THREE
A.J. AND SUZI showed up at the house about the same time. I’d spent all afternoon working on stuff for Adeline.
Is it weird I think of my job as working on stuff for Adeline, not actually a job?
I’d texted A.J. after the thing at Teagan’s office. I don’t remember exactly when, but we promised we wouldn’t turn away from each other when things go sideways. A.J. is really good at not pushing too hard but not backing away, either. It’s hard to explain. Probably because I don’t have that gene. I’m all in. All the time.
Or I used to be.
Maybe Teagan’s right.
“I’ve got dinner tonight.” Suzi was putting Evelyn in her booster chair, a Cheerio stuck to her cheek. Suzi’s, not Evelyn’s.
Suzi noticed and brushed off the Cheerio, pulling a face.
I laughed. “I think it was on the baby’s head, and you were cross contaminated.”
“I get cross contaminated a lot.”
“Are we going out?”
“I’m cooking.”
A.J. had just made it through the doorway. The look on A.J.’s face was adorable. Panic mixed with a little nausea and an overriding patina of pride.
“Sounds great. Yell if you need me. I’m gonna go take a quick shower.”
“I got this. Say, dinner in an hour and fifteen minutes. The hour is for cooking. The fifteen minutes is for trying to make it look presentable.”
“I’ll be here.” I smiled and headed for the front of the house, A.J. quick on my heels.
I closed the bedroom door behind us.
“You aren’t even going to supervise?”
“She can cook.”
“Really? When did that happen? I know she can heat some stuff up and not completely burn it. She can even put boxed stuff in the oven from time to time, but cook? I’m spoiled, Cara. I want real food.”
“We’ll be fine. Can I help you keep your mind off Suze working her magic in the kitchen?”
“What do you have in mind?”
We made it to the table with two minutes to spare.
The kitchen smelled wonderful.
“What are we having?” A.J. couldn’t keep the suspicion out of his voice.
“We’re having beef, potatoes, and veggies. The rolls aren’t homemade, but they are the good ones, and I stole some of your frozen butter stuff out of the freezer.”
“It all looks and smells great.” I took a deep breath and gave Suzi my best smile. I decided before we came back into the kitchen, no matter what she cooked, I’d choke it down with a smile on my face, and that’s exactly what I planned to do.
You know what a picky eater I am. It’s why I cook all the time. I can’t stand anyone else’s cooking. Only my mother’s. And not always even her cooking.
What can I say?
It was really good.
Really, really good.
A.J. looked shocked. “What the hell? You’ve been holding out on us?”
“Is it okay?”
A.J. answered around a mouthful of deliciousness. “It’s perfect. You did great. When did this happen?”
“When I had the apartment, I had time to practice. It got to the point where I could cook a whole meal without setting off the fire alarm, so I decided to try more.”
“You did good.” A.J. filled his mouth again. “You did real good.”
The look on Suzi’s face was pride mixed with something like confusion. “You like it?”
I nodded. “It’s really good. You can officially cook dinner any time you want.”
“Really?”
“I consider this to be just as good as any meal I have ever cooked.” And I honestly meant it.
Suzi shot up from her chair and did a happy dance.
Three minutes later, A.J. was dancing with Evelyn, and Suzi and I were doing a jig.
We had ice cream for dessert, and Suzi even gave Evelyn a taste.
It was a great night.
The phone rang early, just as the sun was coming up. The screen told me it was Teagan. I almost didn’t answer.
“Dingleberry, I’m blue!”
“You don’t need to go all melodrama on me, Teagan. Don’t get depressed. We’ll figure it out.”
“I’m not depressed. I’m blue.”
“As in melancholy?”
“No, you idiot. As in blue. The color. I am literally blue.”
“How did you get blue? And don’t call me an idiot. It’s not my fault my brain didn’t go directly to your body turning a different color. If you were Liam, maybe I would have gone there, but you’re normally smarter than that.”
“Jessie and I bought new sheets, I slept on them last night, and now I’m blue.”
