by Gayle Roper
Suzy! Tori’s hand went to her chest even though the earrings were no longer there but safely hidden in her room. Suzy’d missed them! Tori’s vision grayed at the edges as she fought panic. Then Anders’ words sank in. “She’s where?”
“She’s on the floor, literally, in an aisle in the quarter slots area not too far from the back door. Can you tell me why a woman with money like hers plays the quarter slots?”
“Who cares?” Tori caught her reflection and admired both the huge, relieved smile—Suzy hadn’t found her out—and her slinky image. If Marilyn were alive, she’d be jealous. “Be happy, Anders. She began with the nickel ones. What’s she doing on the floor?”
“She’s having her baby.”
“In the casino?” Tori’s voice squeaked in surprise.
“In the casino. One of the players took time from her machine to call 911, so the EMTs should be here soon, but in the meantime, get over there!”
Perspiration broke out all over her body. “I don’t know anything about having babies!”
“I don’t care. She wants you.”
Phone still to her ear, Tori ran across the floor, dodging customers intent on finding their area of play and servers with drinks on trays as they did their part to keep everyone lubricated and betting.
“Where’s Ron?” Anders asked. “Do you have any idea? Though she didn’t ask for him. Just you.”
Tori spied a cluster of people all staring down at the floor and guessed that was where Suzy lay. Her stomach did a slow roll as she elbowed her way through. She swallowed back her fear. When this was over, she and Anders were going to have a talk about her job requirements. No more babies!
Sure enough, there was Suzy, her flowing gauzy dress hiked up to her waist, her knees bent, her hands grasping her stomach, and fluid and blood pooling beneath her. Instead of her bleh noises, she was making breathy little gasps.
For the second time in five minutes, Tori thought she might faint.
“And don’t you dare pass out!” Anders yelled in her ear.
“What? You can see me?” She knew cameras were everywhere.
“No, but I know you.”
“Ron’s playing poker!” She flipped the phone shut, stuffed it in her cleavage, and looked down at Suzy.
“Hey, girl, what are you doing here? I left you resting in bed just a couple of hours ago.”
“Boring,” Suzy managed between pants. “More fun down here. At least it was. Besides—ohhh, that hurt!—I’m not due for another month.”
“Like babies pay attention to schedules,” one of the onlookers muttered. “They come when they want.”
And this one wanted. Suzy let out a great groan, and Tori had to bite back one of her own.
“Anybody got a beach towel?” she yelled. The least she could do was mop up the mess.
To her surprise, two people grabbed towels from bags and shoved them at her. They smelled of suntan lotion and beach, but it was not the time to be picky. She knelt and slid one under Suzy’s legs and rump to make things a bit more comfortable and to mop up some of the stickiness. The other she draped over Suzy’s knees. Suzy may have lost all her modesty at the moment, but Tori hadn’t.
Suzy grabbed Tori’s hand, gave a shriek, and squeezed so hard Tori had to fight not to shriek right along with her.
“I thought labor pains came on gradually,” Tori said. “Didn’t you have any warning?”
“Sure, but I thought they were those phony things. Besides, I was on a roll. I won ten dollars, and I could feel a hundred was just a minute or two away. That’s twenty-five hundred free turns. Yeeow!”
“Twenty to one it’s a girl,” said a guy watching from the end of the aisle.
“You’re on,” said a lady in bright pink shorts.
“Take the bet, Tori,” Suzy whispered. “It’s a sure thing.”
“Which way?”
“Either.”
Tori frowned.
Sweat soaked Suzy’s face and dress. “One of each.”
“Where is she?” Ron’s frantic voice floated through the gathering crowd. “Where is she?”
“Over here, Ron,” Tori called, ready to stand and give him her place.
“Don’t you come near me, Ron Merchant,” Suzy hissed. “Ooow! This is all your fault!”
Ron ignored her and fell to his knees across from Tori. He grabbed Suzy’s free hand. “Breathe, baby. Come on. Breathe. Just like they taught you in class.”
