by Ivy Smoak
I felt him tickle the side of my stomach. “Tickling me is definitely not going to make me feel better.”
“Good. Because I’m not going to tickle you.” He continued to tickle me.
“Stop touching my stomach!” I laughed.
“I’m not touching you, Tucker.”
I laughed. “Stop!” He was full on tickling me now. But when I looked over he was just sitting in the passenger’s seat staring at me like I had lost my mind. I glanced down at my stomach and saw a small blob moving beneath the fabric of my shirt. And I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was so piercing that it hurt my own ears.
For some reason, my scream made Damien scream, until we were both screaming and staring at each other instead of at the road.
I slammed on the brakes. The car slid on the leaves on the road and almost did a 180. I jumped out of the car before it even came to a complete stop.
“Kill it!” Damien yelled as he ran up beside me.
I started hitting my chest and stomach as the blob ran around beneath my shirt. And then Damien started beating me with the handle of his pistol.
“Ow! Stop it!” I jumped out of his way, reached up beneath my shirt, and grabbed on to something slimy. Ugh. I pulled it out from under my shirt and threw it to the side of the road before I even got a chance to look at it.
Whatever it was landed in a pile of leaves and skittered into the underbrush. Leaves crunched in a path as it ran away from us.
“What the hell was that?” Damien asked. He was patting himself down, looking to see if there was anything on him.
“Some kind of reptile? How should I know?”
Damien smoothed his shirt back into place and then started laughing. “You should have seen your face.”
“You should have heard your scream.”
“Mine? You sounded like a wild banshee.”
“How do you think that thing got in my car?”
“I don’t know. But let’s get out of here. Nothing good ever happens in these woods.” He patted me on the back before walking to the car.
I looked at the spot where I had thrown the creature. What the hell was it? And how did it get on me? I shuddered. My cellphone started to buzz in my pocket, startling me again. I quickly denied the call when I didn’t recognize the number.
Violet’s house was warm and inviting once you were inside. But Damien was right. These woods were unsettling. It almost felt like I was unwelcome. Like someone was telling me to get out. To run away while I still had a chance. I shook my head and climbed back into my car.
Chapter 13
Violet
Of course Detective Reed wasn’t answering my calls. I had threatened him. I had practically begged him to never speak to me again. But two minutes later, avoiding him was no longer an option. He had Lizardopolous. I had to get my son’s pet back. It was his best friend. How did I let this happen?
I looked back down at my cell phone. Maybe I had called the wrong number. I tried to picture the business card he had given me before I burned it. No, I definitely had the number right. I knew I did. Shit. I felt myself gripping the phone tighter. I should have driven after him right when I realized what had happened.
“Mommy he needs breakfast! We have to find him!” Zeke pounded on the bathroom door.
“Okay. One sec, little dude.” I flushed the toilet even though I hadn’t peed. Pretending to need to use the bathroom was the lamest excuse ever to hide from my son. But I didn’t know how else to make the phone call without Zeke realizing what I had done. I already felt bad enough.
“You know what?” I said as I came out of my hiding spot. “Maybe he’s in the kitchen waiting for breakfast. Let’s go look there.” I was stalling. I knew what we needed to do. I just really really didn’t want to have to.
“He doesn’t eat in the kitchen. He eats in his aquarium. You know that. It’s your rule.”
“Then let’s recheck his aquarium. He’s gotta be around here somewhere.” Lies, lies, lies. I’m a horrible person. Just tell him the truth. Go fix it.
“What if he ran away?” Zeke looked up at me and his eyes were all watery like he was seconds away from crying.
I didn’t have any other options. I had to tell him the truth. This was a great learning lesson about how you shouldn’t put animals in pockets. A lesson that I needed to teach myself apparently. “You know what? Maybe he jumped onto Detective Reed when he stopped by. Maybe he has him.” God, Zeke's adorable little face made it impossible to tell him the truth. I didn’t want him to look disappointed in me. Blaming it all on Detective Reed was definitely a better plan.
