Myles pointed a finger-gun at Stump and shot him a bullet of respect. Moments later, and alone in his room, Stump checked YouTube for some kissing videos.
Chapter Seventeen
It had been a few days since Dr. Moreno successfully forced Delores to visit her memory bank. Now, an hour and a half into a scheduled trip to El Centro to clear the air with her mama and Tio about how their actions all those years back still affected her, Delores realized she’d always looked upon her youth with the same trepidation that she experienced when she played with a jack-in-the–box. As predictable as the outcome was, she was always surprised when the puppet-monster ultimately sprang into her face. Now, in her adult life, all that turtle-headed hiding from her past was making it difficult to have any kind of normal romantic relationship.
When fifteen minutes from El Centro, she was haunted by that other comment Dr. Moreno had made about choosing kindness over being correct. How the hell was she supposed to kindly clear the air with a child molester and the woman who had enabled it? She could think of a half-dozen emotions that defined her attitude about her ugly past and ultimately losing her sister, but kindness sure as hell wasn’t among them.
Ultimately, Delores turned onto the final street and parked in their empty driveway. She opened her glove box and stashed both her .38 and her cell phone. She looked in her rearview mirror. It was time these people learned they were no longer dealing with innocent little Delores. She’d become a skilled detective and deserved respect. Most importantly, they needed to understand the long-term damage they’d inflicted on her.
Delores marched to their front porch, straightened her clothes and rang the doorbell. As she waited, she caught the scent of lemon furniture polish. She smiled. Mama was always a clean woman. If nothing else, that was one reason to exhibit some of that kindness Dr. Moreno spoke of.
It took but a minute for Mama to get to the door. “My sweet Delores,” she said, a grin lighting her small face. A brief hug reminded Delores how much taller she was than her mama. “Come on in,” Mama said, tugging Delores’s hand.
Until that moment Delores hadn’t realized how tight her stomach muscles were. As they moved to the living room she looked over her mama’s shoulders. Most of the lights were on. It didn’t appear as if Tio or anybody else was there. Mama turned around. “We don’t get to see you very much.”
Delores nearly responded with, “Well there’s a reason for that, Mama,” but it was too early for belligerence and Tio wasn’t there to hear what she had to say.
Mama pointed to the table at the corner of the room. “Did you see my birthday card? Tio had it delivered to me.”
A chill swooshed up Delores’s back. She’d been so engrossed in her own problems, she’d forgot to stop and get something. What kind of daughter doesn’t even bring a card on her mama’s birthday? Delores hoped that her face wasn’t nearly as red as she assumed it was. “Very nice of him,” she said while glancing through the card and trying to hide her embarrassment. “Where is Tio now?”
Just then two car doors slammed. “That’s probably them,” Mama said. “He went to pick up two women from our church.”
Delores didn’t know what to think about the paradox of a pervert’s involvement in a church. Nor was she pleased with the dynamics of strangers around when she had such an important topic to discuss. All she could do for now was exercise patience.
A fairly long period lapsed before Tio pushed in the front door and held it open. His other hand held what looked like a small gift. Slowly, an elderly woman, probably in her eighties, employed a walker to help her breach the threshold. Once she made her way in, another similarly aged woman followed, holding a cake with chocolate icing. “Hello, Delores,” Tio said happily, as if he’d always been her good friend. “This is Carmen and Araceli.”
Araceli placed her cake on the dining table before addressing Delores. “It was so nice of you to drive all this way for your mother’s birthday.”
It would have been if that were what happened but now, bloated with guilt, Delores didn’t have the nerve to divulge the truth. “Thank you,” she said, noticing that Tio’s eyes darted to the table with his card on it and then to a couple other places.
After Tio helped Carmen sit down, he extended the small gift to Delores’s mama. “Here ya go, Anna. It’s from Delores and me.”
