Firestone (29 page)

Seth looked into her face.

“
What do I get?” Sandy
asked. “Where’s my deal?”

“
If there was anything I
could do . . .
anything . . .”

Sandy turned to look at the computer screen.
She pointed to the detective’s head.

“
When do I get to push him
from a roof so his last moments are filled with horror? When do I
get to assault his every orifice and spread it all over the world?
When do I get to take away everything he loves so he lives under
someone else’s thumb . . .
and . . .”

Sandy started to cry. Seth held his arms
out, but she shook her head. Her hands closed into fists and she
held herself tight.

“
I know it’s not much, but
he thinks the man who pretended to be your father is your
biological father,” Seth said. “Patty lied to him, manipulated him.
She used his obsession with Andy to destroy his police career while
using him to control Andy. He said that once Mitch took you away
from your father, Patty had to scramble for some way to control
Andy. She found Red Bear, knew how obsessed he was with on Andy,
and used it to take over his life. Of course, he made sure Andy
towed the line.”

Sandy shook her head.

“
Again, that’s according
to the big fat liar.” Seth gestured to the detective. Sandy
continued to shake her head. “Yeah, it doesn’t make it feel
better.”

“
I need to look in that
box,” Sandy said. “The one that Delphie said would explain
everything. I just . . .”

Sandy’s face softened with sorrow.

“
I miss her so
much . . . so, so much,” Sandy said.
“And . . . I never knew her.”

She touched her chest.

“
I miss her right here,”
Sandy said.

“
I know,” Seth
said.

Sandy stared at the computer screen. They
watched the back of the detective’s head in silence. After a few
minutes, Sandy took a deep breath and nodded to herself.

“
Can you go in there?”
Sandy asked.

She wiped her tears with her hands.

“
I spent most of the night
and this morning in there,” Seth said.

“
But can you go in there
now?”

“
Sure,” Seth
said.

“
And you’re sure that he
doesn’t know that you’re my biological father?” Sandy
asked.

“
Andy told him it was the
man we thought had been married to Patty.”

“
Will you do me a favor?”
Sandy asked.

“
Uh . . .”

“
Will you go in there and
tell him that you’re my father?” Sandy asked. “That I’m an
O’Malley?”

“
Why?” Seth gave her an
intense look.

“
It’s complicated,” Sandy
said.

Seth gave her a long, assessing look.

“
O’Malley?” A man’s voice
came over the intercom.

“
Yeah,” Seth
said.

“
The marshals are on their
way to you,” the man on the intercom said.

“
Thanks!” Seth
said.

“
You’re running out of
time,” she said, and gestured with her hands for him to go on. “You
said you’d do anything.”

Shaking his head, Seth went into the room.
Detective Red Bear looked up when Seth entered the room.

“
The marshals will be here
in a minute,” Seth said.

Detective Red Bear nodded.

“
One more thing,” Seth
said. “Sandy is my daughter.”

The detective scowled at him.

“
Seth and Andy makes
Sandy,” Seth said. “I lost track of her. That’s why she was
abused.”

A dawning realization came over the
detective’s face. Seeing his reaction, Seth continued.

“
But Andy and I, we were
to be married,” Seth said. “I waited for her, but she never
showed.”

“
The white
dress . . .” the detective said.

The detective’s face flushed bright red. The
red moved to his throat and shoulders. Sandy saw his neck turn
bright red. Soon his hands followed suit.

“
That’s right,” Seth said.
“She had the stroke, and I couldn’t find her.
And . . .”

Sensing movement, he looked and saw the
marshals come down the hallway.

“
Well, you need to go,”
Seth said.

Seth raised a hand in good-bye and stepped
aside for the marshals to get in to the room. Suddenly, the
detective slumped over the table. The marshals yelled for medics.
By the time Seth returned to the observation room, the marshals
were taking turns doing CPR.

“
What was that?” Seth
gestured to the room.

“
He’s terrified of what he
calls the O’Malley curse,” Sandy said. “It’s why he had me lock you
into the studio.”

Seth nodded.

“
What
is
the O’Malley curse?” Sandy
asked.

“
Oh . . .”
Seth looked at the computer screen and smiled. “Come on. I’ll buy
you breakfast.”

“
Can you leave?” Sandy
asked.

“
For now,” Seth said.
“I’ll have to come back or they’ll think I killed him.”

He put his arm around her shoulder. They
walked through the police station and out to the front. He opened
the passenger door and helped her into his truck. He got into the
other side.

“
There are moments when I
know, really know, that you are my daughter,” Seth said.

“
Oh yeah?” Sandy asked.
“You and Dad you mean.”

“
You’re right,” Seth
started the truck. “That was a total Mitch.”

“
I didn’t kill him.” Sandy
imitated Mitch Delgado’s voice.

“
He should’ve watched his
diet.” Seth did his own imitation of Mitch. “’S not my fault he had
heart trouble.”

They burst out laughing and drove out of the
parking garage. Stopping at the gate, they heard the news —
Detective Red Bear was in critical condition at Denver Health and
wasn’t expected to make it.

“
Is it bad to be glad?”
Sandy asked in a low tone.

“
Good question for a
priest,” Seth said. Seth glanced at her. “Sam’s?”

"Sounds good," Sandy said.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday afternoon — 12:05 p.m.

“
We start with the
conditioning,” Blane’s infectious disease doctor said. “That’s a
nice word for ‘we’re going to hurt you.’”

Blane chuckled. Heather squeezed his hand
and he looked at her. She tried to will away the panic in his eyes.
They could only have two people in the room when he started
conditioning. He’d chosen Heather and Sam Lipson. Jill, Tanesha,
and Sandy waited outside the room for them with Jacob and
Charlie.

