Annie's Neighborhood (Harlequin Heartwarming) (12 page)

“Chief is okay,” Sky said, lifting his eyes from the paper napkin he’d been frantically scribbling on.

Annie had put strips of bacon in a hot frying pan, and the smell permeated the kitchen. The boy kept darting glances at her, and every so often licked his lips. “Do you want milk or juice?” Annie asked the two at the table as she delivered glasses.

“I love milk,” Deshawn said. “But it’s expensive so I’ll drink water.”

Annie sucked in a deep breath and made sure she conveyed to Sky her horrified reaction to the boy’s comment. “You’ll drink milk,” she said firmly, and pulled a gallon jug from the fridge and set it on the table with a thump. “Have as much as you want.” She brought the first four pancakes to the table and offered them to Sky, along with slices of crispy bacon.

He let her fill his plate, but as she did, he connected with Deshawn’s eyes, which could only be described as
hungry.
Without a word, Sky exchanged his full plate for the boy’s empty one.

Moved by that, Annie rested a hand on Sky’s shoulder as she set down a bowl of spicy apple slices that she’d taken from the fridge and reheated in the microwave. “More pancakes coming right up,” she announced with a warm smile.

He stared at her mouth until he shifted in his chair and lowered his eyelids.

Both adults took note of how fast their morning guest had tucked into his food, which was disappearing rapidly. But the fact that he said “thank you” wasn’t lost on Sky or Annie, who beamed at the boy before poking Sky’s upper arm as if to say, “See?” With the griddle hot, the next batch of pancakes didn’t take long to cook. Annie filled a plate for Sky and one for herself. Realizing Deshawn had almost finished his stack, she discreetly plopped two pancakes from her plate onto his. Then she sat. “I know you wanted to ask all the questions, Sky, but you’re busy eating, and I’m curious about how Deshawn and Chantal have stayed clear of gang activity up to now. I mean, I gather this gang’s been operating in Briar Run for a while.”

“Two years,” Sky said, pausing to pour Deshawn more milk. “You would’ve been ten,” he noted.

Deshawn wiped his lips on his napkin. “Mama’s real strict. She’s got big hopes for Chantal and me. We do chores before and after school, plus homework. If Mama’s not home by supper, Chantal fixes us food, and I do the dishes.” He pulled the wry face one would expect from a boy who’d rather do just about anything rather than dishes.

“Do you walk to and from school together?” Sky asked.

The boy shook his head. “We carpool. There’s four moms who used to work on the line making gloves. They all got laid off when the plant closed. All of ’em have kids. Miz Hall’s heart has problems so she can’t work anymore. Mama, Miz Poole and Miz Morino pay Miz Hall to drive us to and from school.” He shuffled his feet under the table. “She gets some money from the state, but Mama says she’s proud and we can’t talk about that. I could eat a couple more pancakes if you’ve got ’em,” he said, and turned to look hopefully at the stove.

“I have more batter.” Annie hopped up. “Sky, shall I put a couple more on for you?”

“No, thanks, I’ve had plenty.” He eyed the boy. “I’ve never seen anyone put away as many pancakes as you. Don’t eat so many it’ll make you sick.”

The boy blinked a few times. “It’ll be a while before I get to eat again. Chief Cordova, you’ve got to take me to jail.”

“Why? So your mom doesn’t kill you?” Sky asked with a grin as he folded the napkin with his scribbles and stowed it in his shirt pocket.

“I know what I said, but Mama loves me.” He fiddled with his plate as Annie slid three more steaming pancakes into the center of it. “Mama will yell at me for sure, but I think the gang guys who gave me the gas and matches, they’re gonna kill me. Or beat me so bad I’ll wish I was dead. If I went to jail for a couple days, and word got out that a cop had the house staked out, that’ll prove to the gang I tried.”

Annie leaned against the kitchen cabinets. “So you mean if the gang thinks you were arrested, your stock would go up and they won’t beat you up?”

“Stock? Huh?” Deshawn said, pausing with a forkful of pancake halfway to his mouth.

“Annie, you’re doing it again,” Sky warned. “He’s my perp. And you can’t deny the fact that he came here intending to do harm.”

“On behalf of people a whole lot older—who have a grip on this town. I’m getting the picture here. The poor kids who live in Briar Run are pawns in the gang’s chess game. Deshawn,” she said, ignoring Sky, “do all the good kids have to stay in their homes whenever they aren’t in school? What about sports? What about playing kick ball or softball in the street?”

