The Queen of Cool (28 page)

In February, Don had started unloading money
to a number of charities. Lo flipped open her planner to check the
Post-it from the form she’d found in the wedding album. Don had
started researching VX in February. He must have believed that
Henry made money from the sale of the biological weapon.

But why didn’t he tell her? She wished she
had his journals. She knew his journals would have told her
everything she wanted to know. But the journals, like most of her
life, had burned in the fire.

Lost in thought, she answered the phone when
it rang.

“
Hello,” she
said.

“
Hi, I’m looking for
Lorraine Downs,” a young man’s voice said.

“
This is Lorraine Downs,”
Lo said. “Most people call me Lo.”

“
I’m J. M. Calhoun,” the
young man said.

“
What can I do for you Mr.
Calhoun?”

“
Most people call me J.M.”
He chuckled at his joke, and Lo smiled. “I’m calling from the
Dallas Art Museum.”

Lo flipped through the Excel spreadsheet to
see if there was any information about the Dallas Art Museum there.
Don had a windfall from a case. Together with her modeling money,
they had made a large donation to the museum a few years ago.

“
I have to apologize. If
you’re calling to discuss a donation, Don’s estate is still being
held by the Feds. We don’t have a skinny dime to rub
together.”

“
Donation?” J. M. asked.
“No ma’am. I’m calling because your collection is almost
complete.”

“
My collection?” Lo
asked.

“
We’ve recently acquired
the final piece,” J. M. said.

“
The final
piece?”

“
For your collection,” J.M.
said.

“
My collection?” Lo
repeated.

“
You don’t know what I’m
talking about,” J. M. said.

“
I don’t,” Lo
said.

“
Were you aware that your
husband gave the museum a sizable donation?” J. M.
asked.

“
A few years ago,” Lo said.
“Yes, we did that together.”

“
Do you know what the money
was designated for?” J. M. asked.

“
No, Don handled that. You
probably know that Don is…” Lo could never say the words without
choking up. “…isn’t here anymore.”

“
Yes, ma’am,” J. M. said.
The young man was quiet for a moment. “Maybe you should come to
see.”

“
See what?”

“
Your husband designated
the money for the Lorraine and Donald Downs Collection,” J. M.
said. “It will be completed on your fifteenth wedding anniversary.
It was to be an anniversary present to you.”

Unable to speak, tears flowed down Lo’s
face. The young man cleared his throat.

“
Since Mr. Downs… left us,
we’ve been working on the final piece,” J. M. said. “We found the
piece last month. We were able to obtain it this
morning.”

“
I’m sorry, I…” Lo
managed.

“
Ma’am,” J. M. said. “We
want you to know how sorry we were to hear about Mr. Downs.
Everyone here at the museum feels his loss. Our curators have
pulled out the stops to make this collection… amazing. And it
is.”

“
Thank you,” Lo
whispered.

“
Our event coordinators
will be calling to confirm the guest list,” J. M. said.

“
Don’s assets are seized
and I…”

“
The event is paid for,” J.
M. said. “It was to be a surprise for you. He told me he was going
to take you to lunch for your fifteenth anniversary and then spend
the afternoon at the museum. You’d be so surprised you couldn’t
help but spend another fifteen years with him.”

Through her tears, Lo smiled at his
representation of Don.

“
It sounds dumb to say but
I’ve never seen anyone love another person like Don loved you,” J.
M. said.

“
I was very lucky,” Lo
worked to quell her sorrow. “I’m sorry I need to go.”

“
I’ll be in touch,” J. M.
said.

“
Wait,” Lo said. “What was
the final piece? This one you worked so hard to find?”

“
It’s a statue by Degas,”
J. M. said.

“
La Petite
Danseuse de Quartorze Ans,”
Lo’s voice was soft and low with surprise.

“
Yes, the Little Dancer of
Fourteen Years,” J. M. said. “It’s one of sixty-nine surviving
statues.”

