“Well...” Elaina thought for a moment then snapped her fingers. “I know! We’ll see if she still has it. The bazaar isn’t until tomorrow, after all.” She reached into a drawer and pulled out a set of keys. “I’ll drive.”
“We have a car...” Luke started.
“I’m sure you do, dear!” his mother called as she walked out of the bungalow, waving her car keys. Edwin and Marcus scrambled to their feet so fast that they collided, knocking against a large planter and setting off a chain reaction in a glass display case that had everyone, with the exception of Luke, holding their breath until the rattling of delicate statuary and blown glass dissipated.
“But...” Luke called after her then finally sighed, and with a shrug turned back to the rest, hands outstretched, brow creased in frustration. “I guess she’s driving.”
“Beauregard?” Dani looked at him, unable to resist.
“Careful, Daphne,” her father said under his breath as he walked past her, giving the Picasso a wide berth.
“Like the duck?” Luke asked.
Dani closed her mouth, spun on one heel, and followed him out.
Chapter Four
Elaina led them out the front door and down the sidewalk, around to the back where there was a row of garages not seen from the street. She stopped in front of the nearest and pushed a button on her keychain. The door rose, and Dani found herself betting on the vehicle she was about to see. She was rather counting on a large diesel pickup with jacked-up frame, high riding with roller bars and chrome light bar. By this point she would have believed anything.
Seeing a Cadillac was somewhat anti-climactic. Until Elaina turned it over. The engine roared to life like a beast poked in its den. It nearly blew flame, and the entire car shook with the thunder under the hood.
“Wow,” Dani said, eyes wide with a new respect for a car she would have dismissed out of hand if she’d seen it anywhere else, and not had the benefit of listening to the engine. “Where did you get this?”
“Police auction,” Elaina said, smiling. “No dear, you sit up front with me; let the boys take the back.”
Dani scrambled in, sinking into plush leather that cradled her body like it had been made for her. “Police auction?”
“Yes, apparently it was part of a big drug bust. Do you like it? Not only does it have a great sound, but there’s all kinds of extra storage space you wouldn’t expect in car like this.”
Dani’s tongue hurt from biting it so hard. She sat in the front as Elaina ordered, and watched as the men vied for shoulder room in the back seat.
Elaina drifted to the end of the driveway, checked both directions and... drifted onto the road. The engine was thrumming under her, but Dani couldn’t figure out why the car seemed to be moving so... she looked at Elaina’s feet and realized she wasn’t pressing the gas pedal at all. The car was simply moving under the force of the engine at idle.
They worked up to a speed of about 20mph before Luke caught on.
“Why are we going so slow?”
“Because I wanted to show you... do you see that building over there, the one with the white trim and the tile roof? That’s where Mrs. Jenkins lives. You remember I told you about her... oh, it must have been a year now, she was the one with the shingles. Well, they happened again.”
Luke glanced over his shoulder at the cars lining up behind them. His hand clutched at the seat in front of him, knuckles white. “We’re blocking traffic...”
“Yes, dear, you’re very perceptive. But look at that house. You’d think that someone with shingles couldn’t keep up that lawn, wouldn’t you? Well, she does have a gardener, of course, but it’s still an amazing...” She pointed to another structure, “That’s the Moynahans. They have a daughter about your age...” She turned to Dani, cheeks flushing a delicate pink. “Oh, I am sorry, it’s just habit with him now, I do apologize.”
“Mother...”
Dani waved away the apology, trying hard not to laugh. “It’s quite all right, but maybe we should hurry a bit?” She glanced in the side mirror, and shook her head. This was Florida, after all. Half the drivers on the road were creeping along with the geriatric set behind the wheel. Not that Luke’s mother was old. She shook her head to clear it, deciding that it was easier perhaps to just go along with the ride.
“She’s kind of skank anyway, so you needn’t worry. She’s not like Dani here. I don’t know the first thing about her, after all. I mean the Moynahans’ daughter...” Elaina continued chattering blithely, ignoring the snickers from the back seat. Dani shot her father and Marcus a look, starting to wonder if men ever actually grew up at all.
“MOTHER. Can we please get that statue?”
“Yes, dear. You know, I could just give you a couple of quarters, you could get another one.”
“No, thank you, I need that one.”
“But they really are a dime a dozen, they all look alike.” She turned to Dani. “I don’t know if you saw it, dear, but really, they’re all made by captured children in third-world countries.”
“I didn’t know that.” Dani nodded, and grabbed for the dashboard as Elaina slammed the brakes. “And there’s Jan Fielding’s house. Jan’s a good friend, a bit on the religious side, don’t get me wrong.” She put her hand on Dani’s arm. “I go to church religiously, but poor Jan, well, she really doesn’t have anyone else, so she buries herself in the church and everything they do. She’s very sweet, though, so it’s hard to hold it against her.”
“Mother, PLEASE! We need to get that statue!”
“Yes, dear, I understand.”
“Then why are we stopped here looking at a house?”
“Watch your tone,” Elaina scolded, and shot Dani a significant look. “You really will have to take him in hand; he could use a good scolding now and then.”
Dani was staring out the passenger window with a fit of uncontrollable giggling, trying desperately to get herself under control by counting plastic pink flamingos in the shrubbery. It wasn’t working.
Luke took a breath and spoke again in a measured and quiet voice. “Mother, why are we parked in the middle of the street when we should be getting the statue I sent to you?”
“Because Jan Fielding is the woman I gave it to,” Elaina said, looking in the rearview mirror to meet her son’s eyes. “It’s in there.” She pointed to the house.
Luke spun in his seat, dislodging the two men flanking him. “But—” He pointed out the rear window. “...your house is right there! I can see it from here! We could have walked!”
“Well, dear, you can walk back if that would make you happy. In the meantime, I need to park because I’m blocking the street. If you could please stop talking long enough for me to pull over.”
Marcus found something interesting in the door beside him, and Edwin was smiling and watching Elaina a bit too closely. Dani couldn’t stop laughing, her arms wrapped around her middle and doubled over so hard that her nose was touching her knees. “I...really...can’t...breathe...!” she complained between bursts of laughter.