Seduced by Moonlight (10 page)

Eve certainly heard what her mother had said. She laughed cruelly and jerked her mother from Cherisse's embrace. Mary's frightened gaze pleaded with Cherisse to help her. Cherisse balled up her fists in frustration. What could she do to help her old friend? She had to think of something.

“Okay,” Eve said to Cherisse, “you've seen her, now get the hell out of my house!”

Cherisse had no choice but to do as she was told. She turned around to glance back as she was walking down the front steps. Eve was pushing Mary toward the back rooms of the house.

Cherisse got behind the wheel of her car and immediately got on her cell phone. Maybe Taz Coffman, a police sergeant and Neil's ex-partner, could advise her.

T
az wasn't optimistic. He said Mary, as the owner of the house, had to be the one to evict her daughter. Cherisse sighed as she sat in her car with the phone to her ear. “She was so drunk she couldn't walk straight, Taz. Obviously Eve has been plying her with booze in order to control her.”

“How long has she been there?” Taz asked.

“I put Mary on leave last Monday, two days later I went to see her and she was sober. That was on Wednesday. I don't know when Eve got there but she must have been there a few days because the house is a mess. Mary keeps a clean house.”

“I'll tell you what we can do,” said Taz. “We can put the fear of God into the daughter. Maybe scare her off. You want to hear my idea?”

“Fire away,” Cherisse said, feeling better about the situation. She had been thoroughly surprised when Eve had opened the door a few minutes ago. She felt horrible because on Monday she had teased Mary about Eve coming to claim her house after she had drunk herself to death. Apparently Eve was in a rush to claim the house. She seemed to be trying to hurry along her mother's death.

“How many friends of Mary's can you get together on short notice?” Taz asked.

Cherisse immediately thought of Sonia and Gerald. Her mother, who had been a friend of Mary's late mother, Rose, would also come. Plus Danielle, who would not want to be left out if her grandmother were participating.

“Four,” Cherisse answered confidently.

“Good,” said Taz. “Call them and tell them to meet me at Mary's house at six. It's a quarter after five now. Tell them to hang back and follow my lead. Give me the address.”

Cherisse gave him Mary's address, then they hung up and she immediately started making phone calls.

Five minutes before six Gerald and his wife, Darlene, arrived in their big black SUV. Moments later Danielle drove up in her blue-and-white MINI Cooper with her grandmother riding shotgun. Shortly afterward Sonia pulled up behind the MINI Cooper in her Volvo with Ken Kesey, the guy she'd met at Karibu last Saturday. Cherisse had to smile when she saw him. He must really like Sonia to go on an as yet unknown mission with her.

Cherisse had gotten out of her car to meet Gerald and Darlene and now all seven of them were gathered around the SUV. Quick introductions were made and Cherisse told them what was happening.

“That evil little toad,” said Sonia. “She's never given Mary anything but grief. Let me go in there and kick her butt!”

Cherisse smiled at her friend's moxie. “We're going to do exactly what Taz wants us to do when he gets here. He's the law. Let him handle it. He says we should follow his lead.”

“Here he is now,” Jo said as a huge blue SUV with its siren blasting and a flashing blue light atop its roof sped up the quiet street. Effects, Cherisse thought. He's got to make it look official. Get the neighbors out of their houses to witness the display.

When Taz stopped the SUV at the curb and climbed out of it, he immediately strode over to them. He was not a big man. He was just a trim, five-eleven Jewish guy from New York City. But after twenty years on the force he wore a mantle of authority. It was evident in his carriage and in his intelligent brown eyes.

Cherisse wanted to hug him she was so grateful he'd come. She knew a policeman going into a domestic situation could potentially be very dangerous.

Taz walked over to them. “Folks,” he greeted them all with a nod of his head. Everyone there knew him except Sonia's friend and Taz's take-charge attitude told them there wasn't time for niceties. “I'm going in there and explain to Mary that if she says her daughter isn't welcome on her property that I'm there to see to it that she leaves. Cherisse, you come with me since you're the complainant. The rest of you hang back. When it's over you'll need to come in and get Mary cleaned up and sober because she can't go down to the police station to press charges smelling like a distillery. Got it?”

