Blood Ties (29 page)

e area separating our houses was a sad patch of ground, strewn with litter, which I occasionally picked up. God knows if I left it to Leanne, it’d look like a land-fi ll had sprouted between us. One year I threw a handful of grass seed around, hoping crisp patches of green would magically appear. Nothing. Not a weed, not a single dan-delion or even hard-to-kill Creeping Jenny bothered to take root. Th

at spot of earth is determined to stay infertile and desolate.

Th

e front steps had cracked away from the foundation 307

of Leanne’s house, leaving a ten-inch gap. I peered down at the collection of candy wrappers, plastic grocery bags, and crushed beer cans gathered there while Kiyah kicked aside the broken aluminum storm door and knocked.

I frowned and ruffl

ed her damp hair. “Why don’t you

just go in? I don’t think you need to knock at your own house, silly.”

“Th

e door is locked.” Even the package of clothes tucked under her chin hadn’t muffl

ed her words.

Kevin’s sharp intake of breath echoed mine. Leanne had actually locked Kiyah out of the house. I reached over Kiyah’s head and rapped with enough force to bruise my knuckles.

Nothing happened for several cold minutes. I knocked harder and gave Kiyah an encouraging smile.

“She’s gonna be mad.” Kiyah bit her trembling lip and spoke to the concrete.

“At me?” I asked.

“Yeah, but at me too.”

I’d started to bend down when the door was fl ung open. We were treated to Leanne’s fl imsy cover-up that actually covered nothing. She hadn’t bothered with un-derwear, either. Her erect nipples poked through the pink chiff on robe, fresh red suction marks trailed down her neck and circled her breast. And I’d believed intentional hickeys went out after high school.

Leanne scowled at Kiyah, then me. “What now?”

Kiyah moved forward to circle her reedy arms around Leanne’s fl abby waist. “I was cold.”

“You should’ve worn your coat.” Leanne pushed Kiyah’s arms aside and glared at me. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Walking her home.”

“Well, she’s home now.”

My gaze remained on her bloodshot eyes. I forced myself not to lunge for her hickey-laden neck. “Just making sure she could get in this time.”

“What were you doin’ at her house anyway, Ki?”

Leanne jerked a thumb toward me. “You ain’t ‘sposed to be goin’ over there.”

“And, just where is she supposed to go?” I asked in a tone she couldn’t misinterpret as friendly.

“Th

at ain’t none of your business.”

“It is my business when she’s half-frozen and practi-cally starved. What were you thinking when you locked her out of the house?”

Leanne lifted her chin. “Get off my step.”

“No. I’m sick of this.” I leaned in, catching the sweet scent of pot on her bedclothes and the booze on her breath.

“She sat in the rain for two hours, two hours, cold, alone and hungry while you, and whatever man tripped your trigger this week, rolled around on your mattress in the warm house.”

“Is that what this is about? Who I fuck and when I fuck? Th

at ain’t any of your fucking business.” Th e spacious

gap in her front teeth fl ashed as she smiled at her own per-ceived cleverness.

“Th

is isn’t about you, this is about Kiyah. When will you start treating her like something more than a trick pony? I don’t care who you’re sleeping with, but she shouldn’t get locked out of her house because of it. She’s only six.”

Kiyah stared morosely at her feet.

Shifting in the doorframe, Leanne scoff ed, “I know how old
my
kid is. I don’t answer to you even when you think you’re so high and mighty ‘cause you work for the sheriff .”

“No, you don’t answer to me. But, I could see to it you answer to Social Services.”

Leanne’s mouth opened and closed like an air-starved trout. “You bitch, you wouldn’t dare.”

“Why don’t you try me? I’ve had a lousy day and I come home and see Kiyah freezing outside in the same place she was hours ago.” I slanted over the doorjamb, pleased when she appeared to recoil. “Push me today, Leanne, ‘cause I’m looking for a fi ght.”

Leanne grabbed Kiyah. Kiyah stumbled but didn’t look up. “Where didja get them clothes?” she demanded.

“Julie gave them to me.”

“Now, I see what your interest is in her.” Leanne placed a hand on her hip and sneered. “You buy her clothes, play games with her, and hope she’ll turn out as queer as you.

310

You like little girls, don’t you? I know you give her a bath.

Do you like to watch? Do you get off on it?”

