Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (43 page)

“
Yeah but she didn’t like
how we work,” Ava said. “With am emphasis on
work
.”

“
And the stream of angry
cops.” Ever the mother, Fran’s voice was blistering. “You should
have thought it through O’Malley.”

“
Fran,” Ava
said.

“
Well, he should have,”
Fran squeezed Ava’s shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”

“
These are ready for next
shift.” Nelson gave Ava a test tube rack filled with
samples.

“
I’ll add them to mine,”
Ava said.

Standing next to Ava, Nelson gave Seth a
bright smile.

“
Did you really quit?”
Nelson asked. “Or did you do it as a power play to get them off
your back?”

“
What are the odds?” Seth
asked.

“
Twenty’ll get you fifty,”
Nelson said.

“
With what
else?”

“
You got a job offer in
LA,” Nelson said. “Everybody’s talking about it. They made an
arrest in that case you’re working on.

“
They did?” Seth
asked.

“
You didn’t know?” Nelson
smirked at the thought that he knew something Seth
didn’t.

“
My daughter had her baby
today,” Seth said. “I’ve been with her.”

“
I forgot. Ava said
something,” Nelson said. “Your daughter. She’s okay?”

“
She’s doing well,” Seth
said.

“
New
grandchild?”

“
Colin Hargreaves and his
wife adopted him,” Seth said. “Everyone is happy, healthy, and
well.”

“
Good,” Nelson
said.

“
You were telling me,”
Seth said. “The LAPD arrested the gal?”

“
How’d you know?” Nelson
asked. “That’s the kicker. The strangler is a woman, wife of the
chief suspect. They matched her DNA
after
they brought her in. LA Weekly
is saying you solved the case.”

“
They had female DNA but
they thought it was another victim,” Seth said. “That’s good work.
I’ll have to give them a call.”

Nelson smiled at him.

“
What?” Seth
asked.

“
So which one is it?”
Nelson asked.

“
How much do you have
riding on it?” Seth asked.

“
We all put in ten bucks,”
Nelson said. “Everyone but Ava. Bob put in her ten
bucks.”

“
And what does Ava
say?”

“
She says that O’Malley
does whatever O’Malley wants to do,” Nelson said. “So?”

“
I quit,” Seth said.
“Ava’s right. I don’t do power plays and there’s too much celebrity
drama at the LAPD.”

“
Good,” Nelson
said.

“
That’s what the lab money
is on?” Seth asked.

“
Yes sir,” Bob’s booming
voice came from the back of the lab. He came up carrying his
briefcase. Bob shook Seth’s hand. “Nice to see you,
Seth.”

“
See you tomorrow,” Nelson
said.

Ava and Bob waved to Nelson.

“
Today was bad?” Seth
asked.

“
Pretty rough,” Bob said.
“And who are we going to call? The police? That would only bring
more angry cops.”

“
They say that I’m
responsible for the end of luck at DPD,” Ava said.

“
Magic O’Malley brought
the DPD luck,” Bob said. “Let’s hope no one dies tonight. You’re
going to walk Amelie out?”

Seth nodded.

“
Nice to see you up and
around Seth,” Bob said. “Few more days and I bet you won’t need
that cane.”

Seth waved. Ava continued working.

“
You’re mad,” he
said.

“
Mad’s not exactly the
right word,” Ava said.

“
Are you mad at me?” Seth
asked.

“
By association,” Ava
said.

“
You could quit too,” Seth
said.

Turning, Ava gave Seth a strong dark look
and went back to her test tubes.

“
Yeah, bad idea,” Seth
said. “What are we doing this weekend?”

“
How’s Lizzie?” Ava
asked.

“
She’s good,” Seth said.
“They think she’ll be well enough to go home tomorrow, if she
wants. Schmidty wants to take her to the beach house. If she gets
out, they’ll go tomorrow. What would you like to do?”

Ava kept working.

“
You are mad,” Seth said.
“What can I do?”

“
What are you going to do
with yourself, Seth?” Ava asked. “And don’t tell me you’re going to
stay at home. You won’t. You’ll either go on some cockamamie
Seth-a-palooza music tour or…”

“
I’m going to finish the
movie,” Seth said. “I’m going to get better and I’m going to get
married. That’s enough to fill up the rest of this year and some of
next.”

Ava sniffed.

“
To you, if you’re
wondering,” Seth said. “And when all of that is done and we’ve
celebrated and settled back in, I’ll see what’s next.”

Ava set the racks of test tubes in the
refrigerator.

“
I told you all of that
when we talked a few days ago,” Seth said.

Ava got her purse and jacket.

“
So why are you mad?” Seth
asked.

“
What am I supposed to do
while you do all this?” Ava asked.

“
Pursue your dreams,” Seth
said. “Work here or wherever you want to work. Grieve the loss of
your best friend in the whole world. Play with our puppy Clara.
That’s enough.”

Ava shook her head at him and went toward
the door.

“
So what’s wrong?” Seth
asked.

“
It’s not my fault you
quit,” Ava said.

“
No, it’s not,” Seth
said.

“
Will you tell that to the
men?” Ava asked.

“
I don’t know what good it
will do, but I will do what I can,” Seth said. “Anything I can do
to make it better for you?”

“
Dinner,” Ava
said.

“
Dinner is waiting for us
at home.”

“
Hot tub?” Ava
asked.

“
Done,” Seth said.
“Anything else?”

Ava gave him a wry smile. Without saying
another word, she left the lab. Smiling, he followed her out.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday afternoon—2:15 P.M.

