Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) (5 page)

“What?” Joe asked DiNolfo in response to her outburst of laughter.

DiNolfo looked at Joe and then at her officers.

“Oh, just tell them. I can’t take it anymore,” DiNolfo pleaded. Liam’s face lit up with a smile.

“Okay, so… The robbers at Harrow’s turned out to be a pair of raccoons. The funniest part was watching Edna and Peggy run away down Mountain Road in their housecoats and hair rollers!” divulged Liam with a huge grin on his face.

Adam added, “They didn’t even have their dentures in!”

Everybody laughed except for Jack who simply put his head in his hands and shook his head in disbelief.

“Thanks son, for the mental image that I could have lived without,” said Jack, his voice wrought with sarcasm.

Moira, who has known Edna and Peggy since high school, laughed and said, “I’m not so sure they own dentures. They never wear them.”

“Hey Jenna… Whose idea was it to make these two jokers partners? Isn’t that against the rule book?”

“It was my idea. They work well together. As far as rules go, if I approve of the partnership, the Captain’s fine with it. So far, so good.”

From behind Jack, the screen door swung open. Tristan had her hands full with a large tray of freshly prepared food. Frank followed behind her with another huge platter. The pair placed the food on the long picnic table that was waiting for them in the meadow. The smell of food lured the family to the table. Tristan and Frank had prepared fried chicken, roasted potatoes, corn bread, Jersey corn, baked macaroni, cole slaw, baby back ribs, baked beans, and a tall pitcher of freshly made lemonade. The table looked like it was about to crack under the weight of all the food.

Joe and Jenna approached the table first, gawking at the delicious spread. The Morrow’s always had a hearty spread of food whenever they came over. It just so happened that the food was usually cooked in Joe’s own kitchen at his family’s restaurant – Monte’s Café. Not this time, though. Someone in the Morrow house had clearly taken some cooking lessons. Joe gave Frank a curious look.

“Is this the work of Bridgette?” asked Joe.

Frank rolled his eyes and shook his head from side to side.

“God no.  Bridgette can’t boil water.”

Jack nodded in agreement. Though she had many talents, Bridgette was downright frightful in the kitchen. The conversation ended as Bridgette came out of the house, slamming the screen door behind her. She was carrying her giant bowl of watermelon and Adam noticed that she had traded in her scowl for a pleasant smile. She never stayed mad long.

“Hey Jack… Where’s Tommy?” asked Joe.

Jack could do nothing but roll his eyes. A rumbling noise sounded over the horizon; a loud growl of a motorcycle. Coming up the long dirt road to Morrow Manor, Tommy rode on the back of his brand new Harley. Casually, he jumped down from his bike and stared at the crowd with a grin on his face.

“What did I miss?” Tommy asked slyly as he took off his helmet.

Tommy laughed as a series of complaints regarding his motorcycle and his lateness began to flow from his well-meaning family members.

“Who the hell bought you a hog?!” asked Jenna in shock. She casted a wary glance at Jack.

“Don’t look at me!” said Jack. “I told him that thing is a one-way ticket to the emergency room, but as usual, he doesn’t listen to me.”

“He bought it himself. With money he had been saving up from odd jobs. He’s an adult. But I’ll tell you this, if he acts out, I’m locking the damn thing in the barn,” explained Bridgette.

As a nurse who worked in the emergency room of Grier Mountain, Bridgette knew all too well the dangers that motorcycles presented. She had lectured Tommy at great length after she found out that he had purchased one. But as usual, Tommy only listens to one person and one person only in the Morrow household: Tristan.

“He’s careful, guys. Lay off of him,” Tristan urged. She always had Tommy’s back.

Jack grumbled at Tristan, “Oh yeah, sure. Tommy is the poster child for motorcycle safety. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“He wears a helmet, doesn’t he?”

Jack had to admit, Tristan had a point.

“So what was this big announcement?” Angus demanded to know as he sat down at the picnic table with a crabby look on his face. He had just woken up from his afternoon nap, and he was not happy. No one seemed to notice though, because his query was drowned out by a cacophony of chattering as his family talked happily to each other. They were all excited for proms and graduations, college announcements and vacations. Angus, on the other hand, would be perfectly happy when this mandatory social event was over so that he could go back to his bedroom and watch TV. Angus continued to stare at his excitable family under a furrowed brow. The wrinkles on his forehead were becoming more pronounced by the second. At the opposite end of the table, Jack was talking in hushed tones to Joe who kept making sneaky glances back at his girlfriend Jenna. Something Joe said had Jack laughing and patting his good friend on the back. To Jack’s right, Frank was rubbing his bald head in an attempt to ease the headache that was forming from listening to his wife’s high pitched laughter. Bridgette and Jenna were in deep conversation with Tristan and Natalie over their choice of prom dresses.

Tristan explained, “It only took seven hours to choose one, because Dad and Uncle Frank insisted upon coming with us. They couldn’t agree what the right one was for me. Little did they know, Aunt Bridgette and I had already selected the perfect one last week and it was in the upstairs closet.”

Tristan couldn’t help but laugh at her uncle’s face.

Frank, who was still rubbing his head, said, “You two think you’re
so
clever! Seven hours at the bloody mall with Jack is
not
my idea of a good time!”

Bridgette and Tristan laughed at Frank.

