That Old Devil Moon

by Anne Logan

  She hung up the phone. Then, wishing she had thought to stop off at a grocery store when she’d left Crescent Antiques, she reached for the telephone book and flipped over to the T’s in the Yellow Pages. The cost of another taxi ride, beer and pizza was a small enough price to pay for help, she decided. “I need some groceries, anyway,” she muttered as she punched out the number of a cab company.

  LATER THAT AFTERNOON, across town, Alex glanced at his watch as he stood in the middle of his living room. “Carla!” he called out. “We need to leave now. I told Casey I’d meet him at six and it’s almost a quarter to.”

  “Okay, okay, I’m coming,” she yelled from her room.

  Alex counted to ten. All day long she had tested his patience. He’d slept badly after leaving Maddie. Thinking about her and what she’d said about being on her own since she was six had bothered him more than he’d figured. He’d thought from the beginning that Madeline Johnson was too damned independent for her own good, and now he knew why.

  In between all of Carla’s phone calls, he had been able to make a few of his own, but then he’d had to contend with his daughter interrupting him every few minutes to see if he was through. It didn’t take him long to realize that if he got full custody of her, he’d have to get her a separate phone line.

  But the calls he had been able to make had paid off. He’d learned that Maddie’s father had died of a heart attack when she was six, leaving her uneducated mother with two children to raise and no insurance or benefits except social security. Her mother had worked at two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. He’d also learned that social services had tried to take Maddie and Michael.

  Alex glanced at his watch again. “Carla! Now, please.”

  “Just a sec more!” she yelled as she shoved some extra clothes into a tote bag on top of a fat manila envelope. Grabbing her black boots on the way out, she hurried down the hallway.

  When she entered the living room, her father stared at her, disapproval written all over his face. Too bad, she thought. She liked the color black; it fit in with the group.

  “What’s that for?” Alex pointed at the tote bag.

  “Pajamas and clothes and stuff.” She raised her chin in defiance. “I was talking to Kelly earlier, and she asked if I could sleep over.” Carla crossed her fingers for luck and wondered how many Hail Marys she would have to say for lying.

  When she saw her father’s frown deepen, she figured she’d have to resort to the tried-and-true guilt-trip ploy. “If Mom were here, she would let me,” she whined, “so I told Kelly that I was sure it would be okay with you, too. It is, isn’t it?” She gave her father her most innocent look, the one guaranteed to make him see things her way. “Her house is on the way to Maddie’s apartment and you could just drop me off. You won’t even have to pick me up tomorrow. Kelly’s mom will bring me home.”

  Alex began shaking his head. “I don’t know, Carla. In the first place, I’m not your mother, and in the second place, this is kind of short notice. Are you sure it’s all right with her folks?”

  “If you want, you can call,” she answered, holding her breath and praying that he wouldn’t.

  Alex glanced at his watch then back at Carla. “I guess it’s okay this time, but don’t wait until the last minute to tell me from now on.”

  Carla let out her breath in a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Dad.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a notepad. “So, what’s Kelly’s last name and phone number? And what time will her mother bring you home tomorrow?”

  Should have known it wouldn’t be so easy, Carla thought as she dutifully gave her father her friend’s name and phone number. “We’ll probably sleep late tomorrow, so don’t look for me before noon.”

  Ten minutes later, when her father let her out at the address she’d given him, she stood and waved at him until his car reached the end of the block. The moment he turned the corner and disappeared, Carla pivoted, and like a shot, she hotfooted it down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

  Parked on a corner was a beat-up, late-model truck. The boy in the driver’s seat was tall and skinny, had long, blond hair that brushed his shoulders and was dressed in a black T-shirt and black jeans. Across the front of the T-shirt, the words Black Knights were emblazoned in a color and design that resembled smeared blood.

  As soon as the boy saw Carla, he reached across the seat and shoved open the door. Carla threw in her tote bag first, then climbed inside.

