by J. D. Faver
Oz’ eyes crinkled as he gave her a huge grin with all the teeth and dimples.
“Let me get your cameras.” Gus disappeared in the back behind a curtain.
“That sounded good,” Oz said. “I never thought I’d hear you say those words.”
“I said it.” Micki leaned against him, snuggling her head on his shoulder. “I meant it.”
“Me, too. It’s you and me forever, kid.”
Gus came through the curtain with two brown paper bags, stapled closed, each with a ticket attached.
She handed Gus a credit card and then turned to Oz. He’d been strangely quiet since she had accepted his ring. He reached for the cameras, still in the bags and bade Gus goodbye with a wave.
On the street, she tucked her hand in the crook of his arm as they walked to his car. “Are you okay, Oz?”
He nodded, the grin still in place. “Yeah, I’m really good with this someday thing. A week ago I thought we were over, so I’m on top of the world.”
“Me too, but one thing,” she said.
“Anything,” he said.
“No announcement. I can’t handle your mother and my mother and Candy. They’ll get all excited and take this away from us. Can you do this for me, please?”
His gaze riveted her in place. “I will do anything you want as long as that ring stays on your finger.”
Her stomach did a flip-flop. “Oz, I would never have accepted your ring if I’d thought there was any possibility that I might give it back.”
“So it’s only my mother who could make you run screaming away?”
“And mine. It was all I could do to sit on the porch through the visit and not strangle her.” She shivered. “There were so many things I wanted to say to her, but she wouldn’t understand.”
His gaze wrapped her in compassion. “Is this about your father? When he was dying and they sent you away?”
Her throat tightened up and she couldn’t speak. She nodded, struggled to keep the tears from spilling.
Oz put her in the car and settled the cameras on the floor of the back seat. Micki leaned across and opened Oz’ door for him and he slid inside.
#
I’m engaged.
Oz drove back to the park with his face feeling like it might split open. I’m engaged to marry Micki Vermillion . . . someday.
He’d left her at his parent’s house with the ring tucked inside her bra. He could handle that. At least it was in a good place.
He drove back to the park and knocked on the green metal door belonging to the Park Maintenance Director. He had to bang his fist on the door a second time to get a response.
The door creaked open and Lloyd peered up at him with suspicion. “You again,” he said. “What do you want this time? You people haven’t returned the motor boat and we need it back.”
“It hasn’t been released by the lab yet, Lloyd.” Oz took a step towards him and the old man stepped back into the shadows of the small cluttered office. “I’d like to take a look at your personnel files.”
“Whatever for?” Lloyd asked.
“I wanted to see who you have working for you Lloyd. Is there anyone on your staff with a criminal record?”
Lloyd removed the scruffy, frayed baseball cap from his head and scratched his grizzled scalp. “Yeah, there’s one guy with a rap sheet. Leo did time for armed robbery in his youth, but he served his time and he’s been straight as a string since he got out. He’s got a wife and a little girl.”
Oz fixed the old man with a long gaze. “If that’s the case, I’m sure there’s no reason Leo would kill a guy and toss him in the lake.”
“Only if someone hurt that little girl.” Lloyd returned the cap to his head and settled it in place with his grey hair straggling out the sides. “Any father worth the name would kill the man who hurt his daughter. Do you have kids, officer?”
“No, sir, but I hope to some day.”
“When you do you’ll understand what I mean.” Lloyd nodded gruffly and motioned for Oz to follow him. He tried to open a rusty filing cabinet, but the handle came off in his hand. “Hand me that pry bar, son.” He pointed to a tool lying haphazardly among others in a plastic tub.
Oz handed it to him and the old man slipped the end of the steel bar into the file drawer and wrestled it open.
Scooping out an armload of files, Lloyd handed them to Oz. “Here ya’ go. Just be careful with ‘em. I generally don’t get into them except for once a year when I do their evaluations. Most of them guys been with me for a while.”
“I understand.” Oz hadn’t intended to take the files with him, but there wasn’t a place for him to sit in the tiny crowded office. “I’ll return these tomorrow. Is that alright?”
The old man nodded and held the door for Oz, obviously anxious for him to leave.
#
When Micki took the cameras out of the brown paper bags, she felt like a mother reunited with her lost children. She looked at the Rollei that her father had used in his business for so long. When he’d given it to her it was as though she was receiving a major part of her inheritance because the Rollei was his finest location portrait camera. He had a larger portrait camera in his studio with a set of lighting and backgrounds that he insisted were guaranteed to make any woman look beautiful.
When she’d been a small child, Micki had sat with him in his darkroom while he finished his prints. She’d watched raptly as he’d slipped a sheet of photo paper under the developing fluid and faces would magically appear. She’d learned every step of the photography business as if by osmosis at her father’s side.
