Fort Lupton (31 page)

“
What’s going on?” Heather
whispered when Ivy’s sorrow seemed to ease.

Ivy shook her head with such vehemence that
tears and snot flew off her face. Heather groaned at herself. She
had done that, more than once, when she and Blane had first gotten
married. She looked at the curtains. Yep. The mess was equal to the
ones she’d created. She tried to remember what Blane had done that
had helped so much.

“
I can’t help if I don’t
know what’s going on,” Heather said.

She was pretty sure that’s what Blane had
said. Ivy gave her a hard look. Heather gave a slight shrug and
smiled.

“
I don’t have a place,”
Ivy said in a soft voice.

“
You have a place here,”
Heather said.

“
In the world!” Ivy’s
voice rose with rage.

Heather nodded.

“
Sure, just nod,” Ivy
said. “You don’t know what it’s like. You have the perfect house
with the perfect guy and the perfect child and friends who lend
their
mansions
to
you and . . .”

“
You’re right,” Heather
said. “Everything is really good for me right now.”

“
I mean, look at Mack,”
Ivy said. “He’s beautiful and . . .”

“
He looks like his dad,”
Heather said.

“
Sort of, but
. . .” Ivy said.

Heather said the name of Mack’s biological
father.

“
What?” Ivy
asked.

“
I thought he was going to
rescue me,” Heather said. “My prince had finally come. Real Walt
Disney stuff. You know what he did when he found out I was
pregnant?”

Ivy shook her head.

“
He left me at the swanky
romantic restaurant we were having dinner,” Heather said. “I used
the last of my money on the restaurant tab and a cab to his place.
By the time I got there, he’d packed up my stuff and left it with
the doorman. I had to hitchhike to the airport and then sleep there
until my plane.”

“
How long was that?” Ivy
asked.

“
Two days,” Heather said.
“When I got back here, my mom kicked me out of her house. I lost my
job, so I was couch surfing. No money, no food, and of course, I
was too ashamed to even tell my best friends.”

Heather shrugged. She noticed that Tink was
standing in the doorway.

“
Delphie says Blane and I
are soul mates.” Heather shrugged. “Before that, it was just me and
my ridiculous mother.”

“
Your mother wasn’t
great?” Ivy asked.

“
She suffered a great
injustice,” Heather repeated what the fairies had taught her. “She
wasn’t like you. She couldn’t recover from it. She became bitter,
whiney, and manipulative.”

Tink picked up Mack from the middle of the
room and set him down in front of the couch. She sat down next to
Ivy.

“
I’m not going to tell you
that you’re strong and you are on your way and you have people who
love you and stuff like that,” Heather said.

“
Why not?” Tink
asked.

“
Because you know that,”
Heather said. “Even if it doesn’t feel like it today, you know
that.”

Tink and Ivy looked at each other before
looking back at Heather.

“
What I’ll tell you is
that you have everything you need,” Heather said.

“
What do you mean?” Tink
asked.

“
You went through this
horrible ordeal that never seems to end,” Heather said. “On top of
that, you both lost your families.”

The girls nodded.

“
Rather than giving up,
you created a family with Charlie and the others,” Heather said.
“Then, when you were able, you found a new forever
family.”

“
No, I mean, how do we
have everything we need?” Tink asked. “I don’t feel like I have
anything. Charlie almost died. Noelle’s gone some place far away.
Sissy, too. I’m just starting to catch up at school and now I can’t
go. And who knows when I’ll have another seizure or have to tase
some rapist.”

“
I don’t have anything.”
Ivy’s voice was soft and very sad. “My mom and grandmother and dad
and Aunt Gracie and even Delphie, they are all gone. All gone! I
just have me.”

Ivy plucked at her shirt.

“
And this shirt,” Ivy
said.

Heather gave her a soft smile.

“
How do I have everything
I need?” Ivy said.

“
You know how to love,”
Heather said. “That’s really all you need.”

