Red Curtains

by Leanna Sain

  Not in this lifetime, buster, I thought to myself, while forcing my lips to stay curved upward.

  Ellie glanced at the table where I’d been sitting, and her eyes narrowed when she saw the extra glass of tea. “Where’s your date? Did we interrupt something? Maybe someone you weren’t supposed to be with?” she asked suggestively, and actually gave me a wink.

  I sent her my “death stare.” I wanted to grab a fork from the neighboring table and stab her in that winking eye. Probably not a good idea, right in front of the Police Commissioner. “No,” I answered as calmly as I could. “Just a good friend. She had another appointment and had to run.”

  Ellie pursed her lips, clearly disappointed that I hadn’t given her some juicy bit of gossip to gnaw on. “Oh…well, it was good to see you again. We’ve got to run. Things to do, people to see, you know. Take care, now.” She tilted her face up to Mark and dimpled. “Ready, babe?”

  He squeezed her waist, then nodded my direction. “Cleo.”

  My return nod was a little stiff. “Mark.”

  They turned right, hurrying toward the DeSoto Hilton. Not much of a surprise, there.

  I waited…I knew it was coming, and she didn’t disappoint. Ellie half-turned and called back airily, “Next time you see Jonas…if you see him again…tell him to call me. He has my number. TTFN!”

  I was breathing heavily, gripping the back of my chair so hard, that the edge of it dug into my palm, nearly cutting me. I ignored the pain, almost welcoming it, so angry my blood was boiling. TTFN? As in ta-ta for now? Really? Did people still even use that acronym? Well, obviously one person did.

  A familiar, gravelly voice spoke behind me, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the only one who gets burned.”

  “Thanks,” I growled through clenched teeth before turning. “Nice vanishing act.”

  Lily lifted her chin toward Ellie and Mark who were just entering the hotel’s doors. “Didn’t want him to see me with you. Guess I was afraid he’d somehow know I saw him shoot that man in the alley…that he’d be able to read it on my face. If he knew…if he had any idea, it wouldn’t be safe for you to associate with me.”

  I waved my hand impatiently, like I was shooing a fly, exclaiming without thinking, “He doesn’t know you saw him. If he did, you’d probably already be in the river.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. “Sorry, Lily,” I winced. “I need to work on my tact.”

  She shrugged. “Here’s a quote your floozy friend should remember.”

  “She’s not my friend!” I snapped.

  “Even so…” Lily patted me on the arm in a soothing manner. “It’s something I remember my mother telling me: “your dresses should be tight enough to show you’re a woman and loose enough to show you’re a lady.”” She pointed toward the Hilton. “She’s no lady!”

  “Agreed.” I drew a deep breath, my blood pressure working its way back to the normal range. “Let’s go home.”

  ****

  Everyone, but me, was tucked into bed, probably taking a long winter’s nap, but I couldn’t sleep.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about something Lily had shared with me after we left Mellow Mushroom. She’d been engaged once! Back when she was about my age. His name was Michael, and he’d broken her heart with another woman, at least that’s what she’d thought at the time. Apparently, her ghost sister, Rose, was a real piece of work. She’d told Lily back then, about Michael having an affair—that she’d actually seen him with the other woman—and poor Lily had believed her. She’d broken things off with Michael, never giving him a chance to tell his side, and had transformed herself into a homeless woman, effectively shutting herself off from another chance at love. The real heartbreak, though, was that Rose had lied about the whole thing. Lily had just found out about it, almost fifty years too late.

  I wasn’t sure why she’d shared this tragic tale with me. Maybe she just needed to get it off her chest, but I couldn’t shake the sad image of a much younger Lily giving up on true love all because of a lie. It was such a waste. If Rose hadn’t already been dead, I’d scratch her eyes out.

  And if all that drama wasn’t enough, I couldn’t seem to shake a strange sense of foreboding, some sort of ominous undercurrent lurking just beneath the surface. It was how wild animals must feel right before a bad storm or an earthquake…like nature was holding its breath, a waiting period right before everything hit the fan.

