A Dozen Deadly Roses (16 page)

"I told him I didn’t think we were right for each other but he kept calling."  Jade sighed and looked at Mac.  "He was mad and yelled all kinds of garbage, saying I probably liked women - they were probably more my type.  A few days later he sent a gorgeous bouquet of flowers to the house with a note saying how sorry he was."  She shrugged.  "I hadn't seen or heard from him for about three months - maybe four - until a few days ago.”

Mac sat straighter.  “What happened?”

“He called, left a message and said he wanted to get together for dinner or something.”  She shrugged.  “No big deal.  He left his number and asked me to call back.  I didn’t.  I didn’t even save the message.”

Mac shook his head.  "I doubt he would wait so long to start the dead rose thing, but you never know.  It’s kind of suspicious he appears about the same time as the dead roses. And he’s sent you flowers before.  We'll check him out and see what he's up to these days.  I also think we should put hidden cameras outside your apartment door.  If we’re lucky, we can see who's delivering the flower boxes, although we’ll have to get them up soon.  If the stalker holds true to form, we’ve only got four more days."

"I had the same thought.  There's a video camera company in our patrol area on Lankershim Boulevard specializing in covert surveillance equipment.  I ordered some cameras last week after I’d gotten the second box of flowers.  The store had called and said my cameras had come in, but when I went by there a few days ago they were closed for an emergency.  The sign on the door didn’t say how long they’d be closed.  They’re the only business in the division that carries such sophisticated surveillance cameras.  I hate shopping on duty, but I guess it’s kind of work-related."

Mac nodded.  "Don’t be silly.  Keeping you and Donnie safe is more important than not writing a parking ticket or two.”

“Well, we can try the local shop tomorrow." Jade rose from the table.  "I'd better check on Donnie and get him ready for bed."  She started from the kitchen, stopped and turned to him. "Thanks again, Mac.  For the first time in a week, I feel safe."

Mac watched from the kitchen as she gently coaxed her son to turn off the television and go with her upstairs.  He swallowed hard to clear tightness in his throat.  How many times had he watched his wife, Susan, shepherd their daughter to bed?  Unshed tears blurred his vision.

“Susan, I failed you and Ashley,” he whispered.  “What happened to you is all my fault.”  Using his fingers to rub the tears from his eyes, he took a deep breath.  “I’ve got to keep Jade and Donnie safe.  I hope you understand.”

CHAPTER 8

"Mama, how come we're sleeping over at Mr. Stryker's house?"

Jade used a warm washcloth to flush shampoo from Donnie's hair.  She’d known this question was coming.  She hoped the answer she’d thought up was plausible.

"Remember how I told you about Mr. Stryker’s little girl, Ashley?  Well, sometimes he gets very lonely for her.  I thought with you and me staying here for a couple of days he wouldn’t be so lonely.”

"Are you going to marry Mr. Stryker?"

Jade froze at the question.  "No, why would you think that?"

"Cause I think he likes you," the little boy stood to be dried off, "and we never lived at a man's house before."

"Donnie, Mr. Stryker and I are just friends, we work together.  You and I are just visiting.  We aren’t living here."

Donnie thrust out his chin.  "Darn it!  I wanted a Daddy."

Tears rushed into Jade's eyes as her heart filled with guilt.  She thought she'd done a good job of being both mother and father to her son.  She'd hoped her father, Angus, was enough of a male role model for Donnie.  Apparently not.

Jade dabbed her eyes with Donnie's towel.  "Well, honey, maybe someday you'll get a daddy."  She ruffled his hair with the terrycloth.  "Until that time, you'll just have to settle for me."

A mass of giggles erupted from beneath the towel.  "I want you
and
Mr. Stryker."

Jade’s heart lurched with renewed guilt.  She too, had wondered if through some miracle the three of them might form a family.  But as soon as those kinds of thoughts entered her mind, she forced them out.  There were too many problems – starting with the fact that Mac didn’t even know Donnie was his son and how he’d feel about it when he found out.  Then there was the issue of alcoholism.  Coupled with the murder of Mac’s wife and daughter, it was just too much.

Maybe staying here wasn’t such a good idea.  Donnie was getting too attached to Mac.  Her son flipped the cloth back exposing his face.  "Tickle me some more, Mama."