Tanesha looked up when the doorbell rang
again. She watched one of Jeraine’s ‘people’ answer the door. The
penthouse was filling with men who were there to help Jeraine get
ready for his event. His hair had been cut. He’d had a facial and
was sporting a fashionable beardlike line of growth along his chin.
He was trying to decide whether to wear four hundred dollar jeans
and a four thousand dollar shirt or a ten thousand dollar silk
suit. She felt like she had a backstage ticket to the Miss America
pageant. She’d even overheard a conversation about the best
eyeliner for men with ‘dark complexions.’

He’d gone through this almost every single
day of his former life. Reviewing his finances, he’d spent enough
money on his face alone to build a couple of schools in Central
America. He said it was necessary to ‘participate at this level of
life.’ She thought it was dumb and excessive.

The people moved around the penthouse as if
she wasn’t there. As far as they were concerned, they belonged and
she was replaceable furniture. Tanesha scowled at the thought and
went out onto the balcony over the park. She’d been out there an
hour or so, when he arrived wearing the fancy jeans and expensive
shirt. He had a gold chain around his neck, huge diamond earrings
in his ears, and heavy diamond and gold bracelets on both
wrists.

“
We’re about to leave,” he
sat down in the chair next to her. She ignored him. Leaning over to
her, he said, “Ok, that whole drama was dumb.”

“
Your shirt cost more than
my car,” Tanesha said.

“
We should get you a
better car,” he said.

She gave him an angry look and he
laughed.

“
One more night,” Jeraine
said. “Then, we figure out what’s next.”

Tanesha watched his face.

“
I just have one more
night of this, Miss T,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’ll go to church and
have brunch with your friends. You have orientation for med school
on Monday and I have orientation on Friday. We start demo on our
house Monday morning bright and early.”

Tanesha nodded.

“
After tonight, we’ll get
on with our lives,” he said.

“
Are you going to bring
all that trash here tonight?” Tanesha asked. “’Cuz I’ll stay at my
Gran’s.”

“
No,” Jeraine said. “I’m
going to do a couple promotions for the radio station, have dinner
with record people, and go to the event. I should be done by
eleven. Midnight at the latest.”

“
Are you bringing a bunch
of skanks here?”

“
Why would you even say
that?” Jeraine asked.

Shaking her head, Tanesha rolled her eyes at
him.

“
Ok, fine,” he said. “I
will be here at our penthouse by midnight, clean, sober and ready
to get on with our life. What are you doing?”

“
Tres and I are having
dinner at the Castle,” Tanesha said. “Jill’s grandfather is in town
so they’re having everybody over. Tres and I might go to a movie
later.”

“
Are you bringing him back
here when you’re done?”

Tanesha gave him a dark look and he
laughed.

“
Love you, Miss T,”
Jeraine said. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

She stood to kiss and hug him. When he
stepped away, she sat down. She listened while his ‘posse’ made
their way out of the penthouse and, she hoped, out of her life. She
stayed on the balcony for a few more minutes before going into the
bedroom and packing a bag.

Her heart already knew what would happen
tonight. Her eyes and mind didn’t want to see it. She gave this
life one last look and went to her Gran’s house.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday afternoon—4:15 P.M.

“
You sure you want me to
be there?” Ava said.

She and Seth were driving down Broadway
toward the downtown Denver Police Headquarters.

“
If you want to make sure
no one blames you, you should be at the press conference,” Seth
said. “Jeez, what’s that?”

Seth pointed to a line formed around the
Church nightclub.

“
They’re waiting to see
Jeraine,” Ava said. “You’re sure we have tickets?”

“
We have tickets,” Seth
said. “That’s a lot of people.”

“
The station’s been
playing his music non-stop,” Ava flipped on the radio and ran the
dial to the station. Seth groaned when the heavy base kicked in.
Her hand moved to turn it off.

“
Wait,” Seth said. “What’s
that?”

“
Jeraine’s new song,” Ava
said. “Someone slipped it to someone at the radio station. Very
hush, hush. Everyone says Jeraine can’t leave the life but… Isn’t
that Tanesha’s voice at the end? You know where she says, ‘Jer?
Whatcha doin’ out here?’ and he says ‘Nothing.’”

Seth sat listening to the song.

“
I like the orchestra,”
Ava said. “It sounds like something you’d write.”

“
I need to make some
calls,” Seth said.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and EIGHTY-THREE

Escape

Saturday afternoon—4:15 P.M.

“
You seem happy today,”
Sandy said.

Standing behind Sissy at a station in her
salon, Sandy ran a comb through Sissy’s long hair. Noelle was
sitting behind them with aluminum foils in her hair. Charlie sat at
the station next to them with a cloud of warm, eucalyptus-drenched
towels over his face. Teddy and Nash were playing video games while
they waited for their turn. Rachel was sound asleep in her crib in
the back.

“
I had a good day,” Sissy
said. “Don’t tell anyone, but it’s actually kind of nice not to be
dancing all the time.”

Sandy smiled.

“
You won’t tell, will you?
I don’t want them to think I’m not committed,” Sissy said. “It’s
just nice to take a break.”

“
Everyone needs a break
now and then,” Sandy said. “What are we doing with your hair? A
trim, for sure.”

Sandy held up an inch of the end of Sissy’s
hair.

“
How long has it been?”
Sandy asked.

“
Since the beginning of
the summer,” Sissy said.

“
What have you been doing
to your hair?” Sandy asked.

“
It’s the heat. Blow
drying. Curling,” Sissy said. “That’s what you used to
say.”

“
The life of a ballerina
is fraught with split ends,” Sandy said.

Sissy laughed.

“
Anything else?” Sandy
asked. “Something pretty for school?”

“
What did Noelle get?”
Sissy asked.

“
Pink,” Sandy said. “Along
the back. But you’re going to high school.”

“
I want pink too,” Sissy
said. “But not all of it.”

“
Just underneath?” Sandy
asked.

“
So you can see it like a
peppermint candy when I put it up in a bun,” Sissy said.