“I’d really like to but I have a court appearance at eight thirty and I have to meet my client at seven to prepare.”

He dropped his arms. “Okay, but you can stay for a little while, can’t you?”

I put the dish in the dish rack, folded the towel and laid in on the counter. “Not tonight, Adam. I really need to put in a couple more hours at the office.”

He stepped away from me. “Oh, okay,” he said, but I could tell he wasn’t buying it. “You sure everything’s all right?”

“Yeah. Everything’s fine.”

13.

13.

His pager went off. Waldo, again. Three calls in twenty minutes so it had to be more than that he was bored at work and wanted to gossip. The house was vacant and there was no way he could return the call until after the walk-through. As for the house itself, an 80-year-old, three-story Victorian, though it needed a lot of work, it had good bones and matchless views of downtown and the bay from the top floor.

“What do you think?” the real estate agent asked as they stood on the sidewalk.

“I’m definitely interested,” Bill replied. “You say it’s a probate sale?”

“Yeah, two gay guys bought it and meant to fix it up but one of them got sick and died suddenly and the job’s too big for his partner. Just between you and me, he’s looking to unload it cheap.”

“Good to know. I’ll be in touch.”

When he got back to his office, Doris handed him a sheaf of message slips and said irritably, “Waldo’s been calling all morning. He wouldn’t tell me why, just said he had to talk to you.”

“I know, I’ve had three pages.”

Once settled behind his desk, he picked up the phone and called Waldo’s work number. Kelly, his assistant answered.

“Hey, it’s Bill. Let me talk to Waldo.”

“Waldo’s not here, Bill,” she said, her voice worried. “He’s at the hospital with Eddie.”

“What happened?” Bill asked, all attention now.

“All I know is that’s Eddie’s sick.”

“Do you know which hospital?”

“The emergency room at General.”

As she spoke, Bill scanned the messages from Waldo and noted the unfamiliar number from which he had called. He said goodbye to Kelly and rang the number.

“Bill?” Waldo said in a frantic voice. Bill heard crowd noises behind him.

“Hey, I was looking at a house. What’s going on?”

“Eddie’s real sick.”

“You’re at General?”

“Yeah, in the ER.” His voice was one breath short of hysteria.

“Hold tight, Waldo. I’m on my way.”

He found Waldo at the nurse’s station screaming at a blank-faced nurse. “You bitch, I am his family!”

Bill came up, touched his arm and said, “Waldo.”