The Poppy Drop

by C L Bauer

  He smiled. “Right, the sandwich. Sorry about that.”

  “We found a hard boiled egg later too. It had rolled.” Lily was trying anything to calm him down. She could see his eyes softening. No longer did he look like a trapped animal.

  John looked at her in the darkness and saw his friend, his very scared friend.

  “Lily,” he stopped as he saw a figure go by the window. “Lily, grab your bag and go out the back door. You go run to that police car and don’t you come out no matter what you hear. Now, go.”

  His tone frightened her more than any gun. What was he doing? He was releasing her for what reason? She pulled the bag out and slid past him in the darkness. He caught her in his arms and pulled her in for a quick hug.

  “I love you, little girl. You have been such a good friend. You take care and let that agent take care of you when he can.”

  She pulled away, stood on tip-toes to place a kiss on his cheek then ran to the back door and out the back alley.

  She was pulling on the handle of the police car’s door when she heard the gun fire. Even through the lightening, thunder and rain she could hear the sound. Her friend was in danger. But she had to get in the car. She opened the door. The car was empty.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The rain was pelting the FBI cap he was wearing, the drops dripping onto his cell phone as he texted with Tom Fullerton. Tom would be there in a matter of minutes but he’d already missed the prime suspect. Fullerton had been in Lawrence, Kansas helping his daughter move to her new apartment off campus. Now he was racing across I-70 to get to the boulevard. The case was finally coming to a close.

  Dev was speaking to one of the city police officers on-site when he first caught a glimpse of her. She was sitting on the concrete outside her shop, her bag in one hand and a soggy tissue in the other. Her wet hair was so curly he barely recognized her but he knew it was her when his heart had sunk down into his stomach. The officer was explaining how it all went down but he hadn’t heard much after “Ms. Schmidt was held hostage for awhile and found the body”.

  He looked beyond her to see the two news stations’ vans and several camera lights wrapped in plastic. He’d been there for almost ten minutes and she still hadn’t looked up. Her gaze was on a piece of concrete in front of her, stained with the blood of her former friend. Dev continued to listen to the officer when Tom finally ran up to him.

  “What the hell?” he said as he saw Lily on the sidewalk.

  “She was here, cop followed her back to the shop. John was already inside, at least that’s what they are telling me. I haven’t talked to her yet.”

  Tom placed his arm around his friend’s back. “You need to. And what about the cop? Where is he?”

  “Well,” Dev began,”the real cop is dead down the street behind the bar and grill. The cop that was following Lily back to the shop is also dead over there.” He pointed to the coroner’s team blocking off the site.

  “Holy…” Tom’s voice trailed off. “You need to go to her. I’ll take over from here on and we can get her in for a formal tomorrow. But you need to be with her tonight.”

  Dev completely agreed with his friend. He needed to be with her. He’d probably be cussed at and called every name in the book. She’d be angry. He hadn’t been there for her. She’d think that the case, the mission, was more important than her safety. She needed to know he was already thinking the same thing.

  He walked slowly over to her, standing directly above her form.

  “Lily.”

  Slowly her face tilted up and saw him. He couldn’t tell the tears from the precipitation but her face was completely wet, small crystals of rain falling from one large ringlet on her forehead. He saw her hands shaking and the death grip she had on her bag. Dev crouched down in from of her.

  “Lily, I’m here. Let’s get you home.”

  She penetrated his very being with her dead stare. Her eyes held no expression, red from crying. She was tired, finished. It was finally over but he saw no relief or release in her face.

  “Where have you been?” The singular question hit his core. He saw the pink mist once more of a lost cause, another who had been hurt because of him and his decisions.

  “Let’s get you home.” Dev reached for her hands to pull her up but she shook her head, screaming out a loud “no”.

  He grabbed her bag away from her and set it up against the shop’s window ledge. He removed his borrowed FBI jacket and slid it across her shoulders. In one move he grasped both shoulders and pulled her up. She landed against him, her head burrowing into his chest. He could hear her sobs; he felt the balled up clenched fist hitting him lightly.

