Danger Comes Home (Kelly O'Connell Mystery) (18 page)

While I made coffee, Mike asked them, “Who wants breakfast tacos?”

While I said a silent thanks that I’d bought tortillas, Mike sternly told the girls they’d have to help. Maggie had to cut up potatoes; Jenny had to mix eggs and milk for scrambled eggs; Em had to set the table, to which she said, “That’s what I always have to do. It’s no fun being the little kid.”

“Oh, then I guess we’ll leave you at home when we go to the zoo today?”

Then there was a chorus of “The zoo?” Really?” “Who’s going?” Em wanted to rush right out the door to ask Joe and Theresa but I explained it might be polite to call first, so I pulled up Theresa’s number on my cell phone and let Em talk. After a short conversation, she hung up and said, “They’ll come in to talk to you about it in a minute.”

“Okay, Maggie. You want to call Keisha and José?”

She reached for my phone. “I know how to find the number.” And in a minute she was talking to Keisha—well, burbling with excitement really.

Joe knocked on the back door. “Mr. Mike? Can we talk?” He nodded toward the living room, and Mike put the cooking on hold to go talk to him.

When they came back, Joe said, “I’ll go talk to Theresa.”

Mike told me later that Joe had questioned the wisdom of this adventure and Mike said to him, “We’re going to laugh in the face of our enemies.” Joe was dubious but finally said he’d ask Theresa.

Although I’d thought about Mona, Jenny was the one who asked, “Can my mom go too?”

“Of course, sweetie. Do you want me to call her?”

“I’ll do it. I have my own phone and she’s number one on my list.” Then she said, “You and her are the only two people on my list.”

“Well, that’s just because I don’t have my own phone yet,” Maggie said, and I knew we were in for some begging.

Mike gave me a long look over the girls’ heads as Jenny went scampering off, and I knew he was telling me he shouldn’t socialize with a drug dealer. I’d just tell him she was Jenny’s mother too and of course she should go with us. Apparently he decided to throw caution to the winds, because he never mentioned it to me again.

And go to the zoo we did, so many of us that Mike muttered to me, “Why didn’t we invite your mom and Otto too?” I silenced him with a sharp jab to the ribs.

We saw every animal in that zoo, I swear, and Fort Worth has one of the best small zoos in the country. We even went into the new herpetarium, which gives me the creeps, truth be told. Em didn’t much like it either and held my hand. We explored the Texas Wildlife exhibit where people are enclosed and animals roam free; we rode the train, ate hot dogs. The girls rode the carousel and loved the animals in the petting zoo, but oh boy! Did I make them sanitize their hands after that. I’ve heard too many stories.

It was mid-afternoon before we gave up, too tired for any more fun, and headed home. Keisha and José went one way, Joe and Theresa went out to the apartment, and Mona left, after a short visit with Jenny. I suggested all three girls take a “body rest” and before you could count to three they were asleep.

With the house quiet, I asked Mike if we were tailed during our outing. I really hadn’t watched, had refused to pay attention.

“Oh, yeah. I made one of them, but Joe says there were two. He knew one of them, which means they were pretty obvious about it.”

“I’m glad we laughed a lot.”

****

Unfortunately you can’t go through life laughing in the face of your enemies. The Monday following our zoo trip marked the beginning of the next-to-last week of school. My afternoons were taken up with three girls to test for spelling and math and all sorts of end-of-the-year activities. Then of course we had to decide on clever gifts for the teacher that were appropriate but not too showy. And I promised to bring cupcakes for the party on the last day of school.

Jenny participated happily in the goings on and planning at our house, but occasionally in the night I caught her crying softly to herself. She always waited until my girls were asleep, and she kept her sobs muffled because she didn’t want them to know. But if I took her into the living room and wrapped my arms around her, she whispered, “I want my mom.”

All I ever said was, “Of course you do. And she wants you to be together more than anything else in this world. Be as patient as you can, Jenny.” How do you ask an eleven-year-old in that situation to be patient?

