by Ann Mullen
“I’ve told you to call me Jesse. I think we know each other…”
“Forget it,” the captain said. “I know when I’m being sandbagged. I’ll be in touch.”
“I’m sure you will,” Billy mumbled under his breath.
“Where can we reach you, Jonathan? The Fire Marshal will want to talk with you, and I have a few more questions.”
“Call me on my cell phone,” Jonathan said as he proceeded to rattle off the number. “You can reach me at that number anytime regardless of where I am.”
“Okay. I’ll see you folks later,” Captain Waverly said. “Again, I’m sorry for your loss.” He turned and walked off in the direction of the Fire Marshal. The two of them shared a few words and then got into their respective vehicles… and waited.
“We’d better leave,” Billy said. “They’re waiting on us.”
“What was that all about? Why didn’t you want me to tell him about the guy in the parking garage?” I asked as we walked to the 4Runner.
“Because we’d be out here all night, or worse yet, he’d want us to come into the station. I’m not going there. I’m beat. I want to go home, take a shower, and maybe have a bite to eat. Then I’m going to crawl into bed and snuggle up next to my beautiful wife.” Billy hugged me gently.
“That sounds good to me,” I said. “Are you coming home with us, Jonathan? We always have room for one more. Right, Billy?”
“You bet. I need a place to stay, and someone has to drive Billy’s truck home. Come on, brother. Let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough for one day.”
“Me, too. Let’s go.” Billy reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his keys. He tossed them to Jonathan.
“I’m sorry about Lu Ann,” I said as I opened the car door. “She seemed so perfect for you.”
“He who hesitates loses,” Jonathan said as he walked over to Billy’s truck.
“Don’t you mean, he who hesitates is lost?”
“Not in this case.”
“I see your point.” I jumped in the car and started it. I backed up in the yard, turned around, and headed down the long, winding driveway. The snow on the ground had turned into a slushy quagmire. The SUV fishtailed twice before we got to the end of the driveway. “I’ll need to wear my boots tomorrow,” I said. “My poor feet are freezing. By the way, why did you poke me back there when I offered to let Lu Ann stay at our house?”
“I don’t want to get involved with what’s going on with the two of them. I’ve been there before.”
“I see.”
I pulled up in front of our house and shut off the engine. All the lights in the house were off, which was unusual. I made it a point to always leave a light on in the living room. I picked up that habit from my mother.
Jonathan pulled up behind us and shut off the truck. When we didn’t get out of the SUV, he walked over and crawled in the back seat.
“What are we waiting for?” he asked.
“Billy and I were still discussing what we plan to do tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow you will need to stay home and watch over our family,” Billy said.
“We’re not having this discussion again, Billy. I’m going to be with you on this. Mom can run the house. She has a gun.”
“Your mother has a gun?” Jonathan asked, not quite surprised.
“Have you ever seen her house?”
“You know I have—many times.”
“My dad had a bunch of guns. At her house in Dogwood Valley, she keeps a handgun—a .38 Special hidden on a shelf in her bedroom closet downstairs, and upstairs she has a shotgun safely hidden in a cubbyhole. She’s prepared for anything. She keeps a shotgun and a rifle on a rack above her dresser in her bedroom at our house. And she knows how to use every one of those guns. My wonderful husband taught her.”
“I am a good warrior,” Billy said, nodding his head back and forth in agreement with himself. “I teach squaw well. I will teach her many more things in this lifetime.”
“Yeah,” Jonathan said, chuckling. “You let her hear you call her a squaw and she’ll hurt you. That woman scares me sometimes. I’m serious. She’s just like our mother. All she has to do is give you one of her looks and you’ll wish you’d been beat. Those looks. Man, I’m telling you. Women say more with their eyes than they ever could with their mouths.”
“You didn’t know Lu Ann was engaged, huh?”
“It was a surprise.”
“You thought she was going to wait for you.”
“Yes, frankly, I did. We don’t get to see each other that much because of our jobs, but I thought we had something. Usually, I get a name and then I go out and bring in the bail jumper. She analyzes the characteristics of a criminal. She does a workup on his behavior and helps the police find the bad guy using her profile. Our jobs don’t usually intertwine.”
“I didn’t see a ring. A woman has to have a ring to make it official.”
“Lu Ann never wears jewelry on the job. She had a guy rip out an earring once, and ever since then she’s given up on the jewelry. She said it hurt so badly, she almost cried. I’m sure the ring will appear sometime.”
We sat there in silence for a while, and finally Jonathan asked, “What’s going on here? Why haven’t we gone inside?”
“It’s dark inside. We never turn off all the lights.”
“It sure looks suspicious to me,” Billy said. He reached under his coat. “Oh, crap, my gun is in Jonathan’s car. He took it when they put me in the ambulance.”
“That’s okay,” Jonathan said. “I have mine.” He reached under his jacket and pulled out a Glock 9MM handgun—the weapon of choice by almost anyone involved in any kind of police work, whether it be bounty hunter or private investigator.
“You didn’t take that gun with you into the hospital, did you?” I asked. “Can’t they arrest you for that? It’s like taking a gun to school. They won’t let you do that either.”
