She whispered, “Take me. Junior.”
“Not yet.” I played with kissing her pleasure. She pushed up. “Oh, God. Oh, yes, there. Don’t stop. There, there, oh.” She came. I pulled her up to sitting, and she was a rag doll in my hands. I laid her down on her stomach. God what an ass. I pulled her up and glided myself into her from behind. She moaned. “Oh, yes. There,” she insisted. After a while I turned her back over and slid in as her body rose to meet me. She grabbed my neck and pulled me down to a deep kiss as we found our rhythm. I lost all thought and time.
“Baby, I can’t last much longer.”
“Now, now, NOW.” It was all I heard her say, all I needed to hear before I exploded.
We lay together a long time alive and safe, connected in a way I’d never experienced.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kailey
I smiled as I hopped into my car. Shinto and Heather. I would never have guessed. Naturally it made me think of my own prospects. Derek and Dallas were so far away. Looks like celibacy will be my lifestyle for a while. Kailey Carmichael, nun in training?
On the way home I couldn’t help thinking X-rated thoughts about my Dallas lover. He made that forensics school a real pleasure in so many wonderful ways. A honking horn broke me from my erotic thoughts and I flashed the obligatory middle finger while I checked the time. Yep. Just enough to stop home, change, and sit with Momma for a few before I have to teach class.
I ran into the house, showered, and brushed my teeth. Tried to run a comb through my kinky blond hair and gave up. Frizz aplenty this morning. What the hell, I added gel, squished my hair, and blew it dry with the diffuser on my hair dryer. I ended up with ringlets, at best a blond mop. I hated ringlets as a kid. Now I’ve made peace with them. Momma loves them. To be super girly, I curled my eyelashes and brushed mascara on. Got mascara on my forehead and my cheek. “Crap.” I tried to rub it off. One cheek shone bright pink and so did my forehead. Solution: apply makeup and blush. I pulled ringlets down on my forehead and stuck a couple of gold hoop earrings in my pierced ears and a diamond stud in my left ear above the hoop. I’d had it pierced when I found out I was pregnant with Emma; the diamond I chose for her. Then I threw on a pair of tight boyfriend jeans with ripped knees, a white T-shirt, and my favorite brown Roper boots.
I stuck my tongue out at the image in the mirror. Hell, I could almost pass for a college student, couldn’t I?
I grabbed a banana on the way back out. Naturally, I thought more about Derek. Bad girl, Kailey. You’re going to see your Momma, for chrissakes.
I rolled into the parking lot of Midland Memorial Hospital. When I got out, the dry Midland heat smacked me so hard it took my breath away. The hospital double doors sucked open, and I stopped a moment to absorb the cool rush of air conditioning. I used the stairs. Jogged six floors up to momma’s room, my daily cardio.
Panting, I braced myself and scooted a chair up to her bed. When I took her hand it felt cool.
Then she opened her eyes!
“Oh, Momma. Momma, I’m here. Thank God.”
She smiled weakly.
I jumped up and ran to the nurse’s station. “My mother opened her eyes. She’s awake. Get the doctor.”
“Good news.” The young nurse stopped typing on her computer and grinned. “Did she speak?”
“No. But she opened her eyes. Looked right at me. That’s a good sign, right?”
“I’ll page Mrs. Davis.”
“Who?”
“Head nurse. I’m sure she will want to assess the situation. Dr. Bisht should be in this morning.”
“Can’t you tell him it’s an emergency?”
She ignored me and paged the nurse.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Junior
Morning came, and I lay in bed not believing last night. I meet this amazing chick. We miss a drive-by shooting by seconds. She’s upset. I’m right there, Mr. Comforter. I wondered what chance I might have at a rematch.
She laid with her back to me, hugging her side of the mattress. I scooted closer to test the waters, but when I put my hand on her back she shrank from my touch. Official forecast, chilly.
She sighed audibly. I knew I was probably supposed to say something. But what? No friggin’ clue.
“Do you think she’s okay?”
“Who?”