Mona picked Jenny up every morning and brought her home every afternoon, and like as not, she took her for a treat—a soft-serve sundae from Curleys, a new sweater from Old Navy, a book that Jenny picked out herself at Barnes & Noble. But Mona knew as well as I did that her gestures didn’t make up for her absence.

She never talked to me about what I now thought of as her double life. I had no idea if she was scared, angry, defiant—and I wondered. How could she calmly pass out drugs to be sold on the street and collect the money? I prayed she had learned a lesson from Todd’s death and wasn’t shorting her payments to Grierson.

I actually ran into the rogue cop one day when he had the nerve—well that’s how I thought of it—to come to the Grill. I recognized him, though we’d only met a few times. He reminded me, in looks, of Conroy: beer belly, not quite a fresh shave, even his uniform sloppy and, at least that day, spotted with whatever he had for breakfast.

“Well, if it isn’t Mike Shandy’s wife! How are you, Kelly? Your girls? I see Mike from time to time but I never hear about you and those darling girls. Of course, Mike and I don’t cross paths that much these days.”

I assured him we were fine, just fine, and politely asked about his wife and daughter. What I really wanted to say was, “I think you’ll see more of Mike in the near future,” but I just smiled and made small talk. In a minute he moved on to join two other officers who were lunching there that day. I wished Mike had met me for lunch—and I was glad Mona hadn’t.

Outside her visits to Jenny, Mona and I deliberately avoided each other. It was a planned strategy, but I hated it. I wanted to talk about hot dogs and restaurants and grand plans for the future, children and cooking and new apartments. All of that was on hold.

Mike never told me how he communicated with Mona, and I wondered sometimes if he had a plant in the drug business. I asked once if it was Joe.

“Kelly, I would never put Joe in that much danger. He’s doing well where he is, talking casually with his so-called buddies. And please don’t ask me anymore about undercover cops. You know I can’t talk about that. I already tell you so much more than most police wives know. It’s because I trust you.”

I just walked over and kissed him. “And I try to earn your trust.”

At any rate, whether or not he got his information from an informant, he said Mona was doing a booming business, for what that was worth. I had wondered about the safety of having a woman with access to that much pot and who knew what else and also that much money, but apparently Grierson thought of everything: someone “guarded” her every night and left, taking the cash with him. No chance for her to short her payments if she wanted to, which I doubted. Mona would do everything she could to protect herself, for Jenny. She did tell Mike it was the same man who had ushered Todd out the door on the last night of his life. No, not one of Joe’s buddies—older, Anglo not Hispanic, polite but gruff. Mona, Mike said, seemed to be calmly carrying on.

What I didn’t ask Mike was whether or not Grierson was continuing to put personal pressure on Mona. It was, I thought, the kind of thing she’d only confide in another woman. I was left stewing.

Joe was the one who was not calmly carrying on, and I was worried about him. Living with fear took a toll on him. I could tell he was not sleeping well. One just had to look at the dark hollows under his eyes, and I wasn’t sure but I thought he was losing weight. Not a lot, but it showed. His pants were baggy—and he had long since given up wearing the baggy pants of a gangsta. He lived under a dark cloud.

Theresa had not spoken to either of us about Joe’s firm stance, except to say that she was proud of him and, no, she was not afraid. “They don’t really want me. They want Joe, and they’re trying to scare him.”

Mike tried to talk her into carrying a small gun like mine, even offered to buy it and take her for training, but she refused. “I don’t believe in guns,” she said. “You know what they say: if you’re not sure you could use it effectively, you shouldn’t have one.”

Between Joe, Keisha, and both of us, she was never alone, and I worried less about Theresa than I did Joe. Even Anthony was worried.

“That boy, he works himself into my heart. I can see he really loves my Theresa. I want to do something.” For the fifteenth time I tried to convince him he couldn’t do anything, and if he did he might make it worse. He ran his hands through his hair, said “Mother of God,” and threw his hands up in the air in a hopeless gesture.