  Whatever it was, it had me wired and I couldn’t relax. I sketched some more, read for a while, soaked in a warm bath, tried some deep breathing…nothing worked. As a very last resort, I headed downstairs to the exercise room. To my knowledge, I was the only one who ever used it. Which begs the question…why? Why did we have it? Why did Aunt Patricia go to the considerable expense of having a room full of state-of-the-art equipment put in? Had there been a man in her past? Someone who’d been really into exercise?

  Ha! Yeah, right!

  Re-sale value?

  Hardly! I could never sell this place. Who could afford to buy it? And if I ever tried to sell, she’d probably come back and haunt me.

  From any angle, it made no sense to me. It certainly wasn’t for my benefit. I generally tried to avoid exercise, the same way I would the Bubonic plague, and of course, Minnie and Tobias never darkened its doors. That left…nobody.

  I gazed around pensively while I jogged on the treadmill. Well, maybe calling it a jog was a stretch, but I was doing my best. There was a lot of interesting stuff in here…if someone happened to like working out. It was sort of a shame that it never got used.

  Slowing to a stop, I grabbed my towel and wiped my face. Enough! That was all the exercise my poor, non-athletic body could stand.

  After a quick shower to get rid of the sweat, I was back at square one: lying in the bed, staring at the ceiling and worrying. I flung an arm across my eyes, trying to squelch the feeling of doom that swirled around all the people in my life. Jonas, Lily, Raymond, and…Ellie. Ellie? Why was she included? The thought was appalling. After all the things she’d said and done to me over the years…? Why was I worrying about her?

  The truth was, as much as I disliked her, the fact that she was keeping company with a sleaze-ball like Mark Spencer scared me. I realized that she was probably just adding another notch on her bedpost with him—maybe his position of power gave her a rush or something—but she couldn’t possibly care for the guy. No way! That was too low, even for her. Maybe, I should try to warn her, hint at what kind of a person he was without giving too much away. Would she believe me? Maybe not, but I had to try. Even Ellie didn’t deserve someone evil.

  ****

  The decision to warn my nemesis must’ve been the sleeping potion I needed, because when I opened my eyes again, the morning sun was shooting pale, yellow stripes through the slats of the window shutters. I reached for Tut, but ended up patting a cool pillow. Hmmm. No Tut. He was probably with Raymond. For whatever reason, my cat had taken a liking to sleeping upstairs at the foot of Raymond’s bed. Who knew why?

  Some slight movement caught my eye and I jerked my head to see what it was. Tut was sitting at attention, right by the door, staring at me.

  That was weird.

  I sat up and studied him, holding out my hand and calling, “C’mere, Tut. Come see me, boy.”

  He was as still as a sphinx, eyes unblinking. I frowned. Something was wrong. “What is it, boy?”

  He just stared, his eyes fixed on mine, like he was trying to drill something into my head.

  I scrambled from bed and took a step toward him. He turned quickly and squeezed himself through the door.

  Was I supposed to follow him?

  I yanked the door open and looked both directions. He’d stopped at the foot of the stairs to the third floor, glancing back over his shoulder at me. As soon as we made eye contact, he zipped up the stairs. My stomach dropped.

  Raymond. Something was
wrong with Raymond!

  ****

  I was out of breath when I burst into his room, crashing into Lily who stood just inside the door.

  “Ooof…sorry. I just wanted to check on Ray—” I broke off when I saw that Tut was the only one on the bed. He sat by the empty pillow, and turned wild eyes toward me. “Lily, where is he? In the bathroom? Does he need some help? Is he hurt? Tut—”

  I broke off when she wordlessly handed me a piece of paper, and I knew he was gone without looking at it.

  I sank to the floor, clutching the note. “Why? Doesn’t he know he’s not safe out there? If Spencer or his men see him, he’s toast. If they catch him again, he won’t be so lucky. We won’t be able to help him! What is he thinking?”

  Lily’s voice was filled with ultimate sadness. “Read his note, Cleo, just read the note. You’ll understand.”

  I unclenched my fist, smoothing the wrinkles out of the paper as best I could, and slowly unfolded it. Tears filled my eyes. “No!” I threw my head back and cried, “No, no, no!”

