Iced Tea (5 page)

“Sure.
 
Wait here, I’ll be back in thirty seconds.”

I ran in the house.
 
Told my mom I was still alive, no need to panic yet.
 
Grabbed two Pepsis out of the fridge, wondered, not for the first time, why my mother didn’t keep Pepsi in the fridge when I was younger, ran through the living room, down the hall, to the linen closet, bottom shelf, picnic blanket, grabbed it, turned and was back out front in the allotted time.

“What is all that?”

“Our disguise.”

“What?”

“I’m going to lay the blanket on the grass, under the tree, we are going to sit down on the blanket and talk, drink Pepsi, and the whole neighborhood will think we are just having a little picnic.
 
No one will think anything of it.”

“Fine.”

We sat down on the blanket and opened our Pepsis.
 
I sat in silence waiting for Joe to say something.
 
Refusing to make it any easier for him.

“First, I need you to promise that what I tell you is just between you and me.
 
I need to you to promise me that you aren’t going to tell anyone.
 
Not your sister, not your brother the cop, not even your boyfriend.”

“If you knew anything about me, you would know that the order is wrong, but, I don’t make promises that I don’t intend to keep, and I don’t know if I will keep that promise until I hear what it is you have to say, so I’m not promising anything.”

“Cara, I’m trying to help you here.”

“If that’s true, then obviously I will do what you think is best.”

“Fine.
 
I’ll tell you what I need to tell you and leave it up to you.
 
You need to understand right up front, that if you decide to tell anyone about this, you will not only be putting your family in danger, but a lot of other people and lots of money too.”

“I didn’t take you for the melodramatic type.
 
Would you just tell me what is going on Joe?”

“I need to back up a little bit.
 
You were told that Louis had a forced medical retirement, that he was shot, and they retired him.”

“Right.”

“The truth is, that he was shot, and he was doing therapy to get healthy again, but he was never retired.”

“Okay.”

“Instead of retirement, he went undercover.”

“A shot up cop went undercover?”

“Yes.
 
The cover was that he was pissed off because the force screwed him over.
 
He didn’t hide the fact that he had been a cop, he hid the fact that he was still a cop.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Pretty simple really.
 
You read those journals.
 
Someone is killing kids.
 
That’s all the motivation he needed.”

“Right.
 
A serial killer is going to take a shot up cop into his confidence and confess all the killings.”

“We don’t think that the kids are being killed by a serial killer, well, not in the traditional sense of the word.
 
We think that it is a commercial endeavor.”

“What?
 
You mean snuff films.
 
I read somewhere that snuff films were pretty much an urban legend.
 
That people freak out about them, but that no one has ever actually found one.
 
Is that true?”

“Cara, people started talking about snuff films back in the 70s.
 
If you do a computer search, you’ll probably read all kinds of shit about there being no such thing, but I have to tell you, things have changed a lot since the 70s and I would not be at all surprised if snuff films exist, but that isn’t what I’m talking about.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

“I can’t go into too much detail Cara.”

“Bull.
 
You can go as far as you want, you just want to titillate, then get me all paranoid, and to believe that anything and everything you do is in the best interest of the community, so I’ll just sit back and keep my mouth shut and stay out of the way.”

“I figured that would be your response.
 
Here’s the thing.
 
I want you to really think about it.
 
Why do you think I turned up at Louis’s condo the day you did?”

“Coincidence?
 
Serendipity?
 
Inability to mind your own business?”

“And why do you think I followed you to your apartment?”

“Same response.”

“It didn’t strike you as weird that I would be able to get your address?”

“I figured you just typed my name into the terminal in your police car.”

“That would have been difficult, since I didn’t know your last name, and I was using my personal car.”

“Fine, you could have written down my tag number when you left, run it, then come over to my house.
 
It was a little while between the time you left Louis’s condo and when you showed up at my apartment uninvited.”

“Well, you’re right, I did run your tag, but you can’t just run a tag these days Cara.
 
You have to have a reason.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s true, but cops can find a way around a lot of things.”

“I’m not going to debate this with you.”

“Fine, why did you show up at the condo?”

“Because we knew that you had entered the apartment and we needed to know why.
 
Then we needed to verify that you were who you said you were and that your actions were justified and on task.”

“If that’s true, then you know that all of that is true, and we don’t have a problem.”

“Well, actually, that isn’t true.
 
You left the building with the journals.
 
We had to determine why you would do that.”

“Because I’m nosey, and you scared the crap out of me, and so did the stuff I read in the journal.”

“I believe that now, but had no reason to think that then.”

“Is that why you showed up at my apartment?”

“Yep.”

“But by then you knew that I was the sister of a cop, you must have known there was no problem, and you didn’t take the journals, so that wasn’t it, and you could have just taken the journals out of the condo sooner if you needed them, or didn’t want anyone to read them, and besides, you said that Louis was killed in a car accident.”

