Her Final Watch (A Detective Blanchette Mystery Book 2)

by Marguerite Ashton

  “It doesn’t matter. Just do the speedy recovery thing so I can take you home.”

  “You know what this means?” Alec asked, walking into the room.

  Lily’s cell phone buzzed on the table.

  “We’re all going to get some sleep,” Lily said, checking her Caller ID.

  “Nope. We get to blow down at your upcoming New Year’s Eve party.”

  Lily waved her phone. “It’s Mother. Probably freaking out. I need to talk to her.”

  *

  Evan let go of Lily’s hand and moseyed over to his partner. “Why’d you mention the party? We don’t know when she’ll get out of the hospital.”

  “Dude, look at your girlfriend. That’s one lucky chick. Getting hit by a 9mm bullet and lived to tell about it. If anyone’s tired of being in a hospital, it’s her. But it’s also a part of our job. If it’s not one of us, it’s a witness or a victim.

  “You know how it is, my friend; us cops have to keep our head and try to find humor in certain things. Otherwise we’d be the crazy ones running around here. I didn’t mean any harm by mentioning the party, but we both know Lily, she rather be upright and ordering everyone around.”

  “I heard that, Alec.” Lily clicked off her phone.

  Alec turned toward Lily. “Am I wrong?”

  Lily smiled. “Probably. And the New Year’s Eve party is a go.”

  Alec patted Evan on the back. “See, Man, it’s all good. Besides, Mr. Romantic, it looks like your special plans for the party will happen.”

  Evan had planned to do the one thing he’d been waiting for since they admitted to still loving one another a couple of weeks ago. I hope so.

  *

  8:19 a.m.

  Mikey adjusted his footing on the concrete bench as he tried to keep his eyes opened. The sight of gray steel bars, along with a heavy smell of urine had forced him to stay awake throughout the night.

  Dried spots of vomit from a drunk sat in a pile on the floor as the voices of corrections officers echoed throughout the jail. There was no question that he hated being in a room filled with men. Especially on Christmas. He’d rather be surrounded by women with a gin in his hand.

  Mikey needed to clear his head. Somehow he’d managed to land himself in more trouble. Trouble that even Pop, a man with many connections, probably wouldn’t be able to get him out of. Was he even interested in getting Mikey off the hook?

  Mikey wanted to believe that he hadn’t been going for a kill shot. For the past few hours, he’d told himself he just didn’t want to be taken down. But deep down, he knew the truth. The minute he pulled the trigger, he hit bottom. Now there was nothing he could do but wait.

  He touched his shoulder where the bandages covered his flesh wound. A few more inches to the left and things might’ve been worse for him.

  Why hadn’t he heard from somebody to tell him what was going on?

  Since it was Christmas, there wasn’t a chance he would get to see a judge anytime soon. He felt like he was on the fast track to hell.

  “Everybody, move to the far wall,” a corrections officer roared.

  Mikey jumped to his feet and lined up against the wall with the others.

  The door opened and an inmate dressed in a protective suit walked into the cell, cleaned up the vomit and walked back out.

  Is that what waited in his future? Cleaning up day old vomit or blood from a jail cell? He shuddered. To make matters worse, if things didn’t go his way, the luxuries he was used to would no longer be at his fingertips. And the name Mikey Surace would be replaced with an inmate number.

  He reclaimed his spot on the concrete bench. There was much to decide. He had a few options. He wasn’t ready to cash in all of his chips just yet.

  Chapter 31

  December 26, 7:58 a.m.

  Machines rattled as different voices chattered above Lily. She opened her eyes and stared at the nurse changing out her IV bag as her mind broke down everything that had happened between her and Mikey.

  The intense moment that almost ended her life left her feeling powerless over her future. Laying in bed was almost a welcomed relief. She was tired of dodging bullets and tired of the stress.

