I prayed Kit was warm.
"Well?" Riley asked, looking hopeful. "Can Dad stay?"
I looked at Riley, then Kevin. "All right. You can stay."
I hoped I wouldn't regret my decision.
Four
I shivered. My down vest was no match against the freezing cold temps and blowing snow. But I'd had to get out of the house, and Mr. Cabrera's gazebo seemed the perfect place to hunker down for a few minutes to call Ana and fill her in on the latest happenings.
She reacted much the way I anticipated she would.
"I should come home. I'm coming home. I'm taking the next flight. Mom," Ana shouted, "call the airlines!"
"Stop!" I said. "There's nothing you can do here."
"I can help look. Oh my God. I can't believe this is happening. I just saw Kit last night when he drove me to the airport. Oh."
"Oh what?"
"After dropping me off, he said he was on his way to see Daisy."
"Do you know why?"
"No, he wouldn't say."
"The police are trying to paint him as a jealous boyfriend."
She scoffed. "Hardly. He was over Daisy."
My fingers were losing feeling. "And how do you know that?"
There was a long silence.
Too long.
"He told me," she said.
"Ana . . . "
"What? He told me. We had a nice talk in the car on the way to the airport."
Something was definitely up. Eventually, I'd get it out of her. She wasn't one to keep secrets.
I kept an eye on Bobby's house, ready to sprint over there the minute his garage door opened.
"This isn't good, Nina. A six-foot-five brick wall with a skull tattoo on his head? And let's not forget the eyeliner. Where's someone like that supposed to hide? He's easily the most recognizable fugitive in the state."
"You're not making me feel better."
"I'm coming home."
My cell phone felt like an ice cube under my knit hat. "There's nothing you can do here, Ana."
The blinds were open in the back of Mr. Cabrera's house. I could see him standing in his dining room, fussing with a cardboard box. No doubt he was plotting his great turkey capture.
"There's got to be something. We can't let the police track him down, just to shoot first and ask questions later. Who's leading the case?"
"Darren Zalewski and Joe Nickerson."
"Old Dickerson?" Ana gasped. "Isn't he dead yet?"
I laughed. "I've missed you."
"I've only been gone one day."
"It's long enough."
"I should come home!"
"There's no—"
She cut me off. "Yeah, yeah." Softly, she then said, "I'm worried, Nina. I don't have much faith in the Freedom PD. Not after all the department's been through lately."
Can't say I blamed her. The department had been having troubles since last spring, and had been investigated by In ternal Affairs, but nothing had come of it. The chief ended up looking like a fool, as did the prosecutor. The matter was dropped, but the department was still shaken and rumors persisted. Kevin laughed them off, and I thought if anyone had knowledge of what was going on, it would be him.
So I tried to have faith. Really, I did. But so far I hadn't been given much hope. I tried to reassure Ana, but she wasn't having any of it, so I decided to change the subject. "Oh," I said.
"What? What do I hear in that 'Oh'?"
"Kevin's staying with me for the next week."
"Oh!"
"Yeah. Recuperating." I filled her in.
"Now I've got to come home."
"Why?"
"Because I want to be there when you kill him."
My teeth chattered as I smiled. "I'll take pictures."
Abruptly, I straightened and pulled the phone away from my ear, listening closely. Something rustled the leaves. I covered the phone. "Is anyone there?" I asked loud enough to scare away any stalkers.
No one answered.
"Kit?" I whispered.
I crept out of the gazebo and toward the line of trees that bordered the back of the property.
"Kit?" I whispered again.
I heard muffled squawking and realized it was Ana.
"Is Kit there?" Her voice rose. "I heard you calling his name."
"I don't know," I whispered. "I heard something in the woods behind the house."
"Are you outside?"
"Yes."
"Isn't it about ten below with blizzard conditions?"
"Your point?"
"Why aren't you inside?"
I crept on tiptoes. My feet sank into ankle deep snow with each step. "Weren't you listening when I explained about Kevin?"
"Oh, that's right."
"Kit!" I called out again.
Something rustled in the brush, and all at once I wished I'd brought a flashlight.
"Do you see him?"
I inched closer. "No." Pulling back a branch of a sparse Norwood pine, I found myself staring upward into two dark beady eyes.
"Eeeee!" I screamed, and took off running from the turkey I'd found roosting in the tree.
He didn't appear happy to see me either.
A loud turk-turk-turk noise filled the air, and the rustling of feathers followed close behind me as he chased me through my yard.
It was the turkey escapee I'd seen earlier, running through the neighborhood.
And he was mad.
The turkey flapped his wings, fanned his tail, and chased me with a vigor I didn't know turkeys possessed.
