Mother Load (19 page)

She put on her cheeriest face and walked into Andy’s room, awash in guilt that she hadn’t seen him all night. He was already tucked in, but she pulled the covers back so she could stroke his chest. “Hey, sweetie. I’m sorry I slept through dinner and didn’t get a chance to talk to you about your day. Did you have a good supper?”

“I had chicken and noodles, and Mom said there was enough left over for me to eat again tomorrow so I won’t have to eat fish.” Anna had finally struck a deal with Andy that he wouldn’t have to eat fish if she didn’t have to eat macaroni and cheese.

“Your mom takes good care of us, doesn’t she?”

“And Grandpa.”

It surely was only an innocent remark but it cut Lily to the bone to think she wasn’t also on his list. “I’m almost finished with the case I’ve been working on. Then I’m going to take a long vacation from work, which means I’ll be the one picking you up after school. We can come home and play together, and you can help me fix dinner for Mom like we used to do. Would you like that?”

“Will I still get to go to the dealership too?”

“Sure, sometimes.” It was silly but she couldn’t deny she was jealous of the new bond between Anna and Andy. “But here’s the deal. Your mom and I both like to be with you so we’ll have to learn to share. That means you can be with her some days and me some days.”

When he fell off to sleep she ambled back to the bedroom and downed her liquid dinner, bone tired despite her two-hour nap.

Anna had changed into shorts and a long-sleeved T-shirt and settled into her reading chair with a magazine. “Did he get to sleep okay?”

“He did, but not before letting me know he didn’t have to eat fish tomorrow night.” She sloughed off her suit and let a soft cotton gown fall over her bare skin. Then she added fuzzy sleep socks to counter the persistent chill that came from her drop in circulation. “I know you find this look irresistible but control yourself if you can. I need my beauty sleep if I’m to have any hope of sustaining this sexiness.”

“You ask a lot,” Anna said, dropping her magazine. She guided Lily to the foot of the bed and stretched out behind her. With the heel of her hand, she began a firm massage of her lower back.

“You’re doing a great job, Anna. Andy’s really happy that he gets to spend so much time with you.”

“We’re getting by okay. Dad helps out a lot.”

A sore point, but one Lily wouldn’t belabor. “I feel like I’m not holding up my end anymore. I told Andy I was taking a vacation from work and his first reaction was to ask if he’d still get to go to the dealership. He must feel like we just hand him off when we have other things to do.”

“It isn’t that way at all. Dad and I both have been bending over backward to keep him entertained down there, but he’ll love it once he’s back home with you.” She dropped a warm kiss on Lily’s shoulder. “Everything’s in an uproar right now. It’s possible he’s feeling a little neglected, but it’s not something you can help. When you finish your case you’ll be able to rest all day, and you’ll have lots of energy to play with him when he comes home from school.”

“But not for long. What’s going to happen when the twins come? I won’t have any time at all then.”

“Yes, you will, because I’ll take my turn with the babies so you and Andy can have your own time. And there will be lots of times when all five of us are here together.” She snuggled closer and tucked her arm between Lily’s breasts. “You aren’t going to lose Andy.”

Lily sighed, remembering a conversation she’d had with Maria Esperanza about being separated from her children. “Things got wild in court today. Samuels came to me after he rested his case and offered to lower the charges to manslaughter, but he wanted Maria to do at least a year in prison. She said no, that she couldn’t stand being away from her kids that long, that they were depending on her now. When Miguel went to prison for a year she and her kids finally got a chance to relax without all the disruption and she started feeling like a good mother for the first time in her life. She’s willing to risk a twenty-year prison sentence not to lose another day from them.”

“That’s a scary thought.”

“Tell me about it. It made me so nervous I went back to the office today so Tony could look over my defense plan again. It’s solid but you can’t ever tell what a jury’s going to do. It’s all going to come down to whether or not they really believe the kids were in danger. I wish we could prove Miguel had a gun but it never turned up.” Anna’s fingertips tickled the hollow of her throat and she brought them to her lips. “The last thing I need to be thinking about is work. Tell me about your day.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary…work, Chinese takeout, sexy woman in my bed.”

“Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”

“I can prove it. I still have two cartons of chicken lo mein in the fridge.”

Lily didn’t feel sexy at all this week, but that had to do with her growing discomfort, not with Anna. The desire was always there no matter how it played out. With her pregnancy they had been forced to find new ways to be intimate. One of her favorites was to hold Anna and whisper to her while she touched herself.

“You know I think you’re the sexiest thing walking,” Anna said. “You need to quit making up things to worry about. How long has it been since you went to an AA meeting…a month?”

Too long, Lily thought. She hadn’t been tempted at all to drink but being around people in the program made her feel more in control of her life. “Virginia called me a few days ago. She’s like a shepherd going after strays in her flock.”

“Isn’t that what a sponsor is supposed to do?”

“I guess. I told her I’d try to make some time next week, but honestly, I don’t know when it would be.” She was dangerously close to talking about work again. “I still haven’t ridden in your new car.”

“We can fix that this weekend. I’d like to take it up over the Grapevine, put it through its paces.”

“Do you like it so far?”

“Love it, except my window fell off the track. That hardly ever happens in new cars, so I had them order a whole new assembly. Those things aren’t that hard to pop off and snap back on, but who wants to do it all the time?”

It was interesting to hear of her problem in light of Eduardo’s testimony that Miguel had the same problem with his car. “They really come off that easily?”

“Sure, if you have the right tools.”

Lily sprang up and located her cell phone. In moments she was introducing herself to the desk sergeant at the LAPD. “I’d like to have Officer Joey McElroy meet me first thing tomorrow morning at the impound lot.”

Lily looked up each time someone walked by the door of the small conference room in the courthouse, and checked her watch again with growing annoyance. They were due in court in only thirty minutes for the opening of her defense. With her was Officer McElroy, who looked like he had lost his best friend.

“I don’t know what to say,” the officer mumbled, shaking his head. Clearly he didn’t, since he had repeated that no less than a half dozen times since they left the impound lot. Four days ago he had testified for Samuels about the thorough search of Miguel’s home and auto, which had turned up no gun. Now he was back, humbled by his error.

“We all make mistakes. What matters is that we correct them whenever we’re given the opportunity.”

Samuels finally entered and dropped his briefcase in a chair with a thud, grinning smugly. “Having second thoughts about my plea offer?”

Lily lifted her eyebrows and tipped her head in the direction of the police officer.

“What are you doing here?”

It occurred to her that her expression was probably smug too as she pushed the clear plastic evidence bag across the table. “As you can see, we found Miguel’s gun. Turns out it was hidden in the doorframe of his car, where Officer McElroy had not previously searched.”

If the contortions on his face were any indication, Samuels’s stomach just flipped over. “It doesn’t change the fact that your client shot an unarmed man.”

“It’s going to change how the jury sees it though. This gun matches the description my client gave to Officer McElroy when she first reported that Miguel had threatened her. The jury will believe her now, and they’ll put it all together the same way she did. Miguel intended to kill their children. That’s how he was going to make her sorry, and that’s why he showed up at the house in violation of a court order to take them. If she hadn’t shot him, your first felony case would’ve been a child killer, not a mother protecting her own.”

All the bluster left his face and he slowly sank into a chair. “What kind of deal are you looking for?”

She snorted. Did he honestly think he had any cards left to play? “I’m not looking for a deal, Rod.” She used his given name for the first time, hoping it would diffuse his competitive impulse. “We want dismissal. Nothing less.”

He shook his head adamantly. “I can’t do that. Your client killed someone. We can’t just let people whip out their guns and go after someone who scares them. Ask Officer McElroy what happens when one of his fellow officers uses deadly force. We hold them accountable. We make them prove it was justified.”

“In the public eye maybe, but not in court. Here the burden is on you to prove it wasn’t.” She turned to the officer, sensing she could take advantage of his remorse. “What do you say, Joey? If you’d heard Miguel’s threats and known for sure he had a gun, what would you have done if he had tried to take his children?”

