3 Can You Picture This?

by Jerilyn Dufresne

  He nodded, mouth full of food.

  Then suddenly I yelled, “Omigod, where’s Clancy?”

  We both jumped up to search and we found her stretched out on George’s bed. Staking her claim.

  “Hope you have Animal Planet, so we can distract her while we…‌get busy.” I whispered because I really didn’t want Clancy hearing this.

  “I can’t believe you said ‘get busy’ instead of have sex, make love, or one of a thousand different ways to say it.” He hugged me, laughing. “And yes, I have cable, so we can keep Clancy busy while we get busy.”

  “Stop making fun of me.”

  “That’s the way your entire family communicates. I was just practicing,” he said. As he walked out of his room he answered his buzzing cell phone. “Lansing. Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe sit in the street in a car. I’ll keep the floodlights on in back so no one can sneak up on us. Okay.”

  Before I could ask about the call, he said, “Your brother. Said he’s the only one who can watch the house tonight. Mansfield is assigned elsewhere. So I told him to stay in front. But now I’m second-guessing myself about the decision to relocate. We probably should have stayed at your house where’s there’s only one entrance. I don’t know.”

  “It’s okay.” I hugged him. “The murderer probably doesn’t even know about me. And if he does, he doesn’t know where I am. I feel safe with you.”

  He hugged me back, but his mind seemed elsewhere.

  I tried to distract him by walking seductively toward the kitchen.

  George said, “Something wrong, hon? You look like you’re hurt.”

  I ignored the unintended jibe and said, “Nope. I’m fine. Let’s clean up the kitchen,” and muttered under my breath about men who can’t tell the difference between sexy and hurt.

  We worked together, putting food away and doing dishes. I soon forgot my pique and relaxed, thinking about how great it was to be staying with the man I loved.

  After the kitchen was cleaned, he said, “I’m going to take a shower. See you in a few minutes.” He gave me a quick kiss and went to his bedroom.

  I sat at the kitchen table for a minute and Clancy came up to me. She nuzzled against my leg, and I petted her absentmindedly.

  “I know I’ve been ignoring you, girl. I’m sorry. I’m just not used to having a boyfriend, and then there’s this whole stupid murder thing. I feel like crap. Richie got stabbed and I don’t know what’s going to happen or how long before we can go home.”

  She talked back in doggie talk. Her soft growl was comforting, but then she added another element to her message. She had to go out. I knew I had a few more minutes before George was done, so I put the leash on her and went out to the back yard.

  The floodlights hadn’t been turned on yet, so I leaned back through the door and turned them on. As I did, I heard a rustling sound. Clancy growled then barked. A moment later I saw a blue hoodie running from the bushes near the back porch out to the alley. The first thing I thought of was that George was going to be pissed.

  And I was right.

  TEN

  “What in the hell were you thinking?”

  “Obviously I thought I’d get away with it, and I wouldn’t have to explain myself.”

  He stood there with a towel around his waist and I was distracted. Even though George had a “middle aged spread,” he didn’t look bad. Not bad at all. I found it difficult to concentrate on my transgression.

  “I’m sorry, George. I really am. The truth is that I didn’t think. I forgot I was in trouble and just felt like I was at my boyfriend’s house because I want to be here, not because I have to be here.”

  “You could have been killed, Sam. I’d never forgive myself if you were hurt on my watch.” He grabbed me and held me close for a moment, then quickly backed up. “I better go get dressed,” he said with a red face.

  I laughed. “It’s okay to just put on pajamas if you want. It’s getting late.”

  “We’re still going to talk about this,” George said, and pointed to a chair. “Now sit and do not move. Or I’ll take you with me.”

  I raised my eyebrows and showed him an evil grin.

  He was back in two minutes wearing a T-shirt and gym shorts—the same thing I’d brought for myself. That made me feel warm.

  He paced the dining room as he called Rob to tell him of the guy in the yard.

