Significant Others (24 page)

It took Max a long time to answer the door.

“Dee Dee,” he exclaimed. “What a wonderful surprise.” He hugged me.

“Are you all packed?” I asked.

“Yes, my bags are in the spare bedroom. Birdie and I are so excited.” Max hesitated. “I mean I’m sure you and I would have had a wonderful time together on the cruise.”

“Max, don’t be silly. I’m glad you’re going with Birdie. She’s a lovely woman. And I hear the Caribbean is beautiful this time of year. Well, that’s all I came to say. Have a wonderful time, and, well, I won’t be here when you get back, so I wanted to say goodbye and thank you for being such a wonderful friend to me.”

“No, thank you for being there when I needed you,” Max said.

“I guess we kept each other company,” I agreed.

“Dee Dee, it was so wonderful knowing you. I hope you’ll come back to visit.”

“I plan to, and it makes me happy to know you’re in good hands.”

Max smiled and hugged me again and walked me to the door.

Chapter Sixteen: My Son Has a Million Questions

“Daniel, uh, Dad, thanks for letting me take these albums, and for letting me see your bomber jacket,” Donny said, opening the door to his mother’s condo. “I want to see all your pictures. I want to know everything about you for all those years we were separated. This will be a great start. I want to know the whole story about you and my mom, from the beginning. Anything you can tell me. Everything you can tell me.”

Donny rambled on, “Oh, and I want you to meet my wife. Barbara’s great, and my kids...” He hesitated. “Your grandchildren. You’ve got three beautiful grandchildren.”

I beamed. “I’ve already met your son. He’s the image of you. He’s great. I can’t wait to meet the rest of your family.”

“And Dad, hey, you don’t mind if I call you Dad, do you?”

“Mind? Of course not,” I said, then hesitated, testing the waters. “Son.”

Donny looked at me and we both broke out in the biggest smiles. Then, tears threatened again as I looked at my boy. Well, not a boy anymore. A man.

“I’ve got these books, about the war. Well, I guess you don’t need any books. You lived it. It must have been, well, tell me, how was it?”

I smiled at my son. He had a million questions. I had missed that phase of his life, that part of his growing up, all the questions, but I thought his mother and I should answer them together.

“Do you think we can disturb Dorothy—I mean, Dee Dee—I mean, your mother—and ask her to come out and join us?” I asked. “She could help me tell the story.”

“Sure,” Donny said. “Let me go get her.”

“Mom,” Donny whispered, rapping lightly on the partially unhinged door. “Mom, it’s Donny. Are you awake? Daniel’s here again. We’re both here. Could you come out?

“Mom?” Donny called again.

“She must be dead to the world.” Donny laughed. “She sleeps a lot, you know, since Dad, I mean since, well, you know.”

“I spent a lot of time in my room too, after my wife died,” I explained. “And it’s okay to call him Dad around me. He was your father for all those years. I’ll always be grateful that he was there for you and your mother.”

“I’m glad you understand,” Donny said, turning on the light. “Because Stanley Palladino was a hell of a father. A hell of a man.”

“Mom,” Donny called out again, then peeked into the bedroom and found an empty, unmade bed. Puzzled, he turned back to Daniel. “She must be in the bathroom. She’s not in the bed.”

Donny checked the bathroom, came out, and went straight into Honey’s room.

“Bathroom’s empty. She’s not in Honey’s room either. That’s strange. She knew we were coming back to talk to her. Let me try calling some of her friends, or my aunt. She may be at Aunt Helene’s.”

Donny went through his mother’s address book and after several phone calls still couldn’t locate her.

“She’s disappeared,” Donny said sullenly.

“You don’t think she left to avoid talking to us, do you?” I speculated.

“Well, now that you mention it, I guess I wouldn’t want to face the two of us either. Maybe she just went for a walk to, you know, think about things. She spends a lot of time down by that tree. She calls it her Jesus tree. Maybe we should take a look down there.”

I hadn’t heard anything about a tree, but I was willing to try anything. I desperately needed to find her.

“I’m kind of worried about her. We’ve both been getting these flyers from some group known as Seniors Against Sin. They’re targeting me, your mother, and some other people in the complex.”

“Why is this the first I’ve heard of it?” Donny snarled, turning to me.

I reached into my pocket and handed the nearly destroyed flyer I’d retrieved from my door earlier that morning.

