Campbell

by C. S. Starr

  By three in the afternoon, it was determined that he’d be picked up the next day. Leah was not coping well without him, and Connor seemed outwardly concerned about what happened but had no time for the details. Tal wondered what had gone down since he’d left, because Connor didn’t sound normal, but he wasn’t offering any information.

  He wondered if he’d be able to work that to his advantage.

  Lucy had spent much of the day with Bull interrogating the people flagged as spies for East in the old RCMP station downtown, where Andrew had locked them up. There were four in total, and he’d brought Rosa, Connor’s girl, in too, who Tal had identified as one of theirs when pressed on it. He figured it was better than the alternative of them thinking she was with East, and Lucy had conceded to simply putting her on Tal’s plane back to get her out of her area.

  It was after five when she found her visitor on the porch, and nodded for him to follow her inside. Lucy looked exhausted. Almost as bad has she had the week before when they’d been grabbed.

  “You okay?” He asked her, once her office door was locked behind them. It was the old pantry, if Tal had to guess from the old shelving and its proximity to the kitchen. She sat in her chair and nodded at him to sit on the small love seat shoved against the length of the wall under the window.

  “I’ve been better.”

  “Your brother?”

  “I don’t have anyone to negotiate with,” she sighed, running her hands through her hair before pulling it back in a low ponytail. “Stop doing what you’re doing, they’ve demanded, but they haven’t even given me anyone to work anything out with. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I guess it’s not a negotiation.”

  “I guess not.” She handed him a brown envelope. “These came while we were gone.”

  Tal winced as he flipped through the six pictures, each more gruesome than the last. “There’s certainly some message here.”

  “They probably know we’re alive by now. No one’s mentioned that in any letters though.”

  “Mind games,” Tal said, shoving the pictures back in the envelope. “I’m so sorry this is happening.”

  “I know,” Lucy said, reaching into her desk and pulling out a laptop. “If you’re going tomorrow morning, I wanted us to have some time to look at my records together in case something came up.”

  The door to her office rattled. “Ce, Angela’s here for you. She wants her boyfriend let go.”

  Lucy sighed, slamming her hands down on the desk in frustration. “Of course, the richest kid in town’s boyfriend is one of the East spies. Maybe. This is my life. Seriously.” She stood and opened the door.

  Andrew poked his head in. “She says it can’t wait.”

  “Well you’ve had him locked up for a week. We knew he was from East.” She looked at Andrew, exasperated. “Send her in.”

  Angela Duncan looked about fifteen, with a messy mop of dirty blond hair, but, Tal quickly decided she was much older from her entitled expression when faced with Lucy. Her name was vaguely familiar from something Lucy had said, and when she plunked herself down beside him on the love-seat, he became quickly aware that there was no lost love between Angela and Lucy. He hadn’t seen anyone treat the leader of Campbell with such disrespect.

  “You know Craig didn’t tell anyone where you were. Everyone knows where you are all the time anyway.” The girl’s dark eyes locked with Lucy’s. “It’s not like you live in a castle.”

  “I didn’t lock him up,” Lucy snapped, glancing at Andrew. “And we’ll let him go.”

  “Good. Do that,” Angela replied, rising to her feet. “I want him out tonight.”

  Andrew glanced at Lucy. “Do we let him out?”

  “Yeah,” she said with a shrug. “We know where he lives.”

  Lucy passed the brown envelope to Angela.

  “What’s this?” she asked, before she opened it and gasped. “Oh.”

  “If I find out Craig is behind any of this, I’m going to kill him. Myself. You know I’m capable,” she said very plainly. “Got it?”

  “He’s not behind any of it,” she snipped, her eyes wide from the pictures.

  Lucy took the envelope back and set it on her desk. “Let’s hope not, for his sake.”

  Angela nodded, swallowing hard, obviously disturbed by what she’d seen. “I loved Cole too. I don’t want a bunch of your goons outside our place all night.”

