Relatively Risky

by Pauline Baird Jones

  They taped the lid shut, then tipped the box, so that one seam of the base was exposed. It might have been hard, but she was her father’s daughter. She didn’t work a lot in wood, but she’d helped him whenever she needed to talk to him, or he needed to talk to her. She gently worked the flathead into the seam, then tapped it until a gap appeared. She took her time, working her way around the base. When it was ready to lift clear, she looked at Sarah and got a thumbs up.

  “Right.” She lifted the base up and off and set it on the desk top. Sarah hooked a hip on her side of the desk and leaned close, though she waited for Nell to take the first look. She leaned over. “There is something.”

  Plastic wrapped, it seemed to fill the space until she lifted it clear. There was a compartment, a fairly substantial one. The base of what she guessed were the music box workings appeared to start about halfway to the lid. Nell studied the package. Found the edge of the plastic and pulled at the seal. There were several layers of fabric, possibly to mute any rattling if someone shook the box, as Alex had done. Nell peeled back each layer of stiff, faded cloth until finally—

  “It’s a letter, addressed to me.” The paper had yellowed, the sealed edge no longer perfect. Nell slid a finger in and the flap lifted. She pulled out a couple of folded sheets and spread them out on the desk top, so Sarah could see. She did it without pausing, because if she stopped to think about it…

  “Do you want me to—”

  “No. Sisters remember?”

  So, shoulders almost touching, they bent over the faded, but familiar script.

  * * *

  Our dearest daughter,

  We are both so very, very sorry. We hoped and prayed that this moment would never come. That you would never need to see this letter. At first we thought we’d never tell you. Why should anyone ever connect you with the kids that we were. But every day you grow more and more like me in looks. And your drawing shows such promise. Who is to say that some day you won’t be famous? It is my hope that when that day comes, that we are here to tell you our story. But even normal life is full of uncertainty and risk. We could not leave you ill-prepared if some mischance should bring you in contact with either of our families.

  * * *

  The story was, for most part, what Nell had heard. There were a few details that weren’t known.

  * * *

  My mom told me that Dad and Phil’s father had plotted and planned for us to get married, but that we wouldn’t be allowed to choose what kind of life we wanted to have. I was seventeen and I learned that my dad had forced my mom to marry him, that he would only love me if I did what he wanted. And then I found out I was pregnant. If I lived long enough to have you, would they let me live to raise you? Your dad and I didn’t think so and neither did my mom.

  * * *

  “So Ellie did help them escape,” Nell murmured. “I wondered.” She scanned the sheets. “But they don’t seem to know what happened to her either.”

  “No mention of anyone else helping them,” Sarah said. “I wonder how old they were when they wrote this and sealed it up?”

  Nell shook her head as she re-read the final paragraph once more.

  * * *

  Take this package, leave it sealed, please, and give it to the proper authorities.

  “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

  Don’t fear it or forget it, our darling daughter. And please know that we loved you more than anything or anyone. Love, your mom.

  * * *

  “The proper authorities?” Nell looked at Sarah.

  Before she could answer, her phone shrilled. After a short conversation, she hung up, looking a bit bemused.

  “That was Frank Baker, the one who is with the FBI. He wants to come and get your statement.” She grinned. “If he looks proper, I say we hand this hot potato off to him.”

  “Works for me,” Nell said, her gaze once more on her parents’ last message.

  Alex slept deep and he slept long. He woke feeling like he’d had a few dreams, but he didn’t remember them and wasn’t sorry about it. Nell did her mental dumps by sketching. For Alex, he did his mental dumping in his dreams. This morning, he didn’t want to know what worried him. He checked the time on his cell and amended that to afternoon.

  It had been late when they finally cleared the crime scene. He’d been relieved his dad didn’t wait up for him. Would he be that lucky now?