The tension we were all living under was obvious to the girls, so one thing I did to distract them was to plan one of our parties for the Sunday night after school was out. We came up with a brilliant idea—actually Jenny suggested it. We’d ask Mona to try some of her hot dog creations on us. I’d supply the hot dogs and buns plus potato salad.

Mona agreed readily and said it would be fun. I figured she needed a little fun in her life. She said she’d fix most of the toppings at her house earlier in the day, and she would have to be home by eight. Apparently hers was a seven-day-a-week job.

When she specified that I get Nathan’s hot dogs, I balked, simply because of Joe’s former buddy by that name. I asked if Hebrew National would be all right, and she agreed but said she’d use Nathan’s when she opened her café. I was delighted that her dream was alive and well.

After one of Keisha’s McDavid grocery expeditions, a chore she had long since taken over, she announced that Miss Lorna said she might “consider joining the gaiety.”

“I told her there would be a lot of gaiety,” Keisha said, “so we better get out from under this dark cloud before then.”

“Tell her no funny cigarettes. This is a police officer’s home.” It dawned on me she probably still didn’t yet know that Mike and I were married.
I wonder if the shock will displease her, to say the least.

“I’ll tell her, but she also likes single-malt Scotch. I been getting it for her. She’ll probably bring a flask.” And Keisha was off into gales of laughter.

I tried to picture Lorna McDavid at one of our Sunday suppers but failed utterly. I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea of Keisha and Lorna as best buddies.

Theresa disappeared on the Monday that began the last week of school. She always took her lunch with her to avoid spending money, even at the inexpensive French cafeteria next door to Polly’s Pretties, so Polly left her alone when she went to lunch. We had never thought to warn Polly, in retrospect a bad oversight, but as Joe had said at the time, Theresa would have lost her job. The idea of Polly’s Pretties didn’t match well with danger.

Polly called Joe, and he called Mike. It was late afternoon before I heard the news, which instantly angered me. I came home to find Joe slumped on the couch. Without looking at me, he said, “They got her.”

It took me a minute. “Who got who?”

“Theresa. She’s gone. Vanished from the shop. Left her purse behind, and the cash register was cleaned out. That’s not Theresa.”

Just as I said, “No, it’s definitely not,” the girls set up a howl punctuated by questions—where was she? When is she coming back? Who’s got her? Without explanation I sent them all to their rooms, with orders to start on homework. I didn’t treat them that way often, but they knew from my tone it was serious.

I sat down next to Joe and took his hand “Where’s Mike?”

He shrugged. “Said he was going to Theresa’s shop and then I don’t know where. Ordered me to stay here. Miss Kelly, I got to get out on the street and look for her, see what I hear.”

“Joe, it won’t do any good to have something happen to you too. Did you call Peter and tell him you can’t come to work?”

He shook his head. “No.” Looking at his watch, he said, “And I’m almost late. I can’t go and be pleasant to people, but I can’t sit around here either. I’m going out on the street.” And he slammed out of the house, leaving me alone to comfort two crying girls when all I wanted to do was scream at fate. I wanted Mike, but I didn’t dare call him. He was obviously busy. And then I wanted Keisha and Claire. I wanted to gather everyone I cared about around me, and I didn’t dare do that either.

I went into the girls’ rooms, only to find Maggie, and Em in Maggie’s room. I hugged them, and the three of us huddled in a sobbing, wet mass. When they raised tear-stained faces toward my equally blotchy face, I asked, “Don’t you trust Mike?”

“Will he really find her?”

With a conviction I wasn’t certain about, I said yes, he would. I shooed them into the kitchen, made hot chocolate, and sat them down with their routine. Somehow my mother had taught me that you carry on in the face of whatever happens. Supervising reading with half my mind, I let the other half wander and it landed on Mona and Jenny. Wasn’t it time for Mona to bring Jenny home? Were they all right or had someone orchestrated a massive kidnapping?

