Part 21 (1/2)
”Just a mother. Leave that, your dad can make it. Come and sit down.” Lucky waited until her daughter was seated and sipping coffee. ”Whats the problem?”
”Charlie Ba.s.sings in town.”
”Oh, no.” Lucky put her cup down. ”I thought he was in jail.”
”Out on parole. For good behavior.”
”Are you sure hes back here?”
”I saw him myself.” She neglected to mention that his actions toward her could have been interpreted as threatening.
”Does Christa know?”
”Thats why Im here, Mom. Im going to have to tell her, but, frankly, Im afraid to.”
Lucky let out a long breath. ”She wont take it well. Can you do something about keeping him away from her?”
Smith smiled for the first time since shed seen the b.a.s.t.a.r.d in the street, mocking her. It was unlikely Lucky even noticed that shed referred to the forces of law and order as 'you.
”A condition of parole is that he have no contact with Christa and not come within two hundred meters of her or her place of residence or employment.”
”Thats good, isnt it?”
”If he abides by the parole order. But we wont know if he doesnt until he...well...doesnt.”
Lucky swirled her mug and glanced into its depths. Sylvester, who loved Lucky above all, put his head onto her lap and whined.
”You couldnt order him out of town?”
”No. This is where he lives, Mom. He probably told them he had a job to come back to. I think he does some odd-job sort of work now and again, when he runs out of beer money.”
”Im not going into the store today. Ill come with you to talk to Christa.”
Which was what Smith wanted to hear, although she didnt like to admit it. She was a police officer, and good officers rarely took their mother along to break bad news. But Christa wasnt just a citizen, she was Mollys friend. And probably soon to be her ex-friend.
”I dont like to ask you, but, thanks, Mom.”
Lucky glanced at her watch. ”Not even seven yet. Too early to call on Christa. Around nine would be best. I dont want to phone ahead and tell her Im coming over. Shed worry about what I want to talk about.
”You might as well have some breakfast. Youre looking a bit thin. When did you last eat?”
”Im doing fine, Mom.” Smith didnt say that her last meal had been yesterdays breakfast in the car. Seeing Charlie had killed her appet.i.te for spring rolls and yellow curry.
Lucky went to the fridge. Without asking she pulled out sausages and eggs and put a frying pan onto the stove.
”Thought I heard your voice.” Andy Smith came into the kitchen. He kissed the top of his daughters head. ”Early for a visit, isnt it?”
Lucky explained the situation. Andy said something about rearranging Charlies anatomy before asking, ”Is that for me?” He cast an eager eye on the cooking sausages.
Lucky cracked eggs into a bowl. ”I could probably be persuaded to give you some.”
”I left my car at the bottom of the driveway,” Smith said. ”Too much snow to try to get up. Ill give you a hand with it after we eat, Dad.”
”Always happy to have help. That old s...o...b..owers on its last legs. Well have to get a new one for next year. Ill look for something on sale in the spring.”
”You dont usually go into work on Sunday, Dad.”
”Itll be busy with Boxing Day sales and Christmas returns. I remember when it was just Boxing Day. Now they call it Boxing Week. Next all of January will be Boxing Month.”
Andy finished preparing a second pot of coffee and Lucky served them a hearty breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs, and piles of toast with homemade raspberry jam. After they ate, Smith and her father struggled into their heaviest winter clothes and went outside. Six inches of snow had fallen in the night, and the morning sky was heavy with the threat of more to come. Andy started up his s...o...b..ower and worked on the driveway while Molly shoveled the front path and cleared a route into the woods at the back of the property for Sylvester. Not even New Year, and the s...o...b..nks along the driveway were almost three feet tall.
Faces glowing with cold and exercise, Andy and his daughter put their equipment into the shed and walked back to the house as Sylvester ran around in circles in the cleared driveway.
”You doing okay, Molly?”
”Yeah, Dad. Im great. Why?”
”Just wondering. Your mother misses you, you know.”
She felt a warm, comfortable glow in her chest. That was Andys way of telling her that he was missing her. She reached out and touched his arm as they climbed the steps and stamped their boots free of snow.
Lucky was in the kitchen, reading a political magazine. ”Moonlight and I are going to drop in on Christa.”
Andy shook his head. ”Good luck with that.” He kissed his wife, smiled at his daughter, grabbed his keys from the hook by the door and left.
Smith stood on the mat, still wearing coat and boots.
”Before we go,” Lucky said. ”Tell me about Lorraine.”
”Lorraine who?”
”Dont be silly, dear. You know very well who. Whats her involvement with these people staying at Ellies place?”
”Mom, thats an ongoing police investigation. I cant tell you anything.”
”Of course you can. I know, for example, that one of those boys didnt die in the car accident. Oh, dont look at me like that. Im not going to tell anyone else. I am concerned about Lorraine. She refuses to let anyone help her, but she needs help nonetheless.”
Smith sputtered for a while. She could only wonder at how her mom knew the results of an autopsy that hadnt been released to the public. Somehow Lucky always knew everything that went on in Trafalgar.
”She considers herself to have been in love with Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth. He probably led her to think that she was more than a vacation pick-up.”
”I find it hard to believe he could have been attracted to her. He was, what twenty-two, twenty-three? A university student. Lots of money, well traveled, influential parents. Yet he took up with a sixteen-year-old girl whos never been out of these mountains, daughter of the talk of the town.”
Smith s.h.i.+fted her feet as she remembered something shed heard someone say about the late Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth. ”He was lazy. Liked s.e.x served up like a Big Mac. I doubt there was any need to woo Lorraine.”
”b.a.s.t.a.r.d.” As she pa.s.sed, Lucky slammed the dishwasher door so hard the dishes rattled.