~~~
Dylan’s first interview with the Forest Service was by phone on Monday, and it had gone well. He was confident he’d be selected for a second interview, and reasonably hopeful he’d be chosen for the position. With things looking good, he began thinking about a move. Never before had he owned more than his clothing and a few personal items. Now he had a furnished house, though it was a rental. He wouldn’t have to sell the house, but he would have to consider a moving service, or at least renting a truck. Also, there was Mom’s trailer to sell. He hadn’t been over there since shortly after Mom died, when he and Ange went to clean out the refrigerator and close the trailer up until he could figure things out.
On Tuesday afternoon, he went by before he had to pick the boys up. To his shock, he found a foreclosure notice on the door, and a No Trespassing sign, with a phone number. As far as he knew, his mom had owned the trailer outright for years. What could this be about? Since it was only four-fifteen, he took a chance of finding someone at the posted number and dialed.
“Recovery Services,” said the voice on the other end.
“Excuse me,” Dylan said. “Can you tell me who or what Recovery Services is?”
“State of Arizona, Medicaid Fraud,” the voice said. “With whom am I speaking?”
After a half-hour phone call, during which he was transferred so many times he lost count, Dylan learned that the state had decided the only way to recover any of the money they’d paid on his mom’s fraudulent Medicaid claim was to seize the trailer and sell it at auction.
“What about her personal things?” he asked. “Her clothes, knickknacks, and such? And shouldn’t someone have notified me?”
“We understood the trailer had been cleaned out,” the official he was speaking to answered. “And we have tried to notify you, but the phone number is disconnected.”
“No it isn’t,” Dylan argued. “I’m talking to you on it now.”
“Your mother’s phone number,” came the maddening reply. He’d disconnected his mother’s phone service when she stopped talking. He and Ange had their cell phones, so there was no need to pay for a landline. After more argument, he finally got the official to concede that his mother’s personal effects were his to take, and made an appointment for the following afternoon for an agent to meet him at the trailer to allow him to go in and get them.
He had no use for the furnishings, and intended to leave them for the state to deal with. At least they weren’t going to come after him for the difference, he learned. He regretted that his mother had made the choices she had, but he now understood them better. Hopefully, the state would recover enough money by selling the trailer that he wouldn’t have to feel ashamed anymore.
It made a funny story to tell Alex, though, as he mimicked the stiffness in the voices of the state officials he’d dealt with. It was one less detail to have to bother with when he moved. Sure, a little extra cash would have come in handy, but he could deal. As soon as he’d cleaned out the trailer, given away the clothes and most of the household goods, he’d have his mother’s affairs wrapped up completely.
He knew for a fact that there was no money in her checking account, since her welfare checks also stopped as soon as he reported her card as fraudulent to the Medicaid department. He’d had to deposit some to cover utility bills that had come out automatically until he got them switched to his name. He needed to ask Rick about probate, but his sense was it wouldn’t be necessary.
As he rambled on to Alex, he became aware he’d lost her attention. Couldn’t blame her, really. It was kind of boring, all except the comedy of errors over the trailer. He stopped talking to ask her what she’d been up to since they’d last talked.
“I interviewed Dawn again,” she said. “I’ve got that story pretty much wrapped up, but we’re going to stay in touch, so I may do some human-interest stuff when she gets her prosthesis.”
“You didn’t mention Patriots, did you?” he asked, crossing his fingers.
“No, not enough evidence. Wish I knew their agenda.”
“Babe, stay away from them. They’re bad news. Please, for my peace of mind.”
“I’ll be careful. Hey, I forgot to tell you something.”
Dylan wondered if she was deliberately changing the subject because being careful wasn’t the same as staying away from the Patriots. What she said next made him forget to challenge her on it.
“I saw those bikers you’re interested in, when I was heading for Dodge the other day,” she went on. “Looked like the group got cut off by a tractor-trailer rig. They were in two bunches, a handful of bikes, then the eighteen-wheeler, then another handful of bikes.”
