The Queen of Cool (27 page)

“
Why?”

“
Henry Downs wanted a
virgin. He wanted Romani power to help him with his politics,”
Mutt’s mother said. “My mother sensed their child would be
special.”

Mutt’s mother lifted her shoulders in a sad
shrug.

“
He was very special,” Lo
whispered.

“
Yes.”

“
Did Henry kill Don’s
mother?”

“
Yes,” Mutt’s mother said.
“But, you must hear it from my sister. Not me. I will be in enough
trouble for telling you this. You can’t imagine how angry my sister
will be. She is the oldest and makes the rules. I am not the
oldest, so I break the rules.”

Mutt’s mother smiled.

“
You need to know,” she
said.

“
I do?”

Mutt’s mother took two plastic glasses from
her Hermes purse. She poured an inch of Denton cane sugar Dr.
Pepper into each of them.

“
You will have to drink
from the can Donny,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

She offered Lo a piece of pizza and took a
piece herself. She gave Lo a paper napkin. She took a bite and
smiled. Impatient, Lo set her pizza on the napkin and Dr. Pepper on
the grass.

“
I
want
to know about Don,” Lo said. “Why do I
need
to
know?”

“
Because you’re carrying my
great-nephew,” Mutt’s mother said. “Because he carries the
curse.”

“
Henry Downs’s curse?” Lo
gawked at Mutt’s mother.

“
My husband’s curses are
strong,” she said. “And lasting. Don suffered as well.”

“
But…”

“
No buts,” Mutt’s mother
sat down next to Don’s angel. “Sit with me. Have some Dr. Pepper.
Let’s chat with Don.”

Unwilling to risk the older woman’s fury, Lo
sat down next to her. She raised her glass and Lo clinked hers
against it.

“
Tell me everything that is
going on. You are looking into his murder?” Mutt’s mother
asked.

“
Yes.”

“
Tell me everything.
Pretend we are at a family dinner and Don is waiting to hear your
updates. We’ll see if he has anything to add.”

Lo watched the woman’s face. When Mutt’s
mother nodded, Lo realized she had nothing to lose. She told her
the little she knew about Don’s murder. She included what she knew
about their child and talked about how much she missed Don. Mutt’s
mother asked her hard questions, which Lo did her best to respond
to. Once in a while, Mutt’s mother tipped her head to the side as
if she was listening to something. She would smile and ask another
question. When Mutt’s mother ran out of questions, she told Lo what
Don had to say.

Through Mutt’s mother, Lo heard Don’s words.
She wasn’t sure why but she trusted Mutt’s mother’s capacity over
what Don said in her dreams and visitations. After all, Lo was not
Romani born. But truth be told, Don didn’t say much more than he’d
already told her.

By the time Mutt’s mother had walked her to
the truck, Lo felt better than she had in days. Before she drove
past the stone pillars at the entrance to Oakwood Cemetery, she
felt Don near her.

“
I love you,” she whispered
and left the cemetery.

Q

A month later

Monday morning—6:25 a.m.

Fairmount Historic District, Fort Worth

Days: 87

“
Okay, we have time for one
last circuit,” Lo said. Amanda and Alisha moaned. Lo laughed. “Do I
need to remind you that…”

They were working out in the garage gym.
Three days a week, Lo took the girls through a one-hour-long
workout. The day was already moving toward blistering heat. Lo had
opened all of the garage doors to let the air in.

“
We asked for it,” Alisha
said. “You say that at this point in every workout.”

“
You groan in every work
out,” Lo said. “Do you like the results?”

“
Yes,” they
said.

“
Are you losing weight?
Meeting your goals?”

“
Yes, Mom,” Amanda’s voice
held her teenaged moan.

Lo and Alisha laughed.

“
Alisha, do knee claps
right here,” Lo pointed to a spot in their basement garage.
“Amanda, mountain climbers here.”

Alisha and Amanda went to their designated
spots.

“
I’ll do jump squats,” Lo
said. “We’ll switch at fifteen. Alisha, you start the
count.”

