by Shawn Lane
“Right?”
Eugene turned a little red. “I always said to Norma, I thought maybe Annabelle was one of them. Well. You know what I mean.”
“I do,” Sean said, deciding not to add “unfortunately.” He didn’t really think Eugene meant any harm. Different times, Sean supposed. “Marlene was murdered, too.”
“Oh, dear.” Mavis put her hands up to her mouth. She’d lost a little color. “I can’t believe such goings-on in Haydon Cliff. It’s changed so much over the years. It was the hippies, you know.”
“Yuppies,” Norma told her.
Mavis nodded vaguely.
Andy thrust forward a photo, apparently losing his patience. “Ever seen him here?”
Mavis took the photo. “Oh, yes. It’s been several months now, but yes. Last October he started coming every Wednesday. Up until early January, and then he just simply stopped. Not at all friendly. He used to complain that the same people always won.” She tsked.
“And did he bring his mother? Maria?”
She shrugged. “Once or twice, I believe. But not as often as he came. And she came maybe once since he stopped. Sat over there, as I told you before.”
“Who is he?” Eugene asked.
“Thanks for your time.” Sean stood and Andy followed. As they walked away, Sean heard Eugene arguing with the others.
“Castro’s been lying since the beginning.” Andy looked angry. Sean could almost see the steam coming out of his ears.
“Sure has.”
“And to think I felt sorry for that asshole. He killed three innocent ladies to cover up the murder of his mother.”
Sean shook his head as they headed to the car. “He killed four. Maria Castro was also innocent.”
Andy grimaced. “Yeah, you’re right. We need to get this son of a bitch.”
“First we need that DNA match.”
* * * *
They were at the diner off Vineyard, having dinner, when Andy got the call.
Sean was finishing off the last of his thick strawberry shake, served in one those stainless steel schooner things, when Andy’s phone jumped to life.
“Mantegna.”
The place was pretty crowded with diners for a weekday night, the booths all around filled with patrons. The chatter was almost deafening.
“Hang on.” Andy started to slide out of the booth. “I can’t hear a thing. I’ll be right back.” He went out the front doors, cell phone plastered to his ear.
Sean inspected Andy’s plate and noted that he hadn’t finished his fries. Sean mowed through half of the remaining ones by the time Andy returned, looking like the cat who swallowed the canary.
“Something good?”
Andy nodded. “We got him, Sean. Castro’s DNA matches the tissue found under Marlene Atkinson’s fingernails.”
Chapter 10
A week later, Andy found his partner standing, of all places, at the railing of one of the docks in the touristy part of Haydon Cliff. This was the nice area of the ocean and bay. All around them, couples and families were strolling. It was late afternoon, but being summer, the sun was still bright and warm.
Andy waited silently next to Sean for several moments, watching his profile as he stared out to sea. Only a couple of feet away stood one those kite shops that sold not only kites, but garden flags for every holiday you could think of and some you couldn’t.
“What are you doing?” Andy finally asked.
“They used to come here a lot.”
“Who?”
Sean didn’t respond for a long time. So long, Andy was starting to think he never would. But finally, Sean’s shoulder sagged, and he glanced Andy’s way.
“Annabelle and Marlene. I was talking to Mrs. Warner about them.”
“Their neighbor? You went back there?”
“Yeah. They shouldn’t have had to pretend Marlene was her daughter, you know?”
“I know. But Annabelle grew up in a different time. Folks like her had to fight for the rights to love who they wanted. And we’re lucky it’s different now.”
“I hope it is.”
“It is. Maybe it doesn’t always feel or seem that way, but it’s definitely different for you and me than it was for Annabelle. Maybe her hiding it from her bingo pals was just because she didn’t want people like Eugene referring to her as ‘one of them.’”
“According to Mrs. Warner, they wouldn’t hide it much when they came down here, though,” Sean said with a smile. “Sometimes even held hands.” The smile slipped away. “They should have gotten to live their last years together in peace.”
“Same with Maria and Rose.” Andy shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “And all the Marias and Roses that came before them and will come after them. Sometimes, Seany, this job sucks.”
Sean turned to look at him. “You haven’t used that in a while.”
Andy shrugged, smiling. “You hate it.”
“Not so much.”
“Say, listen, I have a couple things to talk to you about. You want to grab some coffee or something?”
