by Jamie Hill
“Crys? Towels?” Jack interrupted her thoughts. “I’m really sorry. I’ll do better with the second one.”
She reached under the sink quickly and tossed a couple big towels out on the floor. “It’s not a problem. No big deal.” She spread them out and they absorbed the water in no time. “Okay,” she wrapped the towel around Devon one last time. “Let’s get you dressed and your brother in here.” She pointed to the cabinet and told Jack “There’s another towel for Mark in there. He can wash his own hair, but doesn’t always rinse it very well.”
“Got ya.” He smiled at her, and was pulling Mark’s t-shirt off as Crystal was pulling Devon’s p.j.’s on. Mark was shyer about dressing in front of Crystal, so she let Jack handle things. When she returned to the bathroom, it was neatly straightened, with wet towels lined up across the shower rod to dry.
“Sorry about the number of towels.” Jack leaned in over her shoulder. “I’ll catch the Laundromat bill next time.”
“I’ll make you come with me.” She looked back at him and smiled. “That’s the worst part, the sitting around and waiting. I hate that.”
He shrugged. “There’s always poker. Maybe you can teach me some tricks.”
“Never know.” She shrugged back and scooted around him to get to the boys. “You shouldn’t be hungry for a snack tonight. I think we ate all day long.”
They both nodded in agreement. “Let’s head next door, then.” They followed her into their own apartment, where she helped them brush their teeth and hugged them as they got into bed. “Have happy dreams,” she advised.
They smiled at her.
Jack watched from the doorway, and appeared surprised when Devon scampered out of bed and ran to him for a hug. “Good night, Jack.” He hugged the man’s waist tightly.
When he was free, Jack leaned over and gave Devon a hug back. “Good night, tiger. Sleep well.” Devon ran back to his bed.
Jack smiled at Mark. “Good night, buddy.”
“Good night. Will you be here in the morning?”
Jack raised his eyebrows at Crystal, and then told the boys, “No, but I’ll see you after school sometime. It’s a promise.”
“Good. ‘Night,” Mark repeated, and rolled over.
Crystal pulled their door mostly shut as she always did, and turned on the night light. She stretched and rubbed her eyes. “Would you mind staying with them for a minute while I run next door and take my contacts out? My eyes are burning for some reason.”
“Oh, sure, go ahead,” Jack said, looking surprised again.
She grinned and went back to her place to pop her lenses out. The fact that he didn’t realize she even wore contacts reminded Crystal how little they knew about each other. It didn’t seem to matter on some level. She liked what she did know, and definitely liked what she saw. He seemed to feel the same way. She put on her black plastic horn-rimmed glasses, and returned to Dave’s place.
Jack had taken a seat on the sofa, where he sat with paperwork on his lap. “Nice glasses.” His voice almost stammered. He was apparently as nervous as she was.
She chuckled and peeked in on the boys before taking the chair next to the sofa. She tossed a key to Jack. “Dave’s extra apartment key. So, you found something out?”
He pocketed the key. “Well, not specifically, no. I don’t know where the hell he is. But I found out some stuff about him and Laura.”
“That’s a start.” She listened as he read off some papers.
“David Martin Erickson, age thirty-two, born in Winfield Kansas to Mary and Martin Erickson…” He hesitated and looked at Crystal “Both now deceased.”
She made a face and he went on. “Is this our boy?” He handed her a mug shot of Dave facing forward and sideways.
“That’s him. This is old. His hair is longer and curlier now. And he’s wearing a tiny little beard—just a spot, really—below his bottom lip.”
Jack nodded. “He’s got quite a rap sheet. Drugs, petty theft, even an arrest for domestic abuse. Charges were filed by Laura Devon Erickson, deceased at age twenty-eight from an intentional or accidental drug overdose.”
Crystal repeated “Intentional or accidental drug overdose? What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that they couldn’t tell if she intended to off herself or not, but don’t suspect she had any help.”
