The Girl in White Pajamas (16 page)

Bogie finally got a parking space on Lincoln Street. The neighborhood looked sadder and more run-down every time he saw it. When he walked in the front door of R&B Investigations he watched the enormous, spectacled blonde man sitting on two of the three black cubes used as a receptionist’s desk. Tiny Tommie stared at a monitor while his fingers glided over the computer keyboard. With buds in his ears, he seemed entranced, but he suddenly got up, grabbed Bogie and squeezed him with his ham-sized arms until Bogie felt light-headed. Tommie Jurgenson ripped the buds out and said, “It’s good to see you!”

“Back at ya!” Bogie said as he pushed away. “What are you working on?”

“Divorce case. Wife claims he’s hiding funds. We’re supposed to find them.”

As Bogie glanced at the screen, he said, “Don’t you think you should be doing this in the back instead of out here?”

Tommie smiled. “It’s not like we get walk-ins. Rose said you were coming so I was working and looking out for you.”

“Thanks.” Bogie said although he was concerned with Tommie’s lack of discretion when it came to hacking. It wasn’t that hacking was a bad thing. It was just that the kid was too blatant about it. Following Rose’s advice, Bogie shut up.

At five o’clock, Bogie pulled up in front of the Fields Corner MBTA Station. Kim was waiting there. He beeped, and she ran to the Escalade and opened the door. When she saw him, she hesitated deciding if she wanted to get in. “Get in! There’s traffic behind me.”

She considered a few seconds then pulled herself up into the vehicle. “I thought Rose—” she started to say with her glassy eyes and sing song inflection.

“She’s busy. Don’t worry. I don’t bite!”

Doubting that, Kim asked, “What happened to your face?”

Bogie touched the butterfly bandage over his left eye. “Kick boxing.”

“Aren’t you too old to be boxing?”

“No!” Insulted that this little drug-addict would think such a thing. He said nothing until they entered the parking garage on Washington Street. “Are you coming in or waiting here?”

“I’ll wait.”

When Bogie opened the front door of the firm, Jesus Hernandez was sitting on the couch grinning. “So Angel showed you how to really kick box!”

“He got in a lucky shot,” Bogie muttered with no conviction.

Bailey came out of her office and stared at him. “I didn’t believe Jesus when he told me, I thought he was joking. A man your age!”

Bogie was feeling older than Father Time as they left the building and walked into the parking garage. When they got near the Escalade, Bogie saw the small figure standing behind the car. He smelled the marijuana fumes but only said, “Get in or we’re leaving without you.” As Kim moved to the passenger door, Bogie softly said, “We’re going to talk.”

Isabella was in tears when they entered the house in Weston. She pointed to Bogie and wailed, “You…you left without me!”

Bogie picked her up and patted her back. “But I came back didn’t I, Pumpkin?”

She nodded and sniffled, wiping her nose on his sleeve. Bogie hugged her and looked at Rose. “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked.

“Jack and George came over. She’d be okay for a while and then start up again.”

Bailey walked to the child and smoothed her arm. “Hi, Baby! I’m home.” Without moving away from Bogie, Isabella extended her little arm to her mother for kissing.

During dinner, Isabella sat on her father’s lap and picked food off his plate. After they ate, everyone scattered. Kim went to her room since Bogie glared at her every time she came near the child. Rose left for the night, and Bailey went into the dining room and worked on her computer. Bogie loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen while Isabella swept the floor with a large broom and watched his every move.

When Isabella finished her bubble bath, Bogie brought her downstairs to say good-night to her mother. Bailey held the little girl on her lap, smiled and held her foot. She held her toes one-by-one as she recited:

This little piggy went to market,

This little piggy stayed at home,

This little piggy had roast beef,

This little piggy had none.

And this little piggy went

‘
Wee wee wee’ all the way home.

Bailey tickled the bottom of Isabella’s foot and they laughed until Isabella held up her other foot. “Do this one, Mommy!”

Bogie smiled as he watched them. “Come on, Pumpkin, I’ll read you a story.”

Ten minutes into the story, Isabella was sound asleep. As Bogie was getting up from his spot on the floor, Kim stood in the doorway. Bogie walked outside the room with her and asked, “What?”

