by Lily Robins
Tilting her head to one side, allowing her shoulders to slump, Jess admitted, “I don’t know what he’d do. I believe that Bill killed Gary, so it’s possible that he has no qualms about killing me too, or hiring someone else to do it.”
“I know one thing, Eli said. “If the guy’s a sniper, his aim was a little off. He wasn’t that far away, and he should have hit one of you with the first shot.”
Aden appeared at the doorway of the dining room with a contorted look on his face. Eli beckoned him into the room, while Jess and Roman turned and extended arms toward him. Haltingly, he said, “I don’t know…if it makes any difference or not…but Uncle Bill texted me yesterday…and he asked what Mom, me and Molly were doing. I told him that I was spending the night with my friends, and Molly was staying with Mrs. Mayer…because I knew you’d be goin’ out somewhere together.” He looked down at his mother and Roman, his eyes beginning to fill with tears. “Uncle Bill’s trying to kill you, Mom?” He disbelievingly asked.
“I didn’t know he was texting you again. I thought you said…” Jess said.
“All the time, Mom, when I bother to read them. He’s always asking about you—not me or Molly. He asks where you are, what you’re doing.”
Roman interjected, “We don’t know if he’s trying to kill your mom.”
“Help us find out the truth, Aden,” Eli suggested. “Don’t answer any more of his texts, show me now if you’ve saved any of them, and, if you get other texts, or other forms of communication from him, will you let me know?”
Aden nodded, pulled out his phone and began showing Eli what he’d saved on his phone. Surprisingly, he also had a picture of his uncle that he taken before moving from Seattle.
*****
The three boys would be sleeping downstairs in the basement rec room, while Molly and Julia would share a room that had twin beds. Jess and Roman were given the guest room. The bed had a headboard, but there was no footboard. Roman and Jess washed all of the rock grit out of their hair when they took showers, and then rejoined Eli and Cheryl in the kitchen. Jess expressed her sincere thanks to Eli for getting things that she and the kids needed from their house, and Roman followed up with his thanks.
“I felt a little hinky goin’ through your Mom’s underwear drawer,” Eli quipped to Cheryl with a grin.
Cheryl quipped back, “She’ll be fine when she puts clean ones on in the morning, Sherlock.”
“Is everybody down now?” Eli asked.
“Just us,” Roman reported. “When I went downstairs, they were simmering down.”
“How about some hot chamomile tea?” Cheryl asked Jess.
“That would be nice. Thanks.”
“Roman?”
“I’d rather have a shot of whiskey.”
“Comin’ right up,” Eli obliged, walking over to his liquor cabinet and pulling out a bottle of Jim Beam.
When everyone had beverages of their choice in front of them, Eli said to Roman, “I’d like you to go in to the office tomorrow as usual.” He looked at Jess. “Your kids need to go the school as usual. There will be a police presence at both schools.”
“And I’m going to impersonate you,” Cheryl said to Jess.
Roman threw back his shot of whiskey and exclaimed, “What was that?”
“You heard me, Brother.”
Eli said, “Cheryl’s about the same height as Jess, and she has a similar body structure, and we’ve got some new equipment we’re goin’ to be using for this. ”
Roman said, “I’m not liking this plan.”
With an equally serious look, Jess said, “Me either. I’ve brought this trouble here. This is all on me, and I can’t stand to see...”
Calmly and professionally, Cheryl said, “Go over your typical daily routine with me,” and before her brother or Jess could say anything more, she looked at him and said, “This is what we sometimes have to do.”
Both Roman and Eli had a second double shot of Beam.
*****
While administering the drops to both of her inflamed eyes, Roman said, “I’m just glad you weren’t blinded by the asshole.” After the anti-inflammatory drops, he put in small globules of antibiotic salve. Jess lay completely still, dressed in her flannel pajamas and socks, as Roman finished applying doses of medication that Dr. Franklin had prescribed. “I can barely see the gorgeous green of your irises that I know is there.”
