Chapter 23
DEAN
A light knock on the bedroom door stirs me awake, and I open my tired eyes to the ceiling fan circling slowly above.
“Dean?” Vanna says softly.
“Yeah, doll?” I groggily ask, still exhausted after last night’s adventure. I barely got any sleep before going to the shop today for a couple of hours. I sit up and glance at my watch. I must have passed the fuck out when I got home not too long ago.
“Jason is here. I told him you worked late last night. He asked if you’d go outside and talk to him… Did something happen? He acted like nothing was wrong, but this doesn’t really feel like a social visit.”
“Everything’s fine, baby,” I assure her.
The explosion at the scrapyard already made the local news, but I doubt we were caught on any surveillance.
Not with them cooking back there. Those involved would have made sure their asses were covered.
And even though Legion’s words still echo in my mind about Jason’s brother-in-law, if there is any credibility to what he said, there’s no way Jason knew.
While I get up to rebutton my shirt and pull my boots back on, Vanna continues.
“Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and our neighbor Meg still hasn’t come by to pick up the Cornucopia she ordered.
Would you mind taking it to her when you’re finished with Jason?
” Vanna lowers her voice to ask, “And if you could bring Ace with you. I have to get dinner going, and it will give me a little time to clean up, too. Besides, you have yet to meet her.”
“Sure, doll,” I say, as we walk down the hall together to the front of the house. Our son is contentedly coloring in his usual spot in the living room by the stone hearth, engaged in a quiet conversation with a watchful Nico. “Ace, put your sneakers on, buddy. We have to make a delivery.”
While Ace jumps up and rushes to the door, Vanna hands me the orange cellophaned cornucopia. “There are some pumpkin gourds on the porch. Ace can pick which one he wants to give to Meg,” she says with a smile.
Of course, Ace chooses the biggest one he can lift and determinedly carries it himself down the driveway, where Jason is waiting, leaning against his squad car.
“Uncle Jay!” Ace hurries his pace as best he can with both arms wrapped around the gourd.
“Hey there, little man!” Jason smiles, straightening and taking a few steps to meet Ace. “What do you have here?”
“A punkin!” Ace replies, and I suppress a chuckle at his relieved expression when Jason takes it from him to place on the hood of his squad car.
“You got big, buddy!” Jason says, picking Ace up to hug him. “I’m sorry I had to work on your birthday, but I got something for your piggy bank.” He places Ace on his feet and reaches into his back pocket for his wallet, extracting a twenty before handing it to Ace.
“What do we say?” I prompt.
“Thank you!” Ace smiles up at his Uncle Jay. I place the cornucopia on Jason’s hood next to the gourd and crouch to unzip Ace’s jacket pocket, tucking the bill in there where he won’t lose it before we make it back to his piggy bank.
Jason lets out a long sigh as if he doesn’t want to bring up what we both know he’s going to. “So, was all that on the news late last night and this morning, you guys?”
“Depends who’s asking.”
Jason smiles and shakes his head as I stand to face him. “Since when has my being a cop ever hindered our friendship?”
“I have a lot more to worry about these days,” I say, just as Ace reaches up to hold my hand.
“When it comes to you and me, Dean, I’m always your friend before I’m a cop.”
“I don’t know if this will help at all, but I was going to bring this to you when I had a minute.
Since you’re here,” I reach into the inner pocket of my leather jacket and hand him the cellphone Legion didn’t lift off of Viking.
Asshole . “Belonged to someone who might be connected. Let’s just say he dropped it.
We can’t get into it, so don’t know for sure.
Are any of the guys you picked up talking yet? ”
“Not much.” Jason tucks the cell in his pocket. “How did you find out what was going on there?”
Legion’s words play over in my mind, and I try to conceal my anger at his ability to make me question what Jason knew about the trailer prior to us blowing it up.
“Just got a weird feeling about the van. Turned out there was something going on. Figured I’d leave the rest to the cops. We made our point.”
“Casey is real upset. We had to drag her brother in for questioning, too.” He seems genuinely distraught about it.
I didn’t think Jason knew about any of this.
Fuck Legion and his mind games, whispering half-truths and twisting reality just enough to make me question a guy I’ve known for years.
A guy I’ve worked with in secret before, delivering street justice to dregs who would have skirted the flawed legal system.
I can’t believe I let his venomous doubt seep into my thoughts so easily.
“I bet… I was surprised, too. But is there anything else you need from me? I’m supposed to run that down to the neighbor for Vanna.” I cock my chin at the cellophaned package.
