by Diane Bator
“So what do you think? Awesome food, huh?” Clancy had waited in the alley then led the way back to the tattoo parlor.
“Yeah.” Leo’s mind wasn’t on the food in the least. Christina, in her camouflage tank top, cargo pants and heavy black boots, reminded him of a toy soldier. Definitely not the ones he’d played with as a kid though, this one came fully loaded with all the right accessories.
“My sister’s not so bad either, is she?” Clancy let them in the back door and threw his coat on the sagging couch. “Let me wash up and we can do some more work on that beast. You’re not leaving the shop until you’re screaming in pain.”
“You’re a sadist, you know that?” Leo studied the photographs hanging on Clancy’s back wall that he’d only glanced at the last time he was here. Of course, he hadn’t met Christina then. How had he not noticed her at Daisy’s funeral? There was a picture of Clancy and Christina on a beach in Florida when they were kids. Even then she was practically half his height.
“That was my mom.” Clancy pointed to a smiling woman with her arms draped around two kids. “Me and Christina. She used to be such a typical girl. She’d wear frilly dresses and do her hair. Mom even taught her how to put on makeup. Now she lives in cargo pants, tank tops, and ponytails and hardly ever leaves the bakery. She wants to go back to Newville soon.”
Leo frowned. “I thought your dad asked her to stay.”
“That’s never stopped her before, mostly since she and Dad don’t get along. Christina’s a gypsy. She’ll take off running if anyone looks at her cross-eyed.” Clancy straddled his stool and picked up a towel. “Hey, why don’t you come by the house later? We can grab some food and catch a hockey game.”
“Why not? I’ve got nothing better to do tonight.” Danny’s case was nothing pressing since the police were already handling the brunt of things. Leo would have all night to surf the net, read case notes, and relive his few moments with Clancy’s sister.
Clancy worked for a few minutes then hesitated. “Look, Leo, we’ve both done some detective work, but you’re really good at—”
“Whoa. If you’re about to ask me to investigate your sister, stop right there.” Leo held up his hands. Not that he’d mind getting the chance to examine her closer, but on a much more personal level. “Don’t get me involved in this. She might be small, but she looks mean enough to take me out with a wooden spoon.”
“She is mean and she’s dangerous when she gets mad, but she’s also my sister and I’m worried about her.” Clancy lowered his needle. “I just want to know her life there is good. If she’d tell me to my face, I’d be okay with that. She won’t say anything to anyone. I don’t know who she hangs out with, if she has a job, or even if she still goes to school. I just want to know something about her. Anything.”
Leo shook his head. He was interested, but not suicidal. “No way.”
“Come on. I’ll even finish the tat for free. Just do some digging for me. Please.” Clancy groaned and glanced at the photos on the wall. “I’d do it myself, but she’d kill me. Since I have a waiting list, it wouldn’t be good for business if I turned up dead.”
“Good answer. So that’s why you were so eager to squeeze me in today.” Spying on his friend’s sister went against his better judgment. Christina was an interesting woman who sounded a lot like Leo just smaller and curvier. As he thought about her curves and the flour that dusted her face and chest, another flush of heat swept through him. Damn, he was definitely interested.
“Fine. I’ll check her out.” Leo groaned at his bad choice of words. “Where do you want me to look first?”
Relief crossed Clancy’s face. “As far as I know, she attends university in Newville, but I have no idea what courses she takes. Hell, I don’t even know where she lives. The only address I have for her is a post office box.”
As he watched Clancy resume painting his tattoo, Leo frowned. What kind of person was Christina Davidson really? Anything could have happened to change her from the pig-tailed little girl Clancy remembered to the angry baker in combat boots and cargo pants. Drugs. Alcohol. An abusive boyfriend. Since he hadn’t noticed needle track marks on her bare arms or any scents aside from cookie spices, Leo jumped to the third possibility, an abusive boyfriend.
