Dead Ringer by Ken Douglas

one’s gonna take you away.” Gay was worried about how long Margo was going to be. She’d said she’d be back on Saturday before noon. The woman was a cuckoo clock without springs, but she was usually punctual.
    “ Not even my dad, you promised.”
    “ Especially not him.” Bruce Kenyon didn’t stand a chance in hell of getting the girl, no matter how long Margo took to get back.
    “ Thank you.” Jasmine jumped up on the sofa next to Sonya, the bath apparently forgotten.
    “ But I gotta tell you, I’m worried about your mom. She said she’d be back this morning.”
    “ No way,” Jasmine said. “She’s starting back at midnight. She said so, so she could be back in time to take me out to breakfast tomorrow morning.”
    “ I could have sworn she told me today before noon.”
    “ She probably did,” Sonya said.
    “ Yeah,” Jasmine said. “That’s my mom, sometimes she messes up.”
    She messes up a lot, Gay thought, but she wasn’t going to say it. She crossed her fingers, something she hadn’t done since she was a little girl.
    “ Why are you doing that, Mom?” Sonya said.
    “ For luck, wishing Margo a safe journey home.” The girls crossed their fingers, too. Both hands.

Chapter Five
     
    Maggie opened her eyes and was surprised to see that the dance floor was crowded. A slow song was playing, the Beatles’ ‘Yesterday.’ She saw Horace with the ferret face dancing with a woman wearing a long dress. Except for a quick memory flash of his large friend, she didn’t think anything of it. The Lounge was crowded as it was every Saturday, like all the popular pickup places in the Shore.
    “ You ready to go?” Gordon pushed away from Maggie, met her eyes. “It doesn’t look like Nick’s coming.” Maggie saw tension wrinkling his forehead. His lips were tight. His hand was quivering.
    “ What’s wrong?”
    “ Nothing?” he said.
    “ Don’t give me that, you’re the original Mr. Poker Face. Besides, you’ve been Mr. Smooth all afternoon, what’s up?”
    “ Mr. Smooth, Mr. Poker Face.” Gordon laughed.
    “ That’s better. Now, what is it? You’re worried about something. What? And why all of a sudden?”
    “ The thought of taking Fred down to the pet store just flashed through my mind. It kind of gave me the shivers for a second there.”
    “ I can understand that, Ricky loved that bird. You probably feel giving him away is like giving away a part of Ricky.”
    “ Maybe.” He sighed loud enough for her to hear over the music. “You wanna get outta here?”
    “ Yeah.” Maggie looked at the Budweiser clock behind the bar. It was almost 7:00. They usually left when it started to get crowded. Maggie liked to dance. Gordon did too. So that’s what they did while Nick, who thought dancing was something pygmies did in Africa somewhere, played at being Mr. Important at the bar.
    She usually walked home laughing and joking between the two of them, but not tonight. Was Nick out somewhere with that redhead? Was she making that drug buy? Did he have a film crew with him? Or was he in another bar somewhere buying her a drink? Was that why he hadn’t come back to the Lounge as he’d promised?
    She linked an arm with Gordon and started for the door. Outside, the darkness covered her mood like early evening fog. The sun had been blazing when she’d gone into the Lounge. Now it was gone. There was no moon.
    “ We really went to town tonight,” Gordon said. “It kind of made me feel young.”
    “ You are young,” she said. He wasn’t, but he didn’t seem old. She started down Corona Avenue toward the beach. She wanted to tell him about the baby, but she’d already made her mind up about it, so there didn’t seem to be any point.
    He squeezed her arm as they turned at Ocean Avenue. The gentle surf, tamed by the breakwater, lapped up onto the sand on the other side of the street. A car went past, slow cruising, then another. At first Maggie didn’t get it, then she saw the Whale up