped the note in my pocket. I didn’t sleep with her, that’s the truth, I swear.”
The door swung open and Tala stood there with her hands on her hips, eyes ablaze. “Hugs and kisses! And you expect me to believe you just talked?”
“Uh, she kissed me too. “He looked past her, afraid to look her in the eye. “She didn’t know I was married. But that’s when I told her I was and nothing else happened.”
“You’re something else.” Tala shook her head. “First, you say you just talked, then you admit to kissing her. Wouldn’t your wedding ring tell her you were married? Let me guess…you took it off!”
Danny swallowed.
“I’m your wife. For twelve long years we’ve been together, and I’ve always been here for you. Try talking to me.”
He didn’t know what to say and just nodded.
Tala put one hand on the door frame. “Maybe I need someone to talk with, tell them my troubles too. But no, I have to keep everything bottled up while you get to talk and make out with a bartender. Let me guess, she was a twenty-year-old blonde?”
He deserved this. “I’m sorry.”
“Leave me alone!” She stomped from bathroom to bedroom and slammed the door again.
He caught Jessa out of the corner of his eye, standing at her bedroom doorway. How much had she heard?
She banged her bedroom door shut.
Evidently, all of it.
***
Tala woke up Friday morning exhausted and numb. She hadn’t even heard Danny leave for work. Her Filipina conscience shouted at her to stand by him. That was what her culture had taught, and she knew she should. But the woman that’d been in America for a dozen years thought otherwise. The old idiom surfaced in her mind: you’ve made your bed, now lie in it.
She had to think of Jessa too. Tala strived to teach her daughter to be strong and overcome adversity. Was she being a hypocrite by staying with Danny, even though all signs pointed to him being unfaithful? Or was it hypocrisy to leave him? She’d also taught Jessa marriage vows were sacred and forever, in good times and in bad.
While she waited for her coffee to brew, Jessa came out of the bedroom and hugged her. “I’m sorry Dad’s being a jerk.”
Tala took her daughter’s hands in hers. “Hey, it’s not his fault, okay? He’s an alcoholic but he’s going to get help and everything’s going to be fine.”
Jessa nodded and Tala embraced her, hoping her words would come true. After a moment, she pulled away. “Do you want to help me make pancakes?”
Jessa wiped her tears and nodded. Halfway through, Jojo texted to inform her he’d emailed the flight itinerary to her. He also mentioned his daughter, Nicky, would be going.
She opened her Notebook and skimmed over the schedule: Tomorrow at noon the first flight would take them to San Francisco. Four flights, three layovers, and the sixteen-hour time difference meant they’d arrive in her home town, New Sibonga, on Monday morning at ten. Back in the States, it’d be six pm on Sunday.
Heading back to the kitchen, she overheard Jessa. “Cameron, why don’t you ever answer the phone? It’s always text, text, text. Why can’t we talk?”
Tala froze.
“Okay call me back. Or I guess I should say text me.”
Tala took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen, looking at the finished hot cakes. “Wow, those look good.”
Jessa looked up and smiled. “Thanks, Mom.”
As they ate breakfast, Tala brought up Cameron, and how she overheard her daughter’s message to him. Jessa admitted they never talked, only texted. Tala comforted Jessa, but internally a red flag went up. She decided to talk to Danny about it.
***
Danny arrived home and slammed the door closed. Work had suspended him for two days for his DUI beginning Monday. Then he met Paul at a meeting after work and had forgotten to retrieve his court card that he left to be signed.
Tala informed him they’d be leaving the next day and he offered to help pack. She declined. Grumbling, he grabbed a beer and plopped down on his recliner to watch a college football game. At a commercial break, he grabbed another beer and sat back down. He recalled everyone proclaiming, ‘I’m an alcoholic’, at the meeting, and sighed. For the second day, he’d refused to utter those words. Self-doubt entered his mind as he took another swallow of his ice-cold beer. He gave a hard shake of his head and squared his shoulders. “That’s ridiculous. It’s just a few beers on a Friday night after a rough day at work.”
Guilt ate away at his conscience. Maybe it’d be best to abstain from drinking while he attended meetings and cleared up his court case. That wouldn’t be so hard, a couple of months at most. With an exaggerated sigh, he strode to the kitchen to pour the drink down the sink. He tilted the can and stopped. What kind of brain-washing had they been doing to him? It was only a beer for Christ’s sake, not like he was drinking the hard stuff.
“Yeah, but then you switch to the Jack, get drunk, and black out,” he told himself out loud. He ran his fingers through his hair, then poured the beer down the drain. He opened the fridge, snatched one of Tala’s Diet Pepsis, and sat back down to continue his game.
Tala came in, eyed the can, but didn’t say anything. She sat on the sofa and briefed him about Cameron, and how she suspected he was not who he said he was. They talked about it and decided to confront Jessa.
The three of them sat on the sofa as Danny scrolled through the messages. Jessa kept her head down. Tala was right, this ‘Cameron’ person was probing her to learn more about all of them, under the pretense of being interested in her. It was all there, where they lived, their jobs, etc. It’d been done with finesse, and he’d barely recognized it. Poor Jessa didn’t have a chance. Was it a child molester? Perhaps, a suspect he’d arrested, or was investigating.
The Chameleon. The thought smacked him in the face, and he shuddered. He could see her pulling off something like this.
“So, you’ve never talked with him, just texted?” he asked Jessa.