“Can’t,” the boy said. “It ain’t, uh, isn’t safe. There are drug pushers all over the place....”

Annie began to pace.

“
Now
what’s going on in your head?” Sky groaned. “You’ve got that same look you had when you were talking about your residents’ meeting.”

“Making homes in this area nicer won’t go far in helping single moms like the ones Deshawn mentioned. I’m beginning to see that the core problem in Briar Run―and this pertains to two-parent families, as well―is that beauty’s only skin-deep.”

“Huh?” Sky stacked the dirty plates, but it was plain Annie had lost him.

“One universal truth I discovered while working in the poorest and roughest neighborhoods in L.A. is that kids are a parent’s number-one priority. All moms and dads want the lives of their kids to be better than their own. Better than what circumstances thrust on them. I found it true regardless of background or ethnic origin.”

“I get that. But fact is fact. The Stingers are targeting kids, and no matter how big our police force is, we can’t possibly safeguard all kids day and night.”

“Safeguarding doesn’t have to just fall to the cops, Sky.”

Deshawn’s head whipped from one speaker to the other. His face remained impassive.

Getting up, Sky carried the dishes to the sink. “I’m sure you’re dying to tell me how you’re going to wiggle your nose and make all of that happen. However, it’s almost 6:00 a.m. I need to grab my duffel bag and collect the gas can and matches for the evidence file. Then I’ll hand Deshawn off to Joe Morales. It’s my day off, remember. I’m going to the zoo.”

“Six? Cripes,” Deshawn exclaimed. “Mama gets up at six. She finds I’m not in my bed and man, oh, man, I’m gonna be in so much trouble now.”

“Sky, you take the evidence and do whatever you need to do with it. I’ll give Deshawn a lift home. I’d like to have a word with his mother if she can spare the time.”

“Annie, you’re interfering in a police case.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Is it a police case if I choose not to press charges?”

“You don’t have to. I caught him red-handed.”

“And I need to go get myself booked.” Deshawn sided with Sky.

Annie glared at Sky and he glared back. She broke eye contact first. “We’ll all go to the station. You’ll book Deshawn, or pretend to, so word of his arrest gets out to the gang. If you don’t phone his mom, I’ve got no doubt that when she discovers he’s not in his bed, she’ll call 9-1-1. I’ll be there to talk to Mrs. Culver when she comes for him.”

Deshawn propped his skinny arms on the table and buried his head in his hands. “I am so gonna be cooked no matter what. I should’ve told Roy Dell and Heywood I wouldn’t do what they said and let them beat the stuffing out of me.”

Annie and Sky whirled on the boy, but it was Sky who went down on one knee next to Deshawn’s chair. “Roy Dell who, and Heywood who?” he demanded in his steeliest cop voice. “Are you saying that all this time while you sat here wolfing down pancakes, you had the names of two gang members and kept them to yourself?”

The boy uncovered his face one half inch at a time. “They said if I snitched they’d cut off my ears. See, they didn’t used to be bad.” Giant tears formed in the corners of his eyes and trickled down his cheeks. “That was after Roy Dell said if I didn’t set this house on fire they’d hurt Chantal. Heywood used to like her....” He grabbed his stomach. “I ate too much. I’m gonna puke.”

“No, you’re not,” Sky said. “We’ll work this out. You, me and Ms. Emerson,” Sky said, rearing back to pin Annie with a serious gaze.

“Yes, we will,” she reiterated. “And since you walked over here last night, Chief, I’ll drive us all to the police station in my pickup so we can start the process of helping Deshawn.” She grabbed her purse from the counter.

For a drawn-out minute Sky seemed unsure about her suggestion. Then, rising slowly, he let a sigh trickle through his tightly compressed lips. “So help me Hannah, if you say one word at the station that even sounds like it undermines my authority, I’ll...I’ll...”

“Yes?” Annie asked, her exaggerated smile dripping sugar.

Deshawn sniffled, but took an interest in what had been said. “Who’s Hannah? I thought her name was Annie.”

“It is,” Annie assured the boy. “Chief Cordova gets confused when he’s been up all night on a stakeout.” Tossing another smile at Sky, Annie nudged Deshawn through the archway into her living room and out another door into her garage.

With the boy trudging ahead of them, Sky had a chance to lean close and murmur in Annie’s ear, “Are you a thorn in everybody’s side? Or just mine?”