“It’s coming! I can see its head!” a woman yelled. The beach towel apparently wasn’t doing what Tori had hoped.
“A nurse? A doctor?” Tori yelled frantically.
No one responded. Where were the EMTs?
“She or he’s coming,” Suzy managed through gritted teeth. “Tori!”
Not knowing what else to do, Tori moved between Suzy’s legs, and sure enough, a little head was visible.
“Here!” Someone pushed several beach towels into her hand. “They’re new. I just got them.”
Tori rested them on her lap and put out her hands. The little head was followed by shoulders and a body, all slimy and bloody. Tori held it in her shaking hands. “It’s a boy. Ron, open one of the towels!”
“Joseph,” Suzy ordered. She might be weary and soaked in sweat, but she was still Sassy Suzy. “Joseph Ronald.”
Ron held out a towel. “After her late brother,” he explained. “He’d love the irony of his namesake being born in a casino, considering how he loved gambling.” He rubbed a finger over his son’s cheek. “Hey, Joey.”
Just as Tori wrapped the tiny boy in the towel with a garish sunflower superimposed over royal blue waves, two EMTs pushed through the crowd. In a daze, Tori offered Joey to them. One took the baby and cleared the air passages and cut the cord. The other wheeled a gurney into place to move Suzy to the waiting ambulance.
She let out a great yell. “She’s coming!”
“Another?” the EMT said in surprise.
“Another,” Ron confirmed as he leaned over Suzy. “Come on, baby. You can do it.”
The EMT shoved Joey back into Tori’s arms and dropped to help deliver the second baby.
A few minutes later, Tori walked beside Ron as they followed the gurney and Suzy down the aisle toward the back entrance. She still held Joey in her arms; Ron, the baby girl in his. Suzy seemed remarkably unmoved about having the twins but extraordinarily displeased about leaving the casino.
“Take me back! I was on a roll. Just let me have a couple more tries. And my credit card’s in the slot!”
“Shut up, Suze,” Ron said. “You can play later. I’ll go get the card.”
As he spoke, a light began to flash behind them and a bell made that up-and-down clarion call that Tori always thought sounded like cop cars in Europe.
Suzy turned the air blue. “That was my money! I know it!”
“Be thankful the bug hasn’t bitten you like that, Tori,” Ron said as he turned to go retrieve Suzy’s credit card from the machine. “It isn’t a pretty thing.”
Tuesday morning dawned overcast and muggy. I sat in the back garden and frowned at a noise that sounded like a lawn mower drifting over the fence from Maxi’s. I hadn’t given much thought to caring for this little Eden I so enjoyed. I looked at the grass. It hadn’t grown tall so much as shaggy in the week we’d been here. When we arrived, it was like every blade had been measured to length. Now, some dared to be a quarter inch to a half inch off level, disrupting the symmetry like a Rockette who kicked too high.
So what was I to do about the problem? Bring my lawn mower from home? I hadn’t seen anything here I could use. There was no little shed for keeping gardening tools and supplies and a mower. Of course there was so little grass that an old-fashioned push mower would be ample to keep up with the trimming. Still, there was no push mower anywhere around either.
I’d have to ask James what Aunt Stella did about lawn care. James knew everything.
As I thought that, the side gate in our fence o
pened, and a Latino guy in shorts and a tee that read “Lopez Lawn Care” walked in pushing a power mower. Behind him was a second man in an identical shirt, wearing gloves and carrying a large green trash bag.
They stopped when they saw me and smiled, each sporting a gold incisor that flashed in the sun. I smiled back and decided it wouldn’t do to ask to see green cards. I gestured toward the lawn with a nod and went inside. In less time than I could have imagined, they were gone, the grass was again all one length, and a couple of geranium heads that were getting a bit ratty had disappeared.
Newest question to ask James: Who paid these guys? In fact, who paid any of the bills here? Water? Gas? Electric? Cooling? I assumed the estate, but what if I was wrong? Were Tori and I going to get stuck with these costs for the next six months? The lawyers could tell me, but I hesitated to call them because they were always on the clock. I didn’t want the estate billed several hundred dollars for something James might be able to tell me for free. Since he knew Aunt Stella’s significant other, maybe he knew about the money too. It’d certainly be easy enough to find out.