A short time later, Jade rubbed her neck as she watched the shallow rise and fall of her son's chest in the double bed in the guest room.  A small nightlight left a comforting glow in the room.

Leaving the door ajar, Jade gathered pajamas, toiletries and slippers and headed down the hall to the guest bathroom.  While washing her face, she mulled over the idea of telling Mac how she’d seen the captain a week ago.  She couldn’t believe Kincaid would try to keep her quiet by intimidating her with dead roses, but the timing sure fit.  But if she was wrong and the captain wasn’t the stalker, Jade would have put herself, Mac, and even the captain in an awkward position.  She padded into the family room, her navy satin robe covered matching pajamas.

Mac was watching the news on TV.  He glanced at her as she came into the room.

"Another shooting in Pacoima," he said, shaking his head at the flashing pictures.  "I'll never understand these kids killing each other over gang affiliation.  It's crazy."

She sat in a recliner facing the screen, feeling at a disadvantage in her nightclothes.  Her mind screamed this was the time to tell Mac that Donnie was his son.  She rehearsed several different ways to open the conversation.  She hated all of them.

"Most of those kids don't know any other life.  Often, they live in a single parent home where the mother is overwhelmed with supporting the whole family.  The gang becomes a substitute parent."

"Do you worry about that with Donnie?"

Jade gasped.  "He's only four."

Mac jabbed at a button on the remote control silencing the blare of a weather report and turning off the flat-screen.

"I mean when he gets older.  You're a single parent.  Don't you worry he could fall in with a bad crowd?”  Mac got up and started checking that the doors and windows were locked.  "Let's face it.  Police work doesn’t allow for a 'Brady Bunch' home life."

Jade sighed and walked with him while he did his security check.  "I'd be stupid not to think about it, but I've been taking care of him myself since he was born."  She shrugged.  "Dad was sober for one year before I left Donnie with him.  I still wasn’t convinced my father wouldn’t fall off the wagon, but I didn’t have the money to hire a babysitter.  It was more of a financial thing.  But now, I’m happy to have someone who loves Donnie to help take care of him.  These days you see so many horror stories about babysitters.  I'm hoping between the two of us, we'll be able to teach him to be a responsible member of society."

Finished with securing the downstairs, Mac led the way to the stairs.  He stopped and turned to her abruptly.  "You've never said, and it's none of my business, but where is Donnie's father?"

Jade sucked in air while her heart hammered at the speed of an automatic rifle. "Um, his father?  Well, uh, it's kind of a long story."

Mac turned away from her and started to climb the stairs. "A story clearly none of my business.  I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked."

Jade's fingernails dug into her palms as she clenched her fists, willing herself to tell Mac the truth.

Mac continued up the stairs and stopped on the landing.  "I shouldn't have pried.  I don't talk about my wife and daughter because it's very painful.  It gets better with time, though.  I'm sure whatever happened between you and Donnie's father will be better with time, too."  His voice trailed off, and his gaze settled on a collage of photos of his family in happy times.

Jade climbed to the top of the stairs and stood in front of him before he could move.  "There's something you should know."

He apparently didn’t hear her.  He stared past her into the frames of photos of his deceased family.

“I could never love another woman or child like I did Susan and Ashley," he mumbled.

An internal icy stake silenced the rapid-fire of her heart.  Mac had no room in his heart for Donnie, much less for her.  She swallowed the lump in her throat.  As he blinked back tears, she knew what he said was true.  She'd been fooling herself with fantasies of a happily ever after.

He placed his hand on her cheek.  "I'm sorry.  I get lost in memories.  Did you say something?" he asked.

She jerked her head from his touch.  "No.  Nothing."  She turned to join Donnie in the guest room.  "We’re working tomorrow.  I’d better get to bed."

# # #

The next morning, Mac woke with a start.  Someone was using the shower in the guest bathroom.  Before he could grab the gun he kept on his nightstand, he remembered Jade and Donnie were in the guest room.  He sank back into the pillows and stared at the ceiling.

He hadn't slept well.  He never did when he'd been thinking of his wife and child and how he'd let them down.  He should have left work and taken Susan to the doctor that horrific day.  If he had, he’d have been there to keep them safe from carjackers.  “Face it, Stryker,” he muttered, “your whole life is comprised of your inability to take action when it mattered most.”

