Death Sung Softly (4 page)

A way to keep me goin' that escapes mortality,

I live here in a place that human eyes could never see,

A place where every hope I've ever known can be set free.

Where my fears can be forgotten, and my dreams can all come true,

Cause everything I need I found in you,

And I don't need money, when I can spend

              Some moments with you, now and then,

I don't need water when I'm thirsty,

              I can drink your beauty in,

I don't need fire to keep me warm,

              When your eyes hold the perfect flame,

And I don't need air,

              I can just breathe your name,

I look into your eyes and see my soul reflected there,

Your smile lights up the path I follow down life's thoroughfare,

Your strength can keep me standing when I'm weak enough to fall,

And your love lets me know that I can make it, after all,

You sing and I hear music other hearts will never know,

A song of love and wonder that til now had gone untold,

And I'll spend every tomorrow doing all that I can do.

To prove that everything I need, I found in you!

And I don't need money, when I can spend

              Some moments with you, now and then,

I don't need water when I'm thirsty,

              I can drink your beauty in,

I don't need fire to keep me warm,

              When your eyes hold the perfect flame,

And I don't need air,

              I can just breathe your name,

I don't need fire to keep me warm,

              When your eyes hold the perfect fla—a—me,

And I don't need air,

              I can just breathe your name,

Once again there was silence, but it lasted for the space of about five seconds before all five of those listening burst into applause. Chris was on his feet, bouncing from one foot to another, and clapping his hands together.

“Oh, man,” he said, “dude, that was incredible! I love the lyrics to that song!”

Candy had tears in her eyes. “That,” she said, “was about the most incredible love song I have ever heard! I don't know who the lucky girl is that you wrote that for, but she's a fool if she let you get away!”

Indie nodded her head. “Holy cow, Sam, I didn't know you had that kind of romance in you!”

Chris was still talking. “Do you have other songs like that that you've written? Man, I'd love to see us record that, heck, both of 'em! And I wanna see anything else you got! Please?”

Sam was turning red. “Yeah, I've got a few more,” he said, “but this is getting way outa hand! I didn't come here to sing, I came to listen.”

“He's good,” Stan said suddenly. “He's really good. I mean, like he's almost as good as Barry, but in a different way.”

“Yeah,” Chris said. “I totally agree, man, I totally agree!”

Stan walked up to Sam and looked him in the eye. “Would you fill in til Barry comes back? We can teach you our songs, that's no big deal, but we need a lead singer. Chris doesn't have it, and neither do I or the girls. We're all good on harmony and backup, but we need a good lead. If you'd stand in, we could make some of our gigs that are scheduled, and to be perfectly honest, man, we need the money!”

Sam stared at him, as the rest of the band suddenly jumped onto the idea. Even Indie was nodding her head, as Sam was shaking his. “Come on, now, all of you,” he said. “I'm no singer, I'm a private eye! I haven't been in front of an audience in better than twelve years!”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Chris asked him. “You've got the voice, you've got a style—man, I'm telling you, this is a great idea! And it might even be the thing that'll get Barry to come in out of the cold! I mean, how would you feel if you were the lead singer of a band, and suddenly you get replaced by an unknown? You'd get mad, right? If he hears about it, maybe he'll come back and we can find out what happened!”

The conversation just went downhill from there, as far as Sam was concerned, but in the end, he agreed. The band would begin teaching him their songs the next day, and he assured them he'd be there at two to start learning.

The thing that finally convinced him to go along with it wasn't any hope that Barry might show up, however; it was Indie's comment that his songs got to her heart and made her feel as if he was actually singing to her. He didn't know what to say to that, because, if he were to be honest with himself, he sort of was. He had specifically chosen those two songs from his personal repertoire because they made him think of her when he let them run through his mind.

Sam and Indie made it home about six, after stopping down at the Mitchells' place to pick up Mackenzie. Indie was all excited as she told the little girl that Sam was going to be a singer, and then he had to get out his guitar and sing a song for her, to prove it.

“Never had a child that young call me a fibber, before,” he said to Indie, and she laughed.

“My daughter is a lot like her mother,” she said. “You tell one of us something, you better be ready to back it up! Why didn't you ever tell me you could sing like that?”

Sam looked at her, letting his head rock around a bit as if confused. “Um, excuse me,” he said, “but if I recall correctly, I've known you for about two whole weeks, now. Since I haven't been trying to make time with you, saying, 'hey, let me serenade you' didn't seem to be too high on my list of priorities, sorry about that! I'm sure I would have mentioned my music sooner or later, it just hadn’t seemed to fit into our conversations so far.”

Indie stared at him for a moment, and then stunned Sam by turning and running up the stairs to her room. He heard the door slam a second later, and then Kenzie came to him.

“What's the matter with Mommy?” she asked, and Sam only shook his head.

“Sweetheart, I wish I knew!”

Upstairs, Indie was laying across her bed, and fighting back the tears that were trying to come.

Just stop it,
she thought.
Okay, so he doesn't see me that way, I get it! And like he said, Dummy, you've only known him two weeks; be kinda stupid to be falling in love this fast, wouldn't it? Oh, but, why does he have to be such a great guy, then? Why does he have to make me feel like I'm the most beautiful girl in the world when he looks at me? Am I losing it, do I not have what it takes to attract a decent guy anymore?

