Jamie Hill Triple Threat (2 page)

Crystal
stood up to blow the last puff of smoke a little closer to his face. Even standing she missed, as the detective stood six feet or taller and she was lucky to hit five foot six in heels. Today she was wearing her sensible restaurant flats, so the smoke hit him at about chest level. She ground out the cigarette butt with her toe and looked up at him. “No, Manny and I
never
…” she repeated. “This uniform I’m wearing indicates I’m a waitress, not a frigging hooker.” She looked toward Manny and shivered as someone covered his body with a tarp. Turning back to the cop, she said, “But if I was, I think I might be able to do better than Manny, God rest his soul. Don’t you?”

Dunlevy smiled again. “Oh yeah, I definitely do.” His gaze lowered from her face down, and back up again. “So you knew Manny from his hanging around the block?”

“Yeah. He pretty much lived by our door. He showered regularly at Sister Theresa’s shelter a couple blocks over, so he actually smelled better than…” She eyed Ralph in the shadows, still watching the goings-on. “Most of the homeless guys. He told me once he didn’t like sleeping there, though, because people stole his stuff.”

“At Sister Theresa’s?” Dunlevy asked skeptically.

“Yeah.”  She chuckled. “Ironic, eh? I don’t think Manny had much, but he had good shoes. I know that. He was proud of them.”

Dunlevy looked toward the body, where stocking feet stuck out from under the tarp. “Doesn’t appear that he had
any
shoes today.”

She shrugged. “Maybe Ralph has some new shoes. I guess Manny won’t need them now.”

He looked back at her. “Ralph?”

She nodded toward the man cringing next to her building. “Another street-dweller. He doesn’t hang around here as much as Manny, but everybody knows him.” She looked at Dunlevy and ran a finger across the tip of her nose. “I’m not sure Ralph is aware of the amenities at Sister Theresa’s.”

He nodded and made more notes. They both looked at the body for a moment, then the detective said, “Do you think Manny had any enemies?”

She shrugged again. “I can’t believe he did. He was harmless, as far as I knew. He kept an eye on the building, and we all sort of looked out for him. In the wintertime we’d let him sleep inside in the hallway. I’d bring him a sandwich from the diner after work. Stuff like that.”

“What diner would that be?” He didn’t look up, just continued taking notes.

“Moe’s, on South Broadway, a couple blocks from here.”

He nodded as he wrote, and they heard a small voice speak up. “They have good pie.”

He looked around the woman to the smaller of the two boys, who had been sitting on the bench in silence. “Is that so? Good pie, you say? I may have to check it out.”

The boy nodded solemnly.

Crystal
looked at the child. Six years old, with shaggy brown hair and two missing front teeth, he was an adorable sight.

Dunlevy squinted at him. “Did you file a report with the police on those missing teeth? Can you even eat pie with no teeth?”

“I have teeth!” He grinned and bared his lips to show the rest.

“Oh, well, good.” Dunlevy continued to write. “And what would your name be? For the report.”

In a shaky voice the smaller of the two boys said, “Devon Erickson.”

Dunlevy nodded officially as he wrote it down. He glanced at the other child, seated next to
Devon
. “What about you, young man? Got anything to add to the report?”

Crystal
glanced at him. He sported the same scruffy hair as his brother. They shared similar facial features, but the two boys were quite different.
Devon
still carried the naiveté that came with youth. Mark, at age eight, had seen more of life and was, sadly, more sullen about things.

The boy shook his head without speaking.

“What’s your name?” Dunlevy asked gently.

“I don’t got nothing to add to the report.”

Dunlevy smiled. “You don’t like the pie?”

“I like the chocolate cake,” he answered.

“Well, there you go.” He wrote on his notepad “…chocolate cake.” He looked back at the boy. “And your name?”

“Mark Erickson.”

“Very good.” Dunlevy nodded and wrote.

Crystal
looked over at Manny once again. “Any idea when they’ll be able to take him out of here? I’d like to go home.”

Dunlevy followed her gaze to the entryway and replied, “They should have the body removed pretty quickly now.”

She shivered again and hugged her arms to herself. “The body. Until a few hours ago, he was a person.”

Dunlevy studied her. “Thought you and Manny weren’t close.”

She looked him in the eye. “We weren’t. But he was a person, for crissakes. That ought to mean something.”

Dunlevy closed his notebook and shoved it in his pocket. He swore silently to himself and glanced at her almost sheepishly. “After eighteen years on the force, the last twelve of them as a homicide detective, I’ve seen lots of bodies. I promised myself a long time ago that I’d always remember the victims were
people
before they were vics.” He smiled. “Sorry. These days I’m lucky to remember to get out of bed in the morning.”

Crystal
cocked her head, trying to figure him out. An imposing figure, he hadn’t turned out to be as obnoxious as she’d first thought. There was something appealing about the man. Before she could dwell on it, Manny’s body was carefully removed and the police were wrapping up their initial investigation.

As soon as she was allowed,
Crystal
hauled the boys up the stairs, relieved to finally go home. She thought once again about the detective with the melting brown eyes. He’d been ticked off when the uniformed officers didn’t have anything for the kids in their car besides tiny little teddy bears. Police were supposed to carry something for children involved in traumatic situations, but Dunlevy sensed these boys were too old to appreciate the bears. He promised to bring them something better the next time he was back around.
Crystal
sighed. Him coming ‘back around’ meant more questions for her, but she didn’t mind all that much. She had nothing to hide, and he wasn’t exactly hard to look at.

