PENITENCE: An Andi Comstock Supernatural Mystery, Book 2 (95,893 words) (22 page)

. . .

Jack called to say he’d be late picking Andi up. “No worries. I’m at Father Riley’s. He was just saying he could give me a ride over to the rental car place. I’ll go ahead and do that and maybe you can stop by later and we’ll watch a movie or whatever.”

“I like the whatever part,” he said, his tone ripe with suggestion, “but I thought you were going to stop by and see your folks after you get the rental car.”

“I don’t plan to stay there too long. Mom will be hovering over me like she’s Florence Nightingale or something. I love her to pieces, but all that fussing, and probably lecturing, will drive me bananas quicker than you can spell hitman. ”

Jack laughed. “I’ll pick up a pizza and some beer, so don’t cook anything.”

“That sounds good. See you later.” She disconnected and glanced at Father Riley. “You fed me lunch, so please relax and let me do the clean-up.” She surveyed the kitchen. “Not that you leave much to do. I’m always impressed by what a tidy cook you are.”

“Learned it from my mother,” he said. “Clean as you go and you are much happier at the end of the meal.”

Andi cleared the table and rinsed everything before loading the dishwasher. “Thanks again for feeding me. I had no idea I was that hungry until I smelled your soup. I’d love to have the recipe.”

He chuckled. “I didn’t use a recipe, exactly. I start with the low-sodium chicken broth, then throw in whatever I have on hand. Today, it was a can of diced tomatoes, some frozen corn, leftover chicken, a small can of green chiles, half a cup of cooked macaroni, and a few spices.”

“I think I can remember that. The thing is, will it taste as good as yours?”

“Have faith, and it will.”

“You’re going to Dell’s on Sunday for the game, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I never miss a Super Bowl. It was kind of him to invite me.”

“What are you taking?”

“Haven’t decided yet. Is he partial to something in particular?”

“He has his favorites. Since you shared a recipe with me, I’ll share one of his favorites with you, if you like.”

“Long as it doesn’t involve Julia Child culinary skills, I’d love to try it.”

“It’s easy and I guarantee all the animals there will love it.”

Father Riley laughed. “Animals? Is that any way to talk about our firefighting heroes?”

. . .

Andi wasn’t enamored with the vehicle they gave her at the rental agency, but she supposed beggars couldn’t be choosers, especially on a Friday afternoon after your own car had been pulverized and you were getting the last car on the lot. Riley waited to make sure everything was in working order with the rental before he climbed back into his own car. She thanked him for giving her a ride and watched after him with fondness as he drove away.

With much trepidation, she restarted the Ford Focus and took a few minutes to familiarize herself with the dashboard before she belted up and left the lot.

Every cell in her body was wound so tight, she feared she’d
boing
away at the slightest provocation.

It wasn’t that the car wasn’t clean and comfortable. It was more that she soon discovered she was scared to death to even be driving.

By the time she arrived at her parents’ house, she was stricken with uncontrollable shakes that had nothing to do with the outside temperature. She jacked up the heat and waited until it became uncomfortably warm before she shut off the engine. After several deep, calming breaths, she trekked up to the front porch to give her parents the news about her crash, praying they wouldn’t freak out.

. . .

Ninety minutes later, Andi shut off the engine and willed herself, once again, to calm down. She was okay. She’d made it home without incident. Her parents hadn’t freaked out, but they had been concerned. They examined what they could see of her from head-to-toe and seemed to be satisfied that she was okay. As her mother often pointed out to Andi, she was never too old to scold or fuss over.

Everything would remain copacetic as long as her folks never got to see what was left of her car. If that time ever came, well, the you-know-what would hit the fan.

It wasn’t like she’d actually lied about the condition of the car when she told them it was totaled. Her dad had totaled a car once when he’d hauled something in a rental trailer and hit a bump that threw the rear of the car against the curb, knocking the rear axel out of whack. When the insurance company said your car was totaled, that was the end of the story. You shouldn’t have to explain its new life as a musical instrument.

