Danger Comes Home (Kelly O'Connell Mystery) (8 page)

She really did laugh at that. “Crazy old lady. I bet she is. But I doubt she’s selling it. Probably uses it herself. I know about the time you refused shellacked cookies. Better not eat any brownies over there either.” She laughed aloud again.

“Doubt I’ll be invited back, but thanks for the warning. She was really offended on my last visit.” I described the visit in detail and congratulated myself on having distracted her.

It worked, but not for long. “I still don’t see how it has anything to do with the Wilsons, but tell Mike I’ll give him a few days before I move in.” She meant it as a concession; Mike would see it as a threat.

I wasn’t reporting this conversation to Mike. I’d just say that I’d talked to Claire, and she agreed to follow his wishes. Meantime, I’d hope that the police did something about the Wilsons—like go ahead and raid, so that wouldn’t be worrying me.

****

It was a long week, and things seemed at least not to have gotten any worse. But one afternoon, when we had just gotten home from school and were starting homework, Mona Wilson called my cell phone.

“Kelly, I have an enormous favor to ask.”

“Sure. Anything I can do.”
Well to a point.

“May Jenny spend the night at your house tonight? I know it’s a school night, but she’ll settle right down and do her homework.”

This was not the timid, quiet Mona I knew. This was a woman in desperation. “Of course,” I said. “The girls are just starting their homework. Why don’t you bring her over now?”

“Just give me two minutes to pack her things, and I’ll be there. And, Kelly, thank you. It means a lot to me.”

After we hung up, I was puzzled. What could make her so desperate? I sensed she was not the kind who asked for favors easily. I went back to the girls to announce that Jenny was coming to spend the night.

“On a school night?” Maggie asked. “How come? If I asked for that, you’d say no.”

“I think her parents have to go out tonight or something. Her mom called and asked as a favor. But you girls won’t ask, will you? Promise me you’ll just welcome her and try to make it a fun evening. School night bedtimes will apply.”

“Can I at least stay up as late as Maggie and Jenny,” Em asked.

Maggie gave her a dirty look, but I thought that sounded fair and agreed.

Jenny did arrive quickly, looking subdued. Mona came in with her, and when she told her child she’d see her after school tomorrow, Jenny clung to her mom in a way that Maggie hadn’t clung to me in years. Finally, Mona thanked me and turned to go, and I swear as she did I saw her wipe a tear away.

I settled the girls again at their homework, gave them snacks of orange slices and breakfast bars, and was as cheerful as I knew how to be. “Jenny, I think I’ll make Mr. Mike’s favorite dinner tonight. Would you like cheeseburger meatloaf?”

“Sure.” She was back to the apathetic child that I’d met that night in the apartment. Something was really wrong here. While Maggie breezed through her reading homework, Jenny struggled, so I set Maggie to help her. Em worked silently but quickly on questions about spatial relationships, the kind of assignment she loved.

Mike came home earlier than usual and did a double take when he saw Jenny. He kissed both our girls, ruffled Jenny’s hair and told her he was glad to see her, and then pulled me into our bedroom, closing the door even though we knew the girls were busy at the dining table and probably couldn’t hear us.

“What’s Jenny doing here? Is she just here for supper?”

“No. Mona called and asked if she could spend the night. I thought it was funny—well, because we don’t know her that well and because she sounded sort of desperate. And then, Mike, when Mona left, Jenny clung to her like she was afraid she’d never see her again.”

“Damn,” he said softly. “That’s bad. Really bad. Means somehow, some way they know we got our search warrant.”

One of the things I most dreaded was about to happen—Mike on a raid. I stared at him. “When? Tonight?”

“Yeah, midnight tonight. It’s their busiest hours, but I bet we’re wasting our time now.”

I forgot Mona and Jenny and thought only of Mike, hugging him tight. This was his first raid since he’d joined the Narcotics Squad, and the very thought terrified me, even if he did think it would be futile. I’d read enough about gunplay and violence during police raids. “Be careful,” I whispered.

He stroked my hair gently. “I will. Let’s go fix dinner.”

Mike was as jovial as ever with the girls, trying with little success to draw Jenny into the conversation. As I’d promised the girls, I fixed his special meatloaf—was I psychic that he needed a treat? Everyone ate heartily except Jenny who picked at her food, and Mike began teasing Maggie and Jenny about the boys he just knew were hanging around them.

“They come around here, they’re gonna have to pass my inspection.”

Jenny just looked at her plate, but Maggie blushed furiously. Em popped up with “Maggie likes Nathanial Jones, says he’s really cute.”

I had no idea who Nathanial Jones was, but Maggie sure did. She turned on her sister in fury. “I do not. I mean, yes, he’s cute. But he’s nothing special.”

“Well, she likes Justin Bieber,” Em said, “but that’s different.” She rolled her eyes.

Maggie just grinned and elbowed her sister lightly. Jenny stayed out of the good-natured fray.

Mike held up his hand. “Peace. I didn’t mean to start a war.”

Gus distracted us all by sitting as close to Jenny as he could and whining plaintively.

“He thinks he’s found a new soft touch,” I said. “Jenny, we do not feed him from the table. One of the house rules. He’s honestly not hungry, I guarantee it.”

