“Okay, we celebrate and then have dinner with Sophia and the kids. I’ll call her now. Have her make a great dessert.” Louie’s face gleamed.
“Thanks, Louie.”
That night, when he got home, he’d try to get through the files on his own. The words his father had spoken to him on the day of his promotion to detective echoed in his head.
“With command comes great responsibility, son. Treat your officers the way you’d want to be treated.” Then Captain James Carrington pinned the new gold shield onto Jake’s dress uniform. Pride shone in his father’s eyes as he saluted him. Days later his father died of a heart attack.
Jake felt his father had died of a broken heart.
With his father gone, Jake had one close relative this side of the ocean, his mother. The rest resided in Ireland, where his parents were from. She hated his job. He thought better of sharing his news with her.
Though unrelated, his mom felt his sister’s death had resulted from her husband’s job. Not logical. A spoiled kid had ruined their lives. Eva had turned him down. He had taken what he’d wanted anyway, punishing her for rejecting him.
Thoughts of his mother surged into his head and brought on the familiar guilt. Jake promised himself he’d visit her this week. Cripes, he hated walking into the nursing home. The odors assaulted his olfactory senses. He always held his breath until he reached his mother’s room. The crying and begging from the residents as they reached out to him when he walked by tore at his heart. He tried not to rush by them. He hoped to God he never wound up there. In his opinion, a bullet to the head would be better.
His beautiful mother had brownish-red hair, cream-colored flawless skin, high cheekbones, and sad emerald eyes. She had forgotten how to live after Eva died. He got his height from his father, but his coloring from his mother. At five-six Maddie packed quite a punch when her temper flared. It wasn’t something you wanted to be on the receiving end of. Now trapped in the past, his mother lay in bed all day, crying, telling stories about her Eva through her tears. Jake wondered why she hadn’t run out of them.
We lost two people on the day Eva died. My mother blamed me. She blamed my father. She blamed the police, the school—and anyone else who popped into her head. . . Something snapped in her brain on the day Eva died. He didn’t understand if she couldn’t or wouldn’t move forward. A tight family unit, once happy—never the same after that day, he thought. We all loved each other, and were looking forward to the bright future ahead of us. Yes, I’ll visit her tomorrow.
Louie touched his arm, brought him back to the present. “Hey, you in there? Let’s head out now.” Louie grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “Oh, boss…”
“Funny, Louie. What?”
“First round’s on me. I want everyone to know I’m playing up to the new boss. Got it?”
“Oh, Louie—rounds two, plus three and four, are also on you,” Jake said shrugging into his jacket.
Maybe he’d take tonight off before he immersed himself in Eva’s file. God, he’d need to get a boatload of courage before he ran through it all.
Chapter 2
Four hours later, he and Louie walked in Louie’s front door, smashed to the gills, their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders as they laughed like loons. Sophia, Louie’s beautiful wife, was not amused and told them in no uncertain terms. Jake tried to focus.
“Where have the two of you been?” she asked, flipping her long curly brown hair over her shoulder as she approached Louie with a wooden spoon in her hand. “You stink! What have you been drinking? Why have you been drinking?”
“Does she always talk in riddles?” Jake tilted his head down to focus on Sophia. Her brown eyes hadn’t an ounce of tolerance in them.
“I never noticed. I can’t get past the beauty,” Louie slurred. “Isn’t she voluptuous?”
Jake pleaded the fifth.
“Louie, I’m counting to three—I want answers. This is disgraceful. The children can’t see you like this. And you, Jake, you should be ashamed of yourself, getting him drunk.” She hit him on the arm. “You know he can’t hold his liquor.”
“Ouch! It wasn’t me, he got me drunk. We went for a drink or two to celebrate with the other guys. We tried to leave an hour ago, but they wouldn’t let us. Well, one drink led to another, and now we’re here.”
“Lucky me, here you are. Give me your keys, Jake. Who drove you home?”
Concentrate your anger on Louie. This is why I’m not married.
“I love you. You’re sexy when you’re mad,” Louie said, losing his balance as he leaned in for a kiss.
Jake laughed and grabbed Louie, almost over balancing them both when Sophia rolled her eyes and pushed Louie away. At five-four Sophia’s temper could pack a punch. “Jake, who drove the both of you home?” she asked again, guiding them into the kitchen. The table was set for two.
“I need your pasta, Sophia, before I can answer. I’m sure it was one of the uniforms.” He scratched his head and swayed.
“Good. Sit down.”
She dished out penne topped with sauce and cheese onto a plate with the wooden spoon in her hand.
“Sophia, go easy on him, please.”
“Mind your own business and eat, Jake. You’re staying here tonight.”
“Won’t Louie get upset? When did I start turning you on?” He put his hands up to avoid her slap.
“You idiot! You’re on the couch, Louie’s in the bed. Or maybe I should make him sleep on the couch with you.”
Louie lifted his head from the table. “I’m home. When’s dinner?” he asked, dropping his head down and banging it on the table.
Tomorrow he’ll have quite the bump, Jake thought.
“Help me get him upstairs. He’s gone.”
“Sophia, we don’t do this often.”
“You’re missing the point, Jake. I’m not used to the two of you like this. Drinking on empty stomachs wasn’t smart. How could you be so stupid? And be quiet, the kids are doing their homework in their rooms. I don’t want them to see him, or you, in this condition.”
Louie wrapped his arm around Sophia’s waist as they headed upstairs. “I love you, more than anything.”
He’s getting sloppy, Jake thought.
“Yes, Louie, I know.”
“Want to make love?”
“You’re a piece of work. Yes, but not tonight. You’re going to bed, to sleep, walk.”
“You sure? I’m excellent in the sack and you’re—”
She cut him off with a hand over his mouth.
Jake couldn’t help himself. He started laughing and almost lost his balance again. His head spun as he tried to straighten up.
“What are you laughing at? Be quiet.” She punched his arm. “Idiots.”
Jake kept his mouth shut. After helping to put Louie to bed, he went to the study, pulled the drapes shut and lay down. Once on the couch, he passed out without another thought.
* * * *
At dawn, gray shadows swirled around the room from the one curtain Jake had forgotten to pull closed last night. Disoriented, he rolled over in search of his watch and found it on his wrist. He tried to sit up, but crashed back down, covering his eyes as millions of tiny lights exploded in his head. Damn, his whole body ached from sleeping on the lumpy couch. He tried one more time to sit up without