lucky.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” May leans over and puts her hand on my arm. Her lollipop dangles out of the corner of her mouth like a cigarette. “That was insensitive. I’m a jerk.”
I shake my head, putting my headphones back on. “It’s not a big deal. I totally get it. Believe me.”
May waves at me, telling me to take my headphones off. I remove one ear cover.
“What’s up with Lucky? Jenny hasn’t been able to reach him all weekend.”
I shrug, my attention back on my computer screen, even though there’s really nothing to look at. All I’m dealing with today are sound files. “He came home drunk after the bachelor party, and I told him to go sleep at Thibault’s. I haven’t seen him since.”
“Hooo, drama. Is he still in trouble?”
I shake my head. Maybe if I didn’t have a plan in place to move forward with my life, this crazy stuff with Lucky being drunk and stupid would bother me more, but right now, it’s taking the back seat in my carload of worries. “No. We’re going to talk about it tonight. It’ll be fine.” I’m not going to tell her about his botched proposal. Although the gossip it might generate could be a good cure for her morning sickness, I’m not willing to sacrifice my privacy to ease her pain.
“I’m going to text Jenny and tell her that she can reach Lucky through Thibault,” May says.
“Fine with me.”
I speed through the voice files and throw together the report in record time. We’re super close to nailing Marc Doucet. I just identified a conversation that I’m pretty sure was him recruiting a gangbanger from a rival group to deal with someone they’ve code-named Wolfman. I stand up at five o’clock, putting my headphones down on the desk with a thump. My report is on the server and an alert has been put in Ozzie’s inbox so he’ll know to check it out.
May looks up at me. “Are you done already?”
I turn off my computer and throw my bag over my shoulder. “Yep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Don’t forget the bachelorette party tomorrow.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” That’s not exactly true, but oh well. The sentiment is close enough. I know May and Jenny are excited about it, and it won’t be completely horrible. They can be really funny when they get on a roll.
I’m headed out of the cubicle area when May shouts out behind me, “Where are you going?”
“Home! See you later.” I hurry off, not wanting to encourage any further questions by making myself available. The less May knows about my plans the better.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
My mind races as I drive over to Eunice’s house. What’s going to happen? Will she slap me? Will she just tell me to leave? It doesn’t matter; I just want Eunice to know how sorry I am for what I did to her.
Charlie’s mother doesn’t live in a very good neighborhood, but I spent a lot of my youth around here, so it doesn’t bother me. Groups of boys and men stand on the corners of the main streets, some of them holding paper bags around beer cans. They get a cheap thrill out of being able to drink in public right under the local cops’ noses. So long as they don’t reveal the can under the bag, they can’t legally be stopped and searched. People around these places often feel like they’re at the mercy of law enforcement, so they get their jollies where they can.
I tap the steering wheel with my thumbs to the beat of the song playing on the radio, running through various scenarios in my mind. I’m still trying to guess how Eunice will react to seeing me at her front door. I can’t imagine what I would do if my child’s killer showed up at my house years later apologizing. I’m trying to stay positive, but I worry that Eunice will be like me, incapable of accepting an apology.
My cell phone rings next to me and I glance down at the screen. Lucky’s calling. I don’t want to answer, because he’ll ask where I am and I’ll have to lie. I don’t want to lie to Lucky ever. Besides, we still need to resolve the issue of his drunken proposal, and that’s not going to happen over the phone. He can wait.
I’m just a few blocks away now and I’m starting to sweat. It’s especially humid tonight, which isn’t helping. The babies are