Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6

by Claudia Hall Christian

  “But me?”

  “You’ve made all this happen,” Jill said. “I doubt Sandy will ever be able to tell you how much she cares about you.”

  “She shows me every day,” Aden said.

  “So hold onto that,” Jill said. “And don’t worry. I promise you, if something’s wrong, you’ll be the first to know.”

  Aden nodded.

  “Come on,” Jill said. “Let’s finish up.”

  Heading back to the truck, Aden walked into Sandy. He wrapped himself around her small form.

  “I love you,” he whispered in her ear.

  She gave him a lovely smile, kissed his lips, and continued into the Castle. He watched her hips sway. She turned at the door and winked at him. Smiling at his own insecurity, he picked up one of the last boxes.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Tuesday evening—7:15 P.M. MST (6:15 P.M. PST)

  “I have to leave in about twenty minutes,” Ava said to Seth via her webcam.

  “Sorry we were so late getting back,” Seth said. “Traffic.”

  They ate dinner together via Skype every night they could make it happen.

  “You can’t control traffic,” Ava said.

  “I hate to miss our time together,” Seth smiled.

  Blushing, she smiled. There were voices in the background and Seth turned for a moment listening to something.

  “Schmidty is taking Lizzie out to dinner,” Seth said. “See you later.”

  He was silent for a moment and she heard the door shut.

  “They seem really happy,” Seth said.

  “That’s great news,” Ava said. “She’s been pretty miserable.”

  Seth nodded.

  “Is he going to be all right with her giving the baby up?” Ava asked.

  “He thinks her relationship with her step-father was more like rape and less like love,” Seth said. “He thinks it’s better for the child if he’s with parents who don’t have that baggage.”

  “He’s right,” Ava said.

  Seth nodded. They fell silent as they each opened their foil wrapped dinners.

  “What did you get?” Seth asked.

  “Veggie enchiladas,” Ava said. “You?”

  “Yum,” Seth said. “More salad and tomato soup. I’m the salad king.”

  “It supposed to help you get better,” Ava said. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better,” Seth said. “The doc’s trying to set up some physical therapy to get me moving again. But I don’t know when I’d have time.”

  “Between a cold case and a movie?” Ava smiled. “Who has time?”

  “Bingo,” Seth laughed. “How did your review go?”

  “Not great,” Ava took a bite of her enchilada.

  “You just received commendation from the FBI, the UN, the President, and… well, everyone,” Seth poked at his salad. “What’s his problem?

  Ava pointed her fork at him.

  “Me?” Seth asked.

  “Interdepartmental relationship,” Ava said. “He told me I should think about leaving the DPD. He gave me a week to make a decision.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” Ava said. “I’ve been offered a job at the FBI but that’s in Virginia. I’ve been offered a job at the UN but that’s in Geneva or New York. And the DPD are getting that new building. The Captain promised us that we could have our own lab. Once the new building is done, the CBI will be secondary to what we could do.”

  “What options did he give you?”

  “Leave, of course,” Ava said. “End it with you. Step down lab head and let Bob run the lab. But Bob doesn’t want to run a lab. He’s retired. No one on my team wants to deal with all this departmental crap. That’s why we work this shift.”

  “Why is this happening now?” Seth asked. “If he had something to say, I would think he would have said it when we were in IAD review.”

  Ava shrugged.

  “We could always say we broke up and not,” Seth smiled.

  “I don’t want to lie,” Ava said. “It’s too much work. Plus, what would we do when we have kids or whatever?”

  “I’ll be home this weekend,” Seth said. “Don’t do anything until then.”

  “I know that look O’Malley,” Ava said. “You have a plan.”

  Seth nodded.

  “What are you going to do?” Ava asked.

  “I’m going to quit,” Seth said.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and SEVENTY-EIGHT

  Plum

  Wednesday morning – 9:15 A.M.

  “How many houses are we going to see?” Jill asked. Driving her Lexus SUV, she turned down Twentieth Street. Heather was sitting in the back seat.

