Sins of the Father (23 page)

Oh please! What an actor! Like he cared what
was rough on me and what wasn’t. If he did, he’d stop being such a
domineering brute, maybe take back that evil thing he said about me
being nothing but his personal property.
His rules
. Pissed
me off just thinking about it.

“I should be there before eight. Talk to you
then.”

I listened to his footsteps fade for too
long and in the wrong direction. My mind counted silently. The
distance was equal to that of my bedroom to the kitchen.
No!
He’s going to barge in there to attach my little monitor to my
ankle!
Panic squeezed my ribs hard enough to inflict physical
pain.

Instead of a shout of anger, the footsteps
returned. I dashed through the kitchen toward the living room.
Whoosh. Garage door opened. I had mere seconds before he saw what
I’d been doing all night. I flew down the gallery hall toward my
bedroom. Door open, two more steps, shut the door.

“
Helen!
”

The jig was up.

I spun on my heel and retraced my steps,
pretending to have just ventured out of my sanctuary. Up all night
boiled down to bleary eyed.

The hulk appeared, glowering, snorting smoke
from his nostrils, ready to paw the ground and charge me.
“
What
did you do?”

Me and my brilliant ideas. Why hadn’t I
waited until this morning and had some charity come pick up the
furniture for me? They’d have hauled it right out of the
bedroom.

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“Well I know I’m not hallucinating. There’s
a garage full of furniture, and if my eyes don’t deceive me, it
came out of the guest room.”

Garage full. Bah. Drama queen.

“Don’t worry. I’ll have one of the local
charities come haul it away today if possible.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you damn well
know it!”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s no big deal really,
just a few pieces of –”

“You should not be lifting mattresses and
dressers and bed frames in your condition! Are you
trying
to
hurt yourself?” The frown intensified to a scowl. “Were you up
all night
?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You just saw me come
out of my room –”

“You’re wearing the same clothes you had on
when you came out of the cave last night, Helen. I realize you
think I’m stupid, but I am an astute investigator.”

“I can sleep all day.”

“Is that the plan?”

“No.”

“Are you planning to go back out shopping
today? More furniture from Behan’s perhaps?”

Bastard
. “No wonder you don’t get
your work done at the office,” I fumed. “Since you clearly spent
all day yesterday glued to whatever it is you use to track my every
move!”

“Answer the question, Helen. Are you leaving
the house today?”

I nodded curtly.

“Then I guess you’ll need the ankle monitor
after all.” He stalked down the gallery hallway toward me, gripped
my arm and steered me toward the chaise in my bedroom. “Sit.
Now.”

He retrieved the wretched device and quickly
locked it around my ankle. Shackled again. I seethed in silence
that screamed every nasty epithet I could imagine.

“Levine is going to be in town today. He
wanted to know if you’d like to have dinner.”

I bit my lower lip.

“I’ll tell him you’ll be here with dinner
ready at six. I trust that won’t interfere with your plans for the
day.”

“I look forward to seeing
him
.”

“Good. I won’t be home until late. Don’t
expect me for dinner.”

Johnny rose, turned on his heel and left.
This time, the garage door slammed shut.

Chapter 21

I don’t think I’ve known bone deep gratitude
so completely in my life. Being a realist, I know that other than
my relationship with my father, I’ve pretty much faced life alone.
Me against the world. Attack.

Today, I felt it for my children more than I
imagined possible. Doing something for them completely erased my
disgust with my husband. I tucked my sketches into my purse and
headed out of the house shortly after Johnny’s less than graceful
exit and headed to Downey.

Along a quaint, cobblestone street was the
store I found on the Internet during the wee hours. Annell’s Sewn
Bit o’ Heaven. Not only did Annell supply materials for crafty
do-it-yourself types, she also did commissioned work for people.
Since I do not fall into the former category, Annell was about to
become my godsend.

She carefully examined my sketches, held up
one finger as if testing for wind direction and disappeared into
the back room. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. At
least until she reappeared five minutes later with her arms full of
patterns and photo albums.