“Is Jessie blue?”
“Jessie wasn’t home last night. He had an overnight. He left right after our thing. He’ll be home this afternoon, and I need to be my normal color again, not to mention I have to go to work, and I have to figure out the whole Gord thing. I can’t be blue. What do I do?”
“Did you Google it?”
“Yes I Googled it. Do you think I would call if I could just figure it out on my own? I Googled it, and I got back all these questions about people turning their sheets every color known to God — there are huge mysteries about why — but nothing about the sheets turning people colors. I look like a Smurf. If I type in how do I de-Smurf myself, they’re gonna send professionals, and not the de-smurfing kind.”
“Come on over. We’ll figure it out.”
“You can’t come to me?”
“What are the chances you have whatever we need to de-Smurf you versus what we need being here at my house? Do you have bleach? Vinegar? Scrubbies?”
“I’m on my way. Make sure Evelyn isn’t around. I don’t want to scare her.”
“You’re not that blue.”
“Okay, dingleberry. Do you know how stupid it sounds when someone says, ‘You’re not that blue’? It’s like someone saying you aren’t that pregnant. There’s no such thing. If you have to say that someone’s not that blue, that means they’re flippin’ blue.”
“Did you take a shower?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know it’s not going to just wash off?”
“I tried washing my arms in the sink, Cara. Do I look like a fool?”
I didn’t say anything. I think I may have earned the good sister of the year award for my silence.
“How about you go in the shower and try using this?”
“What is it?”
“It’s the exfoliator stuff you bought me. You said it was the best stuff in the world. While you were on your way over, I looked online. They say fabric dye only goes one layer. You should be good.”
“You sure?”
“Of course I’m not sure. I’ve never dyed myself before. It’s worth a shot.”
Fifteen minutes later, Teagan came out. She was not happy. One side of her face was much more blue than the other. Patches of the blue came off on her arms. She looked like a really exotic fashion magazine shoot. I’m not at all sure it was the look she was going for.
“Have you got a second idea?”
“You’re done. We can’t put anything else on. You scrubbed the crap out of yourself. If we try to bleach you or use vinegar or something it’s going to hurt like… ”
“I don’t care if it hurts.”
“Well, you’ll care if everywhere that is now pink turns into a scab.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. What am I going to do? I need to go to work.”
“You can cover your face with makeup.”
“Maybe.”
“Wear something long sleeved and wear long pants.”
“I’m going to roast to death.”
“Then just go in blue and answer the questions.”
“I’d rather roast to death.”
“Maybe you can sweat the blue off. Don’t wear anything white!”
“Good point. I’m out of here. Thanks for trying.”
“Teagan, what happened with Gord? Did you get your computers protected?”
“For now.”
“What did you do?”
“I turned them off.”
“Well, that’s one way of doing it. Abstinence. At what point do you turn them back on?”
“I got a guy coming over this morning.”
“What did you tell everybody?”
“So they wouldn’t turn on their computers? I left a note on each computer telling them we had a potential problem, and if they turned on their computer, we could infect everything and everybody. Then I said a prayer.”
“As good an approach as any.”
“I gotta go. Thanks.”
“Good luck.”
I was rather proud of myself. I didn’t laugh until she walked out the door.
Who puts sheets on their bed without washing them first? Just how hot did she get? I would guess it takes a lot to sweat so much the stupid things bleed all over you, right? Those are the kind of answers I really don’t want in this life.
I scrubbed down my shower, even though I didn’t see any blue nasties left behind. Then I straightened up the house, took my own shower, and got busy with stuff for Adeline.
About an hour after I’d sat down at my computer desk, my phone rang.
Teagan.
“What’s up?”
“You were right.”
“Good.”
“Not good! Gord can get to everything on every computer. The computer guru guy came in and said I have basically no security in place. Everybody has all kinds of passwords and stuff, but Gord has permissions to use everything and possibly knows everything about everything.”
“That’s a whole lot of power to give someone new to the company. He’s still on probation, and he basically has as much power as you do. Maybe more.”