Donny smoothed out the red sheet, read it and scowled.

“What kind of crap is this? Who are these Seniors Against Sin? And what do they want with my mother? My mother is the most decent woman I know.”

“I’m looking into it. But I think there might be reason to worry,” I said. “There was an elderly couple found dead in their bed right in your mother’s building the other day. An elderly couple, ‘living in sin.’ Now that may just be a coincidence. But I’ve sent one of these flyers over to a friend of mine at the Sheriff’s Office to dust for prints. It’s a long shot. Let’s not waste time speculating about that now. We need to find your mother.”

We walked out of the condo together and took the elevator to the first floor. By now, it was dark outside. I was beginning to get a bad feeling, and I always trusted my hunches.

“It’s this way,” Donny motioned.

I followed, then sprinted past my son.

“Mom?” Donny called out.

“Dee Dee? Are you out here?” I echoed.

No answer.

“It’s so damn dark out here,” I brooded. “You can’t see a thing.”

“Watch that you don’t trip,” Donny warned. “There are a lot of dead palm fronds and tree branches left over from the storm.”

“Dee Dee?” I called out again.

Suddenly, I saw a crumpled form lying on the ground under a tree. As I got closer, I realized it was Dorothy.

“Dorothy!” Not daring to breathe, I pointed. “She must have tripped and fallen. She was all alone out here. We should never have left her.”

“Mom?” Donny cried and ran to his mother. He started to lift her.

“Don’t move her,” I cautioned. “Is she breathing?”

“I don’t know,” Donny said.

I swiftly moved him aside, lifted Dorothy’s hand, and felt for a pulse.

“Barely,” I confirmed. “I think she’s lost consciousness. Who knows how long she’s been out here. She could have a concussion.”

I cradled Dee Dee’s head in my lap and pulled out my cell phone. As I moved her I realized there was blood on my pants where her head had rested.

“This is Detective Daniel Moore,” I said, shaking. “I need an ambulance at Millennium Gardens. I have an emergency here. Zinnia, Building G. Someone will be there to direct you.”

“The police are on their way,” I told Donny. “Could you wait in front of the building and bring them back here?”

Donny nodded.

Dee Dee looked so pale in the moonlight, so beautiful. So frail. What if…?

I looked at my son to steady myself. Usually cool and collected, I was about to lose control.

“I can’t lose her, not now,” I said, choking back the tears. “Not again.” I leaned over, smoothed her hair out of her face, and kissed her on the lips, but she didn’t respond.

“It’s okay, Dad, it will be okay,” Donny said, looking on helplessly. He turned toward the building and walked away to direct the ambulance.

Dee Dee still hadn’t regained consciousness when the ambulance team took her vital signs and lifted her onto the stretcher.

“I’ll go with your mother,” I said to Donny. “You find Honey and meet me at the hospital.”

Chapter Seventeen: I’m No Prince Charming

“You can go in now, Detective Moore,” the nurse said. “The doctor will have her discharge papers ready in a few minutes.”

Dee Dee stirred in the hospital bed.

“Detective Moore?” she said, narrowing her eyes.

“I guess you’re awake then,” I replied sheepishly.

“Are you supposed to be flashing that badge of yours around like that? I thought you were retired.”

“I only impersonate an officer when I want to throw my weight around,” I pointed out. “When I need to interrogate suspects.”

“Is it time for our talk?” she whispered, frowning, looking up at me. “Are you going to interrogate me? I don’t think this is a good time. My head, Daniel. It hurts so much. Can you get me some aspirin?”

I reached over to the side table, poured her a glass of water, untwisted the cap, and handed her two pills. “The doctor said you could have these for the pain if you needed it.” She looked so damn vulnerable. “I’m not going to question you, for heaven’s sake. You’re in the hospital.”

Dee Dee looked around the room. “What am I doing in a hospital? Did something happen to me?”

“Do you remember anything about last night?” I asked.

Dee Dee pressed her hand to the back of her head and winced. “I remember saying goodbye to Max, and then I walked outside, over to my tree and—well, the part after that is just a blur. I must have tripped on a branch in the dark and hit the back of my head on a tree root. I guess everyone at Millennium Gardens is talking about this. The silly old woman wandering about in the dark, tripping over dead tree branches.”

