Every Breath You Take: A Novel (A Kristen Conner Mystery Book 2) (38 page)

“What’s happening? Any news?” she says the second she picks up.

“Plenty of people praying and it’s all going to be fine, Mom. I’m just making sure you are okay.”

“I’m breathing. But a semi turned over on I-57 and we have come to a complete standstill.”

“Well relax and keep praying. There’s nothing you could do here anyway. Klarissa is meeting Jimmy and Kaylen at Advocate Christ. I’m picking up Kendra and James. We’ve got everything under control. Just relax and one of us will call you when we have some news.”

She starts to cry as Derrick’s number pops up.

“Mom, I’m going to take this call. I’ll call back when I have something. I promise.”

I feel rotten hitting the button to transfer to Derrick’s call.

“Conner.”

“I didn’t think you
really
wanted to go out with me.”

“Listen Derrick, I am so sorry I had to call at the last minute to cancel. But my sister is on the way to the hospital and I’ve got to pick up the kids and get over there.”

“I figured the dog ate your homework.”

“Would I make something like this up?”

I think there is strain in my voice. Things are happening too fast and I don’t have time for Derrick right now.

“I suppose not. I am in the back of a limo on my way over to your place. I was on the phone when you called.”

“Well, again, I apologize for canceling and messing up your concert plans.”

“It’s not a problem. Listen, don’t even pretend to protest, but I know you were going out with me to see if you could get me to talk about Jack’s murder—or maybe tonight’s agenda was Barbara. I’m not offended. I would do the same thing if I were in your shoes. It makes sense. Derrick drinks a lot . . . and when he does, boy does he start talking.”

He’s been drinking. A lot.

“I’m not sure I’m in the mood for James Taylor any way,” he continues. “I may switch plans and go see an old friend.”

I don’t have time for this, but he’s babbling. Who knows what he will say.

“Derrick, can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“Do you know who killed Jack?”

He is silent.

“Derrick?”

The phone is dead. I’ll tell Don to go find him and follow up. That’s him calling back now.

“Hey, Don.”

“Everything okay?”

“I wish I knew, but I haven’t heard anything yet. Klarissa said Kaylen fell and they’re worried about the baby.”

“Oh, man. Tell everyone we’re praying.”

“I will. Sorry to interrupt your Friday night. I just got off the phone with Derrick. I let him know I had to cancel tonight because of Kaylen. If you could let Blackshear, Konkade, and everyone else know what happened I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem. We’re staying in and watching a family movie.”

I sigh.

“What?” he asks.

“I did talk to Derrick—he’s drunk and he’s talking—at least he was until I asked him if he knew who murdered Jack. Someone needs to find him and see if he’ll keep yammering.”

Now it’s his turn to sigh.

“I’m on it.”

“Thanks, Don. I owe you big time. I have to get off. Kendra is calling me.”

“Go—and tell everyone we’re praying.”

“I will.” Sorry to mess with your Friday night. I know you haven’t had many nights home lately.”

I hit the transfer button again.

“Hey Miss Kendra—what’s shaking?”

“James still isn’t listening.”

“I’m not very far away,” I say. “Tell him to get his soccer stuff, some pajamas, and his pillow. You all are going to spend the night with me.”

“Can we see Mommy at the hospital?”

“We’ll see. We don’t know when Baby Kelsey is going to pop out. So it might be tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she says with a sniffle.

The princess is old enough to be worried.

“And Kendra?”

“Yes, Aunt Kristen?”

“Tell James to pack a toothbrush or he’ll have stinky breath.”

She laughs and is already yelling at James when we hang up.

• • •

“She’s beautiful,” Klarissa says when I answer my phone in a stupor.

I look at my clock. It’s 3:00 in the morning. I am on the far edge of my bed. I can feel Kendra’s warm breath against my neck. I let both kids sleep in my bed with me. James has kicked and squirmed his way sideways and has claimed most of the bed for himself.

“How’s Kay?”

“Still in a lot of pain. She wrenched her back when she twisted sideways to protect the baby when she fell. Doctor is going to x-ray her tomorrow. He thinks she chipped her hipbone. But she’s a champion. She’s all smiles.”

“How many times did Jimmy faint?”

“He kept his feet all evening and is holding Kelsey now. I’ve lost count, but I think he’s cried at least four times.”

“That’s our Pastor Jimmy. Mom still there?”

“Just left. I put her in a cab.”

“What time can Aunt Kristen come by with the kiddos?”

“I wouldn’t make it too early. After ten.”

“Okay, I’ll take the kids to soccer and be there at one.”

“Soccer?”

“Uh, yeah. Last week of the regular season.”

She laughs and says, “That’s our
Coach
Kristen.”

Before I go back to sleep I say a short prayer.

60

I’M NOT SURE
he’s up to the task. If you want something done right you have to do it yourself. I think that detective puts everyone under her spell. I believe he’s afraid of her.

I don’t see the magnetism. She is querulous. She has lousy taste. I don’t care how much makeup Barbara put on her, she’s just okay-looking. She is rude, difficult, awkward. Where’s the appeal? Is she a Cinderella figure? If so, Cinderella isn’t what she used to be.

Him and her together? That would never happen in a million years. He’d get bored in a week, but she wouldn’t give him that long. He’s thirty-five-years-old but has the emotional maturity of a middle schooler. She might have the emotional maturity of a middle schooler too. Maybe they are meant to be together.

His task is so simple. I would do it myself but it can’t come from me. It has to be him. If it came from me, the police would never believe it—and it would ruin any chances I have of joining the family.

