Protector (34 page)
Authors: Laurel Dewey
Tags: #Police Procedural, #Denver (Colo.), #Mystery & Detective, #Psychic ability, #Women detectives, #Crime, #Suspense, #Women Sleuths, #Children of murder victims, #Fiction, #Occult & Supernatural, #Espionage
“You’ve got the ‘hide out’ part right. But I’m keeping the FBI out of this.” Weyler looked Jane in the eye. “There’s only one person who I trust and who that child trusts.”
Jane was dumbstruck. “What about my job? I still have a job. Right?”
“Right now, this is your job.”
Jane tried to let the information soak in. “Okay, so, let me get this straight. You’re gonna . . . what? Find some house in some town and I’m gonna take her there and we’re gonna lay low? Is that what I’m hearing?”
“I’ll need to work out more specifics with the DA, but that’s it in a nutshell.”
“For how long?”
“Not sure. I want you to keep this strictly confidential. Just you and me and the DA will know where you’re staying. Don’t tell your brother or your father or Chris.”
“I can deal with Mike and my dad, but what in the hell am I supposed to tell Chris? He’s going to go ballistic if he thinks I’m showboating his case.”
“I will tell him the same thing that I tell everyone else who’s involved in the case. As of this moment, you and the kid are underground. For the child’s protection, they’ll have to understand—Chris included.”
“How in the hell are you gonna make this happen, boss?”
“I’ll pull some strings and we’ll make it a special request direct from the DA’s office. It might take a couple days to clear it through the channels upstairs, but it will get done. My advice to you right now is to go home. Emily has twenty-four hour, armed protection. Get some rest. See your brother. See your dad, too. You may be gone for awhile.”
For a change, Jane took Weyler’s advice. She went home and slept for twelve hours. It was past 1:30 p.m. when Jane woke up on Sunday. She’d left several messages on Mike’s answering machine, each one becoming more and more insistent that he return her calls. He’d been spending most Saturday nights at her place and Sunday was typically relegated to nursing their dual hangovers and watching whatever sport dominated the TV. Jane had to assume that Mike had tied one on and was passed out somewhere in the vicinity of the toilet.
Jane’s sense of duty reared its predicable head. By five o’ clock, she was headed over to Mike’s brick bungalow located five miles across town. There was no sign of her brother’s pickup truck on the street. She figured it was parked at whatever bar he visited the night before and she would spend the remaining part of her Sunday tracking it down. Jane was just about to leave when Mike drove up, wedging his truck in a space behind her Mustang. She got out of her car just as Mike and a pretty, blond, long-haired woman got out of his truck.
“Hey, Janie!” Mike said with a happy sound to his voice.
“Hi,” Jane responded, restrained and distrustful.
“Janie, this is Lisa.” Mike turned to Lisa. “I’ve been telling Lisa all about you and how you solve murders and everything.”
“Is that right?” Jane said, eyeing Lisa up and down.
Lisa moved closer to Jane. She was an attractive girl, neatly dressed in a modest white cotton top and pink skirt that skimmed her knees. Her straight blond hair was pulled back on the side with two barrettes. Jane noticed her shoes—a pair of espadrilles that matched her pink skirt. Lisa had a clear sparkle in her blue eyes and a sweet smile. Okay, Jane thought. What’s the catch? Mike’s choice in women had always proved tenuous at best. Usually, Jane could spot the weak link within less than a minute of meeting them. But this one was tricky. Jane wondered if her recent emotional upheaval was overriding her “bullshit radar” with Lisa.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Jane,” Lisa said, extending her hand. Jane hesitated before shaking Lisa’s hand with the enthusiasm one would bestow on one’s executioner. “Mike speaks highly of you.”
“Uh-huh,” was all Jane could manage.
“You know,” Lisa continued, “it’s ironic about you being a detective. My older brother, Jeff, is a private investigator. It’s nothing too exciting, just fraud cases and husbands cheating on wives—”
“Her brother used to be a bounty hunter!” Mike interjected. “Isn’t that cool?”
“He blew out his knee taking down too many outlaws so he had to settle for a more sedate form of law enforcement. I bet you and he would have lots to talk about!”
Jane observed Lisa, reacting with a stone face. While she couldn’t find anything wrong with the girl, Jane was damned if she was going to act civil. Jane turned to Mike, “I’ve been trying to get you on the phone for over four hours. I was starting to worry.”
“There’s nothin’ to worry about, Janie,” Mike said offhandedly.
“Well, I figured Sunday morning after Saturday night. You know the rest.”
Mike looked over at Lisa, a little embarrassed by Jane’s comment. “Oh, no . . .”
“What?” Jane said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. She was starting to feeling like the odd man out and not enjoying it.
“We were at the art show,” Mike quickly stated. “They got that Memorial Day Weekend thing in the park. Lisa makes this really cool jewelry out of copper and brass. You’ve got to see it sometime, Janie. It’s just beautiful.”
Lisa put her arm around Mike lovingly. “Mike’s my biggest fan.”
“Yeah,” Jane said, treating Lisa more like a suspect. “I see that.”
“Hey, I’m not the only fan!” Mike said, nudging Lisa. “Lisa’s got these friends from her group who have a booth at the art show in the park. They’re showcasing some of her stuff this weekend and she’s already sold two necklaces and three bracelets. I’m tellin’ you, Janie, she’s gonna be famous one day. You gotta get yourself one of her pieces while you can still afford it.”
