Annie's Neighborhood (Harlequin Heartwarming) (8 page)

“It happens. Hey, Sadie’s jabbing me. She wants me to tell you to give her a call tomorrow when you head over to Ms. Emerson’s. Sadie will bring buckets and brushes and join you. I’m on duty, so you know where to find me if I’m needed.”

“Okay. Thank Sadie. The more hands, the better. That reminds me of something else. I’m going to ask our phone rep to arrange a tip line that bypasses dispatch and rings one of us directly.”

“I wonder why no one thought of that before. It should cut our response time, Sky. I say, go for it. We’re all frustrated about not getting our hands on the real troublemakers.”

“I agree. I’ll set it up first thing tomorrow.” They signed off, and Sky went through his case notebook to locate Annie’s phone number on the robbery report. He’d decided to give her a heads-up.

She answered the phone tentatively; he supposed she didn’t get too many calls at night. “It’s Sky...Cordova,” he added. “I know you said I should steer clear of your place for my own sake, but I have some free time tomorrow. I’m coming by around ten to help you get rid of that graffiti. Koot’s wife is coming, too.” He waited a heartbeat and all he heard was Annie’s sharply indrawn breath. “You can thank us later,” he said pointedly, and hung up. He still wore a grin as he climbed into bed and turned off the light. He didn’t know her well, but he’d quickly figured out that Annie liked being in charge. He didn’t mind throwing her off balance a little—partial payback for the way she’d thrown
him
head over heels.

Sky stifled a yawn and rolled over, vowing to make time to brush up on his own martial arts techniques. At the police academy he’d been adept at hand-to-hand combat. He’d even taught new recruits. It still rankled that he’d let Annie, who probably weighed a hundred and fifteen pounds, get the drop on him.

Eventually he fell asleep.

* * *

I
N
THE
MORNING
, Sky spoke to the department phone representative, who said that he could have a hotline working by noon.

Next he touched base with the night dispatcher. He might be officially off duty the next day, but he was still responsible for the department. Joe Morales, the quietest of the three cops on his force, liked the night shift. It was no big surprise that none of the others fought to make him rotate. Not even for the twenty percent night differential Sky had persuaded the city manager to add to Joe’s weekly pay.

Sky poured orange juice as he listened to a summary of Joe’s report. “Looks like Joe had a three-pot-of-coffee yawner,” the dispatcher, ready to go off duty, told Sky. “He had one incident at midnight. Two kids trying to steal cigarettes from a convenience store. Joe drove in and the boys took off, dropping the cartons. That’s it. If this trend continues, you’ll be able to run the squad from a rocking chair, Chief.”

“That’ll be the day, Margie. Leave a note for day dispatch that Koot’s the main man tomorrow. Today I’ll be a phone call away if there’s any trouble. Tomorrow I hope to take my son to the zoo.”

“Will do. Enid just walked in. Enjoy your days off, Chief. Hope you’ve got something fun planned for today.”

Sky hesitated to mention his plan for helping Annie. In Baltimore the precinct dispatchers had too much to do to involve themselves in the day-to-day lives of the cops. He’d expected the same in Briar Run. But after a week on the job, he’d realized that their two long-time dispatchers rivaled a twenty-four-hour newscast. The word
discreet
simply wasn’t part of their vocabulary. “I’ve got a busy day on tap,” he said after a moment. “You ladies take care.” With that he hung up.

He found a sander amid a pile of tools in his garage. He also found a paint sprayer. Untangling the cord, he debated whether or not to toss that in, too. He had no idea if the three of them—Annie, Sadie and him—would even get around to painting today.

As he backed out of his garage, Sky felt almost guilty for going to help Annie when his own house needed work. Not that it looked any more run-down than anyone else’s on Dusty Rose. Most of the homes he drove by were well past their prime. Maybe it was because this was the first time he’d really studied them, but he could suddenly imagine the benefits of Annie’s ambitious project....

He parked down street from her driveway. Sky had thought ten a reasonable hour to fire up the sanders, but Annie must have been at it a while. She’d finished the garage door, and was working on the L that connected the garage to the front of her house. He punched in Sadie Talmage’s number. “Hey, it’s Sky. If you’re still planning to throw your lot in with the graffiti patrol, do you mind picking up coffee and doughnuts?”