  The page was completely filled with curlicues.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cleo

  “I don’t know what kind of mess you’ve gone and stepped in, child, but I’m afraid it’s a lot deeper and a lot more foul-smellin’ than you ever let on to me,” Minnie fumed.

  I winced when I saw the ferocious way she was scrubbing the clean pot. How did the thing still have a bottom?

  I needed Minnie’s help. I wanted to fill her in on everything in hopes that we’d be able to put our three heads together and come up with a plan, since so far, two heads weren’t working so well. My gaze strayed to Lily and silently asked the question, Can we tell her?

  When she nodded, I took a deep breath. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “You’re right, Minnie. I’ve kind of left some stuff out.”

  Her wide shoulders stilled and then tensed up like she was waiting for a blow.

  “Maybe you should sit down,” I suggested.

  “I’ll stand,” she snapped.

  “O-kay…” I mouthed silently. The best way was probably just to jump in and get it over with. Taking a deep breath, I blurted, “We-rescued-Raymond-from-the-trunk-of-some-bad-men-who-were-going-to-shoot-him-and-then-dump-him-in-the-river.” The whole sentence ran together like it was one long word, then I tagged on, “He was supposed to be the fourth one.”

  Minnie turned to face me. Her normally caramel colored skin had turned a sickly shade of washed-out khaki. “Uh, maybe I will sit, after all.”

  I moved over to make room. “Good idea.” Once she got settled, I continued, “The way these guys work, is they offer a job to desperate homeless men, with nothing to lose—men like Raymond. This job is too good to be true, one they couldn’t possibly refuse, but there’s a catch. If they say a single word about the job—to anyone—even a hint, they’re killed and thrown in the river.”

  Minnie’s eyes were wide; her mouth formed a perfect circle. “What’s the job?”

  “Printing hundred dollar bills.”

  “Counterfeiting,” she breathed. After a long moment, she closed her mouth and pressed her lips together until they made a thin straight line.

  Wow! She was handling this better than I thought she would.

  “And Raymond was offered this job?” she asked, quietly.

  “Yes.”

  “And he talked about it to someone?”

  I glanced at Lily before repeating my answer. “Yes.”

  “But you all rescued him…from a trunk of a car, you said.”

  I started feeling a little uneasy. She was acting too calm. “Y-yes.”

  She stared at me another second or two, then narrowed her eyes. “How, exactly?”

  Uh-oh. Looking at Lily was no help. She was rubbing her temples like she had a headache. “Well, it started out with us hiding in the alley behind the building where the counterfeiting is done.”

  Minnie opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. “I suppose you’ll be telling me just how you knew it was that building, later?”

  Oh, jeez, now Lily was holding her head like she was afraid it was going to fall off. “Um, sure…later. Anyway, we overheard enough to figure out what the plan was, and followed them in Jonas’ car.” I didn’t like the way Minnie’s nostrils sort of flared when I said that part, so I hurried on. “We followed them until they stopped at a truck stop and they went inside to get something to eat. I kept a lookout and Jonas jimmied the trunk lock with a screwdriver so he could get Raymond out. Then we stuffed him in the back seat of Jonas’ car, and tore out of there.”

  “And came here.”

  “Yeah, we came straight here.” Guessing where she was going with that, I rushed to explain. “Don’t worry! They couldn’t follow us. Jonas used the screwdriver to puncture two of their tires before we left. No one has two spares in their car, you know. They were stuck. It was brilliant, actually.”

  Too late. I should’ve kept my editorial comment to myself.

  “Brilliant!” she almost snarled the word. “You say it’s brilliant? Chasin’ after men who are murderers, who were on the way to kill another person, and who are also involved in a counterfeiting ring? You call that brilliant? Your boyfriend vandalizes their car, and he’s brilliant? Are you out of your cotton-pickin’ mind?”

  Call me crazy, but I sort of zoned out after she referred to Jonas as my boyfriend.

  But Minnie wasn’t done. “When did you turn vigilante on me? We do have a police force, and they’re paid to handle situations like this. It’s their job. Why didn’t you pull out your phone and dial 9-1-1?”