Since Clancy had a two o’clock appointment, Leo wandered back to his apartment by way of the bakery and glanced in the window. A woman, it took Leo a full minute to remember Sophie’s name, sat behind the counter chatting on her cell phone. Christina was nowhere in sight.
He walked inside, stood in front of the counter, and pretended to check out the assortment of cookies and decadent pastries. They all looked good. Then he heard noises in the kitchen as Christina walked past the doorway. He wandered down to the corner of the counter where he had a good view. The curvy woman in the backroom looked even better than all the cookies and pastries combined.
“Can I help you?” Sophie asked.
Christina rolled out a batch of beige dough. Sugar cookies, he guessed. The muscles in her strong arms flexed with every motion. Her attention was so focused she didn’t seem to notice he was there until the phone rang and she glanced up.
He nodded then turned to Sophie. “Yeah, I’ll get two sugar cookies and a couple of multigrain buns.”
He needed to go home and do some research for Clancy. There was no point in facing Christina without knowing something more about her.
By the time Clancy called at six o’clock to say he was home, Leo had long polished off the cookies and buns and craved more. At least he already knew the way to the Davidson’s house. He’d been at the large brick house on Bishop Street a few times while they’d worked the Stephen case. Lucy lived two doors down. Convenient for Clancy.
Leo rapped on the dark red front door, ignoring the peeling paint as Clancy answered and stepped aside. “You know, I still think this place is very cool. All it needs is a couple of good contractors and a bit of work.”
“It’s home. Sort of.” Clancy shrugged. “It’s weird living here again after being in my apartment for so long, but Christina can’t stand being in the house. I let her live in my apartment and I moved back here to keep the peace. Lucky for me, I’ve had the place to myself since September when Dad left for Florida. Even though Christina doesn’t have to worry about running into him, she still won’t even visit.”
Once again, Leo’s detective instincts kicked into high gear. “Christina didn’t get along with your parents?”
“No, just my dad.” Clancy handed him a family photo. “She and mom were tight, but once Christina went off to school, she changed and didn’t talk to any of us anymore.”
While Daisy wrapped her arms around her daughter, Mel stood off to one side as though an invisible wall divided him from his family. Had there been the same dissention in their marriage as there was between him and the kids? Leo could have easily replaced their images with pictures of his own family. Same distance. Same invisible walls. He and his mother never spoke anymore either. There was nothing left to say.
Leo swallowed hard. “What happened between Christina and your dad?”
Clancy blew out a long sigh. “Every time she came home there’d be some new drama. Finally, she got tired of the same arguments so she stopped coming home, stopped calling, that kind of thing. We had a hard time tracking her down when Mom got sick.” He turned away. “Beer?”
“Sure.” While Leo wasn’t much of a drinker, seeing the assortment of Clancy’s family photos on the walls and fireplace dredged up emotions that needed to be numbed. He’d had enough of his own fireworks in childhood to walk away and never look back. Thoughts that usually only surfaced in nightmare form at night.
He sat in silent meditation to refocus. “What kind of arguments did they have?”
Clancy returned from the kitchen. “Why are you asking?”
“It’s the whole detective thing.” Leo tore his gaze away from an image of a younger Christina with long dark braids and a grin with several tee
th missing. “You asked me to dig into your sister’s life, which would be easier if I knew more about her. That and I’m nosy.”
“Good. Be nosy.” Clancy sat in an armchair. “My sister’s a total stranger. The last time she was home for Christmas she barely talked to anyone. I was sure she was on drugs or knocked up. She was fine around my mom or Grandma Teeny, just not me or my dad.”
Leo raised his eyebrows. “Grandma Teeny?”
“My grandma’s real name is Tina Rose Davidson, but everyone in town calls her Teeny.” He pointed to a photo of a large woman standing next to a small, frail man. Mel and Teeny. “She was an underweight baby who grew to six and a half feet tall and nearly as wide.”
He thought hard. “Is she a writer? I think I might have met her.”
