Jamie Hill Triple Threat (5 page)

The nervous look on
Devon
’s face evolved into laughter and he cried, “Let’s go again!”

Jack and Crystal looked at each other and laughed. He went down the slide a few more times with
Devon
, until the boy went by himself. When it was time to leave, he had to be dragged away from the slide.

“I promised
Crystal
we’d get pizza,” Jack cajoled the child. “You wouldn’t want to disappoint
Crystal
now, would you?”

Devon
looked at her. “I guess not.” He turned to Jack. “Did you say pizza?”

“Yeah.” Jack chuckled as he picked up his jacket and dusted the sand off. “Let’s go. My truck’s this way.” He led them to a black Ford Explorer, unlocked the doors and arranged some stuff in the back seat before he gave the boys a hand in. “Buckle up.” He secured their seat belts. Once they were settled, he opened the passenger door for
Crystal
. “Hang on.” He cleared the seat of a stack of paperwork. “I’ll just toss this in the back.”

“Thanks.”

He climbed in his side and fastened his seat belt, then looked at
Crystal
expectantly. “Seat belt?”

“Oh, sorry.” She buckled up. “Can’t take the girl to the big city, I guess.”

He smiled and started the engine. “Oh, I think you can. Settle back, everybody. We have about a twenty-minute ride.”

Crystal
relaxed into the seat. “This is really nice of you,” she said to him quietly.

“I’m happy to do it.”

She rode in silence a few minutes, then glanced back at the kids to make sure they weren’t listening. They were busy chatting excitedly to each other, so she turned to Jack. “You think something is up with Dave, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “You have to admit, his disappearance on the same day Manny Hooper turned up dead is quite a coincidence. Or not.”

“No!” Her jaw dropped open. “He couldn’t have had anything to do with that!”

Jack shrugged again. “I hope you’re right. But for your safety, and for the sake of those kids,” he shot a glance over his shoulder, “I need to find out.”

Crystal
rubbed her hands over her arms nervously. “You’re right. We need to know the truth.”
I only hope I can handle it.

Chapter Three

Jack led Crystal and the boys to a table in the noisy restaurant.

“This is incredible.”
Crystal
looked around a dozen, running, frenzied children in the play area.

“It’s amazing!”
Devon
exclaimed.

Jack chuckled and tossed his jacket in the booth ahead of him. “Yeah, isn’t it great?”

Crystal
removed her jacket and shoved it in the booth opposite Jack. She looked at him skeptically, and he laughed again. He leaned in to her so she could hear him. “Believe me, I appreciate the value of a quiet, candlelit restaurant. I really do. But just look at their faces.” He nodded to Mark and
Devon
, who gazed around in wonder.

She smiled. “I’m sure they’ve never been to a place like this.”

Jack peeled the boys’ jackets off and laid them on top of his. “Why don’t you start out in the ball pit before we eat? After dinner we’ll see if we can burn through some of these tokens.” He tossed the bag on the table and it jingled. The boys looked at it anxiously, then at the ball pit.

Jack pointed. “Take your shoes off and stick them in a cube over there. Then have fun. Crystal and I will be right here watching you.” He’d chosen a booth close to the pit, so the boys could see Crystal and him, and they could keep an eye out. Mark and
Devon
were slow to enter the play area, but soon got caught up in the fracas and were playing and climbing alongside everyone else.

Crystal
settled in across from Jack. “You sure you’ve never been here? You seem to know an awful lot about the place.”

He grinned. “I’m a detective, after all. I should be able to figure a few things out on my own.”

“Well, you sure figured right about this place. It appears to be little-boy heaven.”

“Just for little boys?” He tried to sound disappointed, eyeing row after row of video games.

Crystal
laughed as a waitress brought four colas to their table. “Your pizza will be out shortly.”

“Thank you.” Jack spread out the drinks, wishing he had a beer.

“Yeah, thanks.”
Crystal
smiled at the waitress and accepted her soft drink.

The young woman left and Jack saw
Crystal
shift in her seat uncomfortably.

“Hey.” Jack touched her hand. “You okay?”

She nodded. “I’m fine. You looked at that soda like you wished it was something stronger.”

He chuckled. “Got me. For a moment I was wishing for beer.”

“Yeah, me too. And then I had this flash.
I have children to think of now
. I kind of panicked, wondering if my beer-drinking days are over.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. It’s only been a few days. I’m going to help you figure things out.”

She fiddled with her drink nervously, and changed the subject. “Did you really think we needed four large pizzas?”

“Pizza’s always better the second day, don’t you think?”

She gave him another skeptical look and finally smiled. “I haven’t had pizza in so long, I’m not sure I remember.”  She settled back into the booth and studied him. “I was thinking that you’re awfully nice with these kids, Jack. Do you have any of your own?”
 

“Kids?” He shook his head. “Nope, never quite got around to that.”

“And no Mrs. Detective Dunlevy waiting for you at home?”

He grinned. “Not lately. There were two of them in the past, but neither could seem to get used to the waiting at home part, I guess.”

“It would be hard being a cop’s wife. Never knowing when you might get that news. You know.”

“Oh, I know. Some women can handle it, and some just can’t.”

She seemed to peruse his face. He knew there were a few small scars, but they could have been from childhood accidents as easily as police business. “So, have you ever been injured in the line of duty?”

He stirred the straw around in his drink. “A few times. One gunshot, a couple others not so serious.”

“The gunshot was serious?”

