Eddie called the Larsons’ house, and Jennifer answered.
“You guys going to be here for supper?” she asked.
“Harvey might be late. I’ll pick Leeanne up at 5:30 and take her to the Press Herald. Harv wants her to upload her article so he can read it here.”
“Okay, I think she’s got a couple more questions.”
Leeanne came on the phone and asked Eddie for some background information. He filled her in, and she said she would email the story to Harvey.
Eddie went to the breakroom and got a candy bar for Harvey. When he reached his friend’s desk, Harvey was laughing.
“Just brought in my e-mail,” he said.
Eddie looked at his monitor. On the screen, a cartoon baby was waving his arms and saying, “Goo-goo! Thanks for eating lunch and catching the bad guys, Daddy!”
“Jennifer’s project this afternoon,” he said.
“Well, at least she wasn’t sitting home crying her eyes out and biting her nails.” Eddie held out the candy bar.
“What’s this?”
“If you’re going to be late for supper, you need something to keep you going in between.”
He ate it as he read quickly through Leeanne’s story, making a few minor changes and adding a line or two to the background section. Then he printed it out.
“Better go get her and take her to her appointment.” He handed Eddie the pages.
“Jennifer’s hoping you’ll be home for supper,” Eddie said.
Harvey looked at his watch. “Could you tell her I’ll be home at six?”
“This is official?”
“You got it. Tell her I expect candlelight and soft music.”
“Does that mean I should keep Leeanne out for the evening?”
“Oh, you two are coming back?” Harvey laughed. “Take her someplace fancy.” He pulled out his wallet and handed Eddie four twenties.
“You don’t need to—”
“I know,” Harvey said peevishly. “This is a personal favor you’re doing me. Don’t come home until at least ten o’clock, okay?”
“What if Peter brings Abby home?”
“I’ll bribe him, too, and tell him to take her back out.”
“Okay.” Eddie picked up his jacket.
“Tomorrow’s Jennifer’s birthday,” Harvey said.
“Is it? I knew it was coming right up.”
“Well, it’s here, and tomorrow is Sunday, so I won’t get a chance to romance her in private.”
Eddie smiled. As always, he had Harvey’s back.
*****
Leeanne was ready. She had borrowed a tailored trouser suit from Jennifer, very businesslike. Her hair brushed her shoulders in soft waves. No matter how she felt inside, she looked confident. He handed her the folder with her article, and she glanced through it.
“Oh, good, he fixed that,” she murmured.
“Harvey will be here by six, and we’ll be back at ten or so,” Eddie told Jennifer.
“Terrific.” She smiled.
“Oh, and he wants candles and soft music.”
“Spectacular.” Her smile was even bigger.
“He loved your e-mail, and he was purring when I left him,” Eddie said. “Load him up with carbohydrates when he walks in the door.”
In the truck he told Leeanne, “We’re supposed to go out to dinner after. Harvey’s orders.”
“Really? What’s the occasion?”
“Jennifer’s birthday tomorrow. He wants the evening alone with her.”
She laughed. “He’s quite a guy.”
“Yup. I thought we’d stop by the mall, too. I don’t have a present for Jennifer yet.”
At the newspaper building, Eddie sat in a chair in the third-floor hallway while Leeanne talked to John Russell for forty minutes in his glassed-in office. Eddie fought the urge to get up and pace. He figured the protracted interview was a good sign.
Finally she emerged smiling, without the folder.
“How’d it go?” Eddie asked.
“Tell you in a minute.” She pushed the button for the elevator.
She waited until the elevator door closed, then threw her arms around him. “I got it, Eddie! He says I can start the Monday after school lets out. The internship is eight weeks, but he says I can work full time all summer if I want it. And he’ll probably hire me after I graduate, if I do well this summer.”
“Wow!” Eddie kissed her, and she kissed him back. The elevator door opened and she jumped away from him. A middle-aged man waited while they stepped out into the lobby, then entered the elevator, shaking his head.
“Can’t do that around here if I’m going to be an employee,” Leeanne whispered. Eddie held her coat for her, grinning, and they went out to his truck.
