Chapter 13- Ending
It was a hectic week. On top of everything else Helen needed to get done tracking the life and times of Swallowtail, the second bedroom was still unfurnished.
The fourth bedroom, off the office near the kitchen and out of the line of sight of prying eyes, was her craft room.
The half bath was also located off the office, making it easier for her to spend a lazy Friday making cutesy shit.
The third bedroom, down the hall and furthest from the master, was the one she had decorated already. Bedroom two needed some work. It needed a bed, a dresser, rugs, and curtains. She sighed deeply, thinking this afternoon she would make it happen.
“Maybe tomorrow,” she said, wanting to figure out what she was trying to wrestle with in her head. “Swallowtail will live in a high-end neighborhood with a lot of features to the home, a private drive and maybe water on one side?”
She began to type in locations in and around the Detroit area, landing on Grosse Point Shores.
Helen searched property listings and found million dollar plus homes.
Next, she searched caterers, wine distributors in the area, and recent large orders.
A sly grin came to her lips when she thought about the girl Candace and made a timeline based on the child's departure, three, nearly four weeks ago.
In the handy dandy Technician laptop, she looked for catering deliveries and wine deliveries three to four weeks ago for a function in Grosse Pointe Shores.
“Hot damn,” she said, finding the caterer and a wine wholesaler.
“Now, to tap into the wholesaler’s database, a click here, and a click there.
Delivery to an address in Grosse Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointe, and one other on the same day.
Does she have a home and then a party pad, or all they both the same? ”
Helen went on to search for caterers in the area and located two.
She cross-referenced it with the wine wholesaler and found corresponding dates of delivery to one address.
In her notebook, she wrote down the address and entered a new search of property records to find the home was owned by Quiescent Holdings.
“What the hell is that?” Helen questioned, searching the meaning of the word. “A period of inactivity or dormancy-like a cocoon or a pupa. Ha, not too clever, Swallowtail.”
Helen began researching Quiescent Holdings and found properties in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Out of curiosity, she searched the paperwork she had on Kurtzwilde to cross-reference the properties.
There were only two he shared with Quiescent, one in Indiana, the other in Minnesota.
For Helen, the question popped out on Ohio and New York, which made up the Great Lakes, minus Ontario.
She picked up her Technician phone. Helen pressed three to hear the voice of the Operator. A request for connection was made, and the line began to ring. Moments later, she heard a growl in the line.
“How may I be of assistance to the Cranberry?” the voice said.
“Good morning, Mr. Yield,” Helen said, sounding chipper. “Listen, I know Mustang thinks he's the best tracker in the US, so please don't ever tell him I called for an assist from you.”
She held the line, waiting for Yield’s chest expansion, a sardonic grin which would be palpable through the phone, then a loud sigh. If she got that, the Alpha male in him would be on the hook.
“Listen lady, I'm married. Your little tricks don't work on me. What do you want?” he asked, laughing.
“Okay, fine! I am doing some tracking. I ran across Quiescent Holdings.
I spell, Quebec, Uniform- India- Echo- Sierra- Charlie- Echo- November and Tango.
They have some properties in Pennsylvania.
I'm wondering, if you have a minute, could you do that thing you do, see if those properties match anything we saw that night in Wisconsin?”
“And if they do?”
“Then, Hornworm, the third member of the Chrysalis, may be in your backyard,” she told him.
“In Pennsylvania?” he asked, rising to get his Technicians’ tablet. “How do you figure that?”
“I found Swallowtail, who is in Michigan around the Detroit area,” she said.
“Kurtzwilde is Imperial, which leaves Hornworm.
Minnesota is too cold to traffic kids and the things they do to bring in customers.
Operating costs wouldn't be profitable, and the Winter would be a shutdown of operations.
The Archangel is in Ohio, so she wouldn't dare operate there.
New York is very busy, and again cost, so I'm thinking she's in your neck of the woods.”
“Oh, you do, do you? And what is the plan if you're correct?” Yield asked.
“Can't make a plan if I don't know what I'm dealing with, I need hard data, facts, and locations to make plans, Mr. Yield. Will you once more assist me? I think I'm on to something, and if so, we can shut down these kiddie diddlers,” Helen said.