“I see that now.”
“What are you going to do?”
“We changed it all around so there are layers of security.”
“What happens if the damage is already done?”
“Like?”
“I don’t know. Think like a bad guy. Did he put himself down as a signature on your accounts?”
“That would be so easy to track. Why would anyone do something that stupid?”
“Maybe he always planned to hit it hard and take off. Then he wouldn’t be around to get caught. Who knows why people do what they do? I’d be less interested in the why and more interested in the what. Has he already stolen anything? Did you have your person do a check-and-balance type thing to make sure nothing has gone awry?”
“Damn it. This is going to take some time, and it’s going to be expensive.”
“You might as well do it now. It’s not going to get better with time.”
“Yeah.”
“Think of it this way. It’s only smart to do a full audit right now since Mr. Fisher turned everything over to you. You might as well have a really clear baseline.”
“Yeah.”
“A wise woman once told me that it’s always better to have everything documented. Just in case.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re the wise woman that told me that.”
“Don’t throw it in my face, Cara. I’ll have them start a full audit.”
“Who is them?”
“What?”
“I’d have it done by a completely neutral third party.”
“You’re right. I need to start treating this all more seriously. I’ve always done my stuff, and Mr. Fisher has always done this kind of stuff, and I just never bothered with it. If I’m gonna do my stuff and Mr. Fisher’s stuff, I need to do it the right way.”
“That’s a whole lot of stuff.”
“The computer guy has me all whacked-out. I’m afraid to use a better descriptor.”
“You’ll figure it out, Teagan. That’s why they pay you the big bucks.”
“Not quite, but getting there.”
“See! You can do this.”
“I know I can. I just have to build up to the wanting to part.”
“I thought your dream was to have your own business. This seems to pretty much have fallen in your lap, Teagan. Why aren’t you excited about it?”
“I don’t know. I just have this weird feeling. When Mr. Fisher was in charge of everything, he had to deal with the worst of it. You know what I mean. I did most of the work. I knew how everything worked and what to do in every position. But when something I didn’t want to deal with came along, I always had the go ask Mr. Fisher escape. Now I’m the one that has to deal with the worst of it.”
“You can handle it. If I were in your situation, you know what I’d do?”
“Yeah, well, let’s pretend my brain isn’t working, and you can tell me what you’d do, dingleberry.”
“I’d start fresh. It’s always better to start at the beginning.”
“How can I do that? This company has been around forever.”
“But you need a baseline. Some serious mark that indicates this is when Teagan took over. Everything before that line was on Mr. Fisher. Everything after the line is on you. Make sure that everything after the line, you can live with.”
“You’re right. Jessie said pretty much the same thing. I gotta just suck it up and do what needs to be done.”
“It’s like Mom always said. You can deal with all the issues while the kids are young, or you can deal with it when they are teens, but you’re gonna have to deal with it. You might as well get everything going your way while the kids are young and you can still pick them up and put them in the corner, so to speak.”
“I get it. It’s just so much work, it’s hard to wrap my brain around it.”
“Yep. Have you figured out what you’re going to do about Gord?”
“We haven’t found anything that indicates he has done anything wrong, never mind anything illegal.”
“Sorta good news, right?”
“I still have a weird feeling. We’ve been moving backwards from today. We’re almost to when he started. The people I hired — who are costing me a small fortune — said they’re doing a cursory look, specifically for things that Gord may have done. If I want the really in-depth look, it’s going to cost me even more.”
“I can’t imagine why you would need to do more. If Gord did something wrong, they’ll catch it. If he didn’t do anything wrong, then I’d just ask them what I need to do to make sure everything is on the up-and-up from this point forward. Building layers of security and whatever else they suggest.”
“You can tell we’re related, dingleberry. Your plan sounds just like my plan.”
“Let me know what you know when you know it.”
“I will.”
I texted A.J. and asked if he had any plans for the evening. He did not. I invited Liam and family over for dinner.
Teagan is right.
