Lie Catchers (26 page)

“A break for us.”

“But not healthy for her, sir. Not unless you can send me more help so we can protect her properly.”

“No chance. You’re lucky to have Nilson.” He paused.

Parker could almost hear Oldshack’s synapses firing.
Don’t ask me to use her, you old fart.

Oldshack cleared his throat. “Well, shit, if she refuses to leave, I’d go with Nilson’s idea and use her. Could you put out the word she’s got some dates in her head that could prove someone guilty?”

Damn you!

“Ask her. Nilson says she’s willing and we’re desperate enough to ask a civilian for help if she’ll give it. Isn’t her brother the chief in town? He’ll pull out all the stops to protect her.”

Rain pelted on the porch roof, irritating, like his boss’s demand. Also persistent was Liv’s voice: “Ask for my help. I have the right to refuse or accept. But ask me.”

****

“We use her. Good.” Nilson said. He popped out of his office chair and joined Parker at the window. “She wants to help, Browne. Use her. After Barber manhandled her, on the verge of choking her, she’s motivated.”

Parker felt his father’s eyes on him. Ivor didn’t look up from the papers in front of him, but Parker could tell Liv’s brother was listening. “I asked her to leave town.”

Ivor made a guttural noise. “Won’t go. Ever.”

Turning to Nilson, Parker asked, “What’s with the sudden belief in Liv. You’ve said from the beginning she’s a hostile; what’s more, you used to have her high on the suspect list.”

Nilson hesitated. “She’s…she…I…we’re desperate. We’ve got to kickstart this case, take a new approach. Remember,” he said, abruptly, pointing to the wall of suspects. “None of our standard methods work.”

Parker stared at the murder board, reminded of the impeccable order in Liv’s closet. Attention to detail. “Ivor, what do you think?”

“I think I screwed up with her when we were kids. She tried to explain to me her way of keeping track of things and I told her to keep quiet about it. Maybe I was jealous. Could be I was afraid the other kids would tease me about having a weird sister. I don’t know my reasons. But I think I was wrong.” He wiped his hand over his forehead. “I owe her my support, even if I think it’s dangerous.”

“Chet?” Parker asked, knowing his father was thinking about Bernadette, as he was.

“I’ve never met a smarter woman than Liv, except for your mother, of course.” Chet smiled. “But I have the sense that she’s precocious, only beginning to see what she can do with her date savvy. She calls herself a lie catcher, as if it were a lifelong burden. I think it’s time she used it, had fun with it, got help with it. All I know is, I wish I had it.”

And no one in this room has seen her closet except for me. They see the value of her skill without the tangible proof of what I saw. Why am I dragging my feet?

Chet cleared his throat, his father’s eyes telling Parker that Chet knew he was thinking of Bernie. “Son, she’s a grown adult with an unusual brain. Let her use it.”

Nilson nodded, as did Ivor.

“I’ll talk to her alone, first, laying out the dangers so she has one more chance to take the next flight out of here. If she still wants to help, I’ll eventually bring her into this room where we can all map our action plan.” Parker looked at his watch. “She’s about finished with her writing. I’ll go see her now.”

“Want me to talk to her?” Nilson asked. “I think she likes me better than she likes you. Or Ivor. Since he fucked up when they were kids, maybe he should be the one to persuade her to help us.”

“No. I should be the one. I’m lead, and she’ll get the bald truth from me since I don’t like the idea at all.” He gave Nilson the raised eyebrow. “
You
might sugarcoat it.”

Nilson waved Parker away. “Fine. Go. Now.”

Chet said, “Call me when you’re done. I’ll come over to the store and start my watch.”

“Will do, Dad. Nilson, I want an update on the Caymans when I get back. I asked Oldshack to pressure the lab for the tox report. Ivor, could you to go back to Susanna and figure out if the abortion story is true? How about we meet back here in two hours when I may or may not have Liv with me.”

Parker looked at his watch, dreading his next moments with Liv. He’d be setting a dangerous course for her, much like he’d done for Bernie.

A Conflict of Cultures

(The Murder of Sing Lee: A Retrospective

by Liv Hanson)

“I trusted many to my sorrow, so pay me now and I’ll trust tomorrow.”

