AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I am now,” Toby responded. “I make sure all the kids leave at four, and after dark, I don’t come back out here in front myself. I’d like to rig lighting for the mural, but not until you catch the guys who shot it up.”
“That may be a long wait,” Catherine murmured under her breath.
“Thank you, Mrs. Brooks, we’re well aware of our conviction rate.” Garcia took several steps away to study the mural up close. “You’ve got a masterpiece here. I hope you know it.”
“It’s a masterpiece, all right,” Rafael complained bitterly, “but look what it got us.”
“You ought to have a big jug out here for donations,” Salzman suggested. “At least earn enough to buy yourselves hamburgers for lunch.”
“Starving artists don’t win much sympathy,” Toby countered, “but thanks anyway.”
“We strive to serve the community,” Salzman replied, and she and Garcia walked back across the street where they’d left their car.
“Where’s Luke this morning?” Toby asked. “Isn’t he coming in again to help us?”
Catherine shrugged off his question. “I have no idea what his plans are, but we need to keep working.”
Rafael headed for the porch to pick up paint. “I’m on it, Mrs. Brooks. Let’s wrap this damn thing.”
Toby swept Catherine with a perceptive glance and lowered his voice. “Something’s wrong here. You and Luke have a lovers’ quarrel?”
“Give it up, Toby, you’re the very last person I’d confide in.”
“Well, that’s flattering.” The artist laughed.
“I’m sorry, but I just don’t need your prying today.” Nor any other day, Catherine thoughtfully didn’t add.
“There’s no need to pry when I see from your expression that something’s catastrophically wrong. Dave will be thrilled. He’s madly in love with you, you know.”
“Could we just paint the mural,” she exclaimed. Since the shooting, she’d been unable to sit with her back to the street and now began pacing the yard. She was relieved when Toby went to his studio, but when they began to clean up for the day, he reappeared carrying a package.
“I made something for you. Go on, open it now so I can see how you like it.”
Catherine tried to back away but bumped into a wall of kids eager to see what Toby held. “I can’t accept presents from you,” she insisted.
“Don’t think of it as a present. It’s just something to set out in your yard, and if your neighbors ask where you got it, you can send them to me.”
“You expect me to display your work in my yard?” Catherine asked incredulously.
“Yeah, go on, open it up.” Toby set it down on the ground and gestured invitingly.
Polly stood at her elbow. “Open it, Mrs. Brooks, we all want to see what it is.”
Catherine hated to give in, but with a chorus of kids chanting to encourage her, she had no choice. She knelt to untie the twine and then peeled away the brown wrapping paper. To her immense delight, what she found was one of Toby’s wonderful metal cats, but at only two feet in height, with three-inch nails for whiskers, it was just the right size for her yard.
She looked up at Toby and shook her head. “I love it, but this is much too valuable for you to give away.”
“Hell, no. It’s just leftover bits of wrought-iron, scrap metal and springs. Go on, take it, and you’ll help me clean out my studio.”
“Aren’t you going to kiss him?” Tina yelled.
Toby’s smile widened, but while Catherine rose to her feet, this time she refused to oblige. “I’ll take it, but only to showcase your work.”
“Fair enough. I’ll carry it to your car. Come on kids, it’s time to go.”
Catherine and Toby waited until the last teenager had straggled across the street before they walked around the house to where she’d begun parking her Volvo. “Thank you, I really do love cats, and this one has such a charming personality.”
Toby slid it into the back of her car, used the wrapping paper as a cushion, then straightened up. “I wish you thought that highly of me.”
