Redemption

by Sam J. D. Hunt

  “Interesting.”

  “I have to go. I set up two home visits on other cases for this morning.”

  “But you’re coming later?”

  “Are you offering multiples?”

  “Aw, look you at you all trying to talk dirty. How cute!”

  She threw a napkin at me and put her mug in the sink. “I’ll wash that later.”

  “As if I’m going to leave a dirty dish in the sink, ever.”

  “You could actually get a dishwasher.”

  “Nah,” I said. “I do it better than some machine.”

  She leaned in to kiss me goodbye, then gave Grace a peck on her forehead. “Are you sure you want me to come to this? It’s a family barbecue.”

  “I haven’t done the family thing in a year. You’re more our family than these peeps.”

  “So you’re into the Saints?”

  I stared at the guy for a minute. He had the geriatric comb-over and wore a polo shirt with some random country club logo on it.

  He pointed to the top of my hand. “The New Orleans Saints, right? Great team a few years ago, but they’ve been pretty much sucking lately.”

  “Ah, yeah, yeah.” I had zero clue about any type of sports.

  “Personally, I’m geeked for the Raiders to come. We drove by the other day and the stadium is really coming along.”

  “Are they a good team?”

  He stared at me like I had five heads. “I dunno, whatever. I’m mostly just hoping they’ll drive up property values like hockey did.”

  I looked over at my sister, desperate to be rescued from this inane conversation with her father-in-law. She walked over toward us.

  “Hey Jerry, can you throw the burgers on the grill?”

  Nodding to me, he said, “Hey let’s talk about those Vegas Golden Knights later. Maybe I’ll get a tatt for hockey like you did for football.”

  “Yeah, for football,” I said as he walked away.

  “He’s a nice guy, Mack,” Lisa said. “Certainly a better father than we ever had.”

  “Did we have a father?”

  She nudged me. “The past haunts me, but I escaped. I think we can tolerate a family afternoon.”

  “I don’t fit in with these people.”

  “You haven’t given them a chance. I mean, football? You?”

  “I didn’t want to embarrass you.”

  “You don’t, and you should have just told him the truth. Jerry knows you did time. Not everyone is out to judge you harshly.”

  “Alright, I’ll try.”

  “Relax a little. Oh, and when is your new girlfriend coming?”

  “Did I use that word?”

  She smiled wide. “I can’t wrap my mind around seeing you in this state of domestic bliss.”

  “Speaking of…where’s my kid?”

  “Paul has her upstairs in the loft. There’s a baby gym up there.”

  “Wait, babies have gyms?”

  She laughed, and it was nice to see her actually happy. Well, happy-ish that day at least.

  “They work on their abs,” she teased, poking me in my own.

  “Hey, there she is.” I pointed toward the street where Tara was pulling up. She was running late from one of her visits.

  “I thought she was a social worker.”

  “Is. Yeah.”

  “That’s a big bankroll car.”

  “Ex with money, I think.”

  I really didn’t want Lisa prying further, so I did my best to change the subject.

  “Oh, and hey, if you’re busy on Monday don’t worry about coming out for that grandparent thing.”

  “The visit with Grace? Of course we will! They need to see a stable home with a good support system.”

  “Thanks. I just hope Joan stays out of town for a little longer.”

  “Speaking of her…”

  “What?” She was hiding something.

  “Yeah, Mom’s back. With a man, apparently. Oh, and, uh…”

  “Oh and what?”

  “And she’s here.”

  She pointed toward the street, where my mother was standing. In front of the Lexus, she and Tara were having what looked like a normal conversation. But there was not one damn thing normal about my mother.

  “We had a good talk, Shawn. Why are you being weird?”

  Tara was cutting some piece of animal carcass as I obsessed over the weird high-chair contraption the restaurant had my precious baby in.

  “I guess the family cook-out thing went okay yesterday. But Lisa could have told me Joan was coming.”

  She reached for her drink. “We are out to dinner, in public, at a restaurant. Yesterday, you actually went to a family gathering and no one left bloody or was arrested. Can you just accept that things change for the better sometimes?”

  “I guess.”

  I looked around the crowded Mexican place. It wasn’t Larsen’s side of town, but I had that weird sensation of being watched.

  “If she comes to the visitation or any of the other stuff involving Grace, can you possibly find it in your stone-cold heart to call her mom?”

  I shrugged. “I do, sometimes. That’s not a big deal. But we really need to keep her away from all that shit.”

  “She seemed fine yesterday. The guy she was with was really nice, too.”

  “Joan, I mean Mom, always finds nice guys. That’s what she does for a living.”

  “She said they were engaged.”

  “She’s been married seven times.”

  “Was she married to your father?”

  I shook my head. “Nah, but she did marry Andy’s dad. He was decent, but the rest were pure shit.”

  “Oh, speaking of decent dads, I saw this guy going into Becky’s trailer this morning in a suit!”

  “Ah, yeah, good ol’ Ronnie.” I pulled Grace closer, not trusting the restaurant’s sling type high chair not to collapse.

  “Just hold her already,” Tara said, smiling at me.

