Sean and Danny were just walking out the front door
when the phone rang. Sean walked back into the front
hall and picked up the phone.
“Sean?”
“Hello, chief,” said Sean. “Thanks for the cars.”
“Not a problem. Now why the hell haven’t you
gotten in touch?”
“Sorry. Tell you what…I’m taking a friend
out to get a few things. Why don’t we stop by the station. I bet the boy would get a kick
out of it.”
“Bring him on,” said the chief. “We have something to talk about
anyway.”
“I think I know…okay, we can talk,” said
Sean, shaking his head. “Tell
“I’ll see you later,” said the chief.
Sean hung the phone up. He looked at Danny.
“Well, what do you think? Want to see where I work?”
“Outstanding,” said Danny.
“Got everything?” asked Sean as they
loaded Danny’s new clothes in the trunk.
“Guess so,” said Danny. “Would have liked to have had
that cap, really. Mum would go ballistic if I had
spent that much money for the thing.”
“Well,” said Sean as he crammed a cap on
Danny’s head. “We just won’t tell her how much
it cost.”
“What…?” stammered Danny. He looked at Sean, his face
breaking into a huge smile. “This is bloody triffic. Cheers, Sean.”
“Now, let’s go to jail.”
Sean punched his code into the keypad. The secured door snapped open and
he and Danny walked into the investigations unit at the They turned a corner and collided
with Walt, who had been studying a report and wasn’t watching where he was
going.
“Umph!” he grunted. “Hey! Sorry Sean. In trouble already, Danny?”
“Got a bad one, Walt,” said Sean. “Think you can help me get a
confession out of him?”
“I don’t know,” said Walt. “Looks like a job for Crazy Sue. I bet he breaks after she chews on
him for a while.”
“A girl?” said Danny. “I’ll have a go.”
Walt laughed and said, “Oh?”
“Hmm,” muttered Sean. “Er…Danny, Crazy Sue is the unit
drug dog.”
Danny gave Sean and Walt a withering look;
then he smiled and said, “I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Come on,” said Sean. “Let’s meet the guys.”
“I don’t really know why we are having
this discussion,” said Sean. “I’ve been out of the loop for a
while…what has gotten into
“Beats the hell out of me,” said the
chief. “Maybe it’s because your squad
was known to have over a ninety percent success rate in the field.”
Walt was tinkering with the coffee pot as
he said, “Sean does have a point, Chief. And I thought that Mike was gonna
show up. If he’s so all fired anxious for
us to put our hides on the firing line, it’s the least he can do.”
“What’s this ‘us’ crap?” asked Sean.
Walt pointed a finger at himself and said,
“He wants this old bag of bones as well.”
The chief put a match to his pipe. He leaned back as he puffed on the
stem and said, “He’ll be here in time. You know how the service
works…one delay after another.”
“Danny still with the guys?” asked Sean.
“Huddled down in the kitchen,” said Walt. “Maggie’s down there, fussing
over him.”
“Uh ooh.”
“What?” asked Walt.
“Maggie still call herself a card player?”
“She’s one of the best,” said the chief.
Sean moaned as he stood up. He knew how sneaky and crafty
those guys were…and if they let on that they all loved a good, hot poker
game…Angela would kill him.
“So Danny, how do you like
Danny took a sip of the Diet Coke that
investigator Joey Billings had given him and said, “Nice, really. I’m chuffed to bits.”
“You sort of got here the hard way, don’t
you think?” asked Joey.
“Too right,” said Danny. “The voyage didn’t go well at
all.”
Maggie smiled and said, “A nice long rest
and you’ll be fit as a fiddle. Now, what are you gonna do while
you’re here?”
“Help my mum,” said Danny. “She took a bit of a pounding.”
“We heard,” said Joey. “But you need to enjoy yourself
just a little. What do you like to do?”
“Well…I enjoy sports.”
“Watching, playing, or both,” asked Joey.
“Both. Football, not American
style…that’s bloody curious,” said Danny causing Maggie and Joey to laugh. “I love running; gave Sean a good
workout. Swimming and, oh poker. Sean found that out the hard
way.”
Maggie and Joey were looking at each other
in an amused and cunning way as Sean came into the kitchen.
“Well, sorry to break it up but we have to
go.”
“Oh Sean…,” said Maggie with a gleam in
her eye. “We’re trying to get to know the
young man.”
Just then the kitchen phone rang. Joey picked it up; he gave the
phone to Sean and said, “It’s the chief.”
“Mike will be here this evening,” said the
chief. “Can we meet?”
“I’ll be here,” said Sean. “I don’t know why, but I will.”
“Good enough,” said the chief as he hung
up.
He looked up to find Danny, Maggie, and
Joey in a huddle, whispering to each other. Sean approached the table and
said, “Something smells rotten here.”
Maggie looked up and said, “Who…us?”
Sean leered at them and said, “Your mom
will be worried.”
“Don’t worry about supper,” said Maggie. “I’ll bring something over
tonight.”
“You’re a doll, Maggie,” said Sean as they
walked out the door.