  “I don’t know if he is involved in what happened to Richie or not, but we better be alert.” Rob must have said he’d go around to the back as well as the front of the house. “Sounds good, Rob. Glad to hear it. And if you are walking around the house it’ll keep you awake.” Then a soft chuckle.

  “That was really stupid.” He was all business as he sat on the love seat in the living room and pointed toward the other end for me to join him.

  “I know. I didn’t think. I’m really sorry.”

  “You can’t do it again,” he said as he grabbed my hands, and held them as if by holding them he could keep me there and keep me safe.

  “I won’t,” I promised. “I’ll let you take Clancy outside, or at the very least we’ll do it together. Okay?”

  “Okay to the first. I’ll do it. And if you noticed, all the blinds are drawn. I want you to stay away from the windows. Oh, and Rob said there would be two guys overnight after all, so I’ll be able to sleep.”

  “I promised you I’ll be careful and I will.” I added and moved closer. “Shouldn’t you turn on Animal Planet in the living room now?”

  For different reasons, he and Clancy both smiled. And that night I enjoyed some very personal protective custody indeed.

  The next morning, I woke up with a smile still on my face. I turned to hug George, and found that Clancy had maneuvered her way in between us. So I hugged her instead. I laughed as I did so, which woke up George. He leaned on his elbow and looked at me over Clancy.

  “This is cozy,” he said.

  “Yes, it is. Maybe you should get a king-sized bed.”

  He laughed and said, “I don’t think it would fit in this room. The bedrooms were built small in bungalows. Guess you were supposed to spend your time in the living room and not the bedroom.”

  He stood up and said, “I’ll give you the shower first. I’ll take Clancy out.”

  “Thanks.” As I gathered my things and went into the bathroom, I thought that even in the midst of this mess, I was happy. Very happy.

  Before I jumped in the shower I called my office and said I’d be out for a few days. Clara Schmidt, the receptionist, said she’d call my clients and reschedule them. With that finished, I was able to get ready for another day that I got to spend with my sweeties. I counted Clancy.

  George brought Clancy back in, and while he was showering I was able to spend time with my sweet dog. I fed her and gave her fresh water, and we had time for “girl talk” while I made breakfast. She isn’t much of a conversationalist, but we understood each other just fine. She stayed right by my side, standing guard as I chopped up onions and green peppers. The pungent odor kept me alert. The thought of George kept me happy.

  When George entered into the kitchen he came up behind me and hugged me. I leaned against him and inhaled his clean, manly scent.

  “What’s that aftershave you use? It reminds me of high school.”

  “You recognized that? I bought it just for you.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “It’s Hai Karate. Same thing I used to put on back when we first dated. Not easy to get now, but it was worth the effort since you noticed.”

  “I appreciate it.” I turned long enough to give him a quick kiss, then got back to my task. “I hope you like hash browns.”

  “I do.”

  “I make them with lots of stuff—onion, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese. I learned that when I volunteered in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Every mile or so they had a Waffle House which made the best hash browns I’d ever tasted. You had some veggies left over from dinner.” I moved around the kitchen opening cabine
ts until I found plates and glasses. “I scrambled up a few eggs too. One of my many vices is that I love salt and pepper. I went light on the salt, but put in a lot of black pepper. Hope it’s okay. I’m not much of a cook.”

  “It smells great,” he said. “It’s nice having someone cook for me.”

  “Will you pour the coffee? And butter the toast? Everything is just about ready.”

  I had to admit that breakfast was wonderful. It felt like a little family. George, Clancy, and me. I felt comfortable. And loved.

  Then damn reality had to insert itself.

  George answered his cell while he was still eating. He became serious immediately. “Yeah, I’ll be right there. Don’t move the body.”

  I gasped. “Another body? Another murder?”

  “Yeah,” he said, wiping his hands and mouth with his napkin after taking one last bite. “You’re coming with me. I can’t leave you alone.”

  I didn’t argue. And didn’t even ask if I could take Clancy. Of course, I’d take her, no question about it.

