by Jody Holford
“I am not done. Make no mistake, we are fine when you aren’t here, but we are better when you are. All I meant was that you do not have to take it on your shoulders to come home and try to fix everyone’s problems,” he explained. Lucy’s heart cracked when she realized that he had come as close to confessing that they were having problems as he ever would.
“But I want to. It’s what you guys do for each other. It’s what families do. If you guys are having trouble, I want to help. Let me help. Let me be part of this family the way everyone else is,” she pleaded, her voice wavering. She put her hand on his arm.
“You are part of this family, Lucy. But remember, families also back off when someone asks them to. So unless you want to start answering some questions about your relationship with Alex, I’d quit while you’re ahead,” he said, but this time he smiled. He turned her gently, and they walked to the kitchen.
“That’s totally different,” she said.
“Not from my perspective. Families confide in each other is what you’re saying, right? How about confiding to your dear old dad what your intentions with Alex are,” Mark said and then laughed at the look on Lucy’s face.
“Okay. You don’t want my help? Fine. I’m going to bed,” Lucy said. She backed away from her dad as he plugged in the kettle. “To your own bed?” he asked.
Every inch of her body turned red with embarrassment. Her parents didn’t say much about her not spending nights in her room. Which, she realized, was a blessing.
“Goodnight, dad.”
“Goodnight, dear. Let me know if you want to talk about anything,” he said.
Lucy groaned audibly and took the stairs two at a time. How did he turn that around so quickly? In her room, she closed her bedroom door quietly and changed into pajamas. No reason to tell her dad that Alex was working through some issues with his own dad tonight. She was an adult—she didn’t need to talk about her relationship. And they don’t need to talk about their personal issues. Maybe some boundaries were a healthy thing. But Lucy didn’t like the feeling that the boundaries for her were more visible than for her sisters. Like they kept her back just a little further. Obviously, Kate knew that they were having financial difficulties. As she pulled back the covers, she thought that Char probably knew as well. They didn’t want to tell Lucy anything because they figured she’d be off on another trip soon. She plumped her pillow, wishing she were in Alex’s bed, and lay down with a sigh. Her family was just going to have to get used to her sticking around. To her meddling. To her being a part of the good and the bad. If Lucy was beginning to deal with the idea that she might be staying —for good rather than for now—then they would just have to do the same.
Chapter Seventeen
Lucy grabbed an apple from the dish on the table as her mom came into the kitchen. Julie was dressed in a pink robe and fuzzy slippers, her hair piled on her head and her eyes still sleepy.
“Hi. You’re up early,” Julie said, yawning and heading straight for the coffee pot. “Yes. I’m setting up for some family photos I agreed to do. You remember Ginny?”
“Mmhmm. Sweet girl. She’s just about due, isn’t she?” Julie asked.
“Yes, so I want to get some pregnancy shots before she pops,” Lucy said, taking another bite.
“Is that all you’re having for breakfast?” Julie asked, grabbing two coffee cups from the cupboard. “Yes, mom,” Lucy said in a monotone voice.
“Perhaps you should worry more about having a healthy breakfast than whether or not your mom and dad are doing okay,” Julie suggested, her eyes more alert. Lucy felt a moment of awkwardness. She hadn’t thought of her dad going right to her mom.
“Geez. You guys tell each other everything?”
“Yes. It’s called marriage, honey,” Julie said with a smile.
Don’t say it. Don’t ask. It’s in the past, and it doesn’t matter. Let it go. Trying to wrangle her thoughts, she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
“I’ll eat more after the shoot. I’m fine and I’m also allowed to worry about and care about my parents,” Lucy replied, grabbing the milk for her mom’s coffee.
“Thank you,” Julie said, taking the carton. “But we’re fine.”
“So I’ve heard. But, if you’re willing to at least listen to me, I do have some ideas for book promotion,” Lucy said slowly. Julie looked at her and started to protest.
