Amanda's Blue Marine (32 page)
Read Amanda's Blue Marine Online
Authors: Doreen Owens Malek
“It’s time, Brendan, trust me.” Mandy got up and pulled on one of his old track team T shirts and he admired the view as she moved across the room.
“You look better in that thing than I ever did,” he said.
“Thank you,” she responded graciously.
“Come back here,” he said, in an urgent tone which told her that if she obeyed him another forty minute delay was in the offing.
“Nothing doing, Kelly. Forget the dishes for now. Come out with me and let’s drag the bags down to the basement before the old ladies load up all the washers.”
He groaned audibly.
“Forthwith,” she said, adding the police term that indicated something should be done immediately, if not sooner.
“Pickin’ up the lingo, darlin’, are ya?” he asked, in his exaggerated brogue.
Mandy pulled on a pair of sweatpants and scraped her hair back into a pony tail with a clip. “I am,” she said.
“Good. Now all I have to do is get into that online Latin course and we’ll be able to talk to each other. You know the one you see advertised on TV? ‘Learn the language of the Caesars in three days’.” He was grinning as he yanked on his jeans and shirt.
“We talk to each other,” she said, looking at him.
“We do,” he agreed. “ In lots of ways. Like right there.” He pointed to the bed.
Mandy smiled back at him as she led him to the front hall of the apartment. He picked up the two larger bags and she shouldered one smaller one. Then they marched into the outer hall and down the stairs to the communal laundry room, where two senior citizens were removing and folding items from the dryers.
“Good morning, Detective Kelly,” the taller, white haired lady said. She smiled at Mandy.
“Hi, Mrs. Gilchrist,” Kelly said, appearing decidedly uncomfortable.
“He looks just like his pictures in the paper,” Mrs. Gilchrist’s companion said in a loud stage whisper.
The two women were sisters, both deaf, so conversation died as the old ladies stacked their clothes in plastic bins and nodded genially as they left. Kelly watched them go and said to Mandy, “Thank God. They make me nervous.”
“Why?” She was smiling.
“They haven’t gotten over the publicity from the Cameron case, seeing me on TV and all, and now they’re watching the two of us every day to see what happens next. I can just hear them saying to each other, ‘Why doesn’t he make an honest woman of that sweet little redhead?’”
Mandy leaned against the wall, helpless with laughter. “I’m already an honest woman, Brendan. They’re a hundred years old. Who cares what they think?”
He shrugged, dumping a bag of clothing on the counter in front of them. A T shirt emblazoned with “Jenna loves Kelly” fell to the floor.
Mandy bent to pick it up and he pulled it from her grasp, depressing the pedal on a nearby garbage can and dropping the shirt inside it.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I don’t want that any more.”
“Who’s Jenna?”
“A stewardess with Qantas. She dropped me for a Brazilian soccer player.”
“So now her new shirt reads ‘Jenna loves Pele?’” Mandy suggested.
“Pele is seventy years old.”
“ ‘Jenna loves Pele’s grandson?’ ” Mandy said.
He was silent, tossing clothes into an empty washer.
“Come on, Brendan,” Mandy said. “Who was Jenna?”
“She was just a jock banger, she liked toned athletes. I had to devote some major time to those rowing machines in there to keep her interested,” he replied, pointing to the gym room next to the laundry and smiling ruefully.
“I hope I’m not as demanding,” Mandy said, sobering.
He turned to look at her, then put his arm around her shoulder and caressed her cheek with his free thumb thoughtfully.
“You want something else, Red,” he said softly, looking down at her. “Something a little tougher to deliver.”
“What?” she asked, concerned at his expression.
“You want me to be good,” he said quietly.
“You are good.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not.” His tone was resigned.
“You’re good looking,” she said lightly, trying to dispel his sudden change of mood.
He shook his head again. “I didn’t earn that.”
“You’re a good cop,” she said.
He shrugged. “Only sometimes.”
“You’re a good lover.”
“Only with you.”
“Look, let’s change the subject,” Mandy said, as she felt the conversation taking an unexpected turn from bad to worse.
“Fine with me,” he said, as he released her and then threw a towel into the washer tub with practiced aim. She put her arms around his waist from the back and stood on tiptoe to say into his ear, “How about those Phillies?”
She felt him relax under her hands and after a long moment he said, “Come on, help me dump this stuff in the washers before Mrs. Gilchrist comes back to interview me for the Old Biddies Quarterly, or whatever the hell that magazine is she’s always reading.”
“ ‘Senior Citizens On Parade,’ ” Mandy corrected him, laughing. And then, after a moment, “What’s a biddy?”
He turned to look at her in astonishment. “You don’t know what a biddy is? I used a word that YOU don’t know, professor?”
“Gasp,” Mandy said.
He widened his eyes comically. “Is the sun still shining, is the globe still spinning? Has a new world order been declared overnight?”
“There’s no need to make fun of me, Brendan,” Mandy said primly. “So what does it mean?”
He shrugged. “A nosy grandma type, interfering, gossipy. Mrs. Gilchrist to the teeth, if she had any.”
“Oh, you mean an old crone, a yenta.”
“‘Biddy’ must be Gaelic if you don’t know it,” he said, smiling.
Mandy slid her hand under his T shirt and ran her fingers caressingly up his back. “You’re Gaelic, and there’s a lot I want to know about you,” she murmured. “I don’t think I’ve learned it all yet. Can we go upstairs so you can give me a tutorial?”
He dumped the rest of the laundry into the tubs and slammed the lids shut as she watched, amazed at the speed with which he moved. Without turning around he said to her, “Where’s that bag of quarters?”
