Jamie Hill Triple Threat (22 page)

“You seem to fall in love pretty easily, Dunlevy.”

“Oh really? Funny you should think that. I don’t believe I’ve ever discussed love with you. I’ve told you about some of my relationships, but did you ever hear me use the ‘L’ word?”

“No, but I heard you say you were married twice. I don’t see you as the type to get married if you didn’t think you were in love.” She caressed his face. “What we have here is great, Jack. It’s wonderful, really. The best sex I’ve ever had. But that’s all it is.”

He interrupted. “I don’t confuse sex and love,
Crystal
. And I don’t take love lightly. Sex with you is better than it’s ever been for me, too. But that’s because I love you, Crys.
I love you
.” He pushed her lightly off his lap, forcing her to stand up, and closed her robe. “You need to get dressed. We have children to take care of.”

Crystal
watched him go to the boys and headed off to take a shower, mulling over what he'd said. Maybe she would have to tell him the real reason she couldn’t be with him. He was an honorable, decent, middle-class guy, and she was poor white trash from the wrong side of the tracks.

She dressed in jeans and one of his sweatshirts with the sleeves rolled up. She joined everyone in the front room where they were playing video games. She suspected Jack was still angry with her. “Who’s winning?” she asked timidly.

“Mark,”
Devon
answered. “He’s the best race car driver.”

Jack gripped his controller as he tried to force his car to go faster to the finish line. Mark won again, and Jack slapped his controller down on the sofa. “Damn it! I thought I had you that time.”

Mark grinned as he stepped in front of Jack. He said in a sing-song voice, “Be a good loser, and watch your language!”

Jack grabbed him around the waist and tickled him. “I’ll watch the language, if you try to be a good winner. Someone with less self-control than me is going to deck you when you come around dancing in his face like that.”

Crystal
snorted. “
Is
there someone with less self-control than you? Poor sap.”

Jack shot her an irritated look, but it changed to his devilishly handsome grin when he saw the teasing light in her eyes. “I think
you
need a lesson in good-sportsmanship…a lesson that involves snowballs.”

“I don’t
do
snowballs,” she insisted, but he grabbed her and pushed her toward the back door.

“Yeah, yeah, we know, we know. Coat and gloves are up to you. I might suggest them, it’s damn—I mean
darn
cold outside.” He smiled at the boys and tossed them their coats.

They grinned like pirates as
Crystal
reluctantly got into her coat and went out with them. The morning was bright and sunny. The snow crunched under their feet.

“Perfect day for a snowball fight.” Jack formed a snowball in his hands and chucked it lightly at her. “What do you say? You and Mark against me and Dev?”

“You’re crazy.” She just stood there and looked at him as he started making more snowballs and stacking them up.

“I told you, it’s been said before. You better get started. We’re going to vanquish you.”

Crystal
lit a cigarette. “How about we just surrender now? I have a feeling I’ll stay a lot drier that way.”

He grinned at the boys and shook his head. “Nope, sorry. Someone needs to teach you a little bit of a lesson.”

“Well, hell.” She muttered out of the corner of her mouth as her cigarette hung there, and grudgingly began making snowballs. “Come on, Mark. I don’t want to get all wet.”

“Hate to break it to you,” Jack grabbed her cigarette and took a drag from it, “but you’re going to get soaked.”

“Hit me with your best shot, detective.” She grabbed an armful of snowballs and ran from him.

He ground out the cigarette and called, “Let’s go, Dev. She asked for it.”

The snowballs flew fast and furiously after that. Everyone got soaked as the sun warmed things up just enough to make the snow slushy. Zeus ran among them, barking and jumping to get into the action. The boys laughed and rolled until they looked like miniature snowmen. Jack cornered
Crystal
with a handful of snow and she held her hands out. “Stop! Please! Don’t even think about it!”

He gave her a challenging look, but gave in and dropped the snow to the ground. “So you admit I’m the snowball king, and you’re no match for me?”

She dusted off her jeans and took a step back. “Hell, no, I’m just taking a breather.” She lit up a cigarette and leaned against the deck railing.

He grinned and leaned in for a hit off her smoke. “For a little gal, you have a stubborn streak in you a mile wide. Where’d you get that from? Your mama? Your daddy? Hmm?”

She chuckled. “Well, my mama is a drunken doormat, so probably not from her. My real daddy walked out when I was three months old, so I guess he gave me the gift of knowing when to cut your losses and take off.”

Jack winced. “Sorry I brought it up.”

She shrugged. “You told me once that you wanted to know. So, let’s see…Stepfather Number One taught me that life is best managed with pills and alcohol. And when things get to be too much, the right combination of said items will make it all go away.”

She could see she was making Jack uncomfortable, but she couldn’t seem to stop talking. “And then Stepfather Number Two taught me that when mama’s screaming got really bad, I should call 911 and hide under my bed. It was shallow enough that he couldn’t reach me if I scooted all the way back to the wall.”

“Crys…” Jack touched her arm but she took a step away from him.

“Now Stepfather Number Three, he was something. He didn’t get the chance to teach me what he wanted. See Jack, he wanted to teach me how to become a woman. I managed to avoid him for a while, but the night I couldn’t anymore I ended up smacking the crap out of him with my clock radio and climbing out the window. When I went home the next day, my mother was furious with me for making up such a story. I was fourteen years old. I left that day and haven’t been back. As far as I know she’s still married to the pervert.”

Jack winced again and looked at the boys, who were playing with Zeus nearby. “Uh, gee, Crys. Maybe we should save this conversation for another time.”

