Home Free

by Sonnjea Blackwell

  I stood in the shower, my mind blank, until there was no hot water left. Jimmy C had left the gun on my nightstand, and I checked to make sure it was loaded, slipped it under my pillow, hoped I wouldn’t shoot myself in the head, and slept like a log.

  Jack was the first to arrive. I woke at seven to the smell of coffee and bacon, and I went to investigate in my undies and a nightshirt that sported Mickey Mouse flipping the bird. It covered my underwear, but just barely. Murphy was in the kitchen, making omelets and bacon, drinking coffee and reading the paper.

  “What’s the occasion?” I asked, pouring myself a cup. I didn’t ask if it was decaf.

  Jack flipped the paper around so I could see the headline on page one, Local Politician Charged. “You’re a celebrity, pumpkin.” He slid an omelet onto a plate, added three slices of crispy bacon strips, and pushed it across the counter to me. He filled his plate similarly and came around to join me, stopping to wrap me in a giant hug. “You okay?”

  I nodded. We sat down to eat. The article said that Brian had confessed and planned to plead guilty at his arraignment this morning. I wanted to believe he’d chosen to avoid a trial in order to minimize the pain to our family, including his own kids. But the cynic in me couldn’t help but think he just wanted to reassure would-be voters that, while he was admittedly a cold-blooded killer, at least he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer who wasted tax-payers’ money. The paper also commented on the irony that the reward money had been put up by the perpetrator himself. I’d forgotten about the reward money.

  There was no article about Derek, and I figured it had taken long enough at the hospital that he hadn’t been booked yet by the time the newspaper was put to bed. I sighed. Something to look forward to tomorrow.

  “You see the living room?” I asked. As if he could possibly miss it.

  “Uh-hunh. It’s on the list. I can’t fix that carpet though. You should remove it and install hardwood floors throughout. It’ll match the bedroom.”

  “Whatever you want to do.”

  The doorbell rang mid-way through my eggs. I stood up to answer it, and Jack raised his eyebrow in the direction of my attire. I sat down, and he got the door, returning with my mother and a casserole in tow. I stood up to greet her and put the casserole in the fridge. She gave me a hug. Jack went back to munching his bacon.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  She didn’t mention the bloodstained carpet or bullet-riddled wall. She didn’t flinch about Mickey flipping her off. She didn’t comment on the fact that I was eating breakfast in my panties with Murphy. I wondered if that meant she thought we were married. I braced myself.

  “I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”

  “We’re not married.”

  “I didn’t think you were,” she frowned. “You’ve had a busy couple of weeks.”

  I creased my forehead, not following.

  “It was two weeks ago today we found out you were living here.”

  Wow, Pauline was right. I was going to have to start pacing myself or I’d run out of excitement before Thanksgiving. “Shit, that’s right. Damn, sorry.”

  She shrugged and looked at her hands. Evidently her daughter’s foul mouth was no longer her biggest problem. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

  “Not without pants.”

  “No, I mean Minter. You’re not going to move away after all this,” she waved her hands vaguely. “Are you? Because your father and I would really like it if you’d stay.” It was the closest thing to a heartfelt outpouring of emotion as Dorothy Jordan was capable of. No guilt, no drama. I thought she should be rewarded for her efforts, so I hugged her again.

  “I’m staying, Mom. I like it here.” I meant it. The weather still sucked, the mindset was still outdated and the hairstyles were still an abomination. But I felt at home in Minter. I was worried about what that said about me, but there it was. “Besides, it’ll be years before I’ve paid off all the work Jack’s doing on the house.” And probably that long before I’ve worked things out with Danny. She didn’t say anything about Brian, and I wondered how parents dealt with something like that, a child who wasn’t what they’d always thought. I didn’t want to bring it up. What could I possibly say?

  The front door slammed, and I panicked for a second. I wondered how long it would take for that reflex to fade. Probably I should return the gun to Rose before I accidentally shot someone. I thought about Derek and came to the conclusion I should return the gun to Rose before I purposely shot someone. Kevin and Pauline joined the party in the kitchen.

  “Don’t you people have jobs?” I asked.

