At the same second, the phone in Josh’s hand sprung to life. “Y-yeah, hello?” he said, voice shaking. “Th-there’s someone t-trying to kill us, in-in our house…”
Remy grabbed the phone. “Yeah, operator?” he said softly. “This is Remy Lavelle. There’s been a break-in up at 3870 Lakeshore Drive.”
“Could you speak up?”
“Someone’s broke in,” he said, a little louder this time. “They’re still here.”
“How many?”
“Two for sure, maybe three. One’s got a Southern accent.”
“I’m sending someone out there. Stay on the line.”
Remy’s heart raced. “Cops are on their way, assholes,” he called out. “I’d get the hell out of here if I were you.”
Silence reigned as all the bodies inside the house went motionless. “Let’s get,” the other voice said as it distanced itself from outside Evan and Rachel’s bedroom door. “We got what we came for.” The door stopped rattling, and the sound of footsteps drawing away from their sanctuary allowed Remy to heave a huge sigh of relief.
“That was scary,” Josh said finally, having found his normal voice once the front door had slammed shut.
“I’ll say,” Sam agreed. “What on earth were they looking for?”
“And what did they find?” Remy wondered.
* * *
The old blue minivan turned into a sea of red and blue flashing lights as they turned into the driveway. The moment the vehicle stopped Rachel was out of it and running for the front door. “Remy! Sam! Josh! Is everyone all right?!”
A chorus of “yeah” and “We’re okay’s” greeted her. She turned into the front living room and found her three tenants, Remy lying on the couch and Sam and Josh bent over in the plush armchairs she and Evan preferred. Each one looked a bit shaken, but otherwise unharmed.
“What happened?” Evan asked, coming up behind her.
“I-I heard something, outside,” Josh started. “Sounded like people.”
“At two in the morning?” Evan queried.
“Th-that’s what I thought. So I got everyone up…”
“…by making a racket,” Sam groused. “But he was right. There were three of them. I’m sure of that now.”
“Why would they break into an occupied house?” Rachel wondered. “Surely they had to figure someone was calling the cops.”
“They were looking for something,” Sam said. “Whatever it was, they found it.”
“Well, what do we know is missing?” The thought of calling her insurance company at this time of the morning was not a thought Rachel wanted to dwell on. The kids are safe, she thought. That’s the important thing here.
“We don’t know yet. They won’t let us go and look.” Remy was lying face up on the couch with his arm across his eyes. The irritation in his voice was hard to miss. “From the sounds of things, though, they made one hell of a mess upstairs.”
Rachel’s heart froze. “They were in your rooms?!”
“Yeah, but…but we were downstairs,” Josh explained. “Remy made us go in your room and hide.”
“Remy, tell me you were not stupid enough to try taking on thieves by yourself,” Evan said, his voice holding a dangerous note to it.
“No, I wasn’t,” the young man said. “Josh and Sam and I barricaded the door and we called the cops.”
“You…you yelled at them, though,” Josh pointed out.
“You what?” The sentiment came in stereo as Rachel and Evan said it at exactly the same time.
Remy sighed. “I was pissed that they were going through our stuff, walking in here like they owned the place. This is our home.” A puff of indignation shot from a Roman nose. “But man, I didn’t wanna tangle with them. Especially that Southern guy. Creepy.”
“How do you know he was Southern?” Evan asked.
“The voice. I never saw him. He was teasing us, you know? Saying we were cowards and shit.” Remy shivered. “Once we told him the cops were coming, he split.”
“Thank God for small favors,” Rachel said. She heaved a sigh. “I’d better go and deal with the cops, find out if we need to move out for a few days.”
“I’ll call Mr. Parker,” Evan said. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind putting us up for a day or two. You three,” he said, looking at his charges, “just stay there for a minute, all right?”
“Not moving,” Remy said.
“Same here,” Sam chimed.
“I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Josh declared. “But…should I call my mom?”
“In a minute, Josh, okay? Let’s wait and see what the police have to say.”
