Dead Ringer by Allen Wyler

out to the passenger loading zone to wait. In spite of having been gone only a few days, he looked forwardto seeing her. Returning home was always the best part of each trip.
    Lucas checked his watch—1:04 p.m. on Friday. No matter how many times he’d been to Asia, it amused him to arrive an hour before he departed. It was as if he had just gone through some sort of time travel.
    He reset his watch to local time and waited. Long international flights left him feeling grimy, fatigued, and thankful the plane didn’t crash or blow up from a terrorist bomb. Though the experts claimed air travel was safe, Lucas never felt at ease.
    Lucas recognized Laura’s silver Volvo station wagon swing into the curb lane and slow. Grabbing his wheeled carry-on, he waved to catch her attention and wove through a throng of travelers boarding a bus to the downtown hotels. After dumping the suitcase in the backseat, he climbed in the front and shut the door.
    Laura said, “Welcome home,” and pulled away from the curb.
    “Missed you.” He remembered how they used to kiss when he returned from a trip. Long gone, those days. Now she was already checking traffic and accelerating into the left lane. He sat back to watch her drive. She still looked good after twenty-one years of marriage. Luxurious brown ponytail adjusted just so out the back of a foofoo white ball cap. A trim five-foot-seven-inch frame. She hadn’t put on weight after the pregnancy, nor with the subsequent years, like so many people do. Kept the gray out of her hair and always made sure she looked put together before leaving the house.
    “I’m meeting Carol at the spa, so I’ll just drop you off. Your flight was ten minutes late.”
    That figured. Funny the pall only a few words can cast on a mood. Just minutes ago he’d been looking forward to seeing her. But that seemed to be a byproduct of memory of better times. Now, face-to-face, the rancor of their pending divorce made him not want to be in the same car with her. Where did things go so wrong in their relationship?
    He doubted she was involved with someone. If that were the case, the signs would be different, he believed.
    Years ago when Lucas returned from a business trip, they’d hurry home to enjoy sex. No longer. Laura’s libido vanished as the other symptoms of depression started to become apparent. Making matters worse, their sex life had become an off-limits subject, one that Laura refused to even discuss, leaving him even more frustrated. To him, sex was an important part of loving the other person. To have it unilaterally amputated from their relationship left him feeling alienated and, well, angry. And sometimes it felt like neither of them seemed capable—or perhaps even desirous—to fix their problems. As if it would be too much trouble.
    He asked, “You get hold of Andy?”
    She hesitated too long before answering. It was a sure sign she was scrambling to figure out how best to lie. “I called his condo a couple times but only got the answering machine. When I tried his cell, I got an out-of-network message.”
    Yeah, shit, she hadn’t even tried. Which, given the intensity of her dislike of Andy, didn’t surprise him. Lying about it did. But what could he do? Nothing. Certainly he couldn’tchallenge her story. Her attitude toward Andy was a battle he’d surrendered years ago.
    Lucas sighed, dug out his cell phone. This time of day, Andy would already have left the office to work out at the Athletic Club. He tried the office number anyway and got the standard recording about not leaving any trade instructions because the timeliness could not be assured. Next he tried Andy’s cell and reached the synthesized message that the Verizon customer was out of the service area. That could mean anything from the phone being shut off to having lunch on Mars.
    He decided to unpack, shower, then go out and find Andy himself.

14

D ITTO F UNERAL H OME , I NC .
    A RMS LOOSE AT HIS sides, Bobby Ditto leaned