“Yeah.” He smiled sadly. “A shoulder wound, and I lost a lot of blood. Let’s just say that after I was discharged from the hospital, the first Mrs. Dunlevy was history.”

“Well, that’s pretty crappy!”
Crystal
exclaimed, and Jack chuckled derisively.

“I hate to break it to you, princess, but life can be crappy sometimes. Maybe you hadn’t noticed from the view out of your castle window.”

Crystal
laughed out loud again, the spontaneous Christmas-tree-glowing, she-never-looked-more-beautiful laugh. Jack decided to kick up the humor a notch, in hopes that he’d get to see a lot more of that expression. He’d become a frigging comedian if it meant he could keep that look on her face even one moment longer.

He sipped his drink, still wishing he could have ordered a beer.

They talked and watched the boys play until their pizzas arrived. The waitress arranged them on the table, and Jack went to corral the boys.

“You should go wash your hands,”
Crystal
told them when they returned to the table. “You know that ball pit is full of germs.”

The boys started to protest, but Jack put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Give it up, guys. It’s a chick thing. When they start talking about germs, you know you’re lost.”

She smiled as he nudged them toward the bathroom. “And try to pee while you’re in there, please,” she called after them. “We don’t need that interruption ten minutes from now.”

Jack glanced back over his shoulder at her. “I’ll try, but I don’t know.”

When
Crystal
laughed, Jack walked off with a self-satisfied smile planted firmly on his face.

* * * *

Crystal
was stuffed. She’d never seen the boys eat so much in their lives. They seemed supremely happy as Jack took them to wash up, and she boxed up the left over pizza.

“Come on.” Jack urged her to join them in the video game room. “It’s the twenty-first century. Girls are not only allowed, but encouraged, to play video games.”

“I’m horrible at them,” she protested, but allowed him to guide her there. She stopped arguing as he inserted a token in a machine and stood behind her with his hands on her hips, his head leaning over her shoulder. “There you go, shoot those bad guys. I know you got it in ya.”

“I got it in me all right.” She aimed and wiped out a bunch of the bad guys. When it was over, she tied the high score on the machine.

“You’re a video game shark.” He spoke into her ear in the noisy, crowded room. “You should play for money.” He patted her hips.

She chuckled and leaned back against him for a moment. “I’m just lucky.”

He kept his hands on her hips and spoke quietly into her ear again. “I believe I might be the lucky one.”

Crystal
’s reply caught in her throat as
Devon
stepped up between them and announced, “She won fifty cents at the Laundromat this morning.”

Jack looked over her shoulder and raised his eyebrows at her, and she laughed nervously.

“Playing poker,”
Devon
advised with a nod.

“Wow,” was all Jack could say, still looking into her eyes.

Crystal
put her arms around
Devon
and took a step away from Jack. She smiled and shrugged. “Our jeans got dry, is all that means.”

Jack winced, as if he hated to be reminded of their situation. “Come on.” He put a hand on each of their shoulders. “We’ve got a bag full of tokens to use up. Let’s find Mark and start some serious spending.”

After two hours they'd spent all their tokens and were left with armloads of tickets. The patient clerk at the toy counter folded and counted their tickets, while an even more patient Jack helped each boy pick out the treasures they wanted to redeem their tickets for. They each acquired a bag full of tiny dinosaurs, cars, and assorted cool stuff, but were yawning so hard they almost couldn’t carry the goodies out.

Jack helped them into their jackets and herded everyone outside. As soon as the boys were buckled in to the Explorer, they both fell fast asleep.
Crystal
smiled at them and then Jack. “You gave them the best day ever. How can I possibly thank you?”

He smiled and started the engine. “It was fun. We’ll have to do it again.”

She looked out her window, realizing he was just being polite. They weren’t prepared to make future plans. Her life and the lives of the boys were in limbo until they could find Dave. She tried to stifle a yawn but was unsuccessful, and Jack reached over to pat her arm. “Lean your head back and doze off. It’s fine.”

“I might. Did you mean it when you said this place was close to your house?”

He glanced sideways at her. “Yep, just a few blocks.”

“Can we drive by?” she asked. “I mean, not to go inside or anything, but just see where you live?”

He shrugged and turned at the next corner. The neighborhood got nicer, and
Crystal
stared out the window in awe. Jack pulled in the driveway of a large, ranch-style house with a wide front porch and big yard. She looked at him, asking quietly, “Here?”

“Afraid so,” he replied.

“It’s beautiful,” she almost whispered, her face pressed against her window. “Oh, you have a porch swing, and such a big yard! Is your back yard fenced?”

“Yeah. I, uh, have a dog.”

“A dog?” she breathed longingly, and touched the window with her fingertips. “What kind?”

“German shepherd. His name is Zeus.”

“The ruler of the heavens,”
Crystal
commented, remembering her Greek mythology.

Jack chuckled. “I didn’t name him. He’s retired from the canine unit. But he
is
pretty much the ruler of the house, I’ll admit. A major bone of contention—if you’ll forgive the pun—with Mrs. Dunlevy Number Two.”

Crystal
laughed and continued to gaze out the window. “Not a big dog fan, eh?”

“Not of a dog that has to be reminded of his place. He seriously does think he’s in charge. I can control him, though, and he’s a great watchdog, which I appreciate.”

“Me too,”
Crystal
said quietly, and whispered, “I love dogs.”

He touched her arm. “
Crystal
, I have spare bedrooms. For the boys…” he forced himself to add, “and you, if you’d like to stay here tonight.”