“It’s not a beat-up truck,” I said. “And these aren’t just any random men. One of them is Bad Boy Billy as you call him. And the other—who knows? Two people have been killed. A police officer and Ellie. It’s too dangerous.”
“Billy Joe doesn’t scare me,” Lurleen said. “I’ve known him since he was a teenager with pimples. He’s a big-mouthed bully, nothing more.”
“Well, he scares me, and Ellie was afraid of him. I can’t let him harm anyone else I love. I wish I knew what to do. Can you watch the kids for another hour while I clean up the mess at home and talk with Mason?”
“Of course. I’ll fix them dinner.”
Lurleen was a lot of things, but a cook was not one of them. “You’ll fix them dinner?”
“Ah, chérie.” She shook a long slender finger at me. “You know me so well, and yet I can still surprise you. Yes, I will fix them dinner. I have alphabet soup and fish sticks that look like endangered whales. I admit it is a little odd to be eating endangered species, but it will be a very educational meal. I even bought spinach, so Jason can feel like Popeye.”
“I’m not sure kids today know about Popeye,” I said.
“That’s a relief. I find spinach a disgusting vegetable, especially after it gets all limp and mushy.”
I smiled. “You are so dear. I’ll tell the kids I have a little work to do before I bring them home, and then I’ll get back here as soon as I can.”
“Take your time. I could get used to this kid thing.”
She followed me to the den where Jason and Lucie were still at their game. That was the joy and frustration of Chutes and Ladders. It was a game that could go on for hours. I peered more closely at the board. Lurleen had doctored it so that the children weren’t just going up and down ladders, they were climbing Notre Dame, like the hunchback I suppose. A ladder extended up to two of the flying buttresses. Lurleen saw me studying the board.
“You like? I couldn’t resist.”
“I like,” I said. I gave each of the kids a long hug and a quick kiss. Told them I had some paperwork to finish up at home and would be back soon. Lucie looked at me quizzically but didn’t ask any questions.
Lurleen gave me a peck on the cheek. “Please move in with me,” she whispered, and I was out the door.
By the time I got back to my house, the policemen were gone, and Mason was seated in the swing petting Hermione. If dogs could purr, she would have been serenading the neighborhood with her obvious bliss. Eyes closed, head nuzzled against Mason’s hand, it was good that one of us was content. Majestic appeared at the screen to the front door and then disappeared when she realized I still had company.
Mason motioned to the swing and I sat down beside him. He looked at his watch. “I told Dan to meet us here. That way we can talk without upsetting the kids. You’ll be safe as long as he’s on duty.”
“Do you think the men will be back?”
“It’s impossible to say. You’ll stay with your friend tonight?”
“Lurleen said I could stay with her as long as I needed to, but I don’t want to put her at risk.”
Mason was quiet for a while. “You could stay with me,” he said at last, almost under his breath. “I have a big house north of Buckhead. My mother lives there. She’d welcome the company.”
“That can’t be protocol,” I said.
“It’s not, but I’d know you were safe. My mother was the first female sergeant in Atlanta. She can hold her own.”
“Why are you going out of your way for us?”
“I told you. It’s my job. It’s nothing personal. It just doesn’t look good on my record if the people I’m supposed to protect get hurt.”
“I see. Nothing personal.”
Before he could say any more, someone bounded up the steps. A big man, six-foot-four or more and easily two hundred fifty pounds. All muscle from what I could see. He had a linebacker’s physique. And baby-blue eyes. “Hi, Mason. Hope I’m not interrupting something.” He spoke with a south Georgia drawl.
Mason shook his head. “Nothing that can’t wait.”
“Dr. Brown, this is Danny Devalle. Danny, Dr. Brown.”
Danny Devalle reached over and shook my hand with an enthusiastic shake. It was abundantly clear he could have crushed my hand or any other part of my body if he wished to. His hands were enormous.
“Pleased to meet you. Call me Danny. I parked down the street just to make sure no one would spot a strange car next to your house. Wanna fill me in?” This was said to Mason.
