AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m off duty now. A beer would be great.”
Delaney grabbed two IPAs from the fridge, popped off both bottle caps and handed one over. “You sure? Your ears perked up when I mentioned the bourbon.”
Sean gave an easy laugh, different from the one outside. This laugh was lower, had a little regret attached to it. “I get in trouble with whiskey. The beer’s good.”
“Ha.” Delaney sank to the opposite end of the couch. “Trouble’s not all bad.”
Sean regarded her comment with a smirk as he drank the steam off his beer. He set the bottle on the table before he spoke. “I visited a young lady today named Janie Ramirez. She works at Sunny’s place. She signed your grand opening register.”
Delaney sipped her IPA. Any excitement Sean’s words might’ve brewed faded fast. “If I’m remembering right,” Delaney said, thinking back and filtering the people through her mind like she was watching a movie, “she was a little firecracker. Teenager. Side braid?”
“That’s her.”
“I remember thinking that the name Janie both fit perfectly and didn’t fit at all. She’s definitely no plain Jane.” Delaney laughed. “That girl knows way more about bikes than a lot of the weekend warriors I meet. She’s going to be something else on the road once she’s allowed to ride.”
“Agreed. I don’t think she or her brothers had anything to do with your motorcycle. But she did tell me she saw the Dudes here that evening. In fact, she said she saw Dick Worley sneak upstairs that night.”
Delaney froze. She had to be still a moment to let Sean’s words sink in. “Up here?”
“That’s what Janie said. This is why I wanted to come over right away. Have you noticed anything missing or out of place?”
She hadn’t, but now Delaney had to think about it. “No,” she said, after closing her eyes briefly. “Not that I can think of. Seriously, though. One of those men came up here?”
“Janie saw him go up, but when he caught her looking, he came back down. So I don’t think he actually made it into the apartment. I’m just being cautious.”
“Well, that’s not good.” Delaney rubbed her hands over her arms, creeped out that one of those dudes had tried to get up here.
“No, it’s not,” Sean agreed. “This is even more reason for you to contact me immediately if they come by.”
“Don’t worry.” Delaney didn’t even pretend to have it all under control this time. “I will.” She slid her hands up to her face and rubbed her eyes. “My father would’ve made quick work of those brothers,” she said, trying to keep herself from tearing up. “If there was one thing that got him mad it was anyone messing with me. God help those dudes if they stole my dad’s bike. Because Dad’s ghost will tear them a new one.”
Sean laughed and leaned back into the couch cushions. “You were really close to your father. It doesn’t take a detective to see that. He probably taught you everything you know about bikes, bike repair, everything you already knew going into your motor transport MOS in the Marine Corps. Am I right?”
Delaney held her beer up near her face to hide whatever it was she felt about Detective Callahan knowing her background. It was no surprise he’d dug into her bio. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be good at his job. But in his favor was that Sean was making no secret of the fact that he’d learned what he could about her. He might be nosy but he wasn’t sneaky. “My dad taught me everything I know about everything.”
“What about your mom?”
“What about her?” The words slipped out too quickly. Delaney clamped her mouth shut. A man like Callahan would learn more about Delaney by what she didn’t say than what she did. The bumbling guy at the gym was someone else entirely when he had the detective hat on.
“Was she in the picture?”
Delaney set her beer on the coffee table and sighed. “If we’re going to talk about my mother, I’m going to have to open the whiskey.”
Delaney disappeared into the bedroom, one of only two other rooms in this cozy studio apartment—the other presumably the bathroom—and came out a few minutes later wearing gray sweatpants with Go Big Red! printed down the side and a long-sleeved, oversize pajama top that fell off of one shoulder. She looked simultaneously small and vulnerable, and sleek and strong.
“Sorry,” she said, with a rueful smile. “I had to get out of those clothes.” She stopped at the dining table by the window and opened up a bottle, which Sean presumed was the Heaven’s Door bourbon. The pleasant sound of liquor glugging into two glasses followed. “My parents were just teenagers when they had me,” Delaney said as she passed a glass over to Sean. “They were the wild, unsupervised types. Dad took care of himself most of his life. His parents came and went but weren’t around much, so Dad spent his life dodging child protective services. My mother’s parents were older. Poor. Didn’t pay much attention to her. Sometime after I was born, my mother freaked out and bailed. Struggled with addiction, on and off. Dad was the only steady force in my life I ever knew. When I was little she’d pop in every now and again, but she never stayed. By the time I was a teenager I refused to see her. She still sends me birthday cards and tries to make contact—her cards have followed me all over the world—but I never respond. Sometimes she catches me off guard and gets me on the phone. I always keep it brief. But I haven’t talked to her in probably...” she looked up at the ceiling, her lips moving, like she was counting “...five years?”
Sean raised his glass of Heaven’s Door. This was Bob Dylan’s creation. He’d read about it somewhere. He took a sip. Modest at first, without the aggressive punch of a cheaper whiskey. The flavor profile flowed in slowly: vanilla, layered over oak, with some kind of toasty note, like bread from a campfire. The intensity came at the finish, where it burst and lingered on his tongue. Overall, it was like an old-fashioned romance, with a proper introduction and courtship before the fire. Sean had always been a scotch man, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be seduced by Tennessee bourbon from one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Especially since he could see Delaney’s tough exterior slowly crumbling before him. “You’re originally from Omaha. Is that where your mom is?”
“She’s moved all over the place. Goes with one guy to the next. Last I heard she was in Newport News. Just a couple hours south.”
“She’s close by and you’ve never seen her?”
“I know. You think I’m harsh.” Delaney shook her head dismissively. “I’ve got nothing to say to her. The time for all the mother-daughter stuff has come and gone. You don’t get to dirt your kid and then expect a magic redo when they’re all grown-up and somebody else has put in all the work.”
“How do you really feel?”
Delaney offered a soft smile.