“They’ll get better,” she said, feeling the effects of the day and evening wearing heavily on her. “I can’t stand what’s happening…Cheryl…”
“Eli and Cheryl think he’s coming back to try again,” Roman needlessly explained, and switched off the bright light.
He climbed into bed beside her, wearing his sweatpants, socks and a long sleeved t-shirt. She settled into the crook of his shoulder, and he placed one of his big hands over her middle.
Into the darkness, she said, “Either of us could have died today Roman.”
“I don’t think he cared which one of us he shot.”
“Maybe it was like Eli said—that his aim was bad.” Holding Roman tighter, she said, “I’ve wanted to tell you something that’s important—about the kids. I had Barry Ramos draw up an addendum to my will. If something happens to me, I want you to take care of the children. I’ve set money aside for that, in addition to their college funds.”
Roman raised up from bed to look at her. “You know I will, Jess. But nothing is going to happen to you. Do you hear me?”
“Just in case,” she said. “I wanted you to know.” Jess pulled him down again, to lie in bed with her. He hugged her, and kissed her goodnight, and then he felt Mona’s presence by the side of the bed, her head resting near the edge. He turned over, and began soothing his dog, softly telling her that everyone was going to be all right.
And he thought about a Force that he had once imagined was there—somewhere—but that he had completely discredited after Erin had been taken from him. How could any Force for Good allow something this hideously unfair to have occurred? He thought about his sister Cheryl, how brave she was to take this hunt for the shooter onto herself. And he thought about Aden and Molly, two extraordinary children who had gone through so much, yet who still believed in themselves, and in what they could accomplish with their lives. He thought about the woman who was lying beside him, and who inspired her children to be the best they could be. He loved her so much for doing that, and for loving him and for believing in him as much as he believed in her.
CHAPTER 31
First, he dropped off the three boys at Murray High School. All were subdued in mood, even Patrick, who often tended to fill in vacancies in conversations when everyone else was being quiet. As soon as Patrick said he would see everyone later and slid out of the front seat of Roman’s Navigator, and Danny and Aden slipped out of the backseat, gathering their backpacks from the floor, Aden asked, “Mom’s staying with Mrs. Mayer all day at the Randall’s house—right?”
“Absolutely,” Roman assured the boy. There had been a lot to remember that morning. “People on the police force are watching over them. And you and Danny are to go directly to practice after school. I’ll be here to pick you both up.”
Nodding, Aden muttered, “Be careful—okay Doc?”
“You know I will be,” Roman again assured, then watched as Aden and Danny headed into one of the school’s buildings.
Molly was left alone in the backseat. She sat solemnly, looking out of the side window as best she could. She was being exceedingly quiet again, just as she had been after hearing what had happened the day before. Jess, Julia and Roman were particularly concerned about her. Clearly, she was keeping her thoughts to herself about what was happening. When everyone had gotten dressed for the day and Jess was helping Molly with her hair, the young girl had clung to her mother, not wanting to have to go to school and leave her.
Molly was caught up in a vicious cycle. She and everyone at the Randall house was feeding off of the anxieties of everyone el
se. Eli and Cheryl had set off early that morning, well before dawn, leaving an ominous void in the household. Julia had said little, but had tried for a bit of brightness that even she wasn’t pulling off very well. For the most part, she had kept her back to everyone, concentrating on making pancakes at Cheryl and Eli’s stove. Before Roman had left and while the kids were gathering their backpacks, he and his mother had hugged without a word being spoken. The hug had been like the one Julia had shared with her daughter before Cheryl and Eli had left. Beneath his shirt, Roman had put on a Kevlar vest that was steel reinforced, the same type of vest that Cheryl was wearing beneath her turtleneck sweater. She had left Roman, Jess and Julia with an affected smile before driving Jess’s Land Rover out of the driveway, with Eli right behind, in his police vehicle.
As Roman approached Molly’s school, he said, “Aden and I are planning a camping trip over spring break holidays. Are you in?”
