Kissing Arizona (25 page)

‘But what I started to say was, I can think of many interesting adjectives to describe Frank Cooper, but suicidal isn't one of them.'

‘Boy, you're right about that,' Leo said. ‘This guy was having a high old time, wasn't he?' He added thoughtfully, ‘Living every middle-aged guy's dream.'

Tracy twitched his nose in disgust. ‘Please, somebody save me from maturity.'

Denny answered the doorbell at Sarah's nearly empty duplex. The cleaning crew stood there smiling: one youngish woman with a worn face, a gray-haired man missing a couple of fingers, and a pretty girl a few years older than herself. The woman and girl went to work at once, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, while the man fetched things for them, carried out trash and ran the vacuum. A sharp-faced older woman who said she was Tía Luisa followed them in and sat at the round table under the light with Aggie, explaining the services she offered and the cost of each. Aggie chose a partial clean-up of the duplex now and a final one next week after it was empty, told her about the bigger house they were moving into, and said her daughter would help her decide how often they would need cleaning services there after they got everything moved. Aggie paid her in cash as she requested, gave her the address of the new house, and agreed to meet there in two days.

‘Oh, but wait,' Aggie said, ‘that's Saturday, isn't it?'

‘It's OK,' the sharp-faced woman said, ‘we work Saturday.' She shrugged. ‘Any day we get work. Now I must go and check on my other crews,' she said. ‘Then I come back for these darling girls before you fall in love with them.' When she was not talking about money she adopted this strange jocular tone that was meant, Denny thought, to make people like her. Tía Luisa and the man drove away then in the white van with a sign on the side saying, ‘Tía Luisa's Home Cleaners.'

The sage green Lincoln Continental was parked down the street from Sarah's duplex with the top up. With its tail fins and hood ornament, the car was more noticeable than the three men inside. They all wore black T-shirts, baseball caps and dark glasses, and were lithe and quiet.

‘You're sure?' Dick said. ‘There could be lots of Tía Luisas in this town.'

‘That's her,' Rod said. That wasn't his real name either, names were fluid with this group, but he was definitely not Bernice today. ‘Apron or not, I'd know her little butt anywhere.'

‘Thought I heard her say “Tía Luisa” that day,' Freddy said, ‘to her boyfriend the fancy lighter boy.' He'd been rubbing Rod's nose in the mistake of overlooking that lighter ever since Vicky got away, but he didn't dwell on it today because he was feeling pleased with himself for the first time in ages.

Besides the expense of having the car put right again after the fire, it was beyond humiliating to get out-maneuvered by a wetback kid – a girl, at that. Freddy made a point of always coming out ahead, he felt it was good for his mental health. He had insisted they could not enlist any help with the search for Vicky because he didn't want the story getting out. And he hadn't heard any jokes to suggest . . . but you never knew. Suppose she bragged to one of her friends on the cleaning crew? Good story like that could go viral overnight around the bars in south Tucson. Freddy O's business was built on cool.

‘Not crazy about grabbing her here,' Dick said. ‘All these roundabouts and speed-bumps, what if she starts to yell?'

‘She yells we snuff her tight here,' Rod said.

‘I don't want to do her in the car,' Freddy said. ‘One restoration a season is enough to pay for.'

‘Aw, shit, you and this Lincoln,' Dick said, ‘sometimes you . . .' And then quickly: ‘Make up your mind cause here they come.'

But it wasn't the whole crew, it was only the gimpy gray-haired man and the woman with a hawk's face. They came out with their hands full, not hurrying or talking. The man put his bag of trash into the back and went around to the driver's seat while the woman climbed into the passenger's side and began reading the lists on her clipboard and making calls on her cell.

‘So, what now?' Dick said.

‘I'm not going into that house after the chica,' Rod said. ‘There's two or three Anglos in there, what if somebody makes a call before—'

He quit talking when Freddy O. put the car in gear. ‘We'll hang with the van a while,' Freddy said. Spotting the van and confirming his memory about what the quiet little crosser said that day in Agua Prieta had cheered him up, he felt like he had his mojo back. ‘Tía Luisa'll come back for the crew. We'll watch her routine for a while, get René to get us an address offa that plate.' René was his inside man at DMV.