"Eeeee!"
Mr. Cabrera's back door burst open and he flew out, cardboard box in hands. "Corner him, Miz Quinn, corner him!" he yelled at me.
BeBe chased after Mr. Cabrera, barking up a storm. Until she sniffed the air. Suddenly, she made a U-turn, tucked her tail and barreled back into the house.
Can't say I blamed her.
My back lights flashed on just as Lewy and Joe sprinted around the corner of the house, guns drawn.
"Don't shoot!" I cried.
Mr. Cabrera circled me as another turkey, a smaller one, wobbled out from behind the gazebo and joined in the fray, except this one clucked instead of turked.
"Holy Moses!" Mr. Cabrera shrieked. "There're two of them!"
Two! There were two turkeys! Where were they coming from, and how many friends did they have hiding in the woods?
"Hold still!" Joe shouted. "I'll shoot 'em."
"You'll do no such thing!" Mrs. Krauss yelled from the doorway of Mr. Cabrera's house. "I'll have your badge! There are laws against animal cruelty!"
I kept running, the bird chasing me, half running, half flying, wings flapping. Thank goodness my personal trainer, Duke, had gotten me into some semblance of shape.
The smaller turkey started after Mr. Cabrera, who threw the box into the air and beelined for his back door.
Lewy apparently found the whole situation hysterical until the big turkey turned on him.
"Run!" I yelled. Snow filled my Keds as I headed for my back door. Kevin and my mother stood on the back step, laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes.
Then I saw it.
Salvation.
The lights were on across the street.
"Gobble gobble," Kevin singsonged as I ran past him and across the street. "Or should it be bawk bawk?" he shouted after me, barely able to get the words out because he was laughing so hard.
I wasn't amused.
Dashing up the front steps, I pulled open Bobby's front door, stepped in, and slammed it closed.
My phone rang. Sometime during the ruckus, I must've hung up on Ana. I answered it with a terse, "I'm fine. I'll call you back," and snapped it closed.
Bobby came out of the kitchen, all six feet of blondheaded hunkiness, took one look at me, marched over, pulled me into his arms, and kissed me for all I was worth.
Which was quite a lot, it appeared.
"Better?" he asked, pulling away. He tugged my hat off my he
ad, shook the snow loose, and hung it on the door handle.
No longer cold at all, I said, "Much."
He looked out the window. Squinted. "Is that a turkey running down the street?"
I nodded. "Keep looking. There's probably another one right behind it."
He squinted some more. "Is that Kevin standing on your front porch, glaring in this direction?"
I peeked, then nodded.
"Long story?" he asked me.
I nodded again.
His blue eyes glistened with curiosity. "Do I need alcohol?"
I nodded. "Any chance we can combine that with the bubble portion of tonight's agenda?"
He kissed me again. "Every chance."
I awoke to sun streaming in my bedroom windows, the bright glare blinding. Rolling over, I came face-to-face with BeBe, who licked me hello. Mrs. Krauss must have brought her over after the fray last night. Thankfully, Riley knew how to care for BeBe better than any of us. He'd been Kit's shadow for the past month.
I bolted upright, suddenly wondering if he knew what had happened with Daisy. My guess was that he hadn't known yesterday afternoon when begging me to let Kevin stay, but that he probably knew now.
"Need to go out?" I asked BeBe.
Her tail thumped my feather bed, plumping it. I pulled on my robe, grabbed a pair of thermal socks, and followed her downstairs.
Kevin was still asleep on the sofa bed, wrapped in a down comforter. His cheeks glowed a cozy pink. His short dark hair stood on end, and stubble covered his angular jaw.
My first thought was how drop-dead gorgeous he was.
My second speculated on how soon he could leave.
Having him there wasn't good for my mental health, because I suspected a part of me would always love him and be attracted to him, no matter who else was in my life.
Like Bobby.
And that just wasn't fair. To any of us.
"Good morning, chérie," my mother called from the kitchen. Fully dressed and perfectly coiffed, she sat at the island, sipping tea while reading today's paper. "What time did you get in?"
"Late."
Her eyebrows waggled. "Have fun?"
I felt myself blushing.
She laughed. "Good. You need some fun in your life."
I peeked out the kitchen window, and my jaw dropped. Sunbeams danced across freshly fallen snow. I shaded my eyes against the bright light and noticed the plows hadn't been by yet.
I was homebound until they showed up.
"A foot," my mother cooed. She loved snow. "A new record! We'll have to make angels."
I smiled and nodded. There was no age limit on enjoying a snow day. There was something magical about it, about snow angels, and snowmen, and hot cocoa and a roaring fire.
BeBe's tail whumped the door frame leading into the laundry room.