Sean glanced toward the shops. “There’s place to get coffee over there.”
“Sounds good.”
They walked side by side from the railing overlooking the bay to the coffee shop, really just a tiny storefront, named One-Eyed Jack’s. There was a one-eyed pug sitting just outside it, wiggling the stub that was supposedly his tail at Sean and Andy.
“You must be Jack.” Andy gave the little dog a pat before following Sean inside.
Minutes later, they returned outside and took their two espressos to a table for two next to the water. There was a bit of a breeze that would probably become stronger and more annoying as the sun went down.
“So, Rivers called us in,” Andy began. “You weren’t answering your phone, so I went in for us.”
“Taking one for the team, huh?”
“Sure.” Andy smiled.
Sean looked sheepish. “Sorry. I missed the call, I guess. Talking to Mrs. Warner.”
“No big deal. And the captain didn’t mind.”
Sean sighed and sipped his espresso. “I actually wonder, if we had figured this out sooner, we could have saved Annabelle and Marlene.”
“You have to cut that out. We did the best we could with what we had. You can’t second-guess every case, Seany.”
“I know.” He looked out over the sea. “What did Rivers want?”
“Just what you’re thinking. He’s doing it.”
“Splitting us up?”
“Andy leaned back in the chair, staring at the sun. But after a short few seconds, it got too bright and he reached for his sunglasses in his pocket. “Now that Castro’s been arrested and our case is closed, Lopez and O’Hara let it slip they were engaged.”
“Convenient.”
“Not so much for us. I can’t lie and say I’m happy about this. Expected or not, it sucks.”
“It sure does.”
“Effective September the first, we both have a new partner.”
“Shit. At least tell me I got O’Hara.”
Andy smiled and shook his head.
“Seriously? I’m stuck with Edgar?”
Andy laughed then. “Afraid so. Callahan and Lopez. Mantegna and O’Hara.”
“Was it because he didn’t want to put the Irish guys together?”
“Who knows?”
Sean narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t get to choose, did you?”
Andy held up his hands in surrender. “No way! Of course, if I had, I would have chosen it this way, but I definitely didn’t.”
“Sure.”
“Edgar’s all right. You’ll do fine.”
“I don’t like change. Never did.”
Andy snorted, the statement too absurd. “Says the guy who picked up his life out of Denver and moved to Haydon Cliff.”
Sean smiled crookedly. “Well, there is that. I thought that was a sure thing at the time.”
“And you’re really agains
t taking up art again?”
“We’ll see. And speaking of Denver, I think I got my sister onboard with convincing our parents to come here for the holidays.”
“Oh.” Andy nodded. “Didn’t know you’d been thinking about that.”
“Guess I forgot to mention it. I just thought it might be easier for them to come here. It’s hard to get time off during the holiday.”
“Sure is.”
Sean sat quietly for another moment. “And what else?”
“Huh?”
“You said there were a couple of things you wanted to talk about. Me getting stuck with Lopez being only one of them.”
“Oh.” Andy felt himself blush, because honestly, this was more difficult to bring up than not being partners anymore. That sucked, big time, but for him, the other topic was much more significant.
“Andy?”
“I’ve been thinking…the thing is, I don’t have a great big house or anything. It’s really kind of small, but it’s pretty big for one guy.” He rubbed the back of his hot neck. “And I seem to recall your apartment lease is up September first, and so, under the circumstances, it might be a good idea not to rent a new place.”
He was babbling and knew it. Sean knew it, too. He was bad at this.
“Circumstances, huh?” Sean sounded serene.
“You spend most of your nights at my house these days anyway.”
“Are you asking me if I want to move in with you?”
Andy coughed. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Sean laughed. At him, of course. But he looked so darn cute doing it, that Andy was pretty okay with it. “It’s obvious, yes.”
“I know it’s soon. We’ve been seeing each other like this only since the case started. I haven’t had the best history with lovers. You know my history with that.”
“And you know mine.”
“Which is a little scary. You and Mindy were serious. And you changed your whole life after she died. All that’s a little daunting.”
Sean took Andy’s hand. “That has nothing to do with us.”
“Not directly, no. But you have a history of pretty serious behavior, but me? Not so much. But the crazy thing is, I really want to change that.”
Sean looked quizzically at him. “Which part? Me being serious or you being not?”
“Me, obviously, you jackass. For a long time, it was just me and my mom and dad. Then after they died, just me.”
