Angels & Imperfections
Chapter 24
I saw Molly briefly that morning. She had just gotten back from re-hab.
“Hi, Johnny,” she called.
“Hi yourself, Molly, you look terrific. What’s going on?”
She was supervising men moving her things out of her apartment.
“I’m going home to Denver, Johnny. I can’t stay here and get a fresh start. My folks want me to come home and live with them for a while.”
I nodded. “Good for you, Molly. That sounds like a really good idea. Do they know what you’re struggling with?”
“Yes, I told them everything. I want to thank you for all you’re help and support.”
“Forget about it. I hope everything works out for you. Drop me a note or send me an e-mail sometime, just to let me know how you’re doing.”
She walked up to me and we hugged for a moment, very tight. Today there was no smell of alcohol seeping from her pores.
“I’m scared, Johnny,” she whispered.
“Shoot! I’m not. You’ve got this. Go on and get it done.”
She kissed me on the cheek, and then she gave me a brave smile.
“You always did see the best in me.”
“Now it’s time for you to see it too. God don’t make no junk, girl!”
“I know that’s right,” she grinned, and went back to her apartment.
Lori was sitting at Christine’s desk, as Christine and I were in my office discussing what we had learned about Walter.
Lori buzzed me on the intercom.
“Hey, ya’ll, there’s somebody coming up the hall.”
Lori was becoming a fixture at the office. She spent more and more time answering the phone, allowing Christine to make outgoing calls on her cell phone, and help me with research. Lori thought it was pretty cool, to be able to see people coming up the hall for their appointments, by watching the video monitor on the computer screen.
I didn’t have any appointments scheduled for this time.
I clicked on the video feed to my computer screen.
The lady approaching the front door was very well dressed and appeared to be in her thirties. Christine went into the reception area to meet her.
I switched cameras, so my monitor showed the view from just behind Lori’s head.
The lady was about Christine’s height, maybe five feet, three inches, but more like 5’6”, in her high heels. She had medium length, blonde hair and appeared to me to be quite pretty, elegant and poised, as she greeted Christine and Lori.
Presently, there was a knock on my door, and Christine brought the lady into my office.
“John, this is Melody Doyle, of Doyle, Doyle and Starnes. Ms. Doyle, this is Mr. Tucker.”
“Please call me John,” I said, as I shook her hand.
I was amused to see Christine take a seat in one of the upholstered chairs in front of my desk, at the same time Ms. Doyle did.
I knew Doyle, Doyle and Starnes, was one of the law firms in this building, located just down the hall, on this floor.
“Is this a neighborly visit, or do we have business to discuss?”
“A little bit of both, I reckon.” She said, with a grin. “I’ve been curious about ya’ll, since I saw you moving in. When they put the plaque up ‘Tucker Investigation,’ I got even more curious.”
“Well then, Ms. Doyle, welcome to Tucker Investigation. How may we be of service?”
Christine was watching all this with amusement.
“Melody, John, please call me Melody. I’ll get right to the point. Doyle, Doyle and Starnes, our law firm, specializes in both criminal defense, and personal injury. The other Doyle is my dad, Clarence Doyle the third. Jeff Starnes is the remaining partner. We have need of an investigator to provide information related to our client’s cases.”
I appreciated how direct she was. I like people who get right to the point.
“I see. I’m surprised you don’t have an investigator already.”
“We did, until yesterday. It seems our investigator may have a serious drug problem. We put up with it for as long as we could. He managed to get himself arrested again yesterday, so we fired him. Now he’s one of our clients!”
“Melody, you wouldn’t hire another investigator without checking out references, would you?”
She smiled, real big. My, what pearly white teeth she had!
“No, John, we wouldn’t. Of course we followed the story of the rescue of those girls back in the spring, never imagining you would be moving into this building. That was a very nice piece of work, by the way. When we heard our investigator had been arrested again, I made a few phone calls. You check out fine.”
I thought I saw Christine narrow her eyes at Ms. Doyle’s last comment.
“We would be delighted to be of service from time to time, Melody, but because of our client list, I’m not in a position to go to work for your firm, exclusively.”
“Oh, we’re not asking you to work exclusively for us. We can probably keep ya’ll pretty busy though. How many investigators do you have?”
“Christine and I are the only full time employees. We have other people who do work for us on a part time, contract basis, and we have arrangements with some other agencies.”
Melody looked back and forth between Christine and me.
“Oh, I see. Well, that sounds just fine. Perhaps you could come down to our office to meet with the other partners and discuss the details.”
“Yes, I’ll be happy to do so. Christine will work out an appointment time,” I said, standing up.
After Melody was gone, Christine came back into my office and sat down.
“Thank you, John.”
“Thank you, for what?”
“Whenever you talk about Tucker Investigation, you always say ‘we,’ including me in the equation. It means a lot to me. I’m afraid you gave Melody the wrong impression though.”
“…How’s that?”
She rolled her eyes.
“John, you are as dense as a brick! She thinks we are a couple. She was flirting with you, and you made her think we’re a couple.”
“Yeah, she was coming on a little too strong and fast for me. Besides, you are the only woman in my life.” I winked.
“You do know you and I are not ever going to be romantically linked, right?”
Yeah, I knew that. I had always known we weren’t destined to be a couple. It’s very difficult for Shepherds to have wives. We tend to out-live them. Shepherds have the same desires as other people walking around in earth-suits, but my mission cannot be jeopardized by my personal desires. Our one and only date had been delightful, but there was never going to be a second date. We were good together, just not romantically good. We flirted occasionally, but we both knew it was never really going anywhere.
“Right, I get it. I mean we only ever had one real date, right?”
She smiled, a bit wistfully.
“John, we couldn’t work together if I thought you were trying to get me into bed.”
“Good grief, Christine you didn’t think I was trying to do that, did you?”
She squinted and made a face.
“No, John, of course not, you haven’t done anything of the kind. That would be Walter’s way of doing business.”
As I was heading home, I saw Dustin pushing his shopping cart down the sidewalk, so I decided to stop and see how he was doing. The temperature was hovering at about a hundred and one degrees, and Dustin was wearing a hooded sweatshirt.
“Hello, good Angel,” he grinned.
“Hi, Dustin,” I grinned back. “Man, it’s too hot out here. You need to find a cool spot somewhere. Can I take you to a place with some air conditioning?”
“The day is hot, but I is cool. The one who’s your shadow, be a fool.”
“Oh boy, here we go.” I thought.
“Well, it’s kind of shady right here, but it
doesn’t help much with the heat.”
“You got a long dark shadow following you, Angel.”
Was he referring to the black SUV? Could he have seen it following me?
“This time of day we all have long shadows.”
“This kinda shadow hate the light, he try to hurt you, with all his might.”
What the…? I thought.
“You got to keep on keepin’ on, Angel.”
“We all do Dustin, even you, right?”
“Nah suh, I’m wrong in the head, and it’s not my fight.”
“Are you sure I can’t get you a motel room or take you somewhere cooler?
He smiled kind of a sad smile, and started pushing his cart.
“I got me my rounds, and, ain’t nobody cooler’n me.”
“Well, OK Dustin, drink lots of water.”
He started pushing his cart away, indicating our conversation was over. He looked back over his shoulder and said, “You watch your back, good Angel. Shadows don’t come at you straight on.”