Twistered

by J. L. Wilson

  I moved through the rest of my day on autopilot, meeting with the library volunteers and managing a credible discussion of the upcoming summer programs. I closed my office at five o'clock, said good-bye to Doug, who was back on duty, and left. All I wanted was a drink, a chance to lie down, and a quiet evening with no interruptions. I needed time to think.

  I managed to keep my speed in check as I drove through town, noting the repairs already underway from yesterday's storm. A few buildings sported boards instead of windows. Tree branches and debris were stacked tidily at the curb. In another day or two, there would be no reminder of the havoc. I pulled in to my driveway, waving to the Professor in his side yard as he straightened the purple gazing ball that miraculously survived yesterday's winds. "I can't believe it's intact," I said when I joined him for a chat.

  He tapped the heavy glass ball affectionately. It was a gift from Glynnis and had pride of place in the middle of his peony bed. "It'll take more than a tornado to blow this thing away. It weighs a ton. How are things at your house? Did you get that window fixed yet?"

  I shook my head. "I'm still waiting for Sean to call."

  "I saw him out and about earlier today. He mentioned you're on his list."

  I exhaled tiredly. "Good. Hopefully I'm at the top of his list and not the bottom." I turned to go back to my house.

  "I'm leaving soon to meet Glyn but if you need anything before I go, you holler." He gestured toward the quiet neighborhood. "I told Leo I'd keep an eye on things until he gets home at six but I forgot I had to get Glyn for our movie night."

  "Thanks." I had forgotten completely about my bodyguard. "I'm sure everything will be okay. You go ahead. It's only an hour or so until he gets back."

  "Well, if you're sure?" The Professor checked his wrist watch. "I've got to get cleaned up and get going if we're going to make the early show."

  I waved him away as I crossed the street to my house. "I'll be fine." I grabbed the owner's manual for the car from the front seat and went into the house through the garage, letting SoSo lead me to his food bowls in the kitchen for immediate attention. I dropped my keys on the side table near the door then headed upstairs, shedding my work clothes in my bedroom and dragging on my cutoffs and my Kansas Jayhawks T-shirt.

  The car owner's manual was on the bed, so I flopped down and began to browse through it, hoping to find an answer to the question of how to set the radio stations. I was soon joined by SoSo, who settled next to me to purr and pound his personal pillow into submission.

  Late day sunlight trickled into the room. I yawned, feeling relaxed for the first time in a long, hectic day. I glanced at the clock. I had a half-hour until Leo got home. Maybe I could close my eyes and relax for a few minutes. So much had happened in a day! In a few hours so much had changed. Wade blew back into my life, Jack Tinsley blew in, drugs were threatening our little piece of Oz heaven, I was fingerprinted...

  I yawned again and sagged back on my deliciously comfortable bed. Why the hell did Tinsley kiss me? I wasn't any femme fatale, out to work my wiles on available males. I mean, granted, he was studly and handsome. But part of his appeal was because of his different-ness. He didn't belong in tiny Broomfield, population 4000. He belonged in a big city somewhere, toting a gun and acting like somebody on TV.

  That thought made me consider Drew, who was also a cop, but in a much different way. What was that stuff Leo said yesterday when we went to the police station? I wasn't in love with Drew. Well, I wasn't actively in love with Drew, at least. I was kind of, sort of, a bit tempted by Drew. Maybe. Especially now that I knew Drew was tempted by me. I smiled dreamily as I remembered the feeling of his lips on mine in the Tube the day before.

  Drew was like a comfortable old blanket, one that you cuddled with and hugged on a cold winter day. While Jack Tinsley was like a quick blast of air conditioning, a chill that made your body tingle and your pulse race. They were so different but each was sexy in his own...

  My own snoring awakened me. I sat up with a snort, disturbing SoSo who also sat up, ears pricked eagerly alert. "Must have dozed," I mumbled, peering at the clock. Only fifteen minutes passed but I had conked out like a zombie.

  I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. "Leo will be home soon," I said around a yawn. "I'll need to check in with him." My voice trailed away as I noticed my pet was ignoring me. SoSo stared at my bedroom door, his slightly crossed eyes curious.

  That's when I heard the door open downstairs.