  “You didn’t protect me. You said you would, but you didn’t. Dev, he was my friend.”

  He held her closer. Tom looked up from the group he was in to see the comforting scene.

  He smiled. It was way past time to see those two like that.

  He patted her wet head and enveloped her tighter in his arms.

  “I’m here now, Lily. Come on, let’s get you home. Are your car keys in the bag?”

  He thought he heard a “yes” but it was going to be a lost cause trying to find them. He searched around with his hand at the bottom of the bag. She grabbed it out of his hands and pulled out a small purse. She placed the keys in his hand. Lily clutched the bag up against her as she started walking slowly in front of him.

  “Tom, I’m leaving my car here. Do you think someone could drop it by Lily’s house?” he asked as he handed his own car keys to his friend as he passed him.

  “Sure thing, Dev. Is she…does she need help?” Tom’s voice trailed off in the rain. Both men were watching her as she continued to walk by herself out to the parking lot.

  Dev shrugged and took out after her. He opened the passenger side and she silently got in. She placed her seatbelt around her but once again he held the bag up for security. He saw a wet, limp file folder sticking out. It was probably next week’s orders for her to go over once she got home. He’d make sure she wouldn’t do that.

  Dev drove through the rain, the wipers on high speed. Occasionally, he’d look over at her stoically sitting there, looking straight ahead into the darkness. She hadn’t said one word since they’d left the scene. Her head was bent down as though she was concentrating on her bag and her hands studying each and every seam, inspecting thread she couldn’t possibly see in the dark. Yep, she was in shock, numb. Thankfully they didn’t have far to go in this rain. He pulled into the driveway and ran across to open her door. She hadn’t even realized they were home.

  Dev took her right hand and pulled her from the car. She just looked at him with glassy eyes as he locked the car and pulled her again, this time into the house. He’d put the car in the garage later.

  He found the correct house key on the second try and opened the door. Automatically, he had unbuttoned the safety on his holster, just in case. It was dark in the house. Apparently she hadn’t reset the timer for fall. He sat her in the closest living room chair and then one by one, turned on lights and checked every room. It was clear and she was safe. Lily had been hit hard tonight, he knew that even if he didn’t know all the details yet. She’d been a target, she’d seen a shoot out, watched a man die and saw her own friend shot in front of her as he was apparently protecting her. But Dev knew that glassy-eyed look, it was the look of betrayal. Her friend had betrayed their friendship. He knew she’d probably question every relationship she had before the sun came up…and he knew he’d be at the top of the list.

  Quietly, he knelt in front of her. He threw off his cap toward the front door as water dripped off his hair.

  “Lily, let’s get you out of these wet clothes.” He slipped his jacket off her shoulders and threw it in the direction of the hat. She was just as soaked as he was. He shook her hands free of the bag and left it on the floor.

  She finally looked at him. Her eyes were at the same level as his, red and swollen with every inch of her face covered
in tear stains.

  “He did protect me, Dev. He did. You didn’t but he did.”

  He sighed. He knew it. He was at the top of the list and the sun was still hours before its rising.

  “I know Lily. I know. We need to get you out of these clothes. You have plenty of time to be mad at me.”

  She stood suddenly and walked toward her bedroom.

  “Oh, I’m not mad at you. I expect disappointment. You know it always happens. I’m on my own and have been for a long time. Don’t you worry about me.”

  Dev slid his hand through his wet hair. What the hell was that? He sat back on his heels.

  He knew she was in shock but where was this coming from?

  She shut the door soundly, leaving him to sit in a puddle developing on the living room rug. A few minutes later she came out in Elmo slippers and a brightly colored chenille robe. Her hair still hung damp around her face but she was now dry. Lily carried a pile of material in her hands.

  “Here, you need to get dry too.” She handed him black Army sweats, top and bottoms.

