The screen door opened, and Piper held out a round, cut-out piece of wood. Clary recognized it immediately. It was the wooden peace symbol her parents had on the old VW bus, the one they’d driven until it finally gave up the ghost of activism. Actually, the motor had blown. She laughed as she turned it over in her hands.
“My old hippie parents. You must have heard stories?”
“Of course I have. They’re local celebs because of all that political action.”
“We had so much fun here. I grew up thinking everyone talked politics as if it was more important than breathing. It was a great childhood, Piper.”
“Jesse truly believes your mother burned her bra.”
“She didn’t?” Clary deadpanned, and then grinned. “I’m joking, but don’t get Mom started on the ERA.” She picked up her glass and the peace symbol. “Aunt Maureen’s calling tonight so I have to check out Mojo’s. If you think of anything else, get in touch. I’ll read the iPad tonight, and thanks for that.”
“Ride with us to Zip and Kaye’s boat, and I don’t care if you wear ratty shorts.”
*
The sound of a bottle being uncapped woke Leefe. Jesse was beside her bed with a bottle of water.
“Thirsty,” Leefe said, clearing her throat. Her mouth tasted terrible.
Jesse handed her the bottle. “How’re you feeling?”
“Better, I think.” Leefe sipped the water, testing her throat. “Did you find him?”
“He’s in holding. We’d been after him for a few days.”
“Praise Jesus, or something.” The headache was finally gone, and Jesse’s voice didn’t echo.
“I need your statement, and I’ll give you a ride home after you get dressed.” Jesse took a notebook out of her shirt pocket.
“Thank God I had the keys to Mojo’s and could hide there. He was so high and drunk he would have killed me.” She raised the bed, relieved that nothing in the room blurred. “Who’s at the day care? I hope Beverly pulled in some volunteers and Albie’s not alone.”
“Albie’s managing and Beverly had people there. I stopped by and told her that I’m taking you home. Everything’s fine.” Jesse wrote something in the notebook. “Scared the hell out of me when I realized you were unconscious. How did you get tangled up with him?”
“Me?” Leefe said, instantly annoyed. “I was at my workbench and saw him stagger into the water. He’s a homeless veteran that I’ve seen around. Since I can’t swim, I tried to catch him before he got in too deep, but he turned on me.”
“He said he’d really ripped up your place, so I stopped by your house, straightened a little, and stuff.”
“You have a key to my house?”
Jesse laid a small key ring on the bedside table. “The keys were in your pocket when they brought you in. I bought milk, bread, just basics, but nothing alcoholic until tomorrow. The doctor said this really rattled your brain.”
“You know I don’t drink.” Leefe tossed the covers aside.
“Hey, take it easy. How’re the stitches? Your ribs?”
“Sore.” Leefe sat on the edge of the bed. “Hand me the clothes you sent with that woman. Clary.”
Jesse placed the bag of clothes on the bed. “What about Clary?”
“She’s different.” Leefe stared into space. Did she really remember streaked brown hair, clear green eyes, or had her mind just imagined all of that? No, that smile.
The door opened, the nurse paused and then stepped inside. “What the—?”
“Relax, Kaye. Just getting her dressed to go home.”
“I’ll do it,” Kaye said and grinned at Jesse. “I saw Clary leaving as I came to work, called Piper, and we’re all going out tomorrow night.” Kaye took the T-shirt from Jesse.
“I haven’t talked to Piper. Clary’s going with us?”
“My gorgeous single cousin is here, and Clary’s available. It’d be good for her, considering what she just lived through in Iowa.” She helped Leefe stand and pulled the jeans up her legs. “Let’s see how you walk before we let you out of here.” They took a couple of steps together. “God, Leefe, you look like a teenager. You need to gain some weight.”
Leefe sat on the bed and ignored Kaye.
“Are we cooking at our house or on Zip’s boat?” Jesse said.
“The boat. Zip wants to see the first race of the year. We’ll cater the food.” Kaye wrapped a BP cuff around Leefe’s arm. “Meet us at the dock by five o’clock. You’ll be off shift by then.” Kaye picked up a digital scanner for a temperature check.