  Chapter 11

  Oh, no. Somebody was coming into the house.

  As soon as the terrifying thought drenched me with cold sweat, I pooh-poohed my worries. What was I thinking? It was probably the Professor or Leo. I suppose somebody knocked and when no one answered, whoever it was came in.

  I started to slide off the bed, catching the owner's manual which threatened to slide with me. Then SoSo growled deep in his throat and I stopped, one foot on the floor and the other still extended along the bed.

  The downstairs door closed. I heard it clearly in the silent house. Who would come in my house without yelling their name or a "Dorothy, are you around?" The Professor or Leo would definitely call out. Now that I considered it, they used the kitchen door off the garage or the back door, not the front door, which I normally locked.

  Wait a minute. Why wasn't it locked? I shook my head, trying to dislodge the cobwebs of sleep that still littered my brain. Did I lock it yesterday after what's-his-name with the car blew into the house and blew out again? I think I left it to Glynnis to close the door and she probably didn't click the knob to make it lock behind her. I couldn't remember if I even checked it last night, but surely Leo did. Didn't he?

  Satisfied with that reasoning, I eased off the bed, grabbing SoSo before he could thump onto the floor next to me. I still held the manual and I started to turn to set it back on the bed, but my annoyed cat struggled in my arms. I let him slip from my grasp to land silently on my green braided rug.

  We both approached the bedroom doorway cautiously. The door to this room was aligned with the staircase, which in turn was aligned with the front door, so I was careful to stay back, peeking around the doorjamb to glimpse a black-coated figure in my entry foyer below.

  Black coat, in May, in Kansas where it's eighty degrees and humid? Who would be in my house wearing a black coat? Who did I know with long black hair and broad shoulders?

  Good lord, it was a man in a black leather coat.

  My mind jumped to the immediate conclusion. Was it someone in that gang? Motorcycle thugs wore black leather coats, didn't they? Nobody in my neighborhood would wear a black leather coat. Holy buckets, who was it? How had they found me?

  SoSo sauntered to the top of the step and stared at the stranger. I considered making a grab for him but discretion kept me back, safely behind the door frame. The man must have sensed the glare of kitty eyes, because he started to turn. I ducked away lest I be seen and inched my way back into my bedroom. SoSo, idiot that he was, sat on the top step and gave his ears a good bathing.

  "Hey, cat," the man said.

  Man? He didn't sound very old. As soon as I thought it, I wondered what made me think he wasn't old. Could a voice sound old? He also didn't sound mean, the way I expected a motorcycle psycho to sound. He sounded bored or curious.

  It didn't matter what he sounded like. The guy broke into my house. He was an intruder. I gazed around my bedroom, seeking firepower, but I was sadly lacking in the weapons department. The only thing that remotely resembled one was my Scarecrow statue, shaped like the famed golden Oscar given at the Academy Awards. I won it for my performance as best supporting actress in the Community Theater production of The Wiz. I snatched it off my dresser, my arm sagging under the weight.

  The stairs creaked. I cowered behind the door, not sure what to do. Could I really hit someone? I gulped, sweat dotting on my forehead. My curly hair responded with its customary independence, bouncing around my face. I held my breath and raised the statue over
my head and, idiot that I was, raised the car's owner's manual in the other hand.

  "Hey, cat. What's up?" The voice was very, very close. He was probably on the top step.

  SoSo purred and emitted a low-pitched, interrogatory meow. He was probably schmoozing my potential attacker, the little ingrate.

  "Auntie D? Are you home?"

  Baby Dot's voice drifted to me from somewhere downstairs. She normally used the door behind the house leading into the dining room from the back patio. Good heavens, she might be walking into a trap.

  "D.J? Is that you?" the man called out.

  Confusion made me straighten. Once she became a teenager, Baby Dot demanded we keep her nickname a secret. How did this intruder know Baby Dot's other name, the one she insisted we use in public, in front of her friends? Did Baby Dot know a motorcycle thug-psycho?

  The step creaked and I heard the thud of a boot heel as it started down the stairs. He was going to the first floor, after my goddaughter. Without considering it, I leapt from behind the door, brandishing my award in my right hand and the owner's manual in the left. The man--no, correction--the young man turned, startled. SoSo yowled as I brushed against him, probably treading on a kitty paw or tail.