  “We’re on our honeymoon,” Pauline responded, beaming.

  “What?” Three part harmony from Mom, Murphy and me.

  “The judge had to come sign off on some paperwork last night, discharging the warrants against Danny and me. I asked him if he could marry us. You don’t need a blood test or anything anymore, just a license. He said, sure. I asked Pauline, and she said, sure. We’ll have a real wedding later on, when things have settled down.” He glanced at my mother. “But we didn’t want to wait.”

  My mom hugged them both and welcomed Pauline to our family and said something about happy news for a change. Jack and Kevin did the back slapping thing. I went to answer the doorbell. Jimmy C stood there, in his sunglasses and suit and tie, sweating already.

  “Why don’t they let you wear shorts? That’s a ridiculous way to dress in this heat.” I motioned him towards the kitchen.

  “The bicycle patrols at the lake wear shorts. I’m thinking of putting in for a transfer.” He shook hands with Kevin and nodded at the others. It occurred to me that not one person had commented on my attire so far this morning, which left me to wonder how I normally looked.

  Jimmy C glanced at my mom, then at me. “Can we talk privately?”

  “It’s okay,” my mother said. “I’d like to hear whatever you’ve come to tell Alexis.” I guessed working in the ER for thirty years had conditioned her to be able to take anything. Even the news that her son was a killer.

  Jimmy C nodded. “Sure, okay then.” He turned to me. “Your brother was arraigned a few minutes ago. He pled guilty as part of a plea agreement in order to avoid trial. Sentencing hasn’t occurred yet, but the DA agreed to terms in the neighborhood of twenty-five years to life.”

  Behind Jimmy C, I saw my mother stiffen. Tears sprang to her eyes. Kevin sagged, and he reached for Pauline. I couldn’t tell if they thought it was too long, or not long enough, or if they were just shocked that it was all happening so quickly. I nodded. I didn’t know what I thought, either.

  “Now for the good news. The guilty plea satisfies the conditions for releasing the reward money. How would you like that check made out?” Jimmy C had the killer smile on his face, the one I hadn’t seen since our first meeting a week and a half ago, and I knew he was enjoying the irony of Brian paying me to bring himself down.

  I’d forgotten about the reward money until the newspaper article reminded me of it earlier, but I’d been thinking about it ever since. The doorbell rang. I looked at the ceiling. “Jesus Christ. I’ll be right back.”

  I opened the door and found Mikey standing there. He was taped and stitched and bandaged. His eyes started at my feet and traveled upwards, slowly, and his smile widened. “Do you answer the door for everyone like that, or am I special?”

  “Come on in and find out.”

  When we got to the kitchen, I saw Jack had poured coffees all around and started another pot. Kevin stared at Mikey for a beat, then came over, hand extended.

  “Thanks, man. I owe you an apology, among other things. I really thought you were playing Alex. I’d be screwed big time if it weren’t for the two of you.”

  Mikey shook his hand and shrugged. “Thank god your sister has no common sense.”

  “Amen.”

  “Hello, I’m standing right here.”

  Pauline joined us, hugging Mikey like he was her long-lost brother. “Thank you for
proving Kevin had nothing to do with all that nonsense.”

  I could see Mikey was uncomfortable with all the gratitude, plus I didn’t know how my mother was inclined to react, given that Mikey had proven one son innocent, only to prove the other one guilty. I pulled him aside.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  He hauled his eyes up from my thighs. “I see you lied about the tattoo.”

  “You just can’t see it. It’s a little higher up.”

  He clutched at the counter. “Jesus.”

  “Mikey? Was there a reason for this visit?”

  “Uh, yeah. They brought me a roommate last night at the hospital, some guy ranting about a crazy woman who’d tried to shoot him with a forty-five, stabbed him in the foot with his own knife and then turned her rabid cat loose on him. Thought I’d see if you knew anything about that.” The other conversations halted, and I felt everyone staring at me. I looked at Jimmy C for help, but he just smiled.

