Sam flipped through the nightgowns on the rack. Nothing was calling out to her. Although she had more than enough tasteful nightgowns, she was looking for something a little warmer as winter approached. But a flannel nightgown buttoned up to the neck was not her cup of tea, not that she would ever find one at Jackie’s Boutique.
“Hey girlfriend, I have got just the thing for you.” Jackie sashayed over on five-inch Jimmy Choo heels.
“Sorry, thongs are not my thing.”
“Oh, pulleeze. Give me credit for knowing my Sam.” Jackie smiled her Whitney Houston smile, revealing a mouth of veneers that were blinding.
“I actually came in looking for bras.”
“Honey, I don’t sell training bras.” Jackie cackled, one hand flashing long talon nails pressed to her chest. Even the clerk behind the counter couldn’t keep from laughing.
Sam pointed at her chest. “Do these girls look like training bra material?”
“Well, honey, you’re still nursing. Of course they are going to be a little swollen.”
“I dried up and stopped nursing weeks ago but the girls won’t go down. I could swear my little girls are growing up.”
Jackie’s smile faded. Much to Sam’s surprise, her friend reached out and grabbed a breast in each of her hands.
“Hey!” Sam slapped her hands away. “What are you doing?”
“Girlfriend, you are pregnant.”
“What!? No way. I just haven’t started my period yet. I have been nursing you know. Besides, you can’t get pregnant while you’re nursing.”
Jackie folded her arms under her massive chest, long talons tapping impatiently. “Sez who?”
“Jake. Frank told him.”
“Wait.” Jackie’s eyes narrowed and she cocked her head in thought. “You mean Jake ‘keep her barefoot and pregnant’ Mitchell? That Jake?”
Sam thought for a moment. Had she read about it or did Jake tell her? Maybe Abby? She should get her period soon, right? “I read it somewhere, too,” she added as though trying to convince herself.
“Honey, you are looking at a woman who was conceived while her mama was breast feeding.”
“Me too,” the clerk added.
“No, you have to be wrong. I’m just growing, that’s all. Some women do get bigger after a baby.” A web of fear clawed its way up Sam’s spine. She couldn’t saddle Abby with another baby, nor Jake. The hell with them. She couldn’t saddle herself with another one this soon.
Jackie steered Sam toward another rack. “These bras just came in. They are Vera Wang’s latest in a variety of colors. Why don’t you select a couple different sizes and go try them on. There are also some new lounge suits, nightshirts and nightgowns from Karen Neuburger.” She weaved through the racks until she came to a display of sleep tees. She held one up. “Now on nights that are frigid you can turn on that fireplace of yours and snuggle up to that hunk of a husband you have. These tees are easy on, easy off.” Jackie loved to see Sam blush. “Go, have fun, try everything on.”
Sam grabbed several selections and headed to the dressing room. She hung the garments up on the hook, meanwhile shoving Jackie’s words out of her head. Sam wasn’t feeling any morning sickness. But then she remembered how Abby had made hot chocolate this morning, and for the past week Abby has made sure Sam had a glass of orange juice with her breakfast, something Sam neglected to do on a routine basis. And what was with the vitamin pill Abby placed next to Sam’s plate every morning? Was Sam projecting some motherly glow she herself didn’t see?
Sam dismissed all thoughts and quickly stripped off her sweater and bra. The Vera Wang bras were keepers as was the lounging suit. She looked at herself in the mirror. It hadn’t taken her long to get back to her pre-pregnant size. She studied her face. Was she breaking out? No, complexion was still clear, eyes bright. Were her cheeks flushed? Did she have that certain glow people said pregnant women have? “Stop it,” she scolded herself. She gathered up her purchases and headed for the register.
“You must be new,” Sam said.
“Calista Carr. I don’t know a thing about fashion but Jackie liked the sound of my name.” Calista wore her flaming red hair in a Buster Brown hair cut. Her peaches and cream skin accented her Kelly green eyes. She had never seen eyes so vibrant and assumed they were contact lenses. For claiming not to know a thing about fashion, Calista looked dressed for a runway.
“Don’t let her fool you.” Jackie sidled up carrying a plastic bag in her hand. “She has a flare for style and an eye for color.”
“Is that all for you, Sam?” Calista took Sam’s purchases and ran the scanner across the tags.
“I don’t think so.” Jackie placed the bag on the counter in front of Sam.
“What’s this?”
“A little something you can do for me.”
Puzzled, Sam opened the package to find a pregnancy test. “Oh, stop, Jackie.” While Sam was in the dressing room Jackie must have sent Calista two doors down to the pharmacy.