All he has to say to her is, “You know, Jack and his brother hated each other. I personally heard Bobby tell Jack he wished he was dead.”

Is that so hard? And it just so happens, it’s true.

He said he wants to help me but he isn’t sure he can do that. He says his old man would kill him—he does a lot of business with Durham, Sr.

Everyone I’ve met since finding my mom is a case study in arrested development. If Jack had grown up, he and I could have had a relationship. That’s all I ever wanted in the first place. I just wanted my real parents to acknowledge me.

I guess in the end Barbara tried to—and it got her killed.

But by who?

Maybe Derrick knows more than he’s saying and that’s why he’s afraid to call Conner.

Derrick, just grow up. Call her.

She lifted the rim of the large round cup with half a skinny latte left in it and took her last sip. It had passed from lukewarm to tepid. Her granola with fruit and yogurt was only half-eaten too. It was delicious but she didn’t want to put on weight in this period of confinement.

She rose from the table gracefully. Black ankle-high boots. Sweater dress that was probably too short for the temperature outside. But she only had a one-block walk. She was near the edge of her electronic tether. She put on the fitted version of a pea jacket with a thin fringe of mink around the collar.

Every eye having brunch with her in the Third Coast Café and Wine Bar at the corner of Dearborn and Goethe followed her steps out the front door and into the cold.

The two CPD watchers across the street saw her enter the used bookshop next door and resumed their argument on whether the problem was the Bears’ offensive line couldn’t block or Jay Cutler held the ball too long.

61

“I WANT TO hold her,” James says, pouting. “Everyone else got to.”

“You got to hold her,” Kendra says.

“Not very long!”

He wrinkles his nose and sticks his tongue out at Kendra.

“Yeah, but you scored a hundred goals today,” I say.

“He did not,” Kendra says.

“Did too,” James says, making a menacing face at her that makes him look a little like Gollum in
Lord of the Rings
.

“Quiet,” Kaylen says sweetly. “James, you need to use your indoor voice around Kelsey.”

I think she needs to be more specific than indoor voice.

I look down at the bundle in my arms. Bright blue eyes. Pink chubby cheeks. Soft downy blond fuzz. Her lips move in and out; I think she’s hungry. She’s wrapped up like a papoose but I’ve loosened the blanket up top so I can touch those tiny little fingers. What is more amazing than a baby’s fingers?

“How’d you do?” Kaylen asks Kendra.

“We won,” she says, ho hum.

“And she scored two goals,” I say.

“I did too,” James says with a loud hissing whisper.

“And I went to James’ game and he was incredible.”

“He kept knocking people down,” Kendra says.

She didn’t mean it as a compliment, but he’s beaming anyway. He’s a one man wrecking crew. Maybe that’s how Urlacher played soccer when he was a kid.

“Okay Baby Sis, give me back my baby. She’s ready to eat and both of us need a nap.”

We made Kendra sit down when she held Kelsey. We made James sit down too, but none of us moved more than a foot away from him. But he was gentle. No one has said I have to sit down, but holding a baby makes me nervous so I’ve kept my butt on the chair. I stand carefully and place the pink bundle into her mother’s arms.

I’m not liberated enough to be an advocate for public breastfeeding, so I give a nod of my head toward the door. Kendra and James make a beeline for Kaylen and each get a hug. They both plant careful kisses on Kelsey’s forehead. I give mom and baby a kiss too and join the rest of the family in the waiting room. Jimmy went home for a couple hours to prepare his sermon. Klarissa is going to take James and Kendra with her to my mom’s house. Mom will stay with Kaylen and leave when Jimmy gets back in a couple hours.

Usually insurance covers only a one-night stay in the hospital for newborns. Because of Kaylen’s fall, the two will stay at least another two days. She does have a stress fracture in her right hipbone. Nothing too serious and there’s no real therapy other than rest and pain meds. Because she’s nursing so she’s having to bite the proverbial bullet.

• • •

“I didn’t even know you two were together,” Klarissa says.

We are at McDonalds. James wolfed down his meal and is somewhere in a maze of tubes that end at a slide that sends him down into a pit filled with bright colored plastic balls. One of Kendra’s school friends is there and the two are talking intently at their own table. Do eight, almost nine-year-olds talk about boys? They are giggling. I suspect maybe they do.

I chowed a Big Mac value meal. Klarissa watched me eat with thinly concealed disdain. She got some sort of salad with mandarin oranges and chicken on it. I think she’s taken two bites in the last twenty minutes.

“Never seemed like the right time to tell you about it,” I say.

“Well it all sounds very romantic. Dinner on the town and then a phone call every night when he leaves town.”

“Until this week. About the time I am finally getting comfortable with the idea that we are in relationship he goes AWOL on me.”

“That’s men.”

“Since my younger sister is much more experienced in the world of romance than I am, explain to me what that means.”

“It all goes back to the Melville novel.
Moby Dick
.”

“
Now
I understand.”

“Didn’t you have to read that in high school?”

“It was an option in English Lit. I opted for a lighthearted comedy called
Lord of the Flies
.”

She rolls her eyes. “Captain Ahab was obsessed with the hunt for the whale.”

“Moby?”

“Yes, Moby. That’s how men are. They are obsessed with the hunt. But when they catch us, they get bored. Catching isn’t as fun as chasing.”

“So Austin has buyer’s remorse?”

“No, not buyer’s remorse. He’s crazy about you. That’s been obvious since the day he first blew into town. But you played hard to get.”