“Yolanda.” She sat up in bed with the sheet to her throat. “Who else? Do you think she got shot?”
“I’m sure Yolo—Yolanda—is fine. First off, we didn’t see her outside. Second, she has Miguel. He’d keep her safe.”
“From a drive-by? Stupid asshole sticks a gun out of a car window and tries to hit as many people as possible.”
“Exactly.” I raised up on my elbow. “It’s random. They’re lucky if they hit anyone.”
“We should go to the police,” she said.
“What? Hey, whoa. Slow your roll.”
She answered by jumping out of bed and looking for her underwear.
So much for our morning-after lovin’ moment. I got up with her and threw on my clothes.
“We saw the car, Junior.” She patted the bedclothes. Lifted pillows, searching for her bra.
I had fond memories of that bra. “Everyone there saw the car. Lots of people partying.” I pulled on my shoes. Give it up, dude. Fun’s over.
“Except they won’t say anything. You know that. Everyone clams up.” Spoken like a junior G-man.
I shifted gears. “But we weren’t there when it happened. We go in claiming we saw something we didn’t, they’ll have our ass. And you have too nice an ass.” Nothing. Not even a comment. I pressed on. “Police will look at us hard if we come forward. I don’t know about you, but cops make me nervous. Plus, you have your job to think about.”
“What about those poor kids that were shot?” Her clothes went on as quickly as mine. She just had more of them.
“Elizabeth.” Oh my god, she would not let it go. “You saw the ambulance and the police. They showed up like that.” I snapped my fingers. “Almost like they staked the place out. For all we know, they did. Those who could be helped are at the hospital. The rest are at the morgue.”
“You don’t have to be so unfeeling about it.” She sat on the bed to put on her shoes.
“If I felt something for every vato who ate a bullet I’d be, I don’t know what, gay.”
She chuckled.
What? A ray of hope?
“I can vouch for the fact that you are not gay, Junior. Not after last night. But I need to get to work.”
“I need to get to class. Drop me at my place?”
“If you can keep up.” She winked and snagged her purse as she hurried for the door.
I beat her to the convertible by half a second.
We didn’t talk all the way to my apartment. When she parked I leaned over. “Maybe my class in police procedure will have some information about the shooting, Elizabeth. Give me your phone number, and we can hook up again soon.”
“That would be nice.” She dug in her purse and wrote something on a card and handed it to me. “My cell is on the back. My office number is on the front.” I stepped out. She gave me a megawatt smile before she stomped on the gas. The car’s momentum slammed my door shut for me.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Kailey and Shinto
“Momma, open your eyes again.” I stroked her hand for a while.
Dr. Bisht hustled in. He checked her pulse and chart. “Good afternoon, Miss Carmichael.”
Momma croaked, “Kailey?”
“I’m here.” I smiled at her and then at Dr. Bisht.
He put the ends of his stethoscope in his ears and checked her vital signs. I stepped back and perched on the edge of the chair by the bed.
“How are you feeling, Mrs. Carmichael?” His voice sounded musical and soothing.
“Tired.”
“You’ve been through quite a lot. Take it easy and rest. It’s the best thing for you.”
Sh
e took a deep breath.
He finished his exam and turned to me. “Progress.” His cell buzzed. “The next few days she should be more alert. I’m pleased with her responses. Quite good, quite good indeed.” He scrolled through a text on his phone.
“Is there anything I can do for her?”
“She has to do this on her own. It’s helpful that you are here with her. I’ll look in on her tomorrow.”
“Thank you, doctor.” I stood.
Dr. Bisht thrust his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. “The nurses have my contact information. They will call me anytime Officer Carmichael, if you have any concerns about your mother.” His white coat flared as he left the room.
Mom didn’t stir for the next full hour I sat with her.
I checked the time. Class kicks off in twenty minutes. I needed to get to Midland College.
I called Shinto on the way to tell her about momma.
“Christ on a Ritz,” Shinto said. “Thank God. I’m heading there right now. Don’t you worry. Teach that damn class. I’ll talk to you after.”