Crystal looked in the direction of the boys’ room, and muttered, “Why would she intend to kill herself? Seems to me she had an awful lot to live for.”
Jack nodded, tapping his papers on the arm of the sofa. “It might have had something to do with her husband. If she filed an abuse report on him once, he probably knocked her around for a long time beforehand.”
Crystal looked him in the eye. “Some son-of-a-bitch knocks me around once, I'd file a report that same night. There is no ‘long time beforehand’ bullshit.”
“Unfortunately, not every woman is so strong. And unfortunately Laura Devon didn’t have family to fall back on. Her father was M.I.A. from the time she was a little kid, and her mother died when she was a teenager.”
Crystal inhaled and looked toward the boys’ room again. “No grandparents.”
“Nope,” Jack repeated.
“Aunts, uncles…any family at all?” She wasn’t sure if she wanted the answer to be yes or no.
“I’m sorry, Crys. Nobody I could dig up.”
“Jesus.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a cigarette. She lit it absently and blew smoke toward the ceiling. She finally looked at him. “He’s probably coming back, right Jack?”
He looked at her evenly and shrugged. “I can’t say, sugar. But I also can’t discount the fact that the last day you saw him, Manny Hooper turned up dead on your doorstep.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Do you still think there’s a connection?”
“Hell yeah, I think there’s a connection. You told me Manny kept an eye on the building, knew all about people’s comings and goings. I think someone wanted to shut him up.”
“Oh God! Oh God, oh God…” Crystal hugged her knees to her chest and puffed furiously on her smoke.
Jack leaned forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, honey.”
She looked at him, fear piercing her gut. “What am I going to do if he never comes home? What the hell am I going to do?”
He said softly, “I took the liberty of calling an associate of mine. She works with Social Services. I picked her brain—confidentially of course—about how a situation like this would be handled.”
“What did she say?” Crystal snuffed out the cigarette in an ash tray and wiped her hands across her face.
“Well, the first thing that would happen is that the boys would be taken into protective custody. They'd be placed with a licensed foster family, if one was available, or in a group home, if not.”
“A foster family? A group home?” Crystal practically shrieked. “They have a home. Here, with me!”
He looked soberly at her, and she caught his meaning. She was barely making ends meet. Oh hell, she was not making ends meet and they both knew it. “What do you want to happen, Crys? Do you want to see them placed with a nice family?”
“Or stuck in an orphanage…”
“They’re called ‘group homes’ these days.”
“And maybe split up? I’ve seen enough TV to know that no one is going to promise me that they’ll always be kept together. They might get split up.”
Jack nodded. “They might.” He reached out to her, but Crystal stood up to pace. She lit another cigarette and walked around the room, stopping to crack the window and inhale the cool night air.
“Nights are getting colder,” she finally commented.
“Yes, they are.” Jack nodded and stood. He stepped behind her. “Let me guess. The boys don’t have winter clothes.
She dropped her cigarette on Dave’s carpet and stomped it out angrily. She reached out for Jack and he pulled her securely into his arms. Crystal buried her face in hi
s chest and sobbed. “How could he do this to me? How could he do this to them?”
Jack smoothed her hair and answered quietly, “Maybe he didn’t have a choice, honey. I think tomorrow after I’ve turned this place inside out, I’m going to start checking morgues for John Does.”
Crystal pulled back and looked up at him. “Oh God. Do you think…”
“Shhh.” He pulled her to him and held her tightly. “I’m not sure what to think. But we’ll get to the bottom of this, one way or another.”
He rubbed her back gently until she pulled away again.
She looked up into his eyes and saw her fear and uncertainty echoed there. She also saw another emotion she couldn’t quite place. If only he could reassure her that everything was going to be okay. There was no way she could deal with this alone. Unsure exactly what to say, she reached up on her tiptoes, slipped her arms around his neck and crushed her mouth against his.