“So, did he like your story?” he asked, backing out of the parking spot.
“He loved it. I told him Captain Larson had approved it for publication, and his jaw about hit the floor. He asked if I minded if he called Harvey, and I said, ‘Please do.’ It was so funny! Only I didn’t laugh, of course.”
“Of course.” Eddie smiled. His woman. He put the truck in gear and reached for her hand.
*****
Snowflakes were falling when he took her home at 10:15. Peter and Abby were standing in the breezeway.
“Cold out here,” Eddie said. “You two had better come in.”
“I didn’t know if we were allowed to yet,” said Abby. “We came home at seven-thirty, and Harvey made us leave again. We took the boys to their Grandma Hobart’s and went to a piano recital at the college. Can you believe it? He kicked us out.”
“I believe it,” Eddie said. Leeanne opened the door and the four went in, stomping their boots noisily.
Peter and Abby lingered in the entry, but Leeanne took Eddie’s hand and forged ahead, through the kitchen and the sunroom. The bedroom door was wide open, so she bypassed that and went into the living room. Harvey was holding Jennifer on the couch, and they looked very cozy. A blaze crackled in the fireplace, and empty glasses sat on the coffee table. Jennifer was wearing her robe, but Harvey had on jeans and a green T-shirt. No shoes on anybody. Jennifer’s hair was quite disheveled. Harvey looked positively replete.
“He gave me the internship, no problem.” Leeanne rushed over to kiss him on the cheek.
“He sounded quite impressed when he called me,” Harvey said.
Jennifer reached out to her. “I’m so glad.” She got a kiss, too.
Leeanne grinned. “He thought it was fiction at first, I think.”
“It will be on page one tomorrow, in the Sunday paper.” Harvey stretched a little and settled again with his arms around Jennifer.
“Yes, with a byline.” Leeanne bounced up and down on her toes. “He told me they’ll put ‘special to the Sunday Telegram, by Leeanne Wainthrop.’”
“Your first published credit?” asked Harvey.
“Except for school newspapers.”
“Going to be a real reporter,” he said. “You’ll be good at it. Your article was great.”
“Well, it feels pretty good right now. But I didn’t have to interview a lot of strangers.”
Eddie laughed. “Just the captain of the Priority Unit. If he doesn’t intimidate you, nobody should.”
“Did you have a nice evening?” Jennifer asked Eddie.
“Yes, very nice, thank you. How about you?”
“Fantastic.”
Harvey kissed her hair. “Did I hear Peter?” he asked.
“Yeah, he brought Abby home,” Leeanne said.
“I’d better go speak to him.” Harvey got up and went into the sunroom calling, “Hey, Peter, about that Blazer…”
Eddie said, “Well, I’d better go home. I’ll see you all in the morning.”
“Goodnight,” said Jennifer.
Leeanne went with him to the sunroom. Harvey was talking to Peter and Abby in the kitchen. Eddie pulled Leeanne toward the patio door, where the others couldn’t see them.
&nb
sp; “A demain, ma chérie.” He kissed her tenderly.
*****
Beth brought a huge cake for Jennifer’s birthday party, with teddy bears on top and “26” in fancy frosting. Harvey had invited about a million people from church—well, thirty or forty—and Jennifer’s family.
Mike and Sharon insisted they were fine despite the previous day’s ordeal and showed up bringing a big package wrapped in silver foil paper. Sharon pretended at first to be angry at Harvey for messing up her house again.
“I’m really, truly sorry, Sharon,” Harvey said.
Mike arched his eyebrows at him and grimaced. “Next time, you guys do your shooting outside, huh? I don’t blame the rookie, but you, Harvey—”
Sharon pulled Harvey into a hug. “Don’t you worry about it. I’m getting a new living room carpet and new paint in the kitchen. And we stayed at the Hilton last night, so you can’t beat that, can you?” She pulled away from him. “Again, we owe our lives to some courageous officers. This city has the best of the best.”
“How’s Higgins doing today?” Harvey looked to Mike. “Have you spoken to her?”
