-o-o-o-O-o-o-o-
Raylan hasn't been this bored since he was seven and Mama and Aunt Helen dragged him to see some travelling preacher who droned on for hours interrupted only by frequent shouts of "Amen!" and "Preach, Brother!" from the collected worshipers. The tent was hot, and he'd wriggled and squirmed until Helen had taken him out and bought him a Faygo Red Pop from the gas station machine across the road. The judge's speech at the luncheon is not as long, but it is every bit as indecipherable and boring. There's no red pop, or anything stronger, so he's made do with sweet tea. He takes another bite of his turkey club and looks around the room at the assembled Miami legal glitterati.
It's an interesting crowd. The District Attorney is here, along with two of his assistants, and so Sutter, looking every bit as bored as Raylan. Dennis Cabrizzo's legal team takes up an entire table in the center of the room. Tomorrow these men will be facing off to select a jury but today they're all smiles and slaps on the back. Raylan can't stand the duplicitous nature of lawyers.
The chair next to him scrapes the floor and Sutter sits down with his iced tea and sandwich identical to Raylan's. "At least the food is good," he says.
"Yep."
Raylan's phone buzzes. "Hey," he says to Sutter. "Keep an eye out, it's the office."
"Givens."
"I checked into that name you gave me," Mike Stansfield says. "Roberta Pembroke, the clerk's mother? She's not sick."
"What?" He walks back and forth in front of the doors to the dining hall squinting through the small window until he spots the judge talking to a tall dark haired woman. Sutter gives him thumbs up letting him know everything is fine.
"You sure you've got the right woman? From Miami?"
"Yes," Mike says. "I talked to her personally. And she hasn't seen or talked to her son since before she left last Thursday."
Raylan runs through the possibilities in his mind. Joanna said Dan Pembroke was upset when he called. The cartel might have given him false information about his mother and grabbed him somewhere between home and the airport. With him out of the picture, they could insert their own guy, or gal, in a position close to the judge. Or, they could figure the clerk's disappearance would shake things up, make the judge nervous. Or, maybe the cartel had nothing at all to do with it. Maybe Danny-boy was using Mama's vacation time to have some fun of his own.
"You tell the chief?"
"Yeah, and we checked the flight manifests. No one by the name Dan Pembroke was on any flight out of Miami in the last 48 hours."
"Well, shit," Raylan says. "I'd better let the judge know."
"We put out a BOLO for him and his car – he drives a 2002 Oldsmobile Alero. I've got Melissa pulling up whatever background she can."
"Alright, I'll see what Judge Walker has to say. Let me know when you've got something."
"Will do."
-o-o-o-O-o-o-o-
When Winona comes in, Richard is sitting at the bar with a pile of mail and other papers in front of him. He dressed in khakis, a blue-button down shirt, and a striped tie, not his regular work clothes. The tie is loosened and the collar undone. His navy sport coat is draped over the stool.
"Hey," she says, setting her purse on the counter.
It's only been a little over twenty-four hours, but the house already feels strange, like she doesn't really belong here. She wishes she'd suggested meeting somewhere neutral and public. Here, instead of good memories, all the ugliness of the other night seems to hang in the air between them.
He doesn't look up. "So, you're staying at Raylan's?"
"We did last night." Winona crosses her arms over her chest. "I didn't want Willa around Tommy and I didn't want to deal with my mother and her questions."
Richard smirks. "I guess that's as good excuse as any."
She breathes through a hot flash of anger and reaches into the fridge for a bottle of water.
"You can come back here whenever you want," he says. "You don't have to worry about Tomás," he says. "Carson's attorney presented a plan to the judge this afternoon. If he okays it, Tomás will go back to Philadelphia. He told us he wants to go to the public school, and Carson has arranged for counseling. He'll report to a juvenile judge up there. If he doesn't have any further trouble in two years, his record will be expunged."
"Oh." It seems to her that Tomás is getting off pretty lightly, all things considered. She's not sure how to approach this meeting, and Richard doesn't seem to have much to say either.
She takes a long drink of water. "I thought you wanted to talk."
"Not really." He picks up a folded paper from the stack and hands it to her. "What is there to talk about?"
"What's this?" She opens the paper and looks up at him. "You want a dissolution?"
"Want? No," he says, shaking his head. "When we got married I said until death do us part, and I meant it. Evidently you didn't. There's no reconciling that."
Biting her lip, she takes a deep breath, willing herself not to cry. Coming here, she knew on some level this marriage was over, but Richard laying out in such a cold matter-of-fact way is surprising.
"I can't do this Winona," He goes on. "I'm not the kind of guy who can look the other way. And, as much as I might want to, I don't think I'll ever be able to trust you again." He sighs. "It's not like I can tell you not to see Raylan; he's Willa's father. You have to see him. And you're always going to be looking over your shoulder at him." He pauses. "And I'm always going to wonder."
She drops her head.
"I notice you're not trying to talk me out of it." A sad smile curves his mouth. "I knew he was still in love with you. I just didn't think you felt the same way. I should've seen it, I guess. It seems so obvious now."
"I'm sorry."
"Me, too. I don't think there's any reason to go through the hassle of both of us getting attorneys and filing for divorce. We don't have a lot of bills, or any kids of our own to worry about, we just need to decide about the house. Either we sell it, or you stay and pay me half of our equity."
"You don't want it?" The house had been Richard's project when they were dating, and he'd renovated it into the kind of place he'd always wanted to live in.
He shakes his head. "Carson's offered me a job – or found me one with a friend of his who has a construction company in New Jersey, not far from Philly. He's Carson's age, and his son isn't interested in the company so who knows? Maybe I'll make an impression."