  “Six,” Tanesha said.

  “Which house do you like?” Jill asked. “We should start there.”

  Tanesha scowled at her question.

  “Since we have the codes to get in for all the properties, let’s prioritize,” Heather reached over the front seat and yanked a stack of paper from Tanesha’s hand. “Lowry, Stapleton, ooh this is nice where’s that?”

  “Wash Park,” Tanesha said.

  “Montview,” Heather said.

  “By Seth’s?” Jill asked.

  “Down the street,” Tanesha said.

  “Are you going to live next to the Governor?” Jill asked.

  “Cranmer Park,” Heather said. “Nice neighborhoods.”

  “Hmmm,” Tanesha said.

  Jill pulled the SUV over.

  “What’s the problem?” Jill asked.

  “Every house is lovely, big, and beautiful,” Tanesha said. “Each one is special in its own way. Jer keeps telling me I deserve a big, gorgeous home, but…”

  “You don’t like them,” Heather said.

  “They kind of suck,” Tanesha said. “I love the Castle. You know I do. And its way bigger than anything we’ve looked at. But what I love about the Castle is it’s small private spaces. These things are like museums. We’re there touring them with the realtor and Jer’s talking about all the designer furniture he’s going to put here or there. Me? I’m thinking – Who’s going to clean this mausoleum?”

  “He’s probably thinking he’ll hire a cleaning person,” Jill said. “We have Rosa and she’s amazing.”

  “I don’t know if I want a cleaning person,” Tanesha said. “We were in one place where the kitchen was about as big as my Gran’s entire house. No, it was literally bigger than my Gran’s house. I asked. Gran’s house is two thousand square feet. This kitchen was twenty-five hundred.”

  Heather put her hand on Tanesha’s shoulder in support.

  “There we are,” Tanesha continued. “Jer’s babbling on about how I deserve the best and what not; and I’m there worrying about who’s going to clean it, not to mention heat it. He says I need to get past my poverty mindset. But seriously, how much space do two people need? That house, the one with the big kitchen? If Jer and I and his two kids and the baby Mommas and all their kids were all in the house at the same time? We wouldn’t run into each other for a month. ‘We’ll get nannies,’ he says. ‘We’ll be at med school, T,’ he says. ‘We’ll get a housekeeper and a cook. I have one in most of my houses.’”

  Tanesha snorted.

  “A cook in every house,” Tanesha said.

  “You seem really freaked out,” Heather said.

  “Scared,” Tanesha said. “Maybe I’m blocking myself from wealth or whatever, but all that fancy crap is just not me. How can we ever make it work if what I like is way below his standards?”

  Tanesha clammed up. Jill started the car.

  “Like it’s ever going to work between me and Jeraine,” Tanesha snorted to keep from crying.

  Heather squeezed Tanesha’s shoulder. They drove for a few more minutes.

  “What kind of a house is more you?” Jill asked when she pulled over.

  “You drove to my Gran’s house to show me where I belong?” Tanesha asked. “Gee thanks. Take the black girl back to the hood and…” />
  Heather cleared her throat and tapped Tanesha’s shoulder. Tanesha stopped spewing to look at her. Heather pointed to a little house caddy corner and down the block from Tanesha’s Gran’s house. The house was one story with a wide porch and a small front yard enclosed by a broken white picket fence. It had an unloved, abandoned look. Gray paint was peeling off the exterior brick. Black smoke stains seeped around the boarded up the windows. A tattered blue tarp covered a hole in the roof.

  “When we played house as kids, you used to pretend this was your house,” Jill said. “Remember?”

  “White picket fence,” Tanesha’s words were soft and filled with memory. “I loved this house.”

  “It’s owned by the bank,” Heather pointed to an aging sale sign. “I bet you could get a good deal and still have money to fix it up.”

  “No payments,” Jill said. “That’s what my girl Tanesha would like.”

  “It almost burned down a few years ago,” Tanesha said. “Gran saw the fire and called right away. I was working.”