Kevin stepped in. “Th

at’s enough.”

“I tell you what. Maybe I oughta put a call into the sheriff ’s offi

ce myself. Wonder how long you’d keep that job if they found out their pet lesbian preferred ‘em young.”

“I’m not a lesbian and you’re avoiding the issue. I’m calling Social Services. Count on it. Kiyah deserves better than this.”

“Th

ink so? If you come within ten feet of her again, I’ll have you arrested.” Leanne leaned down, the slit in her robe widened, and her breasts spilled completely out.

“Kiyah, honey? Never talk to her again, got that?”

Kiyah glanced at me quickly and I saw a hint of sorrow before she shuffl

ed closer to Leanne. “Yes, Momma.”

Leanne stroked the top of her head and crooned,

“Th

at’s my angel, that’s my angel girl.” Leanne glared at me and said to Kiyah, “Give her back them ugly clothes.”

Kiyah tried to slip around Leanne but was stopped when Leanne’s fi ngers banded around her stick-like arm.

She winced.

I took a step forward but Kevin’s fi rm hand on my shoulder held me back.

“No. Take them off right there,” Leanne said. “I don’t want her fi lthy ideas or clothes in my house.”

Panic-stricken, Kiyah looked up. “But, Momma, we’re outside . . .”

311

“Take ‘em off now. Th

em clothes don’t belong to you.”

Kiyah hedged and a man, Bobby, I assumed, appeared in the foyer. He’d managed to put on jeans, but they were unbuttoned and his sunken, hairless chest was bare. His blurry eyes landed fi rst on Kevin, and then without interest on me. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Nothing,” Leanne trilled. When she turned toward him, her grip on Kiyah loosened. Kiyah seized the opportunity to scramble up the inside stairs.

I expelled a relieved breath. Leanne would’ve actually made her daughter publicly strip down in order to avoid backing down from me. At that point I didn’t know whose behavior was more juvenile, hers or mine. Kevin was right.

I had to be the adult; I had to make that call.

Kevin tugged on my sleeve. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Th

at’s right, you’d better go,” Leanne said, her voice rising with renewed confi dence now that Bobby had entered the scene. “And, you’d better remember what I said.

Stay away from my daughter.”

Never could stand women who gleaned their courage when trying to impress a man. “You’d better remember what I said too. Expect a visit from my offi cial friends

very soon.”

“What friends?” Bobby asked on a huge yawn.

Leanne’s fi ngers slipped though the greasy strands before she fl ipped her hair over her shoulder. “Lesbo bitch here has threatened to call Social Services . . .”

312

“Whoa.” Laid-back Bobby vanished. He yanked his

‘Big Johnson’ T-shirt over his head, buttoned his Wran-glers and extracted a set of keys from the skin-tight front pocket. Once the teal-colored fl ip-fl ops covered his narrow, pale feet, rubber squeaked across the linoleum, nearly leaving burn marks. “I’m out of here.” He shouldered us aside without a backward glance.

Leanne whined, “But, Bobby . . .”

Kevin yanked me off the steps and had us back inside my house before I could respond. After sliding the dead-bolt home, he faced me. “I really wish you’d move.”

“To

where?”

“Anywhere besides this low rent ‘Melrose Place’.”

“How can you make jokes?”

“I’m not joking. Move in with me until you fi nd something else. For Chrissake, this place would make anyone crazy.”

I closed my eyes. For once his take-charge role wasn’t helping, no matter how much I’d longed for it in the last week. But, when I considered how pissed off Callous Lilly would be if I took up residence with Kevin even temporarily . . . Scratch that. My mood was too grim to consider that scenario, although I had fantasized about it.

Maybe he was right; how could I live next door to Kiyah and not interfere? It seemed every person I connected with was touched by misery. Th

e black plague following

me around spread to others when I wasn’t busy beating it 313

back, keeping them safe.

Samantha. Shelley. Meredith. And now Kiyah. Who was next?

A tear escaped and Kevin wrapped me in his arms before it dripped from my chin. In the last few weeks my life had gone to complete shit. Evidently, my tears had the eff ect I’d desired because Kevin made no move to leave me alone, yet again, with only my despair for company.