She’d done bits and pieces of what I wanted
for various projects over the years and wanted my stamp of approval
I thought. Not quite accurate. She started discussing modifications
to the past projects and the patterns she brought out so that the
final product would be as close to an exact replica of my dream as
possible.

We spent the rest of the morning picking out
fabrics. She agreed that my little animals needed to be durable,
since I wanted them large enough that when tacked to the walls,
they would be low enough for the boys to reach at a young age. She
suggested a variety of textures for a more interesting experience
for their inquisitive fingers.

I couldn’t have been more thrilled. She
promised the job would be finished in two weeks.

“If you need more time, Annell, it’s fine
with me. I’m not due until fall.”

“Oh, honey,” she drawled in native
Kentuckian, “you’re gonna want this room ready long before these
little angels come into the world. Trust me. I decorated five
nurseries in my house, and you’re gonna be adding finishing touches
from now until the stars fall.”

It segued the conversation into a realm I
hadn’t yet imagined. I ended up ordering sheet sets, bumper pads,
decorative pillows, dust ruffles and just about anything else you
could imagine, right down to matching hand crafted mobiles for the
cribs. Annell would make the soft jungle animals by hand and ship
them off to a company that would attach them to the mobile.

“We just need to decide what song you want
each mobile to play.” She winked at me. “I’m guessing that we won’t
be going with anything as traditional as Brahms, not that there’s
anything wrong with it.”

I picked two songs from the Disney original
Jungle Book. It seemed fitting.

“Oooh,” she cooed, “they are going to be two
pampered little princes!”

A fragment of reality intruded. Yes, they
would be, at least until they were born. Then it was anybody’s
guess what Johnny would do with me. All I had was this.

And a little bit of perverse pleasure that
while Johnny could track my movements – as Annell said, ‘til the
stars fall – he couldn’t be part of what I was doing. He couldn’t
make me tell him. He had no say whatsoever in the one gift I knew
I’d give my sons.

Those kinds of thoughts filled me with
bitterness and spite. I dug the cell phone out of my purse and
dialed from memory.

One ring. Two rings. I pictured him digging
the cell out of his pocket, then, “Detective Mackenzie.”

“Hey you.”

“Helen?” His voice dipped low.

“Yes,” I drawled. “Are you by any chance
free for lunch?”

“Uh…”

“Oh c’mon. I’m in Downey. We could hit
someplace close to OSI. You’ve got to eat. Surely that dastardly
taskmaster of yours lets you take time to eat.”

He chuckled softly. “Any other day, I’d say
no problem.”

“Hmm, I heard. His lord on high has
descended from the pearly gates of Montgomery for a day of grim
discussions.”

“You know about that?”

“Not really. Obviously you’re not in the
thick of things, being the pond scum that you are in the grand
scheme of law enforcement. Fill me in over lunch. We can hit
Bertolli’s.”

“Chris just stepped out of the conference
room. Let me run it by him and call you right back.”

The reply came in the form of a text.
Bertolli’s five minutes. CU soon.
Punctuated with a smiley
emoticon. I met him in seven.

Devlin hugged me on the sidewalk in front of
the restaurant. “You sounded fabulous when you called. Look at you!
This is new.” Devlin ruffled my hair playfully.

“Don’t you just hate it?”

“Eh,” he shrugged. “It’ll grow back if your
not in love with it. I think you could shave your head and still
look gorgeous.”

“Ah, you’re exactly what I needed today.
Come on. Let’s go order. I’m starving.”

It took me all of thirty seconds with a menu
to decide on lunch. Soup, salad, and an enormous plate of
fettuccini smothered in Alfredo sauce and Alaskan king crab. “Do
you have any yummy garlic bread? Piping hot, crispy, smothered in
butter and fresh parmesan?”

“I think that can happen,” our waitress
grinned.

“And a giant glass of sweet tea,” I said.
“Easy on the ice.”

Chuckling, Devlin ordered steak and a baked
potato.

“You have absolutely no sense of culinary
adventure,” I said.

“Tell me what put you in such a great
mood.”

I grinned. “Johnny’s at work. What’s not to
love?”

