Tangled Up in You (3 page)

The next morning, the ringing of the telephone brought him out of a deep sleep. He opened his eyes and squinted against the morning sun pouring across his bed. He glanced at the caller ID and reached for the cordless receiver.

You better be spurting blood, he said and pushed the covers down his naked chest. I told you not to call before ten unless its an emergency.

Moms at work and I need some fireworks, his nephew informed him.

At eight-thirty in the morning? He sat up and ran his fingers through one side of his hair. Is your sitter there with you?

Yeah. Tomorrows the Fourth of July and I dont got no fireworks.

You just realized this? There was more to the story. With Travis, there was always more to the story. Why didnt your mom get you your fireworks? There was a long pause and Mick added, You might as well tell me the truth because Im going to ask Meg.

She said I have a potty mouth.

Mick stood and his feet sank into thick beige carpeting as he walked across the room toward a dresser. He was almost afraid to ask. Why?

Wellshe made meatloaf again. She knows I hate meatloaf.

He didnt blame the kid there. The Hennessy women were notorious for their shitty meatloaf. He opened the second dresser drawer and prompted, And?

I said it tasted like shit. I said you thought so too.

Mick paused in the act of pulling out a white T-shirt and glanced into his reflection above the dresser. Did you use the real s -word?

Uh-huh, and she said I cant have fireworks, but you say the s -word all the dang time.

That was true. He hung the shirt over one shoulder and leaned forward to look into his bloodshot eyes. We talked about words I can say and words you can say.

I know, but it just slipped out.

You need to watch what slips out of your mouth.

Travis sighed. I know. I said I was sorry, even though Im not really. Just like you said I should say to girls. Even the stupid ones. Even when Im right and theyre wrong.

That wasnt quite what hed said. You didnt tell Meg I said that, though. He pulled a pair of Levis out of the dresser and added, Right?

Right.

He couldnt countermand his sister, but at the same time, a boy shouldnt be punished for speaking the truth. I cant buy you fireworks if your mom says no, but well see if we cant work something out.

A n hour later, Mick shoved a bag of fireworks behind the drivers seat of his truck. Hed bought a small variety pack as well as a few sparklers and snakes from the Safe and Sane stand in the parking lot of Handy Man Hardware. He hadnt bought them for Travis. Hed bought them to take to Louie Allegrezzas Fourth of July barbeque. If anyone asked, that was the story, but he doubted anyone would believe him. Like all other residents of the pyrotechnically obsessed town, he had a big box of illegals just waiting to be shot over the lake. Adults didnt buy Safe and Sanes unless they had kids. Legal fireworks were kind of like training wheels.

Louies son Pete Allegrezza and Travis were buddies, and days ago, Meg had agreed that Travis could go to the barbeque with Mick if he stayed out of trouble. The barbeque was tomorrow, and Mick figured Travis should be able to control his behavior for one more day. Mick shut the door to his truck, and he and Travis headed across the parking lot toward the hardware store. If you behave yourself, maybe you can hold a sparkler.

Man, Travis whined. Sparklers are for little kids.

With your track record, youll be lucky if youre not in bed before dark. Sunlight shone in his nephews short black hair and across the shoulders of his red Spider-Man T-shirt. Youre having a hard time controlling yourself lately. He opened the door and waved to the owner standing behind the counter. Megs still pretty mad at us both, but I have a plan. For several months, Meg had complained about a leaky pipe beneath her kitchen sink. If he and Travis fixed her S-trap so that she didnt have to keep emptying a pan of water, maybe shed be in a more forgiving mood. But with Meg, a person never knew. She wasnt always the most forgiving person.

The soles of Traviss sneakers scuffed alongside Micks boots as they walked to the plumbing section. The store was quiet except for a couple looking at garden hoses and Mrs. Vaughn, his first-grade teacher, rooting through a bin of assorted drawer handles. He was always amazed to see Laverne Vaughn still alive and walking around. She had to be older than dirt.

While Mick grabbed a PVC pipe and plastic washers, his nephew picked up a caulking gun and aimed it at a bird feeder at the end of the aisle as if it were a .45 Magnum.