“If you think that’s bad you should try going shopping with Gus!” Bridgette blurted out to Tristan as she gave her father a look. Angus glared at Bridgette with an irate expression.

Next to Tristan, Cole was talking to Shane across the table loudly as they tormented Blake. They were dying to know who he planned to take to prom next week. Blake claimed to have a date, but he was keeping the identity of the special girl a secret. Meanwhile, Moira, who had claimed the empty seat next to Angus, was in the process of trying to break her husband out of his horrible mood. It wasn’t that Angus was an unhappy man – He was quite happy. It just didn’t show outwardly. He was easily annoyed, and when you add in his aging, wrinkled face, you have the appearance of an eternal sour puss. Angus loved his family, but he loved the quiet of his bedroom just as much. 

“Can’t you just smile?” begged Moira as she looked at her perpetually disgruntled husband.

Angus scowled at his wife with his bushy eyebrows furrowed over his piercing green eyes.

“I am smiling.”

Moira rolled her eyes.

“Clearly.”

Moira next focused her attention on her grandson Tommy. She proceeded to lecture him on motorcycle safety, and even began to tell him about motorcycle accident rates.

Tommy groaned in protest, “I wear a helmet. It’s perfectly safe and besides it helps me with my job!”

Jack gave Tommy an incredulous look.

“If Mr. O’Mara calls me one more time about that goddamn motorcycle, you’re going to be riding a 10-speed around town!” shouted Jack across the table to Tommy.

Tommy couldn’t help but laugh. Roger O’Mara was the father of Courtney O’Mara – Tommy’s on again/off again girlfriend. It was well known throughout the Morrow house that Roger O’Mara hated Tommy’s guts, and his motorcycle only added to his venomous fury. The worst thing that Roger O’Mara could have done was show Tommy how much his motorcycle annoyed him. Now Tommy revs his engine at 6 A.M. every morning down Caribou Road when he delivers the morning paper. The sound alone caused Mr. O’Mara’s blood pressure to shoot sky high.

“That’s my morning wakeup call! More effective than the noisiest of alarm clocks!” joked Joe as he laughed.

Frank and Jack couldn’t help but laugh at Joe, who had lived next to Roger O’Mara for most of his life.

“See, Dad… Not everyone on Caribou Road is so uptight!”

Frank stood up still laughing at Joe and Tommy as he called for everyone’s attention. Frank didn’t need to whistle or yell. When a man that goes by the name “Bulldog” stands up, you listen.

“Alright, folks. Listen up,” began Frank, earning everyone’s attention including the persistently disgruntled Angus. Frank continued, his voice booming over the crowd like a megaphone, “I wanted to get everyone together. As you know, I don’t really like big parties, but we definitely have some celebratin’ to do this month.”

The adults nodded in agreement while the kids sat with excited grins on their faces. Everyone was interested to hear what Frank had to say.

“I like to keep things casual. So we’re celebrating the kids graduating from high school in a week, we’ve got prom next week, and some college announcements to get through. Today this is our celebration. Nothin’ fancy… Just good family, good friends and good times. Am I right?”

Everyone at the table cheered in agreement except for Angus who gave a half-hearted clap.

Liam blurted out, “And good food!” earning him a heated glare from his Aunt Bridgette.

Frank continued, “Okay, everyone. Dig in. Tristan and I have been working all afternoon on this beggar’s feast for you all… And while you stuff your gobs, I’m going to read off some announcements!” Frank said excitedly.

Everyone at the table shifted uneasily. This was the moment they were all waiting for. The kids had decided that it would be fun to keep their college decisions a secret until just before graduation. Only one person in the Morrow house knew where all the kids at the table were attending school next year: Frank Kilpatrick. If there was anyone in the Morrow house that you could trust with a secret, it was him. Only two people didn’t find this idea amusing. Cole was quite frankly on edge because he didn’t know if he’d see his girlfriend next year, depending upon her college choice. Jack, meanwhile, was uneasy because he wasn’t ready to let Tristan out of his sight just yet. Although three years had passed since Tristan’s English teacher had kidnapped her and tried to claim her as his own, Jack was still on edge. Every time Tristan left his line of sight, Jack could feel anxiety rising in his chest. Frank, on the other hand, had known the results of the college acceptances since early March and kept assuring Jack and Cole that everything would be just fine.

Frank grabbed a folded-up piece of paper from his shirt pocket and cleared his voice. He squinted at the tiny print on the page and grabbed his reading glasses off of the picnic table. He had brought them for the occasion. Everyone laughed at him because Frank actually looked quite studious with his Ben Franklin-esque frames.

“Okay. First up… Cole Piedmonte. Stand up, kid…”

Cole did as he was asked, but not without an embarrassed expression forming across his handsome face.

“Cole Piedmonte is graduating from Steeplechase Academy with a GPA of 3.4...”

Everyone at the table clapped for Cole with the most boisterous applause coming from Joe and Tristan.

“Yes, very nice indeed,” said Frank. He continued, “He was accepted to Skole County Community College, Widener University, Albright College, Temple University and Bloomsburg University, and Lock Haven University. He plans to major in Business and help make us all filthy rich,” Frank declared earning big chuckles from Jack and Joe.

They were both very proud of Cole’s plan.

“So kid,” Frank continued, “Which one did you choose?”

Cole looked over the crowd and his eyes lingered on Tristan who looked only a tiny bit nervous.