I’d fallen asleep on the couch sometime through my crying jag. I glanced over to Kevin, lounging in my second-hand tweed recliner, fl ipping through channels, a half-empty twelve-pack of Coors at his feet. He smiled a bit loopily, stood, then ducked into the kitchen, stumbling slightly when he returned, and placed the bottle of tequila and all the accoutrements on the glass coff ee table.

Gotta love a man who knows the best way to heal me.

After the second shot of Don Julio, I’d regained my bearings and lost my embarrassment. I’d bawled like a sissy girl and passed out from sheer mental exhaustion. Still couldn’t think about Kiyah, or Samantha, without the feeling a pair of vise grips had been clamped onto my heart.

Th

e tequila loosened my tongue enough that I felt ready to tackle Kevin’s problems. “So. You gonna tell me why you’ve been acting like such a moody jerk?”

315

Kevin tossed back a shot and poured another. “Th is

case hasn’t exactly been easy on me.”

“But, it’s over, right? Even the cops believe Shelley’s death was suicide.”

He shook his head. “Shelley lied to us more than once.”

I wet my fi nger and pressed it down on the salty plate.

“True. But of all the things she told us, her belief in eternal damnation after suicide seemed the most sincere.” I sucked the salt off and drained the shot, fi nishing with a wedge of lime.

During a drag of my cigarette I realized the only vice missing was sex. I swept a quick glance to Kev. Doubted he was up for that, although his mood to drink was rare of late. I decided not to push my luck.

Th

e dull snick of aluminum drifted across the table as Kevin popped open a Coors. He didn’t sip. He guzzled.

Th

e empty can took its place on the second rung of an impromptu pyramid. Th

rough a muffl

ed a belch, he said,

“Didn’t expect Dick to show up today.”

“Probably only saving face.”

“You don’t think he had anything to do with either death, do you?”

I opened a beer. “Nope.” Th

e yeasty tang of barley and

hops mixed perfectly with the salt, citrus and tequila.

“Me, either. I think Shelley was the last link in whatever happened at the fair that night. Whoever killed her probably feels safe whatever secrets she held, died with her.”

316

I

puff ed on my cigarette. “Even if Charles LaChance, who’s sworn to uphold the law, is guilty? I thought you couldn’t stand the idea someone is getting away with this.”

“Th

ere’s no proof. Just speculation. We aren’t getting paid to continue delving into this fucked up mess. It’s not doing either of us any good.”

Glad he fi nally admitted things had been strained between us. “So, we’re done with this case?”

“As far as I’m concerned.”

“Th

ank God.” I held my can aloft and toasted him.

Kevin downed another shot without the frills. “What’s going on with you and Tony Martinez?”

I took a sip of beer. “Nothing. Why?”

“I saw him eyeing you at the funeral.”

“Giving me the evil eye probably,” I lied. Th ings were

going so swimmingly with Kevin I didn’t want to piss him off . And, my choices in men seemed to be a trigger. “I’m banned from Fat Bob’s, remember?”

“He wasn’t looking at you like a potential customer.

He was looking at you like lunch.” Fizz exploded across the arm of the recliner as he popped another Coors. “You sleeping with him?”

“Wish I was sleeping with someone.” I rested my elbows on my knees, and waggled my eyebrows. “Got anyone in mind, baby doll?”

He shrugged. “After the Ray fi asco I thought maybe you’d be more selective.”

317

“More selective?” I repeated, humor gone. “You really want to get into this right now?”

“Yes. No.” Th

e beer can dented under his grip. At

least he hadn’t crushed it on his head Jimmer style. “Hell, I don’t know.”

I counted to ten, willing my temper to ebb. “Kevin, what’s going on?”

For a minute I thought he’d pull his evasive trick, but he didn’t. He studied me with curiosity or hostility. I wasn’t sure which was worse.

“Lilly,” he said.

It

fi gured. “What about her?”

“She wants to talk.”

“About

what?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, I’m in no mood for this cryptic shit. Surely, after all the time you’ve been spending with her you have some idea what the hell she wants to talk about.”

He wiggled off the can’s metal tab and fl icked it at me;
ping
, it nailed me right in the chest. “I haven’t seen her in two days.”

Th

at stopped me cold. “Really? So, where have you been? Not hanging by any of your three phones. I assumed you were with her.” Th

en, it clicked. “You’ve been avoiding

her, too, haven’t you?”