“Yeah, I gave her a call when we came out of the service. She’d been to her own church this morning. She sounded very thankful, but subdued.”
Abby’s gift for her sister was a maternity dress in Jennifer’s best color, royal blue. Leeanne and Eddie gave her the book they’d bought the night before—a fat new mystery by her favorite author—and a T-shirt for the baby they’d had imprinted with “Someone in the Priority Unit loves me.” Size six months, blue. Mike and Sharon’s package held a bread machine. Jennifer’s parents had brought her a new coat. Travis and Randy gave her a mobile for the baby’s room. Pastor and Mrs. Rowland brought a new game that was the hit of the afternoon. Others from the church gave her baby clothes and small personal items.
Jennifer sparkled while everyone waited on her. Abby and Leeanne served the meal and made her sit chatting with her guests while they cleaned up the kitchen. Jeff came in just as the cake and ice cream were served.
“I’m only here for half an hour,” he said. “If my beeper goes off, I’m outta here! Give me some cake.”
He kissed Jennifer and gave her a sterling silver chain he and Beth had chosen and then sat happily beside Beth, eating his cake.
No one had said anything about Harvey’s gift to his wife, but everyone knew he would present it sooner or later. He read the directions to the new game and declared that he and Jennifer would take on the whole crowd. It was a word game, and Eddie figured they would win, although Leeanne was pretty good with words, and Pastor Rowland was quite a scholar.
The teams were battling it out when the doorbell rang. Leeanne looked out the window.
“It’s Peter.”
“Oh, he must be here to see Abby,” said Jennifer.
Harvey stood and reached for her hand. “No, actually, he’s here to see you, gorgeous.”
“Me?”
“He’s delivering your birthday present.”
He helped her up, and they went to the kitchen. The others trailed along to watch. Abby was already opening the door to Peter.
“Happy birthday, Jennifer,” Peter said. “It makes me very happy to give you this.” He held out a key fob.
Jennifer stared at him. “A car?” She turned to Harvey. “I didn’t think you were serious about that.”
“Of course I was,” said Harvey. “Come on, we’ll take it for a test drive.”
“Did you kick the tires and check the lights for me?”
“You bet I did.”
Abby brought Jennifer’s new coat, and Harvey got his jacket. He took her outside to the new minivan.
“It’s got the built-in baby seat and voice-activated GPS.” Harvey sounded almost like a kid.
Jennifer looked long and hard at the brand new, red van then threw her arms around his neck.
“You know you shouldn’t have.” She was crying a little.
“Shh. Yes, I should. Come on.” He opened the driver’s door for her.
“No, you drive. I can’t right now, not with all these people watching.”
He took her around to the passenger side and put her in, then went to the driver’s door. “We’ll be back,” he yelled, and they rode away down Van Cleeve Lane.
The party kept on, with Beth refilling punch cups and Abby feeding Peter cake and ice cream. In twenty minutes they were back, and Jennifer looked nearly overwhelmed.
Abby declared she had to leave for work early, as she was dropping Peter off first, and Jeff had to leave, too. The church crowd and Jennifer’s parents and brothers all left, and finally it was just Jennifer, Harvey, Leeanne, and Eddie.
Eddie sat on the couch with Leeanne, and Harvey plunked down in a big armchair. Jennifer seemed content to sit on his lap.
“I really should head north,” Leeanne said.
“Can’t you stay tonight?” Jennifer pleaded.
Leeanne shook her head. “My first class is at 7:45 a.m. It’s Ethics and Libel, and I need to keep my grades up if I want to keep on impressing John Russell.”
“You going to the dorm tonight?” Harvey asked.
“I think so. If I go home, I’ll have to get up really early.”
“When will I see you again?” Eddie asked. “Can you come down again next week?”
“Maybe. But Mom and Dad will want me to go home sometime. Can you come up?”
Jennifer shifted her weight, making a face.
“You okay?” asked Harvey.
“Your son is kicking the stuffing out of me,” she said.
