Iced Tea

by Sheila Horgan

  “That’s what you need to tell Mom.”

  “I’ll stop by for a quick cup of tea.”

  “See, you have a plan already.”

  “Teagan, shut up.”

  “I’m out of here. I’m glad you’re okay. Joe-the-cop is starting to scare me, you need to find a way to confront him safely, or get rid of him.”

  “I agree.”

  “Call me if you need me.”

  “I will.”

  THREE

  “Hi Joe, it’s me, Cara O’Flynn.”

  “Hi, Cara, what can I do for you?”

  “Well, actually, I was calling you because the other day you called and wanted to drop by. I thought if you had some free time, this afternoon would be best for me. Are you available?”

  “Sure, I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

  “Actually, I’m at my parents for a cup of tea, can you meet me here?”

  “How about you call me on your way home, and I’ll meet you there?”

  “Actually, I have a pretty full afternoon. The reason I called now is because now is when I have some time. If you can’t make it, I understand, I’ll try again in a week or so.”

  “No, your parent’s house is fine. I’ll head that direction now.”

  “That’s great. At least this time it’ll only be one police car for the neighbors to talk about.”

  “I’m sorry about that whole misunderstanding, Cara. It was never my intent to scare you. Besides, I’m in my personal car today. It’s my late shift. Don’t have to be at work till after dark.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Do you want to make it another time? I don’t want to impose on your free time. I’m sure you have more important things to do. How about we try to schedule for next week some time?”

  “No problem. I’m on my way. Maybe we can go for a walk or something, I know your mom’s house usually has about 40 people in it.”

  For some reason known only to God, I never felt comfortable with Joe, unless I felt like someone was watching. “That’s true. Truth be told, my mom’s neighbors are probably nosier than my family. They’re mostly the same people that were there when we were growing up, and they all still feel the need to watch out for the kids. They are like a neighborhood watch program on steroids. Nobody gets on the street without someone taking notice and usually taking notes.”

  “Well, I’ve been out running errands most of the day. I’m not far from your parent’s house now. I’ll swing by in a few.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  My mom had been listening to the conversation. “Cara, Love, what was that all about?”

  “Oh, Joe wanted to meet with me, and I figured, since I’d have to repeat the whole conversation anyway, I might as well just have it here.”

  “Don’t be fresh with me young lady, I’m pleased you decided to meet the young man here, I think it is better for all concerned. Shall I fix a pot of tea? Should I call your brother and see if he would care to join us?”

  “I’m sure that we’ll be fine Mom.”

  “Well, with all the talk of the neighbors, making them sound as if they’d be ready at the door, pitch fork in hand, I thought it might be that you are a bit worried.”

  “No, not worried, really, just cautious.”

  “Well, Love, cautious is always a good plan. I’ll put out some refreshments and await the arrival of your current puzzle.”

  “Thanks Mom.”

  It only took about twenty minutes for Joe-the-cop to show up at my parent’s house. He rang the doorbell, and shuffled around on the porch until my mom opened the door to him. No doubt he was a little uncomfortable with all the eyes of the neighborhood on him, perceived or real. No way you can almost run over one of the founding members of the block, and not draw the ire of all the neighbors. Most of them served popsicles to me in my youth, paid me to baby-sit in my teen years, and cheer for me even now.

  “Officer, please, come in.”

  “Thank you Mrs. O’Flynn. Please, call me Joe.”

  “Thank you, Joe. Cara is in the family room. Please, follow me.”

  I admit, I waited in the family room, and forced my mother to answer the door, so that Joe couldn’t go all psycho and pull me out of the front door and serial murder-ize me, right there, on my mother’s porch, before anyone could do anything to save me, and then I’d be splayed out, with my legs all akimbo, and tragic, forever in my mother’s memory, looking like a rag doll.

  I further admit, that every once in a while, I am a bit dramatic.

  Joe trudged in after my mother. I know he is a big bad cop and probably not a serial killer, but evidently my mother gave him a look because at the moment, he more closely resembled a twelve-year-old boy who had been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing, by his best friend’s mother, which is worse than being caught by your own mom.

  “Cara.”

  “Joe.”

  “We need to talk. Privately. Is there somewhere we can go?”

  “Joe I don’t mean to be difficult but after the stunt you pulled, right out in front of this very house, I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you without Teagan’s help. And, I wasn’t going to ask this, but now I am. Were you out at the cemetery off Bumble?”

  “When?”

  “Today. About three hours ago.”

  “No.”

  “I could have sworn I saw your car out there.”

  “I didn’t have my car three hours ago.”

  “What?”

  “My sister had my car this afternoon. I borrowed her truck so that I could move something. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was out there. She lost her fiancé not long ago and she goes out there pretty regularly.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Me too. Can we talk?”

  “We can go out front, but I’m not going anywhere with you, and I swear on all that’s Holy, if I yell, the whole block will come running, and there is no way in Hell that you will convince anyone ever again that your intent was innocent.”