“They’re hardly saying that,” I corrected. “And you didn’t trip, Dee Dee. You were knocked out. The doctor thinks someone hit you over the head with a flashlight or some other blunt object.”

“Who would want to do that?”

“The police are investigating, and I’m helping them. You’ve been getting those Seniors Against Sin
flyers. I’m afraid your ‘accident’ might have something to do with that group. Did you notice anyone following you last night?”

“Well, I might have heard some leaves rustling, but I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it might be a stray cat.”

“Hmmph,” I groused. “There, uh, was a lot of blood and, well, you were unconscious for we don’t know how long.”

Dee Dee sat up, alarmed. “Unconscious?”

I pressed her forehead down and eased her head back onto the pillow.

“No sudden movements,” I cautioned. “You’re fine now, but Donny and I were a little shaken when we first saw you. If we hadn’t come along, who knows what would have happened.”

When my cell phone rang, I turned to Dee Dee. “Do you mind? I’ve been expecting this call.” Dee Dee shook her head.

I stayed on for several minutes, grunting throughout the conversation.

“Just as I suspected,” I said, pocketing my cell phone and taking Dee Dee’s hands. “We got the results of the print I found on that flyer on your door. It’s a match to Charlotte Simms, or Cher, as you call her. Only her name isn’t Charlotte Simms. That’s an alias. She has a list of priors a mile long. The woman is not only a vamp. She’s a con artist. Those flyers started appearing when she came back in town. The police are going to bring her in for questioning.”

“Oh, my, Daniel. I don’t like that woman, but I never thought she could do something like that.”

“Oh, she’s capable of that and a lot worse,” I assured her. “In fact, the police think she might have been involved in that couple’s death in your building last week. Some kind of love triangle gone wrong. But don’t worry. I’m not going to let you out of my sight until we have enough proof to charge her.”

I rubbed Dee Dee’s hands. “But enough about that. I’m here to take you home. Your kids were here all night, and I finally met Barbara. She’s quite a woman. She really had the doctor running scared. The first thing she did was announce that she was an attorney and that nothing better happen to her mother-in-law while she was under his care.”

“But Barbara’s a divorce attorney,” Dee Dee said.

“Doesn’t mean she couldn’t separate him from his assets. I’m just grateful she was here. You got the best of care, let me tell you. And your son-in-law Marc, he was a big help too. When I convinced the family you were okay, they went back to the apartment to start packing your things. They want to take you back to Atlanta today. The doctor said it would be okay for you to travel. Hannah wanted to come, but she stayed at the hotel with the kids—my grandkids.” I couldn’t help beaming. “Our son, he was ordering everyone around, making sure you had everything you needed. I think he would have carried you to the hospital himself if I’d let him. He’s very single-minded. I wonder who he takes after?”

“His father, no doubt,” Dee Dee said, her eyes twinkling. “Daniel, I know we have to talk about—”

“That can wait till I get you out of this place. You had us all pretty worried. They did X-rays, all kinds of tests. You had to have some stitches. You’ve got a bandage up here.” I touched the affected spot on her head gingerly, but she drew back in pain. “We’ll have to keep a close eye on you. You have a lot of friends at the complex who are worried about you. Your sister was here most of the night. I had to forcibly remove her from the room and send her home to get some rest. She called this morning, and apparently we’re the big topic of conversation over the breakfast tables and in the clubhouse.”

“There’s probably going to be a big spread about us in the
Millennium Gardens Gazette
,” Dee Dee joked.

“It’s already slated for the front page.” I grinned.

“I’m just glad I’ll be gone by then. I don’t think I like being in the spotlight.”

I looked at her.

“Did you mean what you just said? You’ll be glad to be gone? What about me, us?”

“Daniel, I—”

I sighed.

“Do you remember me kissing you last night?” I asked softly. “When you passed out, I did everything I could think of to try and wake you up.”

“You mean like Sleeping Beauty?”

“I guess I’m no Prince Charming.”

Dee Dee took my hand and tears glistened in her eyes.

“You’re my hero,” she said softly.

That wasn’t a commitment, but it was something. Now was not the time to pressure her, but time was running out for us. I could see it in her eyes.

Chapter Eighteen: Second Chances

“I wanted you to see my tree, in the daylight,” I said, “before all the leaves start growing back. Somehow I think this tree had something to do with bringing you back to me.” The morning light streamed over the golf course and illuminated the live oak tree.