Alisha raised her knee and clapped while
counting out fifteen. Amanda worked through her mountain climbers
and Lo did jump squats. Breathing hard and sweating, the women
worked their way through the last of Lo’s fat blaster workout.

Lo tossed a towel at Alisha and one at
Amanda before drying off. Alisha held out a bottle of cold
water.

“
Is Rick coming this week?”
Alisha asked.

“
He’s scheduled to come
tonight,” Lo said. “He’s gaining muscle weight; that’s what he
wanted to do. What do you think?”

Alisha raised an eyebrow and nodded.

“
How is it – to be training
people again?” Amanda asked.

“
I like people,” Lo said.
“I like the air conditioning business because there are so many
puzzles. How many people do we need? What’s the best product? Stuff
like that. But training is the sheer joy of seeing someone become
what you know they can be.

“
And… I guess,
every time I train someone, I have a moment or two when everything
feels a tiny bit normal. For the briefest second, I feel like your
dad is going to be waiting for me at
our
home.”

She smiled at Alisha and Amanda. Amanda put
her arms around Lo’s neck. Alisha evaluated Lo for a moment. Lo
watched a nod move from Alisha to Amanda.

“
What?” Lo
asked.

“
We wanted to ask you
something,” Amanda let go of her neck and stepped back to stand
with Alisha.

“
Anything. What’s going
on?”

“
For the first time ever,
you have a little pooch,” Amanda said. “You’ve been working like a
dog at the Queen of Cool.”

“
And working out on the
side,” Alisha said. “Are you pregnant?”

“
Yes.” Her voice was
cautious. Lo knew the girls well enough to know that something else
was coming.

“
Who’s the father?” Amanda
asked.

Shaking her head at them, Lo started up the
garage steps.

“
Why wouldn’t you tell us?”
Amanda asked.

“
It’s the only reason we
could think of,” Alisha said. Lo stopped walking up the steps. She
turned to look at them. “We couldn’t figure out why you wouldn’t
tell us.”

“
I didn’t tell you because
the doctors keep saying I’m going to lose him,” Lo said. “I didn’t
think you could handle another loss.”

Amanda ran up the steps to hug Lo. Alisha
followed close behind.

“
I’m so sorry,” Amanda
said.

“
Please don’t be mad,”
Alisha hugged Lo.

Lo shooed the girls up the stairs.

“
Showers?” Lo asked.
“Yazmin will be here in a few minutes.”

“
No,” Amanda said. “You
have to tell us everything.”

“
There isn’t much to tell,”
Lo said. “I got pregnant the night your dad visited us. If you
count from the day he died, the baby is too small for that. I go
once a week and they peer into my belly to see if there’s still a
baby there. And every week, they tell me not to be surprised if he
doesn’t make it.”

“
He?” Alisha
asked.

“
Mutt thinks the baby is a
boy,” Lo said. “I’m supposed to see Vera’s grandmother, but I
haven’t had the time.”

“
You left the doors up
again,” Yazmin said from the doorway to the garage. “That’s not
safe Lorraina.”

Their pit bull, Truman, zoomed into the
house after his morning run with Mutt. Truman ran in circles around
everyone. Mutt kissed Yazmin good morning. She said something in
fast Romani. He nodded and ran back down the stairs.

“
He will get the doors,”
Yazmin’s face flushed with joy. “Why are you looking at me like
that?”

“
Happy for you,” Lo hugged
her.

“
Ugh, you girls,” Laughing,
Yazmin waved her hand in front of her face. “Off to the
showers!”

“
We want to hear about the
baby,” Amanda said.

“
Lorraina is
pregnant with Mr. Don’s baby,” Yazmin shrugged. “She’s wanted to be
pregnant for years and years. And now that she is, those
médicos
have not let her be happy. They tell her he will die
at any moment. She lives with great fear and great
loss.”

“
I don’t want to lose him,”
Lo said.

“
They want her to start
over again,” Yazmin said. “But why? This child is the blessing of a
visitation.”

