Knight In Black Leather

by Gail Dayton

  "Whatcha doin', huh?" the officer said, as he jury-rigged something to hold the cuff closed around the cast. "Figure you'll clean out the car? Get you some new tunes?"

  Was it any use to answer? Probably it wouldn't hurt. The guy had put his gun away.

  "I was helping a friend trade cars with her daughter," he said.

  "Sure. That's why we got a call that someone was stealing a car. Your 'friend' into grand theft auto?" The cop reached into Eli's hip pocket for his wallet and ID.

  "She owns the car." Eli leaned against the hood, trying to look helpless since he knew he couldn't do innocent. "Would you mind handing me that crutch?"

  "Hey!" Marilyn shouted from a few lanes away and broke into a run. "What are you doing?"

  The officer thrust the crutch at Eli who promptly dropped it, and straightened. "Is this your car, ma'am?"

  "Yes. Yes, it is." She panted a little when she reached them. "Why? What are--?"

  "I caught this man breaking into--"

  "He wasn't breaking into it, for heaven's sake. He was helping me clean it out." Marilyn shoved her hair back and glared at the officer. "My daughter has been driving it and I needed to trade cars."

  The cop blinked as he looked back and forth between them. "This is your friend?"

  Eli nodded and held his hands out to be unlocked.

  "You know this man, ma'am?"

  "Of course I do." Marilyn plucked the wallet from the officer's nerveless fingers. "He's Eli Court." She took out his driver's license and handed it over. "He's living with me right now."

  "Renting a room?"

  Marilyn had known that she and Eli would get this kind of reaction, this wondering what two so obviously different people would be doing together, but it still annoyed her. "No." She snatched the license back, almost before he had a chance to look at it. "Any other nosy questions?"

  The cop's eyes narrowed now. "You got any proof this is your car? We got a call from a Julie Ballard that someone was stealing her car."

  Seething, Marilyn slapped her purse down on the hood of the car and started digging in it. "There's my ID. I'm Marilyn Ballard. Julie is my daughter. There's the registration for this car, and for the one I'm leaving her. There's my insurance card for both cars. Here...Here's a picture of Julie and me from Christmas. Happy?"

  Eli nudged her with his shoulder. "Hey, Marilyn, chill. The guy's just doing his job."

  The officer gave Eli a startled look, apparently not expecting support from that quarter. It surprised Marilyn too, but he was right. She took a deep breath and tried to get herself under control.

  "Sorry," she said. "It's been a rough few days. Frankly, it's my daughter's throat I'd like to jump down. I called and left three messages that I was coming to trade cars today and she pulls a stunt like this. Just because she doesn't want the car I brought her, I guess."

  "Maybe she didn't get 'em, huh? The messages?" The officer handed Marilyn her papers and got out his keys to unlock the handcuffs.

  "Maybe." Marilyn stuffed everything back in her purse, not bothering with doing it neatly. "But I think she's been talking to her grandmother. Who has a tendency to call the police when she's unhappy about something."

  "You might want to have a talk with her then, Mrs. Ballard. False alarms are serious business."

  "Oh, I intend to, believe me." She'd like to wring the child's neck.

  The officer handed Eli his crutch. "Sorry for the misunderstanding."

  "Me too," Marilyn said with a grim smile. Eli just nodded.

  When the officer was back in his car and gone, Eli and Marilyn finished the transfer.

  "Now." Marilyn let out a long sigh. She was not looking forward to the upcoming talk with Julie, but she knew better than to avoid it.

  "Go on," Eli said. "I'll wait here."

  "I don't think so. It's cold, another cop could come along, and I don't want to sit by myself in that lobby. You have to come keep me company." Besides, if Julie met Eli instead of simply accepting what her grandmother told her about him, maybe she would realize he was a good person, not a thug.

  Looking as if he'd rather be dragged down the street behind a car, Eli collected his crutch and limped behind Marilyn across the vast parking lot to the maze of walkways leading to the clustered dorms.