  I pirouetted on the top step, tripped over SoSo, and barreled into the man. We were poised on the stair for one perilous second before we three all went downward in a tangle of arms, paws, and legs.

  Luckily I fell on the man, which buffered me somewhat from the bruising I would have normally suffered by bouncing off of thirteen wooden steps. SoSo avoided the worst of the melee by pushing off me, raking my exposed legs with his claws and leaving long, bloody welts. The last I saw of him was his butt as he flew around the corner into the living room. He was probably heading for his hidey-hole kitty condo on the sun porch.

  The young man was knocked nearly senseless so I took advantage of his befuddled condition to get away. As I struggled to escape, my foot unfortunately landed somewhere below his belt buckle. Like SoSo, I pushed off, causing him to gasp, wheeze and double over in shock.

  Baby Dot caromed around the corner of the hall and skidded to a stop, her heavily made-up eyes wide with shock. I suppose we did paint a confusing picture. There was me with the statue raised high, my legs dripping blood while a stranger cowered at my feet, his face so pale he appeared vampire-ish.

  "Call the police," I managed to choke around the adrenalized fear that made me cough. "He broke into my house."

  "But--but--" Baby Dot looked from me to the man. Today her hair had burgundy streaks. I wondered where the purple went. "What did you do to him?" She dropped to her knees by the young man, her baggy jeans sagging on her slender hips.

  "Me do to him?" I set the statue on the wobbly side table near the front door, but it proved too much for my secondhand furniture. Statue, table, telephone, and car keys all tipped over and scattered on the entry rug. Margaret Hamilton added to the chaos by yelling, "Well, my little pretty, I can cause accidents, too!"

  "What the hell was that?" the young man shouted.

  "Geez, don't attack him, Auntie D!" Baby Dot hovered over the man, her arms in her wrinkled black T-shirt childlike with their whiteness.

  "I'm not attacking him." I snatched the phone from the floor where it skittered, dialing 9-1-1 with trembling hands.

  "I hope you're calling an ambulance." Baby Dot touched the young man's arm.

  He flinched, finally opening his tightly closed eyes. His black hair lay in long, straight strands over his black leathered shoulders. "What the hell is going on, D.J.?" he wheezed.

  The 9-1-1 dispatcher spoke through the phone in my hand. "9-1-1, what is your emergency?"

  "A man broke into my house." Before I could add details, the young man on the floor interrupted me.

  "Jesus Christ, I didn't break in! The door was open!"

  "There's no need to shout." I glared at him then at Baby Dot, who glared back at me. "And there's no need to swear."

  "What is your address?" the dispatcher asked in her cool, almost bored voice.

  "1899 Garland Lane," I said as he shouted, "I didn't break in!"

  "We'll send a squad car, ma'am. Do you need an ambulance?"

  I stared down at my bleeding legs. "No. Yes. I'm not sure."

  "If you're not sure, I'll send one. Hang on."

  I regarded my goddaughter, kneeling next to the man and propping him up with one arm. Her naturally blonde hair roots gleamed in the over-dyed black of her tangled mane. "Baby Dot, get away from him." I gestured with the phone, still in my hand.

  "Don't call me that." She got to her feet, drawing the man upright with her.

  He towered over her, swaying slightly. Baby Dot appeared miniscule next to him. He had to be at least six-and-a-half feet tall. "Man, she packs a punch," he muttered.

  "Are you okay?" Baby Dot peered into the young man's face, her eyes wide. She murmured something that sounded like "kay-kay."

  The phone squawked and I put it to my ear. "Yes?"

  "A squad car is on its way."

  "Good." I turned my attention to my goddaughter's companion. He seemed vaguely familiar. "You one of the Arunds, aren't you?"

  He nodded glumly. "I'm K.K."

  The Alphabetical Arunds were a family in town comprised of father (A.A.), mother (M.M.) and eight children, all with duplicate initials.

  Baby Dot tossed up her arms. "Why did you push K.K. down the stairs?"

  I was saved from answering by the sound of sirens in the distance. I retaliated with a question of my own. "Why the hell did he come in my house without knocking?"

