Danger Comes Home (Kelly O'Connell Mystery) (17 page)

I sat down and stared at her.

“Well,” she admitted, “I did call her Lorna when I got there, and she gave me that line about not liking familiarity. And I said, ‘Honey, I don’t ever stand on formality. So you can like it or not. But I’m calling you Lorna, and you call me Keisha. I don’t answer to Ms. Jackson.’”

I shook my head. “Did she tell you never to darken her door?”

“She didn’t get a chance. I said, ‘Lorna, let’s you and me sit down and talk about what makes you so special. I been sent to get your groceries like you’re some kind of queen, and I want to know why.’ Well, she drew herself up—that’s one tall woman, and that gown she had on! Oh, my! It makes her look taller.”

“So?”

“She said I was too young to know who she was, so I asked her to tell me, and she started telling me all this stuff about her career in the movies. To hear her tell it, she was Clark Gable and Cary Grant’s favorite leading lady, but I’ve watched enough old movies to know that ain’t the truth. I bet she had bit parts, but you’ll be proud, Kelly. I never said that, just oohed and aahed like I was real impressed. So she kept talking.”

“No kidding?”

“On my mother’s honor. She said next time I come back, she’ll tell me about China…and then there’s France. So, Kelly, I got to go hear those stories. I did ask her if she ever got lonely rattling around in that big house and she started to get on her high horse again, but I said, ‘Lorna, you don’t have to act like that. Tell me the truth.”

“And she told you not to be impertinent.”

“No. After a minute, she said yes she did. Said I had to understand that in Hollywood she always had so many people around her. And I told her there’d be people around her here, if she’d let them be. She didn’t say much. You watch, Kelly, I’m bringing that woman to Sunday supper sometime.”

Flabbergasted. There’s no other way to describe my feelings. But suddenly I didn’t feel so tired and irritable and beaten down. Keisha, bless her, had shown me a good side of the world. When the phone started to ring, I was able to be pleasant as I told Doris something had come up and it would be a while before Mona could sign a lease.

“Well, that apartment may be gone, you know.”

“Yes, and she knows, but it can’t be helped. And if that one’s gone, I’m sure you’ll find something else suitable.”

“Okay. Just keep me in mind.”

I promised.

Claire called next to say she hadn’t heard from Mona since Friday. I used the same line about something had come up but Claire knows me too well. “Come on, Kelly. What’s up? It looks like that grant will go through, and the bank will supplement the funding with the Woman’s Center endorsement. I’ve worked my tail off to put all this in place.”

“Claire, all I can say is something’s come up, and she can’t do anything right now. Don’t throw away the paperwork.”

“Is Mike standing right there with his hand over your mouth?”

I laughed, but it was forced. “No, of course not.”

“Does this have to do with that husband of hers?”

“You know he’s dead, don’t you?”

She exploded so loudly Keisha raised her head across the room. “Hell, no, I didn’t know that. Pardon my French but if I don’t check in with you every other day, I suddenly find myself three weeks behind in what’s going on in your life.”

“They identified his body. The one found by the railroad tracks.”

“I saw that in the paper but no later word identifying him.”

“Well,” I said weakly, “it was Todd Wilson.”

“So if he’s dead and really out of the picture, she ought to be able to move ahead with her plans.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But that’s not the way the world works.”

“Don’t tell me how the world works, Kelly O’Connell. I know that better than you do. But, I guess I have to take your word for it. I detect Mike in this deal.”

I didn’t deny it, but I felt like I’d moved an inch too far toward alienating my best friend. “Lunch today? I’ll buy at Nonna Tata—and bring some wine.”

She laughed heartily. “You can’t buy me off that easily, but, yes, I’d enjoy lunch. And bring Keisha. I bet she knows, and maybe she’ll let something slip”

Keisha didn’t let anything slip. Instead she regaled us with her stories of Lorna McDavid, until Claire was laughing at the picture of Keisha telling Lorna (no Ms. McDavid for her) to sit down in her own living room. “How soon can we have the next Sunday supper, Kelly? I’ll bring casseroles so Mike doesn’t have to cook—it will be worth it for a chance to visit with Lorna McDavid.”

“Not soon,” I muttered, and she gave me a black look.

When we parted, I said, “I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

“Oh,” Claire said with a touch of bitterness, “don’t wait that long.” Then, turning serious, she asked, “How about Jenny? Is she safe?”

“Yes. She’s staying with us.”

Then she really did look concerned. We hugged and went our separate ways, with Keisha telling me, “You were good, Kelly. Really good.”

“Cold comfort,” I said.

I fought to keep my mind on something, anything other than Mona and Jenny that afternoon. After all I had a business to run and children to raise and a husband to love.
Hmm, best not think about him—he wouldn’t appreciate a mid-day interruption.
The girls wanted to go to the day camp at the school in the summer and I had to register them, though I thought Maggie was getting too old for that and wondered what to do with her if she got there and found she didn’t like it. As I’d told Mona, I was hoping Jenny could go too. I dialed the company that runs the day care camp and asked for three registration forms. I’d give one to Mona just in case.

