Page 81 of Naughty Dreams
DJ was staring at the van. At Roy’s appearance, he didn’t look away from it, but he did offer Roy a slight nod.
Ollie and Jason were about thirty feet down the trail. Roy pantomimed that they could return to the house, and then sat down next to DJ, keeping his feet braced on the ground to hold the swing steady. DJ nudged a bottle of Jim Beam toward him, but Roy shook his head.
“Pete left that sitting on the bathroom counter before we took off for the tour. Guess the cleaning staff decided to recap and leave it there, all neat and orderly next to the mouthwash, spare toothbrush and hand soaps.” Though DJ’s eyes were sunken, he didn’t sound drunk, so Roy assumed he hadn’t uncapped the bottle.
“Tal has a spare drug kit in the nightstand of the room he crashed in most often.” DJ cocked his head when a woodpeckerrat-tat-tat-tatted on a nearby tree. “There’s a kid’s book with it.The Watch Cat.I sat on his bed and read it. A Siamese cat goes looking for his lost little boy. What happens to her while she’s looking for him is why Siamese cats have crooked tails, crossed eyes and that raspy meow.”
“Why do you think he had it?” Roy asked.
“Probably left behind by one of the roadie’s kids and he picked it up one night, forgot he had it.” DJ paused. “Or maybe not. When you’re in foster care, sometimes there’ll be an item you get pretty protective about. Something that belongs to you that can’t be taken away. Sometimes it represents a good memory.”
“What was your item?”
DJ shook his head and remained silent, either because he didn’t have anything like that, or he didn’t want to talk about it. “Everyone treating you okay, giving you what you need?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I go off shift soon.”
“Crash in the stone guest cottage, if you want. It’s plenty private. Tal used it for a little while, until I found out he was partying with the wrong kind of people. After that, I told him he could stay in the house anytime, but not there. That was when he took an apartment in town. He’d still crash in his room here pretty often, though.
“I think Steve and Lonnie would’ve used the cottage for their first house as a married couple. I hope.” DJ dropped his feet to the ground and picked up the bottle. “See you, Roy. Thanks for getting me home.”
As Roy’s brow creased, DJ opened the bottle and tipped it, creating a line of amber liquid beside him as he walked away.
“DJ?”
He stopped. His chin tilted toward his shoulder, but he didn’t turn around. “One of my team will check in on you during their rounds. They’ll knock, but if they don’t get an answer, they’llstick their head in to make sure you’re okay. So don’t lock your door.”
“Never did. Doesn’t have a lock. Half the time I’d wake up and Tal or Pete would be there. Neither of them liked to sleep alone. Too much bad shit can happen when you’re by yourself.”
DJ drifted onward, went around another curve in the path, and disappeared.
Roy let Ollie and Jason know he was headed back for the house and kept the kid in sight until they verified they had him in their view. Then he finished his patrol. A ten foot stone wall surrounded all seventy-seven acres, embedded with movement sensors and strategically placed cameras. Anything that weighed more than the expected wildlife would trigger the gatehouse and home alarms.
After the meeting with Derrick and all the staff, Roy had one more stop to make, the gatehouse. He wanted to see the cameras in action. Derrick came with him. Two of his people manned the gatehouse at all times, and while DJ was in residence, one of Roy’s would be there as well.
Roy noted a screen that showed a panoramic view of the forest beyond the west wall. It seemed redundant with several other cameras, and “WC” was the screen identifier. “What’s that mean?”
“Wildlife camera,” Derrick said. “The feed’s accessible to the house televisions. DJ likes to watch it, particularly at night, to see what wanders out of the woods. Bears, deer, raccoons and possums. Sometimes bobcats and coyotes.”
“There he is.” Jonah, one of the regular security personnel, pointed to the living room camera as DJ passed by. “He just got back in from the gardens.”
The note of relief caught Roy’s attention, but before he could address it, Derrick did.
“Remember what Roy said during the meeting,” he told his man. “If he’s out of the house and out of range of a camera, you radio Roy’s people and make sure someone has eyes on him or can verify his location.”
“Ollie and Jason have him now,” Roy added, “but obviously you didn’t know that.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry.” Jonah’s ears reddened.
“I know you’re used to giving him a little more privacy on his home turf.” Roy swept his attention over the somber faces. “But we don’t relax our guard for a minute. If DJ gets an attitude about anything, you stick with him anyway and let me know. I’ll address it with him.”
Warren pulled up to the gate. The gleaming blue F-15o he’d rented to drive back and forth from where he was staying looked like he should be hauling a fancy horse trailer.
Roy came out and briefed him. He could go off shift now, but he found himself lingering, glancing over the grounds, at the gatehouse, at the main house. The stone cottage felt too far away from it.
“Roy,” Warren said, keeping his voice low. “You look like you’re running on fumes, man. You got him home. You know you have to recharge. We’ll take it from here.”
“Okay. Did you need anything?”
