“Right. And, well, let’s just say she was a little more fully developed than the dog. The guy only had a beagle. Anyway, she was stuck between her hips and bra-line.”

He looked over to see if this was offensive to Barbara, but to my amazement she was sitting there with a little grin on her face.

“How’d you get her out?” I asked.

“Well, by the time I got there, she’d sobered up quite a bit, and felt more than a little embarrassed. I asked the guy if he had any mineral oil or petroleum jelly and a sheet. He brought in a bottle of baby oil and a sheet. I told her I’d need her to take off her blouse, and we’d put the sheet over her for the sake of modesty. She said she was past worrying about modesty, her back and knees were killing her and would we please hurry up and get her the hell out of the dog door.

“So we stripped her from the waist up, and lubricated her skin and as much of the door liner as we could. I went out and around through the backyard gate so that I could pull from the other side. I’m sure it didn’t feel great, but eventually she slid right out. She thanked me, took her blouse and bra and told the guy she never wanted to see him again.”

“I’ll never feel like the most desperate woman in the world again,” Barbara said.

“Frank and I knew each other when I worked in Bakersfield,” I said.

“Oh,” said Barbara, “I didn’t know you were such old friends.”

“We haven’t been in touch in a long time.”

Barbara looked between us. “Oh.”

“I know you’ve really had a shock today, Mrs. O’Connor,” Frank said gently.

She nodded. Tears welled up in her eyes and she looked back over toward the glass doors, but she stayed put.

“Did Mr. O’Connor call you today?”

She turned back to Frank. “You mean Kenny? Yes, he called. He said he needed me to give him a ride to a new hiding place. Someone was trying to kill him.”

Frank waited.

“He said he couldn’t tell me more over the phone because the cops-I mean, the police-might have the phone tapped.”

“Why was he afraid of the police?”

“I don’t know. I think he was afraid of everybody. He was just so scared. Anyway, he asked me to come and give him a ride, since he didn’t have his car-” She looked at me and reddened. She turned back to Frank. “I guess you already know that.”

“Did he mention the names of anyone who might be causing him trouble?”

She hesitated. “I’ve been thinking about that. He said he couldn’t tell me what his problems were or who was after him, just that they were very powerful people who could get away with anything. But when we dropped the Corvette off at your house, Irene, he said something like, ‘All because of Hannah.’ I thought that might have been the young girl he was trying to impress when he bought the Corvette. Do you think she could be behind this?”

Frank and I looked at one another.

“Well, maybe that’s crazy,” she added quickly. “I don’t know. But who is Hannah?”

“‘Who Is Hannah?’…” I repeated slowly. “O’Connor’s column.”

“Oh, for pity’s sakes, Irene, that Hannah died almost forty years ago. And there’s more than one Hannah in the world. She probably wasn’t even a Hannah. Who knows what her name really was.”

“That’s what I want to know, Barbara. Who is it that might know her real name?”

Frank shot me a look that clearly said he wished I would shut my big mouth. Barbara saw it and went into a pout. “No one tells me anything!”

“I’m sorry,” Frank said. “I just think your sister is doing a lot of speculating on slim evidence and I don’t want her to worry you.”

“Worry me! After today?” She turned to me. “Do you know what happened to me today?”

The shrill edge in her tone made me realize Barbara was a powder keg and I was playing with matches. I shook my head “no” and looked at Frank, who was now looking down at his hands. He was rubbing his right thumb over the knuckles of his left hand.

“That’s right,” she went on, “you don’t. When Kenny called he said he’d be ready to go in an hour. Just one hour. I was ready to go get him then, but he wanted me to come down in an hour. He was down at the beach house. The front door was open. Just wide open.”

“Barbara…”

She was white as a sheet. Her voice scared me-it had become mechanical, as if she were describing a scene in a movie. “There was blood everywhere. Everywhere. I walked in and I called out, ‘Kenny!’ But I already knew he wouldn’t answer. There was so much blood. It was sprayed on the walls. And there was a trail of it on the carpet leading to the back door. I got some of it on my shoes.”

She stopped and looked down at her shoes, and then back up at me. She started to cry.

“Barbara-” I reached out and she recoiled from me. I looked to Frank for help.

He said, very quietly, “Let her tell it.”

She started to speak again, tears rolling down her face.

“When I looked out into the backyard, I saw this red baseball bat stuck in the sand. I wondered why it was sticking up there in the sand, right where this trail of blood stopped. And then there was Kenny’s hand, just barely showing. He was moving his fingers. He was trying to dig himself out. They had buried him alive.”

“Oh, Jesus Christ, Barbara…”

“That’s when I started screaming. I just screamed and I screamed. I was screaming the whole time I was digging him out. At first I couldn’t find his nose. I wanted to make it so he could breathe, you see. I guess I got his mouth free, because he made these gulping and wheezing and then coughing noises. Then there was Detective Baird. I don’t know when he got there, but he helped me dig Kenny out. He pulled me away from Kenny and made me sit in the sand. He called some help somehow, and he tried to help Kenny breathe, but it was hard because…well, they had smashed his face. His teeth were all broken on one side and I could see…bone. And his nose was broken. His eyes were swollen shut and he had sand in all his cuts. The blood made everything stick. Detective Baird got some of the bleeding to stop. And then there were lots of people and Detective Baird drove me here, right behind the ambulance. Detective Baird had Kenny’s blood all over him.”

She looked at Frank, and took his hands. “You sent Detective Baird to look after me, didn’t you?”

“You might put it that way,” he said.

“I want to thank you for that.” She started sobbing again, but she wouldn’t let go of Frank’s hands. He didn’t try to take them away.

I thought of how often I misjudged her, thought of all she had been through just this morning. I stood up and took the bag of Thai food over to the trash can. A shame to waste it, but I didn’t expect to be hungry again for about five years.

As I turned to go back to the table, I noticed Sister Theresa walking toward us. I prayed a prayer I never thought I’d pray-I prayed to God that Kenny was still alive.