“And the pool boy and his friend.”
Andy tossed a napkin at him. “Yeah, yeah. And a few others. But none of that was ever serious. Until you.”
Sean smiled. “So, you’re saying you love me.”
“What?” Andy teased. “I didn’t exactly say that. I said I wanted to be serious with you and have you cohabitate with me. No one said the ‘L’ word.”
“Then let me be the first,” Sean whispered. “Andy, I love you.”
Andy sucked in a breath. His chest actually ached. But a good ache. “Damn, you had to beat me to the punch.”
“Always.”
“Will you? Move in?”
“I can’t think of anything I want more than to live with you in that house and make it a home for both of us.”
“I love you, too, Seany.”
And they leaned in for a kiss to seal the deal.
Sean then continued to hold his hand. “We should come here more often, you know. To the Embarcadero. It’s nice.”
Andy smiled. “It is. Because of them?”
“You know it’s funny. I didn’t know anything about Annabelle and Marlene until they didn’t exist anymore. Anyway, maybe because of them. Maybe because of us. Whichever. And it’s probably corny and stupid, but—”
“No, it’s not. We’ll come here. Because we can and they can’t anymore.”
Sean swallowed heavily. “Yeah.”
* * * *
“Oh, no!” Mavis Pillary exclaimed when Sean and Andy plopped down in chairs at their table. “I thought that whole nasty business was over.”
“It is,” Sean assured her. “We’re here to play.”
Norma stared at them, mouth hanging open. “You two want to play?”
Sean grinned. “Sure do. We bought our cards from that lady over there, and paid for bingo daubers, too. Got a deal as well—two for a dollar.”
Andy had chosen green, while Sean had chosen magenta.
Sean leaned toward Norma and pointed at the sheet they’d been given, listing the games they were to play and the shapes they should make for each game. “These look pretty complicated.”
“They’re not, if you know what you’re doing,” Eugene said.
“Detective,” his wife said. “Have you ever played bingo?”
“Nope,” Andy admitted.
She shook her head. “I see we shall have to help you. Now, for the first game, daub all your free spaces.”
“I like free,” Sean said.
That earned them withering looks from the trio. Andy just continued to smile. This had been Sean’s crazy idea. They happened to have a Wednesday off—barring any unfortunate murders, naturally—and he had suggested joining this group for a night of bingo. Andy had been agreeable enough.
As the first game got going, they all began to speak of being “on” or three spots away, and all this other bingo-speak Andy didn’t know. By the third game, he finally turned to Mavis. “What does it mean to be ‘on’?”
She sniffed with decided superiority. “It means, Detective Andy, that you are only one number from getting bingo.”
Earlier in the evening, she had announced she intended to call him “Detective Andy,” and Sean, “Detective Sean.” It was a little strange, but then, these three were a little strange.
Mavis peered at his bingo card. “As you are, right there.” She pointed. “You only need B4.”
“Oh.” Andy nodded. “Cool.”
“Winning two hundred fifty dollars is more than just ‘cool.’” There was that sniff again.
“B4,” the caller yelled.
Andy simply stared at his card
Then Mavis leaned over and stamped his dauber on it. With a look of pure annoyance, she said, “Say bingo!”
“Bingo!”
* * * *
“Admit it, Mantegna. You had fun.”
Sean had just pulled into the driveway of Andy’s house. Soon to be their house.
“It was better than I thought. And that’s not just because I won twice.”
“Beginner’s luck,” Sean said in a voice that eerily sounded like Mavis Pillary.
They got out of the car and entered the house.
“Want to go back next Wednesday?” Sean asked as they headed for the bedroom.
“Not on your life.”
THE END
ABOUT SHAWN LANE
Shawn Lane is a multi-published author of gay romances and believes love and passion know no boundaries. Happily Ever After is for everyone.
She has been published by Loose Id, Ellora's Cave, Amber Quill Press, Dreamspinner Press, and Evernight Publishing.
Shawn lives in California and holds down a boring day job in a legal department of a giant corporation dreaming of the nights and weekends when she can create new stories.
For more information, visit smlgr8.blogspot.com.
ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC
JMS Books LLC is a small queer press with competitive royalty rates publishing LGBT romance, erotic romance, and young adult fiction. Visit jms-books.com for our latest releases and submission guidelines!
/center>