I reached the classroom with five minutes to spare and scratched my name and points I wanted to cover on the chalkboard. I sat at the desk shuffling through pages of Allen’s presentation while the students filed in. I really needed to buckle down and sort through this crap. Maybe tonight.
I waited while the students took their seats. They seemed happy and streamed through to their desks, chatting and laughing. Made me wish for my days back in college.
Quite a mix of ages in this class. It might be interesting to ask what subjects they would like to learn. See what areas of police procedure interested them. Maybe a questionnaire would be in order. Not too shabby, Kailey. Thinking like a real teacher.
In the meantime, I stood and dove into Allen’s first lecture. Fifteen minutes into the presentation the door eased open and Junior Alvarez slunk in. I stopped and waited for him to arrive at his assigned seat and said, “Glad you could join us, Mr. Alvarez.”
He had the decency to look sheepish and pull out his books with no comment other than a subdued “Sorry.”
At the end of the hour I erased the chalkboard, gathered my papers, and shoved them into my purse. It pays to have a large hobo handbag. A stab at my heart reminded me I used to carry all things Emma in it. Now I carried my gun, handcuffs, badge, and lipstick. I heard a noise and looked up to see Alvarez standing in front of my desk. “What can I do for you Mr. Alvarez?” I used my police voice.
“Please, call me Junior, Ms. Carmichael.”
“Don’t make a habit of being late, and I’ll think about it.”
“It’s a deal.” He smiled. “It won’t happen again.”
He didn’t have a bad smile, frankly. Jesus, Kailey. Check yourself.
“Are there any handouts I missed?” Junior asked.
“No handouts. If you copied what I wrote on the chalkboard, then you have everything you need for today.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He stood rooted in place.
“Anything else, Junior?”
“Well,” he looked at the floor. “I was wondering, will you be covering Midland current events in class?”
“Maybe. By next class I’ll pass out a questionnaire to see what everyone might be interested in.”
“Cool.”
“Specifically what are your interests?” I shouldered my purse and headed toward the door. He hurried ahead to get the door. I squeezed by and noticed, even up this close, he wasn’t bad on the eyes, but his rough swagger nailed him as a product of the system.
“Normal stuff,” he said. “How police handle crime. From first call to locking up the bad guys.” He shrugged.
“I appreciate your interest, Mr. Alvarez. Junior. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks,” he said. Nothing more. He turned and took the stairs two at a time, disappearing into a sea of students. Interesting guy. I watched the crowd swallow him up. My stomach grumbled and reminded me I’d been neglecting it.
First food. Then the hospital. Then homework.
***
Shinto rose when I blew into momma’s room and we hugged. Both of us blubbering like fools.
“No change, honey,” Shinto said. “She opened her eyes and smiled at me. Once. I about lost it. Nothing else to report since.”
“I’m glad you were here.”
“Where else would I be? I’m off. I think Heather might have made dinner.”
“Go be with Heather. I have plenty of homework to occupy my brain. I’ll call with any news.”
“Any time, Kailey. You hear?”
I heard and I loved her for it. She left me with my teacher homework and I settled in where I could keep an eye on Momma and read without moving my head. I reviewed the last couple of lessons. Tried to find a thread to tie the upcoming classes together. I worked on my questionnaire. After a couple of hours, my eyes got bleary and my brain denied having anything to do with something so stupid as a questionnaire.
I sat thinking about strokes and watching Mom sleep.
My cell rang. “Kailey Carmichael,” I answered.
“Officer Carmichael? This is Barbara Tonkin.”
“Hi, Barbara, what can I do for you?” Barbara was Samosa’s assistant. I leaned back in the recliner and closed my burning eyes.
“Captain Samosa asked me to call and find out how your mother’s doing and if you might have any time to come in. We have officers out with the flu and are shorthanded. We could use your help.”
“When do you need me?”
“ASAP.”
“I’m at the hospital. My house is on the way. I’ll stop and change into my uniform and be right there.”