  He swung his legs over the side of the bed, rested his forearms on his knees and put his head in his hands. It still ached, along with most of his muscles. He needed to think. He hated to think. He preferred doing, but he didn’t know what to do without thinking. Crap. He’d shower. For some reason, thinking was easier in the shower.

  But it wasn’t. Oh, the water helped ease the aches and pains. But his thoughts cycled uneasily between his dad and Nell.

  How did you ask the dad—who could still kick your ass, by the way—what had really happened thirty years ago? And why had Calvino been to see him? And oh, by the way, would it bother you if I went on a few dates with the wise guys’ granddaughter?

  He shouldn’t see her again. He didn’t have to if he let Frank and Ben take over. He wasn’t actually official anyway.

  But he wanted to see her again.

  He was a cop.

  Even if she wasn’t a crook, she was related to a bunch of them. It could hurt his career. Or it might help it. You never knew for sure what would help or hurt in the Big Easy. But he should probably put it in the negative column, just to be on the safe side, right under “she attracts kids like honey attracts flies” and before “would probably piss off his dad.”

  The reasons to see her were not compelling. She was cute. She had guts. She made him laugh. She’d gotten him up a tree. It had been nice up the tree. He liked kissing her. A lot. He would like to do it again. He could probably find someone else to kiss, but he’d learned that if you wanted to kiss one girl, kissing a different one didn’t help all that much.

  Dating, even kissing a girl, wasn’t like marrying her. They could go out, be friends, couldn’t they? He didn’t like admitting it, didn’t plan to admit it ever again if he could help it, but he wasn’t sure he could stay away.

  He dressed and headed into the kitchen, hoping that—hope died.

  Zach sat at the table, sipping his coffee like a man who had years to sip and wait.

  “Sit down, son,” he said, pushing a chair back with his foot.

  He didn’t have to. He was forty years old and he could damn well—his legs kind of went wobbly and his butt hit the chair. Okay, the old man wanted to talk, they’d talk. He looked at his dad, opened his mouth to ask about Calvino, but what came out was, “I like her.”

  His eyes widened in horror, not helped by his defensive tone or his dad’s grin.

  “She’s more like Ellie than she knows,” Zach said. His grin faded. “And she’s got some of the same problems.”

  Alex considered this. Considered several responses before saying, “I’m not going away, Dad.”

  Zach studied him for as long as Alex had pondered. Then he smiled, a bit wryly. “I’m glad to hear it, bubba.” He pushed back his chair. “I’ve gotta meet Leslie, and Frank wants you to call.”

  Alex opened his mouth to ask—but he closed it. He still wasn’t sure, though he did know one thing. His dad was a good man.

  14

  One week later

  * * *

  Nell stared at her sketchbook. Between giving statements to Ben and Frank, Nell had sketch-dumped everything she could onto page after page of multiple sketchbooks. Alex had come by a couple of times, but he’d been a cop both times. She’d seen him make the switch after the shooting, so it wasn’t a shock. She might have been a little disappointed, but she sensed he was clearing decks, too, just in a different way.

  It didn’t mean he’d come back as a friend. Her relatives had to be a problem for him, or his career anyway, even if he might kind of like her per
sonally. A little. He’d kissed her like he liked her. She tried not to think about the kiss. It made her swing between hope and despair. It had been a great kiss and it would suck to never do it again. Most of the time she managed not to think about it, though it was harder at night. And when she was tired. And when Alex was around not kissing her.

  No one told her what had been in the sealed bundle she’d given to Frank and she didn’t ask. After he left, she’d carefully closed the case up again and returned it to its place in the sitting room. She’d even lifted the lid and remembered her parents through one, still painful refrain. Then she decided she could remember her mom and dad without the tinny music and went to find Sarah.

  About halfway through the week, Alex’s baby sister, Maddy, showed up and told her she was going to represent Nell’s interests. She also explained what it meant to be “baked.”

  Nell had no comment to make on being baked but had felt a need to point out that, “I can’t actually afford a lawyer.”