  She was out of practice with these kinds of talks. Julie had been no trouble at all through her high school career. Which was definitely a good thing, given that Marilyn hadn't been in any shape to deal with any trouble. So was she now reverting to her bratty thirteen-year-old self because she finally had the opportunity? Or was it that she felt secure enough to act out now because Marilyn wasn't sunk in her funk anymore?

  They'd almost reached Julie's dorm when Marilyn saw a familiar blob of purple. It looked like the coat she'd bought her daughter over Christmas break. Julie was inside it, hustling in the opposite direction as fast as her legs would carry her.

  "Julie, wait," Marilyn called, leaving Eli behind as she broke into a jog.

  Julie, of course, didn't wait. She hunched deeper into her coat as if she heard, but wanted to pretend she hadn't.

  "I know you hear me, Julie Ballard!" Marilyn shouted louder, hurrying faster.

  Unable to pretend any longer that she didn't know the maniac woman galumphing after her, Julie stopped, turned. "What do you want?"

  Breathless, Marilyn came to a halt beside her daughter. "We need to talk."

  "What for? Go talk to your little boy toy. You don't need me." She turned to stalk off.

  Marilyn caught her arm, pulling her back, spinning her around. "Check the attitude. You're my daughter, Julie. You'll always be my daughter and nothing--do you hear me? Nothing will ever change that, or my love for you."

  "Yeah, whatever." The patented roll of the eyes was back. Marilyn hadn't seen that in a long time.

  "Talk to me, Julie." She wanted to shake her till her eyes rattled in their sockets. But of course she didn't. "Why did you call the police? You knew I was coming to exchange cars."

  Julie's eyes went wide in a surprise that was as fake as her eyelashes. "You were? Gosh, I didn't know that. I thought that sleazoid was trying to steal my car."

  "Don't pull that with me. First of all, I think you need to remember just whose car that is. Mine, not yours. And if you thought it was being stolen, why were you running away from me instead of coming to see what happened? Let's get past all the lies and excuses. What's going on in that head of yours?"

  "Gee, Mom, I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" The false innocence was gone, the belligerence back. "What am I supposed to think when Grandma calls me up to tell me my mom's gone crazy. That not only have you moved out of our house to live in some hole-in-the-wall apartment that's barely bigger than my dorm room, but now you're shacking up with some drugged-out stoner half your age. And then you call to tell me you're coming to get my car? What am I supposed to think? That he probably just wants a newer model to steal."

  Marilyn sighed and rubbed her eyes. She couldn't tell Julie why they needed to trade cars or she'd be even more hysterical. But maybe she could respond to some of the rest.

  "I'm sorry you miss the house, but after you left, I couldn't stay there by myself. It was too quiet. I explained that. And Eli doesn't do drugs. He doesn't drink as much as your father did. He's not a thief, he's a mechanic. A repairman."

  She looked back over her shoulder to see Eli standing several yards back, leaning on his crutch, patiently waiting in the cold. "Come meet him. You'll see."

  "That's him? You not only brought him up here to take my car, but you want to introduce me to him? You honestly think I want to meet this--this home wrecker?" Julie sounded hysterical and Marilyn was beginning to feel that way.

  "What home could he possibly wreck?" she demanded. "You're not home any more. You're up here at college. And your father's dead. He's been dead for four years, Julie."

  "Well, you don't have to go rubbing my face in it!" She burst into tears. "Don't you think I know it? I
know, okay?"

  "Just because I'm seeing someone doesn't mean I love you any less." Marilyn reached for Julie to give her a hug, but she skittered away.

  "You're seeing someone?" Julie sneered as she scrubbed away tears that turned into ice the minute they collected on her multicolored mittens. "Is that your generation's term for fucking your brains out?"

  "Julie Ballard!" Marilyn wanted to threaten to wash her daughter's mouth with soap, but knew it was the wrong approach. Julie was hurting. Marilyn didn't know where the hurt came from, but that was the matter to be dealt with, not foul language.

  "That's what you're doing, isn't it? God, you are such a hypocrite, telling me all the time to be careful, to save myself, and the minute Dad's gone, you find yourself a hot young stud for some cheap sex."

