The Queen of Cool (9 page)

“
Would you mind taking me
home?” Lo asked. “I’d like to rest before I have to talk to him
again.”

Lisa’s worried eyes scanned Lo’s face. Even
wearing makeup, Lo looked tired and drawn.

“
Sure,” Lisa
said.

By the time Lisa pulled up to the house, Lo
was asleep.

Q

“
Lorraine says you
encourage the other kids to call her ‘Lolita’,” Don said. “Is that
true?”

Lo blinked and looked down. She was sitting
in her high school principal’s office.

She looked at Don; he was furious. She
looked at her English teacher; she was smug. She looked at the
principal. After forty years as an educator, Mr. Sinclair looked
annoyed that they were taking his time. He caught her looking at
him and lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

“
And if I did?” Ms. Kincaid
asked.

“
You’re admitting to
encouraging other students to bully Lorraine?” Don
asked.

“
I speak the truth,” Ms.
Kincaid adjusted the black beret on her short, dyed black hair and
pursed her red-stained lips. “Are you saying Lorraine is not
Lolita? She goes by Lo.”

Ms. Kincaid shifted her ample rear in the
small seat and glared at Mr. Sinclair.

“
You’re
talking about my
wife
,” Don said.
“She’s not twelve years old. She’s never been drugged for sexual
favors. I don’t bribe her to be with me. She’s not my daughter or
step-daughter; she’s my
wife
!”

“
She’s very young. And
you’re…,” Ms. Kincaid sneered over her reading glasses,
“…old.”

“
And?”

“
She is Lolita,” Ms.
Kincaid said. “I must speak the truth.”

“
Ms. Kincaid,” Lo said. “I
don’t see myself in Lolita. I don’t bribe Don with sex to get him
to buy me things. I can buy them myself. I bought everything I have
on.”

“
With his money,” Ms.
Kincaid argued.

“
With our money,” Don said.
“It’s none of your business, but Lorraine has money in her own
right from her parents’ estate.”

“
I’m sure Lolita felt she
had money too,” Ms. Kincaid said. She made a great display of
looking at her long, shiny, red fingernails.

“
Things might have changed,
but in my day, Lolita used to be a nickname for a promiscuous
girl,” Don said. “I’m not sure if I should be angrier that you are
bullying my wife, or that you’re calling her a whore.”

Don’s voice shifted down an octave. He had
gone from furious to enraged. Lo shifted uncomfortably in her
seat.

“
That sounds like bullying
to me, Janey,” Mr. Sinclair’s deep voice echoed around the room.
“Why are you bullying this girl?”

“
She’s being victimized by
this man,” Ms. Kincaid said.

Don laughed. Stunned, Lo, Ms. Kincaid and
Mr. Sinclair gawked at him. Don wiped his eyes and looked at Lo.
She gave him a puzzled smile.

“
If you knew Lorraine, Ms.
Kincaid, you’d see why this is funny,” Don said.

Lo shook her head slightly.

“
What does that mean?” Ms.
Kincaid asked.

“
Lorraine Downs is no
victim,” Don said. “Certainly not mine, and I’ll be damned if she’s
yours.”

“
If you can’t control her,
why did you marry her?” As if she was a prosecuting attorney, Ms.
Kincaid’s finger stabbed at him.

“
She’s the love of my life.
There is no doubt in my mind that I was put on this planet for a
singular reason: to love her,” Don said. “Lo, why did you marry
me?”

“
True love,”
Lo said. “You always talk about the importance of love, Ms.
Kincaid. You wax on and on about Romeo and Juliet and all these
other
stories
. But when you
see it right in front of you, you respond with cruelty and urge
others to be cruel.”

“
I get that our age
difference is weird,” Don said. “It’s weird for us. We don’t need
you to point that out. That’s why it’s inexcusable for you to abuse
Lorraine with your unfounded judgments.”