  “The plum tree’s still there,” Jill said.

  “Plums,” Tanesha said. In her memory, her child self said, ‘I’m going to make plum pie, plum jam, everything plum, from this tree.’ Her mouth silently moved with the words.

  A large pickup truck pulled up behind them. Looking in the rearview mirror, Tanesha saw Jacob and her father, Rodney Smith.

  “Why are they here?” Tanesha asked.

  “I was telling Jacob about the house this morning,” Jill said. “He thought he could slip away to take a look at it. Jacob loves houses like this. He’ll know if it can be salvaged, how much it will cost, and how long it will take. I thought you’d want to know for sure. He called about a half hour ago to tell me he got the keys. Your Dad works with him. He’s probably tagging along out of curiosity.”

  “It’s not really what I deserve,” Tanesha’s voice was low and sad.

  “Can’t hurt anything to look,” Heather said. “We can go see all the houses you deserve after we finish. I even brought fancy furniture catalogs so we could imagine putting furniture around.”

  Tanesha turned to look from one smiling friend to the other.

  “What do you have to lose?” Jill asked.

  Nodding, Tanesha smiled and got out of the SUV. They met Jacob and her father on the sidewalk. For Tanesha, the next hour went by in a blink of an eye. Jacob and her father went down to the basement while she, Jill and Heather wandered the first floor. There were two small bedrooms toward the back, a modest sized kitchen, dining room and a living room facing the porch. The floors were wide planed birch, which ran from the front door to the back.

  After almost a year of helping Jacob with this type of remodel, Jill knew this house could be really nice. Everything Tanesha pointed out as a problem, Jill told her they could fix it easily. She encouraged Tanesha up into the attic. The women were standing in the attic when Jacob found them.

  “What’s the verdict?” Jill asked.

  “The foundation is sound and dry,” Jacob said. “It needs new water, new electricity and some brick work, of course. This would make a lovely master suite. Where’s the water?”

  He wandered over to the corner above the downstairs bathroom and began counting off steps.

  “Bathtub?” Jacob asked.

  “I like taking baths,” Tanesha said.

  “We just found another claw foot tub,” Jill said. “It’s at the shop getting re-enameled.”

  “Would be perfect here. Good thinking,” Jacob continued counting steps. “There’s enough space here for a two person bathroom. We might want to put in a dormer so you can have some… space.”

  Grinning from ear to ear, Jacob put his hands on his hips.

  “What?” Tanesha asked.

  “This house is begging for you,” Jacob said. “The bank is selling it for seventy-five thousand, but I bet I could get it for less. Should I try?”

  “Jer’s paying for it,” Tanesha said.

  “You should get the best deal possible,” her father said. “The house is going to take a lot of work.”

  Embarrassed by her longing for the house, Tanesha could only nod.

  “What color do you want to paint the outside?” Jacob asked.

  “Yellow,” Heather said.

  “With white trim,” Jill added.

  Tanesha smiled. Jill and Heather hugged her.

  “I’ll write everything up so you can take a look at it,” Jacob said. “Jeraine is a business man. He’s going to want the details.”

  “How soon could you do it?” Tanesha’s face spoke her longing, but she kept her voice cool.

  “For family?” Jacob’s eyes scanned Tanesha’s face. “Two months, maybe less. Depends on who we can get to work for us and how much money we want to spend.”

  “But you could make it nice?”

  “Nice?” Jacob smiled at Tanesha. “Let me give you a tour.”

  Wandering through the house, Jacob painted a picture of Tanesha’s perfect home. They’d fill the hole in the roof with skylights and add a dormer for the bathroom. They’d add hardwood floors to the attic and easily fix the floors everywhere else. He’d open up the kitchen and put in the same countertops Jill had in their loft. He had a great alley-find dining table that would fit perfectly in the dining room. And those windows? He’d restore the leaded glass transoms and put in double paned windows. As Tanesha listened, she saw her dream come to life. By the time they reached the front walk, she almost believed she already lived there.