Leefe watched the two women in front of her. Friends since childhood, she knew. What would Kaye do if she knew her lover, Zip, had been stopping by for the past few months? Not that they shared more than conversation, because they hadn’t, and wouldn’t. They talked books, business, music, this and that, over Zip’s occasional whiskey or wine, and that’s all it would ever be, but she was certain Kaye wouldn’t see it that way.
“The doc signed off, so you’re ready to go,” Kaye said with a nurse-bright smile at Leefe.
Watching her, Leefe decided Kaye was clueless. Zip’s problem was simple. Kaye lived in her own bubble, and sometimes wouldn’t even come home at night. Leefe was certain it would never occur to her that Zip might need company. She probably should tell Jesse about Zip. Or maybe she already knew? The cops checked her house now and then.
On the way to her house, Leefe explained Zip’s visits. “You understand that she just stops by? There’s nothing else,” she said.
“I do, but Kaye wouldn’t get it, and never forget she’s a drama queen.” Jesse sat at Leefe’s kitchen table, taking out her notebook again.
“She’s a gossip and a bully.”
“That too,” Jesse said. “While you’re giving me your statement, check the house for whatever I might have missed. I have to get home, but I can swing by tomorrow. By the way, stay off the streets for a few nights.”
Leefe went through the rooms and cupboards while giving Jesse a blow-by-blow account of the incident.
“It’s great, and I appreciate what you’ve done,” Leefe said and meant it, despite her irritation at Jesse’s order to stay home. She’d gotten by with so much less in her life. She steadied herself with a hand on a kitchen chair and studied the calendar on the wall. “I have a thought about your friend Clary. Do you think she’d pose for the community art class that I teach?”
Jesse burst into laughter.
“Is that a stupid question?”
“No, not stupid, and Clary loves art.” Jesse shrugged. “I just don’t think she can sit still for more than ten minutes. It’s interesting that you find her attractive.”
“I didn’t say Clary was attractive, although she certainly is.” Leefe took coffee out of the refrigerator. “Her body is very…drawable, and she kind of gleams.”
“I’m not sure about the gleaming part, but you’re right. She has a great body.” Jesse opened the door, staring at the lake. “That whole family is like Maureen, caring and warm.” She took a deep breath. “Clary’s energetic, is pure magic with kids, and a big-time teacher…or used to be.” Jesse looked at Leefe. “She’s gone through some rough times. Leave her alone.”
“It’s only an art class.” Leefe sighed. “And you don’t tell me who to leave alone. Or not.”
“I mean it. Stay away from her,” Jesse snapped and slammed the door behind her.
Leefe stared at the late afternoon sunlight shifting across the polished wood floor. Some things never changed. Jesse was her normal crabby self. She had no idea what Jesse had meant about Clary. None of Jesse’s friends had a clue about rough times.
She poured a cup of coffee and eased down at the table. Her body hurt, but she could live with it. The best thing was to be home, out of the hospital. She glanced at the calendar, thinking about her art class. Had Clary really gleamed, or had it only been her foggy mind? Everything had been so weird this morning at the hospital in that strange light and her jumbled mind.
>
Who knew what Jesse had meant? Clary could have been married and in the middle of a divorce. The possibilities were endless.
Chapter Five
Sunlight bounced off the slate roof of Leefe’s house, catching Clary’s attention as she left Piper’s. If Leefe ran the city’s day care for homeless children, she’d be another source of information about South Port…and it was an excuse to talk to her again. She’d like to see Leefe when she felt better. Piper was right. You looked at Leefe and then you looked again.
She parked in the garage next to Aunt Maureen’s beloved old black Lincoln. She’d learned to drive in this big hunk of steel with either her mother or Aunt Mo beside her. The best times were both of them, riding along, gossiping in some kind of code that neither she nor Sharon could ever figure out. The entire family felt the car was indestructible. Maybe it was. She’d always felt safe when she drove it, and she patted it as she went toward the back door but looked back. It now had blue collector plates.
