The Queen of Cool (29 page)

“
Supposedly?” Lo
asked.

“
Some of the VX was taken
out of the rockets by an over-zealous, paranoid Colonel. The Army
only checked the weight of the things. No one looked in each
capsule to make sure they had VX in them.”

“
They took out the VX and
packed the rockets for weight?”

“
Exactly,” Sy
said.

“
I’m not as dumb as I
look.”

“
I didn’t say you were
dumb. I said you were blonde.”

“
Isn’t that the same
thing?” Lo asked.

“
Point taken,” Sy
said.

“
Why would the Colonel take
the VX?”

“
Personally, I don’t know,”
Sy said. “I never met the man.”

“
But you have some idea,”
Lo said.

“
I heard a story from a guy
who should know. But I can’t guarantee it’s true,” Sy raised his
eyebrows in question. Lo nodded. She wanted to hear the story. “The
Colonel was terrified that the US was weakening it’s defenses by
getting rid of this stuff. He’d been in a camp in Germany during
the war. He saw evil lurking in every corner of the world. I like
to believe his intentions were good. He carried the VX from base to
base until his last assignment at the NAS here in town.”

“
370
^th
Chemical
Company?” Lo asked.

“
Where your father’s friend
Captain Bozeman worked,” Sy said.

Lo nodded.

“
The story I heard was that
the Colonel had a coronary without telling even one person about
his personal VX stash,” Sy said. “It was found by a greedy
commander who sold it to the highest bidder using HDAC for the
shipping.”

Sy looked at Lo. She picked at her pie.

“
This doesn’t surprise
you?” Sy asked.

“
The Feds have seized Don’s
estate, including my money,” Lo said. “They told our attorney they
are researching Henry Down’s fortune. So, no, it doesn’t surprise
me.”

“
Did you find the packing
slip?” Sy asked.

Lo kept her face blank.

“
You’re not going to tell
me,” Sy said.

“
How do I know you didn’t
kill Don? How do I know that he didn’t come to you, and you killed
him?” Lo’s voice rose with anger. “I don’t know you. I don’t know
if you killed him or not.”

Sy sat back in his chair.

“
Fair enough,” Sy said.
“Who do you trust?”

“
Manny,” Lo
said.

“
Manuel Rodriguez,” Sy
raised his eyebrows. Lo nodded.

“
Mutt and Yazmin, of
course,” Lo said. “My brother. Mrs. Williams.”

“
But not Detective William
Wallace,” Sy said.

Lo gave him a stony look.

“
You
are
smarter than you look,” Sy nodded.

“
How do you know all of
this?” Lo asked.

“
Don came to me early this
year,” Sy said. “He knew I’d been at Pine Ridge. He wanted to know
what I knew, which was nothing. I started asking people who were in
a position to know, starting with my old commander. Wallace showed
up about a month later.”

“
Why didn’t they kill you?”
Lo asked.

“
I’m the last quarterback
who brought the Black Knights to victory over Navy?” Sy shrugged.
“Who knows? They may still.”

Trying to decide whether to trust him, Lo
watched his face.

“
They’d be doing me a big
favor,” Sy said. “Life’s not really worth much without
Renee.”

His eyes flitted like fireflies around the
room.

“
I thought I could do it.
Hell, I had a few years to get used to the idea of living without
her,” Sy said. “I thought, with the pie shop… Renee wanted me to
marry again, have kids and… I can’t. I don’t want to. So you see,
Lo. I’m the most trustworthy person you’ve got. Because there’s
nothing worse that can be done to me. Some stupid chemical gave
Renee cancer and ripped my life from me. Some stupid chemical may
as well finish the job on me.”

Lo looked down at the floor.

“
You feel the same way?”
Sy’s eyebrows shot up with surprise. “Even with the
baby?”

Lo’s eyes drifted up to his face. She gave a
slight nod.

“
I tell myself you’re
luckier than me, because you have the baby,” he said.

“
The doctors keep telling
me that I’m going to lose him. Any day now. And I…” Lo’s eyes
welled with tears. She shook her head to keep from
crying.

“
You’re right,” he said.
“That’s worse.”

They sat across from each other in silent
agreement. He slowly raised his shoulders in a shrug.

“
Whether you like it or
not, we’re in this together.”

Leaning back in her chair, Lo nodded.

“
More pie?” Sy asked. “I
made it for you.”

“
Sure.”

Q

Friday evening—5:05 p.m.

Fairmount Historic District

Days: 91

“
How’d it go with Sy?” Mutt
asked. He held the truck door and helped her out of the
truck.

“
Good,” Lo said. “Turns out
he knows about VX.”

Lo watched Mutt’s face. Preoccupied with
something else, Mutt acknowledged her information with only a
slight nod.

“
And?” Mutt
asked.

“
Oh,” Lo smiled. “I thought
maybe you knew something about Sy.”

“
He makes amazing pie,”
Mutt said. “Did you have some?”

“
Berry,” Lo said. “I
brought one home for dinner.”

Mutt took the bag of groceries from her. She
went to the passenger seat to get the pie.

“
Do you think Yazmin would
like to go away for the weekend?” Mutt asked. “With me, I
mean.”

“
What did you have in
mind?” Lo asked.

“
Maybe a trip to Colorado
like you and Don used to do,” Mutt said. “Or even just to the Lake.
You think she’d spend a weekend with me?”