She started to say something else, but Dylan rode over her voice with his question. “Where was this, babe? On 85 or between Casa Grande and Gila Bend?”
“Actually, I was on 238. I’d been to see Dawn at her folks’ house on the rez, and it was sixes, so I cut through to Gila Bend on the back roads.”
“Alex, I think you just solved the case!” he crowed.
“What case?”
“I’ll have to call you back. I need to get hold of Kevin Thurston.” Dylan hung up with Alex still asking what he was talking about. He’d have to make it up to her later. Alex was naive—that truck hadn’t cut the gang in half—they were guarding it.
If it was headed for Highway 10 on the back roads, he had a pretty good idea of what was in it. Either meth, or guns, or both. They were heading for Phoenix in a way that avoided the weigh stations. If he was right about this, he’d be able to write his own ticket to any law enforcement job he wanted, as long as Thurston gave him credit where it was due.
“Kevin? Have I got a tip for you… ”
FOURTEEN
Before she knew it, Alex was finished with her classes and her finals were done. She was packed and ready to move back home the next day, the Friday before the fourth of July. Perfect timing, since she loved the holiday in Dodge. It was one of the few things she did like about Dodge.
Her dad was happy to have her for the rest of the summer so his other employees could take vacations while she was there to cover for them. She hadn’t decided yet, whether she’d stay at her dad’s house or at Dylan’s. Dylan hadn’t asked, so she wasn’t sure it was what he wanted, but, if they were going to move in together in September, she didn’t see why it would be a big deal.
Early in the morning, she bade her housemates farewell, and made the hour and a half drive to Dodge. Dylan was at work, the boys at a summer day camp program run by the school and her dad would be at work, too. Rather than figure out where to take her things, she drove to the newspaper plant and parked there.
“Dad, I’m here,” she called, as she entered the familiar building. One of the permanent employees was sitting at the reception desk, which had been her place until she left a few months before. And would be again, now. “Hi, Ruth. Is my dad here?”
Ruth smiled at her. “He had to step out for a few, but he said to give you your desk as soon as you wanted it, and he’ll see you for lunch.”
Alex laughed. “He expects me to go right to work, huh?” she said.
“Oh, yes. You’re on duty for the parade tomorrow, and he said you’ll take over the ad calls again,” said Ruth. She looked to be struggling to keep a straight face.
“Great!” said Alex. “My favorite thing.”
“Well, you’re welcome to it. We all hate it.” Ruth waved toward the back of the building, where the other permanent employee and maybe a temp or part-timer were working.
“So do I.”
Ruth gathered her things and got up. “If you, ah, want to just sit here and take calls, I’ve got other stuff I could be doing. Okay, Alex?”
Alex nodded. “That’s fine. Thanks, Ruth.”
Alone in the front office, Alex had a few minutes to kill before the first call came in. As soon as she answered, the person on the other end, one of her regular gossips, recognized her voice. “Alex! I’m glad you’re back
dear. Here to stay, now? Are you finished with school?”
“No, Mrs. Green, I’m just back for the rest of the summer. How are you? Have you got a story for me?” After that, the news of her return spread fast enough that answering the phone kept her busy until her dad returned, just before lunchtime.
“Hi, kiddo,” he said, breezing in and kissing her on the cheek. “Ready for some lunch? My treat.”
“Can’t beat that offer,” she said, smiling. “Let me just get someone up here to take the phones and I’m right behind you.”
They both rode in his car, since hers was loaded. The trip to La Paloma was laughable. They could have walked just as quickly, and maybe it would have been just as cool, if he hadn’t been driving only a few minutes before. The air conditioning barely had time to get cool before they were there. With the noonday sun beating down, Alex was glad at least for the shade the car provided. They hurried into the restaurant and the super-cooled air there.
“Why is it so much hotter here than in Casa Grande?” she asked.
“Fewer trees and it may be a few feet lower. But their temperatures usually match ours,” her dad answered.