  If she’d turned an inch further to the left, the bullet from Mikey’s gun would’ve killed her. If she hadn’t noticed the car at Hindle’s, things could’ve turned out a lot worse.

  The ringing of Lily’s phone zapped her out of her thoughts. She didn’t recognize the number.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s Pop.”

  Lily’s heart fluttered in her chest. The heart monitor beeped steadily as the blood pressure cup inflated squeezing her arm. “Yes?”

  “I’m willing to grant you your favor in return that you do something for me.”

  Hearing Pop’s voice on the other end made Lily wish she could see the look on his face. Especially since he didn’t have the decency to say, “I’m glad you’re alive” before making his demands. It had to be hard for a man like him to cave in to a request that he probably wasn’t going to accept in the first place. “Are you telling me that once I give you Jeremiah’s texts, you’re not going to help out my friend unless I do what you ask?”

  “It’s a difficult situation, but I have a proposal that’ll work out for the both of us.”

  Lily shook her head. “This has to do with Mikey, which means you found out that there really was a contract out for Jeremiah.”

  “Find a way to describe that what happened wasn’t intentional. We all know that accidents happen. This could be one of those times.”

  Lily remained silent. She could help Jeremiah, but in return, she’d have to lie for Mikey.

  “He’s my only son, and I don’t want him to be cursed with his one bad moment. Without my son, my legacy will fade. Does this make sense?”

  “No.”

  “My heart was heavy when I’d learned what happened to you. Stop this now and your partner will have his freedom.”

  The line went dead.

  *

  10:12 a.m.

  With a corrections officer behind him, Mikey walked into the visiting area in the Oneida County Jail and sat down in the metal chair. For a moment he thought he saw a smug smile on Quentin’s face.

  Out of all the people Pop had on his list to send, he chose the one person that reminded Mikey of the mistakes he’d made. Is that why he did it? Send in Quentin to give Mikey a mental spanking. That’ll teach him a lesson.

  “Is the cop alive?”

  Quentin said, “She’s alive and well. But she approached Pop with a request.”

  “What request?”

  “That the contract on that Mills be removed. She claims there’s proof that the cop had no clue that he was dating your fiancée at the time. Your father has agreed to look at the texts. He believes the communication between Rachel and Mills might be valid.”

  “So you’re saying that Pop believes what comes off some stupid cop’s phone? Doesn’t he know stuff like that can be faked?” Mikey stared at the woman across the way, crying as she talked to another male inmate. “I can’t believe he’s backing down to the law. He probably feels we owe her because of what I did.”

  “Your father told me to tell you he’s considering it.”

  Mikey bounced his leg up and down, shaking his head.

  Quentin leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Certain people are saying that your father’s more upset about the cop than his own son. They say that you’ve betrayed the family by upsetting a relationship with a cop that could be good for the family in the long run.”

  Mikey slammed his hands on the table and stood. “Then you give me the names of those traitors, and I’ll take care of them. Nobody talks about Pop that way.”

  A corrections officer walked toward Mikey.

  Mikey put his hands in the air and dropped back down in his seat. “I’m sorry, mister officer, Sir. I heard some bad news about my Pop.”

  The officer stopped and returned to his post.
>
  Mikey looked around at the other inmates visiting with families. Some of the women were passing bulky socks underneath the table to their men.

  He glanced at the four officers stationed in different parts of the visitors’ room, staring straight ahead as if they could care less what was going on. There’s no way they didn’t know. They were being paid to look away, he was sure of it.

  Mikey leaned back in the chair. Having guards that liked their palms greased would make what he needed to do a lot easier. This is beautiful. “Speak to my father. Tell him I’ll erase the contract if the attempted murder charges against me are dropped. Then all will be forgiven.”

  “You’re talking as if you have a choice. These words come from Pop Surace. If you go against him, it won’t be good. There’ll be consequences. Son or not.”