“It doesn’t involve leaving the house. I know that … isn’t your favorite thing. It’s all things you can do from home. Are you on Twitter?” Lucy asked. Julie’s features went from irritated to relaxed to confused in a split second.
“The bird thing?”
That answered that. Lucy laughed, kissed her mom’s cheek, and picked up her purse and her camera bag. “Yes. I’ll explain later. It’s painless. I promise. Love you,” Lucy said as she walked out of the kitchen.
She walked across the lawn and realized that with all of the time she was spending with Alex, she hadn’t had to knock on his door in a while. She hoped he was up. She quietly checked the knob first, but Mr. Safety First had it locked up tight. She rapped three times and waited. When he answered the door in low-slung lounge pants, a sleepy scowl on his face, and his hair at odd angles, she felt such a powerful rush of love, she questioned her own sanity.
“You don’t have to knock,” he grumbled, rubbing his hand over the stubble on his chin. He walked away, leaving her to shut the door and follow after him. “I do when it’s locked, Mr. Safety,” she said, still smiling at the sight of him.
“I’ll get you a key,” he said as he went for the coffee beans in the freezer. Lucy’s heart flipped over in her chest. Alex stopped with his hand on the freezer door and looked at her, his eyes widening a little. “If you want. You don’t have to have one. I could just leave the door unlocked.”
Just like that, her heartbeat evened out. He knew what to say, and his ability to say the right thing calmed the panic inside of her.
“That doesn’t sound very safe,” she said, pretending to consider it as she unloaded her purse and camera onto his counter. She turned to face him. “I’ll take the key,” she said quietly.
His eyes lit up in slow degrees like his smile, one notch at a time, as he realized what she’d said—what she’d agreed to. The panic was pushed aside by another unexpected spurt of “this feels right.” He kissed her forehead before going to grind the beans.
As the grinder growled and churned, Lucy took a look at the photos that Alex had laid out on his table. He really needed a bigger table for this room. She picked up one and saw the painted words and pictures on the side of the elementary school. Another had the damage that had been done to his truck.
There were over a dozen photos scattered across the surface. Each one had a bright red circle drawn in sharpie. The smell of coffee filled the air, but she didn’t feel like a cup. Looking over, she saw Alex pouring water into the machine.
“It’s an odd symbol for a tagger, don’t you think?” she asked. He looked her way, pressed the on switch, and came over to look. “I don’t know. I can’t figure out if it’s a signature or what. Those two curves there could be an M.”
He pointed to the spot, and she could see why he would say that, but it wasn’t what she saw. She took her phone out of her purse and pulled up Google. “What are you doing?” he asked, looking over her shoulder.
“Checking something,” she answered. She typed in “symbol for loyalty.” The search turned back hundreds of hits, so she switched to images and scrolled through until she found one that matched the circles in all of the pictures.
“Son of a bitch. How did you recognize that?” he asked, taking her phone from her hand and looking closer.
“A friend of mine has a tattoo of this symbol. Only inside of the heart, she put her boyfriend’s name. Right before he broke up with her,” Lucy said. “Loyalty. What the hell? What does loyalty have to do with defacing property?”
“I don’t know, but clearly the symbol is
meaningful to whoever it is,” Lucy said. He looked at her and nodded. She could see his mind at work in the steady set of his jaw and his eyes, now awake and sharp, as he looked through the other photos and held her phone up against them.
“Uh, I kind of have to go,” she said, laughing at his sudden intensity. “Okay,” he said, kissing her absently.
She grinned, holding out her hand. “My phone?” He looked at it, then back up at her. She just shook her head. “I’ll pick it up later,” she said, sighing exaggeratedly. He pulled her in, kissing her sweetly.
“I’ll trade you a key for the use of it. And dinner.”
“Maybe I should buy you a Smartphone for your birthday, seeing as you might be the last person on earth without one,” she said. She didn’t want to admit, to herself or him, how the idea of coming back later to dinner and her own key made her feel … whole. Found. When she hadn’t realized she was lost.
“Maybe. But for now, I’ll borrow yours, since it’s in my hand.”