We dont need that, Mick told him as he reached for some plumbers tape.

Travis popped off a few rounds, then tossed the gun back onto the shelf. Im gonna go look at the deer, he said and disappeared around the corner of the aisle. Handy Mans had a big selection of plastic animals that people could display in their yards. Although why you would want to do that when the real thing was likely to roam through was beyond Mick.

He stuck the pipe beneath one arm and went in search of his nephew, who didnt usually go looking for trouble, but like most seven-year-old boys seemed to find it anyway. He moved through the store, glanced down each crammed row, and paused next to a display of mops.

A smile of pure male appreciation curved the corners of his mouth. Maddie Dupree stood in the middle of aisle six, a neon-yellow box in her hands. Her brown hair was in one of those claws and looked like someone had stuck a dark feather duster on the back of her head. His gaze moved down her smooth profile, past her throat and shoulder, and stopped dead on her black T-shirt. Last night, he hadnt been able to get a good look at her. Today, the fluorescent lighting of Handy Man Hardware lit her up like a walking, talking, breathing centerfold. Like an old-school playmate before eating disorders and silicone. Desire stirred in the pit of his stomach. He didnt even know her well enough to be feeling a thing. Didnt know if she was married or single, had a man in her life and ten kids waiting at home. Apparently it didnt matter, because she drew him down the aisle like a magnet.

Looks like you got problems with some mice, he said.

What? Her head snapped up and her gaze flew to his like hed caught her doing something she shouldnt. Christ almighty. Her lips parted and she sucked in a breath, drawing his attention to the mole at the corner of her mouth. You startled me.

Sorry, he said, but he really wasnt. She looked good all wide-eyed and breathy and a little off balance. He glanced up and pointed with the PVC to the box in her hand. Mice troubles?

One actually ran across my foot this morning while I was making coffee. She crinkled her nose. It slid under the pantry door and disappeared. Its probably in there right now feasting on my granola bars.

Dont worry. Mick laughed. He probably wont eat much.

I dont want him to eat anything at all. Except maybe some poison. She turned her attention back to the box in her hand. Fine dark hairs clung to the side of her neck and Mick thought he smelled strawberries.

At the far end of the aisle, Travis turned the corner and stopped in his tracks. His mouth got a little slack as he stared at Maddie. Mick knew the feeling.

It says here that odor problems can occur if rodents expire in inaccessible areas. I really dont want to have to search for stinking mice. She looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes. I wonder if there isnt something better I could use.

I wouldnt recommend the tape. He pointed to a box of glue boards. Mice get stuck on it and squeak a lot. There it was again. Strawberries, and he wondered if Handys had some scented feeders for hummingbirds. You could use traps, he suggested.

Really? Arent traps kind ofviolent?

They can snap a mouse in half, Travis said as he came to stand beside Mick. He rocked back on his heels and grinned. Sometimes their head pops off when they go for the cheese.

Good Lord, kid. Maddies brows drew together as she lowered her gaze to Travis. Thats gruesome.

Uh-huh.

Mick stuck the pipe under his arm and placed his free hand on top of Traviss head. This gruesome guy is my nephew, Travis Hennessy. Travis, say hello to Maddie Dupree.

Maddie stuck out her palm and shook Traviss hand. Its a pleasure to meet you, Travis.

Yeah. You too.

And thanks for telling me about the traps, she continued and released him. Ill keep them in mind if I decide on decapitation.

Traviss smile grew to show off his missing front tooth. Last year I killed tons of mice, he boasted, employing his special brand of seven-year-old charm. Call me.

Mick glanced down at his nephew and wasnt sure, but he thought Travis was puffing up his skinny chest. The best way to get rid of mice, he said, saving Travis from embarrassing himself further, is to get a cat.

Maddie shook her head and her brown eyes looked into his, all warm and soft and liquid. Cats and I dont get along. His gaze slid to her mouth and he again wondered how long it had been since hed kissed a mouth that good. Id rather have severed heads in my kitchen or hidden carcasses stinking up the place.