“Oh, I’m an equal opportunity thorn,” she said, giving him a cheeky grin.

Sky’s shoulders relaxed and his lips curved up in his first honest smile since he’d caught Deshawn.

Chapter Seven

T
HE
THREE
OF
them entered the station in single file, Sky bringing up the rear. Koot Talmage rushed to meet them. “Hey, Sky, I didn’t expect you today. I thought you’d be halfway to horse country by now.”

“The zoo doesn’t open until ten. We have new business.” Sky turned to Annie and Deshawn. “You two sit down out here.” He indicated a few chairs scattered about a narrow entry. “Deshawn, phone your mother. If she can’t come to the station, tell her someone will bring you safely home.” Sky pointed to an old-fashioned wall phone.

A much-subdued boy wearing a hangdog expression walked over to the phone, his shoulders slumped.

Sky beckoned Koot into his office and shut the door.

Through the glass beside the door, Annie watched both men talking and gesturing. Neither sat, but since she couldn’t hear them, she studied the small but serviceable police station. A short hall to her left led to three barred cells, all vacant. In a second office about the size of Sky’s a woman wearing headphones sat behind a large monitor. Annie assumed she was a dispatcher. A large open room held more desks than Sky had officers. Three had computers and were messy with strewn papers and coffee mugs. Four were cleared of everything. Annie figured the empty desks had to be another sign of Briar Run’s decline. Sky had said that money problems had forced cutbacks, and Aaron Loomis, the city manager, said the same thing when she’d asked him about holding her first town meeting.

Deshawn came back and threw himself into the chair next to Annie’s. “Like I said, I am so screwed.”

“Is your mother coming to the station?”

He nodded. “Only, she said her boss at the hotel told her if she was late one more time, she’s fired. She’s more worried about me, I guess. I feel really bad about making her cry.” He picked idly at a broken fingernail.

Annie patted his knee. “Did you tell her Chief Cordova said he’d work everything out?”

“Yeah, but she don’t think our kind can trust cops.”

“What do you mean ‘your kind’?” Annie asked sharply.

“You know.” He shrugged.

She didn’t know what he meant for sure, but she could guess. She’d encountered distrust toward all government authority figures among the minority populations she’d worked with in L.A. In some cases they distrusted with good reason.
But not this one
. “Deshawn, you could be charged with attempted arson. That’s serious. Chief Cordova wants to work out some kind of arrangement to let you off with a warning, but he doesn’t have to. You strike me as a smart kid. I hope you appreciate what we’re doing to help you out of a mess that’s at least partly of your own making. So you need to cooperate where you can. The fact is, you made a bad decision to go along with what those gang members asked you to do.”

“I know.” The boy slid lower in his chair, his expression glum. He lifted his eyes to the man who’d walked up to them in midconversation. “I swear I wouldn’t have lit no match,” he said, looking straight at Sky. “I was too scared.”

“I’ll take your word for that, son. Annie, I need to go. I’m leaving Deshawn in the hands of Lieutenant Talmage. I’ll check in later.” He took two steps toward the door, then turned back. For a minute his gaze seemed to center on Annie’s mouth. “Try not to cause any more trouble while I’m gone,” he muttered.

She raised her chin in a mulish way, but held her tongue.

Shaking his head, Sky left.

Koot beckoned to Annie and Deshawn. They hadn’t quite reached the office when three women and a very pretty teenage girl burst through the main door. Two of the women started to wail, but the tallest, an attractive dark-skinned woman of maybe forty, rushed up to Deshawn and gathered him in her arms. “Deshawn, baby, what have you done?”

He burst into tears and sobbed out his story until Koot put his fingers to his lips, whistled shrilly and said, “Y’all stop this caterwauling.”

Annie almost smiled because they did stop as if their weeping was turned off by a single switch. Koot ended up taking Deshawn and his mother into the office. Annie sat in the waiting area again and struck up a conversation with Burdette Poole and Chantal Culver, Deshawn’s sister.

“Ah, so you’d be Gran Ida’s relative from California,” Nina Morino said after introductions were made. “You’re the one who came to town and stirred up the Stingers.”

Annie’s mouth thinned. “That bunch should’ve been stirred up and sent packing long before they got their hooks into the people of this town.”

Chantal, who’d said nothing to this point, piped up. “They got their hooks into the good kids by acting all friendly-like. They claimed to have backers who promised to build us a teen center. Instead, they skulked around, figured out who was weak and got them to sell drugs or steal stuff. And they do it by threatening our families.”

