about my job is the fact that sometimes we get so busy, time flies and entire weeks can go by in the blink of an eye. I come in on a Monday and I work crazy hours until Friday, and then I’m relaxing in my living room on a Saturday morning with the newspaper—the entire week is a blur. Lucky and I may have a lot of things to talk about, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Not with this job taking up all of our head space. He’s been buried in computer work with Jenny. I heard through May that they’ve been pulling all-nighters, which is fine by me. I’m not really looking forward to our next conversation; it’s bound to be awkward after all that oversharing we did.
A full week and a half has gone by since Lucky and I have had more than two minutes together. I’m in the back of the surveillance truck with May, and we’re sitting a few blocks away from a location that is believed to host several members of the gang we’re monitoring. We got this data from some of the tweets being shared between gangbangers. Jenny and Lucky are picking up on some of their code-words, apparently.
“Good,” May says. “We’re alone and there’s nothing going on. Now we can finally talk about my wedding plans.”
I’m hunched over the laptop computer screen, trying to figure out if I should focus our drone’s camera in a little tighter on the backyard it’s surveilling.
“Oh, goody,” I say in a flat tone.
Most people would take my obvious lack of enthusiasm as a sign that they should change subjects, but not May.
“I was thinking we would keep it simple. Just the team and my mother, of course. Maybe a couple of other friends. What do you think? Do you think Ozzie would want to keep it small?”
I don’t even look up at her. “I’m sure he’s already told you what he wants. You should just listen to him.”
“Yeah, but you know how men sometimes say one thing but mean another? I’m not sure I believe him.”
“You should believe him.” I look up at her. “He’s going to want something really small. You should probably just elope.” Please, just elope.
May shakes her head. “I know, right? That’s what I was thinking.”
I stop working. “I don’t get it.” I search her expression, looking for the joke that I assume is hidden in there somewhere, but all she does is shrug.
“He told me he wants to invite the police chief, and the chief’s family, and a bunch of officers and commissioners.” She rolls her eyes. “What am I supposed to do? The entire church is going to be lopsided.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“But I am.”
“He really said that? That he wants to invite all those people?”
She uses her first finger to draw a cross over her heart and then pokes that finger toward her left eye. “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. It’s weird, right? Maybe I should just ignore it. Or maybe I should put my foot down and tell him no.”
I want to agree with her, but my first loyalty will always be to Ozzie. Besides, it’s his funeral, not mine. “He’s paying for it, isn’t he?”
“Well, yeah, but . . . I’d rather spend the money on a honeymoon than a wedding, wouldn’t you?”
I go back to the computer, not in the mood to deal with this nonsense. “I couldn’t say.”
She keeps yammering on while I work on getting a better view with our camera. I hear her mention something about bridesmaids’ dresses when something flickers on the screen.
I hold up a hand to stop her. “Shush.”
She leans in close enough that I can smell her bubblegum-scented breath. “What do you see?”
“I’m not sure. It’s somebody.” We’re looking for David Doucet’s brother, Marc. He’s rumored to be staying in this particular house, but we haven’t caught any sign of him yet. He’s younger than his brother, the guy otherwise known as May’s attempted killer who’s now in prison, and he’s more interested in using technology and social media to work the business than the older generation was. He’s smart and a threat to the entire city the way he’s able to keep his business hidden from prying eyes. If we can at least confirm that he’s here in this place, we can put some better surveillance in position and maybe hear something that can help the police department with