House of Fire (Unraveled Series) (8 page)

“I just came from my
office on the second floor. I was buried in work,” Delaney began the same story
she had given President Givens, despite the feeling that it wouldn’t work this
time.
Not with Cherry.

“I’m sure you were,”
she said, leaning her back against the brick of the building. Delaney studied
her face; the woman was once pretty, she could tell. She had a naturally
symmetrical face that fit her features, her eyes an emerald green. But years of
abuse, possibly drugs and lack of sleep, had stripped her face of its original
beauty.
A change of clothes wouldn’t hurt, either.
Delaney’s eyes fell
to the woman’s legs as she raised one up, resting it against the wall. The red
lace of her underwear popped from beneath her mini-skirt. Delaney shot her eyes
back up to Cherry’s face. She had nice legs for a sixty-year-old, though Delaney
hadn’t needed to see her underwear.

“I’m sorry. I’m
headed out to meet some friends.” Delaney let her keys jingle in her hand.

“You know it’s not
that bad,” Cherry started as she darted her eyes past Delaney. Delaney mimicked
her, looking all around them; the parking lot was empty.

Delaney hoped that there
would be an excuse to leave - that June would magically appear and grab her
hand or that when she turned her head back that the woman wouldn’t be there
anymore. Delaney blinked, half-expecting to open her eyes and find that the
woman had never been there at all, but the red shirt was resolute.

“The President,”
Cherry continued.

Delaney’s gut
wrenched; Cherry knew Delaney had seen her. She couldn’t crawl away from this
one, although she could run, Delaney contemplated as Cherry went on.

“It’s a means to an
end. You see, I give a little and I get a whole lot in return,” she said. “Sometimes
I just have to remind myself of that reward. We all do. It’s just a frame of
mind, that’s all it is. Your attitude is everything, you know.”

“It is,” Delaney said,
nodding in agreement as Cherry studied her. She turned to go, taking advantage of
Cherry’s pause.

“Before you go, you
should know that President Givens is a powerful guy. One with influential
friends,” Cherry said. Delaney’s feet stopped, her back still turned to the
woman. “I’m just saying.”

“And what kind of
friends are those?” Delaney asked as she turned to see Cherry now standing a
few inches from her face. Cherry’s cigarette breath wafted around her.

“Ones you don’t want to
mess with. Rich. Influential.” Cherry’s head cocked to the side. Delaney looked
down at her chipped claws, the polish in desperate need of maintenance.
Influential
.
The word caught in Delaney’s throat as she examined the woman’s facade; she was
smart, educated, at least to some extent. Cherry had, Delaney guessed, a normal
childhood just like anyone else, but at some point in Cherry’s life, something
had gone astray. A moment had warped her and her life twisted to the crooked
path she now travelled.
There is always one moment.

“Maybe you should get
out while you can,” Delaney suggested, feeling the heat rise to her face.
Delaney had wanted to run, but she was in too deep. Holston Parker’s wrath was too
wide, his reach having extended to her family.
What does President Givens
have on you?

“Too late for that.
Anyway, good always prevails over evil.” Cherry leaned in as she whispered the
last words as if she were about to let Delaney in on a deep secret. “It never,
ever
fails.”

Cherry wedged her
black purse into her armpit and followed the sidewalk to the back of the
building. Her hair swayed back and forth with her stride, the flesh of her
saggy cheeks almost peeking out beneath the bottom of her skirt. The ends of
her hair grazed against her upper arm, the outline of ink registering in
Delaney’s mind.
A rosary.

***

“Please tell me you
are not in Atlas Pub.” Delaney sat in the driver’s seat of her running Civic,
idling on College Avenue. She sat up, looking at the reflection in the rearview
mirror.
I’m a sweaty mess.

“We are not in Atlas Pub. We are
outside just about to walk in,” June replied.

“Come on,” Delaney
groaned. “How ‘bout Anduzzi’s?”

“A sports bar?
Really? Do you realize who you are talking to?”

“We can sit outside.
It’s just a few doors down from where you are,” Delaney urged, wiping the black
smudge from the bottom of her eyes with the tip of her finger. She lifted her
smooth eyelashes with a soft nudge. Cherry’s eyelashes had been so clumpy.