“I would have dropped him right where he stood.”

The ominous words hung for several seconds before the fight finally left Samuels’s face, replaced by a growing redness that was either anger or embarrassment. “It was a good case given the evidence we had.”

Lily saw no point in arguing. If he actually believed that, someone in the DA’s office had been blowing smoke up his ass, probably someone who resented his meteoric rise and wanted to see him get humiliated in court.

Anna flipped back through the first quarter financial report to make sure she was reading it right. “Please tell me this isn’t an April Fool’s joke.”

“Nope, April Fool’s Day isn’t for a couple of weeks,” Hal said, leaning in her doorway with his arms folded. “I thought you’d like that.”

“Like it? We doubled our first-quarter sales over last year. I don’t just like it. I want to marry it and live happily ever after.”

Her father pushed through the doorway with a questioning smile. “Do I hear celebrating?”

Anna ran down the preliminary sales figures for March, holding up Hal’s line graph that showed all four dealerships climbing in sales every month since November. “And that’s not all. Holly said this morning she’s taken deposits on all but three of the new vehicles coming in this week.” At least some of the uptick was due to Holly’s new advertising strategies. With her instinct for sales and knowledge of the vehicles, she was proving herself a much quicker study than Anna had anticipated. Once she got a handle on the finance end of things, she would be ready to take over as vice president of operations.

“It isn’t all good news, I’m afraid,” Hal said. “I got the new list of repos this morning. Your friend Dave Cahill’s on it.”

The usual practice at Premier Motors was to repossess leased vehicles after three missed payments and sell them as used. Dave had leased their high-end sedan, the 760Li, just before the recession hit and demolished his office supply business.

“Let it go,” Anna said. “He’ll be good for it once he’s back on his feet.”

Her father pushed his hands into his pockets and cast a gentle look of reproach.

“What? I own the place. I can do that,” she said defensively.

“I know Dave is your friend, but you’ve cut your staff to the bone to save their jobs. You owe them more than you owe him.” He had always preached that business was business.

“What about all the times you gave your golf buddies the family discount? Any one of them could have paid full price from what he had in his wallet. Dave Cahill has always cared more about giving a hand to someone who needed it, and I’m not going to turn my back on him now that he’s the one who’s down on his luck.”

He visibly retreated, rocking back on his heels. “Good answer.”

She wasn’t finished. “Besides, I wouldn’t say no to anyone at this dealership who came to me in a bind, and neither would you. Money is useless if you can’t spend it to help people you care about.”

He threw up his hands. “I take it all back…every word.”

Her cell phone chimed with Lily’s ringtone, and Hal tugged her father’s sleeve. “I think we ought to get out of here before she fires you.”

“Right behind you.”

“Hey, baby.”

“I did it,” Lily announced. “Samuels caved when I showed him the gun and he dropped the charges.”

“Good for you. Does that mean you don’t have to go back to work?”

“I’m walking out the door right now. Tony freaked out. He didn’t realize when I said I was going to start my maternity leave when this case wrapped up, I meant the very minute we finished.”

Anna was flooded with relief to know Lily would be resting through the home stretch. “Any second thoughts?”

“Not one.”

“Good. If you’re up for going out, I think we should celebrate. Andy and I can cut out of here early and we’ll all go for pizza.”

“I have a better idea. Tell George I’ll pick Andy up today. We can be ready to walk out the door whenever you get home.”

“That’s perfect.” Except that her dad was probably hiding by now.

Lily hadn’t felt such relief since the day she walked out of Redwood Hills after twenty-eight days in alcohol rehab. The next few weeks were hers alone, the first time since her childhood summer vacations that she had only to relax and do the things she wanted. Most of all she was looking forward to her afternoons with Andy. These weeks would be special for the two of them, a time she could assure him that his place in her life was secure. As she pulled up to a stoplight she rested a hand on her bulging tummy and smiled. Thank goodness they had wrapped this case up when they did, or she wouldn’t have had anything else to wear. At the rate her babies were growing, she would soon be spending all of her time in her bathrobe.