Chapter 13 LEXI #3
He’d barely spoken for months, and she tended to him in bed.
The funeral home had asked for pictures for the services, so she’d had to go through all of their old things to find them.
The funeral director had been more than surprised when she’d stopped by with the envelope of photos and a check one day on her way home from school.
Jim was barely coherent at the funerals, and she made sure he signed the right papers, or forged his name when he didn’t.
No, maybe it hadn’t been fair, but it was their lives, and she’d handled it.
She handled everything. And they’d never had a problem with it until this Sarabeth.
He’d taken her mother’s picture down. Lexi watched his mouth move, but she couldn’t hear him anymore.
She could barely see through the images flashing in her mind’s eye.
“I need to go,” she managed, walking straight to the hallway and depressing the wide button to open the door.
Her coat was on and her keys were in her hand before she decided to do either, and she recognized she was blanking on bits of time. But she couldn’t stop it. She blinked, and she was in her car, blinked again and she was at a red light, breathing hard. Her phone vibrated.
Eddie
Babe. Something’s on
at the gym. Mama Troisi
called me, she said
she called the cops.
The adrenaline surged in her again, but since it had already been there, it didn’t feel like much. It just learned it had a new target. Instead of the past. Instead of a faceless ghost girlfriend of her father’s. Instead of the actual ghosts.
I’m on my way. 10min.
Eddie
I can be there in 30
No, stay home.
I need you in the morning.
If I need you tonight I’ll call.
Eddie
Promise me?
Promise.
Lexi blinked again and she was in her neighborhood, flying well over the thirty mile per hour speed limit. It occurred to her she should have gotten pulled over, until she pulled up to her gym.
Every cop car in the neighborhood was there, their lights painting everything in blue and red strobes.
There was no one in sight as she stepped out of her car.
Without realizing it, she timed her footsteps to one set of strobes as she strode around the side of the building.
Onered, twoblue, threered, fourblue, fivered- Her gaze caught on black spray paint on her walls.
Vandalism then. Stupid kids. She didn’t stop walking - or counting. Onered, twoblue, threered-
“Miss, you can’t go any farther. There’s nothing to see here.”
An officer in blue popped up out of nowhere. Lexi looked up into a shadowed face. She’d seen him around the neighborhood but never met him.
“If there was nothing to see, you wouldn’t be here, and this is my gym. What happened?”
He took his time evaluating her head to toe, and something in her snapped. Before her brain could catch up and monitor her actions, she got in his face.
“Is there a problem?”
“Alexis!” came from the sidewalk, and she turned to look.
Mama Troisi was bundled in a long plush robe in navy with white stripes, and on her feet were tall black rain boots. Seeing her melted something in Lexi, and she was able to take a deep breath.
Without another glance toward Officer Idiot, she stalked over to where Mama stood on the curb, stamping her feet to keep warm. Lexi realized that her breath was coming out in puffs of white cloud in front of her, and all at once clarity rushed in.
The buzzing in her brain subsided, and she was back. All the way back. She rolled out her shoulders and hurried the rest of the way over to Mama, who held out both hands to Lexi.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what else to do. I got up to go to the bathroom, and I heard something from outside. I thought maybe one of the possums got into my garbage again, but when I came out to see, it was coming from your gym, bella-”
“It’s alright Mama. Are you okay?”
Mama shot her a look.
“Of course I’m okay, bella. What do I do but go back in and call the polizia? I’m fine. But bambina, your gym - I heard smashing, but I couldn’t see anything.”
Lexi ran her hands over the older woman’s shoulders, rubbing to offer comfort and warmth at the same time. Maybe she could talk Mama Troisi into going back inside.
Who knew how long she’d even been out here. A fast glance at her phone told her it was well after ten, but she had no doubts she wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. And if that was the case…
“I’ll find out what it was. Maybe just kids. Mama, do you think you could make me some espresso with that vanilla stuff? I hate to ask, but I feel like I’m gonna be here awhile.”
She glanced back at her building to make sure Mama knew she was only thinking about her gym. Mama stood up to her full five-foot-one height, full of purpose.
“I do that for you, my Lexi. And I do better than that! I make coffee for all the good policemen. You tell them.”
With a decisive nod, Mama waddled back across the street swiftly, her rain boots making solid thuds against the pavement.
After Mama was safely ensconced in her deli, Lexi waited until more lights went on inside before walking back across her parking lot to the building. The same cop was still standing there, but another one had joined him. They watched as she made her way over.
“So what happened?”
“Are you A. Porter?”
Lexi nodded, and took out her wallet, handing her license to the new guy who’d spoken. She looked closer at his face beneath his blue cap.
“Marshall?” she asked, surprised.
Lexi hadn’t seen him since their high school graduation. He’d always been decent to her. For a jock. Light brown eyes snapped up to hers and narrowed.
“Do I know you?”
Lexi shrugged. She knew she looked different than she had in high school. And it wasn’t surprising he didn’t remember her - maybe because she’d spent most of high school as a loner.
“I think we went to high school together,” she said, roaming her eyes back over her gym.