Mama’s face lit up and Delores’s eyes shot to Tio. He must have figured out that she hadn’t brought anything and the S.O.B. wanted her to be indebted to him. Part of her wanted to tell him what a presumptuous a-hole he was, but another part of her was trying to follow some sound advice about being kind. She didn’t want to disrupt her mother’s moment, but she damn sure planned to write him a check on her next payday.
“What is it?” Mama asked Delores.
There was only one possible answer. “You’ll just have to open it to find out.”
Tio grinned and nodded while Mama tore into the wrapping, opened the box and squealed. “It’s an iPhone.”
“A nice one,” Tio said. “Now we can take pictures of you and Delores and she can show us how to forward them to everybody we know.”
It all made the important Detective Sanchez feel like irrelevant Delores again. She obligingly posed for a couple pictures with her mama and wished that Simone could have been there. Then Tio handed her the iPhone. “Now take a picture of me and Anna so we can show everybody how happy we are.” Good God. What a con man.
Over the next couple hours Delores suffered through dismal things like happy faces, birthday cake, and too damn many pictures. She forced herself to smile while she showed her mama and Tio how to take selfies and send pictures to their friends. The entire mood was the exact opposite of what she had wanted. Then she ran out of time.
Chapter Eighteen
Adults were frustrating. Half the time they’d tell Stump to grow up and the other half the time they treated him like a kid. Take Myles for instance: Myles didn’t mind if Stump had his own car, but Stump wasn’t allowed to use his own trust money to buy it. Then there were the people at Cal-Vista. Mr. Kraft treated Stump with respect, but Dixon was always comparing Stump to “real” adults.
The City Council and BigBunz were the same way. For the moment he was permitted to present his ideas for improving home safety, but nobody would tell him how to do it. Thus far, Councilman Barella was the only exception. At least he’d called to say he’d ordered the brochures and found an attorney, named Danielle Delgado, who agreed to help Stump put his project together.
Then on Sunday morning, after a couple hours of practice driving, Stump and Myles dropped by the printing company to get the brochures and there it was: another smack-down. “That selfish asshole,” Stump said, examining the brochures and handing one to Myles. “He took one whole side for his picture and didn’t even mention Mom or me on either side.”
Myles glanced at the brochure and cocked his head to the side. “The important thing is to get people to come to your meeting.”
“I know, but just when I thought Mr. Barella was an okay guy for getting me an attorney, he pulls this bullshit.”
“Well, people will be back from church and moving around by now so you can tell them all about your plan face-to-face.”
Shortly thereafter, they pulled into Stump’s former neighborhood and parked. “You ever do anything like this?” Stump asked.
“Canvassing? Yeah, a little, but the Violent Crimes Division does it more. Sometimes they bang on doors all day just to get one good lead.” Myles handed Stump about fifty sheets. “There’s a trick to it. We want to keep moving so we can get to as many people as possible, but if you find somebody who wants to learn more about it, stay with them and answer their questions. On the other hand, some folks will talk your ear off if you let them, especially older people. Just excuse yourself and tell them you have lots of other people to see.”
“What should I say?”
“We’ll go together on a couple calls. You’ll get the h
ang of it.”
They walked up the closest driveway and knocked on the door. “Go ahead,” Myles said to Stump as a middle-aged mom-type tugged the door open.
Stump swallowed. “Your house is dangerous. You wouldn’t want to come to a meeting, would you?”
She glared at him as if he was nuts. “What?”
Myles stepped forward and held out one of the brochures. “Hello, ma’am. We’re handing out these invitations to come to the City Council meeting in ten days. There’s going to be a discussion about making homes in this area safer. We thought you might like to come.”
The lady took the brochure, peeked at it, then looked back at Stump. “My husband never does nothin’.”
“No problem,” Myles said. “If you have any questions, our number is at the bottom.”
At the next home an eight-year-old boy answered. Caught off-guard, Stump looked at Myles for guidance.
“Is your mom or dad home?” asked Myles.
The kid turned and screamed toward the center of the home. “Daddy. Some men are at the door.”
