October Snow (15 page)

Jack glanced over to where they stood waiting, then returned to the officer at the door, looking at him plaintively and gesturing with the piece of paper. Snippets of the conversation wafted over.

“We’d ask you to wait in the car anyway, Mr. Seever. Seeing as the women named on that order are with her, you may as well just have a seat in the cruiser, and let them get her things. It’s not going to take long.”

“He’s gonna be pissed,” Max muttered.

Jo grinned wryly, one side of her mouth turning up, her gaze staying level on Jack. “Yeah, but he won’t show it. He needs to be the ‘sane’ one. Fifty bucks he’s already called her ‘nuts’at least twice.”

“And expressed his regret that she’s so difficult.”

The two women looked up at the young officer, surprised at his insight. His somber expression gave away the concern behind his sarcasm. “I did a college internship at the Nashua center. Hotline work, mostly, but some courtroom advocacy,” he explained, watching as his partner signaled from the door. “I know these guys six ways from Sunday.” He nodded to his partner, who then escorted Jack to the cruiser and placed him in the back seat. The officer, with the name
Williams
embossed on his tag, nodded curtly to the women. “Ready. Is Miss Bentley going to be here?”

Jo pointed to her truck. “I’ll go wake her up.”

She rubbed Sam’s arm gently for a moment, then shook her lightly. “Sammy? We’re at the house. You up for this?”

She sat up immediately, more alert than Jo expected her to be. “Yeah. Let’s go.” She looked around. “Where’s Max?”

“Right there.” Jo pointed to where Max was waiting with Williams. “She drove your car over. We should be able to get everything, between two cars.”

“Jack?”

“Contained.”

“Good. I hope they leave him wherever they put him.”

They grinned at each other. “C’mon. We’re almost there.”

Sam deliberately passed close to the cruiser, ignoring Jack as she walked by.

“Hey, you still have my phone?” Sam held her hand out, and Jo struggled to pull it from the deep pocket of her sweats as they waited at a red light.

She handed it to her, checking for Max in the rearview mirror. “So how tired are you, hon?”

“Just sleepy. I’m fine. Wouldn’t mind a nap, though.”

“By the way, your house…”

“
Jack’s
house,” Sam corrected her.

“Yeah, Jack’s house…Wow. Like a magazine. But that neon-peach dining room…” She chuckled. “What was going on there?”

“Jack liked the color,” she shrugged. “Never let me forget how much time he spent painting it. Two days.
Two days
,” she mimicked, as she checked the lists of unread texts and missed calls. “Two messages.”

Her expression grew hard as she listened to the message from Liz. “Fine,” she mumbled. “Mom told me to call her
right now–
guess this was a few hours ago–or ‘go to hell.’” She deleted the message. “Fine,” she said again.

As she listened to the second message, her eyes turned distant.

Jo touched her hand. “What’s up?”

“Oh.” She looked up. “Oh, it’s Dave. Tyler got on for a minute, too.” She saved the message and closed her phone, running her fingers down the screen like a caress. She sighed deeply. “I have to tell Dave what’s going on.”

Jo nodded. “Yeah, you do.”

“I’m thinking that it’s probably best for Tyler to spend the next few weeks with Dave while I get things settled here.” Her voice caught then. “
Jack
. He’s gonna cost me
more
time with my baby.”

“What about Tyler and school?”

“Dave and I will work something out, I guess. There’s only a few weeks left.”

They pulled into the public parking lot one street over from their apartment house, with Max pulling in behind them. “Hey, girls,” she called out as she got out, “Let’s make a good dinner and watch bad TV tonight. Be mindless. What says you?”

“I like it,” Jo said. “Almost enough to give you that fist bump.”

Max held out her fist.

“Said ‘almost’, Bim.”

Max pretended to pout. She was trying to keep it light, hoping to help Sam keep her spirits up, but it didn’t appear to be working.

She threw her arm around Sam’s shoulders. “I’m on a mission to cheer you up, Sammy.” She gave her a squeeze, and they walked that way out of the lot.