  Mikey’s muscles quivered. Yanking Quentin over the table and shanking him with the makeshift knife stashed away in his shoe would make him feel good. But if Mikey killed his only link to getting out of this hell hole, his father would make sure he stayed and finished every single day of his sentence.

  “You’re right,” Mikey said scooting closer to the table. “I hear they’re going to transfer me down to Fort soon. Tell Pop, I’ll do whatever he wants.”

  Chapter 32

  December 28, 5:57 p.m.

  Lily kicked off her shoes next to the couch by the fireplace where her dad used to sit. The sense of needing her father was stronger than it had ever been.

  Four days in the hospital gave her time to think things through. She wasn’t ready to approach Deena, but she would talk to the other person that she trusted almost as much as she did her dad. Sharon.

  Evan walked into the living room, draped a blanket over Lily, and sat down next to her.

  She picked up her dad’s leather bound journal and turned it around in her hands. It was one of the few things she had left of her father.

  “Have you finished reading it?” Evan asked.

  She opened the book and closed it again. “No. And with everything going on, I don’t want to.” Lily sighed and smiled as he grabbed her feet and placed them on his lap.

  Evan’s fingers worked their usual magic—rubbing away the aches that filled the soles of her feet and her ankles. “You’re stressed. What’s wrong?”

  “I thought that Thanksgiving was tough without Dad and Celine. Here I’ve missed Christmas, with another holiday around the corner. Reality or not, I’m finding it hard to believe that both of them are gone. I lost my dad and sister in less than six months.”

  “I’m guessing you had a connection with them that Deena didn’t.”

  “I did. I only wish I’d said, ‘I love you’ more to Celine. Dad, on the other hand, I miss everything about him. His love. His devotion to his family. No one would’ve guessed that I wasn’t his biological daughter. He treated me as if I was his own flesh and blood.”

  “It wasn’t about flesh and blood,” Evan said. “He loved you. He raised you. No one was going to take that from him. Not even Deena. That’s why he left you everything.”

  “Then there’s the secrets. It’s hard to heal when Mother’s lies keep catching up to her, and I find out about them. I feel like I’m dodging semi-trucks on the Madison Beltline.”

  “Having an older sister can’t be all that bad.”

  Max’s paws tapped the floor as he came into the room, panting. He cuddled up alongside the couch and let Lily rub his tummy.

  Lily closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the leather binding engraved with her father’s initials. “The only thing that gives me comfort from this diary is Dad’s words about the guts needed to be a police officer. The pride he took in serving his city and backing his fellow officers.”

  She couldn’t help but wonder if her dad would’ve been proud of her knowing about her plans to save Jeremiah. Lily placed the diary on the table. “The other entries, I wished I’d never read them.” She settled into the crook of the couch.

  No matter how much Collin loved Deena, the stuff he’d learned about her continued unfaithfulness months and days before he was murdered broke Lily’s heart.

  Perhaps she was making the situation more difficult by not making peace with her mother. It was as if Lily could still hear Collin’s boisterous voice echoing through the halls of the family home, saying “Life is too short. Forgive and focus on what’s important.”

  And what was important to Lily was keeping the Blanchette family together.

  Now it was time to forget.

  Chapter 33

  December 29, 4:00 p.m.

  The crowd at McGinleys’s was heavy, and Lily and Jeremiah were caught smack in the middle as they waited for Evan and Alec at the bar. It had been Lily’s idea for everyone to meet at the pub to celebrate the capture of the bad guys and to follow up with her teammates to see how they were doing.

  A man at the far end gulped his drink and slammed his glass down, demanding another refill from the bartender.

  Lily watched as Jeremiah drummed his fingers on his bottle of beer, scanning the packed pub. She sensed Jeremiah was watching his back just in case he needed to defend himself from one of the Surace’s hired men.

  She slurped the remaining drops of the iced tea, beating at the crushed ice with her straw.

  “I want you to know that’s annoying,” Jeremiah said, handing a tip to the bartender.