“
Love?” Tink snorted.
“That’s just dumb.”

“
It’s the most powerful
force on the planet,” Heather said with a silent nod to Abi, who
said the same thing. “It heals every injury and wound.”

Heather shrugged.

“
That’s why I know that
you’re going to be okay,” Heather said. “You can love.”

“
Iv, Iv, Iv,” Mack said.
He came over and gave her a hug. He kissed her cheek and Ivy
started to cry again. “Don’ cwy.”

Mack patted her cheek. Ivy pulled him onto
the couch between her and Tink.

“
Maa-maa,” Mack said.
“Beck-fst?”

He patted his tummy.

“
Hungy,” Mack
said.

“
That’s right!” Heather
said. “Let’s see what we can find for breakfast.”

She got up and went into the kitchen. After
a few minutes, the girls followed her. They were staring into the
refrigerator when there was a knock on the door.

“
Stay here,” Heather
said.

She gave Mack to Tink and went to the front
door. Terrified, she peered through the peephole.

No one was there.

She opened the door a crack and saw no one.
She was about to close the door when her cell phone rang in her
purse in the kitchen.

“
I’ll get it,” Tink
said.

Heather closed and locked the door. She was
almost to the kitchen when Tink yelled, “It’s Schmidty!”

Heather took the phone from her.

“
I hope it’s okay, but I
signed you up for my usual meal service,” Schmidty said without
saying hello.

“
Hi Jammy,” Heather said.
“What’s your ‘usual meal service’?”

“
Food will be delivered
morning, midday, and night,” Schmidty said. “I get it for my
clients who use the house when they’re in town.”

“
Does that happen a lot?”
Heather asked as she made her way back to the door.

“
A fair bit,” Schmidty
said. “When they play at Red Rocks or the Pepsi Center, most of
them have been on the road a while. It’s nice to get out of the
bus. It’s easier to relax at the house than another hotel. Plus,
they can do their laundry.”

“
Makes sense,” Heather
said.

She opened the door. There were two
thermoses of hot liquids and a box of pastries. She waved to Ivy
and Tink.

“
The fridge is full, so
you can also make just about anything,” Schmidty said.

“
But we . . . I
mean, we don’t have money to . . .?” Heather started.
“Blane’s in the hospital and . . .”

Tink picked up the thermoses, and Ivy
retrieved the box of pastries.

“
Oh, don’t worry,”
Schmidty said. “We want to help.”

“
We?”

“
Lizzy and I,” Schmidty
said. “If you’ll die without paying for it, I can always take it
out of Sandy’s commission.”

“
Sandy’s commission?”
Heather asked.

“
For the piece her mother
wrote,” Schmidty said. “Last bid was in the low
eighties.”

“
Dollars?”

“
Millions,” Schmidty said.
“I think it will top a couple hundred, but that’s just
me.”

“
And your cut?” Heather
asked.

“
Fifteen percent,”
Schmidty said. “That’s a lot more than all the food you could eat
in six months.”

“
Then, thank you, James
Schmidt the Fifth,” Heather said. “I appreciate your
support.”

“
No problem,” Schmidty
said with a laugh. “How’s Blane?”

“
I’ll go after breakfast,”
Heather said.

“
Send him my love,”
Schmidty said.

“
Your love?”

“
Yeah,” Schmidty said.
“It’s the most powerful force in the universe.”

“
I’ve heard that,” Heather
said.

“
I figure he could use
it,” Schmidty said. “Just try to relax, Heather. You deserve a
little support. Tell the girls I said hi.”

He clicked off. She looked at the phone and
tucked it in her pocket.

“
Well?” Heather asked
Tink, who was peering into the box.

“
It looks really yummy,”
Tink said.

“
He’s going to drop off
lunch and dinner too,” Heather said.

“
That’s good because
. . .” Tink winced.