  “Any problems getting away?” he asked as he turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life.

  Carla shrugged. “No more than usual, but my dad is different from my mom. If he ever finds out I lied to him, he’ll go ballistic.”

  The boy gave a nervous laugh, glanced over his shoulder and pulled out into the street. “Oh, great! That’s all we need right now, a cop on our case. Guess we’ll just have to stay cool and be extra careful—make sure he doesn’t find out. By the way, Marty can’t show until midnight, after his shift at the burger joint.”

  Carla shrugged. “No big deal. Things don’t really get rad till midnight, anyway. I just hope my old man doesn’t decide to call Kelly’s house and check up on me. Remind me to give her a call and warn her in case he does. She can always say I’m in the shower or something.” Carla fidgeted in the seat just thinking about her father’s temper. “You should have seen the way he flipped the other night.”

  After Carla had recounted the gramophone incident, the boy shook his head. “Oh man, I hope I never get on his bad side.”

  “You just better hope he never finds out about the group, or we can all kiss it goodbye.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  ALEX PULLED INTO the parking space beside Maddie’s car and switched off the ignition. For several moments, he sat there, staring into space. Something about Carla’s spur-of-the-moment sleep-over just didn’t feel right.

  “She’s out of control…you can’t trust a word that comes out of that girl’s mouth…”

  At the time that Joan had voiced the complaints, Alex had shrugged them off. In his past dealings with his ex-wife, it seemed she always had something to nag him about.

  The sudden tap-tap on his window made Alex jump. He jerked his head around to see Casey’s face grinning at him from the other side of the glass. Alex shoved open the door and slid out.

  Casey shook his head. “Man, you looked like you were off in never-never land.”

  Alex shrugged. “Just thinking.”

  “Yeah, that kind of concentration can only mean one thing—woman trouble.”

  “Close, but no gold ring,” Alex answered. “Actually, I was thinking about Carla.”

  Casey rolled his eyes and groaned. “That’s worse. Teenagers! God love ‘em but they can be a pain in the butt. Something happens to them when they hit puberty, you know. They go a little crazy, and you can’t trust ‘em as far as you can throw ‘em. The trick is to make them think you trust them. Got to give ‘em lots of love but at the same time you’ve got to keep an iron grip on them.”

  Since Casey had raised three kids of his own, Alex figured the man knew what he was talking about. He reached up and fingered the notepad in his pocket. Maybe he would call the parents of Carla’s friend a little later, just to ease his mind and to let Carla know that he cared enough about her to check up on her.

  It took less than an hour for Alex and Casey to unload the trailer. About the same time as they were bringing in the last piece of furniture, the pizza arrived.

  “Ah, food for the gods.” Casey sighed as he helped himself to a generous slice.

  By mutual agreement, they had all gathered around the small island in the kitchen.

  “In your case, it’s another inch added to that gut of yours,” Alex teased.

  “If you won’t tell my wife, I won’t.”

  Unable to help herself, Maddie grinned as she set out cold cans of beer for each of them. “Well, I certainly won’t tel
l. I’m too happy to finally have that trailer unloaded. Thanks.”

  Casey shrugged. “No problem, and you be sure and call if you need anything else.”

  When Maddie turned her gaze to Alex and saw the strained expression on his face as he traced a path through the beads of condensation collecting on his beer can, she suddenly remembered what he had told her in Nashville. The only reason I didn’t end up in a gutter somewhere as just another drunken statistic…”

  Her heart sank into the pits of mortification. How could she have been so thoughtless?

  Then he picked up the beer and held it out to her. “A soda for me instead, if you’ve got one.”

  “Sorry,” she whispered as she took the beer from him.

  “No big deal,” he said with a smile that she figured was meant to put her at ease.

  “By the way,” Casey said, looking at Alex, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, did you ever find out what that key belonged to?”