Mason looked over at me. I looked at Devalle, smiled, and turned back to Mason. “While I appreciate your offer of a place to stay, I think Danny can protect us at Lurleen’s. That way I won’t have to disrupt the kids or the animals any more than they already have been.”
Mason nodded. “Sure.” He gave Devalle a summary of all that had happened, from the death of Ellie to the most recent break-in. “You heard about Schmiddy’s death?” he asked when he’d finished.
“Yeah,” Danny said. “Terrible.”
“It seems he talked with Eleanor Winston a few days before he was killed.”
“You know what he was working on?”
“Something to do with Sandler’s Sodas, according to his coworkers. That’s all I know,” Mason said. “I can’t find the usual case notes. Schmiddy could get sloppy about paperwork, but no notes? That doesn’t make sense.”
Danny and Mason exchanged a look.
I stood up from the swing and offered to make coffee. It was clear the two of them had something in mind that I wasn’t meant to hear.
“Okay with you, chief?” Danny said, looking at Mason. “I’m on your clock.”
Mason nodded.
“Then I’d appreciate that, Dr. Brown,” Danny said to me, “if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
“How about chocolate oatmeal coconut cookies to go along with that?”
“That would be mighty nice.” He grinned and showed off a set of shiny white teeth, perfectly aligned. He brushed a hand over his sandy-blond hair.
His smile was infectious, and I found myself grinning back at him.
“Can I have some of those cookies as well?” Mason asked. He sounded a little peevish. Surely Mason wasn’t jealous of a twentysomething, well-put together man with excellent teeth.
“Of course,” I said. This was a new experience for me. I walked into the kitchen, humming an old tune from some musical or other, “So This Is Love.” Premature, yes, but a nice feeling.
I gave Lurleen a quick call to say I would take her up on the offer to stay with her, given the fact that Danny Devalle would be there to protect us. I hung up before I realized he was only there at night. Who would protect Lurleen during the daytime? Our attackers had come during the day.
Mason entered the kitchen a moment later. “I’ve just spoken with Dan. He’s finished his other assignment. He’ll stay with the kids and Lurleen round the clock until we get this case sorted out.”
“You read my mind,” I said, “but I don’t know if I can afford that.”
“I told you. Danny owes me a favor.” He paused. “No one needs to know about this . . . arrangement. Danny’s an old friend. We help each other out when we can.”
I must have looked uncomfortable. I put the plate of cookies on the kitchen table and sat down across from him.
He smiled at me. “Maybe it is a little personal.” I thought he might touch my hand, but he seemed to think better of it. He crunched into a cookie and didn’t speak until he’d finished it. “These are great cookies. Maybe I’ll have just one more.” He stared at me. “I’ve been alone a long time. My boys are grown. I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I said.
“I don’t know everything about you, that’s for sure. But I know you’re smart, good w
ith kids, kind.”
We stood up and I hugged him. Spontaneously. Without any thought about what it might mean. He hugged me back and it felt really, really good, like I was standing at one of those chocolate fountains, mouth open, drinking in my fill of the warm, decadent sauce.
I blushed. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
He smiled. “Do what?”
We took the coffee and cookies out to Danny, who was waiting patiently on the porch, scanning the neighborhood. “Quiet around here,” he said. “Reminds me of nights in Forsyth, Georgia, where I grew up.”
While we ate, we sorted through schedules—mine, the kids’, and Lurleen’s. Of course, I didn’t really know what Lurleen did during the day aside from her fitness classes. I just knew I wanted her to be protected.
It was after eight when we got back to Lurleen’s with the animals and two suitcases stuffed with clothes. The kids had had their baths. Lurleen had given each of them an oversized T-shirt to sleep in. She’d already explained we were going to stay together at her house for a few days. Jason was delighted as long as he could have his new Avengers set. I told him I’d bring it the next day. I left out the part about having to buy a new one.