  “Because Mark Spencer…you know, Police Commissioner Mark Spencer? He’s the head of the whole thing.”

  “What? He can’t be!”

  “Well, he is,” I retorted. “And that’s why we couldn’t contact the police. The good guys are the bad guys in this situation!” I was losing my patience, tired of her interrogation. I needed help, not a pointing finger. “Look…you can rest assured we went through all this before going after Raymond. We’re trying to nail Spencer, which is why Jonas is out there somewhere, right now, disguised as a homeless man. He’s trying to be the next guy Spencer picks, and I’m scared to death. He has no idea Raymond’s back out there and I don’t know how to let him know.”

  “Doesn’t he have a phone?” she asked in a more subdued tone.

  Well, duh! I exchanged a look with Lily, thankful to see that apparently, she hadn’t thought of that either. “Um…yeah.”

  Minnie rolled her eyes. “What’s the problem, then?” Her question followed me up the stairs. I was already halfway to my room to look for the business card he’d given me the day we met.

  It only took a second to find it in my backpack, then my trembling finger was punching numbers on my phone as fast as I could go. After two interminably long rings, he answered.

  “Holmes.”

  “Jonas?”

  “Cleo? What’s wrong? Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, listen…I don’t want to blow your cover or anything, but Raymond is gone.”

  “What do you mean, gone?”

  “I mean, this morning, when I went upstairs to check on him, his bed was empty.” I didn’t think it was important to tell him about the note full of scribbles.

  There was an exasperated sounding groan from the other end, and then, “We can’t save him this time. If they find him, they’ll kill him quickly, then dump him; they won’t make the same mistake twice.” He sighed. “How’s Lily?”

  “Worried.”

  “How are you?” His voice went soft, smooth like velvet, and I sort of melted.

  “I’m worried too, but mostly about you.”

  “I’m fine, babe.”

  Babe? Did he just call me, babe? My heart stuttered a couple of times. My throat went dry. I knew better than to try to speak.

  He cleared his throat, then continued as if the world hadn’t just stopped spinning. “L
isten, I’m going to poke around some, keep my ears open, see if anything comes up. Then I’m going to break cover and run home to get my car about dusk. I’ll come by and pick you up, and we can go sit at the truck stop and see if we spot their car. They may not retrace their steps, but then again, they might. They don’t strike me as being highly intelligent, more like trained monkeys on steroids.”

  “I don’t even remember what their car looks like!”

  “I do. Got the tag number too, so we’re set.”

  “Right. Okay.” I took a deep breath, trying to calm my inner trembling. “I’ll see you this evening, then.”

  “Bye, b—…Cleo.”

  Had he started to say “babe,” again? Why’d he stop? How could I know for sure? Ugh! How…infuriating!

  “Bye,” I whispered.

  ****

  I went downstairs to tell Minnie and Lily the plan for this evening, then turned around and left. Unbelievably, Minnie spared me the third degree. Maybe she realized I was nearly at my breaking point and she didn’t want to be the “last straw.” Never stopped her before, but that’s the only explanation I could come up with, unless Lily had been bearing the brunt of a Minnie-style inquisition, and had managed to fill in enough blanks to satisfy her for the time being. Just to be on the safe side, though, I took the stairs two at a time and locked the door to my room. No sense in taking any chances, right?

  I thought briefly about the expression Lily wore just seconds before. She seemed very deep in thought, her face sort of closed down, unreadable. Minnie was back at the sink, scrubbing the heck out of clean pots.

  Seems we all had plenty to think about.

  One thing for sure, if I wanted to keep from going crazy, I needed to get busy, and stay busy. If I just sat around and waited until Jonas finally got here, every single minute, between now then, would seem at least a month long, maybe a year.

  The best way for me to lose track of time was to paint, so it was the perfect time to get started on that part of my illustration project. Setting up my easel and equipment, I donned my painting smock—which was really a man’s denim shirt I’d gotten from the Goodwill store years ago. I’d tried to girl-y it up a little by embroidering my initials and a few flowers here and there, added some lace to the cuffs. It helped some, but you didn’t really notice my decorations much anymore amid all the splotches and streaks of paint.