  Jacob and Rodney hugged the women good-bye and sent them off to breakfast. They were on their way back to the job site before Rodney made a noise.

  “You’re not going to tell her?” Jacob asked.

  “Tell her that we lived there before I went to prison?” Rodney asked. “Tell her that her Momma and I planted that plum tree? Or maybe tell her that her Momma sold the house to pay for my pointless defense attorneys?”

  Rodney shook his head.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not going to tell her. This is her fresh start.”

  “Are you all right with her living there?” Jacob asked.

  “Yellow with white trim,” Rodney smiled. “I was very happy there. I’m sure she will be too.”

  “If you don’t want her there, this is the time to say something,” Jacob said. “I can lose the paperwork, over price the bid, or…”

  “I want my baby to be happy,” Rodney said. “I love what you said, ‘This house is begging for you.’ I felt that too. It’s like coming home. She and that house belong together.”

  “You’re a good man,” Jacob said.

  “A good man who is not going to tell his daughter she was conceived in the house she now wants to live in,” Rodney said.

  “So I’ll make it happen?”

  “Do your magic,” Rodney said.

  Smiling, Jacob dropped him off at his job site. This was just the kind of mess that Jacob loved cleaning up. On the way back to the office, he bought the little house and arranged for the initial work to begin. Jeraine would fuss some but in the end, he would love living there. Sam met him at the door of Lipson Construction.

  “You look happy,” Sam said .

  “Making magic,” Jacob said. “Say, you want to see a cool house?”

  Laughing, Sam followed him into the meeting.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Wednesday afternoon – 1:15 P.M.

  “Delphie?” Charlie called.

  “We’re out here,” Delphie met him at the back door. “Anjelika went to pick up her father.”

  “I wondered if you needed some help in the garden,” Charlie said.

  “Sure,” Delphie shifted so that Charlie could see. “I have Katy and Paddie. They’re helping me dig up the potatoes.”

  Katy and Paddie were sitting in the middle of a garden bed. Covered in dirt, they were digging, laughing and playing with garden spades. Charlie smiled at the kids.

  “Why don’t you join them?” Delphie ask
ed. “Your friend can help when she gets here.”

  “My friend?”

  “Hey Pan,” Charlie turned toward the girl’s voice. Tink was standing in the alley outside the gate.

  “Tink!” Charlie waved.

  “She can stay with us for a while,” Delphie said. “But I think she’s better off at a shelter where she can get therapy and go back to school.”

  “Aden said she couldn’t stay with us,” Charlie said.

  “This is my house, not his,” Delphie said. “It’s up to me who stays here or doesn’t.”

  Charlie’s eyes flicked to Delphie and she laughed at herself.

  “She’s better off at a shelter,” Charlie said.

  “She is,” Delphie said. “But this afternoon, Tink can harvest with us.”

  Charlie ran past the gardens and the bee yard to the alley. He let Tink in the back and gave her a brief, self conscious hug.

  “You’re all better,” Charlie said.

  “Except for the fact that I’m sober,” Tink said.

  “But…”

  “I’m kinda weak. The seizure is a big deal. I’ll probably have them now. So no drugs for me, but I feel better than I have in a really long time,” Tink said. “Thanks for visiting me, Pan and, well, saving my life. I guess I started to get better right after you were there.”

  Not sure what she was saying, Charlie nodded. Tink hugged him.

  “Come in,” Charlie said. “We’re harvesting some stuff – vegetables, fruit and whatever – this afternoon.”

  “Sounds really good.”

  Katy laughed and the teenagers turned to look at her.

  “Come on,” Charlie said. “I’ll introduce you.”

  “Cool,” Tink nodded.

  She followed Charlie into the garden. They were almost to the garden bed when she stopped.

  “I can’t stay with you,” Tink said. “I’m going into the Urban Peak shelter. They made that plan for me at the hospital. With my seizures, I need treatment and stuff. The doc said I could even go to school.”

  “That’s probably best,” Charlie said.