“Oh, Dad, that was a rhetorical question. It isn’t really. It just feels that way.” Looking at the menu, Alex didn’t see anything she was hungry for. Maybe just a salad and some iced tea.
When they’d ordered, Dad gave her a serious look, and said, “So, kiddo, we need to talk.”
Alex sat a little straighter. Talk?
“I know you’re an adult, and I haven’t objected to your relationship with Dylan. He’s turned out to be a fine young man. I’m not thrilled about what you’re doing, but I recognize I can’t stop you.”
Alex began to fidget. The last thing she wanted to talk about in this building, which seemed to throw echoes even of a quiet whisper into the far corners of the room, was her private life. Her dad noticed.
“This won’t take long. I just want to know whether you’re staying with me, or with Dylan. He tells me you’ve agreed to move in with him if he gets a transfer and can move up to Tempe where you’ll be going to school.”
Alex glanced at her intertwined fingers. The buzz of a huge fly distracted her and she brushed at it to keep it away from her. “I haven’t actually decided,” she confessed. “Why?”
“Decided whether to live with him in Tempe, or who to stay with while you’re here?” he countered.
“Um, here.”
“Well, here’s the thing. If you want to move in with him here, again, I can’t stop you. On the other hand, if you’re going to stay with me, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t overnight with him off and on. You know how this town is.”
She did. Moving in with Dylan would be less of a scandal than sleeping with him now and then. It was crazy, but she could see her dad’s point. That made the decision for her. No way was she going to live in the same town with Dylan for two months and not ever sleep with him. Especially when Dylan couldn’t very well come to her, with the boys. “I guess I’ll be staying with him, then, if he doesn’t mind,” she said.
Her dad dropped his head for a few seconds. When he looked up, his eyes were soft and wet. “You’ve gone and grown up on me, kiddo,” he said. “Somehow I envisioned some ceremony, or at least a clash of trumpets, when you moved out of my house.”
“Oh, Dad, you know I love you. And you had to know I wouldn’t live with you forever.” She wished there were a way to make it cleaner, more, like he said, something to mark the transition. When she’d left for Casa Grande, she never dreamed she wouldn’t be back to live there for a while longer.
He smiled weakly, “You betcha, kiddo. I knew that.”
It was only much, much later, as she lay in Dylan’s arms drifting off to sleep, that she understood her dad’s emotions. It must have been similar when her mom left, too. One day, he’d gone to work, expecting to come home to his wife and five-year-old daughter waiting dinner for him.
Only, it hadn’t been that way. He’d come home to an empty house, with a note on the door that Alex’s kindergarten teacher had taken her home, since her mother hadn’t come to pick her up. She knew that much from what Nana had told her, but she’d only thought of her own abandonment, not his.
What must he have felt, in endless days after that, when his wife didn’t return? She didn’t remember asking him every day when mommy was coming home, but she must have, until she gave up. How long had that taken? Alex wouldn’t ask, not with his feelings so raw about her. At least he knew where she was. There was that, anyway. It wasn’t as if they’d never see each other. They’d have some time together, get together for barbecues or whatever.
Alex went to sleep troubled, and dreamed of her mom for the first time in years. She’d almost forgotten what her mom looked like, but in the dream, it was like looking in the mirror. Except her mom was blonde. Their faces were so much alike, but Alex got her hair from her dad. In her dream, her mom said, “I’ll be back for you, little girl.” But she never came back.
FIFTEEN
Dylan had been delighted that she’d stay with him until they could move to Tempe. He brought home the news on Friday that he’d been selected, along with two others, for an in-person interview in Scottsdale on the seventeenth of July. They planned to make a three-day weekend of it, and do some house hunting in anticipation of him getting the position. Meanwhile, they had a holiday weekend to enjoy even though Alex had to work during the parade.
Dylan went out early in the day to put their lawn chairs in a good spot for the boys to see everything. Even so, he was almost too late. Chairs already lined the entire parade route. Not trusting theirs to stay where he put them, he sent Alex a text asking her to drop the boys off before she started taking pictures, and he settled in to chat with people nearby and wait for the parade to start at ten a.m.