Madeline was carrying a tray to Angela’s room
when Danny came bursting through the front door. Madeline gave him a stern stare.
“No need to run,” said Madeline. “You’re in the house, remember.”
“Sorry,” said Danny as he walked into his
mother’s room.
“There you are,” said Angela. “Thought you had got lost.”
Danny eased onto the bed as Madeline
placed the tray on a stand. He saw two large shopping bags in
the corner and asked, “How did you get those?”
“Mrs. Thayer was ever so kind,” said
Angela.
“It was nothing,” said Madeline. “Boy, have you eaten?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Sean took me to jail.”
Sean walked in just then. Angela looked up as Madeline
handed her a cup of tea.
“And you didn’t leave him?” asked Angela.
“Wouldn’t have taken much,” said Sean. “Already made a few friends.”
Madeline turned around and said, “A jail
is no place for a boy, Sean. Think of all the germs floating
around.”
“It was smashing, really,” said Danny.
“Well,” said Madeline as she started for the door. “I still don’t think it is
proper. I have to leave now Sean. I do have a house to run.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Thayer,” said Angela. “You have been ever so kind.”
“Think nothing of it,” said Madeline. “I will return tomorrow with my
maid. She can assist you in the bath I
think. We were a bit clumsy…goodbye
Sean.”
“I’ll see you to the door,” said Sean as
Madeline left the room.
Sean opened the door for Madeline and
said, “Thank you. I really appreciate what you’ve
done.”
“Just do it right, Sean,” said Madeline. “Whatever you do, do it right.”
Sean just stared at her.
Madeline gave him a long look. She started out the door,
stopped, and said, “You haven’t the foggiest idea what I mean, do you?”
“Why don’t you explain?”
“That girl is just rebounding from a
tragic event. And I’m not talking about that
damn boat. And then there’s the boy…” Madeline folded her arms in front
of her. “You’ve had your share of
heartache as well. Yes, yes, I know,” she said holding
her hands up as Sean started to reply. “I haven’t been the mother I
should have been. Probably won’t ever be. But this I know son, you don’t
get too many chances at true happiness; just don’t go into this thinking
everything will be like it was with Kimberly. It won’t. Although, I must admit, there is
something about this woman…it just seems right. But you’ll probably do something
to mess it up.”
“Not if I can help it,” said Sean. “Now, I have to get ready for a
meeting.”
“I will return tomorrow Sean,” said
Madeline as she turned away.
Sean struggled to pull a trunk across the floor of
the basement; he had not opened the trunk lately; the thing was padlocked and
he didn’t have the foggiest notion where the hell he had put the key. He rummaged through a tool box
looking for something to pry the lock off with. He glanced up; hanging on a peg
board was a crowbar. He grabbed it, knocked the lock
off the trunk and opened it. Inside was a jumbled pile of old
files…files that would definitely cause problems if they ended up in the wrong
hands. He had started to thumb his way
through some of the papers when he heard Danny.
“Sean!”
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Mind if I swim?”
“Not a bit,” he said. “You can swim can’t you?”
“I should bloody well think so.”
“Your mom say it was okay?”
“She suggested it,” said Danny.
“Have fun.”
After riffling through countless
documents, and stirring up a fair amount of dust, Sean climbed out of the
basement and walked into the kitchen. He poured himself a cold drink
and looked out the pane glass window. He could see Danny swimming
lengths in the pool. He had to admit that the boy
could swim well. He stood there thinking as Danny
climbed out of the pool and jumped up on the diving board. Sean watched closely as the boy
looked behind him for a moment then dove and split the water as cleanly as Sean
could have done on his best day. Impressed, he walked into the
hallway and stopped at Angela’s door. He knocked softly.
“Come in,” he heard Angela say.
Sean walked in and saw her sitting up in
bed reading a magazine. She smiled.
“Danny causing mischief?”
“Swimming,” said Sean. “And really well, I might add.”
“Well, his dad made sure of that.”
Sean started to say something. He went so far as to sit down and
open his mouth. Then he sat back and scratched
his head.
“I know,” said Angela as she leaned back. “I must say the shock of
everything is starting to wear off. I…I am starting to feel, well
odd.”
“Now why is that?” asked Sean.
“Please understand, I do appreciate what
you have done; especially with Danny. But we have only known each other
for a few days.”
Sean smiled and said, “It seems like we’ve
known each other forever.”
“Now you sound like Jonathan,” said Angela. “That was the line that attracted
me to him.”
Sean started to say something, again,
instead he said, “You need something to drink…and you’re out of ice. Be back in a minute.”
Danny could hear the kids in the swimming
pool next door. He could see a very pretty girl
standing next to the pool when he was on the diving board. She had looked over at him once. But she hadn’t bothered to look
his way again. He shook his head in frustration,
dove into the water, and swam into the shallow end. Hoisting himself out of the pool,
he grabbed a towel and walked toward the gate which led to the front yard. He walked in the freshly mowed
grass, enjoying the sunshine. Danny turned, cocking his head. He had heard a shout. Then…