He glared at her. She glared back.
Knock on the door and Ma came in. “What’s all the yelling in here?”
Pop snapped, “Ask her.”
She said, “Ask him.”
“Well?”
“She’s decided she wants to buy herself a handgun,” he said. “Start carrying one around in her car.”
“For protection, in case of emergencies,” she said. “I wanted Pop to teach me to shoot, help me get qualified, but I guess it’s just too much to ask.”
Ma looked at her, at Pop, back at her again. One of those long, steady looks she always used when she had to step in between them. Ma, the mediator, the voice of reason. “Well,” she said finally, “I think it’s a good idea.”
Surprised her a little, and drove Pop up out of his chair, clouds all over his big face. “You what?”
“You heard me, Dennis. Her work can be as dangerous as yours—you know as well as I do how close we came to losing her twice this year. She has as much right as you to own a gun, learn how to protect herself.”
“She’s too young, too inexperienced …”
“Too flakey, he means,” Tamara said.
“I never said that.”
“Didn’t have to.”
“All right, that’s enough,” Ma said. She went over to him, got up in his face. Little woman, Ma, but she could be tough as hell when she needed to be. “Tamara’s as stubborn as you are when her mind’s made up. If this is what she wants, then she’s going to have it no matter what you say. You want some stranger to teach her about guns instead of her own father? You should be proud she came to you, not getting into an argument you can’t win.”
He couldn’t win an argument with Ma, either. She knew how to handle him, the right buttons to push. Took a little time but the clouds started to break up. He said reluctantly, “Maybe you’re right.”
“Damn straight,” she said. “Tamara, apologize to your father for yelling at him.”
She did it; she wasn’t pissed anymore, either.
“Your turn, Dennis.”
He couldn’t do it. Not in so many words. That was Pop for you—hard, inflexible, strictly old-school macho. But it was all right because what he said was, “I’m free Saturday afternoon. I suppose we could go out to the police range then.”
Tamara said, “How about one o’clock?”
“One o’clock. All right.”
Damn if she didn’t feel a moment of tenderness toward both her parents. She grinned across at them.
“Well, that was easy,” she said.
Pop’s mouth twitched, twitched some more, and he burst out laughing.
Well, what do you know, she thought, grinning. She’d not only made him laugh, which was rare enough in their relationship, but for once she’d also had the last word.
14
My mood on Thursday morning was considerably better than it had been on Wednesday, but Tamara’s was downright ebullient. All smiley-faced and energetic. I thought maybe she’d finally met somebody new, after the months of monastic living, but no, that wasn’t it.
“Made up my mind to get firearms certified,” she said. “Going out to the pistol range with Pop on Saturday for the first lesson.”
It took me a few seconds to digest that, and then all I could think of to say was, “Well.”
“Not against it, are you?”
Five years ago, given her immaturity, I would’ve been. Two years ago I’d have tried to argue her out of it. Now …
“No, I’m not against it. It’s probably a good idea. And your dad’ll be a good teacher.”
“I thought so, too. Not that you or Jake wouldn’t have been as good …”
“I’m a little rusty and I don’t think Jake practices as often as he should, either. No, you made the right choice.”
“Now all I have to do is convince Pop of it.”
I went in to check my voice mail messages. Among them was a brief one from Mitchell Krochek. He had no news; he wanted to know if I had any. The callback number he left was his cellular.
“Janice isn’t in any of the East Bay or San Francisco hospitals,” he said when I got him on the line. “I called them all. Her friends, too … the women who used to be her friends. None of them has heard from her in over a year. I was hoping maybe you …” He let the rest of it trail off.
“Not yet. You’ll hear from me if I have anything to report.”
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” he said. “I didn’t sleep last night. If I don’t hear something by five o’clock, I’ll go home and see what’s what but I’m not staying there alone again tonight. I’ll be at Deanne’s.”