Anthony came by with sketches for adding a master bedroom suite above the current master bedroom, which I would turn into a guest room/office combination. Mike and I could share the office space. For a man without an architect’s degree, Anthony had done a good job. The addition would barely show from the street and would overhang the backyard, providing shaded space for a patio. Visions of barbecue evenings danced in my head.

The new bedroom itself was long and narrow, stretching across the entire back of the house, with windows looking out over the yard. There was a spacious enough bathroom with two sinks, a privacy potty (one of Mike’s specifications), a separate shower and tub. Space for the staircase would come out of our existing bedroom—none of those spiral staircases for me. We could be comfortable up there, no doubt about it, but I was troubled by the thought that the room would not be original to the house and would in a way destroy the integrity of the structure. If I was troubled, how would the zoning board feel? Probably not as bad as I did.

“Anthony, this looks great. I’ll show the plans to Mike, but I know we can’t think about it right now. There’s too much going on in our lives.”

“It’s that drug business, isn’t it?” I looked startled. Sure, he knew Joe was having trouble with his former friends but I didn’t think he knew a thing about Mona and Jenny and that mess. I carefully kept my answer neutral. “Well, sort of. Maggie’s friend is staying with us for a while until her mom sorts some things out. She’s newly widowed, you know.”

He sighed. “I know, Miss Kelly. Joe, he came and talked to me. He doesn’t want my Theresa in danger. I don’t either. Tell me what to do. I want to go bang their heads together.”

“Anthony, at this point I don’t even know whose heads you would bang, besides a couple of guys Joe used to hang out with. And you know what they say. The enemy you know is safer than that you don’t know. Well, something like that. If anything happened to Little Ben and Nathan, they’d just be replaced, maybe by people we didn’t know. We have to trust Joe.” I didn’t mention the deal whereby Theresa slept inside every night until Joe came home.

“You get it all solved, Miss Kelly, and Theresa and Joe can move out of the apartment. Then you don’t need this.” He practically threw the plans on my desk.

I had to distract him. “Anthony, there’s a duplex on Alston, just off Magnolia, that I’m thinking of buying. Here’s the address. It’s in terrible shape, and I need to know if it could be salvaged.” Truth was the duplex was across the street from the Wilson house and would make Mike a great stakeout place. After this was over, I could redo it. Mike, of course, knew nothing about this plan of mine and would probably tell me the Narcotics Squad could find their own stakeout places, thank you very much.

Anthony called back within an hour. “It’s a tear-down,” he said. “And Miss Kelly, it’s across from that drug house. You think I didn’t know? Am I going to have to watch you every minute? I’m already worried about Theresa—now I got to worry about you?”

“I’ll stay safe,” I promised, “and thanks for the advice. I’ll put the duplex on the neighborhood association tear-down list.”
So much for thinking about other things.

Mona, true to her word, picked Jenny up that morning for school and delivered her back to us about four—one long hour during which I paced and worried and helped my girls with their homework with one eye and ear, always looking and listening for Mona and Jenny.

When they came in, Jenny bristled with excitement. “Mom took me all the way to The Marble Slab, that ice cream store. I had chocolate and mint in a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles on it.”

Maggie and Em were visibly jealous and who can blame them? They had peanut butter on apple slices for their snack. I settled Jenny at the kitchen table with them to do homework and walked Mona to the door.

“Grierson is already upset,” she said. “He wants to know what excuse I gave you for leaving Jenny with you. I told him I just told you I was upset about Todd’s death and what it meant for Jenny and me, and I needed space to figure things out. He let me know in no uncertain terms that this is no temporary arrangement. And then he made a move on me, asked if I was really grieving for Todd.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“I said of course, you can’t live with a man for twenty years and not feels some emotion.” She looked at the floor. “I haven’t told you this, and I should have told Mike but Todd didn’t leave of his own free will. Someone I never saw before held a gun on him, and I know he was terrified. Much as I’d come to despise him, I felt a terrible sadness for him. And I can’t erase the look on his face from my memory. He was a man going to meet his own death, and he knew it.”

“You must tell Mike.”

“I don’t want to see Mike any more than I have to. You tell him.” And she was gone, head held high as though she had not a care in this world.

A terrible weight fell on my shoulders.

****

We had Salisbury steak for dinner, an experiment on my part that turned out well. In fact, it almost turned out too well. Jenny turned her head to answer a question about school from Mike and Gus did the unforgiveable—he reached up on her plate and neatly took the piece of meat she had just cut. Then he scampered off.

Mike refrained from yelling at the dog, though I could see it took effort. “Maggie, you’d best go discipline your dog. Take it away from him tell him ‘no,’ and put him in the back yard.”

She did as she was told and came back saying, “Poor Gus. He was so disappointed.”

“Well, Kelly, I guess your experiment was successful,” Mike said.

