Chapter 5: Tea Parties and Consequences

“Wooo-Eeee, now that’s a sweet ride!” Billy stopped following me to peer through the open roller door at Delaney’s project car.

We were headed to the office to figure up the parts he’d pulled for his employer.

Delaney stuck her head out from under the car, annoyance fighting with pride for a moment, but pride won. “Damn thing’s a lot of work.”

“She’s a ‘58 Fury, right? Really rare, if I remember right.”

Delaney gave a smug smile. “Yeah, I looked it up. They only made about fifty-three hundred or so. There are a lot more of the Belvederes and Savoys, so some of the parts aren’t as hard to get as you’d think.”

“Got her painted up like Christine. Damn, I remember that movie.” He grimaced. “Scared the pure shit outta me. I had nightmares that one a these cars was gonna hunt me down and kill me someday.” He studied it for a moment longer. “You do all this yourself?”

Delaney nodded and relaxed a little. “Mostly. I have to pay people to re-chrome and do the paint, but I did all the mechanical work.” She frowned. “And Needles got me the engine, traded a wrecked Porsche for it, but I’m working it off. Kinda pissed me off; I wanted to buy it myself.”

The engine’s source was still a bit of a sore spot for her, but the Golden Commando 350 engines didn’t come up on the market often enough for me to risk passing it up. Even so, she’d had to put in a huge amount of work rebuilding the engine.

Billy pursed his lips. “That’s fair. That’s sorta how you’d a got it anyways, right? Work for the money, then buy it?”

“I guess.” Delaney shrugged.

“You just got the engine first, and now yer paying off, like buyin’ a car on payments. People do it all the time.”

She thought on it a bit. “Yeah, I guess it is.” She glanced at me with a little bit of embarrassment. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

I kept my mouth shut, but Billy had just earned himself a discount. I could explain that to Delaney all I wanted, but coming from someone else, it was just easier to accept.

Billy squatted down and looked over the grill. “Damn. Hell on wheels.”

Delaney gave a very satisfied smile.

Billy and I headed on up to the office. “She’s a good kid, Doc. Really smart.”

“She is, a helluva lot smarter than she thinks she is.”

“Ain’t that the way of it, Doc.”

We settled up, he paid with grimy twenties, as usual, and I looked at the time. Before I could even call out to Delaney, she was trudging up to the office, face grim.

“I thought you forgot.”

She shook her head. “I wish.”

“Tara will be by to pick you up in about forty minutes.”

Her head dropped. “I’m going to get cleaned up.”

“The bathroom window is too small to escape through, you know.”

“Maybe Tara will forget to lock the car doors.”

“Good luck with that. I think she’s starting to understand you.”

“Sucks.” She stopped. “What do you think Mother would do if I ordered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”

“She’d probably tell everyone you’ve become a socially conscious vegan.”

“Ugh.” She winced, then plodded down the hall.

Tara arrived before Delaney was done and came on in, a little self-consciously smoothing her expensive dress. “She try to sneak out yet?”

“Nope. Be sure to lock the doors on your car.”

“They automatically lock as soon as I roll.” Tara made a brave attempt to keep a straight face. “This probably won’t be so bad.”

I snickered. Tara tried not to, but in a few seconds, her face was buried in her hands. “I can’t believe I managed to say that out loud.”

We were still laughing when Delaney walked out, glaring at us.

I pulled myself together quickly and pretended to look her over. “That works. I think Sheree did a good job picking that out.”

Tara caught my serious tone and nodded. “She did. It looks good on you.”

Delaney took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m okay with this.” She paused. “I’ll have to wear my work boots with it. I forgot the shoes.”

I didn’t laugh. Sheree had warned me. I shook my head. “They wouldn’t really go with that dress.”

I reached over and pulled her pumps off the counter. “Sheree dropped these off while you were working on your car. You accidentally left them at the cabin.”

A very uncomfortable look settled on Delaney’s face; she knew as well as I did that it was no accident, but I didn’t let her get going. I pulled a small purse off the counter and held it up. “I asked her to pick this up.”

Delaney curled her lip. “I don’t need a purse.”

I shrugged. “Up to you.” I popped open the purse. “But where else would you hide the Stun gun?”

The crackle of the Stun gun made Tara jump, but Delaney’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Just figured if you can’t have steel toes, maybe a million volts would make you a little more comfortable.”

Delaney looked her new toy over and stepped almost absentmindedly into her pumps. “It’s fully charged, right?”

“Yep.”

Delaney grinned. “Cool!”

I caught Tara as they started out the door. “Just a second. I need you to check the prospectus on a possible expansion.”

She nodded, catching my expression. Delaney shrugged and headed on down, still looking over her new toy. “See you in the car.”

I waited a second. Tara looked at me. “A Stun gun?”

“You want to get her into that place, in a dress, with Charlotte; she needs something to hold on to.”

“You make it sound like...” She stopped. “Shit.”

I nodded. “She’s tough as they come, but Sheree is right; Delaney’s work clothes, tools and boots are her armor. She feels vulnerable without them. She’s got serious trust issues.”

“She needs therapy.”

“What she needs is to go a whole goddamn year without someone trying to kill her. She’s not paranoid. She’s being realistic. Like it or not, she sees Charlotte as part of all that shit, so her trust level is pretty low.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“You should probably keep an eye on Charlotte.”

Tara’s mouth set in a grim line. “I do that all the time.”

When I got back to the cabin, Sheree was already there.

“Did’ya give Delaney her shoes?”

“That, and her new Stun gun.”

She nodded. “That help?”

“Just like we figured it would.”

“It was your idea. I just thought it was a good one. She has a hard time dealing with Charlotte...”

“That’s tough on both of us.”

She smiled a genuinely sympathetic smile. “I know.”

“How’s Shelly?”

“She’s sticking to her story. Says she wasn’t using nothing.”

“They test her?”

“They treated her with Narcan, but they didn’t test her. Nurse says can’t nobody get her medical records, so she’ll be okay for now. I just had her lawyer tell the judge she was hospitalized, so she’s got some time.” Sheree stared through the wall for a few heartbeats. “Dunno if I’m doing her any good or just makin’ things worse.”

“You still think she’s telling the truth?”

“I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it just feels different this time.” She frowned.

I didn’t have an answer to that. We talked about the wedding and fixed dinner while we waited for Delaney to get back.

Delaney walked in the door wordlessly, leaving it hanging open and went straight to the refrigerator. She poured herself a tall glass of tea. Tiffany and Tara walked into the cabin, somewhere between “tense” and “brace for impact.”

Sheree gave me a side glance and decided to pitch in. “How did it go, baby?”

Delaney downed the tea in one long drink and poured another. “The tea there sucked. And Mother is turning into a fucking fish.”

“A fish?”

“Her lips are all, like, HUGE.” Delaney pursed her lips in a mockery of a fish. Or maybe a duck.

Tiffany suppressed a smile. “She may have had lip injections.”