“Your Boss know you're doing this?”
“Calling you or the research? The research yes; calling you, I'm doing to reach out to a friend,” she said.
“We're friends?”
“You're friends with the Mustang, and you're also family, which means yes, you'll get to dance with me at the wedding,” she said, softly chuckling.
“I don't dance. Yield out,” he said, ending the call.
She sat for a moment and realized the majority of the day had passed.
It was nearing one in the afternoon, and she hadn't left the house in days.
She dressed warmly, grabbed the keys to her pickup truck and went into town.
She stopped for coffee, went by the bookstore, and used the gift card Jay had given her for Christmas, buying a book for herself, one on canoes, and several age-appropriate books for Oscar.
Her next stop was a furniture store for a bedroom set for a teenager.
The space would definitely require two workspaces, one for homework, and another for his Legos.
She hesitated on the second workspace, thinking he’d want to build his own.
Then she stopped altogether, buying only the mattress and the frame.
“If there will be furniture, maybe he and Jay can make it for his room,” she said, feeling proud of thinking ahead. She asked the nice people to load the bed frame and the mattress she would open and allow to expand once she took it out of the box.
One last stop was made to pick up a pizza because she had no intention of cooking tonight. She’d barely made it home and brought in the pizza when her personal phone rang. So far, she'd avoided the calls, and today she faced the music and took it.
“Hello, Mom,” she said in the line.
“Shenita! I have been calling and calling,” Anita Barnes said. “I got a call from your father, who said he'd been out to visit you before Christmas, and you were living with a man and getting married.”
“True,” she said, adding nothing else.
“Am I coming to your home to meet this man you plan to marry?”
“Probably not, but I will send you an invitation to the wedding, which will be in June,” she told her mother.
“A June bride. What are your colors for this wedding, Shenita?”
“Pink and light blue,” she said softly. She omitted the Trooper blue, which would have given her mother an indicator of what Jay did for a living. She also lied about the color pink.
“So those are my choices for the mother of bride dress? Should I send you examples of what I plan to wear?”
“Nope, not necessary,” Helen said.
“What date in June? I need to put in for the time off,” Anita said. “Will Waldo and I be staying at your place?”
“No. Please plan to stay at a hotel,” Helen said. “As soon as I iron out the details, I will send you the link for booking for your stay.”
“Where are you? Your daddy said you have a nice home in Indiana with this man. Does he have any money, or did you marry a broke joker?”
“Mom, he goes to work every day to support us, just as I do,” Helen said. “And Waldo, is he still flipping pancakes at IHOP?”
“He's the manager, thank you very much,” Anita snapped.
“Whatever. I thought after all these years as a nurse, you would have at least bagged an anesthesiologist, but you've always had bad taste in men,” Helen said, baiting the woman.
“Like you choose winners. What does this one do, Shenita?”
“He is an educator,” she said.
“That's unlike you.”
“We all grow up at some point, Mom. I've grown into the woman I was meant to be.”
“And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means what the fuck I just said,” Helen stated.
“All the trauma, the bullshit, your nonsense and more is behind me, and I no longer care for your antics.
I will send the invitation for the wedding.
Wear whatever the hell you want, make a spectacle of yourself, and try to steal the attention away from me if you desire.
However, the scared little girl is no more.
I shall show you for the woman you are as you meet the one I've become.”
“Shenita,” Anita said, taking one of those long pauses that always made Helen’s sphincter release a little bit of pee, “I've never known how to love you.”
“Of course not, because you've never known how to love yourself,” Helen replied. “I'll be in touch. Take care.”
She ended the call and opted for a slice of pizza while it was hot.
She poured herself a glass of red, nibbled at the slice, and went to find her tools.
It didn't take long to put the bed frame together, then she unboxed the mattress, getting flattened by it as it expanded.
Mustang entered the back door to her squeal and came running to find her pinned between the frame and plumping mattress.
“Well, there is a sight,” he said, helping her up. “Interesting day, I assume?”
“Every day is becoming more and more interesting,” she said. “I was going to buy the whole bed set but thought maybe you'd be interested in making the pieces for this space.”