Annie’s ears perked up. She dug her notebook out of her purse and flipped to a clean page. “What do you think a drug- and alcohol-free teen center would have to offer if it’s going to lure kids away from gang activity, Chantal?”

“Dances, for one thing,” the girl said. “The high school and junior high principals canceled all after-school events ’cause of fights and stuff. Teachers said they don’t get paid enough to police the grounds before or after school. So we don’t have sports, either. It’s not safe to hang out with friends when class lets out,” she said.

“And the city doesn’t have enough cops to handle all the problems,” Burdette Poole, one of the adults, elaborated. “Parents can’t be in two places at once. Many work more than one job.”

“Tanya Hall, another of our friends, heard you’ve got big ideas to do stuff Gran Ida used to talk about,” Nina said, eyeing Annie. “Nobody paid attention to her, ’cause we thought Ida was a bit senile. You know...” The Hispanic woman lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

“Are you aware Ida was my grandmother? She wasn’t as out of touch as you think. It’s a cinch the houses in this town can do with paint and yard cleanup, which is one thing my grandmother wanted, right?”

“Nina didn’t mean to speak ill of someone who passed on,” Burdette chimed in. “Nor did Tanya. Gran Ida had great ideas. It’s just...none of us have the money or the energy to fix up our homes.”

She looked so disheartened, Annie reached over and squeezed the woman’s plump arm, smiled and said, “Painting may not be that costly, Burdette. Drive down Gran’s street. Two neighbors and I painted three of the Victorians. I got a fantastic deal on paint if you’re interested. Other people on our block pitched in yesterday, so we’re painting their homes next. I hope to keep going with this project.”

“Why would you do that?” Nina asked suspiciously.

“To carry out my grandmother’s dream,” Annie said softly, and the women nodded as if they suddenly understood.

Davena Culver and Deshawn rejoined the others. Mrs. Culver leaned down and impulsively hugged Annie. “Lieutenant Talmage said I owe you a heap of thanks for listening to my boy. And you fed him, too,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “If I can do anything in return, you only have to ask.”

“As a matter of fact, I wondered if you sewed that cute dress Chantal’s wearing.”

The woman looked startled. “Yes, I did. I love to sew. I don’t have the time for it like I used to, or the money for material. Oh, I hope you don’t want me to make you a dress.” Her face fell.

“I don’t need a dress, but I’m hoping to find a couple of women to sew drapes. The lieutenant’s wife’s going to help after her arm heals. What I have in mind isn’t a one-time job, but something ongoing.”

“I’m sorry, but I already have two jobs. Well, I did have. One’s gone.”

Annie glanced at Deshawn. “I understood that if you came to the station you’d lose your main job. Mrs. Culver, I think I can match what you made in hotel housekeeping. And sewing would let you work at home. So you could be there when your kids get back from school? I’m also considering setting up a teen center, a place free of riffraff.”

Davena Culver clasped a hand over her heart, but still seemed unsure.

“Listen, I realize you don’t know me. I grew up here. Gran Ida raised me, and I owe her more than I can ever repay. It may seem too little, too late, but I intend to live up to the faith she had in me. Part of which was her staunch belief that I have what it takes to return Briar Run to the town it used to be.”

“Won’t be easy,” Burdette murmured. “Impossible,” Koot predicted from behind them. “And Sky’s not going to be happy about your teen center idea. You’d better wait on that until he gets back.”

Annie looked defiant. “Ladies, and Deshawn, if we’re all squared away here, I suggest we go someplace where we can nail down our plans.” Annie herded them all toward the exit, ignoring Koot’s admonitions.

* * *

A
BOUT
THREE
THAT
afternoon, Sky stopped his cruiser on the street in front of Rita and Homer Gonzales’s home. The faint beginnings of a headache that had started in the noisy chimpanzee section of the zoo began to throb in the back of his head as he sat watching Annie paint siding. She stood high on a too-tall ladder. The house, which yesterday was a dingy white, now appeared fresh in a new coat of pale cream. Three women wielded rollers and brushes. None were as far up as Annie.

Sky didn’t know how to get her attention. Once again, she kept the world at bay as she worked, listening to songs streaming into her earphones.

Rita Gonzales noticed Sky’s approach and beamed at him. “Chief Cordova. Isn’t this the greatest improvement?” She waved a dripping brush.

“Mmm,” he grunted. “Is there any way to have a word with your foreman?” He stabbed a finger toward Annie.