“Just wanted to make sure this wasn’t anything external. The last thing we need is some kind of drug war in our county.” Jason sighs, then extends his hand to shake. “Have a happy holiday and give my love to the wife.”
“You do the same.” I shake Jason’s hand and wish him well, then grab the cornucopia and the pumpkin to hand back to Ace.
On our journey to the old farmhouse, we take a few breaks so Ace can adjust his grip, each time refusing my offer to carry it the rest of the way for him.
When we reach the front steps, Ace plops the pumpkin down for a moment, wiping the sweat from his little brow before bear-hugging it one more time to trudge up the rest of the steps.
“Good job, buddy,” I encourage him for the home stretch.
Staring at this old farmhouse, my mind wanders back to all those firsts with Vanna.
Making out in my truck in her driveway and the nearly deafening rain beating down that first night we kissed.
Pinning her to the frame of the screen door on more than one occasion.
Fighting to get her to fall in love with me.
I can’t help but smile at Ace, the perfect result of our love, as he adjusts the placement of the pumpkin beside a rocking chair on the porch.
I make my way up the old steps to that familiar, flimsy screen door and open it to knock on the solid oak one. No answer. I knock again. Still, no answer. I pull my phone out of my pocket to call Vanna. She picks up on the second ring.
“Hey, doll. There doesn’t seem to be anyone home. Should I just leave it here on the porch or bring it back?” I don’t miss the pleading expression in Ace’s tired eyes at the idea of carrying the gourd all the way back home.
“Maybe she got tied up at work,” Vanna says. “I guess leave it on one of the rocking chairs, so she sees it.”
“Will do. See you in a few.” I hang up and place the cellophane-wrapped cornucopia on the rocking chair nearest the front door.
“What do you know about Miss Meg?” I question Ace on our journey home.
I have yet to even lay eyes at a distance on our elusive neighbor.
I wonder if she’s had the displeasure of meeting Gerald Johnson yet.
Maybe he’s the reason she’s avoided running into me.
Then again, I’m rarely at the farmstand these days.
She hasn’t had much of a chance to cross paths with me.
“She has fire hair. It’s long, like mommy’s…and she has Nico eyes, and she’s nice,” Ace explains. “Sometimes she’s at the park.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. She has books and watches.”
“Watches?”
“Yeah. She looks.”
“ Oh, you mean she reads her books and watches you play?”
“Sometimes… She smiles.”
“Does she say hello?”
“Uh-huh. Waves.”
“To you?”
“Yeah.”
“What about mommy?”
No response.
We continue our walk quietly for a few more paces before I ask again. “Does Miss Meg wave to mommy at the park, Ace?”
“I don’t know…” He peers up at me, confused. “She waved at the scary place, too.”
“The scary place? You mean the Halloween store?”
“Yeah… I don’t like that place.”
When I try to ask him about it, he shuts down, no longer looking up at me while we walk. I decide to give him a break, at least until we get home, and I can bring Vanna in on this little interrogation.
The moment we step through the front door, Ace darts to his favorite spot in the living to resume playing with a few of his toys. I close the door and approach Vanna. She’s got a couple of fall-colored cloths laid out on the dining room table, deciding which to use for dinner tomorrow, I’m sure.
“Did something happen at the Halloween store?” I quietly ask her. “Ace mentioned something about the neighbor waving to him at the scary place . I tried to ask him about it, and he got real quiet.”
She looks nervous, glancing past me to check on Ace before meeting my gaze again.
“When I went to try on a costume, Ace slipped away from Cherry.” She hesitates, swallowing hard before she goes on, “It happened so fast. Within a few seconds. We were all scared to death. It will never happen again , please don’t be mad. ”
“Were you afraid to tell me?” I ask, but she only continues to stare up at me. “Vanna, don’t be afraid to tell me anything. Of course I’m not mad. Kids have a tendency to wander.”
“Well, I will never take my eyes off him again.”
“I believe you.” I smile. “Ace probably thought it was all right to go say hello to the neighbor.”
“The neighbor?”
“Meg. Ace said she was at the Halloween store.”
“No, she wasn’t.”
“Ace, come here a minute, buddy,” I call to him. He places his toys down and ambles over to us. “Was Miss Meg at the Halloween store?”
“Yeah,” he says.
Vanna crouches down to get eye level with him. “Where did you see Meg, sweetheart?”
He peers up at me, seemingly unsure.
“You’re not in trouble, Ace.” I try to sound reassuring.