Lisa Djahed - Bee Stanis 01- The Foolish Stepmom

by Lisa Djahed

  Chapter Seventeen

  This time it was Ray. The one running down the street like a banshee in the middle of the night. Instead of me.

  Ray had gone out and bought and installed the same surveillance system that Ben had gotten. We had agreed, as neighbors, to each keep a camera pointed at the other ones house as a favor.

  Nearly three weeks had passed without any incidence whatsoever. Jesse was still in jail as was Pam.Jules was still being a sweetheart. No appearance of lice or dead fish. All had been quiet. Far too quiet.

  And that’s what had sent Ray running down the street screaming like a crazy man. He had been home, at Drew’s, both Bev and he had officially moved in. He was sitting at his computer screen looking at his system when he saw it.

  Someone was spray-painting our house. It was about 1:30 in the morning and Ben and I were happily asleep in each other’s arms when we heard Bear barking like mad. Attuned to trouble in the middle of the night, Ben bounded out of bed and I followed, sensing his urgency. And that’s where we were when we saw Ray running down the road after someone.

  Ben was first out the door and I followed him. And that was when I saw it. Four letters spray-painted white on the side of our house “R-A-T-S”. It was crude and ugly and stained our brick exterior. I was pondering we were going to clean such a thing off brick when I heard the thud and the wrestling. Ray had managed to tackle our spray painter and wrestle them to the ground in front of Hank Stidmore’s place. Ben went running back inside to call9-1-1and I stood there not knowing what to do. I decided to head over closer to where Ray was, close but not to close if you know what I mean. And that’s when it became clear who Ray was having trouble keeping a hold of: Taylor’s mom. All three hundred pounds of her were on the road under Ray’s grasp. She was swearing up a storm and Ray was swearing right back at her. I suddenly wanted to laugh at the whole scene, I mean, it was so absurd: big strong Ray tackling and wrestling with Mrs. Hufflelump.

  After what seemed like a very long time, Officer Dead Fish was back. And not happy to see us again. For a policeman, he was extra grumpy, but maybe it was just the fact that we had seemed to keep him quite busy as of late.

  Ray took the lead and showed him the tape of Mrs. Hufflelump spray painting our house. And I don’t think it was that, but the belligerency that Mrs. Hufflelump showed the police that got her in real trouble. They ended up taking her in for her swearing and cussing as much as for the spray-painting.

  All four of us were having a giggle about the sight of Ray tackling her when we realized that the officers had left Mrs. Hufflelump’s car down the street.

  Ben and Ray were out the door in a hot minute. Bev and I decided to follow them, me stopping by the kitchen on my way out to get a flashlight.

  We approached the SUV and lo and behold it was unlocked. Ben and Ray took the front seats and Bev and I took the back. What we were looking for, we didn’t know but surely we’d find something. There were two cans of white spray paint in the back seat, were we her only targets for the night or was she planning on hitting more? Did she have other “rats” she was hoping to vandalize?

  “Lookie here, what do we have here boys and girls,” said Ben in his most dramatic voice and with that he pulled up a baggie of white looking pills.

  “We need to call the police folks, we shouldn’t be doing this, ” I said guiltily, knowing we were tampering with some sort of evidence. “Bee’s right, we need Officer Nunez” agreed Ben.

  By the time Officer Krumpke was on duty, I had to be at work, and so left the scene of the crime in the hands of the men, both of which didn’t have to be to work until noon. And Bev of course, who had lost her job due to her absence around Drew’s death. She seemed more than content to be not working.

  When I got home later that afternoon I noticed that Taylor’s mom’s SUV was nowhere to be seen.

  I called over to Bev.

  “What happened to the car?”

  “The police took it. The bag of pills was zanax, I guess they are called z-bars.” Said Bev.

  I immediately called Ben to find out what happened. “Yeah, Officer Nunez came and was very happy to see the bag of pills we found in the car. He said something like ‘we’ve got her now’. And the police took the car.”

  “Hmmm.” Was all I added.

  The next morning we found out why Officer Krumpke was so happy. Again, it was the Channel Six morning news that let us know.