I haven’t been doing enough family stuff, and family stuff is what makes me me.
Liam said if I didn’t hear from him in five minutes, it meant all was well, and they would be over at about five thirty or six.
When I hadn’t heard anything in thirty minutes, I pulled out some pork and set it on the counter to thaw. I know you aren’t supposed to thaw stuff on the counter, but I haven’t killed anybody yet. It’s one of the perks of being Irish. We overcook everything. The chances of us ingesting bacteria because it wasn’t killed off in the cooking process is pretty slim.
I called Daddy and invited him to dinner.
He said he couldn’t make it. He was having dinner with his friend Aldo and his wife. I said he was welcome to bring them along. He laughed and said I’d finally come up with just the idea. It was great to hear him joke around. He said he would get back to me.
I texted Suzi and let her know that dinner was around five thirty. With any luck, there would be a houseful. She surprised me when she asked if there was any problem with her bringing a guest.
Never, ever, is that a problem. I told her yet again, the house we live in is her home. She can bring anyone over any time she wants.
In the back of my brain a little voice said, Except Barry, but I didn’t say it out loud. I’ve almost convinced myself that Suzi will never allow Barry back into her life.
On any level.
I hope.
Daddy called back and said that Aldo’s wife had already planned their dinner and that they wouldn’t be joining us. I didn’t even try to hide my disappointment. People need to know they’re missed when they aren’t around. Especially Daddy.
I told him to swing by on the way to their house, and I’d have his favorite upside down cake ready so that he could take it with him for dessert. Mom used to do that when they would go over to dinner at Aldo’s.
Daddy will be by at four thirty. With bells on.
Liam and Jordan showed up a little early. Morgan was coming straight from work. We did a tour of the backyard. It’s coming along nicely. We had a little chat about the last time they’d come over, when Jordan was in super big trouble for risking his life to retrieve his skateboard when it had gone through a huge plate glass window.
Liam explained that he and Morgan had revisited their approach and decided that they needed to back away from punishing Jordan and figure out how to make the lesson real so he wouldn’t do it again.
Asking a boy to stay out of harm’s way is like asking him not to breathe, but they decided to practice intent. Jordan is going to take a breath before he does anything. They believe if he gets into the habit of giving himself a split second to consider the ramifications of his actions, he will make a good decision because it is done with intent.
I don’t think it’s going to work, but it’s worth a try.
Morgan arrived just as A.J. was pulling in the driveway. I heard the garage door go up, which meant Suzi was home, too. A.J. gave her his parking spot in the garage so it would be easier for her to get Evelyn in and out and so that the metal on the car seat wouldn’t be hot when she put Evelyn in.
At least, that is his story.
I think between Barry beating the heck out of me, and Suzi being in the line of fire at the restaurant when the bad guys stormed in, A.J. is a little bit paranoid.
That’s okay.
It’s better to have someone worry about you than not care about you at all.
A.J. suggested we eat in the backyard. I love our backyard, and the weather has been cooperating. Not too hot. Not too humid. Not too many bugs. How can you argue with perfection?
The guys grabbed stacks of dishes and went out back to set the table. Morgan and I were in the kitchen getting things into serving bowls when her phone rang. She looked at the screen, frowned, gave me the international sign for damn it, I have to take this, and walked away.
When she came back, only moments later, she apologized for the interruption, said she’d put her phone on vibrate and leave it in her purse, and then she asked, “How do you know Gordon?”
“What?”
“There’s a picture of Gordon in the other room.”
“Oh, Gord. He works for Teagan. How do you know him?”
“Church.”
“You go to the same church?”
“No, I’ve done some PR work for the church where his wife is pastor.”
“Churches need PR work? Really?”
“No, that’s just the short phrase I use for everything. I’ve done their brochures and handouts for some fundraising. I’ve done a couple of press releases. They are a tiny little congregation, but they are part of a much bigger organization, and the bigger part is the part I actually deal with most often.”
I shook my head. “The things you never know. I was baptized in the church I’ll probably be buried from. I never really think about this stuff.”