Alex brought the boys a little after nine-thirty, remarking that she should have brought some rope to tie Davi into his chair. He would turn seven in just a few days, but he was as energetic and mischievous as ever. Dylan preferred his naughtiness to Juan’s serious demeanor, though. He worried about Juan, and the effect everything they’d been through was having on him. Thank goodness for excellent government employee insurance. He would keep both boys in counseling as long as they appeared to need it.
It had been just about a year since Dylan and Alex reconnected, after four years apart while Dylan got his law enforcement certificate and began his career in the Park Service and Alex grew into a beautiful young woman. He still couldn’t believe his luck, that after all that had come between them, she was still as much his as he was hers. And now they’d started their new life together, everything perfect except for the lack of his ring on her finger. That would come, though, he was sure.
She just needed to know he had accepted her career aspirations and wouldn’t try to hold her back. He’d have to be careful of that. It still bothered him that she didn’t seem to understand danger, and would put herself right in front of it for a story.
As the first parade entries appeared at the far end of the street, he pointed them out to the boys while watching the sides of the road for Alex. He knew she’d be trotting alongside the parade, gradually working her way toward the end of it, taking pictures of the band, the 4-H kids with their sheep, the floats and every other outlandish display someone could think of.
It would be just like her to dash across in front of a bevy of high-stepping horses to get the best angle for a photo, heedless of the flashing hooves inches from her head. He’d just have to learn to keep his heart inside his chest, where it belonged, instead of having it leap out every time Alex did something reckless. He couldn’t change her—he’d tried and almost lost her—but he could school his reactions.
He’d promised Paul he would bring Alex and the boys over in the afternoon for an old-fashioned Independence Day fried-chicken dinner, and they’d stay to watch the fireworks that night.
Alex told him when she showed up at his door last night wi
th her car full of clothes and her arms full of books that her dad had given her the choice, stay with him or with Dylan, but no running back and forth. Dylan hadn’t told her that he and Paul had already discussed it, and he knew she’d be given the ultimatum. Paul had wanted to know if she was welcome before he laid down the law.
The two men understood each other now, and he’d solemnly sworn to Paul that if he, Dylan, ever hurt Alex, Paul could beat him to a pulp and he’d never raise a finger in self-defense. Paul had said, “Count on it, boy.” Then he’d smiled.
It was a pleasant surprise to find Tia Wanda at Paul’s house. The rest of the crowd that had celebrated Alex’s birthday had other plans, but Dylan was glad to see Wanda any chance he got, and it had been a couple of weeks. He’d stayed at home since Alex’s party, and Wanda had been busy meeting with supporters and deciding whether to run for mayor again. Since her husband, Hector, had been killed in November, she was considering stepping down and not running again. Dylan and others wished she would stay another term, at least. Even Kevin Thurston had thrown his support her way.
Alex was in reporter mode the minute she saw Wanda. “How about a quote, Wanda? Are you running again?”
Wanda laughed. “Off the record? I haven’t decided.”
The banter continued through the afternoon and into the early evening, as they cut into a chilled watermelon and savored the delicious, sweet juices. The boys, of course, were engaged in a war to see who could spit the seeds the furthest.
As the fireworks started, Dylan noticed Alex and Wanda sitting with their heads together and talking in low voices about something he couldn’t hear. Girl stuff, he figured. Ironic as it was, Tia Wanda had stood in as a grandmother figure for him, while at the same time being a mother figure, or something like it, to Alex whenever her Nana wasn’t around. He watched them fondly, two of his very favorite women on the earth.
“Who wants to light some sparklers?” Paul asked. He disappeared into the house and came out minutes later with a box of fireworks that Dylan thought might rival those going off in the town square. For a while, he forgot to watch Wanda and Alex as he helped the boys with their sparklers.
Fatal Intent (Desert Heat Book 3) Page 9