She lay there for several minutes, until Kenzie came in and climbed onto the bed beside her. “Mommy, are you okay?” the little girl asked, and Indie dried her eyes as she looked up at her daughter.

“I'm fine, Baby,” she said. “I just thought something that made me sad, that's all, but I'm all better now. Let's go make dinner, okay?”

“Okay!” Kenzie said, and took her mother's hand to pull her up off the bed.

When she got downstairs, Sam was sitting in his recliner, but he got up and came into the kitchen as he heard her moving around in there. He sat at the kitchen table and watched as she got out pans, and Kenzie went back to the living room and turned on the TV.

He'd been startled when she took off, and he'd seen the tears trying to come from her eyes just before she did, so he'd sat down and tried to figure out what he had said that hurt her feelings. The trouble with being a cop is that you become accustomed to analyzing motives, and so his thoughts had gone in that direction, trying to fathom what could have motivated her to start to cry simply because he hadn't told her about his music, yet. He'd let the possibilities run through his mind, and finally realized that the only one that made any sense was that she was feeling an attraction to him, just as he was feeling one to her.

The other thing about being a cop is that you become quite confident in your own powers of deduction, so he was pretty sure he'd hit on the answer. The only question remaining was what to do about it, and that's the one he wasn't sure of. He sat and watched her for a moment, until she finally turned to face him.

“Okay,” she said, “I owe you an apology. I don't know what hit me, just then, and I shouldn't have done that. I hope it's okay, and you'll forgive me.”

“Nope,” he said, and her eyes went wide. “It's not okay, not until we talk about it. Come sit down for a minute, Indie.”

She stared at him, afraid that she'd messed up somehow and might even lose the home she and Kenzie were becoming so fond of. “Can I get dinner started first? I'm gonna make chili mac, unless you don't want me to?”

“That's fine,” he said, “go ahead.” He sat and watched as she put water on to boil in one pot, and put two cans of chili into another and turned the heat on low beneath it. When she was done, she came and sat down across from him, watching his face nervously.

“Indie,” he said, “there's something I want to tell you, and I hope it's not gonna cause us a problem, cause I really, really like having you and Kenzie here. If what I say upsets you, I hope we can get past it and keep things the way they are, okay?”

Okay, now I'm really nervous,
she thought. “Okay—I'll try, anyway.”

Sam smiled. “Okay,” he said, and then he seemed to be at a loss to say any more. He opened his mouth twice, but nothing came out, and it was the third time that was the charm. “Indie, you are a very beautiful girl,” he managed to say, “and I want you to know that I notice that. I notice it every single time I look at you, in fact, and I'm sure you've caught me looking at you a lot.” He blushed as he said it, and Indie suddenly felt a surge of hope begin to swell up within her. “The thing is, when I offered to let you come stay here, I promised you I wouldn't try anything, that it wasn't like that, you remember?”

She nodded her head, and watched him closely.

Sam cleared his throat. “Okay, well, see, if I'm gonna be completely honest, the more I'm around you, the more I'm feeling—attracted to you. I just adore Kenzie, and I've come to the point that I can't deny what I'm feeling for you, anymore. I've been trying not to let it show, because I didn't want you to think anything bad of me, but I can't deny that I think you're a pretty wonderful woman, and sometimes, I think about—us. Being an 'us,' I mean, I think about us being an 'us,' and—I think you think about it sometimes, too.” He seemed to be struggling for the words he wanted to say, and paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. “If I'm wrong, I'm about to feel like a real idiot, but if I'm right, then I think we need to be grown ups and talk about it, don't you?”

Indie sat there for a long moment, and it was Sam's turn to be nervous. When she finally opened her mouth to speak, it was very softly.

“Sam, I've been all on my own for a long time, now, just me and Kenzie. I've met a lot of guys, and it's always seemed like all they want is to get close enough to make me want them, and then they're done. I've had my heart broken a lot, y'know? And so has Kenzie, when she gets to liking a guy who seems to like me, and then he’s just gone.” She looked down at her hands, which were nervously fiddling with the salt shaker, and shoved it away. “When you first made your offer, I thought you were just another guy out to get into my pants, and I was desperate enough I thought about it, just because it would mean Kenzie had a place to stay for a while. But you made it clear, right from the start, that you weren't like that, and even though I didn't believe it at first, I began to after a few days. You could have made a move on me after you bought Kenzie her own furniture, and I'd have felt like I had to go along with it out of gratitude, as much as out of desperation. I would have understood it, even if I didn't really like it, but again, you weren't like that. You were just a great guy helping out a girl who needed it, but then you went even further and gave me a real job—one after another, if you think about it.”

She let out a long sigh. “Sam, no one's ever been there for me like you have, and yeah, I know we haven't known each other for a long, but the truth is, I think you're the greatest guy on earth. Do I wanna hop into bed with you? No; I won't pretend I haven’t thought about it, though, and if you tell me you haven’t had a fantasy about me, I'll call you a liar. We're a man and a woman living in the same house, we're both feeling a mutual attraction and neither of us has anyone, so of course we're going to have fantasies about each other. That's normal; rushing into something wouldn't be. Do I like you? Oh, yes! Am I thrilled to know you like me? Oh,
hell,
yes!”

