Ting-A-Ling (23 page)

“Danielle? God, she’s the one who left me out there to die, well, her and Paris. By the way she’s not rich. At least, not anymore.”

“Don’t be too sure about that, Dev. I think she might be covered.”

“What?”

“Not important. Look, the important thing here is that you’re okay. I saw her drive off, but I couldn’t follow and leave you. You would have been frozen solid in a couple of minutes.”

“Now what? What are you going to do?”

“Me? Us? We’ll be heading off somewhere now that things here have more or less been settled. I’ve been putting together our new life for the last seven years. Besides, we gotta move before Jimmy starts to really catch on.”

“I met him, Jimmy. Nice kid, he reminded me of you, looks just like you at that age.”

“Yeah, he was a little surprise. I’m supposed to be dead for two years and Sue suddenly shows up pregnant and then delivers a carbon copy of me, pardon the pun.”

It suddenly dawned on me she had mentioned the kid was only five.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“Stick with our plan. Obviously, they never found my body. It’s been seven years, now. They declared me dead about ten months ago, the insurance finally came through for Sue. Sue and Jimmy will be moving somewhere a little nicer, out of this climate. It’s taken a while, but we’re good to go.”

“Someplace south then, warmer?”

Jimmy smiled. “You should probably get some sleep, man. Pretty busy night.”

“I need to tell you something,” I said then reached over and grabbed his wrist.

“This isn’t a proposal is it? Can’t it wait till morning?”

“No, it’s long over due. You remember that time with the window, Mr. Graham and our slingshots?”

“When we were kids?” He looked surprised, no idea where I was going.

“Yeah, I never thanked you. I never had the balls to fess up. It’s bugged me ever since.”

“What?”

“I broke that window and you took the heat. Remember? Your folks grounded you for a good week and I just left you out there, hanging. I’m sorry, Jimmy. Sorry I let you down.”

“Hell, Dev.” He chuckled. “You’re no smarter now than you were back then. I did it, my shot hit the window. I’m the one who broke the damn thing.”

“You sure, because I think I was…”

“Dev, I’m dead sure.” He smiled at that. “Honest, it was me. You didn’t let me down then and you sure as hell didn’t tonight. I couldn’t have done this without you. You got me paid in full.”

I looked at him, not sure what he meant.

Jimmy smiled, placed both his hands around mine. “Thanks, man. Of all people, you got the brass ones. Now, I have to get some sleep. We’ll run you home in the morning. Sue will bring some soup in for you in a minute. Probably get another warm blanket for you too.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

“Dev?” It was Jimmy.
He was standing at the door to the little bedroom, leaning against the doorframe.

I opened my eyes, and waited for a second or two before my mind caught up to the surroundings. I half rolled over to look at him.

“You can wear these,” he said, then tossed some jeans and a sweatshirt onto the bed. “Sue will be back in a few minutes, she’s dropping Mr. Curious off at daycare. She’s gotta get to work, I have a flight to catch, we can drop you home on the way.”

“Yeah, oh, man,” I said, crawling out of bed, “still a little tender on the fingers and toes.” I looked at my hands, the fingers looked sunburned.

“Lucky you can even feel the damn things. Soaked like that, I wasn’t kidding, you were maybe good for just a couple of minutes out there. That field and with the snow that came in last night, they wouldn’t have found you till Memorial Day.”

“Thank God you were following them.”

“I wasn’t,” Jimmy said. “I was following you. I pulled into that scenic overlook just as you skied away. It was obvious where you were headed. I just watched and waited. You do what I’ve been doing the last seven years, you learn some patience. Anyway, you better get dressed, Sue’s back any minute,” he said then left the room.

I climbed into the back seat of Sue’s car, a non-descript gray Toyota. She was driving, Jimmy buckled up next to her in the passenger seat.

“Sue, you know you got a broken headlight? On your passenger side,” I said and reached for the seatbelt. I was sitting next to the empty car seat.

They exchanged a quick glance that seemed to speak volumes.

“Sorry I don’t have a jacket for you, Dev. Those boots okay?” Jimmy asked.

“Yeah, not to worry, I can feel the heat back here.”

“You got a way to get into your place?”

“Yeah, spare key hidden by the porch.”

I had a ton of questions to ask, but didn’t know where to begin. I wasn’t sure how much Sue knew or didn’t know. Everyone was quiet driving down Robert Street. She cut over at the light on Concord, heading toward Wabasha. She drove across the Wabasha Bridge and into downtown, and then turned left on Kellogg to make her way up the hill. In the morning sun the dome of the Cathedral glowed imperiously from the top of the hill.

Jimmy and Sue were making small talk about his flight, little Jimmy’s day care, what she was going to cook for dinner.

“There some way I can get in touch with you?” I asked.

They exchanged another one of those glances that spoke volumes. Then Jimmy turned half-way and looked at me in the back seat.

“Probably not the best idea, Dev. Please don’t take it personal, but not now. Maybe give it thirty or forty years.”

“That’s a long damn time. I’d like to see you before then. I have no idea what happened last night. I mean to Danielle and Paris.”

“I think the less you know the better. It’s just best this way, Dev. Sue and I have seven years of living apart and getting back on our feet. Hope you won’t be offended, but we’ve got too much time and heartbreak invested to change course now.”

I nodded. I didn’t like it, but I understood, sort of.

Sue drove past the Cathedral then took a right on Selby. We waited while two women crossed at the intersection with Western Ave. no doubt making their way toward Nina’s and coffee.