“
I can’t cook,” Heather
laughed. “I was afraid we’d starve too.”

The girls laughed. Heather smiled. A lot of
love and a little laughter, and they would get through this one day
at a time. She impulsively hugged Ivy and Tink.

“
Maa-maa!”

Mack didn’t want to be left out. They
turned, and Heather picked him up. They stood in Schmidty’s kitchen
hugging each other for a few moments before Mack squirmed and the
girls moved away.

“
I can make eggs!” Heather
said. “How ’bout some eggs?”

~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning — 6:59 a.m.

Phoenix, Arizona

“
You’re sure about this,”
Agent Muniz asked.

She took a drink of the coffee that Dionne
had made and a bite from the omelet Yvonne had made.

“
We’re sure,” Yvonne
said.

“
You
and
Sandy,” Agent Muniz
said.

“
Those boys are into some
freaky shit,” Yvonne said with a nod. “It wouldn’t surprise me if
they did kids too.”

“
You need to look into
them,” Dionne said in a firm, get-going voice. “I’d bet you’ll find
all kinds of stuff out about them.”

“
Oh.” Agent Muniz gave
Dionne and then Yvonne a long look. “We’ve been looking at these
guys for ten years, probably more.”

Agent Muniz devoured her omelet.

“
That was really good,”
Agent Muniz said. “And this coffee is amazing. But, you know you
didn’t have to.”

“
Because you were going to
make something?” Dionne asked. “With what supplies?”

Agent Muniz laughed and then shrugged.

“
I work a lot,” Agent
Muniz said.

“
What are we going to do
about these guys?” Yvonne asked. “They already shot a little girl
and tried to kill another. They beat up Charlie and
. . .”

As if it were all too much, Yvonne gave a
quick shake of her head.

“
I have to think,” Agent
Muniz said. “Can you stay here today?”

“
In Phoenix or in this
apartment?” Dionne asked. Her lip curled a tiny bit. Agent Muniz
laughed.

“
My husband made a
reservation for us at the JW Marriot.” Yvonne looked at her watch.
“We have spa appointments in a couple of hours.”

Agent Muniz smiled, and Yvonne shrugged.

“
He loves me,” Yvonne
said.

“
What are you going to
do?” Dionne asked.

“
We have to be smart about
this,” Agent Muniz said. “If I go in and blab that you’re here and
the evidence that you, and Sandy, can give
. . .”

Agent Muniz shook her head.

“
You won’t make those
appointments,” Agent Muniz said. “My best bet would have been your
sexy agent, Rasmussen. But he’s in hiding.”

“
Then what are you going
to do?” Dionne asked.

“
I’m going to think,”
Agent Muniz said. “Yvonne and Sandy didn’t go through hell to have
these guys get off.”

“
There're others,” Yvonne
said.

“
Others?” Agent Muniz
asked.

“
Other girls, other
women—, others,” Yvonne said.

“
Can you make a list?”
Agent Muniz asked.

Yvonne nodded. Agent Muniz got up. She was
gone a minute before she returned with a pen and paper. She watched
as Yvonne wrote down names, dates, and places.

“
That’s what I remember,”
Yvonne said as she pushed the paper toward Agent Muniz.

Agent Muniz looked at the list and then back
up at Yvonne. She nodded.

“
We have something to go
on.” Agent Muniz smiled.

“
You’d better be careful,”
Dionne said. “These men, they don’t play nicely. They will kill
you, even if you’re a federal agent.”

“
I know,” Agent Muniz
said. “Why do you think I live in this dump?”

“
Honey, I have no idea,”
Yvonne said.

“
They took my house,”
Agent Muniz said. “Took my car. Took everything I owned — my
savings and my retirement. Some kind of ‘mistake’ with the bank.
Even though the bank admitted they screwed up, I still don’t have
the house back or the payout. They found my retirement money, but
lawyers’ fees took my savings.”

“
Wow,” Yvonne
said.