Hot Dog Chapter 4
It fell to Dani to meet with Detective Jane Seever about more background on Sampson and Reedy. Charlie was deliberately oblique about his whereabouts for the morning, a situation that while it displeased her, there was little she could do about. When he got like this, testy and vague, she'd learned there was only so far she could force him before the cold mountain of Zen descended blocking all paths. Fog obscured his blue eyes and cold pervaded his usually warm nature. It troubled her to no end, but years of effort had not changed the weather in those mountains.
So she bundled Sam in the car and left an anxious Max peering at them from the large floor to ceiling windows in the master bedroom as they drove way. She felt a small pang of guilt as Sam glumly waved "bye-bye Max" and pouted. She firmly told her son, while watching him in the rearview mirror that Max would be fine and they wouldn't be gone long. When she smiled at him promising they'd be home soon, Sam's two-toothed grin came back to her. His tiny blue eyes, so reminiscent of Charlie's twinkled in the long morning rays and he was soon gazing out the window as the world passed by like a television show.
Dani pulled to a stop in a parking lot near a large supermarket. She found a spot well away from the store, too far away for most people to bother parking when closer spots were plentiful. She backed in, donned her shades against the rising sun just cresting the buildings, turned up the air and waited. Charlie would have insisted on some Zen tape, but Sam sang along to the radio quietly. He didn't know the words, but it did not stop her son from enjoying the music and mimicking some of the sounds he heard.
She alternated between watching for Seever's unmarked and observing Sam in the rearview. He was content to sit in his car seat and sing to himself for the time being. As the sun rose, it hit the car lighting it in oranges and yellows, the bright light caused Sam to squint and demand "glasses Mommy." She refused but lowered the visor to protect his fair eyes and skin. As the sun caught her son's hair the bronze's she'd waited for appeared. Her mind whispered "Crews" as a dark Crown Victoria pulled along side them distracting her.
Jane Seever climbed from the car and rapped lightly on the passenger window, before opening the door and ducking inside. Dani examined the young woman who was immaculately dressed and coifed. Her suit was stylish, hair and nails perfect. She was a very attractive woman with an open engaging smile and a row of perfectly white straight teeth and smooth pale brown skin. Her peach lipstick and very light makeup were expertly chosen.
Seever introduced herself, "Hi, sorry I just realized we'd never actually met – in person. I feel like I know you – through Charlie," she explained. She shyly offered her hand and Dani shook it.
"I'm Jane," Seever said unnecessarily.
"Dani," she responded. "This is Sam," she gestured at her son. "Say, hi, honey," she directed. Sam chose this moment to shyly duck his head and peer at Seever from under his blonde lashes.
"Wow, he really looks…" Seever began.
"Like Crews," Dani finished. "Yes, I know," she softened her interruption with a tight smile. Both women were uncomfortable. Seever began to talk about what she'd discovered. Police work was something they both had in common and it as neutral territory. As she talked both women eased and Sam began to sing as the atmosphere relaxed.
Seever stopped abruptly and without turning to look asked, "does he do that a lot?"
"What?" Dani wondered. Sam's singing was a natural noise one she could tune out is she chose to. "Oh," she registered Seever's notice of her son, "the singing? Yeah, he gets that from his dad too." Both women laughed.
About twenty minutes of intense discussion passed and Sam quietly fell asleep, his head lolling against the side of his car seat, his tiny mouth open and soft pale lids hiding his father's blue eyes. As their conversation reached a logical end, Seever turned in her seat to examine the boy.
"He's beautiful," she remarked and her awe seemed genuine.
"He's a happy little boy," Dani reached back and righted his head. "Like his father."
"I've only seen Charlie unhappy once," Seever remarked.
Dani's brows knit together betraying her interest although she stubbornly refused to give voice to the question in her mind. She couldn't help that her internal thoughts wandered to just how well Seever had gotten to know Crews in their few short weeks of work together.
Seever supplied the answer to Dani's unasked question without prompting, "when Roman took you." Dani said nothing and looked at her lap. "Did he tell you I have a fifteen year plan?"
Dani smiled and nodded, "yes, he mentioned that."
"It doesn't include any of this," Seever gestured around them. Dani didn't know how to respond. She didn't know if Seever was getting cold feet about helping them or what precisely she meant when Jane suddenly explained herself with a question.
"Did you ever imagine yourself here? With him," she looked back at the sleeping baby. "In five years, ten years or fifteen?"