Harvey rubbed her stomach. “Settle down, Connor.”
“So it’s Connor?” Eddie asked.
“Or Caleb,” said Harvey. “What do you think?”
Eddie said, “Connor,” but at the same time Leeanne said, “Caleb.”
Harvey and Jennifer laughed.
“Need a nap before church, gorgeous?” Harvey asked.
“Only if you’ll nap with me,” Jennifer said, and he smiled.
Leeanne stood. “I’ll say good-bye, so you two can retire.” She kissed Jennifer and Harvey. “Eddie can carry my suitcase out. Thanks for everything this weekend.”
“What color do you want your room to be for next summer?” asked Harvey.
“The same room I used this weekend?” she asked.
“Yup.”
“It’s great the way it is.”
“Okay,” Harvey said. “I guess you’ll want a computer in there, and maybe a file cabinet.”
“No, it’s great. Don’t spend money! I don’t think I’ll need that stuff at home.”
“We’ll see,” said Harvey. Eddie could tell he was already planning what fun he and Jennifer would have setting up Leeanne’s home office. It wasn’t that Harvey had such a huge salary, but he’d been single a long time and had invested his savings well. Now he enjoyed using it to make people he loved happy.
Leeanne went upstairs for her luggage, and Eddie carried it to the car while she got her coat, hat, and boots out of the closet. When he went back in, and she was putting on her gloves. He kissed her and held her close. “Drive safely. I need to see you next weekend.”
“Come up if you can.” They left it at that.
Chapter 31
Eddie wore a suit to work Monday and Tuesday. He was in and out of court, and he spent a lot of time at the district attorney’s office, going over the evidence with one of the assistant DA’s. By all indications, they would make charges stick on at least five of Hawkins’s drug dealers and runners.
He called Leeanne Monday night and emailed or texted her every chance he got. Short, happy messages came back to him, boosting him in the middle of his workdays.
On Tuesday afternoon, his phone vibrated as he left the courthouse from Jordan Quinlan’s hearing. He had paused at the bottom of the courthouse steps and put it to his ear.
“Detective Thibodeau.”
“Eddie?”
“Yes?”<
br />
“It’s Lisa.”
He hadn’t recognized his sister’s voice at first.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s Pop.”
Eddie’s pulse skipped and then raced. “What?”
“His heart, they think. He collapsed at work.”
“Where is he? Which hospital?”
“No, Eddie. He’s dead.”
He stood very still, staring at the street without seeing the passing traffic.
“Eddie?”
“Yeah, I’m here. What should I do?”
“Can you come home? I’m here with Maman.”
“Yeah, I’ll be right there.”
He called Harvey, and his friend answered immediately.
“What’s up?”
“It’s my father. Lisa just called me. He had a heart attack. Just keeled over. Harv, he didn’t make it.”
“Oh, Eddie, I’m so sorry. Go on. Don’t even think about coming back to work today.”
“Thanks.”
“Take tomorrow if you need it, too,” Harvey said. “Just call me later.”
Eddie drove across town. It was trash day in the neighborhood, and all the plastic garbage cans stood in a row along the edge of the street. He pulled into the driveway and wondered where Pop’s truck was. Probably still at the construction site at the bank.
Lisa met him at the door, red-eyed. Eddie folded her into his arms, and she dissolved in sobs. Eddie patted her back feeling helpless, with tears streaming down his cheeks.
After a couple of minutes, Lisa pulled away, rubbing away tears with her sleeve.
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.” Eddie took out his evidence handkerchief and held it out to her. She took it and wiped her face.
“Where is he?” he asked.
“They took him to the funeral home. Eddie, Maman was here alone. They called and dropped it on her like an anvil and asked her where she wanted him to go.”
Fresh tears spilled over Eddie’s eyelids. He sniffed. “So, Pelletier’s?”
“Where else?”
Of course Maman would use the only French undertaker in the city.
“Did she see him?” he asked.
“No. She called me, and I came right over.”
“Where is she?”
Heartbreaker Hero: Eddie's Story (Maine Justice Book 4) Page 32