Never quit, rule number one in the family. And number two, never lie to each other. Maybe that’s where she’d gone off course? She’d believed all families operated on some level of respect and honesty. The air force pilot was a growing experience, but Robin had almost killed her. How could she have made the same mistake twice? There’d been others of course, but nothing like those two. Her intuition was usually right on target, until she fell in love, and then it was a train wreck.
She sat on Sharon’s bed, slipped into well-worn sandals, and looked at her cousin’s unchanged room. Sometimes she felt shot backward in time here. It was clean and neat, as if Sharon would be back any minute. The huge bed had the same patchwork bedspread and old rock star posters on the wall. Even the photo on the bureau had been there forever. She bent to the picture of Jesse with her arm around Sharon, and Clary to the side, smiles wide on the night of Clary’s high school graduation. She slipped her phone into her pocket and started out the door but hesitated. For a split second she thought she smelled Sharon’s perfume, that distinctive musk that had been popular when all of them were young.
Jesse drove by as Clary walked down the driveway. “Where’re you off to?”
“I have to check out Mojo’s. Maureen’s calling tonight.”
“I’ll catch up with you,” Jesse said and drove off.
Clary crossed the street toward the noisy food stand and stopped for a moment. All her life, this had been hers. Mojo’s, the huge beach, and finally the jetties and Lake Michigan. Like Aunt Mo’s car, all of this was safe. She knew exactly where she was and felt grounded, alive again. After last year’s fog and confusion, it was a miracle. The beach in front of her changed colors as the sun slipped in and out of the clouds, trailing browns and grays over faded gold sand.
With a change of direction, she went through the back of Mojo’s, and the new chain link fence sunk into a cement slab. It enclosed a big garbage Dumpster, several smaller trash cans, and wooden crates. The back door was propped open, and she leaned into the wall of music and voices.
“Hey.” A tall, brown-haired boy grinned at her. “Ms. Stone. How are you?” He stacked a wrapped burger and fries into a bag and handed a soda to a young girl.
“Hi, Penn. Save me a hot dog,” Clary said as Jesse came around the corner.
“How do you like the color? Maureen painted it last summer,” Jesse said. “I like the yellow and orange.”
“You could probably see it from the middle of the lake, it’s so bright. Are you hungry? I asked Penn to save me a hot dog. He’s about to close it down.”
Penn struggled out the back door with a trash can. “Saved the dogs, Ms. Stone.”
Jesse laughed. “Did he just call you Ms. Stone?”
“Hi, Ms. Lowden.”
“That’s Sergeant Lowden to you, Penn.”
“Have enough for Ms. Lowden?” Clary grinned at Jesse.
“Always have enough for South Port’s finest,” Penn said, thumping the Dumpster.
Jesse rearranged the wooden crates. “Let’s eat out here. I’ll take a dog and soda too, Penn.” When he went back inside, Jesse pointed at the cement slab. “See that?”
Clary bent over the dark spot. “What is it? Grease?”
“No, it’s blood. I tried to get most of it out. When Leefe struggled with that man the other night, he nicked her with a knife, out there on the beach.” Jesse pointed toward the sand. “She managed to get this far, hid here, and then got to the road where she collapsed.”
Clary stepped back, her stomach knotting. Penn came out with food and sodas, arranging them on the box.
“I love these,” Jesse said and took a big bite.
Clary glanced at Jesse’s uniform. It made her appear taller. “Is there anything you want me to tell Maureen tonight?”
Jesse swallowed. “Tell her about Leefe and that I took her home from the hospital this afternoon. Also, that she’s okay.”
“Who’s going to take care of her?”
“She’s a grown-up.” Jesse raised her eyebrows. “That’s what I meant the other night. Your family always helps, and you’re just like them.”
“I’ll tell Mo.” Clary took the last bite, staring at the cement, and then looked at the sky. It was shading to lilac-gray, about the same color as Leefe’s eyes.
Penn came outside with more garbage. “Are there any more of these?” Clary followed him inside, and he dropped a hot dog on the bun she held out.
“How’s business been? Anything I can do?” she said, slathering the bun with mustard.
“Best year yet.” He moved two racks of buns. “Do you really want to help? I have plans tonight. I’ll do the bank run if you’ll close for me.”
