“Your papa thinks someone’s cooking the books, wants you to examine them.”
“Who’s going with us?”
“Franklin.”
“Okay.”
“And then we’re going directly to the West Coast.”
“Why?”
“We’ll find out when we get there.”
“Okay.”
Four months later Diana examined the changing colors as she drove back into Lexington. Autumn already. Right from spring flowers to fall colors. It had been a while. Big changes coming. She frowned. Big choices too. In or out. She had to decide while she still could, before it became an offer she couldn’t refuse. Papa had been clear on that: she could still choose. But what kind of choice did she have? All she knew was the Family. Except for Jessie.
On the other hand, this was a nice town, she wouldn’t mind living here. Lots of history, nice year round weather. The horse farms were beautiful, white board fences, grass really was blue. She still remembered her surprise at that. She eased into the traffic on New Circle Road. Wouldn’t be bad at all. She could like it.
She drove through downtown. She wondered if she would need the hotel this trip. Maybe, maybe not. She glanced at the sidewalks. Nice day for the outdoor café. Ahhh, and look who was there. And a parking place. Well, this was her lucky day.
She watched her at the café table as she walked up the block. Dressed in civvies, she was reading something, one leg stretched out to the other chair, the other leg drawn up, and whatever she was reading resting against her leg. She was frowning in concentration, only slowly turning the pages. Black slacks, off-white Irish fisherman’s sweater. Coat thrown back over the chair. Coffee cup on the table. Diana walked right up to her without being noticed.
“Hello, beautiful.”
Jessie looked up, annoyed at the interruption, then did the classic double take. “Diana.” She leaped to her feet, greeted her with a hug.
“I’m not interrupting anything am I?”
“No, no.” There was a flicker of dismay across Jessie’s face and then it was gone. “I’ve got to meet someone for lunch but that’s later. Have a seat.”
There was a distance there, and Diana had the first inkling of something wrong. Jessie’s openness was gone. She was more guarded.
“So you came back?”
“Well, yes,” Diana said, sitting across from Jessie. She began to have a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“I didn’t know,” Jessie said frankly. “You haven’t been gone this long for a long, long time.”
“I had a deal on the West Coast. I just got back a couple of days ago.” Jessie nodded, but there was disinterest there. “How’s everything going with you?” Diana fished.
Jessie nodded. “Can’t complain.”
“How’s Nicki?”
“Doing good. Likes school this year.” Jessie met her gaze. “She wears the necklace you got her almost every day.”
Diana couldn’t see with the high neck of the sweater whether Jessie was wearing hers. That would have helped, because this conversation was much too casual to make her feel comfortable. “Did you think I wouldn’t come back, Jessie?” she asked again.
Jessie made that expression she had when she wanted to be casual. “I didn’t know. I thought you might have called since you were gone so long.”
“Would that have made a difference?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Jessie moved around the coffee cup, the notebook, not looking at Diana. “So what now?”
Maybe she was imagining things, maybe Jessie was just pissed because she had been gone for so long. “I have,” Diana searched for a word, “an opportunity. I wanted to talk to you about it. But I think you’ve got news to tell me, don’t you?”
Jessie shifted her gaze, still avoiding Diana’s. “You ought to be in my line of work. You read people very well.”
“What’s up?” Diana asked, inwardly bracing herself even though she wanted to get up and run away rather than hear whatever Jessie was going to tell her. She did not think the news was going to be good.
Jessie licked her lips, watched the traffic in the street for a minute. Then she finally looked directly at Diana. “Julie came back to town. She was never able to get over me either. She understands now what I was going through. We’re working things out, getting back together.”
“Oh,” was the only coherent thing that Diana could get out. There wasn’t anything else she could think to say. “Well.” She paused again as she searched for some coherency. “I guess that makes you unavailable.”
“Yeah,” Jessie said with a little relief, as if she had expected something more.
“Well,” Diana repeated. She sat back in the chair, looking at but not really seeing Jessie. “Working out well for you?” she asked for lack of something better to say.
Jessie nodded. “It’s rocky,” she admitted. “There have been a lot of changes. Julie’s a doctor now. We’re not kids anymore.”
