Memory Lapse: A Slater Vance Novel (13 page)

Slater tapped his upper
lip with his fingers. After a moment’s hesitation, he leaned forward and hit
the delete button. At three o’clock, Slater shut down his computer, locked his
safe, and made his way to his SUV.

 
He grinned at Bennie’s parting remark
, ”
Watch out for lobsters.”

“Lobsters?”

“Yeah, way worse than
crabs, they’re found in muddy bottoms and last fifty years,” she said drily.

Slater was almost to
Vermont Street, when
Highway to Hell
began to play.

Lifting a hand to his
ear, he clicked the Bluetooth and said, “Slater Vance.”

As if from very far away,
Slater heard his brother’s voice, “Hey, Slate, it’s me. Listen, I’ve got you on
speaker. I wanted to let you know Honey is with me. The church is sponsoring a
Day in the Park program for the kids today, and I thought she might like to get
out for a while.”

“
Okaaay
,”
Slater answered slowly, drawing the word out, not knowing why his brother
thought he needed to know the comings and goings of his unwanted houseguest.

Continuing, Tucker said,
“The City is doing a bonfire tonight for the kids so it might be late when
Honey returns. I just didn’t want you to worry, what with the break-in last
night and everything.”

Tucker’s jaw clinched
painfully. “Tucker, I don’t think it’s a good idea to be out at night with her.
Do you?”

Silence filled the line
and Slater thought he heard a small gasp before Tucker picked the receiver up,
effectively taking him off speaker.

“Sometimes, Slate, you
can be a real jerk. We both know Honey is not a prostitute. I don’t think you
need to worry about my virtue,” Tucker said in a low, harsh voice.

Slater pressed his lips
together. Obviously, Honey was in the office with his brother, which was the
gasp he’d heard. But they’d both misunderstood his comment.

“Tucker, I… I wasn’t
talking about your virtue. I was more concerned about both of you being out at
night with Zeke
Zagoria
still running the streets
looking for her. While he obviously won’t recognize her, he will recognize you.
I just don’t think it’s safe.”

Silence again filled the
phone. Eventually, Tucker sighed and said, “Look, I’m sorry, Slate. Of course
you’re right. I shouldn’t have jumped so quickly to the wrong conclusion. But I
think we’ll be safe enough in a crowd of people. There will be officers present
during the festivities in the park.”

Slater ran a hand through
his hair in frustration. He hated when Tucker dug his claws into one of his
stray’s situations.

“Okay, listen, I’ll call
Tiger Monroe and tell him to sit on you until I get there, okay?”

“I don’t really –“

Slater cut his brother
off. “It’s not up to you. Either you stay home, or you get Tiger. Those are
your only choices. This is non-negotiable. The man threw a fire-bomb into a
church not knowing how many innocent people could have been hurt. He obviously
has no regard for human life. After
that
inhumane display, he attacked you in front of the church. He is extremely
volatile and dangerous.”

Slater heard his brother
blow out a breath on the line. “You’re right, Slate, you’re right. I’ll keep my
eyes open for Tiger. So I’ll see you later then?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way to
meet with the real Honey Luscious as we speak. I’ll call you later. Please have
your cell phone with you… and charged.”

“I will.
You
be
careful,
okay? You’re the only brother I have. I might miss you if you were gone.”

Slater smirked into the
phone. “Don’t you know? Only the good die young.”

There was another moment
of silence as both of them realized the unfortunate truth to his words.

Tucker cleared his throat
and said softly, “I love you, Slate. Remember… day by day.”

Day by
day.
That had
been Slater’s mantra for the past five years.
Day by
agonizing day.
His brother had been right, time did heal. The pain in
his chest, which had been an open, gaping
wound
now
felt more like a small stab wound. He’d learned not to allow the thoughts of
the past to linger in his mind. He remembered his father telling him about the
facts of life when he was twelve.
Slate,
you can’t stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can certainly stop it
from building a nest in your hair
. Slater refused to allow thoughts and
recriminations about Anne and Sophie, or even his parents, to linger in his
mind.

Chapter 9

Father Tucker Vance
closed his eyes as he placed the receiver down with extreme softness. He
worried about his brother. He at least had his faith to hold him, but Slater had
lost everything, including his faith. He wondered if he’d done the right thing
in allowing Honey to stay at Slater’s house. Quickly he said a prayer for his
brother’s well-being. Opening his eyes, he found Honey watching him
apprehensively.

“Slater is worried about
us with Zeke
Zagoria
out and about. He wants us to be
careful. He is sending Tiger Monroe to watch out after us while we’re out
tonight at the park. I think he is overreacting, but we’ll let him have his way
on this, shall we?” he said with a quick, reassuring smile.

She returned it with a
hesitant smile of her own.

“Father, I don’t have to
go. I can go back to your brother’s house. I don’t want you in danger because
of me.”

“Absolutely
not.
It’s not
good for you to be locked up in the house all day. It’ll do you good to be out
and about.
And its Tuck,” he reminder her with a smile.

Secretly relieved, she
just nodded her head then took a sip of her tea.

“Have you and your
brother always lived in Charleston?” she asked conversationally.

Tucker smiled. “Yes. My
father, after graduating college, came to Charleston to work as a Civil
Engineer. My mother was raised in Charleston and lived here her whole life.
While in college, she worked part-time in a concession stand onboard a tour
boat that went back and forth to Fort Sumter. My parents met when my father
went on that tour. They were married for twenty-two years.”

“What caused them to
divorce?” she asked hesitantly, hoping it wasn’t too invasive to ask.

Tucker gave her a startled
glance until the realization of her question hit him.

