The Poppy Drop

by C L Bauer

  “And she’s an accountant.” Lily and he shared the laugh, the judge hugging her at the end of their amusement.

  He looked over to Dev. “I like her. She’s a keeper, if you know what I mean and don’t be telling me anything about you’re just doing your job. It’s ok. You never know when God drops a gold nugget down from heaven. You’re supposed to pick it up and cherish it, no matter where it came from. Or the next time, He might drop a big rock.”

  Lily smirked and Dev followed behind him outside. She was in love with a little old judge.

  She was a gold nugget from God. Darn and he said he was married! She watched Dev sit him down in a side chair as guests filled in the rows of seats. Lily helped the bridal group proceed down the aisle. All of this hubbub and confusion was for a fifteen-minute ceremony but this was just the beginning of it all for this couple. There’d be years of hubbub that wouldn’t always be calmed by an agent who knew someone, saving the day just in the nick of time. As the guests began to flow into the reception, Lily joined the two men sitting in the empty front row. They were talking about baseball.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m open next Saturday. I’ll drive.”

  “Ah, sweet Lily. I like that name.” The judge welcomed her with a smile and an outstretched hand. “And she’ll come to.”

  She looked at Dev. “Where am I going?”

  “A Royals’ game next Saturday if you can. The game doesn’t start until a little past seven.”

  “And my wife will so appreciate your presence. Maureen loves baseball but she doesn’t like to talk about it, she just likes to watch. Personally, I think she’s just ogling the men in their uniforms, especially her Royals. Her favorite color has always been blue.”

  “Pauley, what are you saying about me?”

  All three of them watched the older woman walking across the grass, her hands on her hips.

  Her smile became wider as she saw a familiar face.

  “Devlin Pierce, is that you? Look at you. You look better now than you did in your uniform.”

  “See, I told you. She likes her men,” the judge said as he winked at Lily.

  Dev greeted her with a hug and a kiss. She held onto him like he was her life vest in a stormy sea. Maybe he had been at one time. Lily envied the grace of this couple. She wanted to some day, years from now, go chasing after her own husband, wondering what adventure he had gone on, and hopefully he would share the story or the experience with her.

  “Maureen, dear, I performed a lovely wedding for a terribly beautiful, handsome couple. Not sure it's going to work out but I did my job. Bless their hearts.”

  She continued to hold Dev’s hand as she sat down next to her husband. “Hello, dear.” She kissed him on the cheek and held his right hand. “Why aren’t they going to work out?”

  “Well, they’re a little confused about why they’re getting married. Seems they are one of those power couples you read about, not sure who they’re going to rule over but they’re going to have power. But they can’t control a dog. They have way too much already so there’s no way for them to grow together. What’d we have? A hundred dollars?”

  “Don’t short change us, Paul. We had one hundred and fifteen dollars. I cashed out my savings account and mother thought you’d never amount to anything. Bless her soul.”

  She wasn’t sure why she did it but since Dev was standing directly next to her, Lily reached over and held his hand. He didn’t move, he didn’t swat her hand away, in fact his body moved closer to her’s until his right arm was touching her left one. They stood in absolute silence, perhaps in awe, watching the devoted couple. It was pure love, quiet and unassuming.

  “Thanks for picking me up, dear.” The judge kissed his wife’s cheek. “Time to go home.”

  She helped lift him off the chair. “Seems like I’m always coming for you.”

  “I like you to feel wanted,” he joked. “Well, Dev, my boy, you drop by the office next week if you can and we will coordinate this little outing. Club level seats are pretty nice so don’t eat dinner before and yes, you will be driving. Ms. Schmidt, you will be joining us.”

  She took the command as a gentle directive. Maureen smiled at her.

  “Wonderful, I’ll have another woman with me. After all these years I just get to tired of talking to this man.” Obviously, she was cajoling him. “Let’s go home and get you a nice meal. I’ve made baked chicken.”

  They slowly crossed the yard, continuing their banter. “I want that,” Lily said out loud.

  “Me too.” His answer lingered on the air until they decided they were starving.

  It was almost nine in the evening by the time Lily had dropped off the van. Dev checked her detail coming on duty at her home while she parked her car in the garage and came into the house. The timer had already turned on the living room lamps. She kicked her shoes off, dropped her bags in the nearest chair and figured she better get the mail.

  She was humming some song from the restaurant where they’d eaten as she opened the front door to grab the mail. Two steps out, she thought she heard something in the bushes on the side of the house. She’d heard reports that there was a raccoon rummaging through trash in the neighborhood. Maybe he was building a condo in her yard.

  She was headed back in with her mail when she saw a figure from the left side, a hooded figure. He or she was coming toward her. Lily was frozen in time. Oh Lord, it had all come to this. She dropped the mail and opened the door but the figure was on her when she finally screamed. At the same time a woman police officer was running up the yard to her rescue.

  The figure seemed confused, his head rotating to look at her and then the officer. He backed away and began running across the neighbors’ yards.

  “Are you ok, Ms. Schmidt?” The woman wasn’t following him but coming to her aid.