  “I got it.”

  “Mom, we’re going out in front. If you hear me scream, shoot to kill.”

  “I’ll do that, Love. I’ve yet to miss a target.”

  Joe’s eyes got huge, after all, Florida is a ‘right to carry’ state, and anyone can carry a concealed weapon after a bit of training, “She’s kidding, right?”

  My mother’s face was inscrutable, “As God is my witness, I have never missed anything I have put in my sights, Child. I have been told some have a gift. And Joe, it would do you well to remember that she is the cat’s mother.”

  You would have to know my mother to know that not only has she never hit the target, she has never held a gun. Not only has she never held a gun, but if you brought a gun into her house, she’d probably use it on you. With my family, you have to listen carefully and not make a single assumption. Mom said that she’d never missed anything she shot at. She hadn’t missed, ‘cause she hadn’t shot. Wonder about the whole sin of omission thing with that statement, always a concern in the home of an Irish Catholic.

  I was thinking about that as we walked out the door.

  We got half way down the driveway before Joe simply couldn’t hold it back any more. “She is the cat’s mother? What the hell does that mean?”

  “As long as I can remember, whenever anyone referred to my mother as ‘she’, my mom would come back with ‘I am not she, she is the cat’s mother’. I’m not sure exactly what it means, but my guess is that using the word ‘she’ indicates a lack of respect and it is not acceptable. My mother is anything but generic.”

  “I’ve yet to meet anyone in your family, or associated with your family, that is the least bit generic.”

  “Okay Joe, so why are we out here? What is so important that you need to talk to me, but not in front of my mother, a person that has more integrity than you can aspire to?”

  “It isn’t that I don’t trust your mother, it’s that I choose not to includ
e your mother. What I’m going to tell you is confidential. The fewer people that know it, the fewer people will be in a very small group when it is done.”

  “I have no idea what that means, but I’m not in the mood to play twenty questions, and I’m not the super hero type, and I, the person who has more patience than Job, has lost her patience, so either tell me what you’re going to tell me, or I’m going back in the house.”

  “Cara, I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

  “No shit Sherlock. I’m not a rocket scientist, but even I figured that much out.”

  “I need you to trust me.”

  “Great approach. Tell me you’re a liar, then, tell me to trust you. You aren’t really good at this stuff are you?”

  “I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you the whole truth.”

  “You’re talking to a multi-generational Irish Catholic, don’t make me explain the whole sin of omission thing.”

  “Cara, I’m not going to argue, and I’m not going to play games. I had a very good reason not to tell you everything. You need to shut-up and listen, because you could be in danger, and you could be putting everyone you care about in danger too, especially that sister of yours, Teagan.”

  “You have my attention.”

  “It’s a long story. Can we go somewhere a little less conspicuous than standing in the middle of your driveway?”

  “Sure. Wait here, I’ll be back in thirty seconds.”

  I ran in the house. Told my mom I was still alive, no need to panic yet. Grabbed two Pepsis out of the fridge, wondered, not for the first time, why my mother didn’t keep Pepsi in the fridge when I was younger, ran through the living room, down the hall, to the linen closet, bottom shelf, picnic blanket, grabbed it, turned and was back out front in the allotted time.

  “What is all that?”

  “Our disguise.”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to lay the blanket on the grass, under the tree, we are going to sit down on the blanket and talk, drink Pepsi, and the whole neighborhood will think we are just having a little picnic. No one will think anything of it.”

  “Fine.”

  We sat down on the blanket and opened our Pepsis. I sat in silence waiting for Joe to say something. Refusing to make it any easier for him.

  “First, I need you to promise that what I tell you is just between you and me. I need to you to promise me that you aren’t going to tell anyone. Not your sister, not your brother the cop, not even your boyfriend.”

  “If you knew anything about me, you would know that the order is wrong, but, I don’t make promises that I don’t intend to keep, and I don’t know if I will keep that promise until I hear what it is you have to say, so I’m not promising anything.”

  “Cara, I’m trying to help you here.”

  “If that’s true, then obviously I will do what you think is best.”

  “Fine. I’ll tell you what I need to tell you and leave it up to you. You need to understand right up front, that if you decide to tell anyone about this, you will not only be putting your family in danger, but a lot of other people and lots of money too.”

  “I didn’t take you for the melodramatic type. Would you just tell me what is going on Joe?”

  “I need to back up a little bit. You were told that Louis had a forced medical retirement, that he was shot, and they retired him.”

  “Right.”

  “The truth is, that he was shot, and he was doing therapy to get healthy again, but he was never retired.”

  “Okay.”

  “Instead of retirement, he went undercover.”

  “A shot up cop went undercover?”

  “Yes. The cover was that he was pissed off because the force screwed him over. He didn’t hide the fact that he had been a cop, he hid the fact that he was still a cop.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Pretty simple really. You read those journals. Someone is killing kids. That’s all the motivation he needed.”

