by Harper Lin
“I’m sorry, honey,” Dan said over the phone. “We’ve got a real situation here and… well, I can’t say too much about it.”
“Are you all right?” Amelia asked. That was always her first question to him.
“Yeah. It’s business as usual. You know, the crazies of the city never sleep.” His deep voice tried to sound light over the phone, but Amelia had learned to read the subtle changes in his voice and expressions, and she knew something heavier than usual weighed on him.
“You sound worried. Are you sure you don’t want to come by later? I’ll wait up for you, and you can always stay in the guest room. You’ve done it before.”
“I can tell I’m not going to be leaving this place until the sun comes up, Amelia.” He sighed. “You’ve still got to work tomorrow.”
“Well, I’m not trying to be pushy, but you can still come here instead of going to your apartment. You can eat the leftovers for breakfast.”
“It’s tempting, honey, but I’m going to say no, just this once.”
She knew he was holding something back. But it was no use trying to pull it from him. There were some things he just couldn’t tell her and others she really didn’t want to know.
“Okay. Well, if you change your mind just come on over. No need to call first,” she said.
“Amelia, is Meg home?” he asked.
“Yes. She’s finishing her homework and texting Katherine at the same time. Why?” Amelia’s heart jumped.
“Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Do you have to go anywhere tonight?” His voice continued in that no-nonsense tone that made Amelia feel nervous.
“No. I’m in for the night. Why?”
“Oh, no reason, honey.” He was lying. Amelia could tell. Unlike John, Dan was a horrible liar, and she knew when he was holding something back. Like the time he’d told her he was meeting a couple of people from work to discuss a case. Amelia rattled off a couple of the names of Dan’s coworkers. When he kept saying no, she finally asked who he was really going to see.
As it turned out, his case was about a man who had chopped his brother into a hundred little pieces, and Dan was meeting with the coroner and medical examiner, who were afraid they’d found a separate toe that didn’t fit the body and belonged to someone else.
She’d learned to let him get away with a little white lie now and again. It was usually harmless, if not beneficial.
“Okay. Well, you tell me what this is all about when you’re ready,” Amelia said.
“See, that’s what I love about you,” Dan replied.
“What?” She couldn’t hide the smile in her voice.
“That you know when to let things go.” He smiled in his voice too. At least, the most Dan Walishovsky could smile. It was really nothing more than the slight curl of the right side of his mouth. However, Amelia had not only grown to realize the value of that little smirk but knew the twinkle in his eyes that always accompanied it made her heart race.
“Well, sometimes it’s for the best.” She cleared her throat. “But when you do have time, and things clear up, I’ve got some news for you.”
“Yeah? Can you give me a hint?”
“Nope. It’s too big. But it can totally wait. So, you focus on whatever it is at the station, and I’ll be here when you’re ready.”
“That’s my girl,” Dan said. Amelia could hear in his deflated voice that he’d rather be with her, but he was a good cop, if not one of the best. If they needed him, it had to be serious. And his asking about Meg being home and if Amelia herself was going out tonight made her think it was more serious than usual. Any distraction could cause him to miss something or lose focus.
“Call me later.”
“I love you, Amelia.”
She blushed like a schoolgirl. Those words had only just been exchanged recently, and it was still new and exciting and even a little scary.
“I love you, too, Dan.” She quickly hung up and rubbed her cheeks to get the heat off them and pull her smile down to normal.
Since some mysterious thing was causing Dan to be upset, Amelia made the rounds around the house, checking the windows she already knew were locked and seeing that the sliding back door was secure. Then she walked to the front of the house, snapping the deadbolt to the front door in place and jiggling the doorknob to make sure it was locked, too. The chain was also in place.
Then she knocked on the basement door.
“Adam?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
She descended a couple of steps, leaned down, and looked at her son through the banister.
“You doin’ okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, pulling his headphones off his head and making his dark wavy hair go in all directions. “Is something wrong?”
“No. Are all the windows locked down here?” she asked.
“As far as I know. I never opened them.”
“Just make sure for me, okay?”
“Sure, Mom. Did Dan tell you to do that?” he asked.
“Well, he sounded a little concerned on the phone, but you know him. He can’t always tell us about everything going on at work.” Amelia descended another step.
“I’ll bet it has to do with the arsonist,” Adam said, pointing to one of his three computer screens, which ran a news story featuring a warehouse completely engulfed in flames.
“What arsonist?” She came down the steps and walked over to her son’s bed that separated her from him at his long computer desk.
“Where have you been, Mom? There have been three homes and one warehouse not far from here that have gone up in flames, and they think it’s been done by the same guy.”
The news story had no sound, but Amelia looked at the wavering orange screen.
“Did anyone die?” She put her hand to her throat.
“I think an elderly couple died in the first house from smoke inhalation. Everyone got out of the second house, but at this last one, they said a toddler and their teenage brother died. They couldn’t get out. The warehouse they think he burned to get more attention.”
“Where was the warehouse?”
Adam shrugged. “Somewhere over on Lowell. I never go over there. It’s all industrial, and the cops don’t like us skateboarding anywhere around there. It just isn’t worth the hassle. Not with Dan on the force and all.”