  We left everything on the table and went dressed as we were. I had on jeans with a short sleeve cotton sweater and he had on jeans and a St. Francis High School T-shirt.

  “Where did they find him…‌it…‌the body?”

  “The exact same spot. In the alley, against the John Wood Mansion. Same as the first man who was murdered, and same as where Richie was found.”

  He parked illegally on 12th Street, and I told Clancy to stay in the car. I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to stay in the car without George, plus I didn’t want to. I was anxious to find out what had happened.

  When we reached the spot, I saw that a screen had been placed to shield the body. I took a deep breath before moving around it.

  The sight made me gag. Every reason I didn’t go into the medical field surfaced. A man in a bright blue hoodie, also wearing a previously white T-shirt, jeans, and brown boots. Something horrible that looked like it might have come from his brain was splattered on his left side, and a handgun lay on the ground near his right side. The smell of gunpowder along with the coppery smell of blood sickened me.

  It looked like a suicide. I hoped I was right and I hoped the guy was the murderer. If so, I wouldn’t have any more worries about him hurting me too.

  I stood off the to the side while George talked to the uniformed cop by the body. I noticed another cop standing near me. It was Jimmy Mansfield, this time in uniform too, and he said he was assigned to me for the day. I gave him a half smile, thanked him, then quickly turned back to watch what George was doing.

  A few minutes later, George nodded, and the other guy placed a covering over the dead man.

  “Well?” I asked, when George walked back to me.

  “We’re not sure of anything yet, except that it looks like a suicide,” he answered.

  “It’s hard to say, but he looks about the same size as the guy in the picture. Damn, I wish I knew where that picture was.”

  “Probably totally gone. No use worrying about it,” George said. “Let’s go back to my house.”

  “Okay. Don’t you have work to do on this case?”

  “Yeah, but I can do it at home. Cell phone, computer, Skype. That’s how I’ll stay in touch, because it’s more important that I keep you safe. Once we have the body identified and have some evidence he’s the murderer, then you’ll be free.”

  “That’ll be nice, but I do kind of like this protective custody thing.”

  He grinned as he opened the car door. He nodded at a cop in a car behind us as we took off. That was the first time I noticed we were being followed. I saw that it was Jimmy, the cop who told me he was assigned to me. Guess Rob was busy or maybe off today after working all night.

  As soon as my thoughts went to Rob, my phone rang and it was him. I said, “Hi,” and told George we could go ahead and drive home, that the phone call was from Rob.

  “I just heard,” Rob said. “Was it the murderer?”

  “Don’t know for sure. He was about the same size, but in the picture I just saw him mostly from the back. I saw some of his side, but nothing of his face. It was just awful seeing the body.”

  “I know. It never gets easy.”

  “Will you please tell the others? Especially Pete and my kids? I don’t really want to talk about it any more.”

  “Sure thing, sis. Love you. And be careful.”

  “Love you too.”

  We pulled up to a red light, and George turned to me. “I love that about you.”

  “What?” I smiled.

  “That you guys always say, ‘I love you’ when you leave each other or before you hang up the phone.”

  “Mom and Dad always did that. And it gave me a little comfort knowing that the last thing they heard from me was ‘I love you.’ And it was the last thing I heard from them too.”

  I rode the rest of the way in silence to George’s house, feeling content. He parked in the garage again and we walked into his kitchen a few moments later. Clancy sat and looked up expectantly.

  “Hungry, girl?” I couldn’t help but smile when I looked at her.

  George got her food and a bowl while I filled another bowl with water. It was still early so I made the bed while George worked on the computer. I heard his voice at times when I sat to read on my iPad. I must have dozed off on the couch because the next thing I knew I felt Clancy giving me doggy kisses.

  “Clancy, stop,” I said, my eyes still closed. “I’m awake.” I moved to push her away and discovered it wasn’t Clancy after all, but George.

  I pulled him to me, and we got a little amorous until he stood up and said, “Forgot. I’m on duty. Damn.”