  “Right. A serial killer is going to take a shot up cop into his confidence and confess all the killings.”

  “We don’t think that the kids are being killed by a serial killer, well, not in the traditional sense of the word. We think that it is a commercial endeavor.”

  “What? You mean snuff films. I read somewhere that snuff films were pretty much an urban legend. That people freak out about them, but that no one has ever actually found one. Is that true?”

  “Cara, people started talking about snuff films back in the 70s. If you do a computer search, you’ll probably read all kinds of shit about there being no such thing, but I have to tell you, things have changed a lot since the 70s and I would not be at all surprised if snuff films exist, but that isn’t what I’m talking about.”

  “Then what are you talking about?”

  “I can’t go into too much detail Cara.”

  “Bull. You can go as far as you want, you just want to titillate, then get me all paranoid, and to believe that anything and everything you do is in the best interest of the community, so I’ll just sit back and keep my mouth shut and stay out of the way.”

  “I figured that would be your response. Here’s the thing. I want you to really think about it. Why do you think I turned up at Louis’s condo the day you did?”

  “Coincidence? Serendipity? Inability to mind your own business?”

  “And why do you think I followed you to your apartment?”

  “Same response.”

  “It didn’t strike you as weird that I would be able to get your address?”

  “I figured you just typed my name into the terminal in your police car.”

  “That would have been difficult, since I didn’t know your last name, and I was using my personal car.”

  “Fine, you could have written down my tag number when you left, run it, then come over to my house. It was a little while between the time you left Louis’s condo and when you showed up at my apartment uninvited.”

  “Well, you’re right, I did run your tag, but you can’t just run a tag these days Cara. You have to have a reason.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure that’s true, but cops can find a way around a lot of things.”

  “I’m not going to debate this with you.”

  “Fine, why did you show up at the condo?”

  “Because we knew that you had entered the apartment and we needed to know why. Then we needed to verify that you were who you said you were and that your actions were justified and on task.”

  “If that’s true, then you know that all of that is true, and we don’t have a problem.”

  “Well, actually, that isn’t true. You left the building with the journals. We had to determine why you would do that.”

  “Because I’m nosey, and you scared the crap out of me, and so did the stuff I read in the journal.”

  “I believe that now, but had no reason to think that then.”

  “Is that why you showed up at my apartment?”

  “Yep.”

  “But by then you knew that I was the sister of a cop, you must have known there was no problem, and you didn’t take the journals, so that wasn’t it, and you could have just taken the journals out of the condo sooner if you needed them, or didn’t want anyone to read them, and besides, you said that Louis was killed in a car accident.”

  “Again, Cara, I’m not going to explain every detail to you, at least not yet. What I am going to tell you, is that you have walked right into the middle of something that you do not need to involve yourself in.”

  “So, how am I supposed to verify all this, so that I can be sure that you aren’t just some kind of nut?”

  “Well, Steven, Louis’s brother hasn’t gotten back to you about anything, has he?”

  “No, but I just kind of assumed that Steven is a jerk.”

  “He is, but that isn’t the extent of it.”

  “Why do you think the condo hasn’t been put on the market?”

  �
�In this economy?”

  “Fine, why do you think you had a two minute response the last time I was here?”

  “When you tried to run me over?”

  “I didn’t try to run you over Cara. Didn’t it dawn on you that it was rather quick that your sister dialed 911 and within moments, you had a full response, including supervisor?”

  “I figured it was because she said she was calling the media.”

  “Well, I would suggest to you that it was because they were in the parking lot at the end of Blumford, and that when the 911 call came in, they figured you and your sister had completely blown the whole thing wide open.”

  “What whole thing?”

  “I thought for sure you were going to get your brother involved that night. That would have been a bad thing.”

  “That’s what I kept telling my family, but they rarely listen. We figured that it would all be over before he could show up at the house.”

  “I’m glad he didn’t show up. It’s been complicated enough to keep him out of this.”

  “So, I’m not supposed to say anything to him, and that way there’s no way for me to check out your story.”

  “It will all be done in a few days Cara. Your sister is going back to work; she will be out of it. Your brother is out of it. If you can keep your mouth shut and stay out of the way, you will be out of it, and when it’s all done, I’ll answer any questions you have.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it.”

  “So what do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to mind your own business.”

  “That’s virtually impossible.”

  “I’ve learned that about you.”

  “And you will explain everything to me in the next few days?”

  “Yes.”

  “Define, few.”

  “I can’t do that Cara.”

  “So basically what you’re saying to me is that I am supposed to take at face value that there’s some police thing happening, that I happened to step on, through no fault of my own, but that there’s some man behind the curtain, and he is going to work it all out, and until then, I’m supposed to shut up and stay out of the way.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “And because of this super secret thing, I can’t tell my brother about it, because he’s a cop, I would naturally turn to him, and I can’t tell my sister about it, because she is my best friend, and she helps me figure everything out, and I can’t tell anyone I trust, because I could be putting them in harm’s way.”