“I’m fine.” She gave Charlie a suspicious look. “But you’re away with the fairies if you think you’re going to get anything from me, auld man, just because I’m single again.”
Unflustered by her insults, Charlie laughed. “Dinna get your knickers in a knot, lassie. You’re a wee bit too old for me.”
Her first reaction was shock which quickly turned to anger, followed closely by the recognition that this was Charlie’s unique sense of humor. “Sure I am.” She smiled, softening her entire appearance. She must have smiled a lot during her five years with Sharkey. Surely their common interest in soccer could not have been solely responsible for the survival of a relationship for that many years. When she turned to face me, her long legs extending below her soccer shorts, and her breasts pushing against her damp T-shirt, I was reminded of her other assets.
“And you, Malcolm, am I too old for you as well?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Far too young for me,” I said, reminded of the flirtatious coeds with whom I had to contend on a daily basis.
“Besides which, my friend here is in love,” Charlie said, causing me to wonder why that bit of information was pertinent to this conversation. But I knew better than to question Charlie’s tactics.
Aileen was unabashedly looking me up and down. “What a shame.” I was beginning to understand how disconcerting it was for women when men treated them like a specimen under a microscope. My discomfort did not seem to bother Aileen, if she noticed it. “Mmmm. Lucky lady.”
I laughed and shook my head, seriously believing that she was putting me on. After all, she was not after a good grade in any physics courses. But she did go for older men, I reminded myself. Or in Sharkey’s case, was it the money?
“Aye, she is a lucky lass,” Charlie said, mischief dancing in his eyes. “He is not only a handsome devil, but independently wealthy as well.” Ah, so that’s where the detective’s mind was headed.
“Are you now?” Aileen said, stepping off her barstool, landing directly in front of me. Her hand pressed against my chest as she smiled up at me. “And if you ever decide you’d prefer someone younger, I’m available, I am.” Then with one swift motion, she snatched the pen from my jacket pocket, clicked it into writing mode, grabbed my hand, and wrote her number on my palm. Then as she replaced the pen, she winked. “You won’t go washing it now, will you?”
I chuckled and glanced down at my hand, shaking my head. “No, I would not do such a thing.”
“And how is that bastard friend of yours doing? Missing me? Ha! I’m sure the focker has hooked up with his maid by now.”
As both of us were caught off guard, neither of us responded to her second or third question. “Eddie’s doing all right,” Charlie answered the insincere question.
“I’m sure he is.” She snickered. “But if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll watch out for those greedy kids of his.” She shook her head so that her dark hair fell away from her face and onto her shoulders. “And they accused me of being after his money. Ha! They’re a couple of greedy little dossers them two are.”
Hmmm, she might consider working on her grammar a wee bit, to say nothing of cleaning up her mouth before applying for that teaching credential she was after.
She reached behind her, grabbed her glass off the counter, and as she was motioning for the bartender to bring her another, she swallowed the remainder of her beer. She and Maureen had something in common.
“So, where are you living now, Aileen?” Charlie adeptly changed the subject.
She groaned and climbed back onto her barstool, snatching up her new pint. “With my brothers. At least they have a place of their own now.”
“That could be a wee bit of a challenge.”
“You could say that. The daft twits. They behave like eejits, they do.” She nodded across the room at her brothers, each of whom had a bruised cheek and a black eye. “Sometimes I think they should have stayed in Ireland. At least there they’d be fighting for a good cause.”
“I see being in America hasn’t stopped them from fighting,” Charlie said.
Aileen shook her head, a look of disgust on her face. “No, it’s just not for a noble cause.”
“If not a noble cause, an ignoble one then?” I said.
“Let’s just say that whatever upsets the fools, they turn it into a cause.”
Charlie’s eyes met mine. “Such as a soccer game?” he asked.
“Aye, that’s a given, so it is. But just as often, a bloke coming on to their women.”
“They have women?”
She scoffed at that. “No, but they seem to think they can lay claim to one just by chatting her up in the pub. And if she goes off with someone else, that poor sucker’s in trouble.”
“Is that how they got those war wounds?” I asked. “Or did they do that to each other?”
She shook her head and took a long sip of her beer. “Neither. Those are from a fool who was paying me just a little too much attention, more than I wanted, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh, aye,” Charlie and I said. “They’re good bodyguards then,” he added. “Or perhaps not so good if two of them couldn’t take one lad.”
Aileen chuckled to herself. “He was an ex-marine.”
“Ah, at least they try to be good bodyguards.”
“Ah, that they do. But sometimes they take themselves a bit too seriously and they forget I’m a grown woman who can fend for herself.”
“This has happened more than once then,” Charlie offered.
Aileen smirked. “Since I was fourteen and—” she glanced down at her breasts, causing Charlie and me to blush before the words had even emerged from her less than refined mouth—“grew these! Every time a bloke has paid me more than a little attention, and if they thought he looked at me the wrong way.”
“Inappropriately?” I asked, guiding the conversation away from her breasts that she was now jiggling for emphasis.