“
It’s my favorite,” Lo
said.

“
Yes, I know,” J. M. said.
“She will arrive in a few weeks. Would you like to meet her before
the event?”

“
Yes,” Lo said.

“
I’ll tell you what,” J. M.
said. “We’ll get the collection installed and have you down to take
a look. The deadline will help us stay on track. Just so you know,
we borrowed a few things and bought a few things. We set aside
enough of the donation to help us expand the collection over the
next few years.”

“
I’ll look forward to
seeing it,” Lo said.

“
Yes, ma’am,” J. M. said.
“I’ll be in touch.”

“
Thank you.”

Lo set down the phone and closed her eyes.
Don was her everything. Don was everything. The words took on a
chanting rhythm in her mind until she reached her conclusion. Don
Downs was still her everything.

She was going to find out who killed
him.

And she was going to make sure they
paid.

Q

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Four days later

Friday afternoon—3:15 p.m.

Downtown Fort Worth

Days: 91

Lo drove around the block a few times before
she found a parking space. She fed the meter and walked down Third
Avenue toward Main Street where Simple Simon’s Pies and Pastries
took up the entire corner. Don had often stopped at the pie shop at
this time on Fridays. He’d said the shop was empty, and Sy Monquist
was usually there by himself. Don and Sy would chat for a while,
then Don would come home with something yummy. Since he’d been
trying to fatten up Lo for the baby, the pie shop was a regular
stop for Don. With Vera’s grandmother coming for dinner tonight, Lo
thought she could kill two birds with one stone – pay the man for
Don’s angel and get something yummy for dinner.

Peering through the window as she walked,
she saw Sy was alone behind the counter. He looked up, saw her and
moved toward the door. He was holding the door for her when she got
there. She gave him a slight smile. He nodded, closed and locked
the door. Without saying a word, he turned off the open sign.

Unsure of what to do, she followed him to
the counter. He cut two pieces of pie, poured two cups of coffee,
and set them on a tray. Without saying a word, he went to the back
of the store. She trailed behind the tall, solid man like a lost
puppy. He walked through the quiet kitchen and down a flight of
stairs to the basement. They passed tidy stacks of supplies and
entered a small office near the back. He went around a neat desk
and set the coffee and pie down.

For a man who’d said so much the first time
she’d met him, he was oddly silent today. Lo sat down in a chair
opposite him. He took a pint of half-and-half from a small
refrigerator behind him and set out some whole sugar for her.

“
Listen…” Lo
said.

“
No, you listen,” Sy’s
voice was deep and bayou thick. “You’ve wandered your pretty little
blonde head into a viper’s nest.”

“
How dare you speak to me
like that?” Lo jumped to her feet. “I only came here to give you
the money for Don’s monument.”

Lo took the stack of bills from the gun safe
out of her new purse and tossed them on his desk.

“
I don’t want your pie. I
don’t want your coffee. And I certainly don’t want to spend even
another moment in your company.”

Lo walked toward his office door. At the
door, she spun around.

“
And don’t you dare think
of doing any of your voodoo priest crap on me,” Lo said. “My baby
is Romani protected. Your voodoo will bounce back onto
you.”

“
Voodoo?” Sy’s eyebrows
went up in surprise. Laughing, he added, “You think I’m a Voodoo
Priest?”

“
You knew about my baby,”
Lo said.

“
Bad habit,” Sy said. “No
ma’am. I only worship the sanctified spirits of the Catholic
Church. No voodoo here.”

“
Tell it to someone who
cares,” Lo said.

She made it to the stairs when he said, “I
know about the VX.”

Lo stopped in her tracks.

“
If you want to know about
the VX, then I’d suggest you come back and eat your pie,” Sy said.
“The coffee is decaffeinated. The pie is mixed berry, your
favorite, and it’s warm. I just took it out of the
oven.”

Trying to decide what to do, Lo stood with
her foot on the bottom step and her hand on the railing. She shook
her head. This was stupid. She was halfway up the stairs when he
said:

“
You can’t make this go
away by yourself, cher,” Sy said. “You need my help.”

