return this.”
“It's not mine.”
“No. And that's your problem. It's my problem too, as it turns out.”
“Who's is that?”
“Wouldn't you like to know.” Yancy offered Ruth the earring, but when she didn't move he closed his fist and said, “But I'm not that generous.”
“Then why are you here?”
“As you've figured out by now, I know who your husband is. I know he spent a few months pretending to be my book man.” Yancy tipped his head and grinned. “I'm not so stupid. Your people, on the other hand, were all so pleased with themselves they failed to consider this simple fact. They must have known that the man Frank Holland was trying to impersonate was my step brother. Did your friends really think they'd fooled me?”
“I suppose they did.”
“I discovered Frank on the first day. I offered to play along in exchange for something.”
“What was that?” said Ruth.
“Your son is upstairs?” he said, with a tilt of his chin.
Ruth backed away and slipped her fingers on her pistol grip. She slid it out of her waist band and held it by her side. Yancy responded with two open, outstretched hands.
He said, “If I was going to harm Jason I wouldn't do it while you were around.”
“I don't even want to hear you threaten to harm him.”
“Too late.” he said. “You should also know that my deal with Frank came with some other stipulations and rewards. Obviously, I wasn't going to play along with the game if it meant I was going to become a victim. For me, the point was to redirect the department's attention away from me and towards your Sergeant Keller.”
“Keller?” said Ruth. “Why Keller?”
“Oh, he's been working for me for ages. But I tire of him. I recognized immediately that Frank Holland was so much better for the job. So I offered him the job and he took it. As a bonus he got to bust Keller, become a hero and get a promotion at his day job. Everyone's a winner.”
“Except Sergeant Keller.”
“Honestly, do you think he was ever going to be a winner?”
Ruth shrugged. “What's the job?”
Yancy held up the hand with the earring again. He opened it so that she could see it once more.
“The girls.” he said.
“The girls?”
“That's his job. The girls.”
“What girls?”
“Ask Frank.” said Yancy. “My purpose here tonight is to warn you that Frank can't get too close to the girls. His job is to handle them, not romance them. I don't ever want to see this sort of thing happen again.”
Yancy put the earring back in his pocket. He tapped the screen on the camera a few times and turned it around again so that Ruth could see a new photo. It was a family of five in their living room. They were gathered around the TV, the parents sprawled on the floor with their throats slit. The children were on the couch and positioned with their feet against the back and their heads hanging upside down over the cushions, the way some kids watch TV. Their necks were also opened. Their heads looked as though they might drop off and roll away. Though their faces were hammered in, Yancy had left their jaws intact. A wilted pink tulip rested in each mouth.
He said, “People who don't do what they're told pay the price.”
Ruth was silent.
Yancy turned his back to her and walked away.
“Tell him to stay away from the girls.”
He climbed back into his truck and drove away. Ruth stood in the open door for a minute. Then she stormed back upstairs, past her sleeping father, and into Jason's room. She wrapped Jason up and lifted him onto her shoulder. The baby boy yelped a little on the way up but settled once he felt his mother's presence. Ruth peered out the door. Jason hadn't woken his grandfather. Ruth took the spare car seat from the closet and left the apartment. Several adjacent multifamily homes shared a lot in the back and that is where Ruth kept her cruiser. She set Jason down in the front passenger seat while strapping his car seat in. Once they were both secured in the car, Ruth turned the ignition and sucked in a deep breath. She looked through the cage wire and saw the back of her son's car seat.
Here goes nothing.
When she turned her head to the front again, Dad was standing there. He came around to the driver's side window. Ruth put it down. Though the man wore sweats and no shoes, his expression and stance gave him all the authority of an officer about to ask for her license and registration.
He said, “What's going on?”
“Maybe I'm going a little crazy, Dad.”
“Where are you going?” With that tone, he might as well have added, young lady.
“To find Frank.”
“Why?”
Ruth put the car into reverse and pulled away, saying, “I can't tell you that.”