“
I’m not sure what you’re
asking,” Lo said. “You guys have spent a lot of weekends
together.”

“
But never anywhere nice
and romantic. We’ve started those classes and…” Mutt said. “I saved
some paychecks and… I thought we could… She probably won’t want
to.”

Mutt shrugged.

“
Let’s plan something
nice,” Lo said. “When are you thinking of going?”

“
Tonight,” Mutt said.
“After dinner.”

“
I see what you mean,” Lo
laughed. “Yazmin is not the most spontaneous person.”

“
She’d go if you asked
her,” Mutt smiled.

“
What if you go to Dallas
for the weekend?” Lo asked. “We paid for that suite at the Adolphus
for the whole year. You know, the one we used when we were in town?
You could stay there, go to the museums, eat out, order room
service – stuff like that. That’s not too far or too weird. I bet
she’d really like that. And it’s a beautiful suite.”

“
I forgot about the suite,”
Mutt said. “You don’t mind?”

Lo gave him a sad shake of her head.

“
You still miss him,” Mutt
said. “Bad.”

With her lips closed against her grief, Lo
nodded.

“
Just three months,” Mutt
said. “I’m sorry Lo. So much going on in my life with the company
and getting married, I forget. I think I make myself forget. I keep
thinking Donny will… pop up, you know, like he did when he was away
at school.”

She gave him a slight nod. He touched her
arm.

“
But he’s really gone,”
Mutt said.

Lo bit her lip to keep from crying. Noting
her effort, he nodded.

“
Don’t cry,” Mutt said.
“Yazmin won’t go with me to Dallas if you do.”

Lo smiled. He hugged her with his free hand.
Carrying her groceries, he moved toward the stairwell.

“
Can I ask you something?”
Lo asked.

“
Sure,” Mutt said. “What’s
on your mind?”

“
Why did Don ask you to
live at the air conditioning warehouse?” Lo asked.

Mutt gave Lo a long look. He set down her
groceries and pulled the garage door closed. When the door had
closed, he turned to her.

“
The Feds went through HDAC
around the time you were competing for Ms. Fitness Olympia last
September, right?” Mutt asked. “Donny didn’t reopen the business,
right? And he found the packing slip at the beginning of the year,
right?”

Lo nodded on cue to each question.

“
You know everyone loved
Don,” Mutt said. “He could make a friend in a second
flat.”

“
It was a gift and a
curse,” Lo repeated what Don always said. Mutt gave her a sad
smile.

“
He made friends with one
of the Feds who went through HDAC,” Mutt said. “Jaden said the Feds
were looking for evidence of smuggling, right?”

“
That’s what he told me,”
Lo said.

“
This guy told Don that
they were looking for a weapon of mass destruction,” Mutt
said.

“
VX,” Lo said.

Mutt nodded.

“
They don’t know where the
VX is,” Lo said.

Mutt nodded.

“
And the packing slip? The
note says he found it in January.”

“
I don’t know about that,”
Mutt said. “All I know is that Don asked me to stay there in
February. He got the idea that they were still shipping it out of
HDAC. I don’t know how or why he thought that but he
did.”

“
And?”

“
Never saw a thing,” Mutt
said. “Well… except…

Lo stayed silent while Mutt thought for a
moment.

“
It’s hard to
remember because… well, Donny died and I drank a lot…” Mutt gasped
at the pain brought on by his simple words. “But there was
something. Some of the boxes had a triangle with an
X
in it. They all seemed to be related to something other
than air conditioning. The Feds missed it. It looked like
this.”

Mutt set her groceries down. With his
finger, he drew on his palm.

“
Triangle with
an
X
in it.”

“
I’ve seen that before,” Lo
said.

“
Where?” Mutt
asked.

“
Jaden Sadler has it
tattooed on his right shoulder. I asked him about it when we were
in Hawaii with him and one of those silicon girls he always
dated.”

Lo held her hands in front of her chest to
indicate the women’s talents.

“
What did he
say?”

“
He said it was a family
thing,” Lo said.

“
His father’s name is on
the packing slip,” Mutt said.

“
That’s family,” Lo
said.

Q

Friday afternoon—6:35 p.m.

Downtown Fort Worth

Days: 91

Hearing a knock, Lo jogged from their living
space to the door. Everyone in her family was there for dinner and
to find out about her baby. She looked through the brass door
viewer and shook her head. Shrugging, she threw open the door.

“
Dr. Evans!” Lo held her
arms to hug her Fort Worth doctor. “What a treat!”

“
Lorraina,” Dr. Evans
said.

Wearing a light-green linen pant suit, Dr.
Evans had an air of professional capability and deep kindness. She
held Lorraine tight.

“
Would you like to come
in?” Lo stepped back to let the doctor in. “We’re just about to
have dinner. You’re welcome to stay but…”

Dr. Evans gave her an odd look. Lo blushed.
She’d known Dr. Evans since she was young. Dr. Evans was the one
who told her about sex, squeezed her in when she was getting
married and told her not to give up on having a baby with Don. She
was almost a second mother to Lo.

“
What did I say?” Lo
asked.

“
You invited me to dinner,”
Dr. Evans said.

“
You’re welcome to stay,
but I can’t imagine it will be very interesting,” Lo
smiled.

“
A month ago,” Dr. Evans
said. “You invited me a month ago.”

“
You’re Vera’s
grandmother?” Lo gawked at one of her favorite people.