She nodded, still looking down. Tala put her arm around her daughter’s shoulder. Danny dialed Cameron’s number and it went straight to an automated voicemail. He hung up and explained to their daughter what he wanted her to do.
She typed the message he dictated: My mom says my phone won’t work when I’m gone and I’m going to miss you. I want to hear your voice before I go. Can you call me?
Jessa hit send, squared her shoulders, and held her head high. “You guys are wrong about him. He’ll call me back.”
A moment later, the phone alerted her to a message, and they all read it.
Cameron: I can’t talk right now. I’m at the store with my mom. Are you okay? I’ll text you later.
Jessa stomped toward her room, and Danny pointed after her with his chin. Tala nodded and followed. He sat there and rubbed his eyes. His cop instinct told him this was more than a shy teen boy. He’d get a hold of Ben and let him know. Together they’d figure out who this person was. For now, the girls still had a lot of packing to do.
CHAPTER 17
Claire spent the early evening cleaning the habitat of her dart frogs. After cleaning, she sprayed mist into the tank and turned the humidifier on. She scooped a dozen larvae into the terrarium and added fresh endive leaves for the adult beetles. The last time she did this, Sassy had tried to get into the bin where she kept the Choresine beetle. This time, she made sure she kept the door closed.
This menial task finished, she let herself out of the room and glanced at the TV. She had left it on, but muted. Stephanie Chang from channel eight was reporting outside the bar, Moonshine Flats. Claire’s interest peaked and she sat at the edge of the sofa and turned the volume up.
“…as you can see, the Gaslamp Quarter resembles a ghost town more than the thriving business hub of San Diego. Like last year, when three men were brutally murdered, scared citizens of this beautiful city have chosen to stay home…”
As Chang talked, the camera panned the streets and sidewalks along Seventh Avenue. Only three cars were moving down the normally congested street, and one of them was a patrol car. A handful of people walked along the sidewalk. Claire checked the time, 6:45 PM. She smiled. Not a very busy happy hour.
Chang continued, “…Let’s talk to a few people and get their opinion about the Slayer.”
The camera zoomed in on two college-age coeds. Chang held up her microphone. “Hi, I’m Stephanie Chang with Channel 8. Who am I talking to?”
“I’m Kimberly,” said one woman.
“I’m Stacy,” said the other.
“Are you two aren’t worried about being out and about with the San Diego Slayer on the loose?”
“Well so far, the killer has only attacked men, so we don’t think we’re in any sort of danger.” Stacy smiled into the camera.
“But it’s so hard to meet guys now.” Kimberly shook her head. “I’m single, and if I try and come on to a guy, he looks at me like I’m the Slayer and is ready to run the other way.”
Stacy nodded. “I have a boyfriend, but he won’t go out now, not even with me.”
Next, Chang interviewed four young men who came out of Whiskey Girl, staggering down the sidewalk.
“Hi, I’m Stephanie Chang. Can I talk to you guys for a minute?”
The guys were all smiles as they posed for the camera, whooping and hollering.
Chang smiled. “Businesses have really slowed down, as you can see. You guys don’t seem to be too worried about the San Diego Slayer stalking and brutally stabbing men?”
“I’m Ryan,” one of the young men said with a slurred voice. “I’ll be honest, I’m scared. But we can’t stop living our lives because some crazy beep beep is going around killing people.”
Claire flinched, her eyes narrowed, and she balled her fists. Crazy? Fuck you, Ryan. She hit the record button on the DVR. Perhaps she’d have to pay him a little visit.
“Yeah, we try and stick together.” The short guy in the middle put his arms around the necks of his comrades on each side of him. “We’re not afraid of that psycho.”
Claire bit her lip and turned the volume up. If she had her knife pressed to his throat, he’d be singing a different tune.
“Yeah, you tell her, Eddie. I’m Richard. We have a plan, also. None of us are allowed to leave with a woman they just met.”
A couple of the guys looked at their friend on the end.
“You hear that David? You’re lucky to be alive,” Richard added.
Chang’s eyes perked up and she held the microphone up to the handsome guy they were looking at. “Are you David? What are your buddies talking about; did you come across the Slayer?”
“Man, I met this superhot blonde at Omni’s the other day.” He smiled. “With half the city scared to go out, it’s so easy to score now.”
The guys hollered and gave each other fist bumps.
David continued. “My buddies got mad because I left with her without telling anyone.”
“Yeah, we were all like texting each other, ‘Where’s D?’ I thought for sure he’d come up dead,” Ryan said.
Filled with alcohol, the men all started talking at once and shouting for women to come meet them.
Chang thanked them and ended the interview.
Claire clicked off the TV. She loved the attention and the fact she was practically holding the city hostage, but with fewer people out and about it would be harder to blend in. She thought about her next victim and smiled. It’d be perfect, for she wouldn’t have to go downtown to meet him. She knew where he hung out on Friday nights when his wife played bridge with her friends. Despite being married, Aaron liked young men.
After fixing dinner, Claire relaxed on her recliner while watching a repeat episode of Cops. This week they were showcasing Sacramento PD. She dipped her grilled cheese sandwich into the steaming bowl of tomato soup. The tart smell of the sharp cheddar contrasted with the basil in her soup. During a commercial, she switched channels.
Angela Castaneda with Channel 5 was airing a special news report with the county jail behind her. “...the inmate that was reported stabbed in custody on Wednesday has been identified as Mike Peterson. He was a security guard who used his personal vehicle, and his security uniform to follow potential victims from the downtown San Diego area to their homes. We know of at least two women he has raped.