She looked up into his eyes. “The question is, what do you want to do about it?”

Sam smiled at her, and she smiled back. “I think,” he said, “that we've just taken the first step, don't you?”

Indie smiled back. “Yeah.”

“Indie, I would like very much to date you. Would that be something you'd consider at this point?”

Her smile got even wider. “I would love it!” she said.

Sam reached over and took her hand, and she let him hold it. He leaned forward and looked her in the eye. “Is this the part where I get to call you my girlfriend for real?” he whispered, and she burst out laughing.

“Sam,” she said, “I can honestly say I thought you'd never ask! Yes, if I can call you my boyfriend!”

Sam reached into his pocket and pulled something out in his closed fist, and held it out to Indie. “When I was in school, if I had a steady girlfriend, I always gave her my class ring. I don’t have that anymore, but I wonder if you'd like to have this?” He opened his fist, and there lay his Police Academy ring. “I'm not trying to make this a permanent thing, Indie, I think it's way too early for that, but if I can find a place inside that beautiful heart of yours for now, I'll be a happy man.”

Indie reached out and took the ring, slipping it onto her finger, and they both laughed as it spun there. “Yeah, it's a little big,” she said, “but it kinda makes me happy that you'd want me to have it.”

“Indie,”Sam said, “I like you, and I like you a lot. I see how beautiful you are, and I'll admit I like that about you, but that isn't why I like you; and if this turns into more, then it still won't be because you're beautiful on the outside; it'll be because of the woman I see on the inside.”

Indie sat there for a moment, and Sam could see tears welling up in her eyes again, but he thought they were okay, this time. She got up and walked around the table, leaned down and kissed him. It wasn't the chaste little kiss she'd given him before, but a truly passionate kiss that said that the future might hold some surprises.

She turned back to her cooking then, and Sam sat there and watched his new girlfriend make dinner.

After they'd eaten, Sam asked Indie to see what she could dig up on Jimmy Smith, the agent. She went to the computer and told Herman what she wanted him to do, then she and Sam went into the living room and put a movie on the TV. Sam passed up his recliner and sat on one end of the couch, and a moment later, Indie sat down beside him and leaned back against him.

“Well, hi, there,” Sam said, smiling down at her.

“Hi,” she said. “Is this okay?”

Sam didn't answer, but put an arm around her and pulled her closer. She snuggled in and relaxed, and they watched most of the movie before Kenzie noticed the way they were sitting. When she did, she didn't say a word, but climbed up on Sam's lap and let her head rest against her mother's on his chest. Within minutes, she was fast asleep.

“Want me to take her on upstairs?” Indie asked quietly, but Sam shook his head.

“She's just fine where she is,” he said.

When the movie ended, however, Indie said it was time for Kenzie to go to bed, so she took her up and tucked her in. Sam went to the dinging room and looked at the computer, but it was just running numbers across the screen. He waited for Indie to come back, and then she punched a few keys and papers began to spit out of the printer.

“Okay,” she said, looking over the printouts. “Jimmy Smith is fifty two years old, married with two kids in college, and get this, he's got four felonies on his record. Two for assault, one for fraud and another for tax fraud. This is not a very good guy, Sam.”

“And he's been known to harass people who don't do things his way. The more I hear about this guy, the more suspicious I get. What else you got there?”

“Well, he's been sued repeatedly by people who claim he didn't deliver on his promises, and he's settled out of court with most of them. Paid out a settlement of more than half a million to one band that said he promised them a recording contract that never materialized. He's got some shady deals in his history.”

“What about the assaults? How bad were they?”

Indie looked through the papers. “One was against a woman named Samantha Harris, who backed out of signing a contract with a minor record label, and the other was in a bar fight. He broke a beer bottle over some guy's head, then slashed him up with it. According to the victim, Johnny Darnell, Smith was mad because he rejected a musician Smith wanted to put in his band. In both cases, he got probation. The woman was back in 2006, and the bar fight was in 2010, not all that long ago.”

“Hmm. Sounds like a guy who might lose it if he doesn't get what he wants, then, doesn't he? I think I'll go see him in the morning, see what kind of reaction I get.” He looked at Indie, and smiled. “You done good, there, kid. Now go get you some sleep. We've got a big day tomorrow.”

She looked at him and grinned. “A big day?”

“Well, you don't think I'm gonna get up there and sing without my number one fan, do you? We've got rehearsals to go to, and I'm not doing this without you.”

Indie inclined her head, said, “Okay,” then stood. She started toward the stairs, but stopped, turned around and came back to him. “Sam,” she said, but then she just leaned down and kissed him. “Goodnight, boyfriend,” she said, and was gone up the stairs while he watched with a smile.

The following morning, Sam headed off to see Jimmy Smith, who had an office in Denver. He didn't call for an appointment, but was at the office shortly after it opened at nine. The receptionist looked up as he walked in and asked, “May I help you?”