“Then let’s go get him back!” He went to the door and grabbed his coat and mittens. He ran outside without his boots.
“You have to put on shoes, Zeke!”
He ran back in and shoved his feet into his favorite rain boots. “Come on, Mommy. Mr. Reed doesn’t know it’s feeding time. Lizardopolous needs food or he’ll starve.”
Surely he wouldn’t starve if we fed him a few minutes late. Right? But I didn’t really know. The agreement Zeke and I had when I allowed him to get a pet was that it was 100 percent his responsibility. Regardless, we did still have to go get the lizard back. “Okay.” But I didn’t move. I felt paralyzed. I didn’t want to go to the police station. For some reason, I was afraid that I’d walk in and never walk out. Going there was basically a confession. It was turning myself in. I can’t do this.
“Pleeeeease.”
I looked down at his adorable little face again and nodded. “I’m coming.” Of course I was going. I knew exactly where Lizardopolous was. He was safely in Detective Reed’s jacket. They were probably both perfectly safe at the precinct by now. I’d be in and out of there super fast. It would be fine. I grabbed my light jacket off the hook. Everything was fine.
But my heart was racing. I lived out in the middle of nowhere for a reason. I didn’t want anyone looking too closely at me. Walking into a place filled with cops was the absolute last thing on my list.
Zeke grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door.
I didn’t have a choice. This wasn’t about me. It was about Zeke. And I’d do anything for him. I pushed my thoughts aside as the cool autumn air hit my face. By the time I reached my old pickup truck, I felt calmer. I was a woman on a mission. All I needed to do was repeatedly tell myself I’d be in and out super fast. Again. And again. I pulled out onto the main road.
“Why didn’t you invite Mr. Reed in?” Zeke asked. “He probably had doughnuts, or Danishes, or something else yummy.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Sugar was the second most important thing to Zeke, after Lizardopolous. “You know how I feel about guests coming over.”
“But he came in last night. And it was fun.”
“Yeah.” I exhaled slowly. “It was fun. But it was a one-time thing because I wasn’t feeling well.” Saying it was a one-time thing out loud made me feel a sense of sorrow I didn’t understand. I barely knew Detective Reed. Not seeing him anymore should be easy. So why did the thought of it put a pit in the bottom of my stomach? It wasn’t a real date. It was all a lie. My heart couldn’t afford to fall for another liar.
“I think it should be an everyday thing. He liked you, Mommy. He didn’t look at you the way other people do. He was nice.”
I swallowed hard. It was impossible to protect my son. He was too observant for his own good.
“So can we invite him over again for dinner? I want to play hot lava. Maybe he’ll be better this time.”
I laughed. Detective Reed had tried his best last night, but half the time we were playing he had been dying slowly in hot lava. “Maybe some other time, but not tonight.” By that I meant absolutely never ever again. It just wasn’t possible.
“But…why?”
“Because I said so.”
Zeke folded his arms across his chest. “It’s not fair. Mr. Reed is my friend. Why can’t I ask him to come over? You don’t even have to play with us.”
I didn’t answer him as I made the final turn. He knew I liked our privacy. We had already talked about this dozens of times. It’s why he had been able to guilt me into getting him a lizard in the first place. I pulled into one of the empty spots in the parking lot and cut the engine.
“We’re going to go get Lizardopolous back, and then you’re going to spend the rest of the weekend making sure he’s okay. He’s probably had quite the ordeal. He hasn’t been out of our house in years.”
“Fine.” He said it in the utterly unsatisfying way that only a five year old could muster the attitude for.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and hopped out of the truck. The door squeaked on its hinges as I slammed it shut.
“I’ve never been inside a police station before,” Zeke said as he put his hand into mine. “Do you think it’s like the cop shows?”
“What cop shows?”
He looked away from me. “Nothing.”
“Zeke Clark, have you been watching TV without my permission?” I pulled him to a stop right outside the entrance.
“Everybody in school has Hulu. It’s not fair that I’m not allowed to watch when everyone else does.”