  “Oh don’t worry about it. I need the practice and I like the view.”

  Nell wasn’t sure what this meant until Alex arrived. There was obviously some sibling-type, ongoing joke between them. They may enjoy it for different reasons, but Nell also liked the view when Alex was around.

  Nell wasn’t sure it was Maddy or the wise families that killed any mention of her from the news stories about the shootings.

  From Maddy she learned that Curly had had a heart attack and probably wouldn’t live long enough to go to trial. Information about Junior and grandma not-dearest was also hard to come by. Maddy said she might beat the rap. She was a “canny old bird.” It was also Maddy who told her they would be exhuming the bodies from the not-her-parents’-crypts tombs. “ID is going to be a bitch, if they can even get one.”

  “Because it’s been so long?” Nell asked.

  “That and, you know, they remove the bodies from the coffins after a year or so and deposit them in a lower part of the tomb, so that the crypt can be reused. All the remains will be mixed together. And then there’s the heat issue. Chances of any DNA being left is slim and then matching it to anyone thirty years ago? Doubtful.”

  Nell nodded. “Why bother then?”

  “My sister, Hannah, loves a challenge. And you never know. They matched that king that was in the parking lot.”

  Nell blinked. She did recall reading that story, but who was Hannah—

  “Hannah’s a forensic pathologist.”

  “Wow. Your family really does have all the bases covered.” They were steeped in law enforcement. A totally law abiding family. And she was steeped in what? Her genetics were hip deep in crime, in crime families, but her nurture had percolated resolutely through dull. Ordinary. It was an uneasy combination. And amazing. In a very dull way. So dull, she’d almost died in a laundry room. Which made it both dull and ironic.

  Afoniki-the-younger had cancelled the dinner party, and paid the fee without a single threat. No one but Sarah knew Afoniki-the-older had invited Nell to dinner. It was a couple of weeks out and who knew, maybe he’d die before she had to figure out what to do about it.

  There’d been no further contact from either branch of her newly discovered relatives. When things calmed down, she would like to research Ellie’s family. She figured that had to be the line where her honest genes came from. Perhaps some research would turn up the honest DNA in her dad’s family, too. Though she wasn’t too eager to dig into that murky pool. For some weird reason, she was a bit miffed the Families seemed to be ignoring her. It was illogical and a bit crazy.

  Sarah must have sensed her feelings. “It’s better not to have expectations about family or—”

  —anyone else, she didn’t say. She knew that Nell knew all about not having expectations about guys.

  “I just wanted to reject them first,” Nell admitted with a wry grin. “I guess I should have expected the bad guys to be better and faster at it than me.”

  Each time Alex came as a cop, and left as cop, Nell’s hopes sank a little lower. She’d liked him. Had thought he liked her. Could they be “just friends?” Okay, probably not, unless it was friends with kissing and what guy could handle that?

  But she needed to apologize to him. She’d apologized to Ben about his car. Zach had looked a bit bewildered by his apology. She couldn’t explain to him she was sorry about wanting to draw him as a zucchini and the whole blushing around him deal. Laura got one, too. Nell still hadn’t got her head examined. Weird how the first apology, one that was oddly cathartic, had led to more and more until she’d had to stop herself from writing apology notes to her grandparents.

  Nell hadn’t left the house—or gone up the tree—since grandma got arrested, but she knew they were still under surveillance. One of the cars occupied a really sweet parking space out front. The other made their back parking challenging. She wasn’t sure if they actually needed protection or the cops couldn’t bring themselves to give up the prime real estate.

  It had been a couple of days since any Baker had been by. It was a pity. The black eye was nearly gone and she could almost walk without wincing. Not that she jumped up when the sonorous front bell clanged—though she did jump. She heard Sarah tap down the hall toward it and turned her attention back to her sketch, tweaking one of the images that wasn’t quite right…

  “Hi.” Alex leaned against the jamb and grinned at her. “You look…better.”

