“No, real y, I’m fine.”
She moved closer to me and squeezed my hand. Then she said in a quiet voice, “I know you think you’re pul ing the wool over everyone’s eyes but we al know that everything isn’t fine with you. Talk to me, Jet. Maybe I can help.” I didn’t know what it was, maybe the hand squeeze, maybe the quiet voice, maybe because she’d always been so nice to me. Whatever it was, I took a breath, trying to think of some way to evade her question and then, instead, it al came pouring out. Everything. Dad leaving us, Mom breaking down, Lottie going to LA, Mom’s stroke, us making do and the current situation with Dad.
I finished with, “And if al that isn’t bad enough, I’ve got a date tonight with Eddie and I have absolutely no clue what to wear.”
Throughout my story, she looked concerned, sometimes mad, sometimes like she was going to interrupt but, at my final comment, she smiled. “That last bit, I can help you with.
The rest of it, Lee can help you with.”
I knew Lee was a private detective. I also knew that he was real y good at what he did and I knew that he was real y expensive. He drove a fancy car, had a fancier motorcycle, had a huge workforce and had some kind of plush offices in Lower Downtown Denver. I couldn’t afford Lee and I couldn’t afford to owe anyone else a favor.
“I can’t ask Lee…” I started.
“You can ask Lee but you don’t have to, I wil ,” Indy assured me.
“Indy, I’d real y like to take care of this on my own.”
“Lee says it’s dangerous.”
I laughed.
“Did you not hear my story? I can take care of myself, and everyone else. I’ve had a lot of practice.” Indy looked at me. “I don’t know, I’ve had a run-in with the criminal underworld of Denver and it wasn’t much fun.” I was curious but didn’t ask.
“I’l be safe and I’l be smart, I promise,” I assured her, wishing I was just as sure and knowing I was anything but.
“What’re you gonna do?” She asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Find Dad first. Find out what this is al about. Then take it from there.” Immediately she said, “I’l go with you.” No.
No, no, no.
I couldn’t have Indy coming with me, if something happened to her both Lee and Eddie would be pissed at me not to mention Duke, Tex and the entirety of the Denver Police Department (Indy’s Dad was a cop as was Lee’s Dad and his brother, Hank).
“I don’t think…” I started to say but then Tex was there.
“I’m comin’ too,” he said.
I closed my eyes. This was spiraling out of control. I opened them again.
“Please listen to me—”
“No way, Loopy Loo. You aren’t hoardin’ al the action.” He turned to Indy, “You’re drivin’ because we can al fit in your sil y-ass car. When we see a break in the coffee action, I’l go home and get my shotgun.” My mouth dropped open and I was pretty sure my eyes bugged out of my head.
“Don’t worry, Jet. Just as long as we don’t get into any situations that require grenades, we’l be fine.” Indy said this like she wasn’t joking.
Tex looked at Indy for a beat. “I’l pack a few, just in case,” he said. Then Tex lumbered away and I stared at him, mouth stil open.
Indy looked at me and, bizarrely (I thought), she laughed.
We left Duke and Jane in command of the bookstore after the post-lunch caffeine rush and we al climbed into Indy’s dark blue VW Beetle.
We swung by the hotel where Dad stayed, but they hadn’t seen him. We also swung by a couple of bars Dad went to when he was in town and asked around. No one at the bars had seen him either. Then we headed out to Lakewood, a suburb to the west of Denver, to visit my Dad’s friend Bear.
Bear was nicknamed Bear for obvious reasons. He was nearly as big as Tex (who was incredibly tal ), hairier than Tex (who looked like a demented, gray-blond Santa Claus with a russet beard, Bear looked like he’d been asleep for one hundred years and hadn’t had a shave when he woke up) and both were built to last, as in solid.
Bear was a sometimes plumber but most of the time bum. He was just as fun and crazy as Dad but had more staying power. He’d been married for over thirty years to the long-suffering Lavonne.
Lavonne, on the other hand, didn’t have staying power.
She left Bear at least once a year; however, for reasons known only to Lavonne she always came back.
I hadn’t seen Bear in over a year, back when times were better and he and Lavonne had come to a big picnic in Washington Park that I had for Lottie when she came to visit.
Tex, Indy and I walked up to Bear’s house, which was a one-storey, cracker box house that had yel ow aluminum siding and a mess of kid’s toys in the front yard. This was tel ing because Bear and Lavonne’s two kids were the same age as me and Lottie and had moved out of the house nearly a decade before.
I knocked on the door and Bear answered. His eyes got big, then they got panicked, then they settled on cagey.