Page 4 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
He dropped the diaper bag on top of the other suitcases and unzipped the bottom one-handed while balancing Cassidy against his chest. Sure enough, inside the clever compartment was a manila envelope with his name scrawled across it in a hurried cursive.
He pulled out the envelope, hoisted the bag back over his shoulder, and slammed the trunk shut. “Let’s get you guys in the car.”
“We have our car seats,” Reagan informed him as he opened the back passenger door, kicking off another angry meow. “Mom said Miss Purrfect wouldn’t be happy being caged in the car, but she couldn’t bring her to the gym. Can we let her out now?”
“Sure.” Why not add a snarly cat to the party?
She gave him a beaming smile as she leaned down and opened the cage, her hair bow flopping to the right. The animal’s pointed white face snarled at him like he was the reason it had been in feline jail, its green eyes staring at him with as much menace as the serial killer he’d busted ten years ago. Great. He was already on this cat’s shit list.
“Look, Robbie! Mom made Miss Purrfect a new collar.” Reagan fingered the bedazzled band that had probably been inspired by that Marilyn Monroe song she loved, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Tara had the movie poster ofGentlemen Prefer Blondesin her main nail salon, and it seemed like the song had been playing every time he’d swung by to say hello and check up on her.
An image of Tara and his little sister Kathleen doing art projects on the kitchen table in his childhood home rose up in his mind. “Your mother has been gluing sparkles to everything she could get her hands on since she was a kid.”
“That’s how we make things prettier,” Reagan told him matter-of-factly while the cat tugged at the collar with its paw as if it understood their conversation. “I can hold Miss Purrfect on my lap after I help buckle Cassidy into her car seat. Mom says you might not know how to do it.”
What did Tara think he was? An idiot? But he was sensitive to Reagan’s pride. “She might be right. How about we buckle in after I read your mom’s letter?” His fingers were itching for information.
The SUV was designed for comfort, he noticed, as he settled Cassidy in the left captain’s seat and then helped Reagan into the right one before fitting himself into the spacious rear middle seat with the diaper bag at his feet. Next, he was going through that. Unsealing the envelope, he pulled out the pages and began to read.
Dear Robbie,
I’m in trouble. I didn’t dare call you on your phone because they told me they would find out and hurt my babies.
Let me back up. Scotty has taken off—with that skank nail girl Janice Brewster he screwed at my new location. I know Danny told you that I’d caught them together in the office doing the business on my desk four days ago. I fired Janice and kicked Scotty’s sorry ass out of the house, changed the locks, and took him off all the bank accounts, telling him I was getting a divorce. Like my lawyer advised.
Later that day, two of Branigan Kelly’s tough guys showed up at my main nail salon. They said they expected things to be business as usual with me even though I’d kicked Scotty out. I didn’t know what in the hell they were talking about and told them that they could go fuck themselves.
But the moment I closed for the day, I locked the door and searched every corner of the salon. I found over three hundred thousand dollars, which was like getting hit in the face by a two-by-four. I was sick with worry by the time I finished searching the other two salons. Robbie, I found over three hundred thousand dollars hidden in each nail salon—almost a million dollars total! I gathered it all up in a black suitcase and then put it in my BOSS bag under Cassidy’s diapers when I got home—the last place I thought anyone would look. The one I left at the gym for you.
Scotty was laundering money for the Kellys. He’s called my phone a million times begging me to let him pick up a few things he left behind at the nail salons. Personal mementos and his precious computer. What bullshit! He showed up when I was out, but my girls told him to buzz off. When he came by the house, I told him I’d call the police if he stuck around. What was he thinking? Doing that in my place of business and risking everything I’ve worked so hard for? I want to tear him apart.
He had to stop reading. His heart was pounding in his ears. The Kellys? Jesus, he hadn’t thought Scotty was that stupid. Everyone knew Branigan Kelly’s reputation in South Boston. He was a low-level monster who’d risen to the top by forming alliances with the Russians and the Albanians.
“Daddy really messed up, didn’t he?” Reagan said in the quiet of the car.
He looked over to see her holding Miss Purrfect tightly against her chest, her little chin resting in the fur. “What else did your mom tell you?”
“Mom is so mad at Daddy for being a moron and hurting our nail salons by being a bad businessman. She kicked him out of the house when he said he wasn’t sorry and wouldn’t make it right. Then she told us he left town and might not be coming back and good riddance. We girls are better off.”
“Yeah,” Cassidy echoed in baby-like support, her tiny fist banging the side of her car seat. “Good riddant.”
He tried to give them a smile. As a story, it was a solid one for kids. Believable details. Enough of the truth to make it passable. As a cop, he knew how critical it was for kids to have a story for their minds to hold on to. Otherwise, they might make up a story ten times worse than the truth, which would leave them in a fearful place of confusion and uncertainty. Never a good space for any person, least of all a child.
“I’m sorry this happened, but your mom is correct, and now we’re going to fix things.” He leaned forward with the letter in his hand and touched both girls’ arms, making sure to look them both straight in the eye. He knew how important such a look was. They had to know he could take care of them.
God, this situation was a heavy load for kids to carry. He knew the work it took for kids to keep positive in the face of major family changes and tragedy. He and his family had gone through the wringer when they’d lost their mom to breast cancer. Kathleen had only been five, the youngest of a whole bunch of pissed-off kids who’d done their best to tell her everything would be okay.
But it hadn’t been.
Their mother’s absence had left a hole in them all. He wondered if Scotty would leave such a hole, asshole that he was.
What the hell was the right thing to say here? “We O’Connors stick together.”
“And we’re as tough as they come,” Reagan added, echoing what she’d heard their family say over and over again. His mother used to say that if you repeated a sentiment often enough, you’d truly feel it, and Robbie believed that. It was the only way he’d gotten over his mother’s death.
“You bet we are.” He held out his hand for a fist bump, which Reagan gave with a surprising force.
“Me too,” Cassidy cried, holding out her little fist as well as her teddy bear’s.