"I'll take her," my mother said, pulling on a pair of galoshes I kept near the back door.
I pressed a button on the coffeepot, and it whirred to life. "Thanks. And be careful of wild turkeys."
Wrapping a scarf around her head, protecting her ears, she laughed. "That's not something I hear every day."
As my coffee percolated I crept back up the stairs and into Riley's room. He lay diagonally across the bed, his blankets pulled up under his chin. Looking remarkably like his dad, he slept peacefully. When he woke, he was going to be cranky that it was Saturday. There was nothing worse to a kid than having a snow day on a weekend.
On my way out the door I spotted a deck of cards next to the lava lamp on his desk. I poked around a little, snooping. Riley had been on a huge Texas Hold 'Em kick for the past couple of months, and I had my suspicions he wasn't just playing for fun.
He'd had a lot of extra money lately, and though he did do a fair amount of work for Mrs. Greeble, she, like a lot of the other residents in the Mill, was on a fixed income. She wouldn't have much money to spare.
Finding nothing out of the ordinary, I backtracked, closing Riley's door behind me.
In my room, I took a quick shower, towel-dried my hair, and slipped on a pair of jeans and a fleece pullover. I thought about makeup, but opted for moisturizer and lip balm instead.
Downstairs, I heard the back door slam and the clickclack of BeBe's paws on the kitchen floor. I think I even heard my mother call BeBe "schnitzel" as she poured kibble into the doggy dish. Brickhouse was obviously spending too much time in the neighborhood.
I made my bed as the scent of coffee carried up the stairs. Outside, I heard a car struggling through the snow, and I went to the window. A dark Ford sedan slowed to a stop in front of my house. Lewy and Joe were back.
Nothing like their presence to ruin the serenity of a beautiful day.
My gaze skipped over their car to the house across the street. The blinds were still closed.
It seemed silly to have come back home last night just to share a bed with my mother (who hogged covers), but I'd felt funny staying with Bobby.
Well, staying with Bobby when Kevin knew I was with Bobby.
Yep.
The sooner Kevin left, the better.
My cell phone rang. I checked the display, smiled.
"Baby, it's cold outside," Perry said. "You'd better bundle up. I'll be there in an hour."
I checked the window again. Lewy and Joe hadn't budged. And still no sign of the plows. "You do know there's a foot of snow on the ground?"
"Foot, shmoot. I have a four-by-four."
From the corner of my eye I spotted two turkeys waddle down the street as though they were taking a leisurely stroll, heads held high, tails fanned, and wings dragging. All down the block doors opened and people stepped onto their front porches to watch.
It was quite a sight.
"Where exactly are we going?" I asked, because personally, I didn't have a clue where to start.
"On a manhunt, sugar." He laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"A manhunt. Oooh, I just love saying that."
I laughed. "You're certifiable, you know that?"
"One hundred percent." He took a moment, detailed the plan he had, then asked, "Are you game?"
"There's probably a snow emergency in effect."
"And this isn't an emergency? Finding Kit?"
He had a point. "All right. I'm in." Exhaust puffed from the unmarked car's tailpipe. The two turkeys pecked around their tires. "Park down the block. I'll meet you there. And watch out for the turkeys."
I flipped the phone closed before Perry commented, and smiled. Perry and I would be tracking down Kit while Lewy and Joe sat out front with the turkeys—right where they belonged.
I just hoped Perry and I weren't headed on a wild goose chase.
Five
Sneaking out of the house had been fairly easy. I'd simply walked into the back hall with a load of laundry, turned on the washer, and slipped out the back door.
I'd left a note taped to the dryer that I'd be home soon. No need for my mother to worry—or to send out the FBI.
My feet left deep impressions in the snow as I cut through three backyards before reaching the corner, where Perry had his black Range Rover idling. Gray snow caked the undercarriage and wheel wells.
He threw open the passenger door, I jumped in, and he peeled out, as though he was Starsky and I was Hutch. Snow flew out behind us.
Perry fairly bounced in his seat. "I have to say, Nina, this is the most excited I've been in quite some time."
Drawing the seat belt over my shoulder, I smiled. "I'll be sure to let Mario know." The two had been together for just over a year.
He laughed, a loud, deep, infectious sound that made me smile wider. "Oh, he knows, sugar. He knows."
I wasn't worried for their relationship. They were perfectly matched. Perry's exuberance was the perfect foil to Mario's cool confidence.
"Now," he said, looking at me through a pair of lightly tinted aviator sunglasses, "either my happy pills are too strong and I'm hallucinating, or I saw an actual turkey waddlin
g down your street."
Weeding Out Trouble Page 4