“Why do you have a picture of Gordon if he works for Teagan? Are you helping out now that Mr. Fisher is gone?”
“Actually, it’s kind of weird. He went missing for a while, and his wife went nuts and pretty much threatened Teagan with a media crap storm if she didn’t find him. Then he came back all beat up and insisting he was just being chivalrous walking in Old Town with a Hooters girl, when a couple guys attacked them in the one area not covered by cameras.”
“That was Gordon? I heard about someone making that claim when I had a meeting with some of the groups we are working with to try to get the word out about how great Old Town is. I don’t want to say anything bad about Teagan’s employee, especially since he’s kind of a client by extension, but he’s full of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how hard we have worked to get Old Town under control. The crime rate has gone from not all that bad to something any area could be proud of. It’s true, the camera was broken, but it was accidentally broken by a sign installer. And the sign installer immediately informed everybody, and the building owner had his personal camera set up in about twenty minutes. They have reviewed all the images since word came out about someone getting beat up. It didn’t happen. Not in Old Town, anyway. The business owners are thinking about suing the guy making the claims.”
“You’re kidding. I should have thought about contacting you guys. You know everything that happens in Old Town. I feel like an idiot. Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Can you get this stuff out on the table while I call Teagan? I’ll only be a minute.”
“No problem.”
It took me more than a minute, but not too long.
Just let me say when I fold a napkin, it is a lovely rectangle. When Morgan folds a napkin, it is an origami masterpiece and brings a smile to your face and an elegance to an outdoor table the guys set.
Suzi walked out the door with Evelyn on her hip just as we were beginning to wonder if her plans had changed. Which they had. She would not have a guest at dinner. She looked disappointed enough that none of us asked the who or why of it.
I’m sure A.J. will find out exactly what happened and fill me in later.
Dinner was great. Jordan regaled us with stories of school and his friend’s pets and how it was time for Liam and Morgan to accept the fact he needs a brother or a sister.
My brother almost choked to death.
Morgan smiled and stayed her normal, serene self.
Suzi helped clear the dishes and then excused herself to give Evelyn her bath. She said to leave the kitchen the way it was, and she’d get to it as soon as Evelyn was settled. Jordan offered to help and went upstairs with them.
Morgan and I got the kitchen cleaned before Suzi and Jordan came back. Suzi had recorded the cutest video of him singing to Evelyn to help her fall asleep. A lullaby I’d never heard before.
Liam blushed and said maybe it was time to add to the family.
Morgan just stayed serene.
I really need to learn how she does that.
Jordan sat at the kitchen table and wrote a letter to his pen pal. I believe the girl lives in Spain with her military family. I let him use my very best stationery — yes, I’m old-school and I actually have beautiful stationery — and a lovely fountain pen. He did pretty well considering a fountain pen can take some practice and the nib I have on mine is a little tricky.
The adults went back outside for a drink and some conversation. It felt good. Almost like old times.
By the time Jordan had finished his letter, we were pretty much talked out.
Suzi checked on Evelyn and said she was going to take a good book to bed.
My brother and his family left with promises of a repeat dinner soon.
A.J. locked up the house while I stuck the cups and glasses in the dishwasher and started it.
We were just about to start dancing in the living room when someone pounded on the front door.
It was Teagan.
She didn’t look blue, but I couldn’t tell if that was because of makeup or the color had already worn off or maybe the lighting in my living room just isn’t as good as I thought it was.
A.J. was standing behind her with a weird look on his face. She couldn’t see him, but his face had the intended effect. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing, and Teagan was in no mood to be laughed at. My guess was that A.J. had seen a blue patch or two.
“You busy?”
“I was just about to dance with my soon-to-be husband, but you don’t really care about that. Since you came here instead of calling, I’m guessing you’re either out of chocolate, clean sheets, or we’re on our way out to do something you don’t want to do by yourself.”
“See, that’s why we all love you, Cara. You’re smart like that.”
“Not smart enough to ignore the knock on the door.”