But first I made a phone call I’d been wanting to make for several days.
“Homicide, Detective Holloran,” the handsome policeman boomed in my ear.
“Hello, Detective. This is Elizabeth Keating. I was wondering if you could tell me how the man I found on my doorstep died. It’s been eating at me for days now, the not knowing.”
He was silent for a moment. Didn’t other crime victims call for information? Was it not the done thing? Did his silence mean un-happiness? Surprise?
“You know I can’t discuss an open case with you, Ms. Keating,” he finally said, his voice carefully neutral.
I sighed. I’d been afraid of this answer. “I understand. I’m not asking about the investigation itself. I just would like to know how the poor man died. Surely you can tell me that much.”
There was a heavy sigh, and I knew the last thing this man wanted was to waste time talking to me. Then I heard the click of computer keys, a hopeful sign. Or he’d decided to play Spider Solitaire until he got rid of me.
“Okay. It says here that Mick Brewer died of heart failure.”
“What? He had a heart attack and laid himself neatly on my step to die?” With TORI on his chest?
“He didn’t die on your step. He was carried there.”
“That’s ridiculous. It makes no sense.”
“I agree. But here’s the interesting thing, Ms. Keating. He had two small burn marks on his body, one on his neck—”
“I saw that!”
“—and one on his back. They are consistent with marks from a Taser. The coroner says that the electrical shock of the gun was what triggered the heart attack. Your friend apparently had a bad heart, and zap! That’s all there is, folks. And I gotta go.”
As soon as his phone clicked off, I went to my computer and signed on to HowStuffWorks.com for a quick lesson in electronic weapons. I learned that a Taser shoots two electrodes up to fifteen or so feet. These electrodes are attached by wires to the gun, and when the electrodes hit a person, the body completes an electrical circuit with the weapon. High voltage, low amperage current flows and disrupts the body’s natural electrical system. Muscles and nerves are overstimulated. They contract randomly, causing temporary incapacitation. While Tasers and stun guns, their close-quarters cousins, are nonlethal, the jolt is very painful. In a person with a prior health issue, the strong stab of current may be enough to cause a heart attack.
It all sounded very Star Wars/Star Trek to me, but I remembered seeing cops bring down violent suspects on the various reality cop shows as I clicked through the channels. I never lingered on those shows for long. They were too “guy” for my taste, and they brought Dad and Pop too much to mind.
Poor Mick. Whoever had shot him hadn’t meant to kill him. It was just his bad luck to have had a preexisting cardiac condition.
While I was online, I checked our eBay auctions and smiled in satisfaction. I closed them out and grinned widely at the thought of Dave at our local Mail N More when I gave him the hobbyhorse to package for me.
I wandered up to Chloe’s room to waken her and tell her I was going to Tinksie’s and to get ready for the trip back to New Jersey.
“Do I have to go back with you?” she moaned. “I can stay here alone.”
“We’re going to the party today, remember? First we’ll drop off the shoebox. Then you can help me package some eBay items for mailing.”
“The hobbyhorse?”
“Did well after things got going.”
“And someone actually bought all those sunglasses?”
“And at a very nice price. Then we’ll go help Mom-Mom and Great-Nan get ready for the big welcome home party.”
“Why don’t I just come with Jenna and Mr. Canfield?”
“I want to give them the chance not to come.” I still felt bad about the way Drew had been more or less forced into accepting Mom and Nan’s invitation.
Chloe looked surprised. “Why wouldn’t they come?”
“Why would they?”
“Oh.” She thumped her pillow until it was more comfortable beneath her head. “When you put it that way…” She studied me a moment. “Does it make you nervous to think of them coming home?”
My smile was more rueful than humorous as I tried to ease the tension drawing my neck and shoulder muscles tight. No need to ask who them was. “It does.”