  I smiled, and stretched, then sat up again. I got up and followed George into the second bedroom that he’d converted to an office. “Any news yet?”

  He knew what I meant.

  “Not really. The first and last dudes didn’t have an ID on them, so we’re running the last one’s prints. We already ran the first one’s and he’s not on the database. We’re also checking their bites, and we’ll run those too, against dental records. I don’t know anything right now.”

  “Do I get to…‌er…‌have to stay here tonight?” Oops. I didn’t want to sound like I was ready to move in. I just really enjoyed being here with George.

  He answered right away without looking up. “I think tonight, yeah. We don’t know if the last guy was the murderer or not. We don’t know who it was in my backyard last night. We don’t know much of anything except we have two bodies, someone in the hospital, and not much information.”

  The day passed in a leisurely way for me, but not so much for George. He stayed on the phone and/or the computer all day, stopping only for a light lunch I’d put together with leftovers from yesterday. Around 5:30 I heard him sigh and say to someone on the other end of his phone call, “I’m done for today. Call me if you have any, and I mean any, news.”

  I stood behind him by then, and I leaned down and hugged him from behind. The chair got in the way, but I needed him to feel how much I cared about him.

  “I love you. I hope you know how much.” As I stood up he swiveled his office chair around to face me and pulled me to his lap.

  “No one will hurt you, Sam. I’ll take care of you.”

  “And sometimes, George, I’ll take care of you.”

  ELEVEN

  The evening was more pleasant than the one before, and not only because there was no extra person in the back yard. It was quiet. I read while George sat on the couch by me, watching something on the tube. A while after that, George read while I watched TV. Later, we found a show we both liked—a re-run of Bones—and sat together, whispering so Clancy didn’t hear everything we said. After that show we sat in the silence and I enjoyed it.

  I hadn’t experienced this kind of peace before. No thoughts of will he drink too much, is he cheating on me, does he love me…‌no thoughts like the ones that had cluttered my mind in previous relationships.

>   Maybe he’s “the one,” I thought, and then laughed aloud at myself. I had thought my ex-husband Joe was the one too. And I’d quickly found out how wrong I was. Joe was a man who was a good father, sometimes a great father, but he was a lousy husband. Going hot and cold, loving then not, being attentive and then ignoring me; it was a roller coaster of a marriage that didn’t suit me. I never knew whether Joe would come home right after work or at two in the morning. He wasn’t abusive to me, at least not physically. Verbal and emotional abuse was another story.

  My children knew nothing of this. And never would, at least not from me. I’d told Pete when I was in the midst of the divorce; he was the one who advised me to get an annulment “just in case.” So I did; it was on the grounds of fraud, since Joe wasn’t staying true to the promise of fidelity. It took a while, but finally was approved.

  I didn’t tell anyone else the reason for my divorce, not even my sisters or Gus. I don’t know if I was embarrassed or just didn’t want to bore them with my problems. There were some suspicions, of that I was sure. But no certainty on their part.

  But George was different. I would bet my very life on that. He was a smart ass, which I did love. However, he wasn’t cruel with his comments. He almost seemed to be a member of the family with his ready sarcastic wit. And he wasn’t afraid to be loving, even in front of others. His kindness and compassion left me feeling so much in love that I could hardly stand it. Surely he had his faults, but they were more than bearable.

  We’d made a big chef salad for dinner, with some ham on George’s portion, and George broke out some wine, since technically he wasn’t on duty. He limited both of us to one glass, just in case we had to react quickly at any time. I didn’t object since I wasn’t much of a runner even sober. Drunken staggering would make me even slower if a bad guy were chasing me.

  The rest of the evening was as pleasant as before dinner. And the night was…‌well, the night was pretty darn fantastic.

  I awoke with both a smile and a dog butt on my face. George had already gotten up, and I heard him whistling in the shower. Clancy had to go out, but I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. I called to George, saying, “Can you hurry and take Clancy outside?”