Damon (7 page)

“I’ll do my best, officer, but like I said, we have a great many buses coming in here daily and I
have at least seventy drivers.
I’ll let you
know what I find, if anything
. Y
ou have
a nice day.”

The stupid cocksucker didn’t even take the inform
ation needed to call him back.
He was just about to call him
back when his radio squawked.
Every fucking time he got to doing something, somebody would call him in.

“Officer Ormond speaking.
”
He never knew who was going to be calling him so he had learned to
be careful of his radio calls.
The last time he’d gotten snippy with that bitch at
dispatch, she’d told his boss.
Bitch was probably sucking him off under the desk every day, that’s the only rea
son he got his ass chewed out.
It served her right that her tires had been slashed twice since them,
he thought with a nasty grin.

“Aren’t you supposed to be over at
the school directing traffic?
I gotta
tell you this every day, Andy?
Jesus
H. Christ! Are you just that stupid?
Haul your ass over there right now and get to it.”

He hated being called “Andy.”
His name was Andrew Anthony Ormond and this cock sucking prick called him Andy
every time he got the chance.
He’d gone to his boss about it, but he’d said that David was just funning with him and if he ignored it then David would get tired
of it and bother someone else.
It wasn’t w
orth getting in a tussle over.
T
hat had been three months ago.
Anytime he wanted to move on to someone else was fine with Anthony.

“I’m headed there now.
I got h
ung up on a traffic violation.
Some wom
an wanted to argue her speed.”
That had been true, but it ha
d happened over two hours ago.

“Sure it did.
If you’re still arguing her ticket after two hours and twelve minutes, wh
y don’t you just bring her in? Sounds like my wife anyway.
G
et a move on, Andy, right now.
Kids can’t cross the street without their pa-trol there to direct them.”

Damn GPS and damn the way David said patrol like it was two separa
te words.
As soon as he could, he was going to arrange for David Haddock
to have a permanent accident.
One that involved a great deal of pain for the man and whole lot more broken bones than the last time he’d had an “accident.”

He was just pulling into the parking lot of the
school when his cell went off.
The number wasn’t one he recognized, but he had given out his number a lot over the past w
eek looking for his Charlotte.
He answered with a short bark of his name.

“You still looking for the woman and her little boy? I think I saw them when I took the bus to my
family’s house to help to out.
Got the gout, you see, and can’t
get around like they used to.
I swear there are days when I think Gabby gets herself hurt just so I can come over there and see—”

“Where does your sister live? And when was this, exactly?”
If he hadn’t shut her off, no telling how much more he would have had to endure
of her sister’s gout problem.
A
nthony shuddered with disgust.

“Oh, she lives in that trailer park on London S
treet.
Those things are so close together that I swear I can hear her
neighbor’s breathing at night. Then those dogs!
Don’t
get me started on those dogs. Bark all night long, they do.
Then there—”

“What c
ity does your sister live in?”
He enunciated each word and he could hear t
he bite of anger in his voice.
At this point, he didn’t fucking care.

“Cincinnati.
Don’t kno
w why you’d want to know that.
I thought you wanted to know about that woman and her little boy.”

He counted to ten, then on to twent
y.
He tried to figure out when he’d lost the train of the con
versation and couldn’t find it.
The woman had said she was visiting her family, th
at her sister had gotten hurt.
He rubbed the point in hi
s forehead just over his nose.
The tension was growing and he mentally added another thing to beat Ch
arlotte for when he found her. Tension was a killer.

“Where the fuck
did you see the woman and kid?
I don’t want any kind of elaborate stories or sidetracks. Just tell me which bus you were on and where it was headed.”

“There is no need f
or you to get rude, young man.
Well, if I didn’t think it was my Christian duty to keep a family toge
ther, I’d just hang up on you
. Y
ou are a very nasty man. Washington D.C.
And there’s another thing I think—”