  Since Alex had just bitten off a piece of pizza, he was unable to speak. He nodded as he popped the top of the soft-drink can that Maddie had placed in front of him. When he was finally able to swallow, he took a quick swig of cola to wash down the pizza. “Damn, I’m glad you mentioned that,” he said. “I almost forgot about unloading the gramophone.”

  Casey frowned. “Say what?”

  Briefly, Alex explained about the climate-controlled vault and the gramophone. When he told his partner about the assault with the tire iron and who he suspected, Casey stiffened, then slammed his can of beer down onto the counter.

  “Why, that little sleazeball. No wonder he looked so scared when I hauled him in. Just wait until I get my hands on him.”

  Alex frowned. “You booked him?”

  Casey nodded. “The day before yesterday.”

  “For what?”

  “We got a complaint from a tourist that a man standing on a corner near Royal and St. Ann tried to force a flyer on him.”

  Royal and St. Ann, Maddie thought. Why did that address sound so familiar? she wondered.

  Casey shook his head. “And get this. Of all things, the flyer was a Ross Shaw For Mayor campaign flyer.”

  Suddenly, Maddie recalled why the address had stuck in her mind. It was the location of the café where she had eaten before her appointment with Keller.

  “Well, when the tourist refused to take the flyer,” Casey continued, “the man chased the poor guy down the street hollering at him and shouting obscenities. So when I checked it out, guess who I found standing on the corner?” Casey nodded. “Yep, none other than our old friend Arnie. Would you believe he was still standing there, high on God knows what, and he was still trying to give away those flyers? I never have liked that little snitch, and I have to say it gave me a lot of pleasure to haul in his butt, for all the good—”

  “It’s going to give me even greater pleasure to add an assault charge,” Alex said as a feral gleam lit up his eyes.

  “Afraid not, my friend. You didn’t let me finish. Before the judge could set bail, your old buddy Jack had a talk with him, and the damn judge let the little snitch go.”

  “What!”

  Casey nodded.

  Alex remained silent but his thunderstruck expression spoke loud and clear. Jack again, thought Maddie. Just like the proverbial bad penny, the man’s name kept popping up at unexpected times.

  When Alex did finally speak, his voice was low and deadly. “If you run into the snitch again, call me. I want the pleasure of hauling him in this time.”

  Casey laughed but there was no humor in his eyes. “Yeah, right, man.” He shook his forefinger in Alex’s face. “Number one, you are officially on vacation, which means you’re supposed to take it easy.” He added a finger. “And number two, you better go talk to Jack first, since he’s the one who let Arnie back out on the streets to begin with.”

  “Vacation or not, I intend to get that little weasel,” Alex retorted. “And don’t worry about Jack. You can bet your boots I plan to have a little talk with him.”

  “You always were a stubborn cuss,” Casey mumbled. Then with a huge sigh, he grabbed another slice of pizza. “One for the road, because if I don’t get home soon, my wife will have half the cops in the city out looking for me.”

  Maddie placed her hand on Casey’s arm. “Thanks again.”

  Casey just nodded then slapped Alex on the back. “Take it easy, my man, and I’ll be talking to you.”

  Maddie expected Alex to leave as soon as Casey had walked out the door, but when she came back to the kitchen, he was reaching for another slice of pizza. He was just about to take a bite when he suddenly froze. “Damn! I should have made Casey help me pick up that bed for you from your brother’s place.”

  “There’s no hurry.” But Maddie might as well have saved her breath. Alex had already dropped the pizza and was sprinting for the door.

  “Maybe I can catch him before he leaves,” he called over his shoulder before he slammed the door behind him.

  Within minutes, Alex was back. “Casey’s going to meet me there, but I need the keys to your car and your brother’s apartment.” He hesitated. “Unless you want to come, too.”

  Maddie shook her head. No way did she want to return to her brother’s apartment yet. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll stay here and try to straighten up some of this mess,” she said as she dug inside her purse for her car keys.

  Alex fished out his own keys from his jeans’ pocket. “If you need a car before I get back, use mine.”