“Is Mommy going?” Molly asked.
“Of course she is!” Roman enthusiastically said. “Danny and Patrick are going, and, of course, Mona’s going as our guide. We’ll have lots of fun.”
“Even your mom, Ms. Julia?” she asked.
“Well, no. It’s probably too much for her, but we’ll ask Cheryl and Eli to come along too.”
“So the bad guy won’t shoot us?”
Roman didn’t answer for a beat. “The bad guy will probably be in jail.”
“And Mom’s going to be all right?”
“Right as rain, Honey. Your mom will be fit as a fiddle, with her eyes sparkling again, and we’ll all have a good time.”
He stopped at the end of the line of parents who were letting off their kids, and could hear Molly unsnapping her seatbelt. In a tentative voice, she said, “Okay.”
His trained ear that listened for signs and sounds of traumatized kids was now screaming at him. Abruptly and before getting out of his Navigator to help Molly out, Roman said, “You know what? You’re not going to school today. I’m taking you home to spend the day with your mom and Ms. Julia, so you won’t have any worries about them.”
On the way back to the Randall’s, Molly said, “You’re just like my mom.”
“How’s that?”
Molly finished her thought. “Except you’d have to be like a dad.”
*****
He made it to the office with a few minutes to spare and Rene let him in. She was keeping the door locked except for clients who were scheduled to come in. Roman said good morning to Farrell McLean, Rene and Tess, both of the women itching to ask him questions. He switched keys with Farrell, the younger constable from Whittler Island who was about the same height as he. The guy even had a little gray beginning in his hair, although not nearly as much as Roman. The purpose of the switch involved Farrell posing as Roman and driving his vehicle. Farrell was dressed in civilian clothes, but had his gun in a side holster beneath his left arm that was hidden by his jacket.
Farrell informed him, “I’m takin’ a bunch of food to your house for me and Jimmy Gosling to cook this evenin.’ That is, if Albert Kromer opens up Mayer’s Market today, and I can buy us some steaks. Ruth’s place is shut down ‘til further notice.” Gosling was one of Eli’s sergeants on the police force.
“Let’s hope Albert opens up then,” Roman said. “You’ve got to stay here until four this afternoon, Farrell.”
Farrell nodded and asked, “You gonna shrink my head while I’m here?”
Rene answered that before Roman could. “We’re gonna give it a try, Farrell, but it may be too big to fit in the shrink machine.”
Farrell heartily laughed, prompting Roman and the women to laugh too, temporarily taking some of the edge off the situation.
Ben Girard showed up at the locked front door, peering through the glass. Rene hurried to unlock the door and let Ben inside, and then locked the door again. Ben, like a lot of other people, recognized Farrell right away, shaking the constable’s hand.
“I heard about all this,” Ben said to Roman, nodding hellos to Rene and Tess. “Some loony with a gun, going around shootin’ up Whittler.”
“He’s just as apt to be here in the city,” Tess warned.
“Probably is,” Rene said. “I’ve been tryin’ to think if I’ve seen any strangers lately, and the only one I could come up with is that Evan Ferguson who came to AA the other day.”
“He didn’t look right to me,” Ben Girard stated right away. “He sat there the whole time lookin’ bored out of his skull. Almost nodded off like he didn’t care.”
Roman had thought of Evan Ferguson too, but hadn’t wanted to mention to Cheryl and Eli that the man had come to AA the previous Friday. Anonymous meant exactly that.
“His form…” Roman said to Rene.
“He didn’t fill out a form,” Rene said. “I asked him to, but he said he wasn’t sure that he’d be back. And he paid cash for the visit.”
“There was no office rule that someone coming to AA had to fill out any type of form, but Roman had also seen the man for a one-on-one session, and had assumed that Ferguson had filled out an informational form for that. He remembered that he had been a bit perturbed by the man’s inquiry regarding seeing him the previous Friday afternoon. And, in some strange way, he’d felt that the man had used the fifty minutes he’d given him as a way to size him up.