“Oh, that’s so horrible. I get my supplies for the truck over on Lowell.” Amelia shook her head. She said a quick prayer for the dead and their families then looked at Adam. “Make sure the windows down here are tightly closed and locked.”
“I will, Mom.”
“And don’t stay up too late. School tomorrow.”
“I won’t. Good night, Mom.”
As Amelia went upstairs, she tried to push the worrying conversation with Dan and the news footage out of her head, but she couldn’t. She knocked on Meg’s door and heard her daughter reply, “Enter.”
“Hey, girl,” Amelia said as she walked into the pink room. All over, Meg had framed articles and reviews about the Pink Cupcake. Ribbons and collages and swatches of fabric in various shades of the hot pink that Amelia had chosen as her signature color hung from the walls. “Did you get your homework done?”
“Yeah. We just had some math and a little English. Nothing very time consuming or interesting,” she said, sitting up in her bed.
“Hey, did you hear anything about the buildings not far from here being burned down?” Amelia asked as she sat down beside her daughter.
“You mean the arsonist? Yeah. Why? Did he strike again?”
“I guess he did. Adam showed me on the news.” Amelia stroked Meg’s long brown ponytail. “I had no idea that was going on.”
“Katherine says arsonists are bed-wetters. Is that true?”
“Oh, honey, I can’t be sure. I don’t know anything about what arsonists do when they aren’t setting fires.”
“Maybe they are trying to burn the sheets they wet.” Meg shrugged.
“Now, Meg.” Amelia c
huckled a little. “Those people are in pain. They are messed up. Sometimes they can’t help how their body acts.”
“Katherine also said that most of them are kleptomaniacs, too. I’d hope they’d be klepping sheets and mattress covers.” Meg rolled her eyes. “I just can’t see the logic. Fire is meant for cooking and snuggling in front of. That’s it.”
“I agree with you,” Amelia said and kissed her daughter on the head. “Can you do me a favor? For the next few days, if you aren’t going to come home with your brother, just stay with Katherine, and I’ll come pick you up. Or, if Katherine wants to come here, that’s okay, too.”
“Great. I’ll let her know.” Meg reached for her phone.
“Nope. It’s getting late. You can tell her tomorrow in school.”
Meg made a frown but nodded.
“Good night, sweetheart.”
“Is Dan coming over tonight? Weren’t you guys going to have a late supper?”
Amelia smiled. Meg and Dan had developed a strong relationship for which Amelia was grateful, especially since John was seeing less and less of the kids.
“He’s got to work.”
“Again?”
“You know that for cops, it’s a lot different than regular people. He can’t just put a burglary on hold and pick it up tomorrow,” Amelia said as she stood up.
“I know. But it’s been forever since I’ve seen him. He’d know if arsonists really wet their beds, don’t you think?”
“He’d know better than Katherine.” Amelia laughed.
“Okay, when you talk to him again, tell him that I need to talk to him about something important.”
“What do you need to talk to him about?” Amelia asked.
“He promised to tell me about his rookie years. It’s kind of hard to picture Dan with dark hair and wearing anything other than a gray suit.”
“He doesn’t only wear gray suits. Sometimes he wears a brown suit.” Amelia leaned down and kissed her daughter on the head again.
“He needs a little style, Mom. I think we should get him a tie,” Meg said. “You know, one of those really bright ones with flowers or swirly designs on them.”
“I think he’d really appreciate that, Meg.”
“Or, better yet. A bow tie.” She clapped her hands.
“A bow tie? Do you really think Dan is a bow tie kind of guy?” Amelia laughed.
“He will be.”
“All right, honey. Remember, no phone. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night, Mom.”
Amelia closed her daughter’s door and crossed the hall to her own room. Without Dan coming for a late supper, she ran herself a bath, turned her bedroom’s television to the classic movie station on the television, and decided she would call it a night after a quick soak. Then she remembered she hadn’t even told Meg or Adam the news about the second truck.
“It’ll wait,” she said before adding some bubbles to the running water.
Chapter Four
The next day Amelia arrived at Food Truck Alley without hearing so much as a whisper from John, and for that she was thankful.
Dan had not come by after his shift. That led her to believe that he was probably up to his eyeballs in paperwork on the arsonist. But when she walked in on Lila and Beatrice, she was surprised to hear what they were talking about.
“They said her body was in the drainage ditch just off Polk Street. That’s less than a fifteen-minute walk from here,” Beatrice said.
“Body?” Amelia interrupted.
“As if we don’t have enough to worry about with the fire that was a few doors down from our supply warehouse,” Lila grumbled. “Do you know how far we’ll have to go to get bags of flour and sugar this size if anything happens to Venti’s?”
“What are you guys talking about?” Amelia asked.
“Well, it seems a lady of the night was found dead in the drainage ditch over near Polk Street.” Beatrice’s eyes bulged. “She was beaten, and her throat was slit. She probably knew too much. Had the goods on some drug lord or maybe a local politician. I know, a married man with a taste for slumming it got the woman pregnant and now had to make her disappear before his wife found out.”