She was talking about severed heads and stinking carcasses and he was getting turned on. Right there in Handy Man Hardware, like he was sixteen again and couldnt control himself. Hed been with a lot of beautiful women and wasnt a kid. Hed saved Travis from embarrassing himself, but who was going to save him?

Weve got some plumbing to do. He held up the sealant and took a step back. Good luck with those mice.

See you boys around.

Yeah, Travis said and followed him to the checkout counter. She was nice, he whispered. I like the color of her hair.

Mick chuckled and set the PVC next to the register. The kid was only seven, but he was a Hennessy.

Dan said he was going to leave his wife for me!! He said hed been sleeping on the couch since May. I just found out she got pregnant in June. Ive been cheated and lied to!! When is it my turn for happiness? The only person who loves me is my baby girl. Shes three now and tells me every day that she loves me. She deserves a better life.

Why cant Jesus drop-kick us somewhere nice?

Maddie closed her eyes and leaned her head back in her office chair. In reading the diaries, not only had Maddie discovered her mothers passion for exclamation marks, but her fondness for other womens husbands as well. Counting Loch Hennessy, shed had three of them in her twenty-four years. Not counting Loch, each had vowed to leave his wife for her, but in the end, theyd all cheated and lied!!

Maddie tossed the diary on her desk and stretched her arms above her head. Besides the husbands, Alice had dated single men also. In the end, theyd all cheated and lied and left her for someone else. All except Loch. Although, if the affair hadnt been cut short, Maddie was sure Loch would have cheated and lied like all the others. Single or married, her mother had chosen men who left her heartbroken.

Through the open windows, the noise from her neighbors barbeque carried on a slight breeze. It was the Fourth of July, and Truly was in full celebration mode. In town, buildings were decked out in red, white, and blue bunting, and that morning thered been a parade down Main Street. Maddie had read in the local paper about the big celebration planned in Shaw Park and the towns impressive fireworks show to begin at full dark.

Maddie stood and walked into the bathroom. Although really, how impressive could the show be in such a small town? Boise, the capital city, hadnt had a decent show in years.

She plugged the drain in the deep jetted tub and turned on the water. As she undressed, her neighbors laughter carried though the small window above the toilet. Earlier in the day, Louie and Lisa Allegrezza had come over to invite her to their barbeque, but even at her best, she wasnt very good at making polite conversation with people she didnt know. And lately, Maddie had not been at her best. Finding the diaries had been a real mixed blessing. The diaries had answered some important questions for her. Questions that most people knew from birth. Shed learned that her father was from Madrid and that her mother had become pregnant with Maddie the summer after graduating from high school. Her father had been in the States visiting family, and theyd both fallen madly in luv. At the end of the summer, Alejandro had returned to Spain. Alice had written him several letters to tell him about her pregnancy, but shed never heard from him. Apparently, their luv had been one-sided.

Maddie swept her hair up and clamped it on top of her head with a big claw. Shed come to terms with the fact long ago that she would never know her father. That she would never know his face or the sound of his voice. That hed never teach her to ride a bike or drive a car, but like everything else, reading the diaries had brought it all to the surface again and she wondered if Alejandro was dead or alive and what he might think of her. Not that she would ever know.

Maddie poured German chocolate cake bubble bath into the running water and set a tube of chocolate-cake-scented body scrub on the side of the tub. She might not care about matching underwear or the brand name on her shoes, but she loved bath products. Scented potions and lotions were her passion. Give her a creamy scrub and body butter over designer clothes any day.

Naked, she stepped into the tub and lowered herself into the warm scented water. Ahh, she sighed as she slid beneath the suds. She leaned back against the cool porcelain and closed her eyes. She owned every scent imaginable. Everything from roses to apples, espresso to cake, and years ago shed made peace and learned how to live with her inner hedonist.

Thered been a time in her life when shed binged on almost anything that gave her pleasure. Men, dessert, and expensive lotions had featured high on her list. As a result of all that bingeing shed developed a narrow view of men and a large behind. A very soft and smooth behind, but a big butt nonetheless. As a child, shed been overweight and the horrors of once again hauling a wide load had forced her to change her life. The realization that she needed to change had happened on the morning of her thirtieth birthday when shed woken up with a cheesecake hangover and a guy named Derrick. The cheesecake had been mediocre and Derrick a real disappointment.