I got the girls to bed early and, as usual, Theresa settled at the dining table. We were into what had become our routine. This was one of those nights that Joe didn’t come home until the wee hours, but I was wakeful and heard him come in to get Theresa. We had long since given him a key to the back door.

Next morning he knocked on the door and came in. The look on his face puzzled me—not as hopeless and sad as sit had been lately but more resolute and maybe just a little like he was ready to fight bear. “Can we talk a minute?” he asked Mike.

“Sure. The girls are still fussing over their wardrobes. Pour yourself some coffee and sit.”

Instead Joe paced, coffee cup in hand. “I went out with the guys last night. They came by the Grill and practically ordered me to meet them at that Jake’s Place. I went and had a beer. Seems they have a new set-up—that’s what Nathan called it—and they expect to be rolling in dough. They particularly want me to be part of it, so I asked outright what it is. They told me okay.”

“How much did they tell you?”

“Dealing. They got a new distributor, a lady who will receive shipments, pass them out and take payment. She’ll have a guard there all the time.”

Watching her as much as guarding her.
But I didn’t say it aloud.

“It’s Jenny’s mother, isn’t it?” Joe asked.

Mike just nodded. “I hope you pretended you had no idea about any of it.”

Joe almost looked offended. “‘Course I did. Then they told me I got to join them for two reasons. I can sell on the Wesleyan campus and I can be a pipeline to them for any news of what you’re up to. Like another raid.”

Mike’s left eyebrow shot up. “I’m not really surprised. I’ll tell you, Joe, whatever happens is going to be quick…and sweet, I hope. They will get really suspicious when somebody, like Grierson, puts together that Jenny and you are both on our property.”

“Mona mentioned that he’s already pressing her,” I said. “She thinks she sweet-talked around it for now” I didn’t mention what that she might have to prostitute herself to keep Grierson happy and protect her child. It was too awful for me to contemplate.

“That won’t last long,” Mike said. “We’ve got to act and fast. Trouble is we still don’t have proof.”

“She’s getting her first shipment tonight. They’ll buy tomorrow night,” Joe said.

I couldn’t help myself. “And you signed on?” Even as I asked, I cast a questioning look at Mike.

Joe squared his shoulders and sat down for the first time. “No, Miss Kelly, I didn’t. I told them I couldn’t be part of that. You know, a guy can only be pushed so far, and I know I’ve walked a thin line lately, trying to keep everyone happy. But I can’t deal. Theresa would never feel the same about me again.”

“Did they threaten her?” Mike asked.

“No more than usual,” Joe said.

Mike’s look across the room telegraphed his worry to me, but none of us had a chance to say anything because Maggie came bouncing into the room, followed by Jenny.

“Hey, what’s everyone looking so solemn about?” she asked.

“Joe lost money at pool last night. I’m taking him to task.”

She whirled on him. “Joe, you didn’t, did you?”

He hung his head, looking repentant, and nodded.

“I’m going to tell Theresa.” She headed for the back door but Joe gently took hold of her arm.

“You don’t need to, Maggie. I already told her. She’s mad at me.”

“Well,” she stormed, “she should be.” Then, turning to Mike, “I’m hungry, and I smell bacon.”

He began to dish up breakfast just as Em wandered in and without a word gave Joe a hug. He hugged her back and then said he’d better go help Theresa with their breakfast dishes.

For a brief moment, I wondered about them. The apartment was awfully crowded quarters for two people to live and cook in, and with the tension already in their lives they were bound to clash. I pushed that thought away.

****

Friday night I slept extremely well, and Saturday morning I lounged in bed, reluctant to let go of sleep and the pleasant dream world I had just left. When Mike brought me a cup of coffee, I said, “Let’s go to the zoo today. We’ll see if Joe and Theresa want to go, and maybe Keisha and José. We deserve some fun…and so do the girls.”

He looked like I was a stranger, a daft one at that. “Are you kidding? All of us in public together?”

“Well, when you put it that way, maybe Mona would want to go since we sure won’t leave Jenny behind.”

“Kelly….”

I interrupted him. “Mike, so what if someone tails us. Let’s just act unconcerned and live our lives. I know we’re not really unconcerned, but I’m serious about the girls having some fun. And frankly I’d welcome a few hours out from under this cloud.”

“Laugh in the face of your enemy?” he asked.

“Something like that. You okay with it?”

He kissed me, a long passionate kiss. “The girls are still asleep. If you’d like a little relaxation before the zoo, I can provide that.”

I pushed him away. “They’ll wake up any moment and you know it. Stop with the romantic stuff at seven-thirty in the morning.”

Just then Em called out, “Where is everyone?”

Mike’s crestfallen look, assumed deliberately for my benefit, turned to laughter as I said, “Told you so.” I clambered out of bed and pulled out a T-shirt and cotton pants. “We’re coming, Em.”

By the time I made it to the kitchen, all three girls were there, clamoring for breakfast. Well, Jenny didn’t clamor. I wished she would so I’d know she felt at home.