  “Well, Angela, you don’t have a lot of say about that, do you?” Lucy countered, rising to her feet. “And you know what? You’re lucky I’m letting him out at all. Don’t think you can come in here and be entitled—”

  Angela looked at her with disgust. “Without me—”

  “You provided some capital ten years ago, which has been doubly returned to you. Let’s not talk about what I did for you.” She closed the door with Angela and Andrew on the other side. “She’s a treat, that one.”

  Tal remembered who Angela was. “That’s the girl with the cows.”

  “Yep. That’s the little girl with the cows who would have died without me and Cole, all grown up. She’s never even birthed one of her calves.”

  “So it’s not all sunshine and roses here,” Tal chuckled.

  “Nothing ever is.” Lucy smiled weakly. “All right. Back to business.”

  They spent the next four hours poring over eight years of Campbell finances, stopping only when Zoey brought them in sandwiches for dinner around seven. Lucy hadn’t kept books for the first two years, since she had no idea what would come of what she was doing, and there hadn’t been much of a way to track anything, she explained, but as soon as more kids became involved, she told Tal that it felt necessary to ensure transparency on her part so no one would be able to come back and accuse her of embezzling.

  “You’ve done a very good job here,” Tal commended. His accounting was more traditional, since he’d read extensive books on bookkeeping, but hers worked just as well.

  “For someone who stopped at grade five math, I think so.” She smiled and powered down her laptop. “So there you have it.”

  “You’re not worth much, or as much as I thought you would be.”

  “I’ve got other assets. The house. A bunch of gold buried in a trunk in case it all goes to shit again. You know, the important things. I don’t need much day to day.”

  They paused when Zoey knocked softly. Lucy let her in.

  “I was just wondering if you needed anything,” she asked quietly, avoiding eye contact with Tal as she hung on the doorframe. “Water, or something.”

  “You’re not my butler,” Lucy murmured, giving her a small grin. “But we’re okay. Thanks.”

  Tal glanced away as they interacted and willed himself to forget about any intimacy they’d shared in the time he and Lucy had spent together. He hated knowing that she was seemingly able to discard it so quickly, whereas he knew he’d been hung up on it for months.

  “I’m going to go read. Do you want me to wash the sheets in Cole’s—”

  “No…” Lucy swallowed uncomfortably. “I’m not sleeping in there tonight.”

  “Oh,” Zoey choked, her eyes huge as they scanned Lucy’s face, trying to understand if she was saying what she hoped she was. Tal couldn’t help roll his eyes. “Okay.”

  “I’ll…I’ll be up in a little while.”

  It was an awkward interaction, the kind one didn’t share with others, Tal decided. He felt like the proverbial fly on the wall and wished he could buzz off somewhere less uncomfortable for him. Like his father before him, he was never good at hiding his emotions.

  “It’s none of your business,” Lucy snapped, after locking the door behind Zoey. “What I decide.”

  “I know that,” he said gruffly.

  “So why are you sitting there, looking like I kicked you?”

  Tal furrowed his brow as he thought about the proper response. “Because you said—”

  “I know what I said,” she muttered, avoiding his eyes as sh
e sat at her desk chair. “You see how easy it is for you to change your life when you get home, and you have few familiar things worth clinging to when everything else is falling apart. So let’s say you follow through on your plan, and Leah’s all you have. You’re going to write her off—”

  “It’s not the same,” Tal said, as he shook his head, and wondered if she was right. If it came down to it. “I’m done with her in that way. I’d never write her off.”

  “Intention and following through aren’t the same thing.” She crossed her arms and frowned. “We’ll see.”

  Lucy and Tal parted ways awkwardly, as he went downstairs to the basement and her upstairs to her room. Tal stomped down the stairs and came face to face with Bull, who was settled on the couch downstairs, home-brew beer in hand, watching a very old hockey game in a pair of giant red slippers that were propped up on the coffee table.

  “I used to fucking love the Calgary Flames. I went to a game once.” He nodded at the mini fridge. “There’s some beer in there. Andrew keeps it stocked.”