Danny fit right in. He’d played football at University of Georgia and promised to show Jason how to tackle. He’d also minored in French and didn’t seem to mind Lurleen’s unique accent. When she babbled in French, he babbled back. Lurleen asked a number of questions about football, a game she had previously described as an American barbaric pastime.
“Oh, please, Monsieur Danny, could you show me that tackle? Remember I’m a little frail, so be gentle.”
Lurleen, for all her long legs and slender body, was about as frail as one of my mom’s Holstein cows. The person to worry about was Danny, but somehow I was sure they could both take care of themselves.
Lucie didn’t say much until she got me alone. We were in the bedroom she and Jason were going to share. “What happened?” she asked. “Why are we staying here? It’s about the bad men, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Lucie,” I said. “Someone broke into our house looking for something. Do you know anything about that?”
“No, Aunt Di, I promise I know nothing about that.”
“But you do know more about the men than you’re telling me. Your dad is involved in this, isn’t he?”
“Not my dad,” Lucie said quietly. “Jason’s dad.”
Chapter Eight
I sat on the bed, holding Lucie’s hand, staring at her. “Jason’s dad?” was all I could manage. That explained a lot—Jason’s dark coloring and the break-up of Ellie’s marriage while she was pregnant with him.
“You’re mad at me, aren’t you, Aunt Di?” She burst into tears. “I told a lie.” She pulled away from me and hid her face in her hands.
I took both her hands and made her look at me. “Oh, Lucie, I’m not mad at you. If you lied to me it was to protect someone. And, technically, you didn’t lie. I never asked you about Jason’s dad. I never knew he had a different dad.” The person who had lied to me was Ellie. The only person who could ever do that and keep my friendship. I hugged Lucie and asked if she would be willing to talk to Detective Garrett.
Lucie nodded. I wiped the tears from her face with my hand, gave her another hug, and walked her into the living room. Lurleen and Dan seemed to be in a wrestling formation on the floor. Jason was beside them, learning a move apparently, while Mason sat on the couch watching the action. He stood up when he saw me come in with Lucie. Good manners or maybe good instincts. He could see we had some news.
I sat Lucie down on the couch next to him. “Lucie has something to tell you. All of us, actually.”
That got Danny’s attention as well. “We’ll finish this another time,” he said to Jason.
Lurleen looked up at me from the floor. “Shall I tuck Jason into bed?”
I nodded. I gave him a hug and promised to be along in a minute. Jason didn’t protest. He took Lurleen’s hand as she led him off to the bedroom. I could hear her start to sing “Sur le Pont” and Jason’s attempts to sing along.
I sat in an armchair across from Lucie. “Okay, Luce. Tell Detective Garrett what you just told me.”
“It wasn’t my dad who gave Jason his Transformer. It was Jason’s.”
Mason looked at me.
I shrugged. “I never knew the kids had different fathers.”
Once Lucie started, she just kept talking. “He came by to see Mom one day. He brought presents for me and Jason. He acted all lovey-dovey—that’s what my mom said. She said, ‘You can’t just come in here and act all lovey-dovey. We haven’t seen you in four years. It’s business first and then we’ll see.’”
“Do you remember when he came?” Mason asked.
“A few months before my mom died.” Her voice trailed off.
“I know this is hard for you, Lucie,” Mason said, “but it’s really important. You’re doing the right thing by talking to us. Tell me what you know about the Transformer.”
“He told Jason it was a very special gift and he had to take it to school with him every day. Jason went to the day care at Sandler’s, one floor down from where my mom worked. Jason was worried because the teachers didn’t like kids to bring toys from home. My mom said she’d keep it at her desk during the day, so it could protect her, and then she’d give it back to him when she picked him up. Sometimes when Jason’s dad came to see my mom, he’d ask for the Transformer. He’d play with it with his back to us, and then he’d get mad. He’d say, ‘Where is it?’ And my mom would say, ‘I’m doing the best I can.’”
“Did he come alone?” Mason asked.
“At first. He said it had to be a secret that he came. We couldn’t tell anyone or he wouldn’t come anymore. The man with the scar came with him later and said if we told anyone, someone would get hurt. He looked at Jason and me when he said that.”
