Page 38

CHAPTER 38

I took a long, hot shower—alone for once—and put on makeup and my fancy red dress that I’d worn to the Wok Inn with Max before, and went down to the kitchen when I heard somebody knock on the back door. I couldn’t see anybody through the window, so that was a little disconcerting, but then Lian popped up, like she’d been bending over, and she had a banker’s box in her hands, so I went to let her in.

She looked my red dress up and down. “Lookin’ good ,” she said and went back out the door for another box. “I am not giving these to Barry,” she told me as she unloaded the last of four boxes into my kitchen from the back stoop. “If he tries to take them from you, shoot him. Call me with any questions. The number is taped to the top of the boxes. It’s a burner phone number, and you’re the only one who has it. There’s another burner in the top box for you to use to call me, and one for Poppy to call Mei on her new phone. Rowan got them for me, paying cash in Bearton so they can’t be traced.”

I looked at the boxes. “I have no idea what to do with this.”

“That’s why we’ll use burner phones,” Lian said. “Call me. I’ll walk you through it. Oh, and the envelope on top of the last box is for Poppy. Tell her we love her. And now I have a van to finish loading.”

“Do you need help?” I said, and she shook her head.

“Rowan’s on it. Darius just asked Mei if she wanted to go with him to his mom’s family and then to see Harvard, and she leapt at it. She’s gone already.” I looked surprised and she said, “Her bags were already packed so he picked her up in front of the law office. They stopped back here and she threw gravel at Poppy’s window and said good-bye. So they’re gone, and Rowan and I will be out of here by nightfall.”

“Wow. Okay, wait a minute. I have something for you, too.” I ran to get her fox mask.

When I gave it to her, she laughed. “This is how you see me?” she said. “A sexy, legal fox with fire in her eyes?”

“That’s how everybody sees you,” I said, which was true.

“Oh, Rose .” She hugged me, and then she kissed me goodbye and left to finish loading her rented van.

I thought, Wait , but she really couldn’t. This was the end.

I hated it.

We’d raised our babies together. We’d gossiped and cried together, laughed together, planned together, and now she was gone. It was good that she was leaving—she’d never liked being in Rocky Start and now she was free to live a better life—but she was my best friend and she was gone.

Max came out into the kitchen wearing Ozzie’s dress jacket again, the one that had once had fifty thousand dollars sewn into the lining. He smiled when he saw my red dress with the fringe at the bottom, and then he caught a look at my face. “What’s wrong?” he said, intense again.

“Lian just left. Forever. They’ve almost got the van packed. She’s gone.”

“We can go to New York and visit,” Max said. “Rowan owes us for not killing him.” Then he saw the boxes. “What’s all this?”

“Town records,” I told him. “Lian told me never to give them to Barry.”

“What’s in the envelope?” He took the manila envelope taped to one of the boxes and opened it and then showed it to me: It was the title to Lian’s ancient BMW, over twenty years old now, transferred to Poppy. “Marley will have a good time with that.”

“With what?” Marley said, coming into the kitchen. He had a dress jacket on, too, and was looking very non-kid-like. Max handed him the title. “Sweet,” he said. “Lotta potential in that old car.”

“We need to stash four banker’s boxes from prying eyes and Barry Mason,” I told him.

“I know a place,” he said, and we each took a box—Max took two—and he showed Max the secret storage behind the bookcase in the library.

“This closet could be very helpful,” Max said as we shoved the last of the boxes in.

“Food would be very helpful,” I said, and then Poppy came downstairs in her little black dress with the short skirt and the heart-shaped boob window, looking very grown-up, enough that Marley’s eyebrows went up into his hairline and Max looked at me like he did not approve.

“She’s eighteen,” I whispered to him when she’d walked past them both and headed out the door, Marley following her, slightly dazed. “Nineteen on January tenth. She’s fine.”

“That dress,” he said.

“Max, were you a virgin at eighteen?”

He scowled. “That’s different. I was in a war zone when I was eighteen.”

“So is she,” I said, and we went out the door, Max shaking his head.

When we caught up with Poppy and Marley, Max noticed they had plenty of space between them as they walked.

“Did they fight?” Max said quietly. “Darius was here earlier?—”

“How did that go?”

“Not well, but she was mad at Darius, not Marley.”

“I don’t think Poppy liked Marley almost blowing himself up,” I said, “but that’s just a guess. It’s really not our business.”

“Marley is going to spend the rest of his life almost blowing himself up,” Max said. “He’s that kind of kid. She should get used to it. You have.”

