Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (33 page)

“
Much better,” Anjelika
said.

“
Where to?”

“
Today we are going to the
Museum of Nature and Science,” Anjelika said. “I want to see what
strikes your fancy. You have your glasses?”

“
Yes ma’am,” Charlie said.
“Can you wait one more second?”

“
Will you wait for me?”
Anjelika corrected.

“
Will you?”

“
Of course,” Anjelika
said.

Charlie ran into the kitchen to Sandy. He
hugged her and kissed her cheek.

“
Thanks,” Charlie said to
Sandy. Spinning in place, he ran out to Anjelika. “I’m
ready.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FORTY-TWO

Rats

Saturday afternoon — 3:15 P.M.

“
General.” Standing in the
Castle driveway, Seth spoke into his cell phone. “It’s
O’Malley.”

“
What can I do for you,
Magic?” the man asked.

“
I need the Denver Rats,”
Seth said.

“
For?”

“
Coal tunnels.”

“
You predicted this day
would come.”

“
Sir, I believe you
predicted this day would come,” Seth said. “Did you ever finish
that map?”

“
Not exactly,” the man
said. “Where? When?”

“
My house,” Seth said. “As
soon as they can make it.”

“
You realize this is a
Homeland Security problem now,” the General said.

“
DHS, sir?”

“
Terrorism, Seth,” the
General said. “They confiscated every map in the city.”

“
But?”

“
Give me an hour,” the
General said. “Maresol at home today?”

“
Yes sir,” Seth said.
“Enchiladas?”

“
I was thinking rellenos,”
he said.

“
Yes sir, she’d be
delighted,” Seth said. “She made tamales last week.”

“
Good Lord, I love being
back in Denver.”

“
See you soon.”

Seth clicked off the phone. He had enough
experience with tunnels to know that if the Denver Police entered
anywhere in the system, Saint Jude would know they were coming
hours before they found him. Seth wanted to take down the bastard
once and for all. No slip ups.

They had to move fast. After decades of
stable, predictable, psychopathic behavior, Saint Jude was changing
his MO. The FBI profiler was ‘deeply concerned’ that Saint Jude had
killed a police officer and Beth. These murders plus capturing Ava,
an adult, indicated to the profiler that Saint Jude was coming
apart at the seams or ‘decompensating’ in profiler speak. The
profiler warned Seth that they could expect Saint Jude’s behavior
to becoming more and more erratic.

The profiler insisted they had to get this
psycho now.

Seth didn’t need the push.