  Lily stood in shock, managing to nod her head. She’d been holding her breath, finally releasing it.

  “What the bloody hell was that?” she asked the officer.

  “That was why I’m here.”

  Dev received the call before he even made it back to the hotel. He’d turned the car around and began to speed back to her. It only took him minutes to arrive in Lily’s driveway. He could see her sitting on the sofa with her police officer. There was another black and white parked out front with its lights on. He talked briefly with them and slowly made his way into the house.

  As he entered, she immediately looked up at him, her tear-stained face silently asking him a question. He wouldn’t know how to answer her. He motioned for the officer and he talked to her briefly before she departed. There wasn’t anything more she could do at this point. He needed to be the one to explain, to protect and to take the wrath if need be.

  He grabbed two beers out of the refrigerator, walked into the living room and held an opened one in front of Lily’s face.

  She grabbed the beer but didn’t look at him as he sat directly across from her on the coffee table.

  “Now you know why you had a protective detail. I’m so happy you’re ok.”

  “When were you going to tell me that you knew someone was watching me? When, Agent Pierce? That police officer stayed with me. She didn’t even try to go after the guy which means, and don’t tell I’m being ridiculous, that you want him out there. You’re trying to catch him and you set me up. Do not deny it.”

  Dev winced at the pain he heard in her voice. Well, it was actually not as bad as he thought it was going to be but it hurt him all the same.

  “I won’t deny it.”

  She looked directly into his face and hit his upper arm with a balled-up fist. “Damn you.”

  She had a good punch, Dev thought. He’d take a shot on the arm over the look of betrayal any day.

  “Lily, we are making progress…”

  “Oh that’s wonderful,” she interrupted, the sarcasm dripping on each word. “What’s the end game, me dead? This thing has gone on for months. We’ve become, we’ve become friends and now
I’m figuring that this is all a game with you people. You don’t care about me. You care about putting some Cartel away and getting those drugs.”

  “Lily, you’re upset and you are being ridiculous.”

  Her eyes widened. “I cannot believe you just said that. Get out.” Lily pointed at the door and grabbed the beer out of his hand.

  She stood up for emphasis. “Get up and get out.” He remained seated.

  “No.”

  “What? This is still my house, isn’t it?”

  Dev looked up at her. “Sit down, give me my beer and let’s talk this out.” She stood her ground, one hand holding the beer, the other on her hip.

  He was coldly staring at her. He could see her hands still shaking, her pale skin sporting goosebumps and tears in those wide eyes. But she was Lily and she could handle this. He knew she could.

  “Lily, please sit down and give me a chance to explain what I can.”

  Slowly she moved to the sofa and sat down. She took a drink of the beer and held his gaze. “Explain,” she demanded as she pushed the beer into his hand.

  “Ok, well, you have had a protective detail on you, the police or me since the very beginning. We put in surveillance cameras in your shop because that’s where the original crime took place and where we thought they would return to get whatever is missing that we don’t have a clue about. It takes time to convince the bad guys that they need to move on and that’s what we’re doing. You’re fine and you will be fine. I will not allow anything to happen to you, I promise.”

  She continued to examine his face, to read any false uttering. But could she? Did she even know when he was lying? He had been so bad at it that very first day but now lines were so blurred and she was so confused.

  “You know I watch murder mysteries all the time,” she announced. “I know when things aren’t sounding right. Nothing about this sounds right, Dev, not even you.”

  He felt nauseous as though he’d been shot in the stomach, but the hole was in his heart.

  What more could he tell her and keep the mission on track?

  “Sometimes,” he paused trying to find the right words, “lines get blurred like with you and me.”

  Lily was listening very intently. He had her full attention but her anger was still there.

  “We are friends, Lily. I’ve come to respect you greatly and I do hope we stay in touch when this is all over.”

  Lily heard the word “respect” and her heart plummeted. But why? She always knew he was going to say this. What else could he say? That he’d fallen madly in love with her in these past months, that he wanted to whisk her away to some island to make love in the sun? What was wrong with her that she couldn’t see what was right in front of her eyes?

  “But,” Dev continued, “I have a job to do. We are doing that job together, I know that. Without your help, your openness to allow me into your world, I couldn’t get this done. And I will get this done, you will be fine and it will be over very soon. I’m so sorry about this scare but I really believe that’s all this guy was trying to do was scare you. We can handle this, but we’ve got to do this together. I can’t tell you everything. You have to trust me, Lily, please.”

  She had been holding her breath again. Slowly, she let the air out and took another drink of beer.

  “You so owe me, Devlin Pierce.”

  He smiled shyly not realizing his eyes were twinkling. “I know, Lily Schmidt, I know.”

  Later, he made sure her bedroom windows were locked before she went to sleep. He grabbed a pillow from the other bedroom and camped out in the living room. It was before dawn when he heard another noise and scouted around the perimeter of the house. He waved at the officer in the car.

  He came back into the house and smelled coffee. Everything looked normal and now with the fragrance of caffeine, everything seemed normal. But he was worried that nothing was normal in Lily’s world. Everything had changed overnight, literally. He wasn’t sure he could fix what was or wasn’t going on between them.