She laughed. “Now you’ve gone and spoiled my surprise. I know you cops need coffee and doughnuts to run on. The bakery was already on my list.”

“Thanks. Annie must have started at dawn’s early light. This project won’t take as long as I expected. See you soon.” He hung up and retrieved his sander, taking care to circle around so Annie could see him, rather than risk startling her again.

She shut off her sander and lifted her goggles. “You did come.” She rotated her neck. “On the one hand, I don’t want anyone to retaliate against your family. On the other, I’d be a fool to turn down a second pair of hands.”

“Third,” he said. “I just spoke to Sadie Talmage. She’s on her way. Let me spell you. Give your back a rest.”

“I’ll rest once all the graffiti’s gone.”

Sky saw the determined set of her jaw. He knew when it was pointless to argue. He sauntered off and plugged his sander into an outlet near the porch, one he’d spotted last night. Donning gloves and goggles, he started his machine.

Both sanders whirred steadily until Sadie stood on the walkway and shouted Sky’s name.

Dusting off his hands, he got Annie’s attention. “Coffee break,” he called. “Come and meet another volunteer.”

Annie set down her sander and jogged over to the porch, where Sky already had the doughnut box open. He made the introductions before taking a bite out of a delicious-looking cruller.

“He’s such a man,” Sadie said, giving a throaty laugh. “Annie, I’m delighted to meet you. I don’t know if Sky told you about my interest in interior design. Seeing the huge improvement you and your neighbors have made painting these three homes, I’m ready to sign on as a permanent volunteer. We used to live on the next block, and by the way, I knew your grandmother. I used to run into her at the grocery store and hear her concern about how the town was declining.”

“I wish she’d said something to me before her illness brought me home.”

“She probably didn’t want to worry you. Are you thinking of trying to get a grant? I know they have some for environmental development.”

“That’s a possibility.” Annie wasn’t going to mention her inheritance.

Sky handed out cups of coffee, and passed the doughnuts. “Sadie, I think her plan is to fire up residents with her unbridled enthusiasm, so they can’t wait to jump on her bandwagon like you just did.”

Both women looked sheepish.

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Sky said, popping the lid off his coffee. “In fact, when I left home today, I was ready to nominate my street as your next candidate.”

“I’ll consider it,” Annie said, “if you catch whoever had this paint party last night.”

“Like I wouldn’t do that if I could?”

Sadie sent a quick glance between them. She cleared her throat. “Annie has a point, Sky. She can’t keep on cleaning up the same mess. I lived here long enough to know the Stingers rule by intimidation.”

“Darned straight.” Sky glared at Annie.

She licked the sugar from a doughnut off her fingers and set her cup aside. Picking up her sander, she left the porch, returned to the artistic skull she’d been obliterating and switched on the sander. Paint flew, and the high-pitched squeal had Sky and Sadie moving to the other side of the porch.

“She’s too obstinate to be afraid,” Sky said. “I told Koot the gang leaders spread various threats that kept everyone from attending her meeting. It wasn’t by accident that her house is the only one of the three newly painted ones that got tagged. It’s like she has a target on her back, Sadie.”

“And you care enough to spend your limited free time over here. I can see she’s blind to that and you wish she wasn’t.”

“Huh? No way! She’s stirred up some bad elements in my jurisdiction, that’s all.”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t born yesterday. Plus, I know cops. The tougher they are, the longer it takes, but the harder they fall.” She put her cup down and went to get a bucket and sponges out of her car.

Sky watched her fill the bucket from the water spigot, then begin wiping down the sanded garage door. He took his sander and moved to the other side of the porch. The next time he looked up, a few women who didn’t normally venture out much had joined Sadie’s bucket brigade.

He took a call from Koot before he stopped to figure out what that meant. “Hey,” Koot said, “I’m on my way to pick up a submarine sandwich for lunch. Can I bring you hard workers some eats? I assume my wife’s still there since she didn’t answer at home.”

“She’s here, along with Annie, me and, let’s see...four women from the neighborhood. Do you have enough cash to buy seven subs?”

“Maybe I’ll get a four-foot one with a variety of things on it and have it sliced up.”

“Sounds good.”

Koot showed up in short order with food and soft drinks to go around. The other women were shy, but Sadie and Annie included them in the chatter.