Softly, he said, “They…
didn’t divorce. They were both killed in an automobile crash the year I
graduated high school. I’d just turned eighteen.”

Horror flooded her face.
“I’m so sorry.”

Tucker smiled kindly.
“It’s been a long time now. Time does heal. My parents were happy and had led
very fulfilling lives. But I still miss them.”

“How old was Slater when
they passed?”

With a grimace, he said,
“Slater was a very vulnerable thirteen-year-old then. He… didn’t take it well.
Sometimes, I don’t think he ever got over it or moved past it. He was a really
different person then. More open, less cynical.”

“What happened to him
when your parents died? Did he go live with relatives?” she asked.

“No, I was lucky enough
to be able to keep him with me. It was a struggle sometimes, but well worth it
in the end. There was no way I was going to give him up to anyone. There really
is only Slater and me. We have some distant relatives, but none that are
close.”

“What about when you went
to college? How did you support yourself and a teenage boy?”

Tucker smiled at his
internal memory. “We were lucky that our parents had invested their money
wisely and had a good life insurance policy. While we certainly weren’t rich,
we had enough. I had been accepted to Stanford the fall before they died, but
changed my plans and went to the community college here in Charleston.”

Honey chewed her bottom
lip as she listened to Tucker speak. “You had to give up your life for your
brother. Did it make you angry?”

Tucker blinked, confused
at her question.
“No, of course not.
He is my family.
I don’t feel it was a sacrifice at all. It was much harder for Slate than it
was for me. He was so young and impressionable when they were killed. He needed
me, but I needed him just as much.”

“Have you always wanted
to be a priest?” she asked, trying to understand the Vance family dynamic.

“From the time I was an
altar-boy, I knew what my calling was. So I guess the answer is yes.”

Taking another sip of her
now-cooled tea, she asked, “What about Slater? Was he an altar-boy, as well?”

Tucker grinned, flashing
his perfect, white teeth. “Oh, my parents made sure he was, but suffice to say,
it definitely wasn’t his calling.” Tucker’s grin faded at his memories, “No,
Slate was lost for so long. I worried he’d never find his place. He wandered
around for a little after high school, but then joined the Marines. It really
turned his life around. The military gave him the structure he needed in his
life.”

Honey set her cup down
carefully as she thought about what Tucker had told her. The burden that’d been
placed on his young shoulders had been enormous. It was funny to her, because
Slater acted like the big brother now, like he was now the one who was responsible
for the other. She understood now why Slater had agreed to have her in his
house; duty to his brother – a payback of sorts.

◊◊◊

As he pulled up in front
of the
Kwik
Klean
, he
scrolled down until he found the number he’d saved the day before for Tiger.

The phone rang four times
before Slater heard, “
Yo
.”

“Hey, Tiger, it’s Slater
Vance. I need you to move your security location for Honey Luscious from my
house to Sutherland Park. My brother and Honey will be there until late
tonight. I need to you sit on them until I can relieve you, okay?”

“
Umph
,
so this is now a night detail? That’s
gonna
cost you,
Pretty-Boy.”

Slater rolled his eyes;
of course it was
.
“How
much?”

“Double.”

Slater let out a long
sigh and rubbed his hand through his bristly hair. “Fine,” he said through
clenched teeth as he clicked off the phone.

Not that he’d mention it
to Tiger, but he would have paid one hundred times the going rate to keep his
brother safe.

The bell on the shop’s door
jangled when he pushed it open. He saw Tim step from his office in the back.
Slater was again amazed at the man’s transformation once Tim realized what type
of customer walked through the door.

Stepping up to the
counter, Slater said, “I have a date with Honey at four.”

Without taking his eyes
off of Slater, Tim flipped open a large, fat appointment book, almost like one
a doctor’s office would use. Apparently, Tim ran a pretty big operation with
more than just Honey Luscious.

Tim glanced down briefly
and said, “Yep, four o’clock. You’ve scheduled a block of time of fifteen
minutes. While we’re happy to accommodate you, you still have to pay for an
hour. Because Honey possesses… extraordinary skills,” Tim grinned salaciously
at whatever those skills were, “her hourly rate is…” Tim glanced over Slater
taking in his military-style haircut, expensive black leather jacket, and his
Rolex, “five hundred dollars.”

Slater stared at Tim
without comment for the space of one minute. Making a calculated move, he turned
on his heel and headed for the door.

Over his shoulder, Slater
said, “Tell Honey, thanks but no thanks.”

Tim scrambled from behind
the counter. “Wait, wait a minute. Okay, okay, for you four hundred dollars…”
when Slater’s steps didn’t falter in route to the door, Tim said, “Okay, okay,
two hundred dollars. Come on, man, that’s a deal. She’ll rock your world, I
swear.”

Slater paused with his
hand on the doorknob.
“One hundred dollars for fifteen
minutes.
Take it or leave it.”

Slater watched Tim’s face
redden in frustration. He opened the door and had one foot out when Tim yelled,
“Fine, fine.
One hundred dollars.”

With his back still to
Tim, Slater grinned. Masking his face, he again removed his sunglasses and
turned back into the store. With a jerk of his head, Tim said, “Honey’s in the
back.”

Slater slowly made his
way past Tim and then the counter. He stepped through the open office door and
then through another door on the opposite wall. When he stepped through the
second door, he found himself in the area of the dry cleaner’s where the actual
work was done. There were rows of racks filled with clothes on hangers covered
in plastic and several large commercial dry-cleaning machines. There were
several long tables set up with piles of both folded and unfolded clothes.
There were stainless steel shelves on the far end holding chemicals of some
sort, and next to the shelves, was a stainless steel sink.