He closed his eyes in a silent prayer that
somehow between a good map and an oracle named after a flower,
they’d get this bastard.

~~~~~~~~
Saturday afternoon — 3:35 P.M

Nash stood in front of the mirror. Somehow
Charlie had manipulated his Dad into paying for Charlie and his
girlfriend, Addy, to go to the movies. In a piece of sheer
brilliance, Charlie convinced Dad that it was unfair that Teddy and
Noelle couldn’t go to the movie. Nash was about to protest when
Charlie told Dad that since Sissy was at ballet and Sandy was with
the girlfriends at her studio, Nash would be at home all alone.

To Nash’s shock, Dad had agreed. Sandy had
called Melinda’s Mom and, after months of pestering and begging,
Nash and his dream girl from Smiley Middle School, Melinda, were on
a date. The girls wanted to see the new Shrek movie. While the boys
rolled their eyes and moaned, they didn’t really care. At least
Nash didn’t care.

He was on a date.

With Melinda. She looked amazing and
smelled… wow.

Dad was supervising but who cared? So far,
Dad had paid for lunch and the movie and the snacks. He didn’t even
comment when Nash and Teddy went to the bathroom by themselves.
Feeling very grown up, Nash smiled at himself in the mirror. Teddy
came up behind Nash in the bathroom. The boys smiled at each
other.

Leaning over, Nash washed his hands.

A large hand pushed his head under the
stream of water. Nash flipped around to his attacker and found
himself face to face with the bully who got him kicked out of
middle school.

“
What the hell is wrong
with you?” Nash asked.

“
You,” the bully pushed
him. “That’s what’s wrong with me.”

Nash felt Teddy stand at his side.

“
We don’t want any
trouble,” Teddy said. “What’s past is past.”

“
It’s not past for me,
loser,” the bully pushed Nash. “My Dad’s in jail because of you
assholes. We got kicked out of our apartment. Mom has to work
nights. All because of you!”

The bully pressed his face right into Nash’s
face.

“
Maybe your Dad shouldn’t
have been a disgusting pervert with nasty stuff on his computer,”
Nash said.

Using his shoulder, Nash pushed the bully
off him. The bully rushed him. Nash readied for the collision when
Charlie stepped out of a stall. Charlie picked up the bully by the
shoulders.

“
What are you doing?”
Charlie asked the bully as he set him down.

“
This doesn’t concern you,
prick,” the bully said.

“
That’s my brother,”
Charlie said. “He concerns me so this concerns me.”

“
Well, your
brother
destroyed my
life,” the bully said.

“
Oh right,” Charlie said.
“You’re the kid with the nasty movies on your computer. Losing good
jerk off material is tough. But ruin your life? You must not have
much of a life.”

“
It was Sandy!” Nash
said.

“
I see,” Charlie’s face
shifted to scary neutral.

“
I don’t have no problem
with you,” the bully said.

“
Well, this has been very
interesting,” Charlie patted the boy’s jacket. “I find myself with
a difficult dilemma.”

Charlie nodded to Nash.

“
On the one hand, you’ve
disrespected my brother, Nash,” Charlie said. “And I find out
you’re a perv from a long line of revolting perverts and
pedophiles.”

Charlie nodded at the bully.

“
I’m very tempted to beat
the crap out of you,” Charlie said. “But, I have a real live girl
waiting for me. And you? You have disgusting, not to mention
illegal, videos.”

Charlie shook his head.

“
Every time I start
getting pissed, I think of how pathetic you are and…” Charlie
shrugged. He looked at Nash and added, “Anything to
add?”

“
Pathetic is a very good
word,” Nash said. Teddy gave him paper towels to dry his head. Nash
stuck his head under the air hand dryers.

“
If you’ll excuse us,”
Charlie said. “We have three beauties waiting for us.”

Making sure Nash and Teddy were in front of
him, Charlie hustled them out of the bathroom.

“
Why didn’t you beat him
up?” Nash asked.

“
I have better things to
do.”

Charlie kissed Addy’s cheek. She giggled.
Aden held a soda cup out to her and she went to get it.

“
I wanted to beat him up,”
Nash said.

Charlie turned to Nash. Tall, strong,
handsome Charlie looked the boy over. He gave Nash a soft
smile.

“
You can’t hurt him more
than he’s hurting right now,” Charlie said.

“
How do you know?” Teddy
asked.

“
I’ve been him,” Charlie
said.

They watched the bully and a few of his
friends leave the bathroom and go into an action movie.

“
But why didn’t you beat
him up?” Nash asked.

“
If I beat him up, I’ll go
to jail. Seth will have to get me out and it will be a big pain in
my ass. I’ll have a bunch of stupid serious talks with Aden. Sandy
will cry,” Charlie said. “I’d rather watch the movie with my girl.
Maybe we’ll make out. Maybe more. You can never predict what
happens in the dark. Trust me. That’s a lot more fun than
jail.”