  A slow smile eased the tight anger on the intruder's face. He appeared young and impish, his narrow face reflecting cynical amusement. "Now, now. Don't swear."

  o0o

  Forty-five minutes later my legs were still burning from the disinfectant the EMT liberally doused on them. After reassuring the technician I was current on my tetanus shot, I was advised to check with my family physician about an antibiotic.

  "All pet scratches get infected," Leo said as he watched the EMT close her first aid kit. He had arrived neck and neck with the ambulance, followed closely by Ginger Majors, who responded to the dispatcher.

  "If you need anything, call." Ginger looked behind me to the den where Baby Dot was talking to her boyfriend. "Someone will be here in a jiffy." She headed toward the door and I followed, gesturing to Baby Dot to join Leo and me on the stoop.

  She did so reluctantly, leaving her black-coated boyfriend lounging on the futon. As she joined us, I eyed him warily. He was like most teen-aged boys, nondescript with a lanky build, dark, unkempt hair and too much jewelry for my taste, some adorning his eyebrows and ears. I remembered my own teenaged years and my unfortunate fashion choices and decided to be charitable. I turned my attention to Baby Dot. "Now that the excitement is over, tell me more about your new boyfriend. Why was he here, at my house?"

  "He's going to tech school in Kansas City during the week and he works at a Best Buy store." Baby Dot crossed her arms and scowled at Ginger as she left, transferring her ire to Leo and me when Ginger got out of range. "He's here for the weekend. He's got friends coming to town on that motorcycle thing and we're going to meet them tomorrow. I told him to meet me here."

  "Why here?" I checked the den behind me, where K.K. was stretched out on the lumpy old futon, reading the owner's manual for my new car. I wondered fleetingly if he was checking for a way to hot wire it, then I dismissed the idea. I shouldn't judge a person by his appearance, even though K.K. appeared capable of stealing my new car in a matter of seconds.

  "Auntie M doesn't like him," Baby Dot said glumly.

  "Now wait a minute. You aren't using my house to sneak around and meet your boyfriend." I whispered the words fiercely, visions of a family feud racing through my mind.

  "It's so unfair. She doesn't like him because he's older than me."

  "That's a valid reason to be concerned." I hated the words as soon as they left my mouth, but
it was too late to retract them.

  Baby Dot flashed me a resentful glare. "He's only three years older than me. Uncle Hank is five years older than Aunt M."

  "Five years when you're fifty is a lot different than five years when you're a teenager," Leo pointed out.

  "Chief Strawn is three years older than Auntie D and they used to date."

  "Drew is only two years older than me," I protested.

  "Three."

  I gave up on that argument and decided to tackle an argument I might win. "Listen, you need to give your aunt a break. She's doing the best she can."

  "I know." Baby Dot stared at the floor, her thin shoulders hunched. "But she spends every available penny on those dumb animals."

  Leo and I exchanged surprised looks. "I've never heard you say anything like that before," Leo said. "I thought you liked the animals."

  "I do." She flushed. "But it's true."

  Dot was correct but I wasn't about to tell her that. "I thought I might try to help. You know I won that contest?" Dot regarded me sullenly. I plowed ahead. "Mel mentioned you need a new computer for school." I gestured Dot closer. "Maybe there's an iPad somewhere with your name on it."

  Her eyes widened and I saw my sweet little goddaughter glow through all the adult makeup. "Really? Oh, Auntie D, that would be so cool!"

  "Don't tell Mel," I warned. "She's liable to tell us we can't do it. We'll sneak off to Kansas City someday and do some shopping."

  "I'll go with you," Leo volunteered. "I know a couple of stores that have stuff you won't find in a regular department store." He shot Baby Dot a knowing look. "Good stuff."

  She positively glowed. "That would be great. You guys are so much cooler than Auntie M and Uncle H."

  I dismissed the compliment. "They have to be parents so they can't be cool. I'm just an aunt so parent rules don't apply."

  "And I'm just an interested bystander." Leo put an arm around Dot's shoulders and gave her a hug. "Not to worry. We'll get you set." His eyes went to something over my shoulder, behind me in the street. "My, my."

  Baby Dot craned her neck to peer past me, her eyes widening again. "Who's that?"