Chapter Four
Jack felt tears on Crystal’s cheeks as he ran his hands over her face and down to her shoulders. He pushed her back gently. “Crys, as much as I want this, we can’t. I have a job to do, and I can’t get personally—”
“Shhh.” She put a finger to his lips. “I know. I just need to pretend for one minute that there’s no one but you and me in the world. Kiss me and help me pretend for one minute.”
He hesitated. He knew the right thing to do, and kissing her was definitely not it. But the tears that continued to run down her cheeks pierced him like arrows through his heart and he was miserably torn.
“Please, Jack. Don’t make me beg.” She traced his lip with her finger.
“Don’t beg,” he answered gruffly, and caught her hand in his so he could kiss her fingers lightly. He let go of her hand and used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her face. Their height difference was palpable as Jack leaned down and lifted her toward him in one motion. Her mouth met his. His tongue nudged her lips gently, and she opened her mouth to him hungrily. Their tongues darted back and forth. Jack pressed the small of her back against his rigid body. “Oh God, please don’t beg,” he murmured, his mouth on hers.
Crystal ran her hands through his hair and tugged at him. He felt her neediness like an ache. She wanted as much as he could give her. Right then, in that moment. He kissed her again, his tongue delving into her mouth deeply as hers caressed him in return.
A little moan caught in the back of her throat and he swallowed it. But her whimpering brought him to complete arousal. Crystal pressed herself into him again and he groaned. She had to be fully aware of the effect she had on him.
With great reluctance, Jack pulled away from her. They both panted for breath. He knew what she wanted and gave her what he could. He wished it could have been more. “One minute,” he reminded her.
She pressed her lips against his again and murmured, “All right, I lied. Two minutes. Five minutes max.”
His lips curved upward in a smile and he sank back into the kiss. He let his hands slide down her back until they cupped her bottom securely. Crystal squirmed and pressed her body closer to his. He could feel her breasts crushed against his chest. As much as he wanted to, he knew he didn’t dare touch them. Once he started he'd never stop, and it was far too early in their relationship for that. He had already overstepped his boundaries. It was no secret to either of them that his rock-hard erection was pulsing against her belly. He could tell by the way she gyrated against him that she was enjoying it.
But they had to stop.
He pulled back slowly from her. They didn’t look at each other, and didn’t speak as he gathered up his paperwork and shoved it in his jacket pocket. He was putting the jacket on when they heard a car alarm sound from the street.
He swore and raced to the door.
“Yours?” she assumed. He nodded as he headed to the stairwell. “Call me!” she yelled after him, and Jack was gone.
He was sucking wind when he reached the front door to the building. He slammed it open and saw his truck, intact at first glance. He pushed the button on his keychain to stop the alarm. He walked around the truck and didn’t notice anything out of order. He leaned down with his hands on his knees until his breathing evened out.
Something caught his eye in the shadows and Jack spoke up. “Hey, Ralph.”
“I scared them off for you, Detective Dunlevy,” he murmured.
Jack pulled out his wallet and removed a five-dollar bill. He took a step closer to Ralph, cringing slightly at the smell, and extended the bill. “Thanks, Ralph. I appreciate it.”
Ralph snatched the money. “Yeah, sure, Detective Dunlevy. Anytime. Thanks, Detective Dunlevy.” He disappeared back into the gloom.
Jack unlocked the truck and got in. It started fine. He felt under the seat for his gun. It was stupid to leave it out here in this neighborhood, but he didn’t think he should wear it into the apartment with the children. He’d have to figure that one out. He drove, thinking he'd need to get Dave’s phone number to call Crystal at the apartment when his cell phone vibrated. He whipped it out and looked at the number: Unknown.
“Dunlevy,” he wheezed into the phone, his breathing almost but not quite back to normal.
“Your truck okay?” Crystal asked nervously.
“Yeah. It’s my heart that’s questionable. I thought I was in better shape than that.”
“Seem like you’re in pretty good shape to me,” she murmured seductively.