Dani snorted a short laugh. "No," she said plainly.
"Then how'd you end up here? If you don't mind me asking," Jane boldly ventured.
"You've met Crews right?" Dani joked. "He's an irresistible force of nature. One day I was a career track LAPD Detective, the next I was here."
"Do you miss it?" Jane continued her bold line of personal inquiry.
"I never left it," Dani explained. "Life with Crews is a series of unexplainable adventures and this is just one of them. The best thing I learned from being with him – he told me the day we met, " Dani paused and examined Seever hard. "And don't you dare tell him I said this," she warned.
Jane smiled and held up two fingers in a tiny oath pledged by girl scouts.
"You don't have to understand here to be here," Dani said.
Seever considered the comment, cocking her head and thinking about it hard.
"He never said that to you?" Dani wondered.
"No," Seever replied plainly.
"Never told you Zen sayings? Made you listen to those damned tapes?"
Seever shook her head no. Dani mused what that meant for a moment before Seever offered her own explanation, "I wasn't his partner."
Dani's head swung hard and she stared at the young woman beside her in disbelief. Shocked must have clearly registered on her face and Jane explained further.
"He was very clear in every way from the first time we met. He had only one partner and it was you," she said solemnly. "I've worked with a lot of guys and I've never had someone feel that way about me…the way he does and always did about you."
Dani's face flushed an embarrassed red from her neck and she felt the heat of it.
"Please don't be embarrassed," Jane urged, "and I'm sorry for asking such personal questions. It's just that…" her eyes strayed to the backseat and the softly snoring little boy there. "Lately I've been thinking there's more than a fifteen year plan, you know?"
Dani nodded mutely. Silence descended awkwardly and then Seever made her excuses and left careful not to wake Sam.
All the way home Dani watched her sleeping son; he who was so like his father. The little boy whose joy could not be contained; who sang in the car because his father sang to him, with him – he was the best of all of them.
She thought about the two red heads were her whole life now. Samuel Ethan Crews whom Charlie had absolutely forbidden her from naming after him. Crews, the man who awaited them both at home was both a partner and protector, a father and friend. He was certainly, not in any plan Dani had ever had made or envisioned, but life is what happens to us while we are busy making plans.
Dani carried her sleeping son upstairs and put him down in his crib. He would nap until lunch and then be a bundle of energy all afternoon. His door pulled closed with a slight snick and then a wet black nose pushed it open again. Dani sighed as Max licked her hand and circled thrice lying down under Sam's crib and releasing his own tenseness at their separation. Charlie wisely kept Max outside while Dani carried Sam to bed, but relented once the boy was down for his nap.
She descended the stairs in search of her husband and she found him seated on the brown leather sofa reading papers in his lap and spread across the coffee table before him. He regarded her carefully over the top of his reading glasses. He was more than a bit anxious about Dani meeting Seever, but he tried not to let it show.
Dani's soft smile made him relax and his mirroring smile was one of the types she loved – genuine, low wattage and laced with mischief. He wore it when things were good and nothing weighed on him.
"You didn't tell me she was so attractive," Dani teased without giving her ruse away.
His expression changed to one of wariness. Danger lurked in the dark eyes of his wife and he tried desperately to read her mood. He couldn't. "What do you mean?" he played dumb. It wasn't hard – he had no idea what his mercurial wife was thinking.
"I mean," she paused for effect, "she's pretty…maybe even beautiful. She dresses like a model; she's got natural poise and grace. Didn't you tell me she was an athlete too?"
"I…uh…yeah, she ran track or something," he reacted off balance. "You think she's pretty?" he wondered sincerely.
"I do," Dani said coyly. "Don't you?"
He cleared his throat and straightened, "I guess, maybe. If she's…." he stammered.
Her grin gave her away; she ducked her head to hide it.
"You're fucking with me aren't you?" he exhaled relaxing a bit.
"Yeah, I'm fucking with you Crews," she walked closer and removed the papers from his lap. "But how come you never mentioned how attractive she is? Huh?" she purred as she climbed onto him and gently removed his reading glasses.
"She's not attractive to me. She's not my type," he murmured and shifted to accommodate her fully.
"You've got a type?" she teased.
"Uh-huh," he nodded eagerly and reached to kiss her waiting lips. "You," he promised as his lips closed over hers. She believed him not because of the words, but because of the way he made her feel. Adored, revered and never once not the center of his life.
