The Plum Blooms in Winter by Linda Thompson

Author:Linda Thompson [Thompson, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781943959488
Publisher: Mountain Brook Ink
Published: 2018-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Alone again in his cell, Dave replayed every memory he could dredge up. He missed everyone. Mom. His little sister Julie. Even Dad. All his fellow prisoners, the Payback and Green Hornet men. Fraternity brothers. High school friends. Reaching further back, Jenny. Uncle Verle.

And most of all, his wife Eileen, with her porcelain skin and beguiling smile. What was she doing now? Still at her mom’s? The telegram would’ve reached her months ago. She’d know he was missing in action. How long would it take her to give him up for dead and get on with her life?

The two of them had experienced plenty of ups and downs—didn’t everyone? But it seemed like it got worse after she joined him in Florida.

They hadn’t parted on very good terms. What was that last fight even about? He couldn’t remember. But then, that was how it went with a lot of nights when he’d had a few.

He did remember the rage on her features. Her way of knitting her brows over her nose. The shock of her frigid gin and tonic when she dashed it across his face. The sting of it in his eyes.

They’d started out in his Air Corps buddy Joe’s kitchen. Joe’s wife, Tina, had gotten Eileen all worked up over the new Lombard flick. But somehow the four of them wound up sucking down cocktails at the crummy bar across the street from Eglin Field instead.

Another thing he remembered was all the names she called him that evening.

“You rat. You snake. You—why, there isn’t even a word for what you are.” She stood and thrust her bar stool out of her way. It slammed against a four-top table and fell onto the floor.

He grabbed some paper napkins and blotted his face. Pulled a few four-letter words out of his own arsenal.

She crossed the linoleum, paused when she reached the door. Turned to face him full on. “All the booze. All the bars. I’m through, David Delham. I mean it. Through.” She flounced out into the night. The door slammed behind her.

She always was one for the dramatic gestures. Maybe he did keep drinking that night after she wanted him to stop. And maybe he and Joe were a little obvious about ogling a blonde at the bar. That was no justification for such a big outburst. Was it?

Tina gave them both a disgusted look and went off after Eileen.

Joe elbowed him. “Maybe you better go after her.”

He swizzled his Scotch and soda. “Not after a scene like that.” A man had to know how to handle a hothead like Eileen.

A few minutes later he was slurping ice at the bottom of his glass. It sank in she wasn’t coming back. “You don’t suppose she took the car?”

Joe gave him a stricken look.

They left their places at the bar and checked the parking lot. Nothing but asphalt where the Ford had been. “How do you like that?” Dave punched at a trashcan. It clattered against a brick wall, and the top popped off.

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