“It will take you all of a few minutes. Come come.” She dragged Sam to the back of the store and up the stairs to Jackie’s living quarters. “Let’s just get this over with before you have a chance to change your mind.”
“You know this is utterly ridiculous.”
“Then prove me wrong.”
Sam smelled fresh cut flowers from the vase on the table. Jackie’s condo was tastefully decorated in black enamel, chrome and glass. Red throw pillows and a red love seat added a contrasting color. “Whoa.” She paused in front of a huge painting of Jackie wearing nothing more than a white thong, white hooker heels and white feathery wings. Sam remembered this portrait. In order to keep a suspect occupied in an art class so Sam could snoop in his dorm room, she had talked Jackie into modeling for the class. Jackie was able to keep the best of the portraits as a gift for Lamon. “I think I’m scarred for life.”
Jackie picked up a remote and pressed a button. A sheet of paneling with a landscape painting on it dropped down from the ceiling, concealing the portrait of Jackie. She flicked a hand through her head of Donna Summer hair. “I do like Lamon to see every morning what he’ll be missing during the day.” She and Captain Robinson had been dating for almost a year.
Sam shook the image of Jackie’s gargantuan breasts out of her mind and headed off to the bathroom. After several minutes she heard nails rapping on the door.
“What’s taking you so long? Don’t you go flushing those results down the toilet, sugar.”
Sam came out of the bathroom with the results behind her back. She didn’t have to say anything. The results were written all over her face, if one could interpret fear and denial as a positive sign. “You know these tests are not always accurate.”
Jackie waved her hands in a gimme gesture. Sam whipped the test strip from behind her back. “Are you happy?”
Jackie squealed with delight but Sam still wasn’t smiling. She shoved another package at Sam. “I knew you wouldn’t believe the results so I had Calista buy three tests. Here’s number two.”
“I don’t have to go.”
“Take it with you.”
“No!” Sam pushed her hand away. “I don’t want Jake to see it.”
“Tomorrow at nine o’clock sharp you be back here for test number two.”
Sam’s phone rang. She checked the screen but didn’t recognize the number. She held up a finger for Jackie to be quiet. “Sam Casey.” Sam listened as a man with a very nice voice told her he was given her number by Captain Robinson.
<><>
They walked into Robinson’s office to find him tossing sunflower seeds onto the window sill. “Don’t say it,” Robinson grumbled.
“Didn’t say a word,” although a chuckle was leaking out from Frank’s throat. “It is hard not to warm up to the little guys. Think it’s those beady little eyes.”
“Well, those beady eyes give me nightmares about being pecked to death. I should bring in Cleo, Jackie’s cat, and set her out on the window sill. See how quick these feathered rodents come around.”
“So why the change of heart?” Jake slapped his notepad on the desk and took a seat.
Robinson cranked the window shut and sighed. “I’m embarrassed to say they saved my ass earlier.” He sank into his plush, custom-made chair.
“Have anything to do with your visitor?” Jake remembered the look on the captain’s face when Scofield had announced a visitor.
“Forrest Johnson. His wife committed suicide two months ago and he is having a hard time accepting it. He was in here just about every day after her death trying to convince us not to close her case.”
“Who worked it?” Frank asked.
“The baby dicks.” Andy Brainard and Maury Jackson were referred to as the baby dicks behind their backs. They were the youngest detectives and booted up the ladder faster than one could say Master’s degree. “I personally made sure Andy and Maury had a good case. The two were sympathetic to Mister Johnson’s feelings but after coming here four days in a row to rehash the case, I took him under my wing, thought maybe hearing it from a higher up would convince him.”
“It didn’t?” Jake asked.
“Nah. All it did was cut down his visits to twice a week. I got him hooked up with a support group but it’s tough. He’s got the cutest little girl, too. Breaks my heart.” He flicked his gaze to Jake and was almost guilty when he said, “I tossed him Sam’s way.”
“Sam will have to reach deep for her inner bitch to keep from having her heart strings tugged.”
Frank chuckled. “I don’t think Sam has to reach that deep.”
This made Robinson bark out a laugh, a little too long and a little too loud. Jake didn’t have a retort. “What did you find at the apartment?”
Jake filled him in on Vi Lasky’s tenant, how the photo does show a similarity to the victim’s age, size, and hair color. “We dropped off the hair brush at Benny’s and Donna’s phone book had a number for a dentist. Benny is going to contact the dentist to get a copy of the X-rays. Vi said Donna drove some type of sports car but it wasn’t parked anywhere near the building.”
“Probably missing, too,” Robinson said, “unless she did take a drive to Indy. If Benny does give us a positive I.D., then head over to that place where she worked and talk to the manager and anyone who knew her, see if we can run down the boyfriend.”