Davis opened the door to the bakery and waved her through. The courtesy wasn’t mocking, at least not mocking of her. He also seemed somewhat distracted. Perhaps he didn’t know what to say now that they were down to the actual meeting.
Davis waited for her to express a food preference and then ordered more coffee and a lemon cupcake, and they took a table as far from everyone else as they could manage. It wasn’t hard, the rain and advancing hour had chased most everyone back home or to their places of employment. Only Mrs. Hardwick was left and she was hard of hearing.
“Please don’t think me rude,” Juliet began as she accepted the coffee Davis slid across the table. She didn’t really want anything else to drink, but the mug was warm and maybe the coffee would kick ass on her fatigue. Later she would pay for it. This late in the day, the caffeine would continue to jump up and down and squeal excitedly when she finally tried to sleep.
“But could I please just pass the official word and let you go home?”
“Yeah. It’s been a long day and I bet we both want a hot shower and to see a little less of each other’s dirty faces.”
He nodded. Davis did a good job of impersonating a normal human as he considered this, but in the end he was someone who organized his life around a different belief system that had a strange gravitational pull. He wasn’t an information shuffler like she was, or a wonk. He was an actual field operative, chosen—she had come to believe—because of visual anonymity and dogged nature. She needed him to go away so that her outside and inside worlds could once again balance.
“Fair enough. Well, I come bearing gifts as well as overtures of peace and love from the family back east. It’s a new phone.” Davis reached in his pocket and set the small cell on the table. “Everyone hopes you’ll be less of a stranger.”
Juliet recognized it. It was a very ordinary phone in all ways but one. That one way was critical though, and she thanked her boss silently for all that extra training.
“I—”
“Look, just keep it around. It isn’t from Jerome. It came from our west coast office. Just in case. It seems like sometimes you get yourself involved in situations—”
“Not voluntarily.”
“No, but does it matter? I mean this isn’t the first time you’ve found a body. It probably won’t be the last.”
So, he had read her file and they knew about last summer’s homicide. She sighed.
“No, you’re right about that. At least, I hope I don’t find more bodies, but I will probably end up seeing other things and….”
“Help out the sheriff or your friends when they need it. That’s worthy because I can see that you are damned good at it and playing on the side of the angels. If one of those future situations turned out to be something that your old people should know, you have a direct way in. We can also find you in an emergency. I’m only three hours away. It’s extra insurance, a safety net.”
A safety net made of barbed wire and filled with black widow spiders. She would rather take the fall than jump in it, but nothing would be gained by saying this to Davis.
Juliet picked up the cell and studied it. She would remove the special tracking chip later. It would be nice to have a phone that she didn’t have to pay for. She could save on expenses and also get rid of Davis.
“Okay, I’ll keep the phone. But take the tracker off my car. That was rude and I don’t feel like crawling around to look for it.”
Davis smiled a little.
“Sounds like a fair trade. By the way, you drive like a crazy woman. I damn near fell off a cliff.”
“That’s because I am a crazy woman. You should put that in your report along with the Greenpeace thing.”
“I will.”
He would. And they both knew it wouldn’t matter. She could worship the devil and be a baby-eating cannibal and it wouldn’t bother anyone if they needed her badly enough.
All she could do was hope that her negatives were too high for casual contact and that nothing dire that suited her skills came along any time soon.
Chapter 13
“It’s gorgeous,” Juliet said. Then added hastily, “I mean the frame really makes it look special.”
Raphael had gotten Elizabeth to create a setting for her drawing of the creepy oak. It was hanging on the wall right beside Elizabeth’s Monet quilt.
“The frame does it justice,” Raphael said.
“Hm.”
“Do you doubt my judgment?” he asked. “I am, after all, a very famous artist.”
“So you are,” Juliet agreed and found herself smiling. She had done much of it since Samuel Levy’s arrest. “I guess your opinion matters after all.”
“More than most. You have your self-defense class tonight?” Raphael asked, changing the subject. They were both wearing thick sweaters. A week from Thanksgiving, the weather had turned cold.
“Yes. So far both Rose and Carrie are doing really well. They are surprisingly willing to beat on things.”