  Drug Dealing Mom Busted in Raid on House

  Palm Bay, Florida: Yvonne Stanton, 37, of 379 Early Road in Palm Bay was being held in Stark’s penitentiary on drug possession and possession of drug paraphenelia and is charged with intent to sell.

  The discovery came as a result of a raid on the house that also resulted in the arrest of a youth in residence at the home in a charge of possession.

  “Look honey, I think they arrested Taylor too.” I piped out to Ben who was just getting out of the shower.

  “How do we find out?” I asked Ben, nearly knowing the answer but wanting him to take the lead.

  “We call our favorite policeman.”

  But the truth was, Officer Krumpke didn’t call us back, either that day or the next. We supposed he was busy with his big arrest and we had other Jess interesting things to take care of, like the RATS spray paint on our bricks. Turns out, getting graffiti off bricks isn’t that easy, you can powerspray, but that only takes off a certain amount and then you have to treat it with a chemical spray and then powerspray again.

  Needless to say it took most of one night for Ben and Ray to accomplish. Even Jules in her newly “helpful” state had come out and tried to help.

  Turns out Jules was helpful in a number of ways, it was through her that we had found out that they had arrested Taylor. For possession. Something I was quite happy about. Part of it was that she was pregnant, how dare she put herself and the baby in danger that way, even if she wasn’t taking the drugs, she was helping deal them and what is a 15 year old doing dealing in pills. It was outrageous. Of course, if your mother is a drug dealer, I suppose it is second nature but still. Apparently Taylor’s arrest was the topic of conversation on the school bus. When I was fourteen-fifteen the only topics of conversation I could remember had to do with boys. And periods. And music. And boys again. Not drugs. Not who is dealing to who. And who got caught. There is such a generational difference between me and Jules and her father and Jules, plus add in the cultural filters of Ben’s Russian background and forget about it, there’s such a big cultural divide it’s a wonder they speak the same language.

  It was Thursday before we heard back from Officer Krumpke and when the call came Ben was busy at pool league and tried to beg off the call. Ben had been participating in the local pool league for as long as I had known him, it was his one night a week to get away from being a dad, from being a husband, from work, just be the best pool player he could be. And he was pretty good. When he walked in the pool hall and announced the “king was here” it was only partially a joke. There were only a handful of pool players who could beat him and he usually recruited them to play with him rather than face them on opposing teams. I loved going with him when our schedules allowed it and cheering him on. It was fun to see him in his element, purely enjoying the sport of it all. And a beer or two.

  So when I saw Ben check his phone (which was on vibrate) and run outside the bar, I knew it was either the cops, one of the kids or Countess Von Stinker, none of which I particularly wanted to talk to on our one night off.

  Of course I followed. “Officer Nunez, yes?”

  “We’re out now, can we meet up with you later or tomorrow?” “I see, yes, okay then.”

  I hated one sided conversations.

  “What did he say?” I piped in as soon as Ben hung up the phone.

  “He said he had news for us. That he wants to meet us tomorrow.”

  Uggh. I hated the way men could do that, just truncate a conversation and stick to the facts. If Officer Krumpke had informa
tion for us, wouldn’t you stay on the phone to find out? Or insist on meeting him right away. No, not my Ben. Not my singularly focused Ben. Now, we play pool. Tomorrow talk to cop. Simple. Simply frustrating is what it was.

  And that’s why we had all gathered the next day once again in our back porch to hear what the Officer had to say. It was Ben and I and Ray and Bev. Truth be told it was starting to get too cold to sit out on the back porch like we did, but I think we did it more out of habit than anything else. Floridians are funny with the weather, anything below 72 is cold and warrants full pants and a sweater maybe even a coat. I had broken out my favorite hoodie for the occasion.

  “Thank you all for coming here again, I think it is time we update you on the situation.” Officer Krumpke started.

  “As you know, we’ve arrested Taylor and her mom on drug charges. The baggie you found allowed us to be able to get a warrant to search their house, when we went in we found Taylor trying to flush some more pills down the toilet.”