“We’re on our way out.” She turned toward A.J. Shrugged. “If that’s okay.”
A.J. raised his hands in surrender, although I’m sure he had no clue why. When Teagan gets like this, just the tone in her voice has everybody backing down.
“Be safe. If you need anything, call. I’ll keep my phone on me.”
“Thanks.” We said it at the same time.
Once A.J. had left the room — because Teagan was in a mood, I didn’t even try to ask her anything in front of anyone — I asked the obvious question. “What’s going on?”
“I got the name of the Hooters girl. Don’t ask how. I want to have a little talk with her, and I don’t want to do it alone.”
“She isn’t going to beat you up, Teagan.”
“I’m not worried about her beating me up. I want a witness.”
“Witness to what?”
“Don’t ask.” Her words were intense, but she smiled after they escaped her lips, so I knew we probably wouldn’t end up in jail or anything.
“Where are we going?”
“She gets off work in twenty-five minutes. I’d kind of like to be there when she does.”
“What are you going to do? Grab her as she walks out the door? I’m sure Hooters has some kind of security in place. You can’t be the first crazy person that has tried to accost one of their girls.”
“I’m not going to accost her. Not really. I just want to know what happened with Gord. There’s something going on. I can feel it. Something bad. I want to protect my company, and if I need to confront Kendra to get some answers, then guess what I’m going to do.”
“So, her name is Kendra?”
“Yep.”
“How do you know her name?”
“After you called me and told me what Morgan said, it dawned on me that everyone in Old Town must know something, right? So if everyone in Old Town knows about the guy who claims he got attacked in the alley, then the girls at Hooters must know the name of the girl who was phony attacked with him. So I went in and got a sandwich and fries. Grilled cheese. It was good. Talked to my server, a great girl — she’s got two little kids, and she and her husband are thinking about a third. Anyway, she let it slip it was Kendra. She even offered to go get her, she was in the back, but I declined and got out of there before she could tell Kendra I was asking about her. It was one of those conversations just on the border of getting creepy. Not sure if my server said anything to Kendra or not. My guess is they have a lot of borderline creepy people asking about them.”
“Yeah, but probably not too many of them are female.”
“I bet you would be surprised. Anyway, now all I have to do is go talk to Kendra.”
“What does she look like?”
“She’s gorgeous.”
“Yep, she works at Hooters in Florida. They’re all gorgeous. But what does she look like?”
“I have no clue, Cara.”
“What?”
“How hard can it be? We know what time she gets off work.”
“How do you know what time she gets off work?”
“Don’t ask so many questions. I don’t want you to be able to testify against me.”
“Okay, fine, but if she’s getting off work, that probably means change of shift, which probably means a whole bunch of girls are going to get off work at the same time.”
“Yep, exactly where you come in.”
“Me?”
“Yep. Cara, I need bait.”
“I’m bait?”
“Yeah, but really, just baby bait.”
“What does that even mean?”
“The girls are going to come out the door. I’m going to call Kendra and act like it’s you I’m calling. When the real Kendra turns around, we’ll know which one she is.”
“That’s your plan?”
“Yep.”
“You know it’s stupid, right?”
“Really, Cara? This from a woman that once wanted to use my boobs to solve a murder case?”
“I didn’t want your boobs to solve it; even I would admit having your boobs solve a crime just sounds stupid. I just wanted to use your boobs as a distraction, and don’t tell me you haven’t done it a million times yourself. If I had boobs, I’d loan them to you for a good cause.”
“Please, let’s not go there. Are you going to help me or not?”
“Of course. If only for the entertainment value.”
“Entertainment value?”
“Yep, watching you call out to Kendra every time a woman comes out the door. I’ll bet you’re going to find out the hard way that not all Hooters girls use their real names. Just for occasions like this. If someone calls out Kendra, then the girl that uses the name Kendra but really isn’t Kendra is going to know it isn’t on the up-and-up, and they’ll call the cops, and you’re gonna be a very unhappy person.”