A man? Rad. Stump hadn’t been called a man very often.
A toilet flushed, the dad-dude came to the door and Stump tried again. “Hello. My name is Stump … er, Neil Randolph.” He held out a brochure. “We’re working with Councilman Barella to make homes safer. We’d like to invite you to our next meeting—in 10 days.”
“This better not cost me no money. I’ll be in the front row raising hell if it does.”
Stump shrugged. He hadn’t really figured out the numbers yet.
Minutes later, Stump was on one side of the street knocking on doors, just like Trick or Treat, and Myles was on the other side. Eventually, they met at the end of the street. “Let’s go to the next block over,” Myles said, “and head back toward the truck for more brochures.”
By the time the morning disappeared, Stump had the hang of it and Myles pointed down the block where a woman was watering her flowers. “Let’s ask her if we can rest for a bit in the shade of one of her trees.”
Once settled, Stump removed his tennis shoes. “That Barella was right about one thing,” he said. “This is pretty effective. Several people said they’d come to the meeting.”
“Mine too,” Myles added. “One woman wanted to know if I could get her a street light for the front of her house.”
“I met a lady who said she remembered the fire,” Stump said as he rolled a few blades of grass though his fingers.
Myles nodded. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about your job. How’s that going?”
“I’d put up with just about anything for thirty bucks an hour.”
“Glad you got that figured out. Anything else?”
“I met a cute girl, named Maria. She’s got a cat, and her mom’s nice.”
Myles’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s right. Those kids go to a different school, don’t they?”
“All the girls at my school are lame.”
Myles chuckled. “It seems like that sometimes. What about that manager? Dixon. You getting along with him?”
“He’s a jerk. But Mr. Kraft is pretty cool. He said it was smart not to buy his building.”
Myles nodded. “He should know what he’s talking about. Maybe we should put that whole investment idea on the back burner for a while.” Myles ripped a few blades of grass out of the ground. “You know, it still wouldn’t bother me if you looked for some other job.”
Stump turned his head, snickered. “What? You’re always telling me once I start some—”
“I know, but sometimes I can go to extremes, and I just want you to know I’m flexible on this, so feel free to move on if you’d like.”
“Not unless I find something better, and I don’t have time to look.”
“Well, don’t get in a pissing match with that manager. Just walk away if he gets pushy.”
“Yeah. Yeah. First you wanted me to get a job, now you tell me I can quit.” He shook his head. “Adults are weird.”
Just then a familiar Subaru turned the corner. “There’s James,” Stump said. “He said he’d drop by to help but I wasn’t sure he’d make it.”
“Good, we can use him if we want to get to the halfway point today.”
James parked and joined them with one of his mischievous grins. “Sorry, I’m late, but I had to go to the cleaners to drop my pants and jacket off,” he said, making air quotes.
Stump shook his head, looked at Myles who obviously didn’t get the joke. “C’mon, Myles. Think differently. First he had to drop his pants, then he had to—”
“Oh, yeah,” Myles said. “Never heard that one before.”
Chapter Nineteen
“How do you like it?” Dixon asked the woman he believed to be Lorraine Martinez. Another Monday had arrived and he’d obviously assumed a Caddie would impress her. “It’s brand new,” he bragged.
Delores poked her head inside the fire-engine-red beauty and checked the lower right corner of the brake pedal. A hint of wear indicated that Dixon was bullshitting her about the age of the vehicle; nonetheless, “It’s pretty,” she said.
“It’s an SRX with all the bells and whistles, including OnStar. Do you know what that is?”
Of course she did, but Lorraine probably wouldn’t. “Something in outer space?”
“It’s the best music system money can buy. I know you haven’t formally agreed to be my Monday Girl but you do still need my financial assistance, so I figured you’d rather go for a ride than work your ass off around here. The choice is yours.”
Lorraine would be cautious but Delores recognized an opportunity to get some dirt on him. She’d play it as Lorraine would. “How long will it take?”