“So you got it without my permission?”
“No?”
“Zeke.”
He didn’t answer.
“If all the kids in your class decided to run into oncoming traffic would you join them?”
“No. But that’s stupid. Hulu isn’t stupid. It has all the shows in the whole world on it.”
His statement was truly and utterly false. There was no way that it had every show in the world on it. I think. Honestly I didn’t know enough about it to be sure. “We’ll talk about this when we get home.” I could only think of one thing at a time if I wasn’t going to lose my nerve. I opened up the door of the precinct and we both walked in.
Unlike the air outside, the air inside the police station was stifling. Every instinct in my body was telling me to run. But the little hand pulling me up to the front desk made me focus.
“Hi,” I said to a very disgruntled looking man. “I’m here to see Detective Reed.”
The man looked up at me. “Is he expecting you?”
“We’re friends,” Zeke said. “I’m Zeke and this is my mommy and we’re looking for our lizard.”
The man at the desk leaned forward so he could see my son. “A lizard, huh?”
Zeke nodded. “Mr. Reed was at our house earlier and my Mommy thinks my lizard accidentally went with him. He doesn’t know any better…he’s a lizard.”
“Well then,” the man said with a smile. He seemed much happier to be talking to my son than me. “I’ll let him know that you’re here, young man.” He lifted up the phone on his desk and held it to his ear. A few seconds later he said, “There’s a Zeke at the front desk here to talk to you.” He paused and lifted his gaze back to me. “Yes, his mother as well. They say they’re friends of yours.” He hung up the phone. “He’ll be right out. You two can take a seat over there.”
“Thank you very much,” Zeke said and walked over to the chairs against the wall.
“Cute kid,” the officer said. “He looks just like you.”
I smiled, even though it felt forced. Zeke had my eyes. And hair color. And almost everything else. But every now and then I saw his father in a facial expression. Those fleeting moments gutted me. “Thanks. Do you know about how long it will be till he comes to…” my voice trailed off when Detective Reed came pushing through a door behind the front desk.
His eyes landed on Zeke and then drifted to me. “Is everything okay?”
There was something about being away from my house that made me focus on him more than my surroundings. I could hear the concern in his voice. I could see it on his face. He actually cared about me and my son. And I felt a little like an ass. But only a little. Because he had been way out of line.
I cleared my throat, but before I could say anything, Zeke ran over to him.
“Lizardopolous is missing and Mommy thinks maybe you accidentally took him?”
“Lizardopolous?” He raised both eyebrows.
I was relieved to see that he was confused. That probably meant that my son’s lizard was still safely in his jacket pocket.
“My pet lizard. I know he’s really fun but I need him back. He’s hungry. But you can come over and play with him later.” Zeke stuck out his hand, waiting for Detective Reed to deposit the lizard in it.
He opened his mouth and then closed it again. Now I was worried that he didn’t look surprised enough to hear about the lizard. Although, he did seem to be at a loss for words.
“Can I speak to you privately?” I asked. “Please?” God, if anything happened to that lizard I didn’t know what I was going to do.
“Yeah…just…” he looked over his shoulder. “You can both come with me. How would you like to see where I work, Zeke?”
“Yes!”
“Great. Right this way.” He opened up the door he had just come through.
I made my way around the front desk. I barely looked at Detective Reed as I walked through the door he was holding open for me. What was I supposed to say? Sorry for acting like an ass, but you deserved it. Now give me my son’s lizard? But again, as I walked past him, I got the sense that he truly did care. I just wasn’t sure how that made me feel.
He gestured toward the desk that was across from Damien Torres.
It felt like everyone in the precinct was staring at me. Especially Damien. He was probably analyzing whether or not I was capable of setting a house on fire. Which was stupid. Anyone was capable of that. All it took was a few matches and a gallon of gasoline. It didn’t mean that I was guilty.