“Mom, you’re not paying attention. Are you thinking about Theresa?” Maggie demanded. She’d been explaining her science project to me, and truth was I hadn’t been paying attention.

“Yes, I was. When is the project due?”

“Thursday.”

“Maybe Mike can help you with it.” No, that wasn’t fair. He was going to be as distracted as I was or more so. “We’ll get it done, Maggie. On time. I promise.” My mind strayed to Claire, who would be so good at that.

I rose to call Claire, just then Mona came in with Jenny. Involuntarily I said, “I was worried about you.”

She looked puzzled. “Why would you be worried? We went to Barnes & Noble and then Starbucks. Had fun, didn’t we, Jenny? I hope I didn’t ruin your supper.”

“I’ll eat, I promise,” she said.

Mona really didn’t know about Theresa being missing. Had I suspected somehow that she would? “Theresa’s vanished,” I said, controlling my emotion as much as I could.

Mona’s intake of breath was sharp. “What do you mean ‘vanished’?”

I sent all three girls from the room again, to much grumbling from my two who had already been banished once that day. Jenny just looked puzzled. Then I looked Mona in the eye. “Do you know two young drug dealers named Little Ben and Nathan?”

She was all business. “Describe them.”

I hadn’t a clue what Nathan looked like, and all I knew about Little Ben was that he wasn’t little. Tall in fact. Hispanic. Joe’s age. I told her that much.

“They’re always together. Yes, they come to the house.”

So I told her they’d been threatening Theresa to get Joe to join them.

She was obviously shaken and put her face in her hands. “Oh my God, what have I gotten you into?”

“I think you know,” I said, and I knew my tone was bitter.

“Please don’t hate me, Kelly. I had no choice. It’s Jenny. This is what I was afraid of for her.”

I softened a bit. “I know. And I’m sorry I jumped you. I guess what you’re doing is hard enough. It’s just…I’m so worried about Theresa. Scared is the word.”

She looked wildly around for a minute. “Where is everybody else?”

“Mike? Joe? They’re out seeing what they can find out. Mona, tell me the truth. If you hear anything, will you tell me? You don’t have to tell Mike. Just me.”

Now it was her turn to look me in the eye. “I will if I’m sure it doesn’t endanger Jenny. I’ll tell you what I told Mike: I’ll cooperate as much as I can but I will not for one minute risk Jenny.” She paused. “I have to go.” And she left without even telling Jenny goodbye, a fact that upset the girl so much she began to cry.

Mike called to say tersely that he had no idea when he’d be home. He asked where Joe was, and I told him.

“Blast and damnation. That’s just what I didn’t want him to do. I do
not
want to find his body tonight.”

Fear clutched me. “Don’t even say it.”

“Kelly, get your gun out and keep it with you at all times. Make sure the house is secure and the alarm on. And call Keisha or Claire. You need company.”

That’s just what I did. I called both of them. Claire went by the Grill and got meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans for all of us; Keisha went to the liquor store and came in swinging two large bottles of white wine.

“White?” Claire exploded, trying to lighten the mood. “I’m serving red meat tonight.”

“Well, don’t that beat all,” Keisha said. “I guess we’ll have to make do.”

Claire heaved a huge mock sigh. “The things I put up with around here.”

Their silliness didn’t distract me one bit. We were a solemn bunch at supper. Claire probably could have fed all six of us with two orders of meatloaf. I cut slices in half for the girls, scooped a half serving of mashed potatoes onto each of their plates along with a few green beans. Plenty left for Mike.

After supper Claire huddled with Maggie about her science project and Keisha listened to Em’s reading, occasionally punctuating it with, “You go, girl! You are so good.” Jenny had fled to the bedroom, and my efforts to entice her out were fruitless. She said she was doing her homework by herself, but I wondered.

I sat and worried, imagining one horrible scenario after another, most of which involved the deaths of Mike, Theresa, and Joe, all three. But I had my handgun in my pocket—it pulled the pocket down and dragged uncomfortably against my leg. How did men stand all this? The doors were double bolted, the alarm system on. We were in a fortress.