“I’m just up here in the next block, on the right hand side. Next to that white house, mine’s the one with the snow shovel on the front porch.”

Sue pulled along the curb and stopped in front of my driveway. She didn’t put the car in park, just kept her foot on the brake signaling this was going to be a short goodbye.

“Sue, thanks for taking care of me last night, and for taking care of this idiot.”

Jimmy laughed, and held his hand out. We shook and I looked deep into his eyes.

“It’s been too long, man. I’ll let you get in touch with me, but make it a little sooner than thirty years. I’ll get these boots back to Sue,” I said.

“Don’t, just keep them.”

I nodded, said a final, “Thanks,” and got out. I walked around the back of the car and up the three steps toward my porch.

“I doubt you’ll hear anything more from Mr. Paris, Dev,” Jimmy called from the car.

I turned to ask him something, but they were already pulling away.

Chapter Fifty

I put my fears
aside and stepped into my own shower. It was warm, safe, I was the only one in the bathroom and I was still out of there in just under three minutes. I dressed in my own clothes. I called Louie to see if I could scam a ride down to the office. He didn’t answer. I phoned Heidi next and got the same result. So I called a taxi and waited.

I still had my jacket on and was staring out the office window when Louie came in. I’d been doing pretty much the same thing for the better part of four hours. Nothing.

“Well, look who finally…you okay, Dev?”

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“Well, that’s it then, that’s why I thought you looked so different, you were actually thinking,” he said, then threw his jacket on the picnic table. “You didn’t make any coffee?”

“What? No, I guess not. I’ll take some if you’re making it.”

“You sure you’re okay? Christ, you look like you just lost your best friend,” Louie said, then started scooping coffee into the paper filter.

“Yeah, fine, don’t worry. I’m going to take your advice, by the way.”

“You are?” He sounded shocked. Then followed with, “Which advice are we talking about?”

“I put a call into Eddie Bendix, the guy at the insurance company. See if he’s got any research or checking on job references he needs done. I could go for some dull work right about now.”

“Plus, it pays,” Louie said.

“Oh, yeah, there is that.”

We drank some coffee. Louie was sitting on the edge of my desk, I was in my chair. We were both staring out the window when something caught our eye. We looked across the street, up on the third floor a figure strolled in front of the window and stopped to look down on the traffic. One of the sisters clad in a very small thong. She looked to be attaching the back of an earring.

“God, I wish she’d get that thing in and put her arms down,” Louie said.

At which point she did exactly that. She continued to look down on the street a second or two longer before she drifted back into some darkened area of the apartment.

“Hopefully that was a sign of spring,” Louie said.

“It’s still January, Louie. We got a ways to go.”

“One can always hope.”

“Yeah.”

I picked up a stack of a hundred files from Eddie Bendix the following day. “More of those when you’re finished, Dev. We’re gearing up a new section to deal with all the Affordable Care Act bullshit.”

“I’ll have these back to you in a couple of days,” I said.

I did, as a matter of fact. I picked up another hundred files, and then another after that. When I dropped the third batch off Eddie called me into his office.

“Dev, not a reflection on your work, it’s really helped, but we’ve put someone on staff who can handle this now, the reference checking. Hope you understand.”

“To tell the truth, I was kind of wondering why you weren’t doing it internally.”

“We’ll stay in touch,” Eddie said. “Something’s always coming up. Check is in the mail to you on Friday.”

Chapter Fifty-One

It was Valentine’s Day.
Actually, it was the seventeenth of February, three days later when I phoned Heidi.

“Hello.”

“Heidi, its Dev.”

“I’m just between things, can I call you back?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Thanks, bye, bye, bye.”

My phone rang a few minutes later. I answered it without looking and kept the binoculars up. Both sisters were strolling around the third floor across the street in various states of undress. A night of Heidi would serve as the perfect Grande Finale.

“That was fast. Is baby in need of some
special
attention tonight?” I said, then sat back and waited for Heidi to invite me over for a night of uncontrolled passion.

I heard the gum crack just before he yelled, “Haskell.”

“Yes?” I tried to hide my disappointment by sounding overly sweet. I snapped my fingers a couple of times to get Louie’s attention. He looked up from his laptop on the picnic table.

“Am I interrupting?” Manning sounded hopeful.

“Who is this?” I asked.

He ignored my question and said, “I wonder if you’d have time later this afternoon to stop in and see me.”

“Is this just for a friendly chat or should I have my attorney present?” I asked.

Louie pointed at himself, nodded, raised his hand and gave me the okay sign.

“This is just a friendly little chat, no need for legal counsel.”

“I’ll bring him anyway. You name a time.”

“I’d like nothing better than to see your smiling face at the end of today. Say four o’clock?”

“Four o’clock today?” I said in Louie’s direction, he nodded back. “We’ll be there.”

Manning hung up.

“Any ideas?” Louie asked.

“No, nothing, unless those two sisters across the street reported us.”

“In which case, Manning would probably be over here to view the scene of the crime.”

“I know one thing, I’m giving Heidi’s number a ring tone. I don’t need Manning screwing up my social life.”

We were five minutes early when Manning ushered us into the conference room.

“Damn it, forgot a file, give me just a minute, gentlemen,” Manning said, then dashed down a hall.

“Not like him to forget something,” Louie half whispered.

“You recognize this place?” I asked. It was the same room where we’d met with Manning last December along with that humorless psychologist Theobelle Sinn.

“Kind of hard to forget. I wonder where she’s hiding?” Louie said then looked under the table.