  "The minute...?" Marilyn fought back her temper. She took a deep breath, seeking composure. "Four years, Julie. Four years. That's not exactly 'the minute'. You're just eighteen. You don't know who you are yet, much less what you want from a relationship. I'm thirty-nine. I--"

  "And how old is he? Twelve?"

  "He's twenty-five."

  "My God, Mom, don't you see how ridiculous that sounds? How ridiculous you look? I wanted to throw up when I saw him kiss you. It's disgusting."

  "You saw...?" When did Eli kiss her? "When he kissed me on the cheek when I came back to the car? After I came in looking for you? Good grief, Julie, he kissed me on the cheek."

  "And it was gross."

  "Oh, for--" Another realization struck home. "You were in your room, weren't you? When I came up and knocked. You were in there and wouldn't open the door."

  "I didn't want to see you. I didn't want to talk to you. I still don't."

  "Julie..." Marilyn stopped. She couldn't think what else to say, where to go from here. "I know you're hurting, baby. I know this year has been a big change for you, graduating, leaving home. Just talk to me. Whatever it is, we can work it out."

  "Get rid of the boy toy and maybe I'll think about it."

  Marilyn gaped at her daughter. "Look, I know that, as much change as you've dealt with this year, any more is bound to be upsetting. And I realize it's hard for a child to think of a parent as a human being, but that's what I am. I'm not Robo-Mom. Somebody you can wind up to do certain things and nothing else. I'm human, Julie. I can't live the rest of my life in a box."

  "Get rid of him, Mom. Get rid of him." She whirled and ran down the path.

  "Julie!"

  "I hate you!"

  Fifteen

  ***

  The words echoed through the snowy landscape. A few students in the area looked up momentarily before putting their heads down again and trudging on through the cold.

  Marilyn walked back to Eli, still waiting patiently, and went into his arms. She needed so badly to be held.

  "Bad, huh?" he said after a moment, mouth against her hair.

  "Awful. Horrible." Marilyn pulled off a glove to wipe away tears, then put it right back on. She was freezing, even without the tears.

  "What did she say?" Eli looped her arm through his cast and turned back toward the parking lot.

  "Oh, the usual." She fluttered a hand. "She hates me. I'm disgusting. Get rid of you and we can talk."

  "So, maybe you should. Get rid of me, I mean."

  She felt bad before he said it, but now she felt worse. Isolated. Desolate. Alone on a vast icy plain.

  Eli went on. "This is your daughter. Me screwing up things with your mom is one thing, but your daughter's something else. Tell me and I'm out of here."

  Maybe she should. This thing with Eli wouldn't last. He'd find somebody prettier. Somebody younger. Or else his wanderlust would kick in and he'd move on. But, God, while he was here, she felt so alive. So...happy.

  Even so, was this temporary relationship, good as it felt, worth ruining a permanent one? Was it worth destroying the relationship with her only child?

  And yet... "If I do, Eli, if I tell you to go, what then?"

  "What do you mean?" He shot her a look over the top of the car just as they got in.

  "What kind of relationship will Julie and I have if I let her dictate the terms? One where she thinks she can blackmail me every time I do something that upsets her?" Marilyn started the engine, grateful for the warm-up time it needed. She needed to think this through before she had to drive.

  "I don't think I want that, Eli. She's eighteen. She's left home. She doesn't live there anymore, not really. I've got, what? Twenty, maybe thirty good years ahead of me while she's out living her own life. That's a lot of years. Do I want to live the rest of my life according to someone else's whims? Even if that someone else is my daughter?"

  "You don't want to lose her."

  Tears welled up in Marilyn's eyes. "God, no. You know I don't. But Eli, would it be any better if I lost myself? What kind of mother would I be then?"

  The car was warming up so the tears didn't freeze, but she didn't want Eli to see them. She didn't want to cry them. Angrily she wiped them away.

  "I hate this!" She tried to shout away her frustration. "I hate everybody issuing ultimatums. I'm sick to death of it."

  Eli nodded, listening, waiting to hear what else she had to say. His presence soothed her. She took a deep breath, calming herself down. "Maybe that's why I like you so much."

  "Like you said, whatever you decide, I'm there."

  His words coated her wounded soul like some magic balm, the kind that actually did all the things the hucksters promised. And just like that, her mind was made up.