Everyone indicated that they understood. Taz turned on his heels and he and Cherisse went to the door of the house.

He rang the bell. No one came to the door. They stood on the porch for two minutes more, and then Taz started pounding on the door.

“Who is it!” called Eve from the other side of the door.

With a nod of his head, Taz motioned for Cherisse to speak up. “It's Cheri again, Eve. I want to talk to you about Mary. You know she needs help. Why are you doing this to her? She's always been a good mother to you.”

Eve hurriedly unlocked the door and swung it open. The odor that met Cherisse and Taz was unmistakably that of marijuana. Cherisse was surprised it wasn't something stronger like crack cocaine.

Seeing only Cherisse standing there because Taz was standing off to the side, Eve lit into her. “Back for round two, huh, bitch? You are one meddling broad. If you don't get away from here I really am going to call the cops.”

“No need, I'm here,” Taz said with one foot already in the doorway and his shoulder pressed against the door. Eve tried her best to shut the door but he'd anticipated her first reaction. It wasn't hard, as she was totally stoned—stoned but still ready to defend her rights. Almost losing her balance, she yelled at him, “You have to have a warrant to come in here. I don't see no warrant!”

Taz pulled a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket and offered it to her. Eve refused to accept it, looking at it as if he were trying to hand her a writhing rattlesnake instead.

“You don't have to take it,” Taz said, returning the paper to his pocket. “You can read it later.” He paused for effect, standing there with his legs apart and a grim expression on his face. “Now, I want to see your mother. Go and get her.”

“Momma's asleep,” Eve cried pitifully. “She's sick, you can't disturb her.”

“Has she passed out from drink?” Taz asked. “Have you been forcibly giving your mother alcohol to keep her incapacitated so that you can rob her blind?”

“Who told you that?” Eve yelled, looking at Cherisse.

Cherisse quietly stood behind Taz, letting him handle it as he'd suggested. She only wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. Mary had asked for her help and she would not be able to sleep tonight if she didn't do everything within her power to provide that help.

“Your neighbor, Ms. Washington, says your mother pleaded with her to get you out of her house. I would like to hear that from your mother. Please go get her,” Taz said, pronouncing each word clearly so that there wouldn't be any misunderstandings. “I don't want to have to repeat myself, miss. Do it now.”

Eyes red and glassy, nose running, hair sticking up on her head, Eve looked like someone who had been on a bender for days. She was breathing hard as if from exertion, but Cherisse knew it was from rage. But she huffed off and went to do as Taz asked her and a couple of minutes later she returned with Mary in the same bathrobe as Cherisse had seen her in earlier, only this time the robe was closed and properly tied at the waist.

Mary appeared to be a bit more sober, she was walking straighter and when she looked up and saw Cherisse and Taz, she gave a wan smile. Eve let go of her arm after bringing her to stand in front of Taz and she turned as if to leave the room.

“Please stay where you are,” said Taz.

She stopped in her tracks and turned around to face them. Wearing only a thin white T-shirt and dirty jeans, her feet bare, she shivered as if she were cold. Eyes ringed in smeared mascara, she stood and watched as Taz asked her mother if she were all right.

“Mrs. Thomas, I'm Sergeant Taz Coffman of the Denver Police Department. Ms. Washington tells me that you wish to evict your daughter from your property. Is that correct?”

Eve said desperately, “Momma, please!”

Mary stood as straight as she possibly could but she swayed a bit. Cherisse was about to go to her and support her, but Taz motioned for her to stay where she was.

Mary looked into Taz's eyes and said, “Sergeant, she poured liquor down my throat and when I fought her she would hit me in the stomach until I let her. Please get her out of my house!”

“It would be my pleasure, Mrs. Thomas,” said Taz. He nodded in Mary's direction, letting Cherisse know that she was now free to go to her.

Cherisse went and put her arms about Mary's thin waist and helped her over to the couch, whereupon Taz turned to Mary again. “Are you aware enough to answer another question for me, Mrs. Thomas?”