She just laughed and picked up her things. As she started to leave, he called her name. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
As she got into her mom’s rarely used car, Lucy realized that the more she said it, the more it felt true.
Alex swung by the recreation center on his way to the station. He wanted to see the progress and make sure no one had caused any damage. He was pleased by what he saw; the construction was going well. The framing was done, the walls were up, windows were in, and with the weather holding up, they would have it finished reasonably soon. Part of Alex thought that it was a blessing to start from the ground up with the center. Lucy and Kate were planning an elaborate affair in a few weeks, complete with an auction and dancing. As he got back into his cruiser, Alex hoped that he would have all of the answers by then.
Dolores was at the front desk, talking to someone on the phone, when Alex walked into the station. With her hair teased up several inches, her cherry red lips, and her black mesh shirt, Alex could see why the eighties went out of style. Don’t be such an ass. She hung up the phone.
“Hey there, stranger,” she said, her eyes … seeking. Seeking what?
“Hey, Dolores. Good to have you back. How was your visit?” Alex asked. She was already pulling sticky notes off of her desk to hand to him. Lime green ones this time.
“It was really nice. Caught up with my mama and my aunties. Played some cards. I had a great time,” she said.
Her perfume scented the air when she came near. She hesitated before patting his arm. Even with her mile-high boots, she had to look up at him. Her eyes were sad.
“Listen, Dolores,” Alex said, looking around the empty station to make sure no one else was around. “I was a jerk to you last week. I’m sorry about that. This case is getting to me, but that was no reason to take it out on you.”
Dolores looked surprised and slightly uncomfortable, making Alex wonder if he’d actually hurt her feelings. She moved back to her desk and kept her head down.
“Water under the bridge, sugar. One thing had nothing to do with the other,” she answered with a nonchalant wave of her hand. The phone rang and Dolores practically jumped on it.
“Angel’s Lake Sheriff’s Department,” she said in her honeyed voice. Maybe his dad was right—maybe he did see secrets underneath everyone’s words. He might be suspicious, but it didn’t mean he was wrong.
He and his dad rarely fought. There wasn’t much need. If they didn’t see eye to eye, they stopped looking at each other until the moment passed. Still, when they did get under each other’s skin, a bit of space generally solved things. Alex didn’t think a couple of days was enough, so when Dolores came to his door and told him that Chuck was on the phone, he simply scowled at her.
“Tell him I’m busy,” he said shortly.
She frowned at him and put her hands on her generous hips.
“I will do no such thing. Good Lord. There is nothing more stubborn than a man. You don’t want to talk to him, you pick up the phone and tell him, or you hang up on him yourself,” she said, her voice a little pitchy at the end. She turned and stomped away.
“I’m not stubborn,” he called out. Her reply was less than ladylike. Alex picked up the phone and pressed line one. “What?”
“Nice greeting,” Chuck barked. “Hope your attitude improves when you get here.”
“Why am I coming there?” Alex asked, rubbing at the back of his neck where it was beginning to ache.
“Because it’s your damn job. Some punk broke all the windows in my shed and painted the hell out of one side,” Chuck said. “When was this?” Alex asked, sitting up and grabbing a pen.
“Now how would I know? If I had been here, it wouldn’t have happened,” Chuck said. “I’m on my way,” Alex sighed.
As he grabbed the keys and told Dolores where he was heading, he knew there was no denying the obvious—this was becoming personal.
Chuck Whitman’s house was about twenty minutes from the center of town. Alex hated the house when his mom had dropped him off there—he’d seen the two-story Victorian home as just another place he wasn’t wanted. True, it had felt good when he arrived to find that his dad had prepared a room for him. They had talked on the phone once Chuck had returned to Angel’s Lake, but he didn’t see him. Chuck had told him that he always had a place waiting for him, but Alex had never wanted to leave Chicago. To a ten-year-old boy, friends and baseball were all that mattered. Now, as he drove down the quiet roads that still looked more like lanes, he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
When Alex pulled up to Chuck’s house, he noticed that the lawn had been freshly mowed. He could smell the newly cut grass as he unfolded himself from the cruiser. Chuck came down the three wide steps from the porch, where he’d been standing.