Melinda walked up with a bag of popcorn. She
gave Nash the bag, a soda and a big smile. She jogged off to join
Noelle in the bathroom. Charlie put his arm around Addy and nuzzled
her neck. He winked at Nash and they moved toward the movie
theater.

“
He seems almost sane,”
Teddy said in a soft voice.

“
Scary,” Nash
said.

Melinda and Noelle returned from the
bathroom. Nash held out his hand and Melinda took it. Walking hand
in hand, they followed Charlie and Addy to the theater. They found
seats near the back. Aden sat in the row just behind them. The
theater lights dimmed and Melinda leaned over to Nash.

“
I’m glad you called,
Nash,” Melinda whispered in his ear.

Nash smiled at her. They watched some stupid
trailers when Melinda leaned in again.

“
I really like you,” she
said.

“
I really like you,” Nash
said.

To his shock, Melinda leaned over and kissed
him.

On the lips.

Him!

Nash Norsen!

He was going to kiss her again when he felt
a piece of ice hit his head. He turned around to see his father
smirking at him. Nash nodded. Rules of dating - no hanky panky on
the first date. If you start too fast, you have nowhere to go.
Start slow.

Nash leaned back in his seat. He watched the
trailers and ate popcorn. He was about to get a drink of soda when
he saw Melinda’s hand. He took her hand instead of the soda
cup.

For the rest of the movie, Nash held on
tight.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday night — 9:35 P.M

Seth sat at the upright piano in this
basement studio. Ava had woken up a few hours ago and insisted on
seeing where he ‘really made music.’ He agreed to show her if she
would see a doctor, something she’d refused since leaving the
hospital. He’d led her down the studio and called his old friend
Bumpy. When Bumpy arrived, he’d left them alone together. He’d
asked Bumpy to take a look at Dale while he was here.

For all intents and purposes, Ava’s voice
was gone. The funeral and events afterwards had taken her energy
and what was left of her vocal cords. Bumpy had given her a strong
sedative to make sure she rested. He thought massage, and maybe
even some acupuncture, would relieve the tension in her neck and
shoulders and release her voice. But for now, Ava needed to sleep.
Dale too.

Seth played this ancient upright and Ava
slept.

This room had effectively belonged to him
since he was four years old. His great-uncle had given the family
the piano before Seth was born. His father thought the piano was
the Devil’s tool, so the piano was tucked away in a basement
storage room. Seth found it playing hide and seek with his
brothers.

For no reason anyone ever could understand,
Seth found the piano one day and played it the next. The bench seat
compartment was packed full of sheet music. Seth had found the
music a week later. He could read the piano scores long before he
learned to read words. While his father worked, Seth had played
this piano. His mother was so struck by the miracle of what Seth
could do that she hadn’t told his father until he had composed his
first piece at seven years old.

Seth looked over at Ava. She was curled up
in a sagging leather couch. In contrast to the formal room
upstairs, this room was warm, wood paneled, and comfortable.
Someone had put in pine floors. He’d had them repaired when he’d
moved back to take care of his ailing father. The room was sparsely
furnished with furniture from his old apartment. A leather
recliner, leather couch, a few chairs, an ancient wood chest, and
this upright piano. The wood fireplace cast a dancing glow on Ava’s
sleeping form. Seth wrote his best work on this piano. He began to
play an old familiar song.

“
What’s that?” Dale asked
from the doorway.

Seth looked up at him and smiled.

“
Come in,” Seth said.
“When I stop playing, Ava cries, even in her sleep. Do you
mind?”

“
Go ahead,” Dale said.
“It’s beautiful.”

Seth gave him a partial smile and continued
playing.

“
There’s Scotch and some
glasses in the case there,” Seth said. “Help yourself.”

Dale went to the cabinet to pour himself
three fingers of scotch. He took a drink.

“
Wow. This is amazing,”
Dale said.

“
Hundred year old Scotch,”
Seth said. “It’s my agent’s. Well, it was his father’s but now it’s
his. Drink it if you like it. There’s a case in the
closet.”

“
A
case
of hundred year old Scotch?”
Dale asked.

“
My agent brought it when
we sold a piece about forty years ago,” Seth said.

“
I thought you were an
alcoholic?” Dale asked.

“
I am,” Seth said. “I hate
Scotch. My father drank Scotch exclusively. The case was a bribe
for him.”

“
Why is there any left?”
Dale asked.

“
I had a special gift for
pissing my father off,” Seth said. “When I left his house, I put a
padlock on the door. He thought the piano was possessed so he never
bothered coming in.”