Mandy produced it and he fed the coins into the slots like an automaton until all three machines were churning.
“Let’s go,” he said. “We have an hour before we have to get back to prevent Mrs. Gilchrist from stealing my underwear.”
Mandy grinned, allowing him to pull her with him toward the hall.
The bad moments of the conversation had been forgotten.
* * * * *
It was about a week later that Mandy became concerned when she didn’t hear from Kelly all day at work. He usually called her at least once or texted her if he was busy but total silence from him was unprecedented. He knew that she worried about him doing police work so he kept in touch, even if it was just a one liner saying that he was in the field on a case or in a meeting. She didn’t get really alarmed until she got no response from him to her inquiries and she couldn’t raise him at the police station either. She didn’t want to look like a harpy checking up on him at his job, so she drove straight to his apartment after work. She saw his car outside in the lot and knew he was home, but she couldn’t dismiss the feeling that something was wrong. The foreboding increased when she knocked on his door and got no response.
“Kelly, it’s Amanda,” she called. “Are you in there?”
The silence went on for a minute longer and then he pulled open the door abruptly. He was dressed in jeans and the green sweater she had given him, which made his eyes look teal instead of blue.
He met her gaze and looked away.
Mandy was shocked by his appearance. He looked gaunt, he hadn’t shaved, and his thick hair looked like he had been driving a thresher through it.
There was something else wrong too. She had never seen him wearing this exact expression and it took her a moment to identify it.
He looked scared.
Mandy dropped her purse to the hall floor and put her arms around his waist. She said softly, “You look terrible, Kelly. I didn’t hear from you all day and I know something bad has happened. Please tell me what it is.”
She felt him embrace her tightly, then sigh deeply. He put his hands on her shoulders to hold her off and looked down at her.
“I’m in trouble, Amanda. I hit Henderson last night and he’s pressing charges. I didn’t injure him badly but he’s pushing for the max and Manning can’t ignore the issue this time. I’ve been suspended without pay, no guarantee of reinstatement. I’m just waiting here to be picked up when the charges are filed.”
Amanda gazed up at him, too stunned to speak until what he had said registered fully. Then she whispered, “You hit Tom?”
He took her hands and led her inside to sit down next to him in the living room. When she was watching him again he said quietly, “I broke his nose.”
“Oh, Brendan, no,” she whispered.
He looked down, as if unable to bear her scrutiny. “It was friggin’ stupid and I can’t defend it. He just baited me and I went for it, proving once again to the entire world what a thick mick I am.” He closed his eyes.
“What did Tom do to provoke it?” Amanda asked.
Kelly shrugged. “He said something, it doesn’t matter.”
“He said something about me, didn’t he? Me and you?”
He didn’t answer.
Mandy’s mouth tightened. “Tom just can’t let it go. He acts like it doesn’t bother him but it’s seething inside him and he just can’t let it go.”
“I wouldn’t let it go either, if I lost you.”
“He didn’t lose me, Kelly. He never had me.”
“He thinks he did, Amanda. He thinks I took you from him.”
Mandy smiled thinly. “The irony here is that Tom doesn’t care about me.”
“He’s giving a pretty good imitation of someone who does,” Kelly said dully.
“No. He wanted my family’s prestige and my father’s money and business connections, that’s all. I see that now even though I didn’t allow myself to think about it then.”
“I didn’t think about anything then except how much I wanted you,” Kelly said. “But not thinking seems to be my specialty act these days.” He thrust both hands into his hair and his shoulders slumped.
“Tom’s humiliated by what he sees as my public rejection of him, the gossip, the snickering it provoked.” She bit her lip. “What happened is my fault.”
He stared at her. “Your fault?”
“Of course. He’s using you to get to me.”
“You had nothing to do with this, Amanda. I’m a jackass. He knew that all he had to do was press the right button and I’d jump.”
“He wants to punish me for throwing him over and the very best way to hurt me is to hurt you,” she said, as if he hadn’t spoken.
“I can’t blame this on anyone but myself,” Kelly said darkly. “I had a couple of drinks in me when it happened. I was off duty and had stopped in the bar next door to the courthouse before I went upstairs to drop off an evidence bag.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Kelly shook his head. His expression was the same one he wore when he was asked about Iraq. The message was: No discussion.
Mandy sighed. “All right, if you’re not going to tell me what he said at least tell me the circumstances,” she said.. “Were there any witnesses?”
“No. I walked out of an elevator in the courthouse and he was standing there, like he was waiting for me. There was nobody else around, it was the end of the day, we were alone. It was a coincidence. It was outside that back elevator by the kitchen entrance, you know? It’s pretty isolated.”
She nodded. “No witnesses is a good thing. It will be your word against his and you’re a decorated war vet and a hero cop.”
“And he’s an incumbent, twice elected Congressman from this district,” Kelly replied dismally.
“Go on,” Mandy said, bringing him back to his narrative.
“He saw me and for a moment he said nothing and I thought I could just walk past him. But as I went down the hall he called after me and then I ran back and….”
“And?”
“ I popped him.”
“Did you intend to break his nose?”
“I knew where I was hitting him, if that’s what you’re asking me.” He leaned forward and looked at her intently. “You should be prepared for the next thing I have to tell you.”
“What?” Mandy asked, dreading the answer.
“I’m waiting to hear if the charge will be some degree of assault or attempted murder.”
Mandy stared at him. “Murder?” she gasped. She rose and tried to take a step and faltered; he grabbed her and set her down on the couch again.
“Manning says that’s what Henderson is going for and he might make it happen. Is that even possible?”