  “Isn’t it? It would throw Mother’s entire world off balance if she knew I wasn’t being polite.”

  “Then why do it?”

  Lily hadn’t told her partner about the talk with Pop Surace after Diamond’s funeral. To be honest, she wasn’t sure how he was going to feel once he learned what she did.

  It was clear to Lily that Jeremiah was telling the truth about what happened in Milwaukee, but she wasn’t sure why he continued to dance in the lion’s den. “To see how many times I can do it before getting caught. Is that how it was with you and the woman Mikey was supposed to marry?”

  The drumming stopped as Jeremiah’s grip tightened around the bottle. “That was different. Anyway, she told me Mikey never wanted to get married. He only did it because it was what his dad wanted.”

  “Were you holding out, hoping she’d come to you?”

  “Is there a reason why you brought this up?”

  “Do you still have a copy of those texts on your phone?"

  “I do. Why?”

  “Why’d you save them?”

  “To save my skin from I.A. I had to show proof that I didn’t know anything about her before the case. Those texts kept my badge,” Jeremiah said, setting his beer down.

  “If you’re willing, I think it’ll save your life.” Lily went into brief detail about her meeting with Pop Suarce, explaining why he wanted to see those texts.

  “That’s not cool. Going behind my back like that,” Jeremiah said, pressing his lips together. “These people are crazy. They give people cement shoes just for turning their nose up at them.”

  Lily looked over her shoulder for any sign of Evan or Alec. Any minute they’d be walking through the doors and she didn’t want Evan to know about this conversation. “You’re my partner. I did what I needed to do to keep us riding together. I’ve already lost one partner. I’m not planning on losing another one anytime soon. Now give me your damn phone, so I can keep my end of the bargain and get this contract removed.”

  “If they remove it.” Jeremiah slammed his phone on to the bar, grumbled and ordered another beer.

  As Lily reached for it, Jeremiah seized her hand. “Wait. I wanna go.”

  “His guards would kill you before you reach the front door,” Lily said snatching the phone off the bar and thrusting it into her breast pocket of her blazer.

  Both detectives stared each other down before Jeremiah relented and turned away. Lily looked out the window and saw Alec and Evan get out their Suburban and in no time they strolled into the pub.

  Alec swooped in ahead of Evan and paraded towards Lily. He si
gnaled the bartender and ordered a round of drinks. “Make one of those a Shirley Temple for Detective Blanchette.”

  “You’ve got it,” the bartender replied.

  Lily couldn’t help but laugh. It had been months since she’d had seen him so happy. She looked over at Evan who shook his head. “Let’s go find our booth.”

  The four detectives made their way over to the corner booth that had been reserved for them, near the stage. They all sat down, squeezing Lily in the middle. Jeremiah positioned himself directly across from his partner, flashing a look of unease.

  The simplest reason Lily could think of was that she’d made a decision without talking to him. He probably wanted to say more, but it wouldn’t do either of them any good to bring it up in front of the others.

  Country music pounded the speakers as a live band set up on stage.

  “Listen up,” Alec said, patting Lily on her back. “I know we butt heads on cases and I’m a pain, but I want you to know I’m here for ya.” He checked out the waitress as she placed the drinks at their table. “Now that you’re pregnant with my little niece or nephew, I’m going to be even worse.”

  “Great,” Lily smirked, taking a sip of her drink.

  “You’ve heard that old saying about it takes a village to raise a kid? Well, for us cops, it takes a force. Since I’m claiming the uncle title, I’ll bring the protection, especially if it’s a girl. I’ve just got one question. Does this mean you get to be moody no matter what and us guys can’t tease you?” Alec asked, sipping his beer.

  “No, but if you irritate me enough, I’ll just sit you down and beat you at a game of poker.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “I brought us all here,” Lily began, as she shed her coat, “to say thank you for the teamwork up in Saint Germain and although Jeremiah wasn’t able to be with us, he worked hard to help us solve our case.”