“But your feelings have lasted this long.” Somehow Jessie didn’t look as happy as Diana would have expected. “Well.”
“You’ve said that,” Jessie said with some irritation.
Diana took a deep breath, pulled herself together. “I imagine that after this many years and changes, things may be rocky for a while. I’m sure you’ll work all of those problems out.” Jessie looked up in some surprise and Diana went on. “You’ve waited for Julie a long time. You’ve demonstrated your loyalty and how important she is to you. I have nothing but wishes of happiness for you, Jessie.”
“Really?”
Diana’s voice softened. “Jessie, we’ve shared a lot. I knew all this time you were waiting for Julie. The last time I was here, that came up and you were so upset when I said you were waiting. Why wouldn’t I want you to be happy?”
“I almost wished you hadn’t come back,” Jessie confessed. “I dreaded telling you. I feel bad because now my waiting has been rewarded and yours hasn’t.”
Diana forced a laugh. “Don’t worry about me. You just focus on Julie. Not everyone gets that second chance. Make the most of it. Grab the chance to be happy.” She got to her feet, and Jessie followed.
“You’re not leaving?”
“What reason do I have for staying, Jessie?”
“You didn’t tell me about your opportunity.”
Diana shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I don’t suppose you would want to meet Julie.”
Diana shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She leaned forward to give Jessie an air kiss. “Give my best to Nicki.” She reluctantly released Jessie. “You take care.”
“Diana, I don’t know how to get hold of you.”
“You don’t need to now. You’ve got Julie. You be careful. It’s a rough world out there.” Then she turned and walked away, quickly, while she still could.
***
She was drinking coffee in the kitchen when Margaret came down. “Well, you’re back early. I didn’t expect you back for a week.”
Diana shrugged. It had been a very long drive home.
“Did you decide what you’re going to do?”
“I’m going to take the job. I’ve already told Papa.”
Margaret poured herself some coffee. “You are? You did?” She looked at Diana curiously. “How was Lexington?”
“Lexington is over.”
“What happened, sweet pea?” Diana shook her head. “She dump you?”
“Not exactly. She—an old flame showed up, they are working things out.”
“I’m so sorry.” Margaret watched Diana over the rim of her cup. It was not Diana’s way to take it so calmly.
Diana drank some coffee, picked up the paper. “Just as well. There would have been problems. Real difficulties down the road.”
“Most problems can be worked out if you’re determined.”
“That’s what I told her about her old flame. I don’t think it would have worked for us.”
“Why not?”
“She’s a cop.”
Margaret spit coffee all over the counter, looking at Diana with complete disbelief. “A cop!” Then she lowered her voice, glancing around. “Are you out of your mind?”
Diana didn’t look up from the paper. “Yes, one of Lexington’s finest and no, I’m not out of my mind. It doesn’t matter. It’s over and done with.”
“But it went on for a long time!” Margaret hissed.
Diana still didn’t look up. “I didn’t know for a long time. But don’t worry. It was a strange relationship: she didn’t ask any questions and I didn’t volunteer. If she had asked, I would have split. And if I had asked, I would have known much earlier.”
“What the hell happened to your radar?” Margaret demanded, fear coloring her voice. “Didn’t I teach you anything?”
Diana looked up. “I’m afraid I had other radar working that was stronger, Margaret. Now calm down. Nothing was compromised.”
“My God,” the woman muttered. “You, the daughter of Czar Randalson, and sleeping with a cop, a female cop.”
Diana banged her coffee cup down on the counter, sloshing some out. “Enough.” Margaret looked at her in startled surprise. “Yes, my father is a crime lord. Yes, my lover was a woman; and yes, she is a cop, a good cop, I might add. One who knows nothing about me. And you will not say anything. You will not mention Lexington again, Margaret. It is to be forgotten. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Miss Diana.”
“Don’t get smart with me,” Diana snapped back. “I haven’t been Miss Diana to you since I was sixteen, when you became my bodyguard instead of my nanny.” She closed her eyes, willing tears away.
Margaret went to her, put her arms around her. “I’m so sorry, Diana.”
Safe there, Diana would let herself cry.