  “I can’t help it, I feel like nothing is safe enough for her.”

  I pulled Grace into my lap and bounced her the way she loved.

  “Anyway, Ronnie was being a shit and I told Becky I’d talk to him.”

  “Oh, so you ‘talked’ to him?”

  “Honestly, that’s all the dude needed. A bit of parental mentoring. I was ready to break a bone or two, but he actually had no clue what he was doing.”

  “So you told him to wear a suit?”

  “As if. But hey, I did buy a suit, just in case this thing goes to court or whatever.”

  “Family court is casual, but you will eventually have to go. But this Ron guy is actually into Becky? He was carrying flowers!”

  “He said he digs her, yeah. Even likes the kid - Mickey, Donald, Dumbo or whatever Disney name he has.”

  “Miracles never cease.”

  “Yeah, he said his dad taught him to be tough with women and kids and not to be pussy-whipped or some shit. Once I forcefully cleared him of those fucked-up notions, he saw the light.”

  Fifteen

  They’re Holding Her Wrong. She’s Squirmy

  Tara

  “I barely recognize you!” I whispered. We stood in the observation window, watching Grace interact with her doting grandparents.

  “Yeah, this feels more than a bit like bullshit, but if I have do to their dance for Grace, I’ll dance.”

  “A button up shirt and khakis, classy!” I teased.

  “Yeah, these they’ll have to deal with.” He held his tattooed hands out.

  “Don’t overthink it, Shawn. Just be you – well, the ‘I’m a great father’ you versus the ‘I’m about to cut you’ you.”

  “I’ll try. But they’re holding her wrong. Look she’s squirmy.”

  He whipped around me and into the room before I could stop him. “Wait, let the case worker in there…”

  But it was too late. He was already next to Eddie Warner, correcting the way he was holding his grandchild.

 
I made a face at my colleague through the window, but she simply smiled.

  And then I realized it was the exact perfect organic display of parenting. Eddie smiled and nodded at Shawn, appreciative.

  I looked to Grace’s grandmother, who leaned in and smiled. This is great! I thought, my heart warming, my mind hopeful. Perhaps they could see what I saw in him.

  “Well, now there’s a big hunk of sexy.”

  I turned to see her towering over me with legs longer than most of my body. “And you are?”

  “Theresa Warner,” she said with the flip of her long hair. Her lusty eyes never once left him. “I’m the aunt.”

  “Oh, well, I don’t have you on the preapproval list. You’ll need to….”

  And she walked right in. With one glance back at me, she flippantly said, “I’m already close with Mack.”

  “Close with Mack?” What the actual fuck?”

  He’d finally left the room and stood next to me in the window. That Warner wench had touched him like a hundred times as I stood there and seethed with jealousy.

  “Wow, you just said the F-word!”

  “Because I don’t like to be surprised like that.”

  “She was at the Pink Kitty the other night. Introduced herself, said she was in town.”

  “I bet she did.”

  “You’re jealous, aren’t you? Wow, you are actually physically green.”

  “Why would you not think to mention this?”

  “You were asleep when I got home. It didn’t come up.” He shrugged, as if the sister of baby mama being in town early and contacting him at his nighttime place of work was trivial.

  “Hey, relax. She seems cool enough, but that’s it.”

  “I get a bad vibe from this.” I looked into the window at her. While her parents gushed over Grace, she was in the corner on her phone.

  “Wasn’t it you who told me to make nice with family on both sides?”

  “Make nice, not make more babies.”

  His arm snaked around my waist. “I think it’s safe to say that unless you get birth control sloppy, there won’t be another mini-me anytime soon.”

  “It’s a deal,” I said, leaning in to him.

  “Ah, I see you’re spending a lot of time on this case, Ms. Larsen.”

  “Drake,” I said, spinning around to face my boss.

  He glanced from Shawn and then to me – he’d seen and heard everything. But, he probably already knew I was sleeping with the man he liked to call “the gangster.” Ethical, not exactly, but he didn’t care about ethics.

  Looking into the one-way glass, he said, “Finish this up, Tara. Soon.”

  “Oh, speaking of family on both sides, guess who I allowed to come into my home tomorrow?”

  I looked up from my wine glass. For the second time that week, we were actually out in public. This time, I talked him into venturing out of Sam’s Town and to my favorite Italian restaurant.

  “Oh good, you’re going to let the Warners see her again before they go?”

  He shook his head. “No, but I did offer that. They had to fly back right after the supervised visit. But I told Joan, I mean my mother, that she could stay with Grace tomorrow while I train Oliver.”

  “Oh, well,” I gulped at the wine. “That’s a bit of a bigger step than I was thinking. What time? Maybe I can swing by your place just to check on things.”

  “She’ll be fine. Ma did nothing but dote on Grace at Lisa’s the other day, and she’s in a good place it seems. I trust her.”

  “You don’t trust anybody.”

  “True. But you said we have to start living. This isn’t going to work if we’re always looking over our shoulders. Besides, training Oliver is important – a big opportunity for me. Everyone who I’d normally ask is busy at noon when he needs me there.”

  “Yeah, crap, I have that hearing and then a performance meeting. I’ll try to cut it short.”