“And you?” he asked.
“Oh, I beat on them too. Just very carefully.”
“Could you take the instructor?” he asked curiously.
Juliet hesitated and then sighed.
“With one arm tied behind my back. Well, if it wasn’t tied tight. My old boss was a great believer in having his people be prepared for any eventuality, though he never considered me for field work. I was too valuable to him in other ways. Still, he wanted me prepared for anything.”
And maybe he had known that she needed to feel confident that she could handle anything as a way to cope with being utterly alone.
“You have a fine mind, Juliet.”
“And a lack of inclination for drama and tantrums,” she said agreeably.
“He didn’t care that you knew his secrets?” Raphael was usually not so inquisitive, but Juliet didn’t mind the questions. “Coffee?”
“Thanks, it’s cold today.” She turned away from her drawing. “You know, I don’t think he had many secrets. He was too devoted to work,” she answered. “If he did have them, he hid them from me.”
“There is a fondness in your voice when you speak of him. You miss him?” Raphael poured coffee.
“Kind of. Not enough to go back though—not even if he were still alive. And with him out of the picture, there isn’t a hope in hell that I would return.”
“Do you think they’ll leave you alone now?” Raphael asked.
Juliet shrugged and accepted a mug.
“I hope so. Davis said he would put in his report that I was insane and had joined Greenpeace.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“Yes. Gotta keep my negatives real high. It may not be enough though. It may come down to making a deal with the devil to keep the deep blue sea away.”
“Does the sea have a name?”
Juliet considered not answering but then gave another shrug. She wasn’t giving out state secrets and she owed Jerome nothing.
“Jerome Pinter. He’s a power-grubbing whore who always has an eye to the main chance. But no one likes him and I still have a few friends in higher places. If the situation gets desperate enough I’ll cut some kind of deal.”
Raphael nodded.
“Esteban is back. He decided to stay away until Halloween was over and got caught up in another case.”
“Wise, if cowardly. Carrie is frightening. Perhaps I had better sign him up for the self-defense course too.”
Raphael shook his head.
“Like you, I don’t think he needs it.”
About the Author
Melanie Jackson is the author of over 60 novels. If you enjoyed this story, please visit Melanie’s author web site at www.melaniejackson.com.
eBooks by Melanie Jackson:
The Chloe Boston Mystery Series:
Moving Violation
The Pumpkin Thief
Death in a Turkey Town
Murder on Parade
Cupid’s Revenge
Viva Lost V
egas
Death of a Dumb Bunny
Red, White and a Dog Named Blue
Haunted
The Great Pumpkin Caper
Beast of a Feast
Snow Angel
Lucky Thirteen
The Sham
Murder by the Book
Primary Suspect (Coming Soon)
The Chloe Boston Mysteries Volume 1 (Books 2 – 4)
The Chloe Boston Mysteries Volume 2 (Books 5 – 7
The Chloe Boston Mysteries Volume 3 (Books 8 – 10)
The Chloe Boston Mysteries Volume 4 (Books 11 – 13)
The Butterscotch Jones Mystery Series
Due North
Big Bones
Gone South
Home Fires
Points West
The Wedding
Wild East
The Butterscotch Jones Mysteries Volume 1 (Books 2 – 4)
The Wendover House Mystery Series
The Secret Staircase
Twelfth Night
On Deadly Tides
Pieces of Hate (Coming Soon)
Miss Henry Mystery Series
Portrait of a Gossip
Landscape in Scarlet
Requiem at Christmas
Wildside Series
Outsiders
Courier
Still Life
The Book of Dreams Series:
The First Book of Dreams: Metropolis
The Second Book of Dreams: Meridian
The Third Book of Dreams: Destiny
Medicine Trilogy
Bad Medicine
Medicine Man
Knave of Hearts
Club Valhalla
Devil of Bodmin Moor
Devil of the Highlands
Devil in a Red Coat
Halloween
The Curiosity Shoppe (Sequel to A Curious Affair)
Timeless (Sequel to Club Valhalla)
Nevermore: The Last Divine Book
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