“Helen…”

“Oh all right. I’ve been spending money like
there’s no tomorrow.”

“That sounds more like it. So what do these
purchases include? That’s a new blouse, isn’t it? Very
flattering.”

The waitress returned with my soup, salad
and tea and Devlin’s coffee.

“I’ve been buying baby furniture.”

“Ah,” he nodded. “No wonder you’re flying at
about 37 thousand feet. I’m glad you’re having so much fun. Do I
get to know any of the details or is this a state secret until
you’re ready for a ribbon cutting ceremony?”

“Hmm, I hadn’t thought about it that way. I
like that idea. I can have a party to reveal my nursery
masterpiece.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Tell me about your day. Life. Seems like
forever since we’ve actually been able to kick back and have a real
conversation.” I dug into the bowl of hearty tortellini soup and
rolled my eyes. “Mmm! So good. Want a bite?”

Devlin speared the spinach in the salad that
came with his meal. “I’m good.”

“So how are you?”

“Eh, a little stressed given the atmosphere
at work these days.”

“I’m sorry about that, Dev. I suppose it
didn’t help matters when I shared my changing belly with you the
other day.”

“At this point, I think Johnny’s got more on
his mind than simple jealousy. Everybody’s been dreading today for
the past month.”

My spoon hung suspended in midair. “That
long?”

“I’m sure Johnny tried to shield you from
what was going on, considering everything you’ve been through, but
yeah. We’re pretty sure that by close of business today, we’ll all
be packing our belongings for good. Johnny keeps assuring us that
we’ll be okay. I don’t know though. I’m pretty sure the bridges are
burned with Darkwater Bay’s PD. After what happened with Andy, I’m
not sure I could stand to go back to Montgomery.”

“What does Chris say?”

Devlin munched a cherry tomato in
silence.

“He’s retiring for good if Collangelo shuts
down OSI, isn’t he?”

Nod. “I think he’s done today no matter
what. He’s pretty disgusted with the whole thing, says he’s so over
vitriolic politics that he thinks his eyes and ears will bleed if
he sees or hears one more nasty campaign ad or reads one more
cutthroat story in the papers.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. You know, it’s a
funny thing. When I first came to Darkwater Bay, I didn’t like
Chris very much. Boy did he ever change my mind. I don’t think I’ve
ever met a man so honorable in my life.”

“I know what you mean. Your call today
really lifted my spirits. It’s been pretty glum around there
anyway, no matter what we’re doing. Distraction only works to a
point.”

“So Johnny didn’t offer any explanation to
why he believes everything will be all right?”

Devlin snorted softly. “He’s got this great
idea that if Joe shuts us down, rather than letting the state
police absorb us, which sounds like a pretty iffy option anyway on
account of Sanderfield harping about budget stuff, he thinks we
should develop a new service for his security business. I know the
place is a real money maker, Helen. Johnny’s not some dirt poor cop
living from paycheck to paycheck, but adding the salaries for three
full time investigators is pretty daunting. We have to earn at a
certain level.”

“Three? Johnny wants to include Chris
too?”

“Yeah, that’s his plan. The four of us would
provide investigations in the multiple areas where the cops fail –
for a fee. It assumes something that frankly, I don’t think
exists.”

“What’s that?”

“Sanderfield is right about one thing to my
way of thinking. Our economy is in the toilet. Even the people that
could afford to hire us aren’t spending money like they used to –
present company excluded of course.”

I grinned. “Yesterday I dropped over eight
grand on two cradles for my bedroom. That doesn’t count what I
spent on furniture for the proper nursery.”

“There you go,” he said. “Thanks for making
my point. So when I overheard something I know Johnny didn’t want
anybody
to hear, I figured that maybe he’s looking for a
quick infusion of cash to make this thing happen. Ordinarily, it
wouldn’t bother me, but the way he’s going about it.” Dev shook his
head slowly. “Not my thing.”

If Johnny needed a quick infusion of cash,
he knew I’d help, especially if it meant protecting Chris, Devlin
and Crevan. “What did you overhear?”