Crisis averted. All she had to do now was make it up the stairs and into her apartment. Her legs had held her this far, but the quivering in her extremities, which began with the purr of the engine starting up, just wouldn’t seem to stop.

She climbed out of the car and locked the door.

That was when she noticed that the lights were on in her living room.

Andi hesitated t
o
call Jack. He’d phoned earlier and said he’d be late picking her up for a reason. That reason was work. He was on a case.

She didn’t want to call her dad or Father Riley, either. Though both were in fine physical condition, they were still past their prime fighting days.

That left Dell. He’d worked yesterday, and the day before, so he could have Super Bowl Sunday off. Unless he’d switched shifts with someone, he should be off and available to come play hero for her.

She pulled out her phone and with trembling fingers, speed-dialed him.

“Hey,” he said. “Where the heck are you?”

“At my building. Someone’s…someone’s in my apartment. I need you to—”

His laughter cut her off. “Andi, it’s me! I’m in your apartment. I came by to see if I could help you with anything, but you weren’t here, so I invited myself in. I’m afraid I fell asleep on the couch.”

“Geez, Dell, you scared the crap out of me! I thought someone had broken in.”

“Sorry, kid.” After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Is this about last night and the fact that someone deliberately hit you?”

“More or less,” she said, walking toward the stairs. “I’ll fill you in when I get there.”

She was half-way up when her door opened. Dell stepped out onto the landing to greet her.

“You ever do that to me again and I’ll give you a good swift kick in the ass,” she said, passing him by.

“Nice to see you, too,” he said, his tone injured. He watched in silence as she threw her purse on the counter and removed her coat to hang in the closet. With his hands planted on his hips, he said, “Why don’t you tell me what the hell is going on.”

Andi didn’t know if she had the energy to dredge up everything again and repeat it to someone who, basically, was coming to the party halfway through. All she’d wanted to do on the heels of discussing things with Father Riley was to sit down and make a list of what she knew and what she didn’t know, and instead, certain that her brother would rat her out if she didn’t, she’d gone, as promised, to tell her folks about the crash.

She couldn’t very well ignore her blackmailing sibling now with him fussing over her. Better to get through the wellness check and send him on his way. Much as she loved Dell, she wanted him gone by the time Jack arrived so they could get on with the promised
whatever.

“Want a beer?”

“Already had one. That’s probably what put me to sleep. Where’ve you been?”

“At Mom and Dad’s, telling them about last night.”

“That’s a relief. I didn’t want to have to be the bearer of bad news.”

“I didn’t tell them everything.”

He narrowed his eyes on her. “What did you leave out?”

“I might have not said it was deliberate and I might not have told them exactly what kind of shape my car is in.”

“Two unimportant elements of the story,” he noted, his tone a teensy bit snide and a lot facetious.

“I also didn’t tell them you went to the hospital with me.”

He started.

“Yeah,” she said, “I saved your butt from having to explain why
you
didn’t call them last night.” She could tell by his expression that he hadn’t thought about that aspect of things.

“I guess I should thank you.”

“I guess you should.”

“I think you owe me an explanation about what’s really going on.”

Her eyes darted around the room as she searched her mind for any excuse
not
to make explanations to him.

“Look, if you don’t want to talk, I get it. I have this squirrelly feeling it has something to do with you hearing dead people, which, by the way, makes me think of
Sixth Sense
for the blind every time I think about it.”

Andi couldn’t help herself. She grinned at the absurdity of his statement.

His eyes twinkling, he said, “Yeah, that’s right, go ahead and make fun of the only brother you have and one who’s never talked to any ghost, ever.”

“I referred to one of them as a ghost just today. Father Riley thinks I should refrain from calling them that to their faces.”

“Do ghosts have a face?”

“Only if they’re Casper.”