“How did you happen to know about the work going on here, Mrs. Gonzales?” Koot asked one of them.

“Bad news travels. Neighbors phone neighbors,” she murmured. “We all hate what’s happened in our schools, and to our town.” Her pals nodded just as Koot’s cell phone chimed.

“Hot dog, Sky. This is our first tip on the hotline! An anonymous call about a possible drug sale two blocks away,” he said, jumping up.

Sky got up, too. “I’m not in uniform, but I have my badge, so I’m going along.” The men sprinted for Koot’s cruiser, leaving the women to comment among themselves. A hard expression crossed the face of one neighbor.

“Margie Dumas, the night dispatcher, lives next door to me. She told me this morning that the chief started a new tip line. It’s about time! My daughter’s away at college, thank goodness. I’d be worried sick if I had a kid at our high school. I hear the boys are all pressured to join the gang. Pressured and threatened.”

Annie listened to the women. She took it all in, and after they settled down to work again, she worried about the fact that Sky and Koot hadn’t returned.

Midafternoon the four helpers who’d pitched in walked up to Annie and said they had to leave. Rita Gonzales extended a hand. “Good luck. We wish you the best, but we can’t risk coming again tomorrow. Word of this will get out, and our houses will be tagged or worse. It’s happened before whenever anyone tried to buck the Stingers.”

Annie hugged them all and thanked each one for her bravery in coming. “We’ll meet again soon to discuss painting
your
homes.”

Once the women were out of earshot, and she and Sadie had taken over the painting, Annie said, “I’ve worked in some rough neighborhoods, but never where so many people were afraid for their jobs—and their homes. It’s not right.”

“At the time Koot and I decided to sell and move, gang activity had just started infiltrating the schools. I taught there, but the adults weren’t hounded.” She shook her head. “Those women’s stories are unnerving.”

“Yes.”

The pair fell silent then. Conversation became more difficult when Annie went to the other side of the porch to paint the area Sky had sanded.

The men didn’t return until nearly five-thirty. Annie and Sadie had finished painting and were washing up brushes and rollers when they drove in.

Sadie straightened and set her hands on her hips. “You two goof-offs sure know to stay away until the work’s all done.” She flung a hand out to indicate the drying paint that had restored Annie’s home to the blue it’d been before the vandalism.

Koot bounded up the walkway and swept his wife into his arms. Sky paused to study their finished paint job.

“Careful who you call goof-offs,” Koot scolded his wife. “We nabbed ourselves a teen dealer and two drug buyers. The users were underage, and since they didn’t have priors we had to release them to their parents with stiff warnings. But we confiscated some street equivalent of
oxycodone
. Aka
hillbilly heroin
.”

Sky reached Annie as she dried her hands on a towel. “I’ve heard the term,” she said. “The dealer’s a teen? Is he out on the street again, too?”

“He’s seventeen,” Sky answered. “Old enough so we can hold him overnight, or until his family gets a lawyer and posts bond. He’s a scared, desperate, local dropout. His folks are unemployed and his story is that what he brings in selling these pills feeds the family.”

“That’s a shame,” Annie said.

“If it’s true,” Koot responded. “He claims to be afraid of the gang, but seems more afraid of his dad. He said he’ll provide the names of a couple of guys higher up the chain that he splits his take with if we’ll intervene with dear old dad. The dude apparently hits the sauce hard, and sonny pays. Sky thinks he’s being truthful. I guess we’ll see.”

“Oh, there’s no happy ending is there?” Annie frowned. Sky glanced at her. “There rarely is when kids go off track. But you’d know that.”

“Yes, I’m sad to say. Listen, that
is
good news about maybe getting some names. I have a suggestion. Since it’s late and we’re all tired, why don’t I order pizza for a celebratory dinner of sorts. I know Franco’s delivers.”

“Works for me.” Koot was the first to accept. “Sky and I probably managed two bites of our subs at lunch.” He turned to his wife. “Okay with you?”

“Sure thing!”

Sky looked as if he might decline, but after checking his cell phone, he nodded. “While we were waiting for the parents to collect their kids, I texted Corrine about my plan to take Zack to the zoo tomorrow. I asked her to text back if I needed to adjust my plans. No news from her is good news. So, I agree with Koot. My stomach is empty and pizza sounds great.”