She smiled over at the boys and then asked Jack, “What? You think they’re too little to know about this stuff? You’d be amazed what they’ve learned in their short years. You see, we’re the same, them and me. We come from the same kind of people. People you don’t know anything about.”

“I’ve been a cop for eighteen years. You think I haven’t seen my share of abusive households?”

She took a drag on her cigarette and looked at him. “But have you ever
lived
in one? See, that’s the difference between us, Jack, and it’s a biggie. I’m not sure we can overcome it.”

“I disagree. You got out of there, and you’ve turned your life around. Now you have the opportunity to do the same thing for them.” He nodded at the two kids. “It sounds like you’ve got every right to be angry, Crys, and bitter as hell. But if you can get past that—just let it go—don’t you see how much you have to offer these guys?”

She snorted and took another hit on her cigarette before grinding it out under her shoe. “I’ve got nothing to offer them,” she muttered and shook her head.

Jack reached out and touched her cheek. “You are wrong. You’ve got everything to offer them. Everything they want, and everything they need.” He glanced at the boys and back at her. “They want you, Crys. They love you. I can see it in their faces. Why can’t you?”

She shrugged off his touch and walked over to where the boys tossed a ball to the dog. “You guys look frozen. Think we should go in and get dry clothes?”

“I’m not cold!” Mark insisted, but his nose was red and cheeks flushed.

“I know, I know.” She put an arm around each of them and led them to the house. “Humor me, I’m cold. Come inside with me?”

“Sure
Crystal
.”
Devon
hugged her leg.

She looked back at Jack, who still leaned against the deck and watched them thoughtfully. “You coming?” she asked.

“Right behind you.” He stopped to towel off the wet dog and then helped her get the boys changed into dry clothes.

Inside Jack’s room,
Crystal
looked through his closet for another sweatshirt. “I need to do some laundry. Things are getting desperate here.” She found a shirt and pulled it over her head, and then watched him grab the hamper and shove his wet clothes in it.

“Let’s gather it all up and we’ll do it now.”

She gave him a small smile. “Yeah?” She had never met a man willing to help with the laundry. Sure, Jack had done it once, but that was before.
Crystal
generally found relationships changed after ‘the deed’ was done.

He looked at her and shrugged. “What? It’s just laundry.”

She shrugged back and tossed her towel into the hamper. She glanced out to where the boys were and then back at him quickly. “So you really think I have what they need?”

He smiled slowly at her and replied, “I
know
you have what they need. You just have to convince yourself of that fact.” He carried the hamper out the door in front of her and added in an offhand tone, “I also know you have what
I
need. I guess it’s up to me
to convince you of
that
.”

Crystal
followed him, not really aware she was smiling until she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the boys’ room as she picked up their laundry. “Hell’s bells,” she muttered to herself, and wondered why she felt so happy.

* * * *

The phone rang after dinner and Jack answered, “Dunlevy.”

“Hey Dunlevy, this is Brady Marshall. I was going over the file and had a couple questions. Is this a bad time?”

“No, it’s fine. Shoot.”

“This Ralph Prescott, the homeless guy, did you question him after that first day?”

“I’ve spoken with him several times. After the Erickson apartment was vandalized I questioned him, but he didn’t see anything.”

“He hangs around by the front door all day, and didn’t see anyone unusual come or go?”

“He’s pretty simple,
Marshall
. I’m not sure how much he understands. And he does leave occasionally, usually to eat at Sister Theresa’s shelter a couple blocks south.”

Jack heard
Marshall
shuffling papers. “According to Ms. Cartwright’s statement, Manny was the regular homeless guy at her building. He dies and Ralph takes over, is that what I’m hearing?”

“I suppose it works that way,” Jack granted. “Some of those homeless people can be pretty territorial.”

“Nobody thinks it’s odd that Ralph showed up with the dead body and has stayed ever since?”

“Not really. What are you getting at,
Marshall
?”

“Just trying to figure out who’s a suspect and who’s an innocent bystander. It seems to me Ralph may know more than he’s saying. You wrote that Ms. Cartwright gave him sandwiches and food. Maybe somebody else is giving him something, too.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “Maybe. Honestly, I never thought too much about Ralph. Like I said, he’s a pretty simple guy.”

“Well, that’s why I’m here, buddy boy, to provide a fresh set of eyes and perhaps some objectivity. Reeder tells me you’re involved with the Cartwright woman.”

“Reeder is an ignorant, arrogant stooge,” Jack replied.

Marshall
chuckled. “He didn’t use those exact words about you, but the sentiment was similar.”

“I’m sure. Well, you’re just going to have to figure out for yourself whom to trust. I’m not the most popular guy in the department these days, but at least I know my ass from a hole in the ground. I’m not sure Reeder does anymore, unless there’s a captain or some media personality watching.”

“I’ve already got Reeder pegged,”
Marshall
conceded. “I think you’re the man to trust, unless I get into this and discover you’ve lost all impartiality.”

“I don’t think I have. It
is
very important to me to keep this family safe, though, that’s my priority. But you can trust me.”

“I thought so. A word to the wise, if I may be so bold. Watch your back where Melanie Curtis is concerned. I’m not sure what bug she’s got up her butt—she and Reeder were talking about you, and not favorably. I think she’d like for you to be yanked so she could have this case.”

“Not going to happen. She’s welcome to help, but this is my case.”

“Damn shame she’s so two-faced. She’s got the most bodacious set of ta-ta’s I’ve seen in a long time.”

Jack rubbed his face and laughed. “You are welcome to them, Marshall. But like you said, watch yourself.”

Marshall
snickered. “I guess you’ve got your hands on your own bodacious set of ta-ta’s. That Ms. Cartwright is not only an enigma, but quite a looker.”