Rainy City by Earl Emerson Page A

“You think Melissa went to Ta-coma?”
    “I told you that last night. But you must have been rummy. How about somebody in a pest control van? You ever see anybody in a pest control van?”
    “A pest control van? What has that got to do with anything?” Burton winced like a child getting a hypodermic injection.
    “You’ve seen one, haven’t you?”
    “There was a guy here visiting Melissa about a year ago. He drove a pest van. She said he was an old friend…of the family.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    Studying his scuffed hiking boots, Nadisky measured his breathing for a few counts, then finally spoke. “I was working at the Esso station, but I got sick, so I came home early. This man was here. A tanned fellow. Italian, he looked like. About forty-five or fifty, maybe. Melissa said he was here to see if we had mice. But she was real fidgety. He kept grinning. He wouldn’t stop staring at me and he wouldn’t stop grinning. It made my skin crawl.”
    “Did you have mice?”
    “Once, yeah. But something else was going on. I never found out what. I had the feeling she knew the guy real well from before, you know? He just kept grinning.”
    “You didn’t figure maybe he was someone she used to date?”
    Dual lumps of anguish knotted Burton’s cheeks and forced his mouth into a pout. “Why do you have to ask these questions? I don’t want to know.”
    “The guy was seen here last weekend. I think Melissa went off with him.”
    “She wouldn’t run off with that guy.” “I think she did.”
    “She wouldn’t do that!” he shouted. His face burned a bright pink. Kathy appeared in the kitchen doorway for a moment, then disappeared. “Melissa wouldn’t run off with a…man.”
    “What makes you so certain?” Burton shrugged, embarrassed, one eyebrow quivering.
    “Is it because Melissa isn’t capable of enjoying sex with a man?”
    “God…” Burton’s startled eyes widened and he stared at me. “How do you…where…?”
    “Don’t worry about it. I’m not blabbing it to the congregation at your church. I may not even write it on any rest room walls. You saw me send Kathy out of the room. I’m not trying to put anybody on the spot. I only want to find out anything that might help me locate your wife. Right now I’m not sure what the hell is going on. If knew the exact reason she left I might have more clues.”
    “She didn’t go anywhere with a man. I’m sure of that. Melissa doesn’t like men. We only…”
    “How do you know?”
    His voice shrank. “She has a lot of trouble sleeping. One time, when she was a little girl, something happened in the night. Something awful. Most nights I slept in the bedroom and she slept with Angel.”
    “Was that what you were seeing Ms. Gunther about?”
    “You’ve pried into everything, haven’t you?” It was a statement more than an accusation. He was resigned to it.
    “I’m only trying to find your wife. There’s some real trouble beneath all this.”
    “We talked to Ms. Gunther about sex, but that wasn’t why we went, not initially. Melissa has this thing about her father. They’ve got a real love—hate thing going. Ms. Gunther told her she was going to have to confront her father.”
    “How did Melissa take that?”
    “Badly. Ms. Gunther told her she was going to have to tell him what she really thought of him. Ms. Gunther is a real believer in clearing the air. I suppose part of it was my fault. I’m real close to my folks, and I’ve always urged her to mend the fences. Melissa got a little hysterical.”
    “Hysterical? In what way?”
    “She went flippy. It was the week before she left. She kept talking about confronting her father. She didn’t want to do it, but Ms. Gunther convinced her she had to. I guess maybe it could have had something to do with her leaving.”
    “Did Melissa make contact with her father that week?”
    “Not that I know of. But if she did…it was the kind of thing Melissa would have done on her own, after work