“Aye, inappropriately.” Having released her breasts, she shrugged. “Or any asshole who dares to dump me. Then they go after him with fire in their eyes, so they do.” I could almost visibly see her bite her tongue and then her face paled as she realized what she’d said. She set down her beer and climbed back off her barstool. Only slightly flustered, she shook it off and said, “Don’t youse worry now. They’re not going to do your friend Eddie any harm if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“That’s exactly what we’re thinking,” Charlie said, surprising both of us with his honesty.
She raised an eyebrow, her hand once again roaming upward to my chest. “Then you’d best tell him to get out of the country for a wee while before they come after him.”
“And what exactly would they do if they caught him?”
“Not much,” she assured us. “Just break his knee caps and possibly his thumbs.” She laughed as she headed off in the direction of her blitzed bodyguards.
I couldn’t help thinking that it was fortunate for the English that she was in America. She’d give them a run for their money. Turning back to Charlie, I said, “So do you think she was exaggerating or was it an effort to cover her slip of the tongue with—”
“Sarcasm?” Charlie finished my sentence.
“Exactly.”
“Sarcasm is a most convenient distraction,” he said. “However I doubt that she would have said that if Shannon One and Two did have a hand in the failing brakes episode . . . or that they did indeed go after Eddie with fire in their eyes.”
“Unless she’s so clever that she knows we’ll assume exactly that.”
“A kind of reverse psychology?” Charlie said.
“Aye. Unless she’s unaware of the actions of her brothers.”
Charlie groaned. “Too many possibilities to deal with but I do think this warrants more research.”
“Beyond putting a tail on the Shannon boys?”
Charlie’s eyebrows rose and his impish smile turned to a broad grin. What was he up to now?
<
br /> “Don’t even think it!” I said when the realization struck me.
“And why is that?”
“Why is that? Why do I not enjoy the prospect of being used as bait? Oh, let me count the reasons.”
He tapped his foot, waiting for me to continue. Naturally, I obliged. “Aside from the fact that I do not particularly care for the idea of being used in that way, I have absolutely no desire to so much as kiss the woman in order to get her to confide in me.”
“Even if it’s for a good cause? Such as saving a friend?”
“Even for that. There’s only one woman I have any interest in kissing. I’m surprised at you, man!”
“Jenny wouldn’t mind. I assure you. If we explained the situation to her. If I explained the situation to her.”
“Well, don’t bother because it’s not going to happen.” I motioned for the bartender and quickly requested the Belhaven that I’d been craving since the moment we’d entered the pub. “Don’t you have a trumpet you need to be playing?”
“Ah, you suddenly like my trumpet playing?”
“Anything is better than listening to your mouth blether on with these absurd notions of yours.”
Charlie shrugged and motioned for the bartender to bring him the same as mine. I was surprised. He rarely drank alcohol before a set. “If the lass didn’t find me to be an ‘auld man,’ I’d sacrifice myself.”
“Would you now?”
“Aye, indeed.”
“Even if more than mere kissing were required? I have a feeling our young Irish lassie would expect a lot more than lip to lip contact.”
Charlie considered my words. “Never mind then. I’ll shut ma wee trap on the subject.”
I gave him a hard look that confirmed that he’d better do exactly that. Then I looked back across the room at the three boisterous Shannons.
Chapter 14
No soccer match or University lecture or missing person was going to keep me from Anamcara Island through another weekend. Guilt on the other hand might.
“I’m feeling as if all my time should be dedicated to finding Eddie,” I told Charlie. “As if I should take a hiatus from work, forego visiting Jenny—”
“That’s nonsense,” Charlie responded. “For one, Eddie stopped trusting us.”
“Do you think that’s true?”
“He stopped asking us to check on Sarai or for our help at all. And he stopped confiding in us.”
“Then why are we—”
“Because clearly the man has gone missing. He did not show up for his beloved soccer match.”
“So why do you call my feelings of guilt nonsense?”
“Because this is my job. You are only assisting me. You have other work for which you’re responsible.” His smile was soft. “And you are in a new phase of your relationship with Jenny. That deserves time and attention. And even if that were not the case, we help her with her cases as she helps us.”
All that he said was true. Unfortunately it did not relieve the feeling of urgency or responsibility.
“Now back to the subject at hand—your visiting my daughter. As far as the situation with Eddie, I am doing what I can from several angles. I have my men tailing the key people. And I have finally succeeded in gaining access to the prison. I will take advantage of that while you are away and will brief you upon your return. Now off with you.”
This time Charlie’s words worked. Having successfully traded lecture weekends in Bellingham with another professor, I happily left behind Seattle and all thoughts of work. As well I left all detecting up to the real detective. Monday was soon enough for him to brief me on his visit to the prison and what he had learned about the builder who had sabotaged Sharkey’s building. Until then, I did not want to hear or think about it. I wanted my first weekend with Jenny to be unaffected by anything outside of her island world.
* * *
“Thank you, MacGregor,” she whispered in my ear. It was our first night together in her bed.
“For?”