  What was she doing with Army sweats that might fit him? Was it a past boyfriend she’d never talked about? He knew she hadn’t been married before and that minister she used to date surely hadn’t been in the military. Then he remembered her brother had recently retired from the Army. Maybe she got them from him.

  “Do I want to know where you got these?” he asked, offering a smile to see if it would be returned. Even though he knew the answer maybe he could lighten the mood.

  The smile was not returned. “A relative. These are too big for me so I’m thinking they’ll work for you and we can throw your clothes in the dryer. Don’t expect anything else, Agent Pierce.”

  He shook his head. Redemption would not be swift but anger would certainly be lingering.

  He dried off in the bathroom, changed into the sweats and checked in with Tom to see how John was doing. He had survived the ride to the hospital and had been taken into emergency surgery. They would know by morning if he would survive. Apparently it had been some shoot out on the boulevard. John had been shot multiple times but the presumed hired killer had just one shot in him, straight through the forehead. He was dead before he hit the ground.

  He smelled some aroma filtering under the door. Was she cooking in the middle of the night?

  Slowly, he peeked out but didn’t see her in the kitchen. He heard the television. The floor creaked under his steps as he entered the living room. She was sitting cross legged on the sofa, a huge bowl of popcorn in her open lap. He saw Angela Lansbury on the screen. She was watching “Murder, She Wrote”. There were two open beers on the coffee table.

  She looked up as he came around to sit next to her. “Is this mine?” He pointed at the open beer.

  “If you want it, if not it will be my second. Currently it is unprotected.”

  Dev winced. Lily turned back to her show. Dev took two long drinks. All these months had come down to a very long week and an equally dramatic, tragic night in the rain.

  He watched her through a side glance. She picked each kernel out individually to eat, one after the other, taking the occasional break to drink her beer. The sofa was too short for his legs. Slowly he propped one leg and foot on the coffee table and then the other. His left knee was hurting again. When it rained, it hurt. It was an old injury long since forgotten except when he was in pain. She glanced over at him but didn’t make a comment.

  “Sorry about putting my feet up on the furniture. Hope you’ll forgive me.”

  She eyed him. Then she examined his feet. “When did you break that toe?” She pointed to his left foot.

  “Years ago.”

  The silence was absolutely uncomfortable.

  “So, I just knew you would be watching Jessica Fletcher. How did I know? Because I’m smart? No. Because I’m a trained investigator? No. Because that’s what you do.”

  Lily glared at him. His eyes were twinkling. How dare he!

  “Don’t mess with Jessica. She may be a busybody but she’s my busybody. Dr. Hazlett is in danger in this one.”

  She handed him the bowl, offering it to him. He grabbed a handful. “Heaven forbid. Will he live or die?”

  “Don’t be silly. Jess will save the day.”

  Dev felt everything she said right now was pointed directly at his supposed incompetency. He would explain everything to her but not tonight. Any explanation he gave would fall on deaf ears.

  “Why did you get hooked on this show?”

  “My mom and I used to watch it. She loved Angela Lansbury. She was on Broadway in “Mame” and she was in that Disney flick “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and I just grew to love her.”

  “Well, I didn’t know those two pieces of trivia but do you know she played a saloon girl in some western I watched once?”

  She stopped munching. “Which one?”

  He had felt pride in himself briefly and now it had disintegrated. “Don’t remember.”

  “You don’t know the name of the western?"

  "The Harvey Girls, I think.” The commercial was over and Jess was saving the day.

  What was she, a walking Angela Lansbury encyclopedia? She reached for her beer again and he saw her hand shaking. She kept watching straight ahead but he saw little breaks in the granite that was Lily Schmidt. What was she thinking?

  Lily placed the beer back on the table. “Mom and I watched the show when she was dying.”