Lila and Amelia looked at Beatrice as if she’d suddenly suggested throwing a cat in the oven.
“What? These things happen.” Beatrice pulled her lips down at the ends and shrugged before going back to her mixing.
“What does Dan have to say about it?” Lila asked. “Oh, and good morning. Here’s some coffee.”
“Dan couldn’t come by last night. He got hung up at work again,” Amelia said as she slipped into her hot pink apron and opened the service window. She took her coffee and a quick sip before sitting down on her stool, anticipating the rush. “There was a murder? And there is a suspected arsonist on the loose? Do you guys know if the police think they are connected?”
“We were hoping you might have some inside information,” Lila said as she stuffed the napkin holder with napkins. “Dan canceled again? That poor guy. You need to convince him to take a week’s vacation. Even a long weekend. You and him should go someplace together. Don’t worry about the kids. I’ll have them stay at my place. They’ll love it. We’ll eat Chinese and Mexican every night. Stay up late. Make prank phone calls and watch a bunch of R-rated movies.”
“We can’t just go. What about the Cupcake? I can’t just leave if we are in the process of buying a new truck,” Amelia protested.
“You are just as bad as he is. All work and no play puts people in early graves,” Lila replied.
“Right. Look at that poor hooker,” Beatrice piped up as she poured the cake mix into the cupcake tins. Again, Amelia and Lila looked at her, Amelia shaking her head.
“I’ve never been away with anyone but John. And most of the time, he worked, and I took care of the kids,” Amelia said. “Besides, that’s what married people do, and we are not married.”
“I get it. You’re old fashioned. But there isn’t anything stopping you from taking a trip and getting separate rooms. I know. My ex-husband and I used to get separate rooms all the time. He snored something terrible. It was about a month after our wedding that I told him if he didn’t sleep in the guest room, I was going to strangle him in his sleep. It worked for many years.”
“That sounds expensive. Two rooms.” Amelia felt herself blushing. She didn’t want to talk about the sleeping arrangements between her and Dan with anyone.
“Please, you could afford it now. Pretty soon you’ll be able to afford the suites only John was able to afford. Speaking of which… any word?” Lila asked.
“No. And no news is good news,” Amelia quickly replied, happy to change the subject. She couldn’t help how she was raised. But the motto “you don’t buy the cow if the milk is free” still rang true. “So, did you say that the arson and the murder are somehow tied together?” She urged the conversation to go in another direction.
“I have no idea.” Lila slipped on her pink apron. “All I know is that if anything happens to Venti’s, we’ll have to drive about an hour and a half, one way, to get our most important ingredients, flour and sugar. Not to mention all the other potions and concoctions that Bea needs to create her masterpieces.”
“Venti’s does something with their flour that makes everything it touches taste better,” Beatrice said. “I don’t think I’d be able to work with another sub-par flour. Sugar, well, one’s as good as the next. But flour, it’s the soul of the pastry. It’s the perfect strand of DNA that composes all of the most scrumptious desserts. As I said, working without it would be like Michelangelo trying to create using cheap, Crayola-brand watercolors to pay homage to the Mona Lisa.”
“So you like Venti’s flour. Got it.” Lila winked at Beatrice. “Is there a comparable substitute? Anything you’d settle for if things went south?”
“Well, I’m sure Farine Magnifique can be ordered online directly from France.” She nodded as if ordering baking supplies from overs
eas was a real possibility.
“France. Right. Okay, thanks for the input, Beatrice.” Lila smiled and shook her head. “At least we know our options. I’m sure Beatrice could make any store-bought flour work. She’s got a gift. I wouldn’t worry about the quality being reduced. I worry about the cost increasing. Amelia? Are you listening to me?”
“I’m sorry, Lila. I was just wondering if this arsonist has a pattern. Adam told me last night he burnt down a couple homes and the warehouse. Poor Dan. How do you find any clues when everything is burnt up?” Amelia put her hands on her hips.
“Those guys know what they are doing. Especially Dan. He’s not just a pretty face. Speaking of pretty faces, when do you want to go take a look at the second truck? My friend is eager to unload it.”
“Uhm, how about next week? That way I can make sure I have the funds for another license and see if we can swipe a good spot, maybe on the other side of town. That’ll require a little investigating on my part.” Amelia looked off in the distance as she thought of all the details around buying another truck.
“I’ll tell him we’ll be out Tuesday after five,” Lila said and quickly gulped down the last of her coffee as the morning crowd approached.
Amelia tried to concentrate on work, but her mind kept wandering to the burning building she saw on the news. She’d never thought about fires all that seriously. She didn’t smoke. Her home’s electric wiring was old but safe as far as she could tell. Neither of her kids had a weird fascination with fire. She had smoke detectors in all the right places.
But now, not far from where she lived, someone was starting house fires intentionally. They’d killed people. Children. Right now, Meg and Adam were safe at school, going about their business of learning and navigating the high-school environment. To them, that was a huge responsibility.
“Just wait until they become parents,” she muttered.
“What’s that, honey?” Lila asked.
“Oh. Nothing. I’m just thinking out loud.” Amelia waved her hand and once again got back to her immediate tasks.
Chapter Five