“Was it just the two of them, Lucie?” Mason asked.
At this point, Lurleen reappeared from the bedroom. She sat down quietly in a chair across from Lucie.
Lucie repeated what she’d told me. “There were three people sometimes, but the third person always stayed in the truck. I could never see who it was through the tinted windows.”
“What is Jason’s dad’s name?” Mason asked.
“Charles Flack,” Lucie said. “My mom called him Charlie.”
“What did he want? Do you know?”
“My mom worked at Sandler’s Sodas, and I think he used to work there. He kept saying to my mom, ‘You can help me get my old job back. You have’”—Lucie searched for the word—“‘connections.’ My mom said, ‘I tried.’ And he said, ‘Try harder, and we’ll all be millionaires.’”
Lucie stopped talking and let out a big sigh. I motioned for her to come over to me. “I know you’re exhausted, honey. You did the right thing.” I sat her in my lap, and she didn’t protest. She put her head on my chest and closed her eyes. I felt as if I were holding a child half her age. More than that, I felt as if I were holding my child. My child, whom I wanted to protect from every bad thing that had ever happened to her in the past and that might be heading her way in the future.
Lurleen moved over to me and managed to wedge her slender body next to my more ample one. She stroked my arm as I rubbed Lucie’s back. Mason looked as if he wished he could take Lurleen’s place.
Lucie’s breath evened out and it was clear she was asleep. I glanced at Lurleen. She slid out of the chair like a contortionist. I started to move Lucie to the side of the chair, so I could help her get to bed.
Mason swooped in like one of Jason’s superheroes and picked her up from my arms. “I’ve got her,” he whispered. “You lead the way.”
We took off her shoes and socks, tucked her into bed beside Jason, and crept out of the room, closing the door softly. She could sleep in her clothes
for one night.
Dan and Lurleen were seated side by side on the couch waiting for us. Mason and I sat across from them in two separate chairs, leaning forward, so we could talk quietly and not wake the kids. I’m sure we looked like a gang of conspirators planning our next heist. What we were planning was a way to catch Charlie Flack and Billy Joe and bring them in for questioning.
“We’ll get Billy Joe in a day or two,” Mason said. “He may have gone underground for a while, but he can’t stay there for long. Every cop in the city is looking for him. As for Charlie Flack, we’ll see if he’s in the system. Did you ever meet him?”
I shook my head, but Lurleen seemed to think the question was meant for her.
“No, I don’t think I did,” she said. She shook her long hair from side to side. It brushed against Dan’s face, which didn’t seem to displease him in the least. “I worked at Sandler’s for twelve years, but Sandler’s is a big place. I was in the USA Fountain Area as an accountant for a few years and then moved into corporate. Kept track of everyone’s reports. Made sure they had what they needed, handled their expense accounts.” Lurleen caught her breath and looked up at Mason. “I didn’t mean to go on and on. I guess you’re not really interested in my history. But you may be interested in the fact I have a friend who is the executive assistant to a senior VP—Marie Vanderling. She might know about your man. Remember, Ditie, she’s the one I told you about. The one who kept tabs on each of us as we left Sandler’s and congratulated us on our escape.”
“Was it really that bad to work there?” Mason asked.
Again Lurleen shook her head. This time several strands of hair lingered on Dan’s face, covering one eye and tickling his nose. His fault for sitting so close to her. He moved them gently away. “It wasn’t so bad for everyone,” she said. “Like Lucie said, they have a day care program in the building. Very convenient. And they even have a wellness clinic with a good-sized gym. But it was cutthroat competition if you wanted to get ahead. That came from the top. You do the job the way the boss wanted you to do your job, or you were out. You increase the value of the company or else. And loyalty was spelled out in capital letters. They would have branded us with it if they could have. I saw Sandler Senior get vicious when someone bucked him or seemed to doubt his authority. He’d blow a gasket, and they’d be out the door in five minutes never to return. I stayed under the radar.”
Too Many Crooks Spoil the Plot Page 7