“Sure, no problem.” Clary wrote her cell phone number on a sheet of paper stapled to the wall. “There’s my number. Mojo’s is going to donate some food to the school. When do you put your order in?”
“Friday. Just write down what you want.”
Clary calculated the order and wrote it on the order form. Children’s laughter and yells made her look out at the crowd. A group of boys and girls somewhere around Hannah’s age, judging from their height and weight, ran around the tables. There were no adults with them.
She ducked out the back door, avoiding the spot on the cement. Jesse was leaning against the fence, looking across the street.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Maureen’s house and Sharon, and how much time I spent there.”
“Speaking of Sharon, I almost drove off the road when I went by Harv’s. When did he redo his bar?” One of the oldest bars in town, Harv’s had always been a staid, proud gray, repainted every few years. “It’s pink and has a rainbow sign on the roof? It’s hard to believe Harv was in the closet all these years.”
Jesse turned with a grin. “A bunch of us bought it when Harv retired, and we made it into a club for LGBT kids. We wanted to give the kids a place to hang out and help with the anti-bullying campaign. They sell soda and snacks. There’s even room for a live band and space to dance.”
“Sharon could always get beer from Harv when we were in high school. When Sharon wanted anything, she’d find a way.”
“Yeah, always the con artist, that was Sharon.” Jesse scrubbed her face, looking briefly unhappy, and certainly worn out.
Watching her, Clary remembered what Piper had said. Jesse was obsessed with a part of Sharon’s story. She started to talk about it when the group of kids chased each other around the back of Mojo’s, laughing and noisy.
Jesse pointed at them. “I’m pretty sure those kids are a part of a group stealing in the neighborhood. It’s mostly small stuff like change, clothes, and food, even alcohol. They’re homeless, judging from what’s stolen.”
“They’re so young.”
“Leefe was only seven when the Ellis family abandoned her. If it hadn’t been for Beverly, she’d have ended up just like these kids. See how scruffy they are, and they’re older than they look. Lack of nutrition does a lot to
the body.”
Clary turned to the group. They were small and dirty. She looked down at her second hot dog with a bit of guilt as Penn said good-bye. “I told Penn I’d close for him. Come on.”
Later, they sat at Aunt Mo’s kitchen table, and Jesse used Clary’s laptop.
“Here’s the list of the break-ins in our area from the last three months. It’s about eleven, so far. This is my own list, not official from work. Piper’s seen it too, and Leefe. I think they scope out the houses during the day, and Mojo’s is their gathering point. Last April, just before Andy’s invasion, I told Maureen about the break-ins, and she had that back enclosure built. She knows about the kids, but since you’re responsible, you need to know too.”
Clary leaned over Jesse’s shoulder, examining the list. “This has nothing to do with the break-in at Andy’s?”
“No,” Jesse said. “These are just kids, like the ones Piper teaches. The group that attacked Andy was grown men after drug money.” She closed the laptop. “Crime’s up, including drugs, robberies, whatever, the usual. Any time unemployment skyrockets, crime follows, but I think these kids are just hungry.” Jesse pushed her chair back and yawned. “I’m tired. I’m going to go home, have a nice dinner with Piper, and go to bed.” She gave Clary a wide smile.
“Does the staff at Mojo’s know about this?” Clary took an uneasy breath. She’d never worried about lack of food.
“Penn and the crew keep an eye on them for me.”
“Okay,” Clary said. “I hear we’re going out with Kaye and Zip tomorrow.”
“Yeah, and you’re wearing ratty old shorts?”
“For Felice? Only my finest.”
Jesse grinned. “Oh, right, Kaye mentioned Felice is in town. Want to borrow my gun or my vest? You’ll need it with her. God, she and Kaye certainly share those genes.” Jesse began to laugh. “Or maybe you wouldn’t mind?”
“That’s enough.” Clary threatened Jesse with her water bottle. Jesse held up her hands in mock fear and left, laughing. “Idiot,” Clary muttered, walking to the photos on the kitchen wall. She stopped at the one of her fourteenth birthday. What a night.
Hardwired Page 4