He disco
nnected the call.
He didn’t care how many other things sh
e could think of at this point.
He had a starting point and it wa
s more than he’d had all week.
Getting out of the cruiser, he walked up to the school just hoping
some punk would give him lip.
And if he or she did, then he’d see that someone left today with a fat one.

~~~

Cait walked up to the
house and took a deep breath.
She’d been back on duty for three weeks now and this was her first job that didn’t involve pushing a pencil or typing up some
report.
She missed her son and dau
ghter, but needed to work too.
If she had to stay at home much longer, Grant might have found her in the corner with her thumb in her mouth humming nursery rhymes to herself.

“H
e did it again, Captain Grant.
I ain’t gonna p
ut up with his crap much more.
Might have to take a stick to his hi
de if he does it or leave him.
Can’t say that he’d notice none unless his dinner was late.”

Cait smiled
. Y
eah, this was a good reason to leave her children with a sitter. A woman half naked meeting her at the door with a shotgun.

“Mrs. Peabody, you need to put the gun down or I can’t come in the house. I told you
that the last time I was here
. Y
ou need to stop waving it around before it goes off and you hurt someone.”

“I’m gonna hurt that damned boy if h
e don’t straighten up his act.
Do you know how much he ra
n my phone bill up last month?
Eig
ht hundred and twelve dollars!
That’s more than I get working do
wn at the IGA every two weeks. How am I supposed to pay that?
He can’t hold down a job and he damn sure ain’t gonna share if he does.”

“Just tell me what he did this time and le
t’s see if I can help you out
. Y
ou say he’s not here? Where is he, do you know?”
Cait was beginning to feel like she spent more time fixing family pro
blems than anything.
Di
dn’t people want to get along?
Now she sounded like one of th
ose greeting card commercials.

“I think he’s
making that dope in his room.
I can smell all kind of nasty st
uff going on behind that door.
And the people he has coming here a
ll hours of the day and night. It’s making my nerves act up.
He’s trying to kill me so that he can live off my insurance and live here scot free.”

Cait let Mrs. P
eabody lead her down the hall.
She was still a good four feet from it when Cait smel
led it.
Dann
y Peabody was dealing in meth.
Cait grabbed Mrs. Peabody’s shoulder, held her back, and motioned for
her to go back to the kitchen.
Cait followed, pulling out her cell as she went.

“Mrs. Peabody
, is there anyone in that room?
That you know
of?”
Her heart was pumping and she coul
d feel the adrenaline running.

“No,
he went out ‘bout an hour ago.
Won’t be back until night, if
he follows his usual pattern
. Y
ou calling in the SWAT team, Captain Grant?”

With a wink at her, Cait identified he
rself to Commander Tucker.
They’d both been promoted recently and were still having trouble remembering their new title.

“I’ll need some
back up at the Peabody place.
I think little Danny has ex
panded his operations to meth.
I’ll wait here if you send in the big guys.”

“
Hot damn, wish I was with you.
We’ve been trying to get t
hat little turd for two years.
I’m having…wh
at the hell is her name again?
Anywa
y, she’s sending them out now.
Oh, and y
our sister-in-law Dane called.
Said for you to call her
as soon as possible.
She said that she has a feel
ing and that you’d understand.
Why doesn’t she just s
ay that she had a premonition?
Does she think I don’t get her code speak?”

“I’ll ask her, or maybe better yet, she can just call you and tell you what
you want to know.
Don’t be a dork, Tuck
, she’s just covering her ass.
Don’t we all do it?”

“Yeah, I suppose so. But I tell you—Rachel!
The girl who works for me is Rachel! Ha! I knew I’d get it sooner or later.”

Cait hung up and called Dane.
Dane had married Jamie a few months ago and they were expecting the
ir first baby in a few months.
She and Morgan were due about a month a
part, Morgan to deliver first.
Dane had just recently found out she was worth nearly eight billion dollars.

“Hey, it’s Cait.
Tucker
said you had something for me.
Anything on that shirt yet?”

“Cait,
where did you get this stuff?
Is it really from the woma
n and boy Damon is caring for?
I know this man and he is
worse
than anyone thought.
I don’t suppose you got a name, did you?”

“No, not that I’m aware of.
The only thing the kid h
as called him was the bastard.
The woman has been
too beat up for me to talk to.
I’m actually goin
g over there today after work
. Y
ou want to come with
me? I’m sure Damon won’t mind.
I think he’s
kind of sweet on the kid.
Have you met Connor yet?”

Cait had heard the story from Morgan a couple of times how the kid, Connor, had leaped up and caught Daniel before he hit th
e open door with his forehead.
And Ronnie and Margaret had spent the day with him this morning at t
he mall and the grocery store.
She could
n’t wait to talk to him again.
At the scene with his mom, he’d been about half asleep and not saying much.

“Clear it with th
e woman and Damon and I’ll go.
Pi wants to take her some chicken sou
p and friendship.
I swear that woman is dr
iving me insane with this baby. James is so laid back.
Pi is like
some sort of pregnancy police.
I can’t do anything without her having an absolute fit about it.”

Cait kn
ew about the pregnancy police.
Her hus
band had been the same way.
She heard the sirens coming an
d got off the phone with Dane.
Over the next four hours, not only did they break up a fairly large meth lab, but Mrs. Peabody got her son out of the house once and for all.

Cait called Damon and had him ask Charlie if she and Dane could come ove
r, but he said she was asleep.
Connor was out with Byron buying a game system for the basement and Damon was getting ready to leave to d
eliver a baby at the hospital.
He said he’d tell her who was coming a
nd for them to come on in. Cait thought he sounded upset.
And asked him about it.