“I have a permit to carry my gun anywhere. My job requires me to carry a gun at all times. It comes with the territory. I never know when I’m going to run into an irate guy I hauled into custody. They usually stay mad for a long time.”
I reached over and pulled my gun out of my purse and handed it to Billy. “If I had to choose, I’d rather you have the gun instead of me. Just in case there’s nothing wrong, please don’t scare my mother to death.”
“Why don’t we call her first,” Jonathan suggested.
“We’ll wake the kids.”
A brief silence ensued.
I pulled my cell phone from my coat pocket and dialed the house. Mom picked up right after the first ring. “Jesse, is that you?” She sounded as if she had been asleep.
“Why are all the lights off?”
“Because everyone is asleep.”
“I always leave a light on. We thought something might be wrong.”
“Geneva can’t sleep if there are any lights on. She says she has thin eyelids.”
I burst out laughing. “She what?”
“I know. I thought it was silly, too, but I let her have her way.”
“We’re coming in. Don’t be afraid.”
“Where are you?”
“In the front yard. We’ve been sitting here a while trying to make up our minds whether or not to bust through the front door.”
“I’ll put on a pot of decaf.”
“No…”
She hung up the phone.
I closed up the cell phone and said, “Mom’s putting on a pot of coffee, so after you guys get a shower I’m sure that she’ll have a meal ready for you.”
“I don’t think I’d mind it a bit. Since you mention it, I am hungry.”
“Me, too,” Billy agreed. “My stomach’s been growling, and I could sure use a cup of hot, steaming coffee.”
We tucked our guns away, got out of the car and walked up the porch steps to the front door. Mom greeted us with sleepy eyes. She was dressed in her bathrobe. “You’ll have to excuse the way I’m dr
essed, but it is three in the morning.”
“It has been a long day,” Billy admitted. He took off his coat and threw it across the room. The coat landed at the bottom of the staircase.
Mom and I were shocked at his behavior. She quietly closed the door behind us and then walked over to Billy. She put her arms around his waist and then patted him on the back. She tried to comfort him.
He stood rigid as if he were in another world.
Jonathan didn’t say a word, nor did he act surprised.
“We’ll get though this, Billy. We’ll help each other deal with the pain. You helped pull me through when Mack died, so I’ll be here to help you. I know the pain. It’s too much to endure alone. You’ll have your family by your side the whole time. We share your grief.”
His tense body seemed to relax a little.
I had never seen Billy act this way, but then again, he had never lost a brother. His grief was overwhelming.
I walked over and picked up his coat. “This needs to go in the wash. It smells like smoke.”
“No,” Billy said. “It will be washed after I find his killer. Hang it in the laundry room.”
I walked out of the living room to the laundry room and hung the coat on the rack by the door. When I walked back to the living room, everyone was in the kitchen. I smelled fresh coffee brewing.
That was my mother’s answer to the problems of the world—coffee or hot chocolate. She was always there with one or the other. It was her way of trying to make you feel better.
I walked into the kitchen and looked around. “Where are the dogs? Where’s Spice Cat?”
“Athena and Thor are guarding the door to the kids’ room. Ever since you left they’ve been right there and haven’t moved, except to let me pass when Ethan woke up. They sure are protective of the children. I don’t know where Spice Cat is. I haven’t seen him since the explosion, but I’m sure he’s around somewhere.”
I walked around the corner and looked down the hall. Athena and Thor were lying by Ethan and Maisy’s room. I called to them, but they didn’t move. They knew something was up and weren’t about to leave the kids. If they have that much concern in them, then maybe I should pay attention. I walked back to the kitchen and almost tripped over Spice Cat.
“I see you’ve come out of the woodwork,” Mom said to him. “I was wondering when you’d finally show up. Are you hungry?” She opened the cabinet door, scooped up a cup of cat food, and then filled the bowl on the floor.
I looked over at Billy and Jonathan. The three of us looked at Mom and laughed.
She ignored our stares. “Y’all might want to go take a shower before the sun comes up. The smell isn’t the most pleasant. I’ll have coffee and something to eat when you’re finished.”
Without saying a word, the three of us turned and headed down the hallway.
“Go through my clothes and find something to wear,” Billy said to Jonathan. “I want to check on the little ones.”
“Let me have a look, too.”
We looked in on the kids. They were still fast asleep. Athena walked over and sat beside Maisy’s crib, staring up at anyone who came near, while Thor did the same by Ethan’s crib.
“Take a break guys. Nobody’s going to hurt these kids, least of all one of us. Go somewhere and take a nap,” I demanded.
They both stretched out and laid down where they were. They wouldn’t move.
“Okay, if that’s the way you want it. But I better not catch either one of you in their cribs. You’ll be dog meat!”
Athena sat up and barked at me.
“Be quiet,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean it. You know how much I love you guys.”
Ethan stirred, but went back to sleep. Maisy never made a sound. We backed out of the children’s room and stood in the hallway.
“Pick out a room upstairs and make it your own,” I said to Jonathan. “Just don’t choose my mother’s. I think you know which one is her room.”
