Sweet Dreams, Irene

“Yes,” I said, once again feeling shame for being so underhanded.

“And Frank, I hope?”

“Yes, of course.”

“She thought so much of both of you. Thank you for looking after Sammy.”

I couldn’t look him in the eye, so I turned to Sarah. “Will you be all right?”

“Sure.”

On the way out, I walked through a living room full of teenagers, most of whom watched me. Near the door, two tall, muscular men that I hadn’t seen on my last visit stepped out in front of me, blocking my way. They looked enough alike to be brothers. They were both dressed completely in black, and I noticed their left wrists were each tattooed with a chain of skulls.

I can’t say I felt right at home with these gents. It wasn’t so much the tattoos as the look in their eyes. I got the feeling I meant about as much to them as a pesky fly would, and might be dealt with in a similar ma

“Where do you think you’re going?” one said. He was the taller of the two, and he was rolling a toothpick around in his mouth.

“Out. Let me by.” No use bothering with please and thank you with this type. I became aware that the other kids were leaving the room. Great. I was going to face Heckle and Jeckle by myself.

“What if we say you’re staying?” the other said. He didn’t look as if he solved chess problems in his spare time.

I was about to come up with an answer, when I heard a voice say, “Let her go.”

It was Paul Fremont, and his eyes were blazing with anger. They slowly stepped back, no less insolent, but at least they did as he asked. I thanked Paul and left.

BOTH CODY AND FRANK were waiting for me when I got home. “Hello, boys,” I said as I met them at the door.

Frank looked with curiosity at the mound of black clothes in my arms and said, “Going for a new look?”

Before I could answer, he wrinkled his nose and said, “And a new fragrance?”

I wondered if he would forgive me if I told him I had hoodwinked Mrs. Fremont’s grandson. I decided to delay telling him. I set the bundle down on the couch, where Cody immediately took a very strong interest in the new smells. I turned to Frank and gave him a kiss. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, I’m hungry.”

With a mischievous look in his eye, he held on to me and said, “Damn, I’ll bet you mean you want food.”

“I wonder if Carlson would be willing to add a couple more days on to that suspension.”

“You may have a good idea there. But I’ve got a better one.”

Okay, so we ate a little later than I had pla

OVER DINNER, I told him about Sammy’s disappearance and the stunt I had pulled at the shelter. As I spoke, he started to sit up in that way he does when the business side of him appears. All cop. He asked me a lot of questions, most of which I couldn’t answer, about the coven and the kids she might have known at Casa de Esperanza.

“I don’t like it, Irene.”

“I don’t like it either, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“What if she’s involved in Mrs. Fremont’s murder? You’ve gone in and taken things that might be evidence.”

“She didn’t kill Mrs. Fremont.”

“How do you know?”

“I know. I just know.”

He sighed. “She disappeared the night of the murder, right?”

“Well, maybe. She talked to Sarah on Halloween night, but I’m not sure when. At the most, I think she might know who the killer is. I think she’s in danger.”

“I don’t suppose it ever crossed your mind to share these thoughts with the police?” The tone was sarcastic in the extreme.

“I am sharing these thoughts with the police.”

“You know I’m not on that case.”

“Well, then, goddamn it, Frank, tell someone who is. What am I supposed to do? Call up Robbery-Homicide and say, ‘Jeez, guys, I’m worried about a kid who took off from a runaway shelter. She’s never mentioned the murder itself, but I just have a gut feeling that the two might be co

“I’m listening, aren’t I?”

I grasped my head in my hands. “Tell whoever you want to.”

“Irene.”

“What?”

“Don’t be angry with me. You know you can’t give me this kind of information and not have me act on it.”

“I’m not angry, Frank. I’m just frustrated. Tired. I don’t know, something. But not angry with you.”

“Even if they look for her because they think she’s killed Mrs. Fremont, at least they’ll find out where she is.”

“I hope so.” But even as I said it, those hopes were sinking.

“Mind if I go with you tonight?”

I was surprised. “Do you have any idea how boring this last-minute grandstanding gets to be?”

He ignored that. “Which race are you covering tonight?”

“District Attorney. John put other people on the mayor’s race and city council.”

“Well, I have a real interest in who becomes District Attorney,” he said with a grin.

“You’re going to have to work with both of them anyway, and you know it.”

“I just don’t want to sit around by myself.”

“Thank God you told me the real reason, Frank. I thought you had lost your mind. I’d love to have your company.”

WE WENT to the Montgomery gathering, which was noticeably subdued. Stacee had covered Henderson that night, and we met up with her later at the Express offices. Stacee took an immediate interest in Frank, who – damn his gray-green eyes – was not as immune as Jacob Henderson to her powers. It was all I could do to get her attention away from him long enough to talk about the business at hand. I wanted to strangle her.

I pounded on the keys as I wrote my story and noticed that whenever I looked up, Frank was watching her sashay hither and thither. He would feel my eyes on him somehow, and look down at me and smile. It would be a double homicide, I decided.

I stood up and cleared my desk, and left without so much as a “toodleloo” to Stacee. Frank got up and followed in my wake, puzzled.

When we got to the car, he said, “What’s eating you?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re jealous.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“You are jealous!” The bastard was laughing.

I started up the car. “I am not jealous! I’m embarrassed that a man who is close to forty sat there and mooned over a twenty-year-old twit.”

At this, he only laughed harder. I fumed silently.

Eventually he was subdued enough to find his voice. “Irene, she can’t hold a candle to you.”

My jaw was clenched too tightly to respond.

WE PULLED UP in front of the house, and I looked over to see he was still very much amused, but was wisely maintaining silence. Outside the car, the air was chilly and clouds rolling past the moon threatened rain.

I stomped up the walk, but came to a halt about five feet from my front porch. There was blood on the steps. And there was some object on the porch itself, a lump. I felt fear clawing at me, taking me down into some welcomed oblivion.

As if from far away, I heard Frank moving up quickly behind me, felt him grab my shoulders, heard him say, “Oh, for Christsakes…”

The lump was a human heart.