  He studied her face. He found he liked doing that for some reason. She was mesmerizing in her own way, handling what had happened tonight like a seasoned soldier…a soldier who would fall apart any second. Somehow, Lily or John had hit the panic button on the side of her desk during the chaos. The first agents on the scene explained her calmness as she held John’s hand. She had been doing all she could for him until the paramedics arrived. Lily had backed away then and calmly sat down by her shop’s door. The agents and then the police had asked a few questions but saw her cold stares and had heard the dead, non-expressive tone of her voice. She was in shock.

  One small tear was trailing its way down the side of her left cheek.

  “When I was home briefly, now and then, mom and I would watch “Law and Order”.

  She brushed aside the tear. “Good show.”

  “Yes, she always thought that since I was in the Army I should know legal stuff so she’d ask all these questions. I never knew the answers until I went to law school.”

  He could tell she was surprised. “But you’re not a lawyer. Why not?”

  Dev took a drink of his almost empty beer. “Not sure really. Maybe not enough action. My dad was a little disappointed that I didn’t go into practice.”

  “What did your mom think?”

  “My mom was dead by then.”

  She patted his arm. “I’m so sorry. Did you watch the show when she was sick too?”

  “I wasn’t there when she died. I was deployed.” His voice was flat, devoid of emotion. Years of anger had placed emotion in a small box never to be opened when it came to his mother’s death.

  Lily smiled slightly. He’d finally shared his secret. Devlin Pierce was finally becoming a human being.

  “I couldn’t come home. They wouldn’t let me so I missed her funeral.”

  “Who the heck is they? How can people have so much control over us? I hate that.”

  She was screaming. He really wasn’t sure what to do at this point. They’d shared their losses and shared the human experience of loss but she wasn’t talking about her mother or his. She was angry over what had gone down tonight.

  “What can I do for you, Lily? Do you want another beer and maybe another so you can sleep? Do you want to talk all night? Do you want me to leave you alone?” He was grasping at anything to engage her.

  She shoved his shoulder. “Where were you? If you had been there John wouldn’t have done what he did. If you’d been there you would have protected him and me and that man wouldn’t have shot him, killed
him.”

  Her cries were painful and in a matter of seconds her face was wet once more, no rain added.

  She shoved him again and again. “You all used me, didn’t you? Just like before…” Her voice trailed off as he grabbed her hand gently and held it in his.

  “John isn’t dead. He’s in surgery. It is bad but he has a chance. I knew he wouldn’t hurt you or let you get hurt. John’s a good man but he got wrapped up in a bad situation before we could do anything for him. Lily, I am sorry.”

  She looked at his hand hiding her’s. She looked up into his face, searching for something but she just didn’t know what. She needed help but she didn’t know or understand what kind. She needed something, someone. She could call her family but how could she explain this summer and tonight? She felt very empty and alone. Lily could feel the warmth of Dev’s hand. No longer did his touch raise the temperature of her skin. It was a feeling of understanding. But she didn’t want to let him off the hook.

  “Dev, will I ever get that memory of tonight out of my mind?” She was hoping he’d say yes.

  “It will go away and then it will come back. I’m not going to lie to you.”

  She laughed out loud. Now he was the one in shock. “Finally, you’re not going to lie to me. You pick now to do it?”

  Dev smiled uncomfortably. He stroked her hand. It was time to break down his own wall at least for tonight.

  “Come here. Sometimes this helps.” He placed his arm around her and pulled her near.

  Her head landed on his chest, one of her hands laying up against him.

  “You know we can stay up and go to church in just a few hours.” He murmured into her hair.

  Another Jessica Fletcher mystery was beginning. “What is this, a marathon?”

  She hadn’t answered. Her breathing became even and deep. Dev looked down to see her eyes shut. He turned the volume down on the channel selector and moved one of the sofa pillows to his left behind his head.

  Sometime in the middle of the night she’d left his side and thrown a blanket over him. Lily added a proper pillow to the sofa. He woke with the small movement, looked at her with piercing eyes and then moved the pillow and his head down on the sofa. He was asleep as he his head hit the pillow.