She shook her head and turned to walk away when he softly said, “What you do on your own time is your business. I don’t want to find you smoking or snorting in this house. There’s a small child here in case you didn’t notice.”

Her yellowed eyes blazed as she glared at him.

Bogie stared at her, lifted his hand and folded his fingers inviting her to speak up.

“She was in danger. I was here. Where were you for three year?” Without waiting for a response, Kim turned and walked to her room.

Knowing Bailey was busy on her computer downstairs, Bogie sat on Bailey’s bed and called Amanda.

She greeted him with, “I hate Aunt Annie! She’s a nasty drunk! She insulted Zoe!”

“Anything good happen today?” Bogie said dryly.

“No! Randy has to work to make up the shifts other guys covered for him. He’s not even entitled to days off for a death since it wasn’t his family. Carlos and Margarita are fighting. I sent Carlos to two apartments, one had red ants, and the other had a broken window. Margarita yelled at the pool man telling him he was doing a crappy job. Dolores came over and now she and Aunt Annie are like BFF’s. Oh, and you know, I think Grandma’s actually settling down. She likes Margarita, and, when Margarita yells at somebody, Grandma gets all happy and smiles.”

“Just another day in the McGruder crazy house!” Bogie said. “How’s school?”

“Sucks!”

“That’s my girl, tell it like it is. Just a few more weeks, and it will be just another unpleasant memory.”

“You’re definitely coming back for my birthday and graduation, right?”

“Wouldn’t miss either one, Princess.”

“Is somebody really trying to kill Bailey or is she just trying to snare you in her evil web again?”

“Wow! You’re vicious! Yes, somebody
is
really trying to kill her. We have her under twenty-four/seven protection now.”

“So you’re supposed to stay there forever to ward off evil spirits?”

“No. We’re just taking it a day at a time.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you, too. I love you.”

“I love you more.” And she hung up.

Bogie sat down at the dining room table and started working on reports. He watched Bailey and knew what she was doing. He wanted to scream at her and tell her that applying for refinancing after the economy imploded was a waste of time. How could he let her know that every time she applied for another mortgage, her credit rating showed it. Rejection after rejection was only making any probability of refinancing impossible.

If he even mentioned the subject, she’d think he was snooping in her computer and all hell would break loose. Her privacy, as she saw it, would have been irrevocably compromised and he would prove himself once again to be a busy-body.

He only sighed as he sat in the drafty room in the old house that was worth about a third of the value of the mortgage on it.

“Have you heard anything from your car insurance company?” he asked.

Bailey sat rigid, staring at the screen without speaking. When Bogie was about to return to his work, she said, “They denied all the claims.”

“Why?”

“I guess my insurance wasn’t in effect. There was some sort of mix-up, and it was cancelled.”

“What kind of mix-up?”

She shrugged. Her fingers moved over the keyboard, and she ignored him.

Bogie stared at her back realizing that she was on the hook for thousands of dollars to replace her car and all the others she damaged. Four years earlier, he would have gotten steamed, sat in the kitchen chain-smoking and killing a six pack of Buds. Now that his options were more limited, he walked in the kitchen and had a bottle of spring water then did some isometric exercises until he heard Angel unlocking the cellar door.

Opening the door into the kitchen, Angel grinned. “Qué paaaaasa?”

“Same shit!” Bogie answered sourly.

“Hey, man, you sore about the…” Angel pointed to an area over his eye where Bogie still had a bandage.

Bogie studied Angel and the corner of his mouth twitched. Angel had two black eyes and a cut lip. “I’m coming back tomorrow and finishing the job,” Bogie said flatly.

“Dream on, old man!” He then glanced from Bogie to the dining room where Bailey was sitting at her desk working on the computer with her back to them. Angel pointed his thumb toward her and raised an eyebrow.

Bogie nodded then motioned for Angel to follow him down the cellar steps.

“Anybody at the nursery school see this person watching Isabella?” Bogie asked.

“Not according to the teacher. Izzy was scared and told her some big monster person was watching her and tried to reach over the fence and touch her. None of the other kids noticed anything because she was in that section alone.”

“Why was she alone?”

Angel laughed. “She’d go outside and run. She’d run from the door to the end of the property and back. She’d do that over and over again.”

