“I appreciate that.” Joe led her to the front door.
“Be smart, Charlie. I guarantee this will be over soon.” Simms opened the front door.
“Wait,” I reached for her. “Do you mean that? Like how soon? Two days? Two weeks? We won’t tell anyone, but it matters to us.”
Her bottom lip rolled in and guilt crossed her face. “I can’t really say.” She looked at her loafers. “We’re getting close.” She glanced at me. “Call me if you need anything.”
Joe closed the door behind her. “Want to disappear until November?”
I curled into his embrace letting him ease my tension. “Nah. But maybe we could spend a few days at the lake house until after Halloween. Until then, I’ll ask Tom to add some patrols.”
Joe snapped his fingers. “I’ve got a patient on the police force. You ask Tom and I’ll call my guy.” Joe jogged off to the bedroom, I assumed to grab his laptop and get his patient’s phone number.
Outside Tom snapped pictures of my flower bed between my house and Stephanie’s. “Charlie? Everything okay?” He slid his phone back into his pocket.
“No. Joe’s home now and we wondered if you could arrange for our neighborhood to be patrolled more often?”
“You bet.”
“Thanks, Tom. I appreciate it.”
“No problem.” His shoulders sagged. “I hate that this is happening to you. You’re one of the nice guys. Call me if you need me, anytime Charlie, day or night.” His voice softened and I remembered him coaching the boys. He’d been a great mentor to both Drew and Oscar, fair but firm. “There’s not much more I can do here now. I’m gonna head back to the office but I’ll leave a guy sitting out front.”
“Thank you. I don’t want anyone else to know this, but Joe and I might stay at the lake. We’re not even telling Liz.” I turned on my Mom-voice. “So, if she calls me and asks me about it, I’ll know you blabbed.”
“Cross-my-heart I’ll keep it secret.” He pretended to lock his lips. “Text me when you head out there and I’ll add patrols out there, too.”
“I appreciate it.” I headed back into the house.
Joe gave me the thumbs up. “My guy said he’ll swing by three times per shift and ask some of the other guys, too.”
“That’s nice. Tom said he’d have someone stay out front for a while. I told him we’d stay at the lake but to keep it a secret.”
“I heard. That’s probably a good idea.” Joe grabbed my hand and led me to the family room couch. He pulled me onto his lap and finger combed my hair. “How do we find the guy that broke in?” He looked angry, he sounded furious, he reminded me of Liam Neeson in the movie Taken.
I curled against him. “I’m not sure. I’ll look into Tyler’s non-adoption cases from five years ago, see if I can find some case that involved drugs, prostitution, or gambling, stuff related to organized crime. Maybe that’s what Oscar did and found the connection. Maybe Oscar knew about the illegal adoptions and when he found Tyler’s partner, they killed him.”
“It makes sense.” Joe kissed my forehead “Oscar knew something was wrong, but looked for proof before accusing Tyler of doing something so awful.”
“He wouldn’t blackmail anyone,” I whispered. I blinked back tears. “He was sweet, and kind, and understood families would be torn apart if he was right.” Tears, hot and unwanted, spilled onto my cheeks. I was scared.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
We stayed at the house. After Eddie covered the open doorway with a large sheet of plywood, we were exhausted and decided sleeping in our own bed would be best. Especially since Joe had surgeries scheduled in the morning and I didn’t want him having to get up even earlier to drive into town.
Ray dropped by in the morning with Danishes. He held up the white bag. “I got you a fruit salad filled crouton.” He slid a laptop and Oscar’s tablet onto the kitchen table and handed me a donut with a sunny-yellow belly button of lemon filling oozing out.
“Thanks. I can’t believe you remembered what I liked.” Powdered sugar rained down from the lemon-filled donut, leaving little white freckles on my yoga pants.
Ray chuckled. “Please. You made an impression before I even opened the door, it was like I could sense the glare before you even knocked.”
“Maybe that’s my super-power. I transmit censure through solid objects. Although, that doesn’t make me a helpful superhero.”
“No, it doesn’t. Anyway, I brought over Polly’s cloned laptop.” He pushed half a bear-claw into his mouth and chewed.
Fearing he’d choke, I half-filled the ridiculously large mug Drew got me for Christmas with coffee for Ray.
He eyed the liter-sized ceramic beast. “I can’t stay here all day.” He took the mug, and it fit well in his oversized ogre-like hands. “Why not just put a straw in the coffee pot?”
“Because then you can’t brew the next pot while you’re drinking this one.” I kept the ‘duh’ silent. “Besides, now I’m not lying when I tell the doctor I’ve cut my coffee consumption down to one cup in the morning.”
Ray wrinkled his nose. “You’re worse than Ma.”
“How’s she doing?”
“She looked good when I left. I called Hank Warrens’s office and scheduled an appointment to talk about Ma’s power-of-attorney.”
I patted his hand. “I’m sorry, Ray.”
He nodded and stared into the depths of his coffee cup. “She’s challenging, but it’s payback.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Amanda and Connor are coming over this weekend to help.” He sighed and his shoulders slumped. “And Dad and Evie are getting married on Friday at the courthouse.” He winced. “That doesn’t make Kristi my cousin, does it?”
I laughed. “I don’t think so. Does it really make a difference?”
He pulled an apple fritter out of the bakery bag. “It’s not funny.” He bit into the fritter and crumbs fell. “You’re supposed to be encouraging me to change.”
“Am I?” I stared