“Daddy, Daddy,” exclaimed a boy who ran up and tugged on Sky’s pant leg, “That looks funner. I wanna paint. Can I? Can I, huh?”

Sky glanced down in surprise. “Zachary, how did you get out of your booster seat? Didn’t I ask you to stay in the car?” Sky massaged the back of his head where the drumbeat had grown more insistent.

“Booster seats are for babies. I’m
five
.” The boy held up his hand, fingers splayed. “I won’t get paint on my shirt, I promise. In day care we hafta wear big men’s shirts. Mama makes me wear Papa Archibald’s shirt, but it smells yucky.” The little boy wrinkled his nose.

Those words had Sky swallowing his next lecture. He knew he shouldn’t be glad that his son thought his stepdad’s shirt smelled yucky, but he was tempted. He got darned tired of hearing about Saint Archibald Fleming from Corrine.

While Sky was occupied with his son, Rita went over to Annie’s ladder and gave it a couple of hard shakes.

Sky saw the ladder sway. “Rita, her ladder isn’t on a solid footing,” he called. “Stop, before you make Annie fall.”

The rocking of her ladder did gain Annie’s attention. Looking down, she peered at Rita, who jerked a thumb over one shoulder. Turning farther, Annie saw Sky. She pushed her goggles up into her hair, shut off her music and laid her brush across a paint can perched on an aluminum tray jutting out from the ladder. Then she descended step by careful step. The minute she noticed that Sky had grabbed hold of the lower sides of her ladder to steady it, Annie sent him a grateful smile.

She jumped the last three rungs and landed with a thud between Sky’s arms. Laughing, she turned around―until they stood chest to chest. Their thighs brushed, and Sky’s blue eyes went dark and smoky.

“Daddy, are you gonna ask that lady if I can paint?”

Annie was the first to break free, dispelling the tension between them. “Oh, hello, you must be Zachary,” she said, ducking beneath Sky’s muscled arm. “I’m Annie.” Bending, she smiled and stretched out her hand.

Taking it, the boy said, “I like your name. I like to paint. Can I help you?”

Annie straightened. “That’s up to your dad. I have grungy paint clothes on, and you guys are dressed for the zoo.”

The boy squinted up at her. “How did you know we went to the zoo?”

Annie debated saying she’d just guessed, because Sky was frowning. She knew how kids blabbed, how they tended to say whatever came into their heads. She wasn’t sure if Sky’s displeasure was at her for barging in and introducing herself to his son. “I think your dad mentioned it,” she said as the boy clearly expected an answer.

“I like animals,” he said. “We saw the giraffes, two big elephants and polar bears.... Daddy, what were their names?”

“Qannik and Siku,” Sky said, coming over to set a hand on his son’s tawny curls.

“Yeah, that’s them. And we saw tigers and snakes and frogs and a big white alligator, huh, Daddy?”

Sky’s earlier frown dissolved in an instant, and his blue eyes, so like his son’s, crinkled at the corners with his smile.

Annie saw the family resemblance in their eyes and in the shape of their faces. Except that Sky had stronger cheekbones, and his hair was more brown than gold like Zack’s. His son might grow up to be slighter of build. Something Annie really liked about Sky’s looks was that for a tall man he was wide across the chest and not too narrow in the hips. He was built solidly—a man who could handle any emergency. Maybe Zack would fill out as he got older. Hard to tell at this age. “So can I help Miz Annie paint, Daddy?”

“Maybe another time. I stopped by to have an official word with Miz Annie. Son, I need you to go buckle yourself back in your seat.”

“Aw!” Pouting, the boy kicked at a pile of trim that had been removed from around the house windows.

Annie felt for the child. She took a piece of light sandpaper from a pouch in the carpenter’s belt she wore. “Zack, maybe your dad will let you sand that top piece of trim while he and I talk. They need a light going over before Mrs. Gonzales paints them.”

Zachary’s eyes lit up.

Sky darted another frown at Annie.

“He wants to help, Sky, and that’s admirable. The boards have already been cleaned of old paint. At the most you’ll have to dust off his shirt and pants.”

“Okay, sure, Zachary. Let me show you how to sand,” he said, plucking the sandpaper from Annie’s hand.

She stood aside and surveyed the work already accomplished on the Gonzales home and thought it looked good. Engrossed, she gave a start when Sky latched his hand around her upper arm and moved her some distance away from where his son was now busily sanding.