“Oh, yeah. You were in Katie’s bookstore after Danny was kidnapped.” Clancy laughed. “I guess you would’ve met her. Don’t let her appearance fool you. She’s a good person. She helped us out a lot when Mom died, especially when we couldn’t find Dad anywhere to make arrangements. I know she’d love to help out in the bakery, but can’t stand on her feet all day because of her back.”
“Mel went missing?” Leo sipped his beer.
Clancy sighed. “For two days. We found him tucked into a case of rye at a fishing cottage with one of the neighbors.”
“So Mel is Teeny’s son?” Leo raised his eyebrows and sat on the couch, ignoring the layer of dust surrounding him. Neither Clancy nor Mel had done a lot of cleaning. “When’s the last time you saw Christina before the funeral?”
Clancy examined his beer bottle. “Christmas Day two years ago. She came home December twenty-fourth. I talked to her for all of ten minutes before Dad yelled at her and she locked herself in her room. When I came over Christmas morning, you could feel the tension. It was like walking through spider webs.”
“Not exactly a stellar holiday.”
Clancy snorted. “Brutal. I asked what happened after I’d left, but Mom wouldn’t tell me. I stuck around for dinner until Dad started to harp on Christina about getting a job and finding a husband instead of asking them for money. She said she was in a tight spot. He hadn’t given her money since her twelfth birthday and she’d supported herself since the day she left. From what I gathered, she’d asked to borrow some money to pay off a loan. Mom said they had one last blowout that night then Christina took off in a cab before sunrise on Boxing Day.”
“So you didn’t stick around to see what was going on or try to talk to her.” Leo frowned.
His face reddened. “It was easier to be somewhere else, so I hung out with friends.”
“It sounds like she felt the same way.” Leo sipped his beer, stalling. “I take it you and Christina aren’t very close?”
“We used to be. She used to be one of my best friends.” Clancy sighed. “Then she met this Brady character at school and that’s when the secrecy escalated. I asked her if he was a druggie, but she brushed me off. I even asked if he’d beat her up. She snapped and told me to mind my own business.”
“Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all, is it?” As Leo’s gaze strayed back to the family photos, his phone vibrated. Danny. He’d return the call later. “Did you ever meet this Brady guy?”
“Nope. Never saw him, never met him, never even talked to him on the phone.” He stood up. “You want to see the rest of the house? Bring your beer. I’ll give you the three minute tour.”
The kitchen was large and had probably passed for warm and cozy at one time when Daisy was able to take care of everything. He imagined the house had smelled exactly like the bakery during Christmases past. Now the kitchen was faded and the dated lighting dim. Flowery yellow wallpaper peeled away from the wall to expose cracks in the wall. The whole kitchen needed a thorough cleaning, right down to the kitchen sink.
Clancy let him up to a wide stair case lined by oak railings. “The bedrooms are all upstairs. Christina’s room is to the right and mine’s to the left. Mom and Dad’s is at the end of the hall. Mom left our rooms exactly as they were the day we moved out. She never touched a thing except to dust.”
Leo’s attention automatically centered on Christina’s room with pale purple walls, gray bedspread, and white furniture. At one time, the room was fit for a much younger girl with posters of male models and singers he vaguely recognized on one wall. A framed photo of a Picasso torn from a calendar hung on another wall. The entire room lay shrouded in a thick layer of dust.
“It doesn’t even feel like Christina here anymore.” Clancy frowned. “I guess neither does my room, but I’m only here for another week or two. There’s no point in repainting or anything. Maybe if Dad decides to sell we’ll fix the place up. I don’t think it would be worth that much.”
Clancy’s childhood bedroom had light brown walls, posters of superheroes and shelves lined with sun-faded action figures. Only one piece of original artwork hung on the wall, a portrait of him as a boy.
Leo moved closer to study the portrait. Oil paint on plywood square. “Nice painting.”
“Believe it or not, my sister painted it.” He grinned. “The Chrissie I used to know, not the current one. She’s got a lot of talent, which is why she went to art school in the first place. I haven’t seen any of her sketches or paintings for a long time. I don’t even know if she even paints anymore.”