Two years later
“Then that’s the plan. Any questions?” Captain Conrad looked around the table at the six officers, finally resting his eyes on Jessie. “Jessie?”
Well aware she was the keystone, that if she couldn’t do it, the whole sting would fall apart, Jessie shook her head. For the past two years she had created the persona of a college kid, skinny, awkward, geeky, first to buy drugs, then do a little selling. Now was the opportunity to go to a higher level, to find out just who was bringing the drugs into the area.
“Then let’s get set up, everyone in place.”
The group broke up, Jessie and Pete going out the door together.
“You mention this part to Julie?” Pete asked.
Jessie shook her head. “We talked about this a long time ago, at the beginning. She said she didn’t want to know.”
Pete gave her a questioning look. “That can lead to problems or a hell of a surprise.”
Jessie agreed. “She said that was the only way she could handle it. So.” She turned away.
Two years with Julie and Julie still hadn’t been able to adjust to Jessie’s choice of a career. She tolerated it, in her own way, but it hadn’t been easy. Julie could deal with devastating illness, struggles for survival, but she could not deal with the idea that Jessie could possibly go out the door in the morning and never return.
“Nicki?” Pete pulled Jessie back to the present.
“She doesn’t like it, but she can deal with it better. Guess that comes from growing up in a cop family.” Jessie glanced at the clock. She still needed to go pick up the money then get wired, pick up the car. Time was passing so quickly.
When the call came through, she was alone and she grabbed it eagerly, assuming it was a call saying the money was ready. “Galbreath.”
“Detective,” came an unfamiliar even metallic voice. “Don’t go on that drug buy.”
Jessie stopped dead, all her senses came alert. “Who is this?” she asked sharply.
“Doesn’t matter. Just don’t go. You’ve been made.”
Jessie turned in a circle, ascertaining she was alone. “What do you mean I’ve been made?” She quickly went down the short list of people who knew of this covert operation even as she weighed the value of this call.
“Hey, I’m calling, ain’t I? Got your number, know about the two o’clock. Got your life insurance paid up?”
“Who is this? And how do you know?”
Low throaty laughter. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” And then the voice turned ominous. “You’re warned: Don’t go.” There was a click.
Jessie stared at her phone. Ominous, but how credible? Unknown number? No identification. From someone who disguised their voice. Did that mean it was someone she knew? Someone she trusted? She stood there, her hand over her mouth as she considered.
Regulations required she go right to Captain Conrad and tell him about the call. And he would cancel the entire operation. Was that the purpose of the call, not to warn her but to keep her from finding out who was behind bringing the drugs into town? Was it simply a warning they were getting too close to the source?
Damn, she had put a lot of time into this. Who would be in the position to know about her? Only a handful of people. The caller even had a mocking tone as if he, she, it, knew Jessie would doubt the source. Was it just someone trying to screw the deal? But how did they get her number?
Jessie stood there, considering. She had confidence in the plan, confidence in the team they had put together. She trusted everyone. At least she had thought they were trustworthy. Now she wasn’t sure. The phone rang again.
The money was ready for pickup, time to decide. A risk yes, but a calculated risk. She had put a lot of time in this, a lot of herself. She wouldn’t be scared off. She put the phone back in her pocket. She would go with it.
“The money’s ready,” she told Pete as she came out.
“Something wrong?”
She shook her head even as she evaded his gaze. Years of working together had made them a team. Sometimes they could almost read each other’s minds. She didn’t need him to read her mind now.
“You using your weak ankle brace story?”
“It’s worked so far, ever since I really twisted my ankle that one time.”
“Still confident?”
She nodded as she wrapped her ankle where she had strapped her Ruger LCP. Small enough to be concealed under her jeans, compact to fit snugly against her ankle, curved edges enough not be noticed during a quick pat down. She was already turning inward, projecting how this would go, the meeting, the buy, ticking off her list as she wrapped the other ankle so they were equal. Money for this operation came from previous drug raids. Seemed only fair. Counted, recorded, and stuffed in the backpack, an old army green one picked up at the surplus store. Body wire, new type, not on her this time, but in her belt. Test it out. Pick up the car, make sure it was scattered with evidence of her use, candy wrappers, drink cups, school notes.