He'd be dead if it wasn't for the woman showering in the nearby bathroom.  He’d spent many drunken nights wishing the tattooed gangster had shot him.  Bad enough he'd been too drunk to even attempt a shot at the kid with the blazing gun.  More humiliating, his rookie partner had dropped the guy with just two rounds.

Of course, the resulting investigation revealed Mac was totally hammered.  He did the only thing he could do without getting fired.  He resigned.

After about a year he'd started to get his life back together again.  He joined A.A. and took a job as a security guard at a movie studio.  He tried to pretend what he did was important.  The film moguls claimed they wanted security, but, in fact, they wanted a cardboard cutout who'd wave at the stars as they sped by in their tricked-out sports cars and SUV's.  Mac learned his lesson the hard way when he busted one of the studio's biggest stars snorting speed with a prostitute on one of the sets.

After the Chief of Security upbraided him for embarrassing the mega-star and his “guest,” Mac told his boss where to shove it and quit on the spot.  It was only pure chance he'd run into an old LAPD partner who'd told him the Department was having a hard time hiring officers and was looking for former Los Angeles cops to come back to the job. Mac checked it out and two months after leaving the movie studio, Mac was back in the Police Academy.

How ironic his first training officer was Jade Donovan.  After the shooting, he’d heard through the grapevine she’d gotten an Official Reprimand for not reporting his drinking on duty.  The penalty was unfair.  Back then no probationary officer would dare turn in their training officer for anything – unless they wanted to get drummed out of the department.  It was simpler for a rookie to play dumb and pretend they didn’t know of any misconduct.

It was a different story now, Mac thought.  New rookie officers took notes of any activity they perceived as wrongdoing and blabbed to a supervisor.  Sergeants and lieutenants complained probationary officers spent more time in the station tattling on their partners than they did in the field.  The rookies didn’t understand department policy and what it took to get things done, and most often, their allegations were without merit.

The sound of Donnie’s voice down the hall interrupted his musings.  “Mama, I need to go potty.  Hurry up!”

Mac heard the bathroom door open as Jade shushed her son.  The door closed and muffled conversation ensued.  A few minutes later the whine of a hair dryer filled the air.

As he swung his legs out of bed, Mac’s thoughts returned to Jade.  He wondered what kind of a fool would leave a beautiful woman and an adorable son.  Jade was pretty evasive when it came to Donnie’s father and she’d looked spooked when he’d asked.  It must have been a hell of a break-up.  Donnie never mentioned his dad, so the kid probably never really knew him.  What a waste.  He’d give his right arm to have a woman like Jade, and a son like Donnie, and some schmuck had let them slip through his fingers.

You think you’re so smart, he thought, you’ve got a single, intelligent, and heart-breakingly sexy woman staying down the hall.  So, what are you going to do about it?

# # #

After an uneventful day at work, Mac and Jade fought their way through the traffic to the camera store where they could buy some surveillance cameras.

“Was your Dad okay with watching Donnie after we got off work?”

Jade nodded. “Yeah, I called him and told him we’re running an errand after work.  He was fine with it.  Donnie isn’t a happy camper though,” she said.  Sitting in Mac’s truck, she inhaled deeply, absorbing the scent that was distinctively Mac’s.  “I sure hate the fact we had to come all the way back to your house to drop off my car.  But I think it’s safer than trying to get out of the station parking lot without being seen together.”

“You’re right.  Besides, I was thirsty,” Mac said, waving a plastic water bottle at her.  “So, now Donnie’s upset.  Poor little guy.”

“I told him I’d make it up to him when we go to Vegas for Dad’s wedding.  You know, my Dad mentioned again this morning that he and Mona would really like for you to go, too.”

“How do you feel about it?” Mac asked, slamming on the brakes to avoid a pedestrian who was jay-walking.

Jade’s cheeks heated in embarrassment.  “That’s certainly a loaded question,” she said with a smile.  “Seriously though, I know Donnie would love it.”

“That wasn’t the question,” Mac said.  He took his eyes from the road to look at her.

She chose her words carefully.  “It would be nice to have someone to go with, but I don’t want you to feel obligated.  You had a life before Donnie and I disrupted your household, and besides, you hardly know Dad and Mona.”