“Mike!” Lisa seemed genuinely chagrined.
Jane felt herself boiling inside as she watched the back and forth, flirtatious body language between Lisa and Mike. “Mike!” Jane said quickly. “I need to talk to you—”
“I’ll go in the house and you guys can have some privacy,” Lisa replied, turning to Jane. “If I don’t get a chance to say good-bye, it was a pleasure meeting you,” she said with a sincere smile before heading to Mike’s front door.
Mike watched her walk away, a sappy smile pasted across his face. He was totally in his own world as he turned back to Jane. “Isn’t she great, Janie?”
“Let’s go for a walk,” Jane said.
Mike sidled up alongside Jane. “What’s up?” he asked.
“I gotta go away for a while. It has to do with work.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know yet. And even when I do, I can’t tell you.”
“Wow. Sounds important.” Mike’s attitude clearly demonstrated that he wasn’t that impressed by the news.
“Mike? Did you hear me? I’m going away and I might be gone for a while.”
“Yeah, okay, Janie. I’ll go to your house and pick up your newspapers and water your lawn. Hey, you know what? Lisa has got a green thumb. How about if I bring her over to your house and we plant some pretty flowers around that pathway. I think it would really brighten it up—”
“What in the fuck has gotten into you!” Jane said, stopping in her tracks. “Jesus Christ! You’re like some love struck puppy!”
“Okay, we won’t plant any flowers! We’ll just come over and water and—”
“You keep her the fuck away from my place!”
“Why?”
“Because, I don’t know anything about her!”
“She’s a good woman!”
“How the hell do you know, Mike? You’ve known her how long? She’s like all your other girlfriends—”
“No, she’s not!” Mike said defiantly. “I told you the other day, she’s different!”
“Fuck that!”
“She is! Why can’t you accept that?”
“Because that has never been the way it is!”
“Janie,” Mike struggled a bit before he spoke. “Don’t do this, okay?”
“Don’t do what?”
“I don’t need you to get in my face so much.”
“If I didn’t get in your face, God only knows what would happen to you.”
“What’s gonna happen to me?”
“Anything and everything! You have no idea, Mike!”
“Janie, you gotta pull back.”
“I can’t pull back!”
“What are you talking about?”
Jane looked upward, as if the right words were painted on the sky. “Things happen, Mike. Awful, sick things happen. It is my job to make sure you don’t get hurt. It has always been my job. You’ll never know how seriously I take that job.”
Mike thought for a second and then spoke. “What if you just quit the job.”
Jane let out an exaggerated groan. “Mike, when are you gonna grow up?”
“When are you gonna let me?”
“Excuse me?” she replied, sounding more like a parent than a sister.
Mike was reticent but forced himself to press on. “I have opinions about things that you might not agree with.”
“Name one!”
“Well . . . I think . . . No. I know I have a drinking problem.”
“A drinking problem? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I think you do, too.”
Mike’s words hit Jane hard. “Really?” There was a sarcastic turn to her voice.
“You’ve got to admit that you . . . we have downed a lot of alcohol.”
“We’re white, single and over 21!”
“I think we’re alcoholics.”
Jane surveyed her brother carefully. “This is not you talking, Mike. This is someone else. Somebody has gotten to you. What? Have you found God?”
“There’s nothing wrong with God, Janie.”
“I knew it!”
“Janie,” Mike said curtly, “there comes a time when you gotta say that you are no longer in control and that you trust in a higher power. That’s the first step.”
Jane could hardly believe what she was hearing. “Oh, shit. You went to a goddamn AA meeting.”
“Yes. And it made sense—”
“Who in the hell dragged you to a fucking AA meeting?” Mike stared at Jane for a long second and then looked toward his house. “That bitch!”
“Don’t call her that!”
“So that’s the ‘group’ you mentioned. Has she got a bunch of useless AA members selling her jewelry at the art show? Oh, this is rich! Mike, she doesn’t know you! She will never know you! But I do know you and I’ll always be there.”
“Lisa used to be an alcoholic and a drug addict. I told her about dad and how he drank and beat on us growing up—”
“What are you doing telling that bitch stories about our private life?”
“Stop calling her a bitch!”
“Those are personal stories, Mike! You had no right to tell a perfect stranger about what happened to us!”
“She’s not a stranger!” Mike yelled. “You and me, we both have stories to tell! We lived in hell, Janie! Every second of every day was spent in fear of getting the shit kicked out of us. And when you moved out, you made sure you always had a bottle at the ready so you could drown yourself and not feel anything!”
“Stop it!”
“No!” Mike grabbed on to Jane’s arm. “You gotta hear this! Part of you died growing up. Part of both of us died! But we just kept digging holes inside of ourselves and burying it. But there comes a time when you can’t stuff it inside any longer and pretend that it didn’t count—that it didn’t change you forever. That what happened didn’t kill you.” Mike’s tears began to flow as he let go of Jane’s arm. “As much as it hurts, I can’t keep drowning in a bottle. I don’t want to lie to myself anymore. I don’t want to wake up and hate myself every fucking day. I’m thirty years old, Janie. I think it’s time I stopped denying everything! I gotta take charge of my life. I need to find something wonderful in my life. And that’s what I’m doing.”
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