Before she had a chance to retort, the sliding glass door opened, and Chauncey and her dad walked in. Greeting both of them, she listened once again as they all clucked over her previous injury. Wanting to take the focus off past events, she reminded them of the school's fundraising event that weekend. “My neighbors have agreed to split the profits, so I’ll have a booth with their creations to sell. I hope you guys can come. Lord knows the school needs as much help as it can get.”
“It’s nice of your neighbors to do that,” her dad said. “Your mom and I will stop by and support the fundraiser. Put out a call to your brothers and sisters, and I’m sure if they’re available, they’ll stop by, too.”
“I’ll let my brood know,” Hannah said with a smile.
“There’ll be some police presence at the event,” Chauncey said. As the head of the Hope City Police Department, Chauncey managed to have his finger on the pulse of everything going on in the city, which, considering the size of Hope City, was a feat. “We’ve seen a significant increase in the drug traffic amongst teenagers around many of the high schools.”
Caitlyn sighed, hating to hear his words even though she knew they were true. “I know our security officer is overworked with trying to keep up with everything.”
“We’ll probably send the dogs in twice this year instead of once,” he added.
When the drug-sniffing dogs were brought in by the police department, the whole school went into a lockdown where the halls were cleared and the students stayed in their classrooms. The police dogs didn’t go into individual classes, so she’d heard that the students suspecting the dogs were coming simply kept their drugs in their backpacks and not in the lockers. She sighed again, hating the measures needed to try to keep the drugs out of the schools, but for some students, it was a big business.
“How’s the work going on the house?”
Recognizing her mother’s tactic of changing the subject to one she was more comfortable with, Caitlyn grinned. “I think it’s going well although from what Margaretha has told me, it’s gonna take a long time. The person she hired will rebuild the elements so that they look like the original. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but he’s moved in across the hall from me. I guess he needed a place to live, and she needed a renter, so it works for both of them.” She dropped her gaze to her teacup, suddenly finding the pattern fascinating as she felt her mother and Hannah’s gazes boring into her. She now wished she hadn’t mentioned anything, knowing their ability to ferret out secrets.
“Oh, so he lives right there?” Hannah asked, a sharpness underlying each word. “Have you had a chance to get to know him?”
This question came from her mom, and she shook her head. “We’ve chatted a couple of times, that’s all. I’m sure I’ll run into him occasionally.”
Hannah opened her mouth to ask another question, but Chauncey’s phone alarm vibrated, and he looked at his wife. “We’ve got to go. Brock and Brody are stopping by to pick up one of the dressers in the spare room.”
Caitlyn breathed a sigh of relief from getting out of the inquisition. Deciding to leave at the same time, goodbyes were offered all around, and promises to come to the next big family gathering were made.
Once home, she spied Margaretha through her living room window watching TV. Entering the front door, she could smell the sweet scent of candles emanating from Terri and Bjorn’s apartment. Climbing the stairs, her heart rate increased as it did every day, wondering if she would run into Griffin. She hadn’t seen him close-up since their interaction the other day when she’d spectacularly tripped outside and he caught her. Her face heated at the memory, the embarrassment still vivid. And yet, for the moment she was held in his arms, something felt so right. So real. So much more than she’d felt on any of her last dates where all she wanted to do was get away. With Griffin, she would have happily set up residence in his arms. Yeah, if that doesn’t make me sound like a loser.
Her phone rang just as she entered her apartment and was attempting to let the disappointment of not seeing Griffin overtake her. Seeing the caller ID, she grinned. “Hey, Bekki!”
“I miss you, bestie!” Bekki called out. “Mom said she ran into you today.”
Laughing, Caitlyn shook her head. “That was about half an hour ago. How quick is your mom’s phone tree finger for letting everyone know what’s going on?”
“You know Mom,” Bekki said in an exaggerated long-suffering voice. “Anyway, I’ve got tomorrow night free. How about meeting at the Celtic Cock? Erin is sure to be there, and I’ll see if Sandy wants to come also.”
Agreeing, Caitlyn thought a night out at her soon-to-be brother-in-law’s pub would be the perfect antidote to sitting in her apartment listening for any comings or goings from Griffin’s apartment and pretending that wasn’t what she was doing.
10
“You fuckin’ moron! You should have kept your head down, but instead, you fuckin’ smiled at Ms. McBride at the locker room.”
The three people gathered in the room lit only by a small lamp looked at each other, a combination of irritation, anger, frustration, and defensiveness painted on their faces. Brought together by a common goal, they each had much to lose.
“It would look bad if I didn’t. She doesn’t suspect anything. Why would she?”
“Because she’s smart. Because she might put two and two together.”
“Ignoring her woulda made me look suspicious. I didn’t know what to do. Anyway, you decided on the locker room because there are no cameras there. Where the fuck am I supposed to get the stash?”
“We gotta look for an alternative place. One that isn’t so visible and yet accessible.”
“Fine, do it, but stop fuckin’ around with me until you do.”
Another voice entered the conversation. “We still have our backup location. We need to keep the carriers rotating. Enough to keep the heat off but not confuse the ones dropping off or picking up,”
“You want to start using the locker rooms down on the practice field?”
“Let’s see how the next week goes. No more recruiting. We use the carriers we have for now, but they’ll be busier. That’s fine. Keeps them under wraps and quiet.”
“Dogs’ll come in some time.”
“Won’t matter if it’s in a neutral location that doesn’t have eyes on it and there’s nothing there.”
“Dogs only come in during school hours. After hours, it won’t matter.”
“We can cover and confuse. That’s the smart play.”
All three nodded as the leader agreed. “Keep the course.” Pinning the other two with a hard glare, they added, “And keep the carriers in line. I hear one word that someone is skimming, hell’s gonna rain down on everyone.”
“No worries, I’ve got them in line.”
“Good.” The leader turned and walked out of the room, no words or waving goodbye, just the click of the door closing behind them making the only sound.
The other two blew out simultaneous breaths, looking at each other.