"But there's no one to watch Sophie. "
"You have Mrs. Korjev and Mrs. Ling right here in the building, let one of them watch her. Hell, I'll watch her for a few hours in the evening, if that will help. "
"I'm not going down there in the evening. That's when things are radioactive. "
Jane set the stack of papers on the coffee table next to Sophie's head and backed away with her arms crossed. "Play what you just said back in your head, would you. "
Charlie did, then shrugged. "Okay, that sounds a little crazy. "
"Go make an appearance at the shop, Charlie. Just a few minutes to get your feet wet and put the fear of God in Ray and Lily, okay? I'll finish changing her. "
Jane slid in between the couch and the coffee table, nudging her brother out of the way. In the process she knocked the dirty diaper to the floor, where it fell open.
"Oh my God!" She gagged and turned her head.
"Another reason not to eat brown mustard, huh?" Charlie said.
"You bastard!"
He backed away. "Okay, I'm going downstairs. You're sure you got this?"
"Go!" Jane said, waving him out of the room with one hand while holding her nose with the other.
Chapter 5
5
DARKNESS GETS UPPITY
Hey, Ray," Charlie said as he came down the steps into the storeroom. He always tried to make a lot of noise on the steps and usually fired a loud and early "hello" to warn his employees that he was coming. He'd worked a number of jobs before coming back to take over the family business, and had learned from experience that nobody liked a sneaky boss.
"Hey, Charlie," Ray said. Ray was out front, sitting on a stool behind the counter. He was pushing forty, tall, balding, and moved through the world without ever turning his head. He couldn't. As a San Francisco policeman, he'd caught a gangbanger's bullet in the neck six years ago, and that was the last time he'd looked over his shoulder without using a mirror. Ray lived on a generous disability pension from the city and worked for Charlie in exchange for free rent on his fourth-floor apartment, thus keeping the transaction off both their books.
He spun around on the stool to face Charlie. "Hey - uh - I wanted to say that, you know, your situation, I mean, your loss. Everybody liked Rachel. You know, if I can do anything - "
It was the first time Charlie had seen Ray since the funeral, so the awkwardness of secondary condolences had yet to be forded. "You've done more than enough by picking up my shifts. Whatcha working on?" Charlie was trying desperately to not look at the various objects in the shop that were glowing dull red.
"Oh, this. " Ray rotated and pushed back so that Charlie could see the computer screen, where there were displayed rows of portraits of smiling, young Asian women. "It's called Desperate Filipinas dot-com. "
"Is this where you met Miss LoveYouLongTime?"
"That was not her name. Did Lily tell you that? That kid has problems. "
"Yeah, well, kids," Charlie said, suddenly noticing a matronly woman in tweed who was browsing the curio shelves at the front of the store. She was carrying a porcelain frog that was glowing dull red.
Ray clicked on one of the pictures, which opened a profile. "Look at this one, boss. It says she's into sculling. " He spun on his stool again and bounced his eyebrows at Charlie.
Charlie pulled his attention from the woman with the glowing frog and looked at the screen.
"That's rowing, Ray. "
"No it's not. Look, it says she was a coxswain in college. " Again with the eyebrow bounce, he offered a high five.
"Also rowing," Charlie said, leaving the ex-cop hanging. "The person at the back of the boat who yells at the rowers is called the coxswain. "
"Really?" Ray said, disappointed. He'd been married three times, and been left by all three wives because of an inability to develop normal adult social skills. Ray reacted to the world as a cop, and while many women found that attractive initially, they expected him eventually to leave the attitude, along with his service weapon, in the coat closet when he arrived home. He didn't. When Ray had first come to work at Asher's Secondhand, it had taken two months for Charlie to get him to stop ordering customers to "move along, there's nothing to see here. " Ray spent a lot of time being disappointed in himself and humanity in general.
"But, dude, rowing!" Charlie said, trying to make it all better. He liked the ex-cop in spite of his awkwardness. Ray was basically a good guy, kindhearted and loyal, hardworking and punctual, but most important, Ray was losing his hair faster than Charlie.