by Reid, Terri
“How about Gregg?” Bradley asked.
“I think he needs a little time to get his head around all this,” Mary said. “I gave him my card, so he can contact me when he’s ready.”
He closed her door and entered on the other side. With the key in the ignition, he turned to her. “So, can we go home and relax?” he asked. “It’s been a fairly eventful day.”
“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “But tonight my mom gets into town, and Rosie and Stanley are coming to dinner.”
Bradley took a deep breath and then smiled. “Well, being with family can be relaxing,” he said. “Besides, I have this need to hug Clarissa and let her know I love her.”
“Yeah, I don’t think kids can hear that too many times,” she agreed.
They went directly home and pulled up in the driveway about forty-five minutes later. Clarissa ran out to the porch to meet them. “Guess what?” she called as she hurried down the steps and across the lawn. “Grandma and Grandpa have a present for me. But Grandma said I couldn’t see it until you got home.”
Bradley picked her up and hugged her. “Well, let’s go see what they got you,” he said.
Clarissa leaned over, hugged Mary and then studied her. “You have mud all over your shirt,” she said.
Mary nodded. “Yeah, I got splashed by a mud puddle.”
“So was this an unlucky day?” she asked.
Shaking her head, Mary leaned up and gave her a kiss. “No, sweetheart, this was a very lucky day.”
They entered the house, and Mary’s mother, Margaret, enfolded them all in a big hug. “Well, I’m going to apologize for your father,” she said. “I have no idea what he was thinking, but, well, that’s an O’Reilly man for you. Let your heart do the thinking for you and consider the consequences later.”
Bradley smiled. “I don’t think just the O’Reilly men have that problem,” he said.
Margaret looked at her daughter and smiled. “Well, yes, you have the right of that, Bradley,” she agreed. “It’s a curse for anyone with the O’Reilly name.”
“So what did Da do that is so terrible?” she asked.
“Well the gift he sent is not the usual kind of gift one sends to your granddaughter,” she said. “But he said, seeing as the party was going to be on Friday the Thirteenth, we needed a good luck charm to be on our side.”
“A good luck charm?” Mary asked. “What kind of good luck charm?”
Margaret walked over to the kitchen table and picked up a fairly large box with a lid. “This kind,” she said, placing it on the floor.
Clarissa, her eyes wide with excitement, turned to her parents. “Can I open it?” she asked.
“Go ahead,” Bradley said, “so we can see what kind of trouble your grandfather is going to be in.”
Clarissa lifted the lid and peered inside. “Oh. Oh. Oh!” she cried, reaching down into the box. “It’s perfect; it’s what I always wanted.”
She pulled her hands out, and in them was a tiny, black kitten.
“A kitten?” Mary asked, watching her daughter cuddle it to her chest. “He got her a kitten?”
Margaret sighed and nodded her head. “He found it when he was on patrol, in a sack by the river,” she explained, her expression tightening with anger for a moment. “The mother and litter mates didn’t make it. So, here was this tiny speck of black fur, he tells me, that needed a home and someone to love it. And besides, he says, it has to be good luck.”
Mary stroked the kitten with her finger, and it purred loudly. “Well, you can never have too much good luck,” Mary said.
“We can keep it?” Clarissa asked, her face filled with hope.
Mary looked up at Bradley. “Well?”
“Well, we really can’t risk giving good luck away,” he said, dropping a kiss on the top of Clarissa’s head. “What are you going to call it?”
“Lucky,” Clarissa said immediately, placing her cheek against the soft fur. “Because it’s lucky for us and lucky for the kitten.”
“Perfect,” Mary said. “Just perfect.”
Chapter Forty-two
It was Mary’s turn to say goodnight to Clarissa. She and Bradley had learned that if each of them took turns with her, she was able to share different concerns with each of them as they had some one on one time with her. Clarissa was nearly asleep, the tiny kitten snuggled into her pillow purring loudly.