I was a little skeptical about “She should get used to it,” and I was even more doubtful that I’d ever get used to Max dodging bullets, and I was positive that I was going to miss Lian forever, but first and foremost, I wanted food.

And the Wok Inn had it.

* * *

The Wok Inn was the best (and only) restaurant in town, its black and red interior centered on the massive koi tank on one wall, which is where Hugh seated us. Center of the room, full visibility, good lines of fire for Max.

Marley held Poppy’s chair for her—Pike and Coral raised kids right—and then said, “Is there a reason we’re sitting here in the middle of everything?”

“Hugh likes Max sitting where everybody can see him,” I told him.

Marley looked at Max. “Lucky you.”

Max shrugged. “As long as people don’t interrupt us?—”

“Oh, hello !” Hermione Witch stopped at the end of the table, Oxley Crothers trailing her morosely. “We’ll get two chairs and join you!”

“No,” Max said.

Hermione pouted. “I’ve had a very bad day. I lost Oxley’s keys, but he found them for me.” She hooked her arm through Oxley’s and didn’t see that he was shaking his head no, which probably meant she’d found them in his pocket while she was feeling him up. Probably to find the keys again. There’s just no helping some people. “So listen,” she went on, “I’ve heard about the Viking funeral you had for that old guy who used to run Oddities. I heard Poppy is the person who planned it—” She smiled at Poppy and then went on, “—and I was thinking we could give Sidsie the same?—”

She didn’t get to finish because all four of us said “No,” at the same time.

“That’s not fair,” she said, and Poppy said, “Life’s not fair.” Hermione evidently got the message that we weren’t in the mood to discuss funerals because she said, “Okay, what’s your favorite Christmas song?” and Max said, “‘Joy to the World,’” and she beamed, and then he added, “The one with the frog,” and she just looked confused. Then she must have finally picked up on the vibe at the table because she said, “So we’ll talk later,” and Max said, “No, we won’t,” and Oxley dragged her off.

“Frog?” Marley said.

“Three Dog Night,” I told him. “Long before your time. Big favorite of Ozzie’s also,” and Poppy nodded, looking sad again.

“Thank you for getting rid of Hermione,” I said to Max, and then Louise came in with Alfie Packer, the vet who’d taken her to Peru before she went back to Lionel (look, Louise got around, okay?).

Alfie was not looking happy.

I saw Lionel and Dottie in a corner near the door, talking intensely, leaning toward each other, looking upset, although not with each other, oddly enough. Probably because they hadn’t spotted Louise yet.

Louise pulled Alfie over to us. “Hello, Max,” she purred.

“I’m on a date,” Max said flatly as Hugh came up to the table with plates of crab rangoon.

“Did we order?” I said, confused.

“I heard about your day,” he said. “A four-crab day if there ever was one. On the house.”

“Oooh,” Louise said, reaching for one of the crab plates, and Poppy slapped her hand and moved the plate over to Marley.

“Not yours,” she said, not smiling.

Louise narrowed her eyes at Poppy.

“Can I get you a table?” Hugh asked Louise pointedly.

“You can get me one,” Alfie said, looking at Louise with disfavor. “And separate checks. In fact, separate tables.”

Louise looked annoyed and waved her hand, dismissing him like a fly, and Hugh took Alfie to a table in the back, possibly to make it harder for Louise to find him. Good luck with that.

The problem, of course, was that even annoyed, Louise was gorgeous, absolutely freaking beautiful. That tended to cloud men’s minds. So when Louise looked over and saw Oxley and Hermione at a table on the other side of the restaurant, she smiled at him and he automatically, no brain engaged, smiled back, which restored Louise’s good humor. It did not restore Hermione’s and she began to cry, making Oxley talk faster and hand her napkins.

Louise turned back to our table smiling, mission accomplished. “Well, hello you,” she said to Marley, I think to annoy Poppy for the crab slap, but also possibly because Marley was looking like an adult now. A very attractive adult male. If we’d been in the wild, she’d have pawed the ground. “You clean up nicely.”

“I don’t do older women,” Marley said, concentrating on his plate of crab.

For a moment, Louise looked dangerous, and I noticed Max’s hand move off the table toward his jacket.

“It’s just not your day, Louise,” I said to draw her fire, and she looked at Max, who said, “I’m on a date ,” which is when she gave up and turned and walked away, huffy again.

She looked beautiful huffy, too.

Alfie looked trapped as she made a beeline to his table and sat down.

Poppy eyed Marley. “She’s very attractive.”