“Hey, if they take me away, they’ll take you with me.”
“They aren’t going to know we’re together.”
“I’ll tell them.”
“Why should they believe you? Ready?”
“Now you have me doubting myself.”
“Never doubt yourself, Teagan.”
“Thanks.”
“Your plan? That’s a whole other conversation.”
We got to Hooters with plenty of time to sit in the car and worry we were about to do something truly stupid.
“Dingleberry, the reality is, it isn’t the first stupid thing we’ve done.”
“It isn’t the first stupid thing I’ve done today. I’m not worried about it.”
“Why the change in attitude?”
“I don’t think anything is going to happen, one way or the other.”
Long story short, Kendra is her real name, and she was the second one out the door.
She wasn’t wearing her uniform.
She is gorgeous.
She drives a really nice car, and she got to it before we could get to her.
How do I know all this?
She was wearing a pair of gym shorts, the long ones like guys wear, with a jersey that said Kendra across the back.
We followed her to a park where she met with a whole bunch of other women.
Slow-pitch. It’s not even slow-pitch season, is it? And why so late at night?
“Teagan, if you’re going to talk to her, now’s the time. Before she picks up a bat.” I tried to get Teagan to move a little faster, but she was in slow motion.
“This doesn’t feel right.”
“The fact that we’re officially stalkers?”
“No, there’s something wrong here.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know, something just doesn’t feel right.”
“You sound like Mom.”
“I think I feel like Mom. You know how she would get all jumpy right before something got weird. She used to describe it as someone dancing on her grave.”
I never really hated that phrase before, but now when I hear it, I can’t decide if I want to cry or punch somebody.
Teagan was still talking.
“I don’t think this girl is our problem.”
“We’ll never know if you don’t talk to her.”
“You do it.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Dingleberry, how many times have I stepped up for you?”
“Far fewer than you would claim. What do you want to know?”
“I want to know if Gord really got in a fight with those guys. He made it sound like he was protecting her.”
“Is she allowed to know that it’s us asking? Can she know who we really are? What we really want to know?”
“We told Gord that the cops would investigate. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if she thought you were a cop.”
“Dressed like this? Without a badge? Isn’t impersonating a cop against the law?”
“You aren’t pulling her over and giving her a ticket. Jeeze, relax.”
“Really? Relax?”
Teagan pushed me in Kendra’s direction.
I must be getting more mature because on the walk over to talk to Kendra, I decided that mostly honesty was mostly the best policy.
“Kendra?”
“Yes?”
“Hi, my name is Siobhan.” Like using my middle name was not going to give me away. It’s about as Irish as they come, so if Kendra was to mention to Gord some Irish chick was around asking questions, he could probably figure out it was an O’Flynn.
“What can I do for you?” She has a beautiful smile.
“I have a couple of questions. It’s a long story, and I know you’re busy, but I’m really hoping you can help me.”
She looked around. Nervous all of a sudden. “Questions?”
“Yes. The other night, you were with a guy named Gordon Gryzbowski.”
“I don’t have anything to say.”
“I’m not anyone official. I don’t know his wife. Please — ”
“Go away.”
“All I need to know is if the story he told everyone is true. If you guys were attacked in Old Town.”
“I’m not talking to you.”
“Believe me, Kendra. It’s easier to talk to me. We can take care of this. Make it go away.”
“Make yourself go away.”
She leaned over and grabbed a bat. I thought for sure it was going to be a rerun of the whole Barry thing, but instead of hitting me with it, she gathered the rest of her stuff and ran for her car.
Not the outcome I wanted, but I didn’t get my head bashed in, so I’m going to consider it a victory.
When I got back to Teagan, she didn’t look happy. I explained everything to her. Pretty much word for word what Kendra and I had said. There couldn’t have been more than a couple hundred words between us, and even I can remember that.
“Now what?”
Teagan looked angry, but I know her resting frustrated face, so I waited. “I don’t know. What’s going on? You would think it would be a pretty straightforward answer. Yes. No. How hard is that?”