He chuckled. “Yeah, well…Sorry I had to rush off.”
“Maybe it was for the best. I’m sorry about tonight.”
“What part? Polishing off the fries that I wasn’t finished with?”
“No,” she laughed softly. “The part where I kissed you, even after you said you didn’t want me to.”
“I never said I didn’t want you to. I said I couldn’t. Shouldn’t. There’s a huge difference.”
“Explain it to me.”
He scrunched up his face. With his left hand on the steering wheel, he used his right—still holding the phone—to scratch his head. Putting the phone back to his ear, he heard, “Hello? Hello? Never mind…”
“Crys,” he began quietly, “I have a job to do. If I start thinking about you…say for instance, how beautiful you are and how much I’d love to yank that clip out and run my hands through your hair…Well now, see, that might be a distraction.”
She chuckled softly again. “I’m glad you haven’t thought about it, then. I wouldn’t want to distract you.”
“No, we wouldn’t want that,” he agreed.
“I haven’t been thinking about you, either,” she said demurely. “I haven’t been thinking about kissing your earlobes and working my way down to your toes.”
Jack’s erection immediately sprang back to life. He groaned into the phone. “My truck is trying to turn itself around. I’m having a hell of a time fighting it. But the one thing that’s saving me is this. I’m not doing anything at that guy’s apartment. I don’t care if you change the sheets from now ‘til the cows come home.”
Crystal snickered. “Lucky for us my place is right next door. We’ll figure it out, Jack. We’ve got some time yet.”
“A little added motivation for me to solve this case.”
“Little?” she teased.
He pictured the swell of her voluminous breasts and groaned again. “No, not little at all.”
Her laugh was seductive and driving him crazy. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Probably for the best, he thought. “Good night, Crys,” he said tenderly, and disconnected the call.
* * * *
The breakfast rush was over when Crystal spotted Jack entering the diner the next morning. “Well, hey.” She smiled. “You’re out and about early.”
“Yeah.” He looked uncomfortable. “Can you take a quick break? We need to talk.”
She cocked her head at him, wondering why he was being so serious. Something occurred to her and she blurted out “Oh God. Dave?”
“No, no, no.” He touched her arm. “But it is important. Can we sit?”
She looked around the almost empty diner and nodded. “Sure, I guess. Grab a booth. Want some coffee?”
“I would love some coffee.” He pulled out his notebook as he slipped into the booth.
Crystal asked Dinah to cover her for a break, and brought two cups of coffee with her to the table. “So what’s up, Detective?” She eyed his notebook as she slid into the booth across from him.
“What time did you leave Dave’s apartment this morning?”
“Excuse me?” She wasn’t expecting this line of questioning.
He looked at her and repeated slowly, “What time did you all leave the apartment this morning? It’s important, Crys.”
She blinked and thought back. “I guess it was about seven-fifteen. I dropped the boys at school and got here about seven-forty-five. Why, Jack?”
He continued to look at her. “I got over there about eight-thirty. The door was open, which I found very strange, but what I found inside was even worse. I told you I was going to turn the place inside out? Well, somebody beat me to it. The apartment is trashed. The sofa and mattresses were slashed, drawers and cabinets dumped out. The whole place is generally one hell of a mess.”
She looked at her coffee as she digested what he'd told her. She looked back up and there was anger in her eyes. “Why? Who would want to do such a thing?”
He shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine at this point. I called in a team to go over the place for evidence, but the damned apartment is going to be crawling with fingerprints. Yours, mine, the two boys'…damn.”
“Their clothes?” she wondered absently.
“All over the floor, but seemingly intact. After the techs are finished, I thought I’d go back in and do the search I had intended to do. I’m not sure our friends this morning were looking for the same things as I plan to look for. They left a message on the bathroom mirror: Where is it?”
“That’s what it said? Where is it?”
He nodded and sipped his coffee. “Who’s on first? Yep, that’s what it said.”