“This has been the best day ever,” a sleepy Clarissa yawned. “I love Lucky.”
“And it seems that she loves you right back,” Mary said, stroking the kitten. “I think it was very lucky indeed that Grandpa found her, for both of you.”
Clarissa nodded happily. “I’m never going to believe in bad luck again,” she said decisively. “Lucky is a black cat, and she is just perfect.”
“Yes she is,” Mary agreed. “Just like you.”
They sat in silence for a moment, and then Clarissa turned in her bed and looked at Mary. “Is your job dangerous?” she asked, a wrinkle line of worry appearing on her forehead.
Pondering for a moment before she responded, Mary debated whether truth was better than peace of mind. “Well, most of the time my job is very safe,” she said. “I research things on my computer. I talk to people and I help solve problems. But there are circumstances that are riskier than others, so for those times I make sure I take precautions and am very careful.”
“But it’s dangerous?” Clarissa repeated.
Mary nodded. “Yes, sometimes it can be dangerous. Why do you ask?”
“Mrs. Fuller from down the street was visiting Mrs. Brennan today,” Clarissa said. “We were playing, so she didn’t think we were listening.”
Mary shook her head. Children, she had learned, were always listening.
“She said that she wondered how you and Daddy could both have such dangerous jobs,” Clarissa continued. “How you could risk your lives when you had a child at home to take care of.”
“Well, what do you think about what she said?” Mary asked, knowing that was the only important part of this conversation.
“Sometimes I get scared that I’m going to be alone again,” Clarissa admitted. “That you and Daddy are going to die.”
Mary placed her hand on Clarissa’s head and gently stroked her hair. “Those are pretty scary thoughts, aren’t they?” she asked. “Should we think about some other things that might make you feel better when you have those kinds of thoughts?”
“What kind of things?” she asked.
“Well, let’s see,” Mary replied. “First, let’s talk about the ‘you being alone again’ part. Did you know that your daddy and I have talked to a lawyer and have made a plan that if anything ever happens to us, you will not be alone?”
Clarissa shook her head.
“Well, we have a list of people whom we have asked to take care of you in case that ever happens,” Mary said. “Your grandparents are on that list, your Uncle Sean, the Brennans, Stanley and Rosie, and even Ian.”
“Ian?” Clarissa asked. “Even he would take care of me?”
“He said he was honored that we asked him,” Mary said and then added in her best Ian accent, “and he would take his little darling and protect her with his life.”
Clarissa smiled broadly. “I love Ian.”
Mary laughed and placed a kiss on Clarissa’s forehead. “Now, don’t get any ideas about leaving us for Ian,” she teased. “And, of course, you have Mike who is your guardian angel, and he will be there to watch over you and protect you. And he loves you very much.”
She smiled contentedly. “I love Mike, too,” she said.
“So now, let’s talk about the dangerous part,” Mary said. “Both your father and I have been trained to do our jobs. Most days our jobs are just about helping people, but some days we have to deal with bad people. Then it’s a little trickier. But, we are very careful. We don’t take risks because we have a sweet daughter waiting for us at home, and we want her to be safe with us.”
&
nbsp; Clarissa yawned again, her body relaxing into her bed. “So, I’m safe, and you’re safe,” she whispered, her eyes slowly closing.
“Exactly, sweetheart,” Mary whispered back. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she murmured sleepily.
Mary kissed her once more then stood and walked over to the door. “Goodnight, pumpkin,” she said, turning off the light.
“Night, Mom,” was the soft, nearly inaudible response.
Mary stepped outside the bedroom and closed the door softly.
“Nice job,” Mike whispered as he appeared next to her.
“Thanks,” she replied. “It’s hard being a child, isn’t it?”
Mike nodded. “But I bet it’s just as hard being a parent.”
She shook her head, thinking about all the “parents” Liza had encountered over her short life. “No, it’s not hard being a parent,” she said. “It’s hard being a good parent. But it’s worth it.”
