Chapter 17

I thought about the next day as I lay in bed waiting for Katy to return from the bedrooms at the other end of the house. I must have been more tired than I thought because the next thing I remember was waking up spooned to Katy the next morning. She was softly snoring and I slipped out of bed and dressed without disturbing her. I went to my home office and called in to Tom and told him that I wouldn't be in. I told him to mark me down for a personal day. I was about to call Gil when the phone rang. It was Archie. I could hear him gloating over the telephone as he said, "It was a piece of cake. The cop's 'experts' didn't even know where to start. It took me 25 minutes and I don't even know what they found because as soon as I cracked things and got them inside it was suddenly like I wasn't welcome there anymore. I'm gonna double my fee to those jerks. Are we square?"

I couldn't have hidden my enthusiasm if I had wanted to. I practically shouted, "Yes, Archie we are square. In fact, I owe you for that. This means a lot to me and my friends. Thanks, Archie." We talked a few more minutes and then hung up.

No sooner had I gotten off the phone with Archie than the phone rang again. This time it was Gil who could scarcely contain himself, "Jeff, damn, you sure were right about Archie. He almost makes it seem too easy. He cracked that thing so quickly that my IT people had to get him to repeat some of the steps so they could get the procedure down. He embarrassed them to the point that they were downright rude with him. You need to tell him how much we appreciate what he did. I would have fired those guys if they worked for me. Hell, those guys make way more than I do and compared to Archie they are fuckin' amateurs. Anyway, we got enough off of that computer to fix Pete, Chuck and half a dozen other really big guys. Can you believe that Pete actually kept a detailed personal diary on that computer? This thing with Lucy wasn't the first time they had used sex to secure help either. It'll take us a week or so to organize and prepare indictments against the principals but word on what we have will get out so I doubt anyone will risk doing anything further with Debbie or Lucy."

I was happy for Gil but still had one concern. I was firm as I said, "You'll make sure that none of the pictures of Lucy get out, right? I'd hate for this blackmail to come back and haunt her later. I know that there is only one copy of those pictures now and I would hate to find them floating around on the internet because some jackass made copies and took them home."

Gil's enthusiasm subsided as he answered, "I give you my word that there will be only one copy of those pictures made and that as soon as we get the convictions, that copy will be destroyed and the hard drive erased. That diary, with names and places spelled out, along with and a spreadsheet with dates of drug sales, deliveries, amounts and payments, gives us more than enough to convict each of those guys several times over. Hell, it's like Christmas around here. We're getting guys we never thought we would be able to touch. This is big. I promise I'll make sure the DA knows your concerns. As far as I'm concerned we don't even really need those pictures except to connect Lucy to Pete and to that computer."

I was satisfied that Gil would do all that he could do. I knew that I could feel fairly certain that the pictures wouldn't get out and hurt Lucy anymore than they already had. Hopefully the next day we would get Lucy, Debbie and Jimmy off on a flight to Jacksonville. Suzie would cry for a while and I knew she would miss Debbie's company for the next week or so but I certainly was looking forward to things getting back to what passed for normal around here.

The next morning started out as usual, if anything lately could be considered usual. I awoke before Katy because I heard noises in the kitchen. I quickly put on boxers and a robe and went into the bathroom where I woke myself up completely by dunking my head in joltingly cold water from the sink. I looked at myself in the mirror and decided I needed coffee before I attempted to shave. I headed for the kitchen to start the coffee brewing. As I moved from my bedroom into the hall near the kitchen I heard Suzie say, "You have to tell him. Jeff always knows what to do."

I stopped at that point and listened. Somehow what they were saying seemed to be important, at least to Suzie. Debbie, in an almost whisper, "Shhhh, you have to be quiet. I can't tell him. I promised mom. She trusts me."

Susie was quieter but still not quite whispering as she said, "I didn't promise her. It's crazy to go where you don't know anyone just to get away from things that no one here really knows anything about anyway. Jeff not gonna' tell anyone and I don't think the police will. You need to be here with your friends."

Debbie was almost crying as she half-whispered, "I can't tell him Suzie. I don't want to go but I have to be there for my mom. She needs me. You don't need me here anyway, keeping you apart from Jeff and your family. Now hush, we have to stop talking about it."

Suzie didn't hesitate when she said, "I won't hush. I do need you here. You're my best friend and if you let your mom do this you'll end up moving away and I'll never see you again." Suzie was almost crying when she finished.

I chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. Debbie looked shocked. Suzie flew over to me and wrapped her arms around me. She had her face buried so deeply in my bathrobe that I could hardly hear her as she said, "Tell her Jeff. Tell her not to move away. Tell her we all love her and want her here with us. Please Jeff, don't let them move away." She was sobbing as she said the last.

I held out my arm for Debbie and she came and smothered herself against me, wrapping her arms around both me and Suzie. Almost immediately Katy came around the corner, out of our bedroom, wondering what the cacophony was all about. She came closer as soon as she saw me with my arms wrapped around the crying girls and added her gentle embrace to mine, mouthing soothing words of comfort. We stood there a few moments longer as I rubbed my fingers through the hair of both girls, racking my brain for a solution that would leave everyone happy. Suddenly, I had an epiphany.

I gave Suzie and Debbie a final hug and left them in the tender embrace of Katy and walked quickly to my office. When I was inside I called Tom and spoke with him for a while. I decided to take the next week off, explaining that it was a family emergency. Then I asked him something else, and getting a positive answer, spoke with him for a few more minutes before hanging up. Next, I went online to Expedia and cancelled the airline reservations that I had made for Lucy and her kids. I knew what I was going to do, just didn't know how to organize it all as a surprise. I didn't even know if the surprise would be welcome, but I somehow felt things would work out.

I went back in the kitchen to find Katy and Debbie struggling to make hot cocoa. I laughed and told them to let the master at the stove. Katy ushered Debbie back to the table and looking around said, "The only thing missing is 20 or so other girls sleeping in the living room."

Looking over from my saucepan of heated milk I said, "Yeah, you only have two still sleeping and it's a wonder that they could sleep through all of that. Where is Jimmy anyway? I thought he was sleeping on the sofa bed in my office."

Suzie spoke up then and gave me my second shock of the morning. She said, "I think he's still in my bed, at least he was when I got up this morning."

I looked over to see Suzie sticking her tongue out at me and grinning. I thought about her catching me and Natty the day before and panicked. I almost overreacted, but at the last minute decided that Suzie would not have been so smug had anything had really happened. Suzie was gaining more confidence all the time and was at the point of mastering how to jerk my chain.

Debbie was the one that overreacted. As soon as she saw my head jerk around she came unglued and said, "We didn't do anything Jeff, honest ... Suzie, why did you say that? It's like you are trying to start trouble. You know things weren't anything like you tried to make them sound ... Jeff, I can explain."

I looked around and said, "There's no need to explain anything. I can tell when Suzie's trying to get a rise out of me. I trust you girls and I know that there must be a really good explanation if Jimmy slept with you last night."

Katy smiled as she jumped in and said, "I want to hear what her really good explanation is."

Everybody was looking at Suzie who was snickering behind her hand. She pantomimed closing a zipper over her lips and just sat there.

I grabbed the mugs from the shelf and started ladling out hot cocoa. When Suzie came over to get hers I grabbed her and said, "Looks like I'll just have to tickle it out of you then."

Suzie shrieked with laughter as she ran into the living room. I winked at the others and said, "Help yourselves; I'm going to go help wake-up Natty and Jimmy." With that I headed through the living room, feinting towards Suzie as I walked by her on my way to the back hallway.

As I started towards her room Suzie came and grabbed me and said, "He was crying last night about what happened to Debbie and his mom saying everything was his fault. We talked for a while and they were still talking when I went to sleep. I guess they fell asleep holding each other. When Debbie woke up she made me promise I wouldn't tell. Jeff, you heard what we were talking about in the kitchen. It's stupid for their mom to take them somewhere just to run away from unpleasant things."

Hugging Suzie close I said, "Honey, I agree and you're a bright girl to figure all that out, but those are decisions their mother has to make. I'm going to offer her another choice this morning but if she decides to leave after I give her that choice you're going to have to accept that. Debbie's mom is not like your mom. She does care about Debbie and Jimmy and wants what's best for them. Her thinking may be a bit messed up because of what's happened, but overall I think she is taking this better than most women would. One of the things I love about you is the way you get involved and show your friends you care for them. Yet even though it sometimes hurts, we have to let other people choose their own paths. Now that's enough talk about that, go wake up Jimmy and your sister for me."