“All right, we’ll
meet you at the patio. You’re lucky it’s nice outside. You know I hate sports
bars and their hick crowds,” June warned before she ended the call.

Delaney maneuvered
her car into a space in front of Anduzzi’s. A sports bar was the last location
June, the hippy in her fifties, and Robert, the skinny gay Latino, would go to.
But Delaney had declined most of their gatherings throughout the semester, so
they had obliged. She waved to June and Robert as they walked toward her on the
sidewalk. They were a bizarre duo at best. She wondered if they were ever
mistaken for a mother and adopted son combination. June was beautiful, but matronly,
in her hemp skirts and flowing hair, and Delaney had mistaken Robert for a
student when she had first started at Leighton. His smooth complexion and tight
face showed no signs of aging.
Asshole,
she chided as she thought of her
minted crow’s feet.

Delaney ran her
fingers through her hair one last time and flapped her shirt. It had finally
dried with the air conditioning blowing on maximum and her goose bumps were finally
dissipating as she stepped onto the sidewalk and into the fading heat of the
early night.

“After hours,
Delaney. It’s nice to see you again,” Robert joked as he held his arms out to
embrace her.

“After hours? You
realize it’s seven, right? The sun is shining.” June elbowed Robert before
turning to Delaney. “You look a little worn out, girl. Did you go for a run after
I left?”

“No, it just got
incredibly hot in our office. I got smoked out. I had to leave to get some
air,” Delaney said as she opened the gate to the outdoor patio.

“I don’t go near my
office in the summer. I don’t know how you two do it. You should set up a
little room in your house. You have to get away from campus for a bit.” Robert followed
her in, sitting at the closest table to the street. “The students. The office.
Everything.”

“You’re right. I
probably should. Mark has the room and everything. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind
since he’s never home anyway.” Delaney slid into the seat next to him, the
wrought iron chair scraping against the patio as she pulled herself closer.
Robert was right; she needed to get out of her office.

“I can’t do it at
home. I have to go to my office to get in the zone,” June replied as she
grabbed a menu from the center of the table.

“You both have been
at Leighton for a while,” Delaney started, lowering her voice and leaning over table.
“What are your thoughts on President Givens?”

“What do you mean?”
Robert’s eyes stayed focused on his menu as he paged through.

“As a leader for the
university or a person? Or both?” June asked, putting the menu down on the
table.

“I don’t know. A
person, I guess. What do you know about him?” Delaney replied.

“Not a whole lot,
surprisingly. He’s been here for ten years, which is relatively long for a
President. He graduated from Harvard Business School with his MBA. Before he
came here, he spent time at Princeton and Yale in senior leadership positions.
He’s established a strong foothold in the community with the relationships he
has built with area businessmen,” June said.

“One being Holston
Parker and his glorious Parker Tower,” Robert chimed as he finally looked up.
He smirked at Delaney before he made eye contact with a waitress coming toward
them.

“Can we get a round
of summer hummers?” Robert flashed his best smile. Despite being completely and
utterly un-attracted to women, Robert had a thing for flattery. Women loved him
when he engaged in the flirtatious game. Hours later, after he revealed he was
gay, the women still didn’t care. They loved the attention. Robert had that
effect on women.

“Sure, but I’m going
to need to see your ID. It’s hard to believe you are over twenty-one.” The
woman in her early twenties bobbed her head and returned his smile.

“Right?” Robert
flashed his ID in front of her.

“God, here we go
again,” June groaned as she kicked him under the table and turned to the
waitress. “He’s thirty-nine and gay. He just ordered summer hummers.”

“Oh.” She returned
his ID and sauntered away.

“Sucking the fun
right out of my day.” Robert shook his head. “It’s not like there’s a huge
selection of men to choose from in Appleton. I’ve had a relatively dry five
years.”

“Back to President
Givens.” Delaney leaned back in her chair, ignoring Robert’s lament. Her eyes
bounced to a man wearing a Polaris cap and a woman sporting a cowboy hat that
covered some of her teased hair - heavy eyeliner spread to create raccoon eyes.
The black eyes reminded her of Cherry. There was something about her.
A
prostitute?
It didn’t seem to fit her bill. Cherry seemed
too smart.