‘Not very likely she lives where her boss does,' Rod says.

‘But she might. Let's find out,' Freddy said. ‘Don't want to get in a hurry and mess up again. What she cost me, I want some fun out of killing this cunt.'

Denny made up one reason after another to hang out near the house-cleaning crew so she could see how they did their work. She was hoping to take over some of their jobs and save the family some money. She could tell by the hesitant way her grown-ups made decisions involving money lately, they were all worried about it.

The older crew member scrubbed bathroom tiles and ignored her, but the younger girl said, the second time Denny came in the kitchen where she was working, ‘You afraid I'm going to steal the refrigerator?' It was the only thing left that was moveable – they had taken all the dishes and pans to the other house.

Denny said, ‘What?'

‘You keep watching me,' the girl said. ‘Do you think I will take something that belongs to you?'

‘I'm just trying to learn how to clean,' Denny said. Faced with the girl's incredulous stare, she added, ‘I like to learn things.'

The girl laughed, not at all politely, muttered something and shook her head.

Denny said, ‘I'm sorry if I bothered you,' and walked away, mortified. She found the book she had left by the front door, went out and sat by Aggie in the yard, and read until the van came back to collect the crew.

When they were gone Denny walked through Sarah's clean, almost empty duplex with her grandmother.

‘It looks so small now,' Denny said. ‘I can't believe we got so much stuff in here.'

‘I think I can hear it groaning with relief,' Aggie said. ‘Let's go home and put the meat loaf in that strange little oven. You really think you learned how to turn it on?'

‘Will made me do it five times.' Denny laughed. ‘Will gets very serious when he's teaching, doesn't he?'

‘Especially when there's a chance of an explosion. He gave up on me pretty fast, though. Every time I leaned down far enough to see that little gas flame, I got dizzy and started to fall over.'

‘It's too bad we can't afford to get you a new stove, Grandma. I bet you miss the one you had at your house, don't you?'

‘I'm fine with this one as long as I have you for a helper,' Aggie said. ‘And you're a little young to be worrying about what we can afford.'

She must have said something to Aunt Sarah about that conversation, because early Saturday morning they all sat down together for what Aunt Sarah said was a ‘breakfast conference'. They did the breakfast part first, because Will's pancakes and sausages were so good Aggie said she wasn't thinking about anything serious until she finished the second pancake. Then while Denny cleared the table Aunt Sarah brought out tablets and pencils and passed around some printed lists.

‘You take a set too, Denny,' she said. ‘You're part of this outfit now, and I want to make sure we all clearly understand where we stand. No more worrying in secret.'

Denny took a tablet and pencil and went to work on her first budget. She could tell by the time they got past the ‘rent' line that there was quite a bit more going on here than just keeping the kid up to date. She had to admire the way Aunt Sarah coaxed Grandma past her reluctance to figure out exactly how much money she had invested in her house in Marana.

When it came to divulging her monthly income, though, Grandma said, ‘Well . . .' She dropped her pencil and blew her nose and finally said, ‘Darling, do you really need to know that?' Ranchers were accustomed to a lot of privacy, she had once told Denny, it was a big adjustment when you moved to town.

‘I don't see how else we'll figure this out,' Sarah said, ‘if we don't start by saying what we've got. But we'll go first if it's easier for you. Go ahead, Will.'

‘I'm kind of like your mother,' Will said, switching around in his chair as if his pants had suddenly grown too tight, ‘I didn't expect to go public quite so soon.'

It was the first time Denny had ever seen Will Dietz embarrassed. The most self-possessed man she had ever known was blushing. He looked the way she felt sometimes about things boys said on the bus. Evidently money effected grown-ups the same way. Who knew?

‘Honestly, you two. OK, I'll start.' And as usual, nothing stopped Aunt Sarah once she made up her mind. She spelled out fearlessly what her take-home was, and got hilariously specific about what the divorce fight with her ex had done to her savings. She had even figured out how much she'd save on her taxes when she officially got custody of Denny. Now Denny was blushing. She'd never thought of herself as a deduction before.