  “He stabbed himself in the foot, if I’d actually been trying to shoot him, I would have, and I only implied the cat was rabid. Brian hadn’t hired him, turns out he just disliked me for his own personal reasons, not for the cash. Go figure.” My mom stared at me for a second, then turned to Pauline and continued detailing her recipe for green bean casserole. Crap, nothing fazed these people anymore. Another thought jarred me. “Jesus, Mikey, you didn’t, you know?” I glanced at Jimmy C, who was engrossed in a conversation with Jack about insulation. I had pictures in my head of Derek, strangled with his IV tube, or possibly electrocuted with the defibrillator.

  Mikey rolled his eyes. “After all the trouble we went to, to keep me out of jail? I figured you’d kill me if we did all that for nothing.” He winked, and I smiled, and he turned to Jimmy C. “By the way, Tom Jenkins called me a few minutes ago. He heard the story on the news and decided to come back to town. He said he did call Danny that night, and then when he went to meet him and saw the flames, he freaked out and took off. Now he wants to conclude our deal.”

  Jimmy C nodded. “I’ll need a statement from him, if you could tell him to drop by later on today.” He turned back to me. “So, Alex. About that reward.”

  “Make out a check for five thousand to Angela Freitas. She’s the one who got the license plate.” I looked at Mikey, his bruises and cuts and broken ribs, and I shrugged. “The rest is up to Mikey. He can have it all if he wants.”

  Mikey shook his head. “We make a helluva team, Alex. Your clever plans, my uncanny ability to get the shit beat out of me.” He turned to Jimmy C. “Fifty-fifty.”

  Jimmy C nodded and jotted something in his notebook. I heard the front door open and close, and a moment later Angela appeared. She took in the assembly.

  “I saw the paper, and I wondered if everything was okay. Plus, I kind of wanted to work on the computer. I had that idea I wanted to try.” She glanced at my bare legs. “You should listen to me about the pizza.”

  I introduced her around. “Knock yourself out with the raisins. I’m taking the day off. By the way, you’ll be receiving a check for five thousand dollars. Unless you don’t stop with the smart-ass remarks.”

  “No, I couldn’t - ” she started.

  I cut her off. “It’s not my money, Angela. It’s a reward for information leading to the capture of the bad guy. You provided some of that information, you deserve some of the money.”

  She looked thoughtful. “I could buy a computer, that way my brother-in-law wouldn’t have to do all of his work at the computer lab at school, and I could use it when he’s not.”

  “Whatever you want. It’s your money.”

  She gave me a smile. “Thanks. By the way, you don’t look half bad for forty.” Lucky for her the gun was in the other room.

  I didn’t hear the door open again, but Debbie appeared with an enormous platter of cookies. Jack started the third pot of coffee, and I figured no one would notice if I left. I went to my closet and opened the little fire safe I bought to keep my valuables in. It was empty because don’t have any valuables. I ejected the clip from the gun and slid the round out of the chamber and locked the gun and ammo in the safe. I needed to give it to Rose, but I had something else to do and I didn’t want to come home to any additional holes in my walls. I took a fast shower, threw on clothes and makeup and snuck down the hall, taking care to step over the squeaky board. Angela was at work in the office, and there were still voices coming from the kitchen. I went out to get in my car, and Jack’s truck and Mikey’s Cadillac were gone. Evidently, life went on. Lucifer emerged from the azalea bush, and I sat down on the steps to have a talk with him.

  “Look, I don’t like cats.” He ambled over and sniffed at my shorts, then climbed into my lap, purring. I scratched him behind the ears. “And regardless of what the kook next door says, you are so not better than men. But you showed good judgment with the Derek thing, so I guess you can live here if you want. Just remember, it’s my house, okay?” More purring. “Don’t bring me dead things. I’m not impressed. And if you fall in the damn pool, I’ll replace you with a golden retriever.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Decaf, right?”

  I thought. I might need a lot of energy. On the other hand, I was already jittery. Better stick with the decaf.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  I paid for my mocha lattes and blueberry muffins, then drove on. People were still getting themselves to work, so I didn’t have to wait long for the gate at Danny’s condo to swing open and discharge one of its occupants. I slid through before the gate made its way back in the other direction. I parked in front of Danny’s place, then sat in the car for five minutes, trying to think of something to say. Finally, his front door opened, and Danny appeared, wearing really excellent jeans and a frown, no shirt, no shoes.

