The Children's Corner
Chapter 53
Rick's cellphone sounds off as he's stowing roast chicken leftovers in the refrigerator. "It's Alexis!" He hurriedly thumbs acceptance of the call. "Wow! Slow down, Sweetheart! That's wonderful! When do we get to meet him? Sure. OK. Fine. See you then." Rick shoves his phone back in his pocket. "Alexis and Dana got the child they've been waiting for. His name is Marcus, and he's ten years old. They're going to bring him to see us on Sunday, but she warned me not to make a big deal out of it."
"Meaning that you're planning on hiring only one brass band?" Kate teases.
Rick rolls his eyes. "No. Seriously, I get it. Marcus is in a new environment with new people. He's probably wary as hell. I was, every time Mother shipped me off somewhere. And at least I knew I had a home – more or less. Marcus would be thinking back to an institution or an even more uncertain environment. We'll make things as laid back as possible. Hey, I wonder if he'd like to play laser tag?"
It's Kate's turn for an eye roll. "Running all over the loft shooting at each other is hardly laid back."
"It's a lot easier than attempting to figure out the right thing to say to strangers. Trust me on that. Even for a budding wordsmith, trying to make polite chitchat was killer. I don't want to make Marcus go through that. And with laser tag, he won't have to memorize a bunch of rules, either. All he'll have to do is point and shoot. And then we break out the snacks. He can't be interrogated with his mouth full."
"You've been thinking about this, haven't you?"
"Of course. If everything works out the way it's supposed to, Marcus will be family. Oh, God! He'll be my grandson! But nothing's more important than family, is it, Kate?"
"No. Of course, you're right. But I don't know how Jake will react to the sound of laser pings. You haven't played since the twins were born."
"I can run a little test before Sunday. And if they bother him, my equipment has a lights-only setting. I'll make Marcus's introduction to our little clan work."
Kate wraps her arms around his waist. "We'll make it work."
"Have I mentioned that I love you?"
"When we break out the red wine, you can show me."
"Still thinking about Marcus?" Kate inquires, climbing into bed next to Rick as he stares at the ceiling.
"In a way. The first book from the Children's Corner is launching any day now, the one about being different. It goes into a lot of issues, but not adoption. Maybe we need one, with an accompanying guide for family members on navigating the challenges of an addition. I could certainly do with a guide like that right now. I mean, I checked, there's lots of stuff available from various organizations. But it could be helpful to put the whole thing together in a package for parents, kids, and anyone else involved. I'll have to talk to the consortium about it at our next meeting. It's way too late to have anything like that ready for Christmas, but adoption is a year-round thing anyway. And I thought I could stick the adoption thing into my lit book too."
"What aren't you sticking into your lit book?"
"Point taken. I'll have to do some pruning – maybe a lot of pruning. You want to make a difference as a cop, but I want to make one as a writer. I need to address the things that matter, not just provide a good yarn."
Kate cuddles against his shoulder. "I get it. But wouldn't it be better to take your steps one at a time? We haven't even met Marcus yet. And you don't know what the actual sticking points will be. Things can take some funny turns – like our red wine time turning into marathon twin-walking."
"Yeah. Hell of a moment for the white noise machine to break down. As soon as I drop Lily off tomorrow, I'll get a replacement. Better still, I'll get two. We should have had a backup. But that's going to take me pretty well into the morning. When were you planning on questioning Stockard Maitland?"
"As soon as I can. I want to know if my instincts about Amy hold water. But first, I have a meeting with Delia Burton to trade information. I'll call you when I'm on the way. If you can join me, that would be great."
"I'll look forward to it. But you know, it's not that late. And we don't really need the wine." Rick's hand wanders beneath the covers. "We have other avenues of intoxication."
Kate's need springs to life at Rick's tantalizing touch. "Yes, we do."
"I hope this won't take long," Stockard Maitland tells Kate and Rick. "I have a job interview in two hours. I can't afford to be late."
"We'll try not to keep you," Kate promises. "I just have a few questions. Do you know of anyone who might have a grudge against Prints O'Plenty?"
Stockard slowly shakes her head. "Not really. I mean, almost no one gets ticked off by a bunch of prints. We don't – didn't – pressure anyone. If the customers didn't like the pictures, they didn't buy them."
"You said almost no one was ticked off," Rick notes. "Who was the exception?"
"Just one of the girls I work with, Amy. She always talked about how cute animal pictures mislead people into adopting animals that they abandon at the first sign of trouble. I guess she worked at a shelter or something, so that's what she saw. But she was really heavy into it. I heard that a couple of times, she tried to talk customers out of buying those prints. If the owner ever found out, she probably would have been fired. But Prints O'Plenty is a franchise, and he owns a bunch of them all over the country. From what I heard, he only dropped by every couple of months. I've never seen him. I don't think he lives in New York."
"Yes, when I called him, he was at his home in Hawaii," Kate confirms. "And he didn't seem very upset. He said the store was fully insured."
"But Chloe, the owner of the Greenery, died," Stockard protests. "He should have cared about that."
"I won't argue with you there," Kate replies, pulling a card out of her pocket and handing it to Stockard. "I don't want you to be late for your interview. But if you think of anything else that might help with the case, please give me a call."
"What do you think?" Kate asks Rick as they head back to the street where they parked their vehicles.
"I only heard Stockard's version, but you talked to both her and Amy. And from what you told me, they tossed each other under the bus. So it could be either one of them. Or -oh! It could be both. If they were working together, they could throw suspicion on each other, creating too much reasonable doubt to charge either one of them. I was going to do that once with spies who implicated each other when interrogated. But I figured the company could disappear both of them, so I abandoned the plot. The N.Y.P.D., however, is somewhat more restricted in its behavior."
Kate sighs. "You think?"
"So, what are you going to do?"
"I already have Amy under surveillance. I can put a team on Stockard, too. If they're working together, they'll hook up sooner or later. And we can go after both of them.
Rick grins his admiration. "I like it!"