Repairman Jack [07]-Gateways Read Free Page B

Lewton festival, watching The Cat People Sunday night. He’d been looking forward to seeing I Walked with a Zombie , but after starting it he couldn’t get into it. Thoughts about his father in a coma and getting through airport security proved too distracting. He’d shut if off and lain in the dark, trying to sleep, but thoughts about an indefinable something pulling the strings of his life kept him awake.
    So this morning he was tired and irritable. The chance that the accident might not have been so accidental put him on edge.
    “You have any details on what happened?”
    “Car accident is all I know.”
    “That doesn’t sound too sinister. How old is he?”
    “Seventy-one. But he’s in great shape. Still plays tennis. Or at least he did.”
    Abe nodded. “I remember when he roped you into a father-son doubles match last summer.”
    “Right. Just before all hell broke loose up here.”
    “Another summer like that I don’t need.” Abe shook himself, as if warding off a chill. “Oh, I may have something for you on that citizenship matter.”
    “Yeah? What?”
    Since he’d found out last month that he was going to be a father, Jack had been looking for a way to sneak up from underground without having to answer the inevitable questions from various agencies of the government as to where he’d been and what he’d been doing for the last fifteen years, and why he’d never applied for a Social Security Number and never filed a 1040 or paid a cent in taxes in all that time.
    He’d thought of simply telling them he’d been ill—disoriented, possibly drug addled—wandering the country, depending on the kindness of strangers, and now he was better and ready to become a productive citizen. That would work, but in these suspicious times it meant he’d be put under extra scrutiny. He didn’t want to live the rest of his life on the Department of Homeland Security’s watch list.
    “A contact in Eastern Europe called and said he thought maybe he had a way. Maybe. It’s going to take a little more research.”
    This bit of good news felt like a spotlight through the gloom that had descended since Tom’s call.
    “Didn’t he give you even a hint?”
    Abe frowned. “Over an international phone line? From his country? He should be so foolish. When he works out the details—if he can—he will let me know.”
    Well, maybe it wasn’t such good news. But at least it was potentially good news.
    Abe was staring at him. “Nu ? You’re leaving for Florida when?”
    “Today. Haven’t booked a flight yet though. Want to talk to Gia first, see if I can convince her to come along.”
    “Think she’ll go?”
    Jack smiled. “I’m going to make her an offer she can’t refuse.”

6

    “Sorry, Jack,” Gia said, shaking her head. “It won’t work.”
    They sat in the old-fashioned kitchen of number eight Sutton Square, one of the toniest neighborhoods in the city, he nursing a cup of coffee, she sipping green tea. Gia had been letting her corn-silk-colored hair grow out a little; it wasn’t so close to her head anymore, but still short by most standards. She wore low-cut jeans and a white scoop-neck top that clung to her slim torso. Although into her third month of pregnancy, she had yet to show even the slightest bulge.
    Gia’s discovery last month that she was pregnant had thrown them both for a loop. It had not been on the radar, and they hadn’t been prepared for it. It meant changes for both of them, most drastically for Jack, but they were dealing with it.
    Jack had told her about his father as soon as he stepped through her door this morning. Gia had never met him but had been upset by the news and urged Jack to hurry down to Florida. Jack didn’t share her sense of urgency. All he could do down there was stand next to his unconscious father’s bed and feel helpless; he could think of few things in the world he hated more than feeling helpless. And if and when his father awoke, how long before he