Nothing looked too messed up- Marshall interrupted her assessment.
“You went by something else, right? A nickname?”
Surprised he remembered, she nodded.
“It’s Lexi.”
“Yeah, hey.”
Marshall smiled at her and she realized he’d grown up quite nicely. Golden brown eyes smiled at her from under disheveled wavy hair.
“So what happened?” she asked, jerking her head towards the gym.
He sighed, and handed her back her license.
“We’re not really sure. You’ve got some-”
“Can you tell us where you were about an hour ago, Miss?” the first cop broke in.
Lexi met his eyes and her scalp tingled again at his harsh expression. She didn’t like this one.
“I was having dinner with my father.”
“Can he corroborate that?” he asked
She glanced at Marshall, who was staring at the other cop with narrowed eyes.
“If someone in charge determines it’s necessary, Officer.. Pearly,” she read from his name tag, ”I’ll be happy to hand over his number,” Lexi said with a little smile.
No one was bothering her father with this shit in the middle of the night. Especially not after how they’d left things.
“It’s Pearlen,” he said, at a much lower register.
“Oh. Sorry. It’s dark out.”
Lexi turned back to Marshall, effectively cutting the idiot cop out of the conversation.
“So what the fuck happened to my gym?”
Still looking at the other officer, Marshall smirked and shrugged, turning away from the front of the building. Lexi fell into step beside him and they walked towards the back, leaving Pearlen behind. Lexi was happy to.
“You haven’t changed,” he mused, as their steps crunched over gravel.
“What do you mean?” she asked, tucking her hands deep in her pockets. He side-eyed her as they walked around the side of her garbage bins.
“It’s not that dark out.”
Lexi chuckled, shrugging.
“Nope, it’s not.”
They shared a moment of eye contact and she reminded herself to focus on why they were there.
“What the fuck happened, Marsh?”
If he was surprised by the nickname he didn’t show it, and jerked his head in front of them, where several officers with flashlights examined different parts of the building.
“Got yourself a vandal, Miss Porter.”
His use of Miss reminded her of Grayson, and she wondered why it made her feel so different when someone else said it. They turned the corner of her building. Despite the dropping temperature, she inhaled a frozen breath sharply.
BITCH, WHORE, and a number of other words criss crossed their way across the back of her gym in black and neon orange.
YOU’LL PAY caught her attention in particular, and she frowned.
It was a mess, even for graffiti; wet streaks merged together from every word, making it look like the entire wall was melting.
Of the half dozen windows across the back of the building, three were smashed in.
Lexi took another breath to steady her, and took out her phone.
She snapped a couple of pictures and attached them to an email to her insurance guy.
A quick text to Eddie read ‘Be here for opening please. I need you to cover classes, call whoever you need in. I’m going to be busy. ’
Marshall was looking between the building and her, and she felt the need to explain.
“Insurance guy. Assistant manager.”
Marshall nodded and looked back at the destroyed back of her gym.
“Did they get inside?” she asked, almost holding her breath.
“I think so, but they weren’t in there for long. First car rolled up four minutes after Mrs. Troisi called it in, and he said he heard a car gunning it down the street when he came around the side of the building. Back door was open but it didn't look like anything was messed up in there.”
Lexi let out some of her breath. But that didn’t sound right.
“No alarms went off?”
Marshall shook his head.
“You have a security system set up?” he asked, eyebrows raising up under the brim of his cap where she couldn’t see them. She nodded.
“Smart. But no, no alarms, no lights, no call to us aside from Mrs. Troisi - nothing. You might wanna call your security company. We’ll let you know when you can come inside” he said, “It shouldn’t be long.”
He walked away as someone waved him over. She remembered.
“Marsh!”
He paused and looked back at her. She jogged the few steps up to him so she didn’t have to yell.
“Do you want coffee?”
“You asking me out, Lexi?” he asked.
She blinked. Did it sound like she’d asked him out?
“No, I - for - for all of you. Mama Troisi said she was making coffee for everyone. The deli, across the street. Could you tell them?” she asked, nodding towards the other officers.
“Oh. Yeah, sure.” he said, and paused. “Shame. I would have said yes.”
With a wink, he turned back and was gone.
Lexi shook it off and reached for her phone again, heading back around the building towards the deli. By the time she got to the door, Mama Troisi was there, holding a steaming cup out to her.
Tears sprung up behind her eyes, but she willed them away.
Fragrant notes of vanilla offered their comfort just as Mama did with open arms. Lexi had to stoop a bit, but she accepted the hug.
Her phone buzzing with incoming messages was no surprise, but she took a sip of her sweet, delicious, life-giving caffeine first.
Club Guy
I have the updated
contract. When can
you come over?
Eddie
What’s going on?
Thinking through her next several days, Lexi knew she wouldn’t realistically be able - maybe willing - to leave the gym for very long.
Which meant no nights at all away from home.
Home was, of course, not her shitty side of the duplex.
There was too much to be done. She still had to call the security company.
She had to get started on cleaning this up.
With her mind on overload, she tapped away from her messages to go through her contacts. Why the hell hadn’t her alarm system gone off?