“What difference does it make? Would you rather spend the day scrubbing toilets?”
“But no kisses?”
He smirked. “Just one. A good-bye kiss, when we get back.”
She hesitated before she sighed, “Okay, but I have to go to the bathroom first. I’ll be right back.”
“Hurry.”
Once in her apartment, she seized her cell and placed a quick call.
“You okay, detective?” Myles Cooper asked, having obviously seen her name on his read-out.
“Yeah. Dixon bought a red Cadillac and wants me to go for a ride.”
“A Caddie? Scamming people must be more lucrative than we thought. You going to go?”
“Yeah, I might be able to get some dirt.”
“Where you headed?”
“Not sure exactly, but I’m shooting for one of the beaches, where it’s nice and crowded.”
“Good idea. I could tail you.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary. He’s trying to act like a gentleman.”
“A gentleman, huh? Don’t be so sure. His background check just came in. No warrants now, but years back he had a run-in with his original wife. She charged him with sexual assault, but he must have made nice with her ’cause she withdrew the charges.”
“That’s not much help. Anything else?”
“Just a couple traffic issues. You have a gun with you, don’t you?”
“Yeah. My trusty Diamondback.”
“That little pea shooter?”
“Don’t scoff. It’ll do man-sized damage if I need it too. Got a small recorder too.”
“Good. Keep me posted and ditch him if it gets dangerous. I’ll come get you.”
She smiled. Myles sounded like a big brother. “Thanks for being there, Myles. It makes me feel a lot better knowing you’re available when the Birdman gets bogged down.” She hung up, grabbed her only blanket off her bed and returned to Dixon.
Once there, she raised the blanket slightly. “Can I put this in the trunk?” Dixon obliged and the trunk appeared to be clear of any potential weapons. He then opened her car door, whereupon she slid in and quickly checked under both seats while he circled around the car. Clear.
Dixon slid in. “Can I put some tissues in the glove box?” she
asked. It too was clean.
“There are some beautiful places in the desert,” Dixon said.
“Could we go to the ocean instead? I haven’t been to a beach since I was a little girl.”
“I’d rather go inland. We can get to know each other better. That’s why you brought the blanket, isn’t it?”
“But I was raised in the desert. It’s boring. I’d rather see the water.”
Dixon grinned and tapped her knee. “One of the things I like about you is you have a mind of your own. How ’bout Venice Beach? We could get there in a little over an hour.”
Good choice. It’d be safe and give her time to probe for information. “Is it nice?”
“One of the best,” he said. He flicked on some soft music. “Did you know I had a tenant hauled off to jail yesterday?”
“No. What’d he do?” she asked, anxious to get him talking.
“Disobeyed me. I’ve told him before not to drink beer in the parking lot, but he didn’t seem to get the message.”
“I don’t like it when they whistle at me and say nasty things.”
He touched her knee. “That’s why I had some of my cop-buddies take care of it. Sometimes I gotta remind people who’s the boss.”
Cop buddies? What a liar. She and Birdman already checked that out and nobody considered him worthy of special treatment. Nevertheless, she was glad he was in a bragging mood.
“Don’t you worry, though,” he said, bumping her knee again. “If you take me up on my offer, I’ll teach you how the game is played so people can’t jerk you around.”
She reached in her purse, secretly turned on her pen-recorder and pulled out a tissue to fake-wipe her eye. “It would be easier to decide if I didn’t have to do nasty things.”
Dixon grinned. “It’s not nasty. It’s more like a friendly business deal. All sorts of people trade money for services. That’s all we’re really doing. Think of it this way. If we make love, it just takes a little while and that’s all you have to do for the whole week. There are only a few Mondays a month so even if I call on you every week, which I probably won’t, that’s a lot of compensation for very little on your part.”
“But I’m a lot younger than you. Do you do this with other women my age?”
“Not usually. They’re not as stable, but you’re more mature than others your age. I saw that the first time I met you.”