"You're moving to Philadelphia?" Her moorings slip a bit, and she leans back against the counter for support. This isn't at all the conversation she thought they'd be having. She was expecting an apology and at least an attempt to reconcile, not this too-civil unemotional resolution.
"Tomás needs me. He needs at least one of his parents, and it probably isn't going to be Gina. And he needs his grandparents, too. They've raised him. That's my fault – partially anyway, but it would be wrong to take him away from them at this point."
He slides off the stool. "In a way, it'll be easier. A fresh start somewhere new." He shrugs into the jacket, slides the mail into a stack and picks it up. "I'll take care of this month's bills, and we can keep some money in the joint account for you to settle up after I'm gone. Have one of the guys at your firm look the papers over if you want, but I think it should be pretty simple."
"Willa will miss you," she says. Her eyes burn, and she blinks to avoid the tears that are close to falling.
"I'll miss her, too," he says. "I'd like to see her, before I go, to say goodbye at least."
"When are you leaving?"
"I'll give Bruce my two-week notice tomorrow."
"Wow. That's really soon." The water bottle crackles in her grip. "Willa already has a Father's Day card made for you. Maybe we could meet at Dimetrios before you leave?"
"That sounds good," he says. "And call me when you decide about the house."
"I will."
"Okay, I gotta go. I'm meeting Carson and Tomás at the lawyer's office."
"She's working late."
"He's paying her enough, don't worry." Richard stops in front of her, and for the first time, there's a sadness in his eyes. "I wish things had been different."
"Me, too," she says. She wishes she hadn't hurt him, but it's too late for that and saying the words would only make it worse. He leans in and kisses her cheek before walking quickly out the back door.
-o-o-o-O-o-o-o-
Winona sets the laundry basket on the counter and starts pulling socks out, rolling the pairs into balls and making a pile. As she folds, she tells Raylan about her conversation with Richard.
"So, that's it?" Raylan says from behind her. "Seems a little too easy to me."
Winona whirls around to face him. "Easy? Do you really think any of this is easy? I'm getting divorced. Again." She angrily folds a t-shirt and tosses it at him. She grabs one of Willa's sundresses from the basket and smoothes it out, laying it aside to iron later. "And I'm here with you, again."
"Hey, that's not such a bad thing, is it? We're gettin' along." Raylan says, pulling her to him. "Come're."
She pushes him away, palm flat against his chest. "No," she says. "I'm not going to do this again. This is the problem. I go from one fucked-up relationship to another with no time to think. This time I'm going to think. So get away."
She gives him another shove and he backs away, both hands up in surrender.
"Okay, okay," he says
"I'm sorry," She sighs, easing down onto one of the stools, another folded sundress in her lap. She looks up at him. "I love you, and I this time I really do think we're different people than we were four years ago, but I need some time. I don't want to just make the same damn mistake all over again. Not when there's Willa to consider." She lays the dress on top of the other and fishes in the basket for the next item to fold. "She's so happy with all of us together. I don't want that to blow up in her face."
He decides a change of subject might be in order. "You talk to Gayle?"
"Yes, I called her at lunch."
"So are you goin' to Kentucky?"
"No," Winona says, "She's coming here."
Raylan opens the fridge and grabs two beers. "How is that a vacation for you?" He twists the caps off and hands one to Winona.
She takes a sip. "We're going down to the Keys for a few days. Dan's uncle has a place and they aren't using it."
Before he can respond, Willa comes into the kitchen in her bathing suit. "Are you ready, Mama?"
"Ready for what?"
"She's been wantin' to show you this since last weekend." Raylan slides open the patio door and Willa skips ahead of them to the pool.
By the time Raylan and Winona catch up to her, Willa is hopping up and down at the gate. He uses his key to unlock it and she bounds in, heading for the deep end of the pool.
"Watch me!" She stands at the edge, toes curled under. "Are you watching?"
"I'm watching," Winona assures her, shading her eyes with her hand.
"1 – 2 – 3!" Willa cries. On three, she jumps into the air, doing a perfect front flip into the water. Her head pops up instantly. She's smiling from ear-to-ear.
"Did you see?!"
"I saw!" Winona claps her hands. "Wow." Turning to Raylan she says. "Are you sure she's okay down there in the deep end?"
"Yep. She's a fish." He takes a swig from the bottle he carried with him.
Willa kicks her legs and dog paddles to the side of the pool, pulling herself up and running over to give her father a high-five.
"Awesome!" He says.
Winona's eyes scan the pool area. "Raylan, the sign says 'No Diving.'"
Willa puts her hands on her hips. "That wasn't a dive, Mama. It was a flip."
"Oh, well, then." Winona rolls her eyes at Raylan. "The sign also says No Bottles," Winona chuckles. "She's your daughter alright, breaking the rules."
Raylan looks pensive.
She glances at him, and then digs him in the ribs with an elbow. "That's a good thing, most of the time."
"Really?" He shakes his head. "She's stubborn and fearless...what's that going to be like when she's thirteen?"
"Hell on wheels," Winona says, watching Willa do another flip. "And awesome." She leans into him a little. "At least we've got seven years to prepare for that."
"Thank God."
Willa climbs out of the pool and pads over to them, making wet footprints on the concrete. "I'm hungry," she announces.
"Okay," Winona says. "We need to get packed. Aunt Gayle will be here in the morning."
"You pickin' her up at the airport?"
"No, she said she's renting a car and she'll do the driving down, which is fine with me."
"We're going to the beach, Daddy!" Willa says. "With Aunt Gayle. It's girls only so you can't come."
"Shucks," he says, grinning at her.
She looks up at them. "Can we have pizza for dinner?" She asks, hopefully.
"If you eat some salad, too," Winona says. "Deal?"
"Deal!" Willa high fives her mama and runs for the pool gate, her parents trailing behind.