Rachel walked up to the second floor of her house to find it akin to a nuclear blast strike. Shards of glass, splintered wood, clothes tossed like laundry in a hurricane littered the floor. A quick glance inside Remy’s room showed her an upturned full-sized mattress, and a peek inside Sam’s room found his desk and bookshelf upside down and empty.
“I’m sorry, Miss,” a uniformed officer said, stopping Rachel from going further. “Crime scene.”
“No shit,” she said. “Sorry. It’s just…they were alone here, when it happened. We just got back…”
“From the sounds of things, Miss, it looks like someone wanted to scare them a bit. Did those young men have anything high-end here? Electronics, cash?”
Rachel shrugged. “Sam’s room is a virtual Radio Shack, with all his adaptive equipment. I saw the Perkins Brailler on the floor, but I didn’t see his computers or his mp3 player. Remy has a stereo setup, and Josh has a mid-sized flat screen. All of them have tablets, and Josh and Sam have their cell phones with them. I didn’t see Remy’s phone on him, though.”
“I’m pretty sure the smaller stuff is gone. The flat screen’s in pieces, and the stereo’s been dismantled. I doubt either of them is salvageable at this point. We haven’t come across any cash, either, so if they had some hidden in their rooms, that’s gone too.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Rachel leaned against the wall near the top of the stairs. “Remy said one of the thieves had a Southern accent.”
“It’s something we can put in the report, but frankly, without a description, there’s not a lot to go on.”
“I figured as much.” She sighed. “Merry Christmas, huh?”
“At least everyone’s okay,” the officer said.
“Thank God. The rest can be replaced.” Rachel sagged harder against the wall. “What can I tell Josh and Sam’s parents?”
“That there was a break-in, some things were stolen, and everyone’s okay. I’d call your insurance company in the morning as well.” He handed Rachel a card. “Report should be up in a couple days. Just call. Give us a couple days to clear everything and figure out what all is missing, and we’ll be out of your hair.”
“Thanks,” Rachel said as the officer left, taking his people with him. Then she headed downstairs. “We need to clear out for a couple days, guys,” she announced. “Let the police sort through things.”
Remy rose from his supine position on the couch. “Where’re we gonna go?” he asked, fear coloring his voice.
“You, me, and Rachel are staying with Mr. Parker,” Evan said. “Sam, Josh, you can call home and let your folks know what happened, and stay with them if you want. You’re also welcome to come with us.”
“I’ll come with you guys,” Sam said. “Dad’s probably out of town anyway.”
Josh, on the other hand, was rapidly telling his parents all about the exciting events of the previous few hours. “Man, it was scary,” he kept repeating. “But I’m okay…yep, Remy and Sam too…oh, okay.” He handed the phone to Rachel. “She wants to talk to you.”
Collecting herself, Rachel took the phone. “Hello, Penny.”
“Rachel, thank God. What happened?”
“It looks like someone decided to break in while Evan and I were in North Kingston this weekend. The good news is everyone’s completely fine. The bad news is some of their things got st
olen or destroyed.”
A sigh of relief poured from Mrs. Long’s lungs. “We can come to get Josh for a few days. It’s not right to put someone else out.”
“If you’d like. I want to apologize, though. I…we…”
“Rachel, we knew you were going on that trip. Josh told us a week ago. Frankly, I’m just glad he kept it together and didn’t lose it.”
“Oh, we’d have heard about it if he had, Penny,” Rachel said, unable to hold in a chuckle. “Remy and Sam would have been all over that. No, it seems he took direction rather well for once.”
“Mark’s on his way over. I’m just so glad it wasn’t worse.”
“Me too. We’ll see you in a bit.” She hung up the phone and handed it to Josh. “Your dad is coming to pick you up. Mom wants to see you for a couple days.”
“Man,” Josh whined. “I wanna come with you guys.”
“Hey, give your mom a break, huh? She just wants to know you’re okay.”
“I told her I was okay.”
Rachel clapped a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Yeah, but it’s something she still needs to see for herself. Go and put her at ease. You’ll still have your room when things settle down here.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Josh sighed. “Okay. I really like living here.” Then the young man went into the kitchen to wait.