“You are such a smart ass, Andi.”

“I know, Dell. You’ve been an excellent role model for me in that regard.”

He smirked. “Touché.” He plopped down on the sofa, studying her with that all-knowing expression he sometimes adopted. “You know, Mom’s not done with this by a long shot.”

Andi remained silent. It always ticked her off when he went into Edgar Cayce mode.

“She won’t give up until she ferrets out if this has something to do with your Smokies.”

“They not
my
Smokies,” she retorted, but didn’t continue the rebuttal because her phone belted out the theme from
Sound of Music
.

She slid a sideways glance at Dell, who grinned his I-told-you-so grin. She stuck her tongue out at him, like she had since she was a kid, and went to retrieve her phone from her purse before she settled in on the other end of the sofa. “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, sweetie. I got so caught up in your car-crash story, I forgot to firm up the time and place for our evening out with Natalie on Sunday.”

“Oh, gosh, me, too!”

They worked out time and location, then Cate said, “I’d better go, honey. I have a casserole in the oven and I need to take it out.” After a brief pause, she said, “Andi? You’re sure you’re all right?”

“Honest, Mom, I’m fine. I have a little bit of a bruise across my chest from the seatbelt, but otherwise, I could run the four-minute mile in my usual twelve minutes.”

That got a laugh out of both her mom and her brother.

“Is that Dell there with you?”

“Yep.”

“Let me talk to him.”

Andi handed over the phone reluctantly and listened, somewhat bemused as Dell answered their mother’s questions with adept evasion. No wonder he’d always gotten away with so much growing up! He was a born prevaricator.

Before he said goodbye, Dell accepted an invite to join his parents for dinner, then handed the phone back to Andi. “Mom,” she said, “go take your casserole out before it’s inedible.”

“Tell your brother not to dally. Dinner will get cold.”

“I will. See you on Sunday.” She disconnected before her mother could further extend the conversation. To Dell, she said, “Mom said to haul balls over there before the food gets cold.”

Dell shot her a sly look. “Your desire to see me off so soon wouldn’t have anything to do with Jack coming over, would it?”

“That is none of your beeswax.”

He grinned. “You never could deflect worth a damn, Andi. Besides, Jack already declined my earlier invite to grab a burger and a brewsky at the pub. Said he had to babysit you.”

“He did not!” Andi pushed herself up off the sofa, hoping to hurry his exit along. “Not everyone likes to hang out with a bunch of overgrown boys trading fire stories over dinner in a bar.”

Dell laughed. “You are so easy to rile.” He went to the closet and withdrew his coat. “You know, it’s likely the folks will interrogate me about your crash over dinner. And it’s also likely that Dad will take a run out to the place where crashed cars go to die just to see how bad yours looks.”

Andi hadn’t thought about that. “You think it would be better if I came clean and told them a homicidal maniac is after me?”

Her brother stared at her in shock. “What?”

Too late, she realized that he wasn’t privy to
all
the details of last night’s events, since he worked for the fire department not the police department.

“Sit your butt down and tell me what’s going on, little sister. And don’t leave out a single damned detail.”

Andi gave Dell the annotated version of the story, primarily so she wouldn’t reveal things that would require boatloads of additional explanation. He took it all in with a serious, if sometimes appalled, expression, asking questions along the way for clarification.

In the end, he surprised her by saying, “Maybe you should find another job.”

“Why would I do that?” Then she remembered she hadn’t yet told him she’d become a partner in Orion’s Belt. She proceeded to enlighten him.

“Shit, Andi, what
else
is going on that I don’t know about? Congratulations, kid! That’s amazing!”

She gave herself a mental pat on the back for deflecting more conversation about the Smokies. “Thanks, Dell. I’m pretty excited about it myself, although it hasn’t completely sunk in yet.”

“I can see why you wouldn’t want to find another job, but hell’s bells, are you sure you can live with having dead people drag you into the messes they left behind? I mean, this is twice now, right? In just six months.”