Leo raised his eyebrows. “She went to art school, not cooking school?”
“Don’t say that to her face or she’ll give you a black eye.” Clancy winced. “That’s one of the things my dad rides her hardest about. He wanted her to become a professional chef so he could expand the bakery to a gourmet restaurant and she could run the place.”
Mel and Daisy’s bedroom was as neglected as the rest of the house. The wallpaper, probably once vibrant with blues and greens, was sun-bleached and lifted away from the walls in the corners to reveal dark wood paneling. A thin layer of dust covered the blue carpet.
“This used to be a great house. Mom always kept it tidy and clean. She repapered all the rooms at least every couple of years.” Clancy leaned in the doorway and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s been years since she had the time or energy and Dad couldn’t be bothered.”
“Nobody else helped her take care of the house?”
“Just Chrissie when she was here. I offered a few times, but Mom wouldn’t let me. She was as bull-headed as Chrissie and wouldn’t let me lift a finger. If she couldn’t do it alone, it wouldn’t be done. Period.” He frowned. “To be honest, I think Mom was waiting for my sister to come home, settle down, and take over the house. She’d always wanted a houseful of grandkids to liven the place up. Maybe we’ll have to freshen things up after Christmas, if I can convince my sister to give me a hand.”
Leo smiled. “Who knows, maybe you and Lucy can make your mom’s dreams come true yet. Speaking of which, how are things with you two?”
Clancy flushed and scratched the back of his head as he led Leo back down the hall. “I have a feeling Christina will have a hoard of kids long before I ever do. You want another beer?”
“No. You want to answer my question while we grab a burger?”
“That sounds like a good idea. I need to get out of the mausoleum.” He hesitated. “I totally get why Christina refuses to stay here with or without Dad around. There’s no love here anymore. It’s depressing.”
Leo held onto further questions until they’d returned to the dingy yellow kitchen. “Is your dad really that bad?”
Clancy opened another beer and took a long pull before he replied. “He didn’t seem so bad when we were kids. Now that we’re older and know better, he’s a joke. When he and Mom started the bakery, he’d work the front counter and bake bread at five every morning. Since it didn’t make the piles of money he wanted, his attention wandered. Then he found a burger truck he could operate in the summer. When that didn’t pan out, he talked about a movie rental place. He’s always had one daydream after another about getting rich, but none of them w
orked out because he hates hard work.”
Leo smirked. “What did he say about the tattoo parlor?”
“That I should give up and get a real job in a bank or something. That the hours, the benefits, and the pay were better.” He set the half empty bottle aside and grabbed his coat. “That may be true, but I have a lot less stress and I love my job. I actually make a pretty good living now that I have a solid reputation in town. You’d be amazed who comes into my shop. I should have a wall of fame.”
“Hey, I recommend you to anyone who asks.” Leo paused, one hand on the doorknob.
“And I appreciate that.” Clancy nodded. “Once my dad saw how busy my shop was, he wanted to buy in as my partner. He was peeved when I refused.”
Leo waited on the porch while Clancy locked the front door. “You don’t think Christina’s into drugs, do you?”
Clancy’s cheek flinched. “Now? No. Two years ago, I would’ve bet my business on it. Tipsy Duck or Canelli’s?”
“The Duck. My treat.” Leo clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder as they walked past the crooked snowmen on Lucy’s front lawn. “You can tell me more about your sister.”
“I’d love to.” Clancy frowned. “But you already know as much as I do.”
It wasn’t much for Leo to go on, but it was a start.
Chapter 4
Sophie didn’t show up for work Tuesday. She’d left a note on the cash register the night before to remind Christina she had a court date. Sophie and her husband were getting a divorce after twenty years of marriage, two kids, and a destroyed Buick, which Sophie had used to back into her husband’s brand new truck. Repeatedly. In Sophie’s defense, she had discovered hubby’s mountain of pornography in their ultra conservative Christian bedroom then caught him in bed with his high school sweetheart who lived next door. The car was totaled, and Sophie wasn’t much better.