“She stiffed the garage where I work by sleeping with my boss. And she doesn’t take care of her car, which is a flashy knockoff.” He grinned at her. “And she tried to cop the crab rangoon in front of you. I don’t do dumb.”

Max snorted, and Poppy laughed, the first time all day, I think, and I thought about all the memories we’d built here, about Coral and Pike and Luke and Betty and Anita and Hugh and the kids Poppy ran with, about Lian and even Rowan, about the people who had been kind to my baby and me, all the people I cared about. And above all, about Ozzie the grump, Ozzie the skinflint, Ozzie the best man I’d ever known.

Well, tied for best with Max.

“What?” Max said quietly as Poppy and Marley fought over the crab rangoon on the other side of the table, smiling at each other.

“Ozzie,” I said. “You. Poppy, Coral, Pike, Lian, Betty, Luke, Marley . . . I am a lucky woman.”

“Well, we’re lucky, too,” Max said and then frowned as Bea came up to the table, weaving a little.

“I gotta problem,” Bea said.

“I’m on a date, ” Max said, so I got up and said, “Let’s go outside, Bea,” and took her arm.

She didn’t want to go, but she was in no condition to argue, so when I’d strong-armed her out onto the street in the cold, which I was hoping would be sobering (Hugh nodding his thanks at me as we left), I said brightly, “So what’s the problem, Bea?”

She focused on me. “Life is awful.”

“Part of it,” I said. “But then there are the bees. Beautiful bees that make the world a better place. You save the bees every day, that’s a wonderful part of life.”

She sniffed, but she thought about it. “I love the bees. But not the people.”

“Really,” I said. “Anybody in particular you don’t like?” Because if she’d been talking to somebody, working with somebody . . .

“Some people,” she said vaguely. “I need a drink.”

She tried to turn to go back inside, but I half-walked, half-dragged her across the street and opened the door to her shop. “How about some sleep?” I said brightly while she looked around, confused at the change of scenery. “Hey, how did you like the bee mask?”

She brightened. “I like it.”

I nodded. “Ozzie left that mask with your name on it. A leopard, a beautiful powerful leopard that reminded him of you.”

“Oh, Oz,” she said, mournful now. “He was the best.”

“He really was.” I pushed her in the door to the shop and then realized I was going to have to get her upstairs to her apartment.

“I’m so sorry,” Bea said as she tripped on the stairs.

I strong-armed her up the steps, practically carrying her. “We all miss him,” I said, breathing hard as we got to the top.

“Not sorry about Oz,” she said. “About . . .” her voice trailed off as I dragged her into her bedroom and let her fall on her bed. “This is nice,” she said and passed out.

I looked down at her, half tempted to slap her awake and find out what she knew. I decided against it. She was out cold, and the chances of getting her sober enough to tell me anything would be balanced by the fact that if she was even a little bit sober, she wouldn’t tell me anything. So I swiveled her feet up on the bed and covered her with a blanket and went back to the Wok Inn.

My family was at a table full of food.

“We ordered without you,” Poppy said. “And Hugh added more stuff. He said it’s on the house. I think because you got Bea out of here.”

“Good,” I said and sat down. “Did I miss anything?”

“Dmitri came in to get takeout for Betty and Tanke,” Poppy said. “He said Betty is much better, and Fernanda and Dolly have bonded, and so has Tanke. He’s a llama shepherd now. Oh, and he thanked us for the butterkuchen .”

“Just what Rocky Start needed,” Marley said. “A llama shepherd. We never had one of those.”

He grinned at Poppy and she laughed, and I relaxed a little more.

“And Louise is now in the bar with Barry,” Max told me. “His lucky day. Alfie Packer took the opportunity to escape.”

“Smart man.” I grabbed a crab rangoon and sat back and crunched while I looked around the room. Nobody was yelling or shooting at anybody, just nice people eating good food. Plus, Louise and Barry, which had huge entertainment possibilities. Then the door opened, and Luke came in with Jackie and Quill, and Quill saw Poppy and waved and smiled, and Jackie looked surprised at her kid, possibly because Quill wasn’t sulking, and I thought, Maybe it is all over. Maybe we’re good now.

I mean, Junior was dead, and if he’d been running the Cauldron, he was the reason people kept showing up to kill us. I think for him, it was personal, and I doubted the next guy in charge was going to kill for free. As I understood it, the Cauldron was very profit-oriented.

“Maybe it is over,” I said, and Max said, “Maybe,” and passed me a crab plate.

But when I looked at Poppy, she shook her head, and I thought, Yeah, I don’t think so, either.