“Sam? You sure you don’t want to call your dad?”
“Why? It’s not like he’s gonna stop by. Though I might call my brother and sister…”
“Do that.”
Evan stood next to Rachel as he watched Sam operate his phone. “That’s sad,” he said. “Sam’s at the point now where he realizes his old man’s got no use for him. It’s a shame his mom’s passed on.”
“Evan…”
“It just makes me think of my old man, is all.” Sadness washed over Evan’s thin face. “At least his brother and sister are a little more receptive.”
“True. Too far away to be any real help, but at least they acknowledge him. That’s good.” Rachel snuggled next to her boyfriend, letting him wrap his arms around her. “There is no way in hell I’m calling that bastard Cooper. He’d be here tossing Remy hogtied into the trunk of the car before we could blink an eye.”
“No. We’ll take care of him. I guess that means he’s ours now?”
“Who else does he have, besides his lawyer? Vendell’s a good man, but he’s got his own kids. Little ones, too.”
“Makes it easier, considering.” Rachel smiled a sad smile.
“It wasn’t your fault, Rachel.”
“Wasn’t anyone’s fault. God just had other plans for me, I guess.”
“I wouldn’t have anyone else.”
“Stuck with you, huh?”
Evan smiled. “I found the right piece,” he said. “The big picture will work itself out.”
Chapter 11
“Three hundred bucks,” Riley said. “What the hell does a kid have three hundred bucks shoved in a CD case for?”
“Man, I’m more surprised he had it in a CD case,” Charlie said as they sorted through their spoils. He picked up two iPods and an mp3 player. “Don’t have no need for CDs anymore.”
The take had been good overall. Several items had been easily fenced, and the cash take had worked out to more than a thousand dollars. Riley took one of the iPods and started scrolling through the playlist. “Jazz, classical, instrumentals…the hell kind of kid listens to this shit?”
“Got taste, man. Jazz is the shit.” Charlie snatched the device out of his cousin’s hand and plugged in a cheap pair of earbuds. “Ain’t got no taste in music. You never did.”
“Gimme somethin’ with a beat any day.” A pile of prescription bottles lay in one corner of the drafty room, untouched. “The hell did Dayton want those for?”
Charlie shrugged. “Needs a fix, maybe? Who knows?”
“Those aren’t for a fix,” Dayton called out from the tiny closet that served as a bathroom. “Though I sure as hell need one. No, gentlemen, those are how we’re going to fund the next stage of the operation.”
Riley eyed the thin man, his stomach turning. “If you fuckin’ tell me you’re plannin’ on sellin’ to kids, I’m out. I done a lot of shit, and I’ll do a lot of shit, but I got standards.”
Charlie stared, silently agreeing with his kin.
“No kids. That town over, North Kingston? It’s big enough to find someone discreet.” The Southerner picked up a bottle and threw it at Riley. “That there? Full bottle of amphetamine salts, and not generic ones at that. Going rate per pill is easily a hundred bucks.”
Riley looked at the bottle. “You mean I’m holding three grand here?”
“Yep.” He tossed Charlie one. “Alprazolam. Maybe fifty per. It’s half empty.”
“Shit.”
“There’s a fortune to be made in the secondhand pill trade. Long as you’re not terribly picky about your clients, and they’ve got the cash.” He laid out the rest of the hoard. “Looks like we’ve got a couple antidepressants—good sellers—and some heavy-duty ibuprofens. The oddball shit might snag a few bucks, but the Adderall and the Xanax, those are your big money.” Dayton smiled a half smile. “And wouldn’t you know, our friend Liam liked both of those.”
“So the guy had a pill problem. We know. How does that help us?” Riley was beginning to get irritated, and the wind snaking through his beaten hoodie wasn’t helping matters.
“I knew clients who would knock over their granny’s medicine cabinets to get their fixes. Usually about the time they came looking for someone like me. But Liam…he had the whole candy store at his fingertips, and he came looking for me anyway. Know why?”
“No, but I’m sure you’ll enlighten us.”