  Tal cautiously opened the fridge and reached for one, before taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch. He wasn’t sure what Bull thought of him. He’d been very scary, and then not so much.

  “Thanks.”

  “Lucy go to bed?” Bull asked with more than a casual interest.

  “Yep.”

  “With Zoey?” The smirk on Lucy’s friend’s face spoke volumes.

  “Yep.”

  “Nice try, man. I’m surprised she even let you attempt.” He held his beer up to clink with Tal’s. He obliged him and took a swig. “She loves that girl, for some reason. Who the fuck knows why.”

  “It wasn’t much of a try,” Tal conceded, wondering how he would have tried harder, or if he should have.

  “And don’t feel like you’re special, because you hooked up with Lucy’s girl. Everyone within a fifty mile radius that’s so much as sold Lucy firewood has.”

  Tal shrugged, unsure if Bull was trying to make him feel better or worse. “All right.”

  “She gets green-eyed, around Lucy and men. Cuts her off every time she feels threatened by sucking or fucking the guy before Lucy can even think about it.” Bull sighed. “Probably for the best, I guess.”

  More unsure of Zoey’s logic than ever, Tal frowned. “She doesn’t trust Lucy? Yet she’s the one—”

  “I wonder if it’s all just fucked up foreplay. I half think she slept with Andrew to get Lucy’s attention all those years ago, and cried uncle when he got a little rough with her, as is his style.” Bull downed his beer and gestured for Tal to hand him another. “Just my opinion though, and not one I’d share with Goose.”

  “That’s…messed up.”

  “They’re hot together though. Lots of tension. They let me watch, once. In the beginning,” Bull chuckled. “We were all really drunk.”

  Tal was willing to bet that had never happened, but he played along anyway. “Right on.”

  “You sleep with her?” Bull raised his eyebrows. “When you were out there?”

  He decided that if he ever was presented with the opportunity to sleep with Lucy Campbell, he certainly wouldn’t brag about it in a situation like the one he was in.

  “No,” he simply replied, before changing the subject. “So you live around here?”

  He shrugged. “Calgary. Close. A couple of hours.”

  “Cool,” Tal nodded. “But you’re here a lot?”

  “Or she’s there sometimes. Calgary’s got a lot going on. Lots of kids. She likes it quiet.”

  “It’s not bad here,” Tal nodded. “People seem nice.”

  “That’s because you’re in good with her. It would be a different story if you weren’t.”

  “James, you down there?” a small voice shouted from the top of the stairs.

  Bull sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. “Yeah.”

  A girl that was unmistakably his sister stomped down a minute later. She shared his dark features and unimpressed stare. “Who’s that?” she clipped, sitting on the love seat across from them. Tal remembered Bull had said she was a rare thirteen.

  “That’s Tal Bauman. From West.” Bull pointed to the girl. “Tal, that’s Chloe. My sister.”

  She snorted. “Oh. What are you watching?”

  “Old hockey.”

  “That’s stupid,” she said, wrinkling up her nose. “I don’t know why you watch that.”

  “That’s because you’re too young to know. You don’t remember how good it was.” Bull smiled at her. “You in for the night?”

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “You?”

  “I think so,” he shrugged. “Not much else to do here.”

  “Can we watch a movie?”

  Bull looked at Tal. “You brought movies, right?”

  Tal couldn’t believe it had only been a week since he’d packed the large CD binder. It felt like twenty years had passed. “Yeah. On the plane. Or they were on the plane.”

  “Go get them,” Chloe demanded, to either or both of them. “I want to watch one.”

  Bull went out for the movies and fell asleep halfway through Harry Potter, but Tal and Chloe watched, riveted. The first Harry Potter movie had been mostly finished when they found it, and had been huge. Attempts at adaptations of the other books in the series weren’t nearly so successful, since very few of the original film’s stars had survived.

  “You make movies, right?” the small, dark-haired girl beside him asked.

  “Yeah,” Tal nodded.

  “Why do they all suck now?” Chloe questioned with genuine curiosity.