“
Can we see a picture?”
Amanda asked.

“
I don’t have them,” Lo
said. “I…”

“
I’ve saved them,” Yazmin
went into the kitchen. Stretching to her toes, she went to the
cabinet over the stove. “It’s not here.”

“
What’s not there?” Mutt
asked.

“
My photos
of
mi hijo
. I’ve kept every one in a little book,” Yazmin
said.

Taller than she, Mutt came behind her to
look in the cabinet. He shook his head.

“
Nothing but cookbooks,” he
said. “You’re sure it was here?”

Nodding, Yazmin looked at Lo and then at
Mutt. Silent information passed between them. The men Yazmin had
beaten were in jail. Someone had taken the photos. To cover their
concern, Lo shrugged.

“
You can come with me this
Saturday,” Lo said. “The doctors will officially declare the baby
three months old. They said they would stop talking about
termination if he made it that long.”

“
That’s where you go every
Saturday?” Alisha asked.

Lo nodded. Amanda laughed.

“
What did you think?” Lo
asked.

“
Grief counseling,” Amanda
said.

“
Lorraina has too much
grief for counseling,” Yazmin said. “Now you will each be in grief
if you don’t leave my kitchen. Go clean up.”

Amanda, Alisha and Mutt scattered out of the
kitchen. Mutt went to his apartment while Amanda and Alisha went to
their rooms. Yazmin hugged Lo.

“
Is it very hard that they
know?” Yazmin asked.

“
Makes me more afraid of
losing him,” Lo nodded.

“
I’ll set up to see Vera’s
grandmother this Saturday,” Yazmin said. “She wants to see me
too.”

“
For babies?”

“
For Yazmin’s babies! Can
you believe it?” Yazmin beamed. “We start classes at church this
week and…”

“
Just a few more months
until the wedding!” Lo hugged her.

“
Ugh, you smell!” Yazmin
laughed.

Laughing, Lo went to her bedroom. She
slipped off her clothing and looked at her naked body in the
mirror. Her face was gaunt. The light had faded from her blue eyes.
From the shoulders up, she looked drawn and frail. But the girls
were right. Her belly had a small bump. She put her hand there to
touch the baby.

When she’d imagined getting pregnant, she
envisioned life in River Crest. Don would dote on her. They would
set up a nursery in one of the upstairs rooms in their beautiful
home. She could see Don agonizing over colors, arguing with Mutt
about furniture and showering her with love and care.

But Don was dead and her dreams had
died.

Somehow, she and their child would have to
survive. She gave herself a soft smile and went to shower.

Q

Monday afternoon—2:15 p.m.

Queen of Cool offices, Arlington

Days: 87

Lo filled her water bottle from the filter.
Smiling at the receptionist, she went back to her office and closed
the door. She’d spent much of the morning going over the business
with Lisa. She’d set aside the next hour to delve into the
financial records from Don’s estate accountant. She sat down at her
desk and opened the spreadsheet.

The Feds had seized all of Henry Downs’
fortune. According to her new estate lawyer, they were convinced
that Henry had made his money illegally. And, of course, Henry had
been dead for more than twenty years by the time Don died. Most of
Henry’s fortune had been donated, given away, invested, or moved
from this place to that place. The entire estate, including the
money Lo made, would be held until the Feds could track all of the
transactions.

The Feds responded to the suit filed by her
new Dallas estate lawyer by stating that the seizure of their
assets and Don Downs’s death was coincidental. However, Terrell,
their friend at the FBI said Don’s questions about VX sparked a
panic that brought about their actions. Either way, Lo, Amanda,
Lisa, Earl, their three kids, Mutt and even Alisha were living off
the money from their new partner, Rick’s, venture capital
investment. The Queen of Cool was close to breaking even but close
wasn’t close enough.

Lo stretched her neck and settled in to
reviewing the spreadsheets. She and Don had gone over their
finances every single week. Most of the spreadsheet related to
their weekly discussions. Some of it was a mystery.