  She came around the corner in a robe and slippers. She held the coffee pot. “Coffee, right?”

  He nodded. He could hear her humming “It’s Been A Hard Day’s Night”.

  “Well, I’m not serving you. I don’t feel like it, yet,” she yelled from the kitchen.

  His friend was back. Maybe.

  Devlin Pierce tried to get a run in everyday but some days the heat in the Heartland was just too much. This morning, a cool fall breeze was flowing as he ran around the Plaza. He’d already run a couple of miles as he headed for his favorite coffee shop on the corner but something caught his eye.

  He hadn’t seen postcards in the longest time and unless you were actually around one of the many tourist attractions in Washington DC, you seldom saw them anywhere. He stopped to see a rack of them, most featuring landmarks of Kansas City but the ones that caught his attention were of Christmas lights and the Plaza. His relatives in the area had always shared their tradition of coming down for the turning on of the lights on Thanksgiving night but somewhere in his brain he’d translated it into a tree lighting occasion on the square.

  There would be a children’s choir singing and the usual suspects such as the mayor and of course jolly St. Nick. If you were really lucky, your local councilman would show up.

  But these cards held the beauty of something much larger. Strings upon strings of lights adorned the buildings for blocks. The multi colored structures blended well with the Spanish architecture. During this summer he must have jogged past this building countless times but this was the first time something had captured his attention and left him speechless. One card featured the lighting with the crowds of people in the shadows. He’d never known any tradition where the people gathered for an event of the people, not the National tree, nor a Governor’s tree. Generations of families must’ve taken part in this ceremony year after year. He didn’t know if it seemed odd to him or familiar like returning home after a long deployment with everyone waiting there to greet you.

  Lily had told him stories of her own family visits to the lighting. He could almost smell and taste the hot chocolate as she described how they stood on top of one of the parking garages one year with snow falling, cocoa in hand and the awe of the beginning of the Christmas season in Kansas City. He’d watched her face as she remembered and he swore she was glowing as bright as one of those bulbs. Her family had spent the day together doing the usual Thanksgiving day activities of feasting and football and then the younger members headed down to the Country Club Plaza to watch the lights welcome the Christmas season. By the end of the night they all ended up at a pizza place playing trivia games. He’d like to see the lights turn on with thousands of other people. He wouldn’t mind seeing them with her beside him.

  Yes, Kansas City might be a place he’d like to visit again.

  He knew when he finally returned to Virginia and hit the door of his townhouse it would be empty. That thought kept creeping into his head more and more these days as the investigation was wrapping up. The other night’s chaos only brought him one more step closer to flying away. For the first time in a long time, he didn’t like the feeling one bit.

  He headed for his coffee, a quick read of any newspaper laying around and then he needed to head back to the hotel, shower and make sure he was on time at the shop. This week Lily and he had moved on, even a few jokes were thrown back and forth. Today, at the end of this long wedding day, they had a baseball game to go to. Although he’d been with Tom and his wife a couple of nights this summer, he was looking forward to the companionship of the judge and his wife. And it would be the first time Lily would be included in his life circle. She’d be meeting people who really knew him and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He’d have to take a chance.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lily’s list making was carrying on in her brain as they all sat down with their food. The Judge and Dev were sitting together, leaving her with Maureen Stanley. It didn’t take th
e woman long before the questions began. After the other night she’d be particularly careful in her answers.

  “How long have the two of you known each other?” The game hadn’t even started!

  Lily was taking the first bite of a very large brat with sauerkraut, mustard and onions (she wouldn’t be kissing anyone tonight). She chewed as quickly as she could.

  “Not long, months.”

  She planned on being as vague as humanly possible.

  “Hmm, I just wondered with him in Virginia and you owning a shop here.” The older woman squinted her eyes and came closer to Lily’s face, seemingly analyzing her every blink and pursing of lips.

  “And how did you meet him?”

  “He walked into my shop one day. Funny thing, he just kind of kept hanging around and boom, here we are.” Lily’s heart was beating faster.

  She didn’t want to lie to people who seemed so important to Dev.

  Maureen Stanley took a deep breath and sat back in her seat.

  “Ah, I think I understand. He’s here on an investigation. You’re very good because frankly, I don’t know if you are part of it all, covering for him or just being nice to an old lady. But you are very good, Lily. All right. I’ll stop with the questions.”

  Thank God, Lily prayed. Maybe they could just enjoy the game now?

  Dev came by them as he walked back to the snack bar. He touched her shoulder as he passed. He slid it slowly to touch the side of her neck. Without thinking, she turned into the slight caress.

  “You need anything?”

  She looked up at him. “No, I’m good, but thank you.”

  The judge’s wife laughed out loud. “Oh, you are good. He doesn’t even realize what he feels for you.”

  Lily placed her plate down on the table beside her. She really didn’t want to be rude but what was this woman talking about? Devlin Pierce had made everything very clear, well sort of, to her the other night. They were friends, or at least he hoped they were.