These days she was still a hedonist at heart, but she was a nonpracticing hedonist. She still overindulged on lotions and bath products, but she needed those to relax and destress and to stave off dry, flaky skin.

She sank farther beneath the water and attempted to find a little peace for herself. Her body succumbed to the bubbles and warm water, but her mind wasnt so easily quieted and continued to roam over the past few weeks. She was making real progress on her timeline and notes. She had a list of people mentioned in her mothers last diary, the few friends shed made in Truly and people with whom shed worked. The county coroner from 1978 had died, but the sheriff still lived in Truly. He was retired, but Maddie was sure he could provide valuable information. She had newspaper accounts, police reports, the coroners find ings, and as much information on the Hennessy family as she could possibly dig up. Now all she had to do was talk to anyone connected to her mothers life and death.

Shed discovered that two women her mother had worked with still lived in town and she planned to start with them tomorrow morning. It was past time she talked to people in town and unearthed information.

The warm water and scented bubbles slid over her stomach and the bottom swell of her breasts. Reading those diaries, she could almost hear her mothers voice for the first time in twenty-nine years. Alice wrote about her fear at finding herself alone and pregnant and her excitement over Maddies birth. Reading about her hopes and dreams for herself and her baby had been heartbreaking and so bittersweet. But with the heartbreaking and bittersweet discoveries, shed learned that her mother wasnt the blond-haired, blue-eyed angel shed created in her childs head and heart. Alice had been the sort of woman who had to have a man in her life or shed felt worthless. Shed been needy and naive and eternally optimistic. Maddie had never been needy, nor could she recall a time when shed been naive or overly optimistic about anything. Not even as a child. Discovering that she had absolutely nothing in common with the woman whod given her birth, nothing that tied her to her mother, left her empty inside.

Early in life, Maddie had developed a hard shell around her soul. Her tough exterior had always been an asset while doing her job, but she didnt feel so tough today. She felt raw and vulnerable. Vulnerable to what, she didnt know, but she hated the feeling. It would be so much easier if she tossed the diaries and wrote about a psychopath by the name of Roddy Durban. Shed been writing about the nasty little bastard whod killed more than twenty-three prostitutes right before shed found the diaries. Writing about Roddy would be a hell of a lot easier than writing about her mother, but the night that Maddie had taken the diaries home and read them, she knew there was no turning back. Her career, while not always carefully calculated, had not been random. She was a true crime writer for a reason, and as shed pored over her mothers overly feminine handwriting, she knew the time had come to sit down and write about the crime that had left her mother dead.

She turned off the water with her foot and reached for the body scrub on the side of the tub. She squirted the thick sugar scrub into her palm and the scent of chocolate cake filled her nose. With it came the unbidden memory of standing on a chair next to her mother and stirring chocolate pudding on the stove. She didnt know how old shed been or where theyd lived. The memory was as tangible as a wisp of smoke, but it managed to deliver a punch to the lonely place next to her heart.

Bubbles clung to her breasts as she sat up and lifted her feet over the side of the tub. Obviously, shed failed to find the calm and comfort she usually found in her bath, and she quickly exfoliated her arms and legs. When she was through, she got out of the tub and dried off, then she rubbed chocolate-scented lotion into her skin.

She tossed her clothes in the hamper and walked into her bedroom. Her three closest friends lived in Boise, and she missed meeting them for lunch or dinner or impromptu bitch sessions. Her friends Lucy, Clare, and Adele were the closest thing she had to a family, and the only people to whom she would consider giving a kidney or loaning money. She was fairly certain they would return the favor.

Last year when her friend Clare had discovered her fiancé with another man, the other three friends had rushed to her house to talk her off the ledge. Out of the four women, Clare was the most kindhearted and easily hurt. She was also a romance writer whod always believed in true love. For a time after her fiancés betrayal, shed lost her faith in the happy-ever-after until a reporter by the name of Sebastian Vaughan came into her life and restored her faith. He was her very own romance hero, and the two were getting married in September. Maddie had to drive to Boise in a few days to be fitted for her bridesmaid dress.