Jo stopped suddenly, holding her arm out in front of them to block them from moving.

She put her finger to her lips, squinting ahead at the apartment house. Someone was moving along the front of the building. She looked at the cars parked along the street, picking out Jack’s, across from them and several cars down. She pointed to it. “Stay here,” she said, taking a picture of Jack’s car, then turning the sound off on her cell as she moved ahead of them.

“Jo, wait.”

“Stay there with Sammy. Get out of sight.”

“Jo…”

“Max, just
do
it, okay? I’ll be right back.”

As she approached the house, she made sure that she observed it from behind the trees and the flowering shrubs that lined the street. About a hundred feet away, she could see Jack clearly, half-crouching at the side of the house, hidden from view at the front of the building by the overgrown forsythias there.

She moved closer, then pulled her phone out, snapping several shots of him.

Her breathing was shallow, her heart pumping very fast, and she waited for a few moments before she yelled, “Hey, Jackie!”

He stood bolt upright, looking back and forth, then in the direction of her voice. She waved gaily as he recognized her.

“How’s it going?” She raised her phone again, snapping another picture.

Jack took off around the back of the house, then appeared on the far side of the building, running full-tilt for his car. A small pickup truck blared, almost mowing him down as he crossed the street.

“Okay, babe,” Jo called after him. “See you later.” Everything seemed to have that electric outline again, the over-defined aura that surrounded everything around her. It was something like a high.

She waited until he was gone before she walked back to where Max and Sam were waiting.

“All set,” she said, locking the pictures she had taken. “What a moron. Let’s go home.”

Sam was looking anxiously down the street as Max stared at Jo, irritated.

Jo arched her eyebrows. “What?”

“What was up with that?”

“Just documenting a violation.”

“With some yahoo who’s dangerous enough to violate.”

Jo gave her an odd look, not understanding her hostility. “Well, yeah–they’re usually the type of yahoos who do that, you know.”

Max kicked impatiently at a bottle top, and started walking to the house.

“And…?” Jo demanded, coming alongside her.

She sped up, staring straight ahead.

“Say it, Max.”

“It was dangerous. Actually, it was reckless.
Especially
approaching him by yourself.”

“I didn’t want Sammy there.”

“I get that. But she…”

“I’m not five years old, Jo,” Sam broke in. “I could have hidden really well,
all by myself
.”

They walked silently for a few minutes. As they reached the house, Jo said, “Look, it makes no sense for two of us to confront him. What if he had a weapon?”

“
Exactly
,” Max was exasperated, on the verge of yelling. “What if he had a gun? You could have called 911 from back there, and let the cops deal with him. He was obviously waiting, he wasn’t going anywhere.”

“He would have run the minute he saw them, and where’s the proof then? And if he’s armed, and he takes us out, who’s the witness? The soon-to-be-ex who hates him?”

Sam shook her head and sat on the porch railing; Jo had to look away from Max’s level stare. Something about Max’s expression, a mixture of concern, outrage, and compassion, made her feel exposed–like some part of her, the part that she refused to allow, was being laid bare.

“Oh please, Jo. You did
not
think it through that far. You’re reaching
so
bad. You know that.”

“You’re really starting to piss me off, Maxine.”

“Well
that’s
interesting.”

“Leave me alone.” Jo sat on the steps, turning her back to the two of them.

Max sighed heavily as she sat beside her. “Honestly, Jo, I don’t know sometimes if you have a hero complex or a death wish.”

She thought Jo almost cringed. She was staring at her feet, nervously rubbing her palms on her thighs. Max thought she was rubbing them hard enough to set them on fire.

She reached over, covering Jo’s hand with her own. Jo looked up slowly, directly into her eyes.

Max wondered if perhaps, she had said one thing too much. She felt an urgency to somehow take it back, like she had talked her way beyond an invisible, irretrievable point of sorrow.

“We should call the cops,” she offered instead.

“No, I was thinking we can use this as leverage.”

It took Max a moment to understand what she was saying. “You mean threaten him to back off?”

She nodded.