  Tal had thought about that a lot over the years. “I don’t think most of us have enough life experience to write something as good as that. I bet in time they’ll get better.”

  “If I write something,” Chloe said, looking at him curiously. “Can I send it to you? You’re the movie guy?”

  “I’m not exactly…” Tal thought about it. “I’m the money guy, but I’m the movie guy too.”

  “Give me your address. I’ll send it.” She fumbled in a drawer, and produced a pen and paper, and handed it over.

  “I’ll read it,” Tal said with a shrug, handing her back his address.

  “It’s as good as anything you’ve done,” she said with certainty, before smacking her brother. “Bull, go to bed! You’re snoring!”

  He grumbled something and headed off for the spare room without a word.

  “Growing up with him was like being raised by wolves,” Chloe grumbled. “You go to bed too. I sleep on the couch.”

  Tal’s room downstairs was better than the trailer, which he’d visited earlier that day out of morbid curiosity. No one had touched it except to take Juan’s body out, so it was covered in blood. He had a hard time accepting why he’d lived and his friend hadn’t. Despite everything that had changed, it had come down to his perceived value, which was a direct result of his parent’s social status and the advantages he’d had before, no matter what he told himself. He didn’t know what he could have done to change that.

  After tossing and turning for a couple of hours, he decided to get some fresh air, and after carefully avoiding waking Chloe on the couch, went upstairs and let himself into the screen veranda. The night was clear, the sky awash with stars, and he sat down on the old porch swing, careful not to make a sound

  The screen door creaked open a few minutes later, and Andrew, who scared the shit out of Tal, sat down beside him. Tal froze, unsure if he’d come to kill him or share a bit of the crisp night air.

  “My sister trusts you,” Andrew said quietly, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “That’s why you’re allowed to sleep in this house, eat meals with us. I don’t give a shit who you are in West. Here, that’s the only thing that matters.”

  Tal nodded. “I know.”

  “And if you betray her, or any of us, I’ll hunt you down and I’ll kill you, but not the easy way. I’ll make every second before your body gives up more
painful than the one before it.”

  His tone was terrifyingly even.

  “I want to work with her,” Tal stammered. “I…won’t.”

  Andrew stood. “Then you and I, we won’t have a problem.”

  Tal had never felt so much acceptance in such a terrifying situation. “Thanks, man.”

  “By the way, I called your boy, Connor, to tell him you were gone. He doesn’t give a shit about you,” he reached for the door to go inside. “Watch your back.”

  When he went back to bed and thought about it, Tal decided Andrew telling him that was possibly the nicest thing he’d ever done for anyone outside his family, and Tal should probably take his words seriously. It was Zoey that woke him up the next morning, freshly showered and perky in a way that drew Tal to a conclusion that bothered him more than he’d imagined it would.

  “I’m making breakfast. You like eggs? I’m going to make them with cheese,” she said, her expression bliss-soaked. “I make good eggs.”

  Their eyes met, and Tal had the briefest flash of Zoey on her knees in front of him the week before. That made him more depressed somehow.

  “Yeah, sure,” he muttered, pulling the blanket back around himself.

  “Thanks. For keeping her safe. She…told me,” Zoey said, her arms wrapped tightly around her. “She told me that she probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”

  Her sincere gratitude made it very hard to hate Zoey as he wanted to, and in that moment, logic won out, and he decided he had to let whatever he was feeling for Lucy Campbell stay where they’d agreed to leave it.

  In the Midwest.

  “I’ll be up in a few,” he said, putting on a smile. “Thanks. For waking me up.”

  “No problem,” she said brightly. “See you in a bit.”

  Lucy wasn’t at breakfast. It was Tal, Bull, Zoey, and Chloe—possibly the most awkward group of people to ever eat together.

  “Lucy went to check on her cows,” Zoey explained. “They’re a few miles up the road. She said she’d see you before you go.”

  Tal nodded as he dug into the best eggs he’d ever eaten, and the anxiety of returning home hit him for the first time.