Mary took a few seconds to reply. “I'll try, Sergeant.”

“Do you want to press charges against your daughter?”

“Momma, please!” Eve cried, more desperate than ever. “I'll go, just don't let him arrest me. I've been in jail and I can't go again. I swear I won't come back.”

Tears came to Mary's eyes. “I don't believe you,” she said pitifully.

That's all Taz needed to hear. He went to Eve and handcuffed her. Eve tried to fall to her knees in order to make his job more difficult, but Taz easily handled her slight weight. “You're just making it harder on yourself,” he told her.

“I don't have any shoes on,” she said, trying to postpone the inevitable.

“Don't worry, they have special shoes for you in jail,” Taz assured her. He then read her her rights.

Mary sobbed on Cherisse's shoulder as she watched her daughter being taken away.

As soon as Taz removed Eve from the premises, the other six folks standing in the yard entered the house. Cherisse left them with Mary while she ran outside to catch Taz before he left.

She was surprised to see several of Mary's neighbors either standing on their porches or in their front yards watching the drama unfold.

Taz had put Eve in the back of the SUV by the time Cherisse walked up to him. The temperature this evening was in the low sixties so he had all the windows rolled up on the SUV, but still Cherisse kept her voice down, not wanting Eve to overhear, when she said, “Thank you, Taz. I love you, you're a sweetheart.”

Taz smiled at her. “Love you, too, babe. You go take care of Mary. I'll call you later.”

He was all business again as he got behind the wheel of the SUV, let loose with the siren once more and sped off.

Cherisse hurried back inside.

Once in the house she found everyone sitting down, chatting with Mary, who looked slightly embarrassed and happy simultaneously. Cherisse went to sit next to her on the couch, taking Danielle's spot as she did so. “Mary, Ma and I are going to take you and help you get cleaned up.”

Jo, used to taking charge, took Mary by the arm and helped her up. “Come on, honey, you can show me where everything is.”

In her mother's and Mary's absence, Cherisse addressed everyone else. “Thank you for coming. I know once Mary is herself again she's going to be very grateful that you did. If anyone has to leave now, I understand. But if you can stay an hour or two maybe we can put the house in order and try to sober Mary up enough so that she'll be able to go down to the station in the morning and press charges against Eve.”

“Gerry and I can stay a couple of hours,” Darlene volunteered.

“You know I'm down for anything,” Danielle told her mother.

Sonia wasn't so sure about her new friend, but he surprised everybody by saying, “I can vacuum with the best of them!”

Sonia gave him such a beautiful smile that the poor man almost tripped over his own feet as he went in search of said vacuum.

Cherisse smiled broadly. Mary was lucky to have such good friends.

 

The next day at work, Cherisse went in with the same prayer on her lips—“Lord, let today be a quiet day.” And, as always, it went unanswered. Or maybe, she reasoned at around lunchtime when a buxom brunette wearing a miniskirt, a low-cut blouse and stilettos walked up to the nurses' station and announced that she was Amy Whitehall's mother and demanded to see her, His answer was no.

There were two other nurses in the station and Cherisse let one of them handle the woman whose eyes were darting around the area as if she were afraid someone was following her. As well she should be, Cherisse thought. The police had left orders for the nursing staff to phone them if Amy Whitehall's mother put in an appearance. They had been trying to locate her ever since Amy had been admitted.

“I'll take you to her,” Katy said to the woman as she moved past Cherisse and gave her a furtive look on her way from behind the desk. Cherisse took that to mean Katy had also remembered that the police needed to be notified.

With her back to the woman, Cherisse mouthed to Katy, “Okay,” and smiled reassuringly. All they needed today was to have to deal with an emotionally distraught parent.

After Katy disappeared down the corridor with Amy Whitehall's mother, Cherisse quickly consulted the important numbers posted on the wall next to the telephone. Getting an outside line, she dialed the number of the Denver Police Department and asked for the detective in charge of the Amy Whitehall case. In a few minutes a female's voice said, “I'm Detective Brennerman.”