Roman fished out his phone while walking toward his office, speaking to the acting police chief. Eli, who was with Cheryl, took down everything Roman could remember about Ferguson and relayed that to a lieutenant at the police station. Roman then called Ben Girard back to his office.
*****
Once Ben was sitting on the couch, he said, “Let’s don’t talk about the war and what happened.”
“That’s fine,” Roman responded. “We’ll talk about anything you want to talk about, Ben.”
When he swallowed, Ben’s Adam’s apple bobbed in a noticeable way. “I want to talk about Hope.”
“Okay, let’s do that.”
Placing his arms on his knees and leaning forward, Ben could more easily look at the floor. He cleared his throat and said, “I’d like to be a good lover for her.” He shifted his body some on the couch, looked away and then back to the floor. “I haven’t been with a woman since I got out of the army.”
“That’s very understandable,” Roman said.
“Before that, I was…like…too cocky to be…what I’d like to be. I was young and I’m thinkin’…too wrapped up in me.”
“Has your relationship with Hope gotten far enough for sex to become a part of it?”
“I think so. Cause we’re neckin’ and makin’ out pretty good now.”
“You could ask her if she’d like to see where you live,” Roman suggested. “Some women will take that invitation at face value—see where you live and then expect at some point to be taken home, while other women will think it’s time for the relationship to progress to more than necking, or heavy petting. Remember two things about that, Ben. She’ll be the one to decide if she wants sex with you, and if she says no, you stop and take her home right there. Always be respectful of her feelings, no matter what.”
Slowly, Ben nodded, absorbing what Roman was telling him.
“And be honest with her. Most women don’t expect you to be a stud. They want someone who’s loving and caring, and sensitive to their emotional and physical needs.”
Ben added, “Guys I know are always talkin’ about women who complain that dudes aren’t bein’ sensitive enough.”
“Put yourself in her shoes, Ben,” Roman stressed. “That’s what it boils down to. Listen to what she’s telling you, and let her lead the way. Women might not rule the world—yet, but in any loving relationship, they’re the ones who call most of the shots.” Roman sat further back in his chair and propped his chin on one of his hands. “And when you love a woman, when you honestly love her, you don’t mind giving up the power. It becomes a win-win situation.”
A grin formed on Ben’s face. “
A win-win. I like how that sounds for Hope and me.”
*****
While waiting for Rene to return with sandwiches for everyone, he called Jess and asked, “How’s Molly?”
“Her eyes are sticking like glue to me,” she said. “She’s listening to her music. I’m so glad you brought her back home, Roman.”
“She’s traumatized,” he somberly said. “How are you and Mom holding up?”
“Your mom is sometimes quiet…but she seems to be putting on a good front. I’ve brought all this…mess on everyone. If I hadn’t…”
“If you hadn’t come here,” Roman interrupted in a firm voice, “none of us would have met you, Aden and Molly. Most of all, I wouldn’t have met the woman who’s changed my entire life.”
“Oh, Roman. Don’t you know by now that you have given me and the kids a new life too?”
“This is all going to pass, and we’ll get on with our lives. Keep being strong for Molly.”
“You know I will. I love you.”
“I love you, Jess. More than any words could convey.”
“Be careful,” she breathed.
*****
There were a few appointment cancellations for the afternoon by clients who, in one way or another, had conveyed their fears at being at the epicenter of a possible mass murder spree. Word about the Whittler Island shooting had spread through the city, with mild forms of hysteria gripping it too. Roman sat in his office reading when someone knocked on the front door.
Rene marched down the hallway to his opened door to warily announce, “Cynthia Ralston’s here. Tess has stepped out…should I let her in?”
“Go ahead,” Roman droned, placing his book on his desk with a thud. “Does she have an appointment today with Tess?”
“Not until two o’clock,” Rene replied.
“Just…go ahead,” he reiterated while remaining seated. “She can stay out in the waiting room with Farrell.”