“Me too. I’ve never known them anywhere but in the visiting room at prison.”
I looked at her uncertain face. “You’ll get used to them being around.”
“Will they still be nice?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the guards were always standing around and all.”
“Oh, honey.” I sat on the edge of the bed and pushed her tousled hair back. “They were never mean men. Foolish. Selfish. Prideful. Certainly all those and more, but never mean.” I kissed her cheek. “It’ll be fine.”
“I don’t have to go over there more than usual, do I?”
I studied Chloe. She’d never shown reluctance to visit with my family before. “I thought you liked the ‘sinful Keatings.’”
“Yeah, but not every day. I can only take so much gloom and doom.”
I nodded. I understood all too well. “Things might not be as negative there now, but we’ll keep the frequency of visits much as they are. The only difference is that when we go over, we’ll see your grandfather and great-grandfather as well as your grandmother and great-grandmother.”
“We need to keep those boundaries, Mom.”
I looked at my daughter with astonishment. She was absolutely right. We needed boundaries. On the one hand, we needed to keep connected to the family because families should care for each other, even dysfunctional ones like ours. Then too we wanted them to find the Lord. But set against these truths was the counterbalance that they could pull Chloe and me down emotionally and spiritually with their constant criticism and sniping.
“How did you get so smart so young?”
“I’ve got you for a mom.” She grinned with a gleam in her eye. “But don’t let that go to your head. It’s early in the morning, and my defenses are down.”
I laughed as I stood. “Up you get, cookie. I’ve got to go see Tinksie for a few minutes. Well, James really. Be ready to go when I get back, okay?”
I left her heading for the shower and went across to Tinksie’s. When I rang the bell, she opened the door, as bright and alert as an elderly chipmunk.
“Come in, come in, my dear.” She studied me a minute. “Libby, right?”
“Very good! Not many people can do that.”
She shrugged like it was nothing at all. “It is a bit harder since you had your hair brightened.”
“So how do you do it?” I knew my face was a bit more rounded and my brow a bit heavier, but the differences were too subtle for most people.
Tinksie looked a bit embarrasse
d.
“It’s not because I walk around with spinach caught in my teeth or something equally gross, is it?” I teased.
She laughed. “Not at all. It’s just you are so friendly and genuine. Your sister, on the other hand, has an air about her, like the world doesn’t deserve her divine presence. Very off-putting, if you ask me.” She put a hand to her mouth. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say about your sister.”
It didn’t seem very loyal to tell her I agreed, so I kept quiet on the subject, patting her hand to show I took no offense. “Is James home?”
“He’s in the backyard with Andrew.”
I blinked. “Aunt Stella’s Andrew?”
Tinksie nodded. “Come meet him. You’ll like him.”
Andrew Melchior was a handsome man—slim, white haired, and goateed, sort of an aged Captain Jack Sparrow without the dreadlocks. It didn’t take me long to see why Aunt Stella loved him. He oozed charm and seemed genuinely delighted to meet me.
“I always regretted I never was able to meet Stella’s nieces. She loved you two so much.”
I flushed with embarrassment when I thought of how little thought I’d given Aunt Stella through the years. I hoped Andrew took my red cheeks as pleasure.
“So how’s it going?” he asked.
I thought of Drew and Jenna, the stolen pin, and the dead man. The good, the bad, and the ugly. “All in all, we’re managing.”
“I’m glad. Stella was a bit nervous about putting the two of you together.”
Then why in the world did she do it? “Fortunately Tori spends a lot of time at work.” I slapped my hand across my mouth much as Tinksie had done just a few minutes ago. “That sounded terrible. I’m sorry.”
Andrew waved the comment aside. “Let me just say that if things get too bad, come see me.”
“Come see you?”
“I can’t tell you why. I probably shouldn’t even tell you to come see me, but please do.”
Mystified and intrigued, I nodded. “Thank you. Now I have questions I wanted to ask James.”
At the sound of his name, James sat up straighter, a springer spaniel going on point.
I grinned at him. “After all, Tinksie says you know everything.”