Her father had closed the studio, claiming he couldn’t compete with the younger photographers with their new technology. When Micki offered to help he’d told her she could do it on her own. She hadn’t known he was sick. He’d sold the studio and put the money in an annuity so his wife would have income in his absence. His equipment was sealed in trunks in her mother’s garage, a gift to Micki whenever she was ready to use it.
Micki ran a loving hand over the camera. The Leica had been her first investment in her own business. She loved it as much as one can love a precision instrument through which one gains a more refined view of the world.
She needed to return the rental camera and the damaged case to Gus. She placed both cameras side by side on the bed in Oz’ parent’s guest room, hoping they would be safe and that no one would bother them. She almost wanted to hide them away from well meaning but curious people.
She held the Leica to her eye and looked around the room, randomly framing and focusing the lens.
Micki sucked in a deep breath when she realized that the new memory card was still in the camera. She’d changed cards when she’d been shooting Zondra’s pictures in the park. She remembered placing the filled card in the pocket of Oz’ favorite shirt and later that night, printing the two sets of proofs from it and making the back up CD. But she’d forgotten about the new card and the few pictures she’d shot after inserting it.
Luka had taken the filled memory card and smashed her computer, but the Leica containing the new memory card had been in police custody at the time he’d trashed her place.
She reviewed the photos on the card. They were just more of the same shots of Zondra and her mother. Micki needed to get these pictures saved and turned over to the police.
She started to call Oz, but she feared he’d take the card away from her. She took a deep breath. Oz is my fiancé. I have to trust that he’s not going to run over me again. She put both cameras in the bottom of a drawer and arranged a blanket over the top before sliding it closed.
She went to sit on the back porch before punching in Oz’ number.
“Hey, I was just thinking of you.” The happiness resounding in his voice reached out to wrap around her.
Micki smiled in spite of her fears. “Oz, Put on your emotional emergency brakes, because you’re going to want to steam roller me but I’m trusting that you won’t.” She waited for his reaction.
“I mean, if we don’t have this, we don’t have anything.”
He cleared his throat. “What do you need?”
“I found something. You’ll want to rush home and take it, but I need you to be cool.”
“Okay,” he pronounced slowly. “I’m cool. What did you find?”
“The rest of the pictures from the park shoot. I forgot that I changed to a new memory card. There are only about a dozen shots on it, but there might be something there.” She heard him take in a deep breath.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Come pick me up and take me to get a photo CD made. You can take it to your lab rats and they can mangle it.”
She heard the grin back in his voice. “Is that all?”
“That will do,” she said. “Thanks, Oz.”
#
Oz left the car idling and raced onto the porch to snatch Micki up for a kiss. “I missed you,” he breathed into her hair. Holding her after even a short absence made his chest tight. She smiled when he put her down. Having her back in his life was even sweeter than the first time. He could handle this box thing. All he had to do was give her a little room and they’d be alright.
He drove her to the nearest chain pharmacy and she made 2 photo CDs from the memory card. She wrote U2 on one with a black permanent marker and stuck it with the music CDs behind his visor.
“Just in case,” she said.
Oz dropped her at his parent’s house and drove to the lab.
Aida was delighted that more pictures had turned up. “Can’t wait to see these. Maybe there are as many mysteries here as on the other one.”
“There aren’t that many pictures.” Micki said. “I was almost finished with the shoot when I had to change cards.”
“Let’s take a look. Here’s the happy bride and from the matching mustache, I’d guess that’s her mother.”
Micki giggled in spite of herself.
They all squinted at the screen as Aida examined different portions of the background.
“Who’s that guy?” Oz asked. “He’s looking directly into the lens.”
They all stared at the image of a dark haired Italian or Hispanic man who’d turned to face the camera. He was young, late twenties or early thirties and seemed inordinately interested in the wedding shoot.
“Can you bring it up a little?” Micki asked.
Aida made the likeness larger and enhanced it so that the image was sharp and crisp.
“He looks familiar,” Oz said. “Like someone I’ve met recently.”
“It looks like he’s packing. Is that the butt of a handgun sticking out from under his jacket?” Aida asked.
“Yep. I’m thinking we should run him by the gang task force and through the facial recognition system.”
“Will do,” she said. “I’ll go over the rest of the pictures with my proverbial fine tooth comb and let you know what I find.”
As Oz started to leave, Aida stopped him with her hand on his sleeve. “What’s going on? You look so happy.”
“Can’t a guy be happy?” He grinned down at her.
“Yes, but you’re glowing like a bride. What’s up, Oz man?”
“My girlfriend made me a promise,” he said.
“I thought you didn’t have a girlfriend.”
“I lied.”
#
“Can we please go home, Oz?” Micki hoped that she could convince him that she was no longer in danger. She ached to escape the old neighborhood and the scrutiny of their collective families.
As if reading her thoughts, he replied, “Because you can’t stand my parents any more?”