“
You could
have
asked
me,” Lo said. “You knew my mother. Do
you think my mother would have let me marry Don if she thought I
was being victimized? My father was a big women’s libber. You think
his wife would support something that put women down?”

“
Your mother knew about
this?” Ms. Kincaid asked. “No wonder she hanged
herself.”

Lo bristled at Ms. Kincaid’s cruelty. Don
shook his head at her and looked at Mr. Sinclair.

“
Ms. Kincaid,” Mr. Sinclair
said. “Could you wait for us outside?”

Ms. Kincaid gave Don a satisfied smirk and
left the office.

“
First, let me extend my
sincere and absolute apology,” Mr. Sinclair said. “In my forty
years of teaching and administrating, I’ve never seen a teaching
professional behave as she has. Do you know her
personally?”

“
I’ve never met her before
today,” Don said.

“
I will support Lo’s
transfer to anywhere else she’d like to go. Arlington Heights is
closer to your new home,” Mr. Sinclair said. “After all these
years, almost every principal owes me a favor or two. Where would
you like to go?”

“
I don’t know,” Lo said.
“My mother graduated here. My brother went here too. And my little
sister goes here. I…”

“
Why don’t you give it some
time? I can arrange for your sister Lisa to transfer as well,” Mr.
Sinclair said. “I’ll give you the rest of the week off. You let me
know by the end of the week. You can start fresh on
Monday.”

“
And Ms. Kincaid?” Don
asked.

“
Don’t you worry about her,
Don,” Mr. Sinclair said. “She won’t be a concern to Lo or any other
student in this school or any other.”

Mr. Sinclair stood and escorted them out of
his office past the smug Ms. Kincaid.

“
Thank you for
understanding,” Mr. Sinclair said.

He held out his hand to Don. Don shook
it.

“
Lo,” Mr.
Sinclair put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I had your
mother in my geometry classroom. I never knew her to do a
thing
she didn’t want to. I’m certain you’re the same. Please
accept my personal apology.”

Lo gave an embarrassed nod.

“
You are both very lucky,”
Mr. Sinclair said. “Take care of each other.”

With a nod, the principal turned back into
his office. Don put his arm around her and they walked to his
Mercedes.

“
Are you glad we came in?”
Don asked when they were in the car.

“
Thanks,” Lo
said.

He leaned over to kiss her. Breaking off, he
smiled.

“
Lolita, my ass,” Don
laughed.

Lo joined his laughter.

Lisa gently shook Lo’s shoulder.

“
We’re back,” Lisa said.
“What was so awful about the lawyer?”

“
His office manager is Ms.
Kincaid,” Lo said.

“
Your old English teacher?
No way,” Lisa said.

Lo nodded.

“
Let’s go in and you can
tell me everything,” Lisa said.

Q

Monday afternoon—2:25 p.m.
Downtown Fort Worth

Days: 16

Lisa and Lo had arrived at exactly two
o’clock and they waited. After twenty minutes, Lo told the
receptionist they were leaving. They made it to the elevators
before Don’s attorney, Jaden Sadler, came running out of the
office. He apologized profusely and escorted them back to a small
conference room.

“
I have some great news,”
Jaden said after they were all seated. “But first, let me go
through everything.”

He passed a packet of papers to Lisa and to
Lo then set one in front of himself.

“
Currently the business is
called Henry Downs Air Conditioning or HDAC – kind of a play on the
whole HVAC thing,” Jaden said. “It’s located in Arlington, near Six
Flags. You probably remember their vans. Or I should say, I
do.”

“
Yeah,” Lisa said. “They
were Dallas Cowboy colors with a big metallic blue HDAC on the
side. Gosh, they were everywhere.”

“
Exactly,” Jaden said. “For
the last twenty years or so, HDAC has served the entire Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex. It even had the air conditioning contract for the
new stadium. But here’s the weird thing.”

“
What?” Lo
asked.

“
The business never made
that much money,” Jaden said. “My buddy at the state pulled tax
returns from the last three years. Even though HDAC did a lot of
business, it wasn’t very profitable. After expenses, it made about
thirty thousand a year.”