A few minutes later she showed up in front of Centerfolds. She noticed the startled expressions on the men waiting out front as an unkempt woman in jeans and a black button up shirt climbed out of a cop car. In particular, there was a doughy village idiot type who wore his bangs greased to his forehead and did nothing to hide an open stare. The others at least pretended to look away until she pulled the baby out.
Ruth walked up to the bouncer and flashed her badge. He hesitated and she showed him where the gun was stowed. The big guy opened his arms and shrugged, letting her by. As Ruth passed the marshmallow man, he tapped her on the shoulder.
“Are you one of the acts?”
One of his buddies punched him in the gut. Ruth moved on. She surveyed the room for any of the guys she knew. She looked at all the male faces that were fixed on the female bodies on stage and thought to herself, god they all look the same when they have that expression. Near the back of the room she saw her rookie trainee, Luke. He didn't notice her. Coolie was watching the stage. He wasn't wide eyed and slack jawed. Rather, he was leaning back with one leg crossed over the other and a drink poised on his knee. This kid, not more than twenty five, was taking in the scene like he owned every girl up there.
His demeanor changed when Ruth came close enough for him notice. He stood up, almost tipping his glass over as he did so. Ruth didn't give him a chance to say anything.
“Where's Frank?” she said.
“What did he do?”
“Where is he, Coolie?”
“I don't know, in the bathroom maybe? I mean, it's not my job to watch him.”
“None of this bros before hos BS.” she said. “Where. Is. Frank?”
“He's in one of the back rooms.”
“What?” When Luke began to answer, she leaned in and said, “With a girl?”
Luke shrugged and shook his head. “I saw him go back there a few minutes ago with James, so you know it was probably a thing for him – I mean James. He's the man of the hour, after all.”
“And they went with a girl?”
“Well,”
“Don't lie.”
“I think so.”
Ruth left Coolie standing there. She passed through a black curtain, baby still slung over one shoulder, walking down the hall and yelling for her husband. Near the end a door opened on the dim corridor. It cast a triangle of light into the space. Frank stuck his head out.
“Ruth?”
She ran up to him.
“Look at this.” she said, patting her sleeping child on the back. “You're hurting him, not me.”
“What are you doing here with Jason?”
Ruth stormed into the room, so blind with fury that she didn't see who else was inside.
She said, “You're a cop, the same as me. Stand up like one. This ends, or we do.”
Another voice spoke to her, “Ruth?”
She turned and saw James, the man of the hour as Coolie had called him. He was yet another cop. James didn't look like he was having a good time. His eyes were red as though he'd been crying. There was a woman in there too, just as Luke
had reported. She was wrapped in a white robe and her face sparkled with glitter. Her purple eye shadow was smudged down her cheek. She too had been crying.
“What?” said Ruth. “What in the hell?”
“Is this your wife?” said the girl to Frank. “And your kid?”
Frank nodded. The dancer stood and came over to Ruth.
She said, “You know this guy is something else. Come here.”
The girl closed the door and drew Ruth over to a red couch, where they sat.
“My name is Kathy.” she said. “Or Majestic. Take your pick. Jimmy and I used to date. Frank tells me Jimmy came here for his bachelor party because he wanted to see me one last time before tying the knot. He wanted to make sure he was doing the right thing; not that I have an interest in him any more.”
Frank said, “I didn't know until James went a little berserk.”
The other man was staring at his shoes as Frank said this. He looked like he was praying. Then he lifted his head and met Ruth's eyes with his own sorry pair before returning his gaze to the carpet.
“So I rented a room and asked Kathy to come back.” said Ruth's husband.
Kathy was quick to add, “He wanted me to help talk him out of it.”
“Not out of the wedding.” said Frank.
“Yeah.” said Kathy, with a dirty look. “Out of his funk. Jimmy needs to go through with it.”
Ruth stood, waved a dismissive hand at the woman, and closed the distance between her and her husband. With her free hand she pulled the earring from her pocket and showed it to him. Before either of them could say anything about it, Majestic barged in between the two of them and snatched it away.
“That's mine!” she said. “Where did you get this? Do you have the other one?”
“That one was