“Bastard was a junkie with a conscience. He could have skimmed a few pills from the pharmacy, but no, not Liam. He came to me so he wouldn’t get caught. And when I had a small supply problem, d’you think he’d help?”
Charlie snorted. “Goin’ with ‘no,’ here.”
“Wouldn’t lift a finger. And he was in debt to me too, about a grand.” The sound of a pill bottle tapping against the newer, thicker card table grated on the cousins’ ears. “And then there was what happened next.”
“So,” Riley said, eager to change the subject. “Phase two.”
Dayton snapped out of his train of thought. “Phase two involves me moving this stuff and getting us a better place. One with a basement. Preferably in the middle of nowhere.”
“Easy enough. Me an’ Charlie’ll go scouting. You want one close by or out a ways?”
“Nothing close by. I don’t want the brats getting help so easy, should it all go to shit.”
“You assume it’ll all go to shit,” Charlie said. “Not very optimistic of you.”
The wiry man glared. “I had optimism once. Look where it got me.”
“Well, you did get this op rollin’. Put the fear of God in those kids, too.”
Dayton mulled on that a minute. “The younger two, they’ll be a little easier. That older kid, though…he might cause a problem.”
“White Eyes is gonna have to ‘lose’ that stick of his, once we get ’em,” Riley added. “You didn’t see him with it that day in the yard. And from what he and his friend were saying, he practices with it regularly.”
“Do we know where?”
Cold shoulders shrugged, and Riley wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to keep warm. “I can follow ’im one night. Thursday nights, it usually is.” Dayton nodded, more to appease the paranoid Riley than to agree with his assessment of their quarry. “Do that. What about the ball of fun?”
Charlie drummed his hands on the table. “I still say he’ll be a handful, but he scares easy. Look at the other night. I watched the whole thing from outside the windows. Kid shut up, followed directions, and had eyes wider than the Grand Canyon. I’m tellin’ ya, complete one-eighty from when I watched him out and about. Hell, I wante
d to deck the kid then. Imagine after the shock wears off.”
“We’ll need something secluded, like woods and stuff. No farm fields—too easily seen. Country, not city. Basement is a priority. And some good doors with locks.”
“Right, basement, we could fix it up a little. Given our sudden windfall, we could do it right.” Riley’s eyes gleamed at the thought of carrying out the next steps.
“Hey, which kid had the crazy relative?” Charlie asked.
“Not sure. If I had to guess, either the ball of fun or the older kid.”
“Find out. I’d like to start leaving a trail toward that guy being the mastermind here, not us.”
Riley nodded. He picked up a different iPod and flipped it on, the sounds of alternative music springing forth from its speakers. “Now, that’s more like it,” he said as he reached for the car keys. “Something with a beat…”
Chapter 12
“There’s no need to rush, my boy,” Frank Parker said as he eyed the sets of baggage being brought into his living room. “You know you are all more than welcome here.”
“I know, Frank, but the sooner we get set up at home again, the better. I know Remy’s not sleeping, and if Sam knocks over one more thing it might be something we can’t replace.”
“Lad gets around well for not seeing anything. And anyway, I hated that old pot. Belonged to Lola’s sister Nancy, and while she was a lovely woman, she couldn’t pick art to save her arse.” The wry grin in the old man’s face made his eyes twinkle, and a chuckle escaped his lips.
“Yeah, it was pretty ugly. Still…”
Frank brushed it off. “At least stay for dinner,” he said. “Lord knows you won’t be cooking much once you get back, at any rate.”
“I’m dreading the cleanup,” Rachel said. “It looked like a war zone.”
“I still can’t figure out why,” the Englishman said. “Breaking and entering is one thing, petty theft…but from the way the lads talked, it sounds like they were looking for something.”
Evan shrugged as he fell into an overstuffed armchair near the dining room entrance. “God only knows what. Even I can’t figure that out. Honestly, there’s nothing special about any of the stuff in the house, aside from Sam’s adaptive equipment. And really, that’s only useful to another blind person.”
In the House On Lakeside Drive Page 6