  She was mostly more rested, though she did have intermittent trouble sleeping.

  “Thanks.” He looked better, too. And, she noted with a tiny flicker of something that might be hope, that he looked less cop. In fact, he looked very relaxed. Cheerful even. She felt the edges of her mouth curl up and her insides relax. Oh crap. I like him. Her heart wasn’t on the line. She’d known him for nine days, but there might be bruising in her heart’s future, if she weren’t careful.

  He straightened, took the two strides—my his legs were long—and sank down next to her. Not quite touching, but close enough that she could smell him. Dang, the boy smelled good.

  “Is Maddy helping you okay? She’s new at the lawyer crap.”

  Nell’s brows arched. “You sent her?”

  He grinned. “She wouldn’t have come if she thought I sent her here. Let’s just say I…wound her up and aimed her. But I’ll deny it if you tell her.”

  Nell chuckled. “I like her.” I like you. Dang it. Now that he’d relaxed, she realized how tense and grim he’d been during their two days in wise-hell. Even when he’d come up her tree, he hadn’t been this easy going.

  “Something’s happened?” Changed for the better?

  “That is the general trend according to my brothers.” He frowned, but it wasn’t a grouchy frown. More a thinking frown. But different from the cop thinking frown.

  You’ve known him nine days, girl. You don’t know him well enough to know his frowns. Chill.

  “And to what do they think things are trending?” That sounded so librarian. She almost winced, except he smiled and turned on the couch, lifting an arm to rest along the couch in back of her. Maybe there’d been a hint of sexy librarian in there? A girl could hope.

  “According to Frank, the families have issued a hands-off order on you.”

  She felt the warmth of his arm along her back, though it wasn’t quite touching her.

  “So that’s a good thing?” Unless it meant Alex couldn’t touch her. If he wanted to—

  He grinned. “Very good.”

  What could have made them care, she wondered. “Because I don’t have any information anymore?”

  “And,” he shifted a bit, his grin turning a bit devilish, “the various Bakers might have let it be known our family has an interest in your well being.”

  “Oh, Alex.” Nell didn’t know what to say. “After everything that happened, all that’s gone wrong since I rode into your car jacking? You all should have signed a petition or chipped in on a hit to take me out…” She looked into his oh-so-blue e
yes. “Thank you.”

  He shifted now, looking uncomfortable. “It’s our job, in one way or another.”

  “So does that mean the guys out front are leaving?” And you, she wanted to ask? Is this the last time you’ll be by? She could get clingy if she weren’t careful.

  “If we can get them to give up the parking spot, they should be gone by tonight.”

  “So much good news, is there any bad?”

  “Actually, after a week-long battle with the insurance company, I am mobile once more.”

  “Congratulations.” Nell smiled.

  “Yeah, they get the first born I’ll never have and I get to pay my arms and legs in insurance premiums. But I’m rolling again.” He gave her a look that had a touch of hopeful in it. “So, we both have something to celebrate”

  “We do?” Nell gave him a suspicious look. Was the comment about the first born a warning? Or just a joke?

  “I have wheels and you don’t have to go into Wit-Sec.”

  She hadn’t thought about witness protection. Since Junior might end up there, Nell did not mind missing it. She’d have missed Sarah, too. She was tempted to suggest picking air instruments, but didn’t think she had the nerve. She could ram a goon with a broom, but—what? She couldn’t ask him to kiss her again. Been there done that. Doing it again would sound needy. He liked coffee. She could offer him coffee. She sniffed cautiously. Maybe not. She didn’t know how to make it. Had never learned to manage Sarah’s pot.

  “That is good news,” she said. She hadn’t felt this awkward up the tree with him. Maybe she could ask him—oh my gosh. She was not asking him up a tree again. She swallowed dryly. Brief, frantic search for something else… “How is your dad?”

  Alex kind of grimaced. “He’s got a girlfriend.”

  “Really? I mean, how nice. Is it…nice?”