“Yes, I do,” he replied. “She has guns on the wall over her dresser and a picture of Jesus hanging next to them. That’s a little ironic. Oh, how does she like the private bath we put in for her a few months back?”
“Very much. She speaks fondly of it often.” We both smiled.
Billy helped Jonathan rustle up enough clothes to see him through a few days, until he could buy more, and then they hit the showers.
I waited for five minutes, giving Billy time to enjoy some of the hot water before I stepped into the shower with him. He smiled and said, “I’m so lucky to have you as my wife. Where have you been all my life?”
“Waiting to find you.”
We kissed and caressed each other’s body. I wanted more, but Billy insisted that we wait. He was concerned that our shower would take too long and Mom would know what we were doing.
“You are such a kind man,” I said as I dried off his back. “No wonder I love you so much. You’re always thinking of others. I especially adore the fact that you think so highly of my mom. It means a lot to me.”
“I know it does.”
We got dried off and dressed in lounging pants and a T-shirt. When we reached the kitchen, Mom had a place set for each of us. Jonathan was already at the table chowing down on scrambled eggs and grits, a cup of hot coffee by his plate.
“I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled this food,” Jonathan said. “My compliments to you, Mrs. Watson. You know how to soothe the savage beast. Food does it every time.”
“I told you to call me, Minnie.”
“Okay, Minnie…”
We ate and tried to engage in small talk, avoiding the hard subject. Mom had insisted that we eat and then go to bed. It was almost four o’clock. We could talk in the morning. We complied.
When Billy and I finally hit the sack, I was exhausted. I fell asleep in his arms. I hadn’t been asleep for very long when I was awakened by a dream. I was being chased around an old metal fifty-five gallon drum by a teenage boy wielding a knife. We were in the back of a tractor trailer, the bed covered with hay. I kept tripping over the hay. The last time I fell down, the boy raised the knife and then plunged it deep into my chest. Blood spurted everywhere. That’s when I woke up, sat up in bed and screamed. Sweat poured from my body.
“It was a kid!” I yelled. “It wasn’t a man at all. It was a kid!”
Chapter 7
Billy mumbled something and then rolled back over. He was deep in sleep. Normally, he would’ve jumped up and comforted me, but after what he’d gone through in the past several hours, his body and mind were burned-out. He needed to go to that place we all go to when life gets too hard—the land of pleasant dreams.
The land of pleasant dreams is a place where we can find comfort, solve everyday problems and then awake feeling refreshed. At least, hopefully, most of us have a place like that we visit occasionally when we sleep. And then, there’s that other place—the dark side.
The dark side of dreams is where evil lurks and our worst fears are imagined. The most horrible thing that can possibly happen in life will happen in that place. Demons lurk there, and death is only a short footstep away. I know. I’ve been to that place many times. Tonight, I had a long, ugly visit.
I saw the young kid’s face. It was as plain as day, and I knew that if I ever saw that face again, I would recognize it. I just couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. I assumed it was a boy, because I just couldn’t imagine a girl coming up with such a horrendous idea as burning down a person’s house. Someone could’ve died in the fire. A girl wouldn’t do that, would she? I let my mind drift, and then I realized that I had to reset my thinking. I’ve read newspaper articles many times where a female was involved in something awful. They can kill, maim and torture with the best of them. So, maybe the person who torched Jonathan’s house was female. Maybe… but I just had such a hard time believing it.
It was that voice…
I looked over at the clock on the nightstand by the bed. It registered 7:15. It
was time to get up. I crawled out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash my face and come to life. I heard Ethan’s tiny cry. I walked out of the bathroom and headed to the nursery across the hall.
Athena and Thor were standing at attention at the children’s door. If I had waited a minute later, they would’ve started their barking ritual. They always did. If the children let out a peep and someone didn’t jump up and run to them, the dogs would howl and wouldn’t stop until they were sure that someone came to the rescue. The children must be fed!
Mom met me in the hallway with a fresh bottle for both Ethan and Maisy. She handed me one of the bottles and then went to changing Maisy’s diaper.
Although Maisy was almost a year old, she still took a bottle. I didn’t know when they were supposed to give up the bottle, but if it was time, I’m sure Mom would’ve said something. I usually yielded to her advice. She had raised three kids, and none of us had died from being underfed or sucking on a bottle too long.
“How’s my babies doing this morning?” I asked as I walked over and started changing Ethan’s diaper. He looked so content.
“I’m doing fine,” Billy said as he walked up and stood behind me, looking over my shoulder. He had already gotten dressed for the day.
“How’s my little warrior?” he asked as he reached down and touched Ethan.
“I tried to wake you a few minutes ago, but you were in dreamland.”
“Actually, I wasn’t visiting that wonderful place at all,” he replied. “Everything was black, and then I had a vision. The sound of a baby’s cry woke me.”
“What kind of vision?” Mom asked as she walked in the room. “Was it a dream about the babies, or was it one of those real visions I hear the chief talk about?”
“It was a real vision,” Billy whispered. “I saw the person who killed my brother. I saw the face as plain as day, and then it was gone. It will come back. I will meet that face again in the real world. I have faith.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, an ominous feeling settled over the room. I felt a lump rise in my throat. I stifled the urge to cry.