  "Then you're here." Marilyn backed out of the tight slot. "With me. I don't pay blackmailers, no matter who they are. Julie's problem with you is her problem, not mine."

  "You're sure?"

  When she looked, Eli was staring down at his hands, picking at the scarred plaster where the handcuff had marked the cast.

  "I'm sure. Let's see where this goes. No regrets." She paused at the end of the parking row to look at him again.

  This time he was looking back, his pale eyes so intense they made her shiver. "No regrets."

  The next few days passed in a blur of guilt and delight for Eli. He couldn't believe Marilyn had chosen him over family, and the guilt over it bothered him. Her delighted response to his every kiss soothed away most of the bother. Never once did she turn him away. If she had a headache, she wanted him to rub her neck, which inevitably turned into a full body massage, which inevitably turned into the kind of sex that required remaking the bed before any sleeping could be done.

  He had a few bigger twinges of guilt when Marilyn called her mom to yell at her for calling Julie, and her mom hung up on her the second she learned Eli was still there. And when Marilyn called her brother to ask him to talk some sense into Julie, Eli thought about loading up the Harley and taking off. That thought lasted until Marilyn hung up and wanted him to hold her. As long as she wanted to be held, he would stick around to do it.

  He didn't forget the situation with Pete and Fitz either. He spent half of every day racking his brain for a solution to the problem. It wasn't that he didn't want to keep the kid himself. But could he? Without screwing up?

  Marilyn seemed to think he could. Maybe so. With her help.

  If she was around to catch his mistakes, tell him when he was doing something wrong. Maybe, once his casts came off, he'd talk to her about it. Maybe.

  Detective Jackson called one day to let them know that Flash had been picked up and was being charged with possession of the narcotics he'd had on his person at the time and would be charged with murder as soon as the DA had all the ducks lined up. They didn't have all the evidence collected and analyzed yet, but now that they'd found the other crime scene--the place where Teresa had been murdered--it was only a matter of time. Eli didn't tell Marilyn about that part of the conversation, just about Flash getting arrested.

  He was going through the Yellow Pages, making a list of cycle and engine repair shops, places he could look for work once he h
ad two hands again, when his phone rang.

  "Court here. Talk."

  "Eli?" Pete's voice sounded quavery, scared.

  "Yeah, squirt, what's up?" Eli forgot to sound cool or confident when every muscle in his body tensed up. The last time Pete sounded this way was when he'd called to tell Eli about the scary men coming to bother Teresa. And now Tee was dead.

  "It's Mr. Fitz. Something happened to him--a heart attack or something, I think."

  "What happened? Is he okay? Are you okay? Where are you?"

  "The hospital. They let me ride in the ambulance with him. I called 9-1-1 when he fell down. I don't know anything else..."

  "Good. You did good. But you're okay, right?"

  "They said somebody had to come get me."

  "Okay, kid. Stick tight. I'm on my way. Don't go anywhere, hear me? Don't let anybody take you anywhere. You tell 'em your dad's coming to get you and he's coming there to the hospital. Okay, Pete? You got me?"

  "Yeah. Okay."

  "What are you supposed to tell them?" Eli needed to know Pete understood.

  "My dad's coming to get me and I can't go anywhere."

  "Good. Hang in there, Pete. I'll be there fast as I can." Eli hung up the phone and whirled to find Marilyn holding out his coat, her own already on and buttoned.

  "You don't have to go," he said.

  "Yes, I do." She grinned at him. "You don't want the police stopping you again, right?"

  Eli had to smile back, grim as he felt. "Right. Thanks."

  On the way down in the elevator, she asked the question he'd been dreading. "Where do we go to pick up Pete's dad?"

  "Nowhere." He beat her out of the elevator. "I'm Pete's father."

  They were through the tunnel and heading north through town on the highway to Erie before anybody spoke, and it was Eli who broke the silence. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

  "I've been trying to--to think what to say," Marilyn admitted. She'd felt numb ever since Eli had dropped his bombshell. "Or which of the million things buzzing around in my head I ought to say. Or ought not to say. Or--"