Chapter Forty-three
“How’s she doing?” Bradley asked, meeting her at the foot of the stairs.
“Well, she had some questions about our jobs,” Mary said. “Mrs. Fuller visited Katie today and expressed her concern about both of us having such dangerous jobs with a child at home.”
“Isn’t it nice to have a neighbor who cares enough about your business to share it with others?” Margaret asked with a smile.
“Well, she could have just been concerned,” Mary said.
“Aye, and if she were really concerned, she would have come to see you and expressed her worry, not your neighbor,” Margaret replied. “What she wanted was a wee bit of gossip to go with her tea.”
“So, how’s Clarissa?” Bradley asked. “Should I go up there and talk to her?”
Mary placed her hand on Bradley’s arm and stopped him from dashing up the stairs. “She’s fine. Actually, she was just falling off to sleep when I left her,” she said. “I told her that she would never be alone again, even if something were to happen to us. I let her know who we’d listed as potential guardians for her and reminded her that Mike would always be there for her.”
She smiled at Bradley. “Although we might have to worry about her trading us in for a flashier, sexier, Scottish model,” she said.
“So, you told her Ian was on the list,” Bradley chuckled.
“Don’t see what that foreigner’s got that I don’t got,” Stanley muttered from across the room.
Rosie secretly winked at Mary and Bradley, and then turned to Stanley. “Neither do I, sweetheart,” she reassured him. “Neither do I.”
“And then I told her that our jobs were mostly about helping people, but sometimes they could be dangerous,” Mary added. “But when they are, we take special care.”
“Speaking of special care,” Margaret inserted, “Bradley was just telling us about the raid tomorrow morning.”
Expecting a lecture, Mary inhaled swiftly, turned and smiled at her mother. “Yes?” she asked, praying inwardly for patience.
“If it’s fine with you, I thought I’d spend the day with Clarissa, perhaps take her out to breakfast,” her mother suggested. “And if you’re with Bradley, I’d love to drive your Roadster. That way neither of us will be sitting around worrying about you.”
Gratitude filled her heart, and blinking back tears, she crossed the room and slipped onto the couch next to her mother and into her arms. “Thank you, Mom,” she said.
“Ah, there’s my girl,” her mother crooned, comforting her adult child. “You’re doing a fine job being a mother. You handled Clarissa’s concerns perfectly. I’m proud of you.”
Lifting up her head, she sent her mom a watery smile. “I’m so emotional right now,” she confessed, wiping her cheeks. “I cry at the drop of a hat.”
“It was the same with me,” her mother said. “You’re father got so used to it, one time before we had a conversation he pulled a pile of tissues out of the box and handed them to me.”
Mary chuckled. “And how did that go over?” she asked.
“I threw the tissues, the box and a few other things at the big, insensitive lout,” she replied with a laugh. “And then I cried, and he brought me more tissues.”
“Men,” Rosie said.
“Exactly,” Mary and Margaret agreed.
Bradley turned to Stanley. “What do you say we go do the dishes or something safe like that?” he suggested.
Looking around at the women and then back at Bradley, he nodded. “Yeah, being a husband is a dangerous job iffen you ask me.”
Chapter Forty-four
Gigi poured herself another glass of scotch and tossed it down, delicately wiping the excess from the corners of her mouth. “You did well today, Joey,” she said, placing the shot glass down next to the half-full bottle. “And by that I mean you weren’t your usual, incompetent self.”
Giggling, she tottered sideways and quickly righted herself by grabbing hold of the back of an overstuffed chair. Holding tightly, she followed it around and finally slipped into it, laying her legs over the arms. “I’m in such a good mood, Joey,” she said, kicking her feet and lifting her arms over her head in a stretch. “Such a great mood.”
Suddenly, she turned to him and smiled. “Find me something to kill, okay Joey?”