“Yeah. That’ll work.”

Jo was absentmindedly rooting around in her purse. “Sammy, give me your cigarettes. You can’t use them now anyway.” She turned to Max as Sam handed her the pack. “If he leaves us alone, we won’t tell.
This
time. Next time, he’d better bring a toothbrush.”

“Problem is, we have to act on it, though, or we waive protection.”

Jo blew out the smoke with a whoosh, laughing bitterly. “By the time that raging ass sees a lawyer and finds out, we should be out of here.”

“True.”

“We’re just buying time?” Sam asked, worried.

“That’s all we can do, babe. Think of an Order of Protection as more of a chess piece than anything else.”

“She’s right, Sammy.” Max took a cigarette for herself. “What we need now is to get you squared away, and then get out of here.”

Sam slid off the porch rail, coming to sit between them. “I’m going to call Dave.”

Jo pulled her phone out. “I’m going to call Liz.”

“Liz?”

“Why my mom?”

“Need someone to get the message to Jack. We can’t call him.”

Max gave her a knowing look. “Yeah, he will be running to her, won’t he?”

“Absolutely.”

Sam moaned. “I just remembered I left all my work stuff at her house. Uniform, tag, shoes–all of it.”

“We’ll go pick it up. I want to gauge her reaction anyway.”

“See where she stands,” Max added.

“Last
I
heard, she told me to go to hell.”

Jo patted her on the leg. “I know, Sammy. But she can do damage if she sides with him, and I need to get a beat on her. See how safe she is.”

Sam nodded. “I’m gonna go call Dave, and then get some dinner.” She stood up, stretching her arms over her head. “Is this day over
yet
?”

“I know. Long one.” Max got up, holding her hand out to Jo. Pulling her to her feet, she met her eyes directly, and said, “I’m coming with you.”

She took in the expression on Max’s face, and seemed to rethink something. Then she nodded. “Okay. We’ll get burgers on the way back. You want anything, Sammy?”

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Fast food? Doesn’t appeal right now, but thanks. I’ll find something here.”

“We’ll call on our way back. Keep the door locked.”

The traffic was unusually light for a Saturday evening, and they pulled up to Liz’s house twenty minutes later.

“Uh, that’s–wow. What
happened
?” They exited the truck slowly, staring wide-eyed at Liz’s house.

“Oh my…oh my gosh,” Jo blustered.

Liz came out as they were halfway up the walk. She was holding a full tumbler of what appeared to be scotch. “Nice, huh?” she called out gaily.

“Hey, the ‘slut’s’ trashed,” Max whispered, squinting at the slur painted on the front door.

Jo nudged her. “Be good, Max. Don’t make me leave you in the truck.”

“Someone did it last night,” Liz continued, comically unsteady. “Nice, huh?”

“Any idea who?”

“Yeah,” Max said softly. “I want to say thank…”

Jo nudged her again, harder this time.

“No, and the police department isn’t gunna to be, you know, looking, either.” She swallowed hard, looking like she had been crying, but her eyes were dry. “Can I get you girls a drink, something to drink?”

“No, Liz, thanks.”

“I’ll take one of whatever you’ve got there, Liz.”

“You are
not
driving, Maxine,” she wagged her finger, “is that right?”

“Only if Jo makes me drop her off on the corner of Ella and Central.”

Jo burst into laughter at the reference to what the locals called “Hooker Central.”

Liz was oblivious. “Be right back, girls,” she chirped.

“Yeah, Liz, just put it in a to-go cup.” She grinned mischievously at Jo.

“Max, the woman’s house was just used as a graffiti board. Be nice, will you?”

Max shrugged. “Can’t help it.”

Liz reappeared a few minutes later, walking gingerly with a very large, white styrofoam cup. It was overfilled with whiskey, some of which spilled onto the walkway before she could hand it to Max.

“Thanks, Liz.” She raised the cup to Jo, and went to sit on the front steps. She downed about a quarter of her drink and then, looking at Jo cross-eyed, made a face and pretended to stick her finger down her throat.