About nine-thirty, with the girls finally in bed but, I knew, not asleep, Claire announced she had to go home to her own girls. She reported progress on the science project and gave me a huge hug. “Let me know. And I’ll do anything I can.”

Keisha announced that she was spending the night. Mike was right—we needed a bigger house. But when Keisha called José to tell him where she was, he reported that someone was watching our house, half a block away, just sitting in a car. No he didn’t have even any description, pleading it was too dark and driving a marked police car he didn’t want to linger. He, along with everyone at Central Station, knew what was going on. I wondered how Grierson maintained his façade.

I heard Joe drive down the driveway. He would have gone straight to the apartment, but I unbolted the back door long enough to call him inside. He came reluctantly. No, he hadn’t heard a thing. He couldn’t even find Little Ben and Nathan. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a handgun.

“I’m carrying. I got to tell Mr. Mike. I’ll leave it here for you to show him.”

“No, you will not! Not in reach of the girls.”

He was abashed. “Sorry Miss Kelly. My mind doesn’t work right tonight. I want to be out on the streets but I know I need rest. And I don’t think that’s helping. You tell Mr. Mike I’m violating the terms of my bond. But with good cause. I can’t do otherwise. I find those….” His voice trailed off.

“I have no idea when Mike will be home.”

“Okay. I’m sleeping with it—if I sleep at all. But you tell him I’ll come talk to him in the morning.”

All three girls slept in Maggie’s room, as they had been doing. When I went to say good night, Jenny clung to me. “I’m scared for Theresa. But I’m more scared for my mom.”

I just didn’t have many soothing words left in me, but I stroked her hair and told her what I told my girls: “Have faith in Mike.” My girls were solemn and needed reassurance too, and I did the best I could, but there just wasn’t much reassurance left in me. I honestly considered keeping all of them home the next day.

Keisha sat with me until nearly midnight, talking about nothing, because there was no way this time that she could ask me if I had a plan. She knew that answer only too well. I didn’t think even Mike had a plan. Finally, she went off to Em’s bed, and I went to lie wide-awake in our bed.

Mike came home about two, exhausted, disheartened, frustrated. No, he didn’t want supper. No, he didn’t know anything. No, he didn’t have any ideas. I curled up in his arms and slept, though I was restless all night. I never did tell him about Joe and the gun.

Joe told him in the morning, showed him the gun.

“A Browning. Extra rounds?”

“Thirteen,” Joe answered.

“Where’d you get it or don’t you want to answer?”

“I don’t want to answer.”

Mike didn’t miss a beat. “If trouble comes from it, I’ll testify to extraordinary circumstances.”

“Thanks, Mr. Mike. What’s your plan for today?”

“Back out on the streets. Looking for small-time dealers, Little Ben if we can find him. You?”

“I go see Peter, explain, and then I’ll do the same. Maybe we’ll meet,” his tone was ironic, and I ached for both of them. For all of us.

“Anthony!” I suddenly realized Anthony didn’t know his daughter was missing, let alone probably kidnapped.

Joe shook his head. “I don’t want to tell him. I promised him I’d take care of her, and I failed.”

Mike almost shook him. “Joe, you didn’t fail any more than the rest of us did, particularly the police. Who would have expected she’d be snatched from a place of business?”

“What did her boss say?”

Mike almost smiled. “She thought Theresa had skipped and stolen the money at first, and she kept saying she had thought she was so trustworthy, she’d treated her like a daughter. I pointed out Theresa’s purse was still there, but finally I had to tell her the whole story, and then she said, ‘To think I had someone with connections like that working for me.’ I considered slapping her but I thought Conroy would have my butt if I did.”

I glanced around to make sure the girls hadn’t made it to the kitchen. Such language was totally out of character for Mike, an indication of how upset he was.

“So Theresa’s lost her job?” Joe asked.

“That’s the last of our worries, Joe. But promise me you’ll be careful, and you won’t do anything foolish.”