It was nearly midnight, and Joey had driven back and forth to Quincy that day, a total of about seven hours of driving. He was sitting on the couch in his boxers and a t-shirt with a bottle of beer in his hand, and he didn’t want to go out.
“Gigi, darling,” he said. “We don’t have anything for you to kill. We’ll have to go out tomorrow and get something new.”
“How about goats?” she asked. “We got goats, right?”
He shook his head. “No, you took care of them last week, remember?” he said. “You got upset about something and went out and killed all four of them.”
She sighed. “Oh, yeah, I remember,” she said. “And I did it so fast it wasn’t even fun.”
“Well, tomorrow we’ll have the new little girl,” he enticed. “And that will be so much fun.”
She sighed and dropped her feet down. “It’s not that fun,” she said. “You get to do all the fun parts. All I get to do is watch and film. It would be so much more fun to get my hands on her.”
Turning again, a smile of desire in her eyes, she looked at Joey. “How about if we change places tomorrow?” she asked. “You could film, and I could have fun?”
“Well, sweetie, what do you think our viewers would think of that?” he asked, knowing the answer. “Would they like a little woman on girl sport?”
Shaking her head, she sighed. “No, the bastards, they like to pretend they’re you,” she complained. “They’d be furious.”
She turned away from Joey and pressed her head into the back cushions of the chair. “Joey,” she whimpered. “Can we get some kittens next week?”
“Yes, darling,” he said. “I’ll check in the free papers and see if there are any being offered.”
She turned around to look at him again. “Can’t we just go to the pound again?”
He shook his head. “No, darling, they are getting suspicious,” he said. “We’ve adopted our limit with them.”
“Why do people have to be so suspicious?” she cried petulantly. “Why don’t they just let us do what we want?”
“Perhaps we could leave for Quincy a little early tomorrow and see if they have an animal shelter,” Joey suggested.
She scooted around in the chair, wrapping her arms around her legs and slowly rocking back and forth in the chair. “Oh, Joey, that would be so fun,” she said, her words gently slurring together. “You would do that for me?”
Joey stood up, walked across the room to her chair and helped her up. “Of course I would do that for you,” he said as he wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her toward their bedroom. “You know I would do anything for you.”
She cuddled into him. “Thank you, Joey,” she said. “And, if you wa
nt, after we kill the little girl, you can help me kill the kitten.”
Chapter Forty-five
The predawn activity in the parking lot at the Jo Daviess County Courthouse was as low profile as possible, with vehicles from various local law enforcement agencies quietly pulling into the parking spaces and their occupants discreetly walking from the vehicles to the basement door that led to a small conference room.
Coffee and donuts seemed to be the mainstay of most law enforcement missions, and this one was like countless others Mary had participated in. She skipped the coffee, opting instead for a carton of milk, and then walked over to peruse the donuts, hoping for a chocolate glazed, Bavarian-cream-filled, long john.
Just as she spotted one and picked up a napkin to reach for it, a familiar voice rang out behind her. “What the hell is she doing here?”
Mary grabbed the donut and turned to face Chief Chase, who was not, by any stretch, happy to see her.
“Morning, Chief,” Mary said politely. “Good to see you again.”
“You do know that being married to a law enforcement official does not make you an honorary member of the team,” she said.
Ouch, Mary thought. No wonder Mike never called you back.
“Wow, thanks,” Mary replied. “I’ll have to let Bradley know.”
She glanced around to find her husband and saw him speaking with Chris Thorne, the FBI agent who was leading the raid. “I’ll tell him as soon as he’s done meeting with Chris,” Mary said with another pleasant smile. “Have a donut. It seems like you could use the sugar.”
She was just about to walk away when Chris called everyone to attention. “I want to thank you all for agreeing to work with us today,” he said. “Our number one priority is to stop an international child pornography source. We not only need to arrest the suspects but we also need to conduct a thorough search throughout the compound to discover and confiscate evidence.”