I watched as he read with interest at first, then frowned and flipped through the pages more quickly. He flipped back to the second page and asked, “What are these numbers, Squirt? Here at the top?”

“That’s what he dialed.”

“Who dialed?” Maggy split her attention between me and him. “What’s going on Mike, what is that?" 

Mike looked up at her question and his frown deepened. I looked at Maggy too and realized what this meant. They’d know… all about my trunk mistake. Mike would have to tell Chief where the notes came from and how I got them. I was sunk. I looked at Mike and bit my lower lip.

He turned to me and I could see the pity in his eyes. “Sorry, Squirt, it’s too important." 

I nodded and faced my sister. “I took the notes last summer,” I told her so Mike wouldn’t have to feel badly about snitching on me. “Me and TJ hooked a ride in Mr. Lewis’s trunk-" 

“What!” Maggy glanced at Mike, her eyes so big the whites showed all around the colored part and her jaw clenched when she asked, “You did what?”

I stared at her some more but her eyes were too crazy and it was plain that she was too crazy mad to back down first so I turned away, this time. “I snuck into Mr. Lewis’ trunk while he was busy getting money out of Miss Elly.”

Maggy threw what was left of her sandwich on her plate and her chair screeched against the floor as she shoved herself from the table. She went to the sink and set her plate down. I watched her stare out the window a spell, her back straight and as stiff as a statue, and the tips of her ears turning red as cherries. The kitchen was powerful quiet and I felt sunk already. 

Then she whipped around.  “Do you realize what could have happened to you!”

“Yes ma'am.”

“My god Kelly! He could have hurt you. Just suppose for one minute he left the county with you and TJ trapped back there. Then what? Damn it Kelly!” She slammed her fist down on the counter hard enough to rattle the dishes in the sink. “Don’t you ever think?