“What are you getting
at?” June asked, drawing Delaney back in. “Did something happen?”

“Merely curious,”
Delaney replied. Although she trusted June and Robert, she couldn’t put them in
danger, not like she had with Theron. But she wanted more; she wanted to know
how President Givens was connected with Holston Parker. “What’s his wife like?”

“I haven’t seen Helen
around campus too much, maybe three times?” June turned to Robert. “You?”

“Yeah, about the
same. She’s a little woman with a terrifically shrill voice, but she seems nice
enough. She doesn’t talk too much, maybe because of her voice. She’s a good
President’s wife. Tidy. Pearls. You get the idea. Are you going to the Gala
tomorrow night? I’m sure she’ll be there,” Robert said.

Yeah,” Delaney
replied, clearing her throat and moving her chair up as the bobbing waitress
placed the drinks in front of them. Delaney sipped through the cocktail straw,
feeling the tartness of the Blue UV slide down her throat, before she threw the
straw out and gulped from the glass.

“It’s going to be a
long one tonight.” Robert laughed as he clanked glasses with June.

10

June 15 - 7:30 p.m

Evie closed the door
behind her, the walls of the Wolf River Motel rattling with the sudden
movement. She tried to latch the deadbolt shut, but it refused to turn,
clanking against the frame of the door instead. It was the last room left
according to the chubby girl behind the counter as she’d pulled the sucker from
her mouth and chugged a swallow of Mountain Dew. The girl eyed Evie before she had
told her she was fancy.
All the way from Missouri
. The girl had heard of
Missouri once, “the capital is Jefferson City,” she’d dutifully reported. Evie
had forced a smile beneath her sunglasses. Located thirty minutes west of
Appleton in an obscure campground with free wireless had been enough for Evie.
Staying in any well-established hotel in Appleton or Green Bay was too risky; Holston’s
reach was too far.

She threw her bag on
the flowered comforter, assessing the situation. The stained walls were peeling
near the ceiling, the old box TV from the ‘70s. She poked her head in the
bathroom; the soap scum and dirt had turned the one-stall shower and toilet a
grimy grey, almost black. She wondered when it was last cleaned, if ever. Her
skin crawled as she moved back to the bed and sat down, her feet begging for
reprieve.

Her hand reached up
to her hair, her fingers running through the long strands before she took the
wig off and shook her cropped head. Air filtered through her itchy scalp, her
fingernails scratching before she turned her attention to her feet. She removed
the pumps, crawling her feet up to the bed despite that the linens, similar to
the bathroom, had most likely not been washed anytime in the last few weeks, if
ever. The sound of the window air conditioning unit rattled as it kicked on,
blowing a smell of must in the air.

She unzipped her bag
and retrieved her laptop. The screen blinked, running through the prompts as
she closed her eyes to see Holston’s face. His black eyes set into his hard
cheekbones. Subservient as a child, she had wanted to please him and make him
happy. She had wanted nothing more than to make him smile, make him proud of
her, but he had never smiled; he was never proud. She was an obligation to him;
his work always more important than she was. He had taken care of her basic
needs - food, clothing and shelter. But he didn’t love her, not as a father
should. He isolated her from most playmates and neighbors, patting her shoulder
and telling her to be a good, silent girl. She had obeyed her duties for so
long.

Evie turned her
attention to her screen, logging in to start her search again. There had to be
more on Delaney. The information she had discovered had been unenlightening -
graduate of a somewhat prestigious Xavier Academy, graduate of the UW-Madison
PhD Art program, and professor at Leighton University. Somewhere in the middle,
two small bumps - raped and stripped online. Nothing led her to Holston.

Their mother
. Ann Jones, a long-standing
secretary at the Journal Sentinel now retired and recovering from cancer. Her brother,
Walt, was the Editor of the Milwaukee newspaper, married to Emma, son Levi.
Michael Jones still worked at Miller Brewery. The two boys, Mark and Ben,
adopted before their teenage years. The family had migrated at some point to
Milwaukee, but Evie hadn’t been able to discover where they had been before then.
Not yet anyway. She had all night before she made her trip tomorrow morning to
Amberg. A foster couple, Janice and Ken Hinske, were the first stop on her list.