  “She’ll be fine.”

  “Still, maybe the Saints and Sinners guys could watch things while you’re gone.”

  “That’s not sustainable. I’ll see if Jake can be around while I’m gone.”

  “Well, I do know that the ex-who-shall-not-be-named is far from here and I’m sure your mother can take on Misty Magic if need be.”

  Pouring another glass of water from the fancy bottle, he smiled up at me. “When I was ten, some creepy ass gym teacher tried to touch my sister.”

  “Horrible.”

  “Yeah, well, we didn’t exactly go to five star schools like you did.”

  “Is that what you think?”

  “I guess I assumed.”

  “My father was a cop, my mother a mess. I went to the cruddy ol’ two star on the north side.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “Interesting. I think I need to hear that whole story.”

  “Later. Right now I want to hear about what happened to Lisa.”

  “Lisa? Oh no, different sister. She’s gone now. Anyway, the school would do nothing about this guy.”

  “Typical.”

  Nodding, he said, “So my mother goes to the bar where he hangs out. As the predator plays pool, she comes up from behind and slices him with a broken beer bottle.”

  “Justice for sure.”

  “Yeah, well, for her it was. For me, he needed a little more punishing.”

  “Wait, you said this happened when you were ten.”

  “Let’s just say I was a tough ten. Anyway, he never had the desire to touch a little kid again.”

  That night, I was back at the Pink Kitty. I looked up to see her there in front of me. Again.

  “You have got to end this, Mack.”

  “I’m glad you have the best interest of my daughter at heart, Theresa. Truly, I am. But you have got to stop showing up here.”

  “It’s a strip club – open to everyone.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I told you – I want you. And Grace, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “My parents have a lot of money and they’re very persuasive. Who do you think the judge is going to side with?”

  “As of yet, I didn’t think their was any decision to be made. Grace is mine, and they want to make sure she’s okay.”

  “And?” Her red fingernails clawed at her neck as if she couldn’t stand being the only dressed woman in the bar.

  “And, she’s okay.”

  She shook her head and put her hand on mine. “Let’s work together. My father said if it was my child, things would be different.”

  “Did he mean like her head would spin around or something?”

  She was oblivious to my joke. “Think about it. If we get married, we can raise Grace together with no objections.”

  “I barely know you.”

  “I barely knew my last husband.”

  “And how’d that work out?”

  “Well, we were married two years.”

  “Listen, Theresa, that’s a big step. Let’s just play this one by ear”

  And then she touched me again, and I pulled my arm back. Disdain shot threw her, then she covered it.

  “Sorry, touch issues.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “I’ll see you at the visit next week?”

  “Of course. Or I could wait until you get off and go home with you?”

  I never took women to my place, so that would have been a no anyway. But I really couldn’t let her know I was with Tara. They’d take her off my case, and I needed her to write that report.

  “Maybe another time.”

  She licked her lips and handed me a bar napkin. “Here’s my number. Use it.”

  I didn’t.

  Sixteen

  One Cut For Everyone You Hurt

  Tara

  “Well, well, if it isn’t the lovely Tara Drake.” The low, growly voice was behind me.

  I spun around to see him leaning against the wall of the building where I worked. Dressed like he was in town for rodeo week
, he wore beat-up Wranglers, years-old Tony Lama cowboy boots, and a hat that his grandfather had given him decades ago. He was there, a few feet from me, and I loved him with every fiber of my being.

  “Daddy!” I howled like a little girl, running into his arms.

  “Baby girl,” he said into my ear, lifting me toward the sky like he’d done for as long as I could remember.

  “Put me down, I’m grown now,” I teased.

  “Yeah, yeah, so you say.”

  “What are you doing here, though? Vegas is too dangerous for you.”

  “It’s lethal.”

  “Then why are you risking it? If Hank finds out you’re in town…”

  “I reckon he knew the second my giant truck passed the Hoover Dam.”

  I put my hands on my hips and waited to hear what current drama was about to engulf what was left of my family. “So?”

  “So I hear you’re fucking Mack MacKenzie.”

  “Oh my god, you did not just say that to me!”

  “You’re not twelve, Tara girl. We need to talk about this like grown ups.”

  I gestured toward a nearby concrete picnic table and we sat across from each other. “He’s not a bad guy, Dad. He’s changed and he’s trying to raise a baby now.”

  “You know damn well I don’t have a problem with criminals. I married your mother, didn’t I?”

  When my parents married, he was an up and coming detective with Las Vegas Metro and she was the most wanted woman in Nevada. He went to arrest her, which he did, but later they ended up married. She never did behave, however. And despite eventually clawing his way up to Chief of Police, he didn’t either.

  Shortly after her death a few years ago, my father had been run out of town over an embezzlement and racketeering charge. As often happens in the west, he’d gone from Vegas to the more upstanding Scottsdale, Arizona where he seemed to be avoiding trouble. But knowing Dad, he still had his hands in everything. His moral line was gray at best.

  “I know this sounds ridiculous, but I really like him. It’s more than just,” I searched for a word I could say in front of my father. “It’s more than just sex.”