  “You going to sit out there all day, or what?”

  I heaved myself out of the car and grabbed the bag of muffins and the coffees, then slammed the door shut with my hip and beeped the doo-dad. He held the front door open for me, taking his coffee as I passed, and followed me into the dining room. I dropped the bag on the table and sipped my coffee and sat down. He sat across from me, and I tried to read his eyes. There was a lot there, and none of it looked happy.

  “You’re angry.”

  He raised his eyebrows and drank his coffee.

  “I tried to stay out of it.”

  Nothing.

  “I left when Jack left. I went somewhere public. I didn’t annoy anybody.” Much.

  He pulled the bag towards himself and removed a muffin, peeling back the paper. I started to get pissed. Jesus Christ, I’d risked my life to get him and Kevin cleared, and now he was sitting here, giving me the silent treatment, and he hadn’t even thanked me for the coffee and muffins.

  “You’re welcome, by the way.”

  “What?” Aha, he speaks.

  “For the coffee and muffins, not to mention saving your sorry ass from going to jail. You’re welcome.”

  “Well, thank you, Lex. Thanks for the breakfast. Thanks for saving me from going to jail. And I guess I should also thank you for almost getting killed in the process. That was certainly very thoughtful of you.” He was gulping muffin now almost without chewing, and I reviewed the Heimlich maneuver in my mind.

  “I didn’t - ”

  He cut me off. “What the fuck were you and my brother thinking?” he thundered. “This plan was even more harebrained than your plan for the fundraiser, for crissake. What if Brian had figured out what you were up to with the recording? What if Mikey wasn’t convincing enough? What if the cops had shown up one minute later? What if - ”

  “What if, what if, what if?” Why was he torturing me? It was a good plan. “You give your brother the silent treatment and the third degree, too, or is this special for me?”

  “It’s different, Lex. I don’t need you to protect me.”

  “So that’s what this is, some macho bullshit about being saved by a woman? Christ, Salazar,
welcome to the twenty-first century. I think your manhood will survive the indignity of a girl rescuing you.”

  “It’s not about that. How do you think I would feel if you’d gotten killed? Hunh?”

  Right now, I guessed he’d be delighted. “The only person who was a real threat to me was Derek, Danny, and he had nothing to do with Brian or any of that. That was just dumb luck, it could have happened to anybody, anytime.” I remembered too late that he wouldn’t have heard yet that it was Derek. I went on to explain, “Brian didn’t hire - ”

  He cut me off. “I know about Derek. I visited Mikey in the hospital last night. I was there when they brought Derek in. And anyway, that’s bullshit. Your brother intended to have Bruno kill you, at the very least. You saw what he did to Mikey. And don’t even get me started on Derek. Christ, he knocked on the door and you let him in.” Not my proudest moment, I admit.

  He started to say something else, stopped, started again. “You’re an artist, Lex, not a cop or a PI or fucking Wonder Woman. You had no business getting involved with something so dangerous, and Mikey had no business letting you. I should never have left you unsupervised yesterday, but it didn’t occur to me then that you were insane.”

  Unsupervised? Who the hell did he think he was? “What the fuck do you mean, Mikey had no business letting me get involved? Since when do I need your permission, or anyone else’s, to do what I want?” He was being obstinate and I was losing my patience with the whole conversation. “Dammit, it was the only way I could think of to prove you and Kevin were innocent.”

  I took a deep breath, then blew it out. I couldn’t have another fight with him. He was sitting there, in his Levi’s and no shirt and all I really wanted was to climb on his lap and make love to him for about a week. I hated that he hated me.

  “Danny, twelve years ago, you made a decision for both of us. Your intentions were good, and I guess the outcome was successful, but frankly your methods sucked. Maybe I did the same thing. I tried to call you when I found out Brian wanted to meet with Mikey, but unfortunately you weren’t available to take my call. We were out of time, and I didn’t see another way. I’m not saying there wasn’t one, just that I don’t know what it could have been.”