“Thank you, Officer Carmichael.”
“Barbara, please call me Kailey.”
“Thank you, Kailey. See you soon.”
I got to the station and scooted around a flurry of activity. Larry grabbed me at the front desk. “Kailey, help me. I’ve got Mr. and Mrs. Williams over there.” He pointed to a couple deep in conversation off to my left.
“Their son Levi stood outside some party and got shot and killed by a drive-by shooter. Could you please take them into an interview room? They don’t know he’s dead. We need to know what kind of kid he was.”
“Any paperwork on the shooting?”
“Just a second.” He hit Print on his computer and then slid the printouts into a manila folder.
I read the file on the fly and hurried over to the Williamses. He wore a dark blue suit with a green- and blue-striped tie. She dressed in a flowing caftan and high stilettos. Her perfume reminded me of a garden in the middle of a desert. Midland once boasted more millionaires than anyplace else in America and this couple obviously belonged to the club. I ushered them into an interview room.
Mr. Williams furrowed his brow. “We are making a fuss by coming. It’s probably nothing, but we need help. Our son, Levi, has disappeared. That’s not like him. He’s a great kid, and when he didn’t come home last night I, well, his mother worried something might have happened.”
Mrs. Williams placed her hand on her husband’s arm. He shook it off. She frowned and looked down.
“Frankly,” he said, “I think it’s about time the boy got some cojones and stayed out all night. It’s what boys are supposed to do.”
I glanced quickly at the coroner’s photo of the dead boy in my folder. “Do you have a current photo of your son?”
“I do.” Mrs. Williams opened a small blue clutch and rifled through for the photograph. “He graduated from Midland College and is going to SMU in the fall. He’s taking a couple of classes this summer for fun.” She spoke rapid fire.
“For fun. Hell, it’s so he won’t have to work in the oil fields. Kids these days want it all.” Mr. Williams huffed and raked thick hard fingers through jet-black hair. Worry etched craters in his sunburned face.
“Tell me about your son.”
Mrs. Williams grunted and pulled a photo from her purse, a proud sm
ile on her lips. “He is perfect. Always a good boy.”
“What did he wear yesterday?”
“A white T-shirt and jeans, I think, or did he wear khaki shorts?” A quizzical expression flitted across her face. “He had on jeans, definitely.” She nodded in agreement with herself.
The father cleared his throat. Puddles filled his bottom eyelids. It softened the tough-guy image like throwing a switch.
I took the photo from her shaking hand. “Thank you. I’ll make a copy and return it.” I opened the folder and double checked. No doubts. My eyes flicked up.
Mr. Williams stared into my soul, his voice ragged. “He’s gone isn’t he? How did it happen?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Junior
I wandered over to the school bookstore with my first modeling paycheck sitting fat in my new bank account. I cracked my back and twisted my shoulders. Who knew modeling could be such hard work? I’ve never itched or felt body aches as much as when I’m sitting still, posing. I’m sick of using the computer lab to do homework. The bookstore offered deep discounts to students.
I must have been standing for too long. Coke-bottle-glasses cashier materialized next to me. “May I help you?”
After hearing a long explanation of each computer, tablet, and PC, as well as megahertz, memory, and ram, half of which I didn’t understand, I walked out with a thirteen-inch MacBook computer, paper, printer, and more questions than answers.
Think I’d better sign up for computer science next semester.
I crossed the street to my apartment. This is what it feels like to be an adult? Wish my parents had tried it. Screw them. I’ll do it for all of us. I added a little more giddy-up to my step and scaled the stairs to my apartment.
Several hours later I got the computer connected to the printer and printed out a page of gibberish to make sure the thing worked. I called the local cable company, gave them my Student ID number and they did the rest. I followed their directions for how to get online and Click. Bam. I’m a certified nerd. No more getting kicked out of Computer Lab right when my ideas are popping. I can work from home or anywhere I want.
West Texas Dead: A Kailey and Shinto Mystery Page 13
