Unknown Remains Read Free Page B

at.”
    â€œMuerto. Difunto. In the rubble.”
    â€œNow you’re saying he went down with the buildings, is that right?”
    â€œI say, I think he went down. But I don’t know. Just like you don’t. That’s why we here, uh?”
    Cobb started the car, put it in gear, and pulled away. “I keep seeing him walking out of that cloud of dust lucky to be alive, and McCann saying to himself, ‘All I have to do is disappear and start my new life.’ How many get an opportunity like that?” He turned onto the highway in light traffic.
    Ruben said, “What about his woman?”
    â€œWhat about her?”
    â€œMaybe he loves her.”
    â€œIf that’s true, why’s he fooling around?”
    â€œDon’t mean he don’t love her.”
    â€œLet me tell you she’s a knockout, too,” Cobb said. “Better than the other one. But there are three billion women in the world. Subtract the ones are too young and too old, there still has to be a billion and a half.”
    â€œWhat you think is too young?”
    â€œUnder eighteen. Where you come from, girls lose their virginity at what, eleven, twelve?”
    Ruben said, “A woman is a woman, uh?”
    â€œTry that here, they put you away.”
    â€œWhat’s too old?”
    â€œOver twenty-five,” Cobb said with a straight face and saw Ruben grin in the dim light.
    â€œEver been married?”
    â€œI look crazy? It’s the ones tell you they don’t want a serious relationship you have to watch. They want a piece of your soul.”
    â€œThey don’t want a piece; they want the whole thing.”
    Cobb said, “What about you?”
    â€œTwo times. I don’t learn. First time, I was nineteen.”
    â€œNineteen? Why would you do that?”
    â€œâ€™Cause I wanted her more than anything. Carmen was something, had the best ass I ever seen.”
    â€œWere you fighting then?”
    â€œI was always fighting, since I was fourteen.”
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œCarmen’s perfect ass got big. Went from this to this.” He showed Cobb, moving his hands from ten inches apart to two feet, and showed the gold tooth.
    â€œDid you look at the mother?”
    Ruben frowned. “What’re you saying?”
    â€œYou always look at the mother to see how the daughter is going to turn out. They don’t do that in Puerto Rico, huh?”
    â€œI think is done everywhere, but Carmen’s mother died before I see her.”
    Cobb saw the hotel in the distance and took the next exit.
    â€œListen, every thirty seconds in America, some guy’s getting a divorce ’cause his wife got big as a cow. It’s a fucking epidemic.”
    Ruben shook his head. “Man, you like to talk.”
    Cobb turned into the hotel parking lot, pulled into a space, and glanced across the interior at Ruben. “You’re on tomorrow. Know what you’re gonna say?”
    Ruben nodded, opened the door, got out and leaned his head back in. “I know what I’m gonna say. Know what you gonna say?” Saying it mean, like Cobb had challenged him.
    â€œYou don’t ever have to worry about Duane Cobb. I’m always in character.”
    Ruben closed the door and headed for the hotel entrance.

THREE
    It had been six days, and the feeling of loss was like a weight she carried around. There’d been hope in the beginning; survivors were found alive under the rubble. One guy rode down in the collapsing building and lived. But hope that Jack was alive faded a little more with each passing day, and now it seemed impossible he had made it out.
    He’d called after the first plane had hit. He’d left a message, said it was bad, fire and smoke and bodies everywhere. Jack said he was going to take the stairs—it was the only possibility. She had tried to call him but never got through. Watching the news an hour later, Diane saw the north