  Once they’d exchanged keys and Alex had left, Maddie remembered the gramophone. Just thinking about the old records brought back vivid, bittersweet memories of Michael. Before she realized what she was doing, Maddie found herself outside at Alex’s car. Ever since Alex had presented her with the gramophone and discs, there hadn’t been time to listen to any of them other than on that first night, and as thoughts of her brother continued to haunt her, Maddie felt the need to finally take the time.

  The base of the gramophone was heavy, but nothing she couldn’t handle.

  Within minutes, she had set up the machine on a small table in the living room. Thumbing through the discs, she picked out several songs that she remembered her brother had especially liked.

  When she came to the disc that Alex had made such an issue over with Carla, she pulled it out and stared at it. Odd, she thought as she turned it, inspecting both sides. Unlike the others, there was no label on it, and again, unlike the others, there wasn’t a scratch on it. Obviously, whoever it had belonged to had taken great pains to preserve it.

  CASEY HELPED Alex dismantle the bed at Michael’s apartment, load it into the trailer and unload it at Maddie’s apartment. Then he’d left Alex the task of putting the antique back together again.

  Back at Maddie’s, Alex had tried to call the parents of Carla’s friend, but there was no answer. He reasoned that there could be several explanations. They could have all gone out to eat, or to a movie, or to the mall, so he’d returned to the job of assembling the bed.

  During the past hour, as he’d struggled with the wooden monstrosity, Maddie had played the gramophone while she worked at unpacking boxes in the kitchen and living room. It had been all Alex could do to concentrate as the music from one old love song after another filled the apartment, and now, as he walked into the living room to say goodbye, the sight of her stopped him in his tracks.

  Humming softly with the music, she was bent over a box and each curve of her hips was outlined by her well-worn jeans that fit as if she had been melted and poured into them. Even though her faded T-shirt was oversize, it didn’t hide the shape of her softly rounded breasts. As usual, she was barefoot.

  Alex had told himself that if he could just make sure she was settled in, he could stop worrying about her. In the apartment complex, protected by a security guard, she would be safe enough.

  But looking at her now as she straightened and placed yet another disc on the gramophone, Alex knew that he had only
been fooling himself, had only been making up excuses so that he could simply be near her.

  As the disc spun round and round, the haunting words of the love song worked their sensuous spell on Alex. The lyrics spoke of bewitching eyes, of a love being too hot to handle, all words that hit Alex in the heart, the one vulnerable part of him that he had once vowed would never rule his life again. But unlike his head, his heart knew no logic and wouldn’t be reasoned with.

  As if in a trance, he found himself crossing the room. Just as he was within touching distance of her, Maddie turned. At first, she looked startled, but the moment she gazed into his eyes, her own blue ones softened and grew dreamy.

  Unable to help himself, Alex reached out and pulled her into his arms. She came willingly with a sigh of pure contentment. For long moments, they simply swayed back and forth to the beat of the music. When he began to move slowly around the room, she laid her head against his shoulder as if it was the most natural thing in the world for her to do.

  “The title of the song is ‘Old Devil Moon,’” she murmured.

  Appropriate, he thought, since he’d noticed earlier that there was a full moon and he was certainly falling under a spell. But Alex didn’t really care what the song title was, as he suddenly realized that without Maddie, the rhythm, the music and the words of the song were meaningless, as meaningless as his life might become if he let her slip away.

  Alex nuzzled his cheek against the silky hair near her temple. “We need to talk,” he said as the music ended, leaving only the sound of the needle scratching in the grooves of the disc. He’d stopped in the middle of the room, but he couldn’t let her go. She fit too perfectly in his arms and her body pressing against his felt too good.

  “No,” she whispered. She didn’t want the fantasy to end. For just a little while longer, she wanted to pretend that he cared for her as much as she cared for him, that he loved her as she loved him and that he wanted her in spite of the differences between them. “I don’t want to talk,” she said. “Not now.”