Gus focused on Sing Lee’s message carved into a wood sign over the Country Store counter, imagining the myriad of ways the old man’s Chinese culture differed from the rough and tumble lives of Petersburg’s Norwegians. Lee would strive for collective harmony and reliance on the lessons of the past, in a town with absolutely no history. Saving face mattered more to Sing Lee than anything, so he wouldn’t comment on the chaotic world of a fishing village full of rugged individualists who were building a community from the muddy ground up. So when and with whom would Sing Lee take a stand, allowing his Chinese culture to take precedence over the rowdy, anarchist mess in Petersburg?

When people asked him for money. That’s when!

Damn! Gus snapped his fingers. Damn!

He waited patiently for the store to empty out before he collared the store manager. “Alf, I’ve got an idea. Now, we couldn’t find a list of people your boss gave money to, that’s a fact. Any idea which people asked Sing Lee for money and he refused them?”

The man put his hand to his skinny jaw. “Tough question, Marshal. First of all I wasn’t here every time a person approached him; second, it’s been happening for thirty years and my memory is lousy.”

“Right. Of course. Forget names. Do you remember any of the reasons why Lee refused to give money away?”

Alf leaned his elbows on the counter, his brows furrowed. “You think one of those people killed him?”

“It’s a theory.”

Nodding Alf said, “He gave away money for medical needs, to help a person keep a roof over his head and get food in his belly, stuff like that.”

“Okay. Keep going.”

Warming to the task, Alf said. “Once he helped a kid get home to his family because the boy’s father was dying. Hell, he helped me buy a wedding ring, but I paid him back.”

Gus summarized as he wrote in his notebook. “Food, medical, family, shelter. For marriage.”

“He wasn’t political, Gus. Not interested in making donations or taking stands.”

“Anything else?”

“Schooling or training of some sort.”

“Education.”

“Boys,” Alf added.

“He didn’t give money to girls for education?”

“I heard him refuse a girl who couldn’t afford school.”

“Male-dominated culture,” Gus mused aloud.

“Girls…women didn’t come asking. Or rarely.”

“In a town where women run the place, hmm?” Gus wrote down ‘hierarchy.’

Alf shrugged. “I don’t think women run anything in China.”

Tipping up his paper so Alf couldn’t see his next notation, Gus wrote ‘Ask Greta. She knows.’

****

“Why are you here?” Liv asked, shocked at seeing Parker in her entryway. “We’re not supposed to be alone, are we?”

He smiled. “I have the blessings of Ivor and Nilson, appointed to tell you the unvarnished truth about the mess we’re in.”

She stepped back, befuddled, while Parker shut the door, took off his coat and hung it in the closet. Thoughts of offering coffee and sweets flew from her thoughts when she took in his earnest, open expression, his face ruddy and hair askew from the wind and rain. When her breasts tingled at the memory of his hands on them, he grinned as if he read her mind.
I think he’s glad to be with me, almost to the point of gleeful, not holding back like he did on the boat. Has he changed his mind about me?
“Unvarnished truth?”

He turned to the dining room window, and inclined his head toward the drawn curtains. “We’ll keep those closed. I came in through the back, with a key I got from Ivor. I don’t think anyone saw me in the alley.” Parker glanced at the sofa, then at her two cushioned chairs. “Could we sit together on the couch, Liv? I don’t have much time to get your answers.”

Liv shot him an incredulous look. “Answers? I thought you wanted me to stay out of the investigation.”

He smiled as he came toward her. “Luminous, was the word on my mind when I saw you at Lito’s Landing.”

“What?” She backed away, confused by his switch from a business proposal to mention of a past event.

Parker pulled her to the couch, sat down with her and held her hands. “The first night I saw you dancing. Your pretty blonde hair, the sparkle of your jewelry, your sense of abandon. I said to myself that your partner was a lucky guy, but I was instantly jealous of him.”

Liv shivered at the thought of Tuck’s maliciousness. “No need to be jealous of Tuck Barber.”

“I’ve thought a lot about what would have happened to us if you hadn’t been shot in Sing Lee Alley that night.”

“You have?”

“Do you think about it, Liv?”

Given the intensity of his gaze, she could only nod.