‘You mean it saves money to have a kid around?' she asked her aunt.

‘Oh, you bet,' Aunt Sarah said, and showed her how much. ‘And here's how much I've got built up in deferred comp. I'm going to try not to spend any of that, though, I need to add it to my pension when I retire.'

‘Aren't you too young to think about retiring?'

‘Honey, no cop is ever too young to think about that.'

Knowing he was not the only impoverished law enforcement officer in the room seemed to make it easier for Will to describe what a drawn-out divorce and two near-death work incidents had left him, which was, essentially, a newly acquired eight-year-old Ford pickup and the clothes he stood up in. He made a respectable salary, though, he pointed out, and was eligible for a substantial pension whenever he wanted to take it.

‘Twenty-two years, I've got in. I'd like to make it to thirty, but it's optional now. You get a bigger pension if you do the full thirty, but there's some merit to the idea of quitting while you're still young enough to start a second career.'

‘Well now I never thought about that,' Aggie said, and suddenly the two tales of financial disarray she'd just heard opened a floodgate she'd kept closed all her life. She told them how her husband, when he was young, worried through drought years and bad markets about having all their eggs in one basket. ‘“Nothing but this ranch,” he was always groaning, “it's a recipe for disaster.” He tried for years to liberate some cash to put in the stock market. Now that Wall Street's gone south I'm so grateful he never succeeded. Everything's in land and cattle, and my faithful son pays the mortgage every month. Here, I'll show you.' She kept the deposit slips in her checkbook. ‘And on top of that whenever I want a treat I've got my sweet little co-op account – look, here's the book.' Denny watched, enchanted, as her secretive granny flipped open her account and showed them the bottom line. ‘All from that part-time job I took the last twenty years on the ranch. Jim would never let me spend a penny of it. He said if he couldn't support a wife he'd go drown himself.' Looking anxiously at Will, she added, ‘No offense, darling, those were different times.'

Denny, forgotten behind her tablet, thought this family soap opera beat any Saturday morning entertainment she had ever found on TV. She was almost sorry when they settled down to business, agreeing on an amount they would each pay into a household account every month. The last item they agreed on was an allowance for Denny.

‘You mean it, I get an allowance?' She knew how to steal money, from her mother and the boyfriends, had done it routinely to survive. But now they were each going to give her five dollars a week, money she was entitled to.

‘And you get this,' Aunt Sarah said. She handed Denny a new cell phone. ‘We've got a lot going on. We need to be able to find each other.' She told Denny which speed-dial numbers she'd programmed. ‘I'm two, Will is three, Grandma is four. Keep it with you so I can reach you. Don't forget!'

‘I won't.' Was her smile wide enough? ‘Thank you!'

‘You're welcome. We're getting more than full value out of you these days. I hope I'm not breaking any child labor laws.'

‘Don't worry, I know how to look useless if the cops come around. Oh, wait, you are the cops.'

‘OK, smarty pants. Are we done here?'

‘Done for while we're renting,' Will said. ‘Soon as we buy, we get to do this whole fun thing again.'

‘And oh boy, that bill of sale is going to be bloody hell,' Aggie said.

‘But in the meantime, we're all better off than we were before,' Sarah said. ‘Pooling your resources with two other people is like making a lot of money fast.'

‘Which is a definite first for me,' Will Dietz said. ‘Thank you, ladies.'

‘Now Will's going to drive Denny and me out to my house,' Aggie told Sarah. ‘He'll move my living room furniture in here today, and Denny and I will stay out there while the cleaning crew starts getting my place cleaned up for sale.'

‘And while I'm in town,' Will said, ‘I'm going to meet the realtor and a potential buyer at your place. This is going to be quite a day.'

‘Whereas all I'm going to do,' Sarah said, ‘is walk the Santa Cruz river below the reclamation plant. That drug courier's in town today, the one who's supposed to help Phil Cruz and me find Chuy Maldonado's head.'