by Jo Barney
Matt’s glass is empty.
“More?” I move to get the bottle.
“Sorry, I’m actually here to ask you for something.” He stands, upper lip moist, not looking at me.
“What?” But I know, and it’s in the just-taken-away garbage.
“Your coat. I need to look at it.”
“We all hated that old coat. Bought it at Goodwill ten or more years ago for five dollars. My son laughed at it. I decided it was time to get rid of it. It’s in the bottom of a Waste Management truck headed for Idaho, or wherever we send our trash.” I make my eyes wide and innocent, and he takes a big breath. He and I both understand what a hole in the bottom of one pocket and a small scar on my leg probably means. The other pocket is innocent. Pepper spray doesn’t kill people.
“One more thing. Can I check your knife drawers, Ellie? My team seems to think that knives like the one that killed Jeff came with a carving fork, same design. I told them I’d look when I came by.” He sends me an I’m sorry shit-faced look.
This could complicate our happy ending. The fork with another fat Italian chef on its handle is somewhere. Where? “Don’t you need a piece of paper to search my stuff?” I ask. The frown on Matt’s face tells me I sound as guilty as sin.
“It’s okay,” Danny says. “Let him look. It’s part of his job.”
So I do. He rattles through my drawers. No fork. Matt thanks us, says that will probably do it, as far as the investigation goes. He’ll see us again, soon, he promises, when this is all over. Then, as he goes out the door, he turns to Danny, shakes his hand. “It’s been interesting working with you. I hope we can do it again.”
And I realize that Matt knew Danny was on the trail of a killer, was in town, was undercover, maybe even as he asked me how my son was doing.
“The fork’s also on the way to Idaho,” Danny says when I ask. “Along with the coat. You and I make a good team.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Sarah
October 2009
Ellie and I went shopping for a new sofa bed today. We just moved into our new apartment, two floors above where she used to live, which made moving stuff a lot easier since the super is happy to keep us in the building, and he helped. The new apartment has two bedrooms, and they’ll deliver the sofa bed, and a new mattress set for our second bedroom, which will be mine, tomorrow. When Danny and his family come down to visit, I’ll share with Gavin, and Danny and his wife will sleep in the living room, or vice versa. Doesn’t matter. We’ll all have a bed. Christmas, probably.
Ellie is sitting on the floor making a list. “We need dishes and glasses if we’re going to have the family here. And sheets, new towels, and a new shower curtain, maybe one of those guaranteed not to mildew.”
She’s still writing things down, and I ask her how we can afford all this new stuff. “I’m spending my retirement instead of leaving it to my children,” she answers. “All one thousand dollars of it. Besides, I’m going to work, part-time. I’m going to be a graffiti inspector, take pictures of the tags and graffiti all around this part of town.”
Ellie waves her arm, the good one, and grins. “It’ll help when taggers are caught; fifteen offenses, and they’re off to juvie.” She hesitates, maybe remembering threatening someone else with those words a long time ago. “Well, probably not juvie, but definitely community service. Matt came up with this job.” Then she hunches up on one arm, presses her knees against the floor, and pulls herself up.
“Let’s go shopping,” she says. “We both need new shoes.”
Reader’s Guide
for Book Clubs & Discerning Readers
1.Ellie told Danny, “You’re not my son anymore.” Are you able to choose to stop being family is or are the connections beyond our control?
2.Do you think Grandpa Jack loves Jeff?
3.Why does Sarah’s story about not getting the doll she wanted upset Ellie so deeply?
4.If you were in a situation like Ellie’s and learned your child might have attacked someone, what would you have done? Would you also have called the police? Would you have lied to the police?
5.Matt reflects that his son taught him what love was. Is love a skill you develop or does it happen naturally?
6.Collin’s mother says she was “empty of love for him.” Do you think she was lying or truly felt no love towards him? What could cause a parent to stop loving their child?
7.Why do you think Danny and Jeff’s lives turned out so differently?
8.If Sarah and Ellie had told the police about the implications of Rick’s missing finger what do you think would have gone differently?
9.What does the name “Starkey” reveal about Jeff? Why do you think the teens chose the names they did? What street name would you have chosen for yourself?
10.Matt is mad when Marge wants to reconnect with college-aged Collin. Is he protecting Collin or is he getting back at her for abandoning them? Should he have helped them reconnect?
11.Danny deals drugs, Jeff prostitutes. Which role is seen as worse by society? Which is more self-damaging?
12.Starkey says, “He was strong. That’s why I’m tough on you guys. Life‘s going to treat you bad. Already has. And I’m toughening you up.” Do you believe Starkey? Do you think he believes it or is just giving an excuse?
13.Normal rules seem to break down in the park: teenagers go there to fool around and escape their parents’ rules, a family lived off the grid there, Starkey keeps his camp, and Collin runs there to hide. ““They ought to bulldoze it, get rid of the shit that goes on there,” says one man. Is the park more of a refuge or a danger? In a city, is it important to have places where people can escape from society? What other parts of cities might turn into escape areas like this?
About the Author
After graduating from Willamette University, Jo spent the most of next thirty years teaching, counseling, mothering, wifing and of course, writing.
Her writing first appeared in small literary magazines and professional publications. Since retirement, she has had time to write four novels and two screenplays. The first book used her teaching life as inspiration and served as a way to leave a profession she loved. The second story focused on her then-prodigal son, the hockey player. She’s quite sure he is relieved that it has not yet been published. Her third novel, Her Last Words (formerly Uprush), is an intimate, almost true, story of four middle-aged women lot like her own long-time friends. Never Too Late, tells the story of Edith who wakes up one morning to find she is a widow.
Her stories and essays, as well as the novels, reflect her observations of women’s lives and the people who inhabit them: the children, husbands, parents, friends, strangers who happen by and change everything
To Connect with Jo:
www.pennerpublishing.com/penner_author/jo-barney/
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