Bogie studied him without expression and then said, “Rose told you to say that, didn’t she?”

Confused, Angel asked, “What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t even get a chance to talk to Rose about this.”

Bogie shook his head. “I used to do the same thing when I was a kid.”

“Why?”

Bogie shrugged. “Too much energy, bored with things around me.” He almost smiled as he remembered his mother throwing shoes at him and the nuns chasing him with a strap or heavy ruler.

“Well, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. She’s the same way. Maribeth, the teacher, said she’s self-contained and doesn’t ‘play well with others’.”

“What, she fights with other kids?”

“Oh, no. She ignores them. She isn’t into kiddie games and things.”

“She’s three years old,” Bogie said. “What the hell’s she into, working on a cure for cancer?”

“Maribeth said she’s super smart and the other kids bore her.”

“That’s Weston speak for ‘the kid doesn’t play well with others’.”

“See. I told you!” Angel said raising his eyebrows and turning both palms up.

“And Maribeth just confided all this information to you knowing she could get fired for discussing one of the kids?”

“Well, I sort of took her out.”

Bogie laughed. “You really don’t have to fuck all the women you interview. It’s not in your job description. You almost got fired over that other woman.”

“She seduced me,” Angel said simply.

“She’s a witness! Her testimony might be a tad tainted if anybody finds out the two of you…”

Angel just grinned. “Hey, man, I’m just a love machine!”

At eight o’clock in the morning, Isabella looked out the front window while Angel removed the black covering from it. She pointed to the US Mail truck that stopped in front of the house. The driver got out and carried two fairly large boxes that appeared to be heavy. He rang the doorbell and Angel unsnapped his shoulder holster under the arm. He motioned for Isabella to move away from the window. She stepped back and watched Bogie coming down the stairs. “What’s going on here?” Bogie asked.

“Looks like a couple packages are being delivered,” Angel said.

Bogie yelled up the stairs. “Bailey did you order something?”

“No,” she answered.

Bogie shouted to the closed bathroom door. “Kim, did you?”

“No!”

Bogie gestured for Angel to stand to the side with Isabella. “I’ll answer the door. If anything goes wrong, shoot!” Bogie accepted the packages from the mailman and looked at the return address.

“Who are they for, Da-dee?” Isabella asked excitedly.

“I’m not sure yet,” he answered seeming distracted. As he looked at the return address, he said, “Leave them right here! Don’t touch them!” Bogie grabbed his cell phone and made a call. “James, this is Bogie. Did anyone in that house send two packages to Isabella?”

Bogie listened then asked, “And she had you carry those frigg’n boxes down to the post office?” After a few seconds, he said, “It doesn’t matter! She had a hell of a nerve! I don’t think she was being cute or funny! I appreciate this, James. You take care!” Bogie sighed as he ended the call. He reached in his pocket and took out his key-ring. He chose a small, plastic bottle with a label reading
Iron City Beer
from among the keys
.
He removed a small, sharp tool from the inside of the bottle and made one quick slice across the top of each box where it closed. Opening the lid, he looked at the contents then motioned for Isabella to come over to the boxes.

“Mandie sent these to you! These were books your mother gave Mandie when she used to be her babysitter.”

Isabella’s face lit up and she held her hands to her heart. “All these books! For me?”

Bogie carried the books upstairs to Isabella’s room as she followed him. “Look, Da-dee, ‘Stuart Little’. That’s one of my favorites!” The child’s excitement was palpable as she carefully placed the books on her shelves. Standing in the doorway, Bailey watched as Bogie sadly opened one of the books inscribed
To my little sister, Mandie
. While Isabella excitedly placed her books on the shelf, Bogie looked at Bailey and saw the hurt in her eyes. When she opened her mouth to say something, he looked at her and shook his head.

“This is so wonderful!” Isabella exclaimed. “All these stories for me! Isn’t Mandie wonderful?”

As Bogie nodded, an envelope fell out of one of the books. It was a letter addressed to him from Bailey. “That’s the one I sent you last year,” Bailey said softly.

Bogie gingerly picked it up and put it in his pocket. “I’ll read it later. You’ve got to get to work.”

Bailey returned to her room to finish dressing as Isabella continued to stack her shelves. Christmas in April!