“Sherry didn’t leave a mess behind, she was murdered, remember?”

“True, but trying to trap her killer put you in big pot of Santería shite, didn’t it?”

Andi couldn’t argue with that, since she’d ended up in the hospital trying to save Jack.

. . .

Andi’s mom only called once more to find out where Dell was. He’d been gone almost ten minutes by then, so he should be close to walking through her parents’ front door any minute. “Oh, here he is!” Cate said, and hung up without saying goodbye.

Andi took a few minutes to freshen up before Jack arrived, then turned on the gas fireplace and started the CD player, choosing some romantic music. One complete disc played through and still Jack hadn’t arrived.

She lit a couple of candles in the bedroom and turned down the covers on the bed. She also put the oven on
WARMING
so the pizza wouldn’t get cold if they did
whatever
first.

Andi wondered if Jack would spend the night and if he did, whether or not he’d have to leave early to work on his day off. She’d rather spend Saturday with him, but just in case she couldn’t, she formulated a plan to keep herself occupied that would involve spending the day indoors, safe and warm in her apartment. And not driving.

While she was thinking of it, she emailed the recipe to Father Riley, as promised. Her family referred to it as crab dip, but it was actually made with Krab, and everyone liked it better than the version with real crab flakes.

By seven-thirty, she began to wonder if Jack had been unable to get away from work. Usually, when that happened, he called to say he’d either be there late or not at all. The schedule of a cop was uncertain, at best, especially when people were out to do their worst to other people.

Finally, at 7:45 he arrived. The pizza was piping hot and so was Jack. He put the pizza and beer on the table and laid a big fat kiss on her. He started walking her backward down the hall, but she protested.

“Pizza into the oven to keep warm, beer in the fridge.”

She took care of the pizza. He got the beer.

In minutes, they were in Andi’s bed.

An hour later, they were enjoying the pizza, even though by then, it was slightly over-cooked.

. . .

Jack did have to work on Saturday, and he didn’t spend the night, but he’d done a fine job of compensating for it until after midnight, so Andi couldn’t complain.

She went back to sleep after he left and didn’t wake again until almost ten. She got up and had a leisurely breakfast, then took a leisurely shower, and after that, decided to climb back into her pajamas for a leisurely afternoon, since she no plans to go out.

By noon, she was at the desk in her home office, sipping her second cup of coffee. While she waited for the laptop to boot up, she closed her eyes and said a prayer to St. Jude. By the end of the day, she hoped to have an accurate timeline of events, names of all the players, their connections to each other, and an inventory of questions that needed answers.

Creation of a calendar came first. It included dates from January 19, which was the first day Clem had spoken to her, through February 8, which was the last date Clem had given his hitman to kill Denise. She circled all the dates in the alibi window of opportunity: January 27 and 28 and February 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8, then squinted at the abbreviated calendar to see if the circled dates presented some kind of clue, like a calendared Morse Code, or something. Nothing.

Today was February 6. Andi hadn’t spent any time wondering why the hitman had been otherwise occupied on Clem’s birthday three days earlier, but now that she thought about it, she was a little curious. Another hit job? A doctor’s appointment? A hot date? Or was it something as simple as he didn’t want to kill anyone that day?

After nearly an hour of pouring over the likelihood of the remaining two days being
the
day, Andi gave up on the calendar. Even so, it took the top spot on her question list, which she started in a new Word document. As she added names to a third document, she drew in lines to show connections. That list included Clem, Denise, The Liquidator, Seth and Marianne Deacon, Gus Benz, Vince Giustina, Davis and Helen MacLeary, and two parents from the school the Naylor children had attended, Sharon Traynor and Delbert Quincy. As an afterthought, she added Clem’s parents, Bert and Gayle, and Jim Hanson, Clem’s old friend who had invited him over to watch the Bowl game.