“
Like a hole in the head,”
Lo turned around at the landing to find him standing at the door of
his office.

“
Wake up, Lorraine,” Sy
said. “They’ve already killed your mother and father, gotten your
brother out of the police force, and killed the best man I’ve ever
met and God knows how many others to keep their secret. You think
you and that baby of yours are anything to them?”

“
What’s it to you?” Lo
asked.

“
Nothing,
actually,” Sy said. “I was trying to
help
you because you
have a desperate need. I was doing it as a favor to someone who
helped me when I was in desperate need.”

“
Why do I
need
your
help?” Lo asked.

“
Ask yourself,” Sy said.
“Why did Don come to see me the day before he died? Why did he stay
for an hour before coming home? You must remember; he was late. He
called twice from here.”

Lo stared at him.

“
The police asked you who
or what ‘shim’ was, didn’t they?” Sy said.

“
There were notations about
‘shim’ in Don’s Blackberry,” Lo said.

“
Simon comes from the
Hebrew word Shimon,” Sy said. “My grandmother called me Shim. Donny
too. He thought it was funny, you know, Shimmy Shimmy Ya? Old Dirty
Bastard?”

“
Don had terrible taste in
music,” Lo said.

“
He said you turned him on
to ODB,” Sy said.

Lo shook her head at Don’s cover for his bad
taste.

“
Everyone calls me Sy,” he
said. “Renee is the only one who called me Simon. Ever. Donny and
my grandmother called me Shim.”

He gave Lo a sad smile. Rubbing his head, he
went back into his office. Arguing with herself, Lo stood on the
landing for a moment.

“
Standing there isn’t going
to get your questions answered,” Sy said.

Lo knew he was right. She just didn’t like
it. She dragged her feet like a child and plopped into the chair in
his office.

“
Why do you know so much?”
Lo asked.

“
Army,” Sy said. “I was
pretty good at football in high school. I got a few scholarships to
college. But with a wife, and we were sure a family soon, we
couldn’t make it on a college football scholarship. I almost didn’t
go, but then I got recruited to play for West Point. I was the
starting quarterback for the Black Knights for a few
years.”

Sy stopped talking to eat his pie. In the
absence of his loud voice and powerful presence, the silence echoed
in Lo’s ears. She picked up her coffee and took a drink.

“
This is very good coffee,”
Lo said.

“
That’s what Donny always
said,” Sy smiled. “I miss the guy.”

“
Me too,” Lo gave a sad
smile. “How do you know about VX?”

“
I didn’t like being a
soldier. I didn’t have the heart to kill or arrange to kill anyone
or any other damned soldierly thing,” Sy said. “I got out of West
Point as a Second Lieutenant. Coach talked to a guy he knew and I
got assigned to the Army Material Command.”

“
What’s Material
Command?”

“
It supplies all the gear,
and pie I might add, to soldiers,” Sy said. “My commander was a
huge Army fan. Since I was the last quarterback to secure a win
against Navy, he took care of me. He knew about my soft heart and
gorgeous wife. He sent us to Pine Bluff Arsenal. VX was made,
stockpiled, and eventually incinerated there. So that’s the
how.”

Sy looked up at her.

“
Eat your pie,” he said.
“It’s delicious if I do say so myself.”

“
Did the VX that killed Don
come from Pine Bluffs?” Lo asked.

“
No,” Sy said. “Have you
ever heard of the CHASE program?”

“
Is it military?” Lo shook
her head. “I don’t know anything about military stuff.”

“
Stands for
‘Cut Holes and Sink ‘Em.’ It was a program of stuffing old ships
with weapons and sinking them off the coast. In 1967, almost eight
thousand rockets packed with VX were supposedly to be stuffed into
the
SS Corporal Eric G.
Gibson
. It was scuttled off
the coast of New Jersey on June 15.”