“
I’ll go through their
books and find out why,” Lisa said.

“
We’ll need that,” Jaden
said.

“
We?” Lo asked.

“
I’ll get to that,” Jaden
said. “The good news is that Don hasn’t touched the profits from
this business in a year or two. There’s an account with his
father’s name on it with sixty-seven thousand dollars in
it.”

“
Is that a part of the
estate?” Lo asked.

“
That’s why I was late,”
Jaden said. “I went to the bank and added Lisa’s name to the
account.”

“
Why Lisa’s?” Lo
asked.

“
Because she’s not
connected with Don’s estate,” Jaden said.

“
We have access to sixty
thousand dollars?” Lisa asked. “That’s wonderful!”

“
Hold on,” Jaden said.
“You’re going to need that money to get the business going. If
that’s what you want to do?”

The lawyer let the question hang. Lo and
Lisa looked at each other and nodded.

“
Great. It’s going to take
a lot to get it up and running again. You’ll need at least fifty
thousand dollars to do that. But you have ten thousand to buy
necessities.”

Proud of his accomplishment, Jaden beamed at
Lo and Lisa.

“
Thank you,” Lo said. She
got up to go.

“
We’re not done,” Jaden
said. “A Detective Manuel Rodriguez of FWPD has asked for the
suicide death of the General Manager of HDAC, Tony Bright, to be
reopened by the Arlington PD. He thinks that Mr. Bright’s death is
somehow connected to what’s happening to you, Lo.”

“
How will that affect us?”
Lo asked.

“
Only in good ways,” Jaden
said. “If Mr. Bright was murdered, then we are a big step closer to
clearing up some of HDAC’s problems. But…”

“
Yes?” Lisa
asked.

“
My recommendation is that
we change HDAC’s name,” Jaden said. “We have a shell of a company
right now. Starting over is better than carrying the stain of the
federal investigation into the smuggling charges. What we need to
do is clean up the books, sort out the business and start over. We
need a new name.”

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

“
I didn’t have anything in
mind,” Jaden said. “So I called a friend of mine who makes a living
naming things – television shows, businesses, stuff like that. He
took down the details and…”

“
Wait,” Lo said. “Why are
you involved here?”

“
I’m going to be your first
investor,” Jaden said. “If you’re going to get this business going,
you’ll need every penny you have. That doesn’t leave money for
living expenses. My secretary has a check for a hundred thousand
dollars as an investment into the reinvigoration of your air
conditioning business.”

“
It’s a loan?” Lisa
asked.

“
No, it’s an investment,”
Jaden said. “Don did that for me when I wanted to start my own
practice, and then again when I started taking on partners. I think
it’s only fair.”

“
So I own some of your
practice?” Lo looked around.

“
The…”

“
Estate does,” Lo and the
attorney said together.

“
Oh,” Lo said. “Are you
okay with him investing in our company, Lisa?”

“
Sure,” Lisa said. “We can
always buy him out later.”

Lo nodded.

“
If it’s all right with you
ladies, I’d like to put together a board of directors,” Jaden said.
“I have a few friends who know more about running businesses than
any business college in the country. They were friends of Don’s,
and I bet all of them would love to be involved. What do you
think?”

“
Why are you doing this?”
Lo asked.

“
I have my own reasons,”
Jaden said.

Lo and Jaden stared at each other for a
moment before he broke eye contact. Desperate for help, Lo let the
matter drop.

“
What if your buddies don’t
like me either?” Lo asked.

“
You’ll prove them wrong,”
Jaden said.

“
I’m all right with you
putting together a board,” Lo turned to Lisa. “You?”

“
As long as we can get rid
of them if they suck,” Lisa said. “I’m not going to be stuck with
some old fogeys who hate my sister.”

“
Fair enough,” Jaden
said.

“
You were talking about a
name?” Lo asked.