“Again, Cara, I’m not going to explain every detail to you, at least not yet.
 
What I am going to tell you, is that you have walked right into the middle of something that you do not need to involve yourself in.”

“So, how am I supposed to verify all this, so that I can be sure that you aren’t just some kind of nut?”

“Well, Steven, Louis’s brother hasn’t gotten back to you about anything, has he?”

“No, but I just kind of assumed that Steven is a jerk.”

“He is, but that isn’t the extent of it.”

“Why do you think the condo hasn’t been put on the market?”

“In this economy?”

“Fine, why do you think you had a two minute response the last time I was here?”

“When you tried to run me over?”

“I didn’t try to run you over Cara.
 
Didn’t it dawn on you that it was rather quick that your sister dialed 911 and within moments, you had a full response, including supervisor?”

“I figured it was because she said she was calling the media.”

“Well, I would suggest to you that it was because they were in the parking lot at the end of Blumford, and that when the 911 call came in, they figured you and your sister had completely blown the whole thing wide open.”

“What whole thing?”

“I thought for sure you were going to get your brother involved that night.
 
That would have been a bad thing.”

“That’s what I kept telling my family, but they rarely listen.
 
We figured that it would all be over before he could show up at the house.”

“I’m glad he didn’t show up.
 
It’s been complicated enough to keep him out of this.”

“So, I’m not supposed to say anything to him, and that way there’s no way for me to check out your story.”

“It will all be done in a few days Cara.
 
Your sister is going back to work; she will be out of it.
 
Your brother is out of it.
 
If you can keep your mouth shut and stay out of the way, you will be out of it, and when it’s all done, I’ll answer any questions you have.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to mind your own business.”

“That’s virtually impossible.”

“I’ve learned that about you.”

“And you will explain everything to me in the next few days?”

“Yes.”

“Define, few.”

“I can’t do that Cara.”

“So basically what you’re saying to me is that I am supposed to take at face value that there’s some police thing happening, that I happened to step on, through no fault of my own, but that there’s some man behind the curtain, and he is going to work it all out, and until then, I’m supposed to shut up and stay out of the way.”

“Pretty much.”

“And because of this super secret thing, I can’t tell my brother about it, because he’s a cop, I would naturally turn to him, and I can’t tell my sister about it, because she is my best friend, and she helps me figure everything out, and I can’t tell anyone I trust, because I could be putting them in harm’s way.”

“It will all be done in a few days, Cara.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Do the right thing Cara.”

“Don’t try to bully or insult me Joe.
 
I’m from a large family.
 
It won’t work.
 
I’ll think about it.
 
That’s the only promise I can make.”

“Just make sure that when you’re thinking about it, you think about what it will feel like if you decide to talk to people, and everything goes to shit.
 
It’ll be on you Cara.
 
I tried to warn you.
 
You remember that.”

“But you didn’t actually tell me anything.
 
You said that you’re working on some undercover thing, and that it’s dangerous, and that I need to stay away from the condo, and keep my mouth shut, but you didn’t tell me what you’re working on, or why you’re working on it, and what the outcome is for whatever it is.”

“I told you what I could.
 
You just have to trust me.”

“That would be the problem Joe.
 
Nothing you’ve done has inspired trust.”

“I’m a cop.”

“In the history of man, there has never been one bad cop?”

“Okay, you’ve decided to be difficult, and maybe I didn’t present this the right way, but I still hope that you’ll keep all this between us.
 
For your own sake.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Cara, take care, and if you need anything, give me a call.”

“I’ve got your number.”

Joe got up, took his untouched Pepsi with him, and drove away.”

I went in to face my mother.

“So, Love, what did he have to say?”

“He said that I couldn’t tell anyone what he said.”

“Well isn’t that convenient?”

“That’s what I thought.”

“’Tis rare that a secret is a good thing, Love.
 
I doubt we are discussing a gift for a child or the plans for a party.”

“Far from it.”

“What are you going to do, Love?”

“I’m going to think about it and make a decision.
 
If I decide that I need input, I’m probably going to call Rory, it’s a police type thing, and Rory might know more.
 
But, I wouldn’t tell anyone that I was talking to Rory, if I decided to talk to Rory, because on the off chance that what Joe told me is true, I don’t want to put Rory in the middle of it.”

“Love, it seems this young officer has you betwixt and between.
 
A step off in any direction could place you in the water.
 
How small is the island you are standing on?”

“Small.”

“I have every confidence in you Love.
 
You will put your mind to this and decide just what is the proper thing to do.
 
If your father and I can be of any assistance at all, please come directly.”

“I will, Mom.
 
I won’t say anything to Rory, so you don’t have to worry about him.”

“And what about your sister?”

“Or Teagan.”

“I worry for you Love.
 
Keeping secrets is not your strength.
 
It will be hard for you.”