She laughed and said wistfully, “I never had a dog. I like him. You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.” I was firm. “After the table is cleared, you may give him a treat.”

Jenny loved to give Gus treats, and I caught her sneaking them to him throughout the evening. I explained a house rule: You ask before you give Gus a treat. We don’t want him to get fat. After dinner, the girls watched a sitcom, with Mike’s approval, and I tried to read but couldn’t concentrate. I went into the bedroom to call Joe and ask him to promise me, please, that he’d stay home tonight. Mike caught me and said, “Good. I’m glad you made that call.” I collapsed into his arms, but he was as calm as could be.

“I had to,” I said.

“I know. And I just told you I’m glad.”

At long last, the girls were asleep, and I was getting ready for bed. Mike was dressing in black again, as he’d done for surveillance. And arming himself with his gun into the back of his waistband, another gun in the pocket of his jacket, and a knife tucked into one sock.

“I thought only gang members did that,” I managed.

He smiled. “We learned their tricks. Besides, I don’t think anything is going to happen.”

And then, with a kiss and a “Don’t worry,” he was gone.

Of course I won’t worry! I’ll toss and turn all night. It will probably be the longest night of my life, longer than the night of his surgery.
I wanted Keisha or Claire, but I dared not call either one.

I propped myself up in bed to watch
The Tonight Show
and wish I found Jay Leno more amusing. Or maybe I was wishing he’d be more boring and put me to sleep. But Maggie padded softly into my room.

“Jenny’s crying,” she said, “and I don’t know what to do about it.”

I jumped out of bed, hugged her, and hurried to Jenny. Maggie had opted for the pallet on the floor, sweetly giving Jenny the bed. I sat on the bed and pulled the child into my arms, stroking her hair and murmuring. “Jenny, what is it? Can you tell me?”

Between gulping sobs she managed to get out, “I’m scared for my mom. Something bad’s going to happen tonight, but I don’t know what.”

Oh dear God! They did know in advance. Somehow they’d been warned. “Jenny, I can almost promise you that your mom will be safe.”

“Really?”

“Really. Come on, girls, this calls for hot chocolate.”

We headed for the kitchen, and of course, nothing could keep Em from waking and following us. So there I was at eleven o’clock at night with three girls drinking hot chocolate, one of them devastated by fear and the other two consumed with curiosity and kept quiet only by my stern looks.

Finally by midnight, I had them all back in bed. After turning out the television and brushing my teeth, I peeked and they were all three asleep. Relieved and actually sleepy, I was suddenly overcome by a sense of peace that vanquished my own troubled fears.

To my surprise, I was asleep when Mike came home about six. Then I was immediately wide-awake.

“What happened?”

“Nothing.” Discouragement showed in the slump of his shoulders, the fatigue in his eyes.

I threw back the covers to welcome him, but he said, “I might as well start breakfast. If I go to bed now, I’ll be useless all day.”

I thought tired as he was he probably would be anyway, but I didn’t voice that suspicion. I threw on my gray cotton pants, shapeless with a draw string at the waist, and followed him into the kitchen. The smell of the pot of coffee he’d started began to wake me up.

“What do you mean ‘nothing’?”

“Nothing useful. No dope of any kind. We took a dope-sniffing dog, and he sniffed at a lot of places like he was interested, but we didn’t find anything. No money, no drugs—so much for Mona’s explanation of a check-cashing business. If that were the case, we’d have found money and records. And there was no traffic there at all tonight. We watched from ten to two. Just as I expected. An exercise in nothing.”

“So what does that all mean?”

“Still smells wrong, Kelly. I think, from the dog, there were drugs there, but they’d been moved. My hunch is what I said earlier—we’ve got a snitch in the department. I’m like the dog—I smell drugs.”

I changed the subject. “Jenny was crying after they went to bed tonight. She said she was afraid for her mom. I ended up fixing all three of them hot chocolate at eleven o’clock.”

“Only proves my theory that they knew and we’ve got a snitch. Damn! Conroy and I talked about it the rest of the night. That’s why I’m just now getting home.”

I changed the subject. “Claire fixed me lunch. She was furious that you’d ordered her away from Mona Wilson. Claire doesn’t much like men ordering her around….”

“Sounds like someone else I know. But Claire and her fury are the least of my worries right now.” He came over to give me a peck on the nose, just as Maggie walked into the kitchen.

“Yuck. Do you two have to be like that so early in the morning?” Miss Grumpy seated herself at the kitchen table.

Fatigue apparently made Mike mischievous. “You mean this?” he asked and swooped me off the chair, bending me backward for what would have been a passionate kiss if I hadn’t protested loudly, “Mike!” Later, he justified himself by telling me that it was good for the girls to see wholesome love between their parents. A peck on the nose, yes, but I wasn’t sure swooping me off the chair would come across to them as wholesome love—or as the joke he meant it to be.

“What’s all this noise?” Em came in, rubbing her eyes and staring at the clock. “It’s not even six-thirty yet. Why are we up so early?”

“So I can fix you bacon and pancakes,” Mike said, a thought I’m sure he improvised at that moment. “Where’s Jenny?”

“I’m here,” she said softly, standing in the arched doorway between the dining room and kitchen.

Mike took her in his arms and said, “Jenny, I can personally assure you your mom is just fine.”