“Hey,” his dad greeted. Alex didn’t want to fight with him, but he couldn’t swallow the irritation of knowing his dad was keeping secrets.
“Hey,” Alex replied, sidestepping the lawn and heading down the long gravel driveway that led to the shed, which looked more like a guest house since Chuck had added siding and redone the inside to make a workshop for himself.
“I was out running errands. Came back to this,” Chuck told him. Knowing Alex would need to take photos, his dad had left everything as it was: glass glittered in the gravel, both large and small shards. Each of the white-trimmed windows had been smashed, probably with a rock, from the look of it. Alex pulled the small digital camera out of his pocket and began to take photos.
“Did you check inside the shed to see if anything was taken?”
“Yes. Bastard took my paint to deface the siding.”
When Alex wandered around to the side that was painted, his stomach took a dive. Not only was the loyalty symbol in the far right corner, but it was painted in the same blue that had been part of the other tagging. The same blue that had been in Davey’s hair. Is there only one shade in this town? If the answer to that was yes, then it made sense that his dad had the same blue paint. If it wasn’t, it seemed like a hell of a coincidence. There were other colors mixed in—Alex could see that the tagger was running out of spray paint from the way the letters faded away near the edges. The word “fucker” was darker at the beginning than it was by the time the R trailed off.
“This one seems more direct,” Alex said quietly. “I noticed the same thing.”
“You piss anyone off?” Alex slid his dad a sideways glance.
“Besides you?” Chuck raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest. The smell of grass continued to waft through the air and mingled with the scents of someone grilling. Alex saw Mrs. Weatherly peek out from her living room window next door, and he put his hand up to wave hello.
“Yeah. Besides me,” he replied when the curtains next door closed abruptly.
Alex took more pictures, stepping lightly and carefully. The door to the shed was open.
“This is the same paint from most of the others,” Alex sai
d, looking at his dad over his shoulder.
“Yes. Now you’re going to ask why I have it. I got it from a friend. I’m making a couple of plant stands. I’m painting them this blue,” Chuck replied. His voice was defensive, but Alex knew that he understood the line of questioning.
“Hell of a coincidence,” Alex murmured, echoing his earlier thoughts. “I’m going to send one of my deputies out to take statements. See if your neighbors— maybe Mrs. Weatherly—saw anything.”
“Listen, Alex. About earlier,” Chuck said, his gruff voice gentling a little.
“Not now, Dad. Unless you think that whatever secrets you’re keeping have something to do with this, then not now.”
“Fine. But later then.”
“Later.”
Alex continued to take pictures while Chuck filled him in on the details. He hadn’t been out much more than an hour, he didn’t see anyone, and there hadn’t been any trouble in the neighborhood lately. Mick showed up shortly after Alex called him and said he would canvass the neighbors. Chuck asked Alex if he wanted to come in and have something to eat. Alex declined, needing to get back to the station, but also because he still wasn’t ready for “later.” When his phone rang, he hoped it was Lucy. He could use some Lucy right about then, but remembered he had her phone. Instead, it was Kate.
“You okay?” he asked instead of saying hello.
“I’m fine. Listen, can you come by the high school?” Kate asked. He could hear the noise in the background, making it clear she was already there.
“Everything alright?” he asked, signaling to Mick that he was taking off and waving briskly to his dad. For good measure, he turned and waved to Mrs. Weatherly, who, once again, snapped the curtains closed.
“Yes. I’m helping with the job fair. I mentioned it a while ago? Thought maybe you could drop by and talk to some of the kids about being a police officer,” she replied, telling someone to wait a minute.
Shit. There were too many things going on to keep track of. In the back of his mind, he remembered a conversation from a while back about taking part. “I’m on my way.” What was one more thing?