“Maybe they really are screwing around, and she doesn’t want the world to know.”
“I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but she’s so far out of Gord’s league, I doubt they’re doing anything that would approach a reason for them to react so badly.”
“You never know. Some couples don’t really look like they belong together, but they’re totally committed.”
She smiled. “Don’t go all personal. Everyone knows you just got lucky with A.J. He’s at least two rungs up the hot ladder from you.”
Okay, so I chased my sister back to the car with the threat of bodily injury.
She deserved it.
It’s not that I wanted to point out her less than hot moments, and, yes, even Teagan has a few, but I was curious.
As she put her seat belt on I asked, “So tell me — and please God keep it G-rated — just how did you get so hot and sweaty in bed alone that you turned yourself blue with your new sheets? Oh, and this one is a twofer. Why in the world did you use sheets you hadn’t washed yet?”
“I didn’t get hot and sweaty, and, ew, why would you ask your own sister a question that might not be G-rated?”
“I was thinking maybe early onset menopause since you had early onset puberty. You overdid the puberty, so what is to stop you from overdoing menopause? I was talking to the girls about it the other day. It’s not a one day event, you know.”
“I don’t want to know. I would have had to start puberty at eighteen months for any of that to be valid. To answer your really obnoxious question, I decided to try a new moisturizer. It’s gel, and it keeps you hydrated for days, but it is a little sticky and a tad slimy, so when I knew Jessie would be out of town for the night, I slathered it on. I didn’t want to get my regular sheets messed up so I slapped on one of those mattress covers with a zipper. The cheap ones made out of old crinkly plastic. I know. I’m a slob. I put it right over the top of my regular sheets, then I put the cheap dark blue ones we bought for the car over the top of the mattress cover thing.”
“You have dark blue sheets for your car?”
“I usually get black, but they didn’t have any.”
“You have black sheets for your car?”
“You know I do. When I have something to throw in the back, I don’t want the world to see it when I park my car, so I just throw a sheet over it and with the tinted windows, it all blends in and you can’t see anything.”
“I knew that. I actually never paid much attention, but I knew that you threw something dark over stuff you didn’t want people to see. The bigger question is: you put cheap sheets on your bed without washing them? Yuck. You have no idea what creepy-crawly things are running around during the whole loom process, and then there is storage and transport. You don’t know what has been doing whom on your sheets before they ever get to you. Yuck.”
“I was tired. I didn’t know that the cheap mattress cover would make me sweat to death or that my moisturizer would make the sheets bleed all over me and I’d turn blue.”
“Forget turning blue. You were so tired the thought of a foreign bug making a nest in your hair, or worse, never entered your mind? We can’t possibly be related, Teagan. Not even distant cousins. I can’t even imagine doing that. Not even as a joke. Not even if I never intended to lie down on them. Not even to throw them in the back seat and use them to hide stuff.”
“I figure if there are any little critters on my sheets, they’ve probably been smothered by being in a plastic container for God only knows how long.”
“So critter carcasses are okay?”
“Shut up, dingleberry. What are we going to do about Kendra?”
“Maybe we should have followed her home so that at least we would know where she lives.”
“She would have been paying attention tonight, but I fully intend to follow her home from work tomorrow night.”
“I feel bad stalking a Hooters girl when she hasn’t really done anything to us. It would freak me out if I had someone stalking me.”
“She could have just answered the question. Then we’d have no reason to stalk her.”
“Teagan, you’re being totally unreasonable. You get that, right?”
“I need to figure this out. The company is my responsibility. Mr. Fisher ran it all these years without a single problem, and I’m not going to let everything fall apart as soon as he turns it over to me.”
“I get that. But I’m not sure this girl has anything to do with your problems. Shouldn’t we be following Gord around?”
“Seamus said not to do it. He said we don’t want Gord to have any grounds for a harassment suit or anything. If he catches me following him, I’m screwed.”
“Well then, we just won’t get caught.”
“Welcome back.”
“What?”
“You almost sounded like the old Cara.”