“I want to be alone with you on the first night that we’re officially engaged.”
“Hey, I like that a lot.” He ushered her to the car and started it. “Actually, the only reason I had you stay here last night was because I was working and I didn’t want you to be alone.”
“Like the helpless little female you think I am?” She tilted her head, giving him a look.
He shook his finger at her. “That’s entrapment.”
“Maybe,” she said.
He drove slowly, mired in the stream of heavy traffic. “Put your ring on and I’ll take you home.”
“That’s bribery.” She fished the ring out of her bra and slipped it on her finger.
“Seriously, Micki, you don’t think we’re going to keep this quiet very long, do you?”
“Maybe not, but I need a little time to ourselves. I don’t want any pressure to set a date or have anyone ask me if my period is late.”
He shot her a disbelieving glance. “They wouldn’t do that.”
Micki made a scornful noise in the back of her throat.
“I promise not to say a word.” He grinned, but she knew he didn’t take her seriously.
When they reached his apartment building, Oz drove down the ramp to the underground parking and pulled into his assigned space.
“Wait!” A strangling sensation blocked her throat. She gripped his arm.
“What’s wrong?”
She expelled a breath. “I’m having a flashback. Luka zapped you with a taser right here.”
“Don’t worry. He’s in jail.”
She tried to quell the uneasy feeling in her gut. “I’m feeling a little antsy.”
“I understand, but it’s not likely we’ll be attacked a second time.”
She nodded and peered out through the car windows, following Oz as he came around to open her door.
He ushered her to the elevators and once inside pulled her into his arms. “See, no bogeymen.” As their lips met the doors opened. Oz managed to shove Micki behind him and draw his sidearm at the same time. The startled tenant dropped his briefcase and stared, openmouthed.
Oz holstered his weapon and motioned for the man to enter the elevator, but he backed away, shaking his head.
The doors closed again and the elevator safely began its ascent.
Micki burst into a fit of giggles. “Smooth move, Quick Draw. That poor man.” She tried to control it but more giggles assailed her. “I’ll bet he peed his pants right there.”
“I feel like an idiot,” Oz said.
“It was my fault,” she said. “I got you nervous.”
“But, I’m not supposed to do that.” He grinned at her. “I’m Oz. I’m always cool.”
#
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Soft and warm. He traced the line of her ribs down to her hipbone and brushed his fingers over her thigh. Smooth.
While Micki slept, Oz held her cradled against him. He wanted to remember this night; the night he’d first made love to his fiancée.
He’d never thought they would get back together. She promised him... someday. He hoped she wouldn’t take too long to set a date. At least she had taken the first step with him.
He didn’t know how he’d talk her into staying with him once she got her insurance settlement. She could replace her equipment, but there wasn’t room for a darkroom in his open plan kitchen and she loved to mess with those old black and white art photographs. It was some sort of connection to her dad.
Oz pulled the sheet over them, but kept her folded in his arms for the rest of the night. When he awoke she was still curled up beside him, her hand resting lightly on his.
We’ll never break up again, Micki. No matter what.
#
Micki drove the rented Avalon back to Gus’ shop to return the Leica and pay for the ruined camera case.
“You lost the case?” he asked.
“Not exactly,” she said. “The police have it. I sort of crushed it on someone’s face. It had DNA evidence on it so I had to give it to them.” She looked at him brightly. “But I really like the case. Whenever they return it I’m going to use it. I don’t mind that it has a couple of dents on the outside.”
Gus collapsed against his worn and scratched glass case, laughing hysterically. “Stop it, Micki. You’re going to give an old man a heart attack.”
&nbs
p; She drove to her apartment. The queasy feeling in her gut escorted her up the stairs. She paused outside the door, recalling the day Luka had been on the other side. He’s in a cell. He can’t hurt me now. She shoved the key in the lock and turned it, but hesitated a moment before turning the knob. The door swung wide, revealing only her sunny apartment with no bogeymen hiding behind it.
A week’s worth of mail lay on the floor and the debris from Luka’s attack had been gathered into a pile.
Micki sorted her mail, putting some bills in her purse while tossing the junk. She organized the other items from the break-in and ran a dust cloth over the hard surfaces. Stepping back, she reflected that it still looked like her little place, except for the missing computer and all her cameras stashed at Oz’ apartment.
It’s still my place.
#
Oz returned to the Golden Coast Spa, flashed his badge and asked to speak to Jason Best. He watched through the glass as the receptionist summoned Jason. He was working with a client on a slanted board. The woman, probably in her late forties was doing crunches as Jason held his hand to her lower abdomen. Whatever good that does!
Jason glanced up to meet Oz’ gaze through the glass and leaned down to speak to the woman with a smile. He patted her briefly and walked through the doors to the reception area.
“Officer Osmond, isn’t it?” He wiped his hands on a small towel before offering one for Oz to shake, a thin smile in place.