Once again she was allowing one of her friends to deck her out in a ridiculous dress and make her stand up at the front of a church. The year before shed been a bridesmaid at Lucys wedding. Lucy was a mystery writer and had met her husband Quinn when hed mistaken her for a serial killer. Long story short, he hadnt let a little thing like homicide stand in the way of his pursuit of Lucy.

Out of the four friends, that left herself and Adele still single. Maddie pulled on a pair of black cotton panties and tossed the towel on the bed. Adele wrote fantasy novels for a living, and although she had her own man troubles, Maddie figured it was a lot more likely that Adele would marry before she would herself.

Maddie fit the large cups of her bra over her breasts and fastened it in back. In fact, she just didnt see herself getting married. She wanted a kid about as much as she wanted a cat. The only time a man came in handy was when she needed someone to do some heavy lifting or when she desired a warm naked body next to hers. But she owned a sturdy hand truck and big Carlos, and when she had need of heavy lifting or sexual release she reached for one of them. Admittedly, neither was as good as the real thing, but the hand truck went back in the garage when she was through, and big Carlos got shoved back into her bedside table. Both of them stayed put and didnt give her crap, play games with her heart, or cheat on her. Pretty much a win-win.

She stepped into a pair of jeans and then shoved her arms through the sleeves of her most comfortable hooded sweatshirt. She just didnt have the same burning desires, or instincts, or clocks that drove other women into matrimony and childbirth. Which wasnt to say that she didnt get lonely sometimes. She absolutely did.

Shoving her feet into a pair of flip-flops, she moved from the bedroom, though the living room, to the kitchen. The noise from the neighbors party grew louder and she reached into the refrigerator. Voices floated in through her open windows as she pulled out a bottle of carb-reduced merlot. She was alone and lonely and apparently feeling quite sorry for herself too. Which really wasnt like her. She never felt sorry for herself. There were too many people in the world with real problems.

The shrill screech of at least a half dozen Piccolo Petes sliced through the air, and Maddie almost dropped the corkscrew. Damn it, she cursed and placed her free hand over her heart. Beyond the French doors leading out to her deck, she could see the pale shadows of dusk and the darkening surface of the usually emerald-green lake. She poured red wine into a glass and carried it outside to the deck and set it on the railing. A dozen or so people stood on the neighbors deck and the beach below. Along the waters edge three mortar tubes stuck out of the sand and pointed toward the sky. Several children held sparklers while men supervised, lit more Piccolo Petes and something that flashed like little strobe lights. Smoke from bombs of every color clouded the beach, and the children ran through the paisley haze like genies from a bottle.

Against the smoke and chaos, Mick Hennessy stood in profile with a punk between his teeth like a long thin cigarette. She recognized his wide shoulders and black hair and the boy who stood gazing up at him. He handed his nephew a lit sparkler and Travis spun on one foot and waved it about. Mick took the punk from between his teeth, said something, and Travis immediately stopped and held the firework in front of him like a statue.

Maddie took a sip of her wine. Yesterday, seeing him at the hardware store had been a real shock. Shed been so intent on her box of poison that she hadnt noticed him until hed stood right next to her. Looking up into those blue eyes so close and so much like his fathers had forced a stunned Christ almighty out of her.

She lowered the glass and set it on the railing as she watched Mick with his nephew. She really didnt know what to think about him. Not that she knew enough to form an opinion or that it even mattered. The book she planned to write had nothing to do with him and everything to do with the love triangle between Loch, Rose, and Alice. Like Maddie, Mick had been just another innocent victim.

Louie Allegrezza and two other men knelt close to the water and stuck bottle rockets into several soda bottles. They lit one fuse right after the other, and Maddie watched the rockets fly up high over the water and explode with soft pop-pop-pops.

Be careful with those around the kids, Lisa called down to her husband.

These never hurt anyone, he called back as he once again loaded up the bottles. Four of the rockets flew straight up, while the fifth flew straight at Maddie. She hit the deck as it whizzed past her head.