She unlocked her apartment door and ushered the children inside. “Do you have homework?”

“Not much,” Mark said, and tossed his backpack on the floor. “Couldn’t we watch
a little
TV first,
please
?”

“You know your daddy likes you to have all your homework done before you watch anything.”
Crystal
looked into the big, begging eyes of both boys staring back at her. They’d been through a lot this afternoon, and they behaved wonderfully. Maybe a little TV wouldn’t hurt. “A half hour,” she told them, and they hugged her legs quickly before running to the set and grabbing the remote.

She smiled at them and made a mental note to watch the time. They’d stare at the TV all night if she let them. In her room, she closed the door so she could change clothes. She tugged her blue, plaid waitress uniform off and tossed it into the hamper in the corner.
Crystal
grabbed jeans and a sweater and slipped into them. She released the clip from her hair and let it fall down around her shoulders. It was wild and unruly and she thought often about cutting it off. But when she looked in the mirror she couldn’t help liking the way the natural red locks framed her face, and fell on her shoulders. It made her feel good, and if she was honest with herself, it made her feel feminine.
Crystal
sighed.
Maybe someday I’ll have enough self-assurance to do what I want with my hair.
Confidence had never been her strong suit. Still maybe someday…she sighed again.
Dream on
.

She headed back out into the other room—the only "other room" in the apartment except the small bathroom. The living room/kitchen combination was suitable for now, but someday…
Crystal
continued to dream…someday she’d have better.

She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a can of pop. Two left, and a half- gallon of milk, and then the cupboard would be bare. In the cabinet she found a partial bag of Oreos, the substance of the boys’ evening snack. She estimated there were enough cookies to last a couple more days.

Thankfully, Moe let them eat at the diner every day. Four o’clock was a little early for dinner, but he fed them substantially and gave them dessert after they ate their vegetables. With the breakfast and lunch their school provided, and the snack she gave them,
Crystal
thought the boys had enough to eat. It was a piss-poor way to live, though. If they were her kids…
Well, things would be different, that’s all
. It was another of
Crystal
’s dreams. If she ever had children, she’d make sure there was plenty of food in the house, and they’d have a yard to play in, not a body to step over when they got home at the end of the day.

“Okay, time’s up.” She grabbed the remote after half an hour, and both boys attempted to guilt her with sorrowful looks. “Forget it.” She closed her eyes and held up one hand. “It’s your daddy’s rule, not mine. He pays me to enforce it. Let’s go, homework first, then a snack. If there’s time you can watch some more TV or maybe we can play a game before bed.”

They grudgingly picked up their backpacks and spread their homework out on the coffee table.
Crystal
smiled at them as they got to work. They were great kids. She’d never have agreed to watch them every day if they weren’t.
Lord knows their father is a ruffian.
She met Dave when she moved into the building six months ago. He and the boys were getting by, trying to form a routine after the death of his wife, Laura. Dave was hesitant when
Crystal
inquired how Laura died, until he finally admitted drugs were involved. An overdose of some kind, apparently, but he never wanted to talk about it.

Dave was a handsome devil with curly blonde hair and just a spot of a beard.
Crystal
had heard of people being described with “bedroom eyes” before, but Dave’s smoky blues were the first she ever truly thought fit the description. She was attracted to him right away, and they hit the sheets before she realized that every other woman Dave met was also attracted to him. His problem was that he didn’t have the heart or the brains to tell any of them ‘no’. When she caught him in bed with an off-duty hooker,
Crystal
had herself tested for HIV and every other disease she could think of. She decided right then that if Dave wasn’t going to be choosy about whom he slept with, she damn sure had better be.

He hadn’t appreciated her decision to cut him off, and they argued about it for days. He tried to hit her once during their negotiations, but he was drunk and
Crystal
came out on the top of that skirmish. She knew Dave fully believed what she threatened to do to him if he ever tried to hit her again. Once he realized she was serious, he decided he needed her more for childcare than for sex. He could get
that
anywhere. He paid her to watch the kids, and
Crystal
felt she was providing some structure for them. Dave was usually loaded when he arrived home, and she was a gentle buffer between him and the boys. She’d help him get them to bed, and then sneak out while he either fell in the sack with someone else or tried to make
Crystal
change her mind for the umpteenth time.
A piss-poor way to live
.

She looked at the clock as the boys finished their snack.
Almost nine
. Dave was usually home by then.

“Daddy’s late.” Mark saw her watching the clock.

“A little.”
Crystal
shrugged. “He knew I didn’t have plans tonight. I guess he decided to go out for awhile.”

Devon yawned and
Crystal
helped him wash his hands and clean up the table. She debated what to do, and by nine-thirty decided to take the boys home and put them to bed. She got their apartment key out of her cabinet and led them to the tiny unit next door. She felt strange going in without Dave, but it angered her that he wasn’t home and hadn’t called, so she went right on in.

After helping the boys brush their teeth and change into pajamas, she tucked them in and kissed them goodnight. “Have happy dreams.” She pulled their door mostly shut, and went to watch TV on Dave’s sofa until he came home.

* * * *

Crystal
woke to the sun creeping in through the window. Her back ached from sleeping on the sofa. She sat up and stretched, then looked at the clock and saw it was almost seven. “Damn,” she muttered, knowing full well that Dave had not come home last night. She went to his bedroom door and looked in just in case, but his bed was empty. She would have heard him come in. Swearing to herself,
Crystal
went to wake the boys up.

“Where’s daddy?” Mark asked immediately, sitting up and rubbing his face.