He gave her a little smile. “I do, all the time. That night, as we walked together toward the Alley, I repeated to myself: Don’t go up to Liv’s apartment; leave her at the store entrance. But down deep, I knew I wouldn’t listen to my conscience. So, regularly, I replay what would have happened if you hadn’t been shot.”

“Me, too.” The bubble in her throat hurt so much she couldn’t swallow.

He drew his thumb across her knuckles. “My scenes are…um…graphic.”

Liv shook her head, “Mine are more.”

With a grin, Parker said, “Ah, yes, you’re the writer. But I like mine, the way they play out.” He stroked her cheek, but his eyes were on her lips.

She couldn’t help but lick her bottom lip. His gaze sharpened.

His open affection for her was unsettling. Hadn’t they agreed to stick to cold cases, not turn up the heat on a dead-end relationship? What happened to ‘unvarnished truths’?

Parker’s forehead furrowed as if he read her mind. “Come on, Liv. Let’s talk about our dreams.”

Mesmerized by his eyes and the feel of his fingers trailing down her neck, she said, “That night, we raced up the stairs to my apartment, but got no farther than the door before we…uh…we…”

He grinned. “Oh, I like that. In mine, we start here, on this couch.” Cradling her face in his palms, he said, “I always begin with this, because I treasure your eyes, your lips. This nose.” He kissed the tip of it.

Before she could take a breath, he’d pulled her to his lap. She nestled her face next to his neck and breathed deeply. “I definitely have this scene in my dream. You smell so good to me, and it’s always warm and soft right here.”

He chuckled and she felt the vibration through her body.
This is better than my dream.
He captured her lips with his and they kissed tenderly, teasing and tentative. The memory of Parker’s passionate kissing in her dreams urged Liv on and she nipped his bottom lip.

Parker drew away for a moment, grinning. “That move is in my dream, Livy.” He hugged her tightly, turned her sideways and lay down with her on the couch. “Now comes one of my favorite dream chapters. Right here, right now. Like this.”

“Chapters? In a dream?”

He laughed. “Volumes. Get ready.” And then he kissed her and she kissed him. A sport. An art. A dreamy angling of mouths and arranging lips, nipping and sucking and tonguing, pushing and pulling.

She was dimly aware they were lying on the couch, and she could feel his arousal against her abdomen, hard and insistent. His hands cupped her breasts and she pulled back her arms, giving him more access. The desperation she felt for needing him to touch the skin of her breasts was verging on manic, matching her desire to plunge her hands under his shirt, under his belt. Everywhere! He kissed her while his fingers traveled under her sweater to her bra, a little growl signaling victory.

Clothes off.
Now!

And then a thought crept into her consciousness. How come they didn’t talk about business first? Why did he lead with “luminous” instead of “capturing killers?”

Parker wedged his fingers under her bra and she inhaled at the same time she arched up in anticipation. But her brain was busy, too, opening a file for her to see, of dates and times and statements straight from Parker’s mouth.

I can not love a woman who is involved in my work.

She gasped when he released her bra.

“Better than my dreams.” Parkerʼs hands encircled her breasts.

One light touch of his fingers on her nipples, and she panicked. “Parker!”

I can not love a woman who is involved in my work.

Think, Liv. Think!

But the dream propelled her and she unhooked his belt, consumed by the need to feel him.

“Parker?” she asked.

“Um?” He looked up from nuzzling her neck.

“If we do this, you won’t let me help, will you?”

Slowly, his expression turned from sexy to quizzical. “I thought we were working through our dreams.”

“You started this with the ‘luminous’ talk. Why wouldn’t you begin with the investigation and my part in it?”

He frowned, but Liv could tell that her observation hit home with him. Now regret filled his expression. “It wasn’t a plan, Liv. Premeditated. Until you made the point, I wasn’t aware…I didn’t mean…”

Smoothing his frown lines, she said, “If I checked in your pocket, I’d find a condom or two, wouldn’t I?”

His complexion pinked up. “After we created all that steam in Matt’s boat, I thought I better be prepared. You know, in case…I…we…”

“Your dream. My dream. Yes.”

Parker kissed her breasts, pulled her bra and sweater down and patted her stomach. He lay on his side facing her. “Your brain forces you to be objective.”

Liv kissed his nose. “Nothing objective in the way I feel about you, Parker. The power you have over me when you kiss me…” She sighed. “To play out our dreams? Heaven.”