“This is awesome!” Zeke said and jumped into Detective Reed’s chair. He started clicking on the computer’s mouse. The little devil was clearly better with computers than I ever realized. And at stealing credit cards. And at lying. Just like his mother.
But I was just relieved that Zeke was distracted for a moment. I leaned forward, ignoring the smell of Detective Reed’s sweet cologne. “I need to talk to you away from Zeke,” I whispered into his ear.
For a moment he didn’t respond. Or move. We both just stayed close, our arms brushing together, my lips only a few inches away from his ear.
I didn’t have time for whatever weird game he was playing. I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the cluster of desks. “I put Zeke’s lizard in your coat pocket. I forgot that I was about to give you your jacket back and…anyway, I need Lizardopolous. So where is your coat?” I looked over his shoulder and saw it slung across the back of his work chair. I started walking back over to it, but he grabbed my arm to stop me.
“Uh…bad news on the lizard front. I…well he…” He let go of my arm and ran his hand down my face. “I didn’t know what it was. I threw it into the woods.”
“You what?” My voice came out high pitched and weird. Oh no, Lizardopolous! He’d never survive out there alone. The nights were getting frosty.
“I had no idea what it was. It got loose in my car and started crawling all over me.”
“So you threw it into the middle of the wilderness? Lizards aren’t bred for these conditions. He’s going to freeze to death. Zeke’s too young to learn about death. What were you thinking?”
“What was I thinking? I’m not the one that put him into a pocket of a coat that didn’t belong to me.” His eyes darted down my body in the most unnerving way. “Speaking of which…don’t you own a winter jacket?”
“This isn’t about me. My son’s lizard is moments away from death and you…where? Where did you throw him?”
“I was a few minutes out from your house.”
“Can you show me exactly where? We need to go get him right now.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. It all looks the same out there to me.”
“You can’t think of anything specific? Like a certain kind of tree? Or a bend in the road?”
“I’m sorry, V
iolet. There’s no way that we’re going to find him. As soon as I threw him, he scurried off pretty quickly.”
What kind of unobservant detective was he? My mind was going a mile a minute. How was I going to fix this now? I hadn’t given myself a chance to consider that Lizardopolous wouldn’t be here. Damn it. There was too much ground to cover with no leads. Lizardopolous was officially gone. “Then you have to replace him.”
“I don’t even know what it was.”
“It? That thing you’re calling it was my son’s best friend, Detective Reed.”
“Tucker. Please, just call me Tucker.”
The way he said it combined with the way he was smiling at me made me gulp. Even though we were surrounded by a bunch of cops, the moment suddenly felt intimate. It had been a long time since the stares hadn’t bothered me. But when I was looking into Detective Reed’s eyes he was the only person on my mind. Even if I was pissed at him. “We are not on a first name basis.”
“We’ve shared a meal, conversation…I’ve even carried you to bed. I’d say we are on a first name basis.”
“You’re failing to mention the fact that you violated my privacy.”
“And if you’d give me a real chance to explain…maybe over that dinner tonight?”
Again, this moment was too intimate. He was too close, his breath invading my air supply. When his eyes drifted to my lips my knees felt weak. What was he trying to do to me? I cleared my throat and took a step back. “I’m not here for me. The only reason I came was to get Zeke’s lizard back.”
“Then let’s go get him a new lizard right now. I’d do it myself, but I don’t know enough about lizards to tell if it will even look the same.”
I hated how he kept calling Lizardopolous it. Sure, I had done it a few times when I was annoyed with the little guy. But there was supposed to be frost tonight and Detective Reed had basically murdered him. “I can’t just leave Zeke here by himself.” God, this was a disaster.
“There’s nowhere safer than a police station. Damien will watch him while we’re gone.”
I glanced toward Damien, not that I was actually considering his suggestion. I could feel the eyes of all these judging cops trained on me. Probably trying to figure out why I was here. Wondering what on earth I was finally confessing to. “No.” I wasn’t going to leave my son here in the midst of all this negative energy. I’d never give them a chance to turn my own son against me too. “I’m not leaving him here.”