“
That doesn’t sound very
good,” Sam said.

The doctor looked at Sam and seemed to get
the point. He cleared his throat.

“
I should know better than
to try to be funny.” The doctor gave a weird grin.

Blane and Heather smiled. Sam scowled.

“
What is going to happen
to Blane?” Sam asked.

“
We’re giving him
chemotherapy,” the doctor said. “Given that he’s been so ill, we’ll
start with a low dose and see how he tolerates it. He’ll also start
total body irradiation tomorrow. The chemo and radiation will kill
off all of his bone marrow.”

“
Will it hurt?” Heather
asked.

“
It’s definitely going to
be unpleasant,” the doctor said. “He’ll probably lose that great
hair.”

The doctor nodded as if he were agreeing
with himself.

“
If you’re asking my
opinion,” the doctor said, “I’d say that Blane will come through
this with flying colors. We’ve worked together for a long, long
time. I’ve never known him not to do well with
intervention.”

“
But you’ll go slow this
week, right?” Heather asked.

“
Yes,” the doctor said.
“We have two weeks scheduled for conditioning. If he makes it
through the treatments faster, we’ll start sooner. But for now,
he’ll have two weeks of conditioning, three days to rest, then
he’ll receive the transfusion. We won’t know for at least two weeks
after that if the transfusion worked.”

Heather and Sam bobbed their heads. They had
gone over this very schedule with Blane before the doctor came in.
The doctor put his hand on Blane’s shoulder.

“
I want to give you a
chance to back out,” the doctor said. “If we start, we cannot stop.
Blane?”

“
I’m ready.” Blane smiled.
His eyes flicked to Heather and she gave him her best loving
smile.

“
Then we start,” the
doctor said.

The doctor connected a small IV bag to
Blane’s saline IV and hung the bag on the rack. The doctor looked
at Blane.

“
On your mark,” the doctor
said.

“
Go,” Blane said
immediately.

The doctor turned the valve, and the
chemical entered the IV.

“
So we begin,” the doctor
said. “Good luck.”

The doctor left the room.

“
Heather?” Blane
asked.

She jogged to the counter, where they’d set
the throw up bowl. She made it back to the bed just in time for him
to throw up.

“
So we begin,” Heather
said under her breath.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday afternoon — 4:35 p.m.

“
Candy. No. Cookies. No.
Ice cream. No . . .” Sitting in his car seat in the
backseat of Yvonne’s sedan, Jabari was trying to decide what treat
he would get for getting out of the hospital. “A tiger! That’s what
I want.”

Yvonne and Rodney laughed. Pleased with his
joke, Jabari giggled.

“
We could go to the zoo,”
Rodney said. “But not today.”

“
How come?” Jabari
asked.

“
Why can’t we go to the
zoo today?” Rodney repeated.

“
Why can’t we go to the
zoo?” Jabari asked.

“
It’s late and cold,”
Yvonne said. She turned sideways in the passenger seat so she could
see Jabari. “You just got out of the hospital. Tonight, we’re going
home, getting cleaned up, having a bite to eat, and getting some
sleep.”

“
Oh,” Jabari
said.

They drove in silence for a few minutes.
Rodney watched Jabari in the rearview mirror.

“
What is it, son?” Rodney
asked.

“
I wondered if my
mom
would come see me
tonight,” Jabari said.

“
Honey, your mom went back
to Atlanta,” Yvonne said. “You know that.”

“
Not her,” Jabari
said.

“
Then who?” Yvonne
asked.

“
Tannie,” Jabari
said.

“
I warned you about that
name, Jabari,” Rodney said.

Jabari nodded.

“
That’s why I’m going to
just call her mom,” Jabari said.

Yvonne smiled at Jabari and looked at
Rodney. She saw a glimmer of wetness in her husband’s eyes.

“
She has to be with her
friend,” Yvonne said. “She’ll be by tomorrow.”

“
Okay,” Jabari sighed. “I
have to get better anyway.”

“
That’s exactly right,”
Rodney said.

“
You know what would make
me really better?” Jabari asked.

“
Candy?” Yvonne
said.

“
Nope,” Jabari said. “Ice
cream.”

“
Ice cream it is,” Rodney
said.

He drove toward Liks Ice Cream. They had
stopped at the light on Thirteenth Avenue when Yvonne touched
Rodney’s arm. She gestured to the backseat.

Jabari was sound asleep. Rodney turned
toward home.

Saturday evening — 5:45 p.m.

“
So did you hear?” Sissy
asked Tink and Wanda.

They were trying to figure out where to get
together over video chat. Sandy and Aden were taking some time for
themselves, and Heather was with Blane in the hospital. Charlie,
Nash, and Teddy were staying at Alex’s house. Practically everyone
who lived at Alex’s house was going to play paintball. Noelle was
staying with Mike and Valerie so that she and Mike could paint.
Rachel was staying with Jill, her twins, Katy, and Mack, Heather’s
son. Sissy and Tink were the only ones who didn’t already have
plans.

“
What?” Wanda
asked.

“
That detective is dead.”
As if she were telling a big secret, Sissy leaned into her webcam.
“The police were just here to tell Sandy. They said it was a
combination of his head injury and a
panic
induced
stroke. Panic induced.”

“
Wow,” Wanda and Tink said
at the same time.

“
I know,” Sissy said. “I
listened in the hall. The
police
said they’re still looking for whoever hit him
with the
hockey puck
.”

Sissy nodded, and the girls’ eyes went wide
with worry.

“
But . . .”
Sissy looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening
in, “the policeman said that neither of the agents — you know hot
Raz and sexy Colin?”

The girls nodded.