She gave me a look that said, “Are you serious?” Then she responded, “For picking up dinner for us at the pub. For understanding why I wanted to stay home with Josh, for promising to help him with his physics homework, for agreeing to take him home with you on Sunday to keep him safe.”
“I’m happy to do—all of the above.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Just because I’ve no children of my own doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them,” I said in answer to her unspoken query.
“You’re wonderful with Josh. You know he’s taking physics because of you.”
I laughed. “And you’ve created an Investigative Science class because of Charlie?”
“And because I figured he could help me with some things I’m working on. And he might as well get credit for it.” She frowned. “Hmm, sounds pretty selfish of me.”
I pulled her closer. “Nothing about you is selfish, McNair.”
She reached up and pressed her hand against my cheek. “Just as nothing about you is even remotely flawed,” she said.
My eyes widened at those words. One of these days I would have to set her straight. But not tonight. There was only one thing on my mind tonight.
* * *
I spent a glorious weekend with Jenny and her charge which miraculously alleviated my mind of all thoughts of Sharkey and his problems. I spent several hours tutoring Josh in physics, algebra, and English literature. I genuinely enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the look on Jenny’s face as she watched us working at her kitchen table.
She thought all my attention was on Josh. That wasn’t possible, not when she was in the room. Of all the places and events on the planet, including an international rugby game in Scotland, there was no place I would have preferred spending a drizzly Saturday afternoon than at her kitchen table tutoring a teenage boy if it meant I could watch her as she debated how much mayonnaise and mustard to spread on our sandwich bread.
Considering it the best weekend of my life was far from an exaggeration. I had never felt happier or more content. It was where I wanted to be, permanently.
I had debated whether or not to give her the necklace I had purchased from Moira’s Boutique. In the end, I decided to give her another gift which had cost me next to nothing but I knew she would appreciate more—photographs I had gotten from Charlie of Jenny and her beloved great aunt Winnie. I had doctored and compiled and framed them. Interpreting the expression on her face when she saw them, I knew I was right. Again she had insinuated that I was damned near perfect by telling me that next time she wanted to see some flaws. I pointed out that I snored which she seemed to find endearing. I definitely needed to honor her request and reveal some or those flaws, even if it meant shattering this idealized impression she had of me. Very soon.
I drove off her property with Josh in tow and with a promise to return as soon as possible.
It was Jenny’s and my discussion of potential energy upon which I reflected on my drive home. She had always insisted that I sensed potential energy. To me it was just a hunch. To her it was more. “When you’re clear and open, your intuition is stronger than mine, MacGregor,” she had said when she was lying in my arms our second night together. I’d had difficulty concentrating on the conversation.
As I had run my fingers up and down her arm and pushed her hair out of the way to give me a clear path so I could nibble on her neck, she had laughed. “Like right now, I’d have to say you’re definitely not clear enough to receive anything. You’re too—”
“Distracted?”
Again she had laughed, and then she had kissed me. And then my potential energy had built into something far beyond potential.
But now I was not so distracted. Now I could think about what she had tried to tell me. It was similar to her artist friend’s sculptures. Potential energy becoming kinetic energy. That was why I had convinced Charlie to keep a tail on Andy Currie past our allotted week. I did not like his energy. It was as if he was primed to do
something which most likely would involve being unfaithful to his young wife.
Whereas Aileen’s energy seemed docile despite her tactless mouth and even her fury. And her brothers? Their energy was always kinetic it seemed.
Unfortunately my senses worked in their own timeframe. Otherwise I would have insisted on going to the prison with Charlie to interview and question the guards who had known and observed for the past several years, James Webb, the contractor who had sabotaged Sharkey’s project. But then, Charlie McNair was no slouch where intuition was concerned.
Once home, I got Josh settled in his bedroom. He had thanked me numerous times on the journey to West Seattle. I could have told him the relief in Jenny’s eyes was all the thanks I needed.
“Do you think it will suffice?” I asked him.
“It’s great, Mac. Really.” He had not stopped smiling since I’d told him he could call me Mac the way Jenny’s bairns, Matthew and Holly, did.
“What is it?” I asked him when his smile became cautious.
“Uh, nothing.”
I stared him down as I’d seen Jenny do on numerous occasions with him as well as Matthew and Holly.
“Do you think I’ll be okay here? I mean, do you think they’ll find me here?”
“I don’t know how they could,” I said. “We kept you well hidden until we were on the Anacortes ferry. But I don’t think you should go out except in the backyard or over to Charlie’s.”
He nodded.
“In other words, no more going for runs.”
“I know. But it’s nice out back. I can see the water and everything.”
“And if you do want to run, I’ll take you over to the University track. We can borrow some sweats from Matt.”
“I have sweats,” he said.
He did indeed and at least four other new outfits, I had noticed. Knowing Jenny, she had ordered them the same day she had found him on that remote island. “But if you wear a pair with the University insignia,” I explained. “all the better for not standing out. And I did order some weights for you. I’ll pick them up this week and we can set up a place for you to work out in the garage.”
Saving Sharkey Page 17