  “But the bad news is, we’ve released her.” And with that my heart sunk.

  “Since she’s technically a juvenile, I shouldn’t be discussing this with you, but we also found some things in her room that you should be aware of, which is why I’m sharing this with you.”

  “On one of the posters in her room she had taped up a journal entry that read ‘down with all RATS’. Now I mention this because, as you know, both her and her mom are convinced that you were the ones who sent the cops after them, and after what happened the other night, I need to warn you that this might escalate and you shouldn’t respond to anything that might happen, you need to call us the minute anything, anything at all happens, ok?” And he looked from one of us to the other trying to get us all to nod in agreement.

  “It is very important that we catch her doing one more thing wrong, and with her history, it should be easy to do, but I need you all to 1) be watchful and 2) be careful and then 3) call us if anything, anything at all comes up, you promise, Ben, Ray?”

  Both Ben and Ray nodded in agreement but if I knew the two of them, calling the cops would be the very last thing they would do if anything happened. I wondered at that too, what did the police or Officer Krumpke think anyhow, what more could Taylor do?

  We would certainly find out that answer to that question in no time.

  Chapter Eighteen

  We were late getting our holiday decorations up. With all the brouhaha around Drew’s death at Halloween time and then having everything happen with the breakins at Drew’s and our vandalism, stringing lights was the last thing on our agenda. But it was time. I loved the holidays, especially living in Florida. Christmastime meant LIGHTS and funny blow up decorations on your lawn. We had a deer that was supposed to bend and raise it is neck but because we lost a part it only kind of nodded at you. It was hilarious to us every year. “Time for broken deer” is what Ben would pipe out as he got broken deer’s box out of the attic. Christmastime was definitely my favorite time of the year-I know that sounds so cliché, but I loved the decorations, the fuss, the busyness, the shopping, the putting off the shopping, the waiting in lines, the “happy holidays” that everyone threw out at you at the stores.

  We were in the midst of hanging the lights on the shrubs outside our garage when Bev came bounding out of her house.

  ”They are letting Jesse out.”

  “What?” I said dropping my bundles of lights and turning towards her.

  “They’ve dropped the murder charges and are letting him come back on home on house arrest.”

  And we hugged. We had done it, kept our promise. I still couldn’t believe it. They hadn’t found the Drano killer but at least for some reason they didn’t think Jesse had done it. And that’s what had mattered.

  As soon as we put all the lights away and bundled up the car, we left. We had all decided to drive up together to Stark’s. Bev, Ray and Ben and I. We were all as excited as we could be. Jesse was getting out. He’d still be on house arrest for his drug charges, but all charges related to Drew’s death had been dropped.

  It took hours for them to process him and we had all just waited together, pacing around the information booth out front with Ray and Ben talking together and Bev and I just as excited as two mom’s could be.

  “Jess!” we both exclaimed as soon as we saw him in his grungy t shirt and jeans that he had worn the day they took him away over seven weeks ago.

  He hugged his mom, shook Ray and Ben’s hands, and gave me a hug. He looked tired and small and fragile. And for a tall troubld teen that is something indeed.

  He sat in the back wedged between the door and his mom, with

  Ray on the other side and said, “Can we stop at Wendy’s?”

  We all watched him chow down on the biggest burger they had while we peppered him with questions.

  “What did they say? Why did they drop the charges?” I wanted to know if they had some new evidence we didn’t know about.

  “I’m supposed to meet with my probation officer and then the officer in charge of the investigation sometime this week, but they didn’t tell me much other than that.”

  We were all just glad to have him back in our midst. It was hard to say how out of control you feel when someone you know is in jail. You can’t contact them except when they call or you go visit them, you don’t know what kind of people they are encountering. And for a kid who is on the brink of trouble, like Jesse, it is particularly hard. Would prison make him more troubled or would it scare him straight? It was hard to say.

  One thing was for sure and that was with Jesse out, he’d want to see Taylor and that meant we’d see her. We hadn’t seen her since her mom was arrested for vandalizing our house and she was arrested for possession. Through the rumor mill that was Jules these days we’d heard that she was back out and we knew that Officer Krumpke was on the look out for her. We’d have to call him and let him know about Jesse, unless he already knew, is that who Jesse meant when he said he’d have to be in touch with the officer in charge? I wondered at this during our ride home.

  We made steaks and cooked outside over at Drew’s when we got home and Jules and Yaz joined us. It was a nice home coming and you could just tell Jesse was so glad to be out of jail.

  It wasn’t until later that week that I found out there was an ulterior motive for releasing Jesse. And it was Officer Krumpke who had hinted at it.

  He had come over to meet with Jesse and then came over to our house to update us.

  “Nice to see you two again.” He was always so formal with us. I just wished he’d kick back, take a beer and really let us know what he thought. It was funny about cops that way, how they always wore their professional selves both on and off duty.

  “As you know, we’ve released Jesse. Now we are hoping that Jesse can help us in certain ways and I think you know to what and about who I am talking?”

  Both Ben and I nodded, knowing Officer Krumpke’s interest in nabbing Taylor.

  “I hope you both will help us keep an eye out, now that he is out, I suspect Taylor will be over from time to time.”

  We again nodded. We had only seen her once in the last few days since Jesse had been home which seemed odd, but I suspect she’d be over quite a lot in the coming weeks and yuck, months ahead. With her pregnant belly hanging out for all to see.

  “It important that we all keep an eye out, even Jesse is going to do what he can to help, this last visit to jail has opened up his perspective a little on the situation.”

  And with that we said our goodbyes. I wondered what Officer Krumpke wanted from us and from Jesse. Did he really think Jesse would spy on his girlfriend/baby mama? Maybe Jess had agreed to do just that.

  What happened next was all Ray’s idea. It was preposterous at the time and I should have just poo-poo’d the idea the minute it came up.

  “I want us to break into Taylor’s house,” was what Ray had actually said.

  “What?” both Ben and I gasped.

  “Now
listen. We all know that Taylor is bad news. And some of us suspect she had a hand in Drew’s death but we can’t prove it, or the police haven’t been able to. It has to be us.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding. How on earth are we going to do this?” I said seriously reconsidering our newly formed friendship. Steak and fries were one thing but breaking and entering, I just couldn’t see how we could do that.

  “Now I’ve thought about it. And we can do this. The girls can take Taylor shopping, we do it on a day when her dad’s at work, her mom’s already in jail. Everyone will be out of the house. Ben doesn’t even have to go in, he can be look out.”

  “No way, we’re not doing this,” I said emphatically.

  “Ok, let’s do this,” my not-so-dear husband said emphatically. I looked at Ben like he had two heads.

  “What?” I said, nearly yelling, to him.

  “No, it makes sense. Ray can go in. I hang around the outside with Bear, like I’m walking the dog, and we just see what we can find.”

  Not only was Ray going to implicate my husband, but now my dog, in the commission of what surely was going to be felony of some sort.

  “Bear, you want bear involved?”

  I just had to leave. it is just better that way. I needed to breathe deep and not hit my husband upside his ever loving head. I went into the kitchen and looked down and saw my perpetually happy dog smiling up at me, was I going to give him a treat, a hot dog? A rap sheet?

  Lordy-loo. Ray’s plan, really, was alright. There was just one change, and that was, I’d have to be there. There was no way I was letting Ben take this one on alone. If we went down, we went down together: me, my lunkhead husband, and my too sweet dog.

  And on Saturday like planned Bev took my Accord and loaded Jules and Yaz and Taylor to go off and do some shopping for baby clothes and baby items. I had begged off with laundry to do. It was dirty laundry indeed but not the type they thought about.

  After we saw them off, Ben and I loaded Bear in our civic and Ray took his Nissan and we headed the 1.5 miles to Taylor’s house. The plan was for each of us to park far enough way that we could “walk” by Taylor’s house. Ray would slip around back and let himself in the back porch, getting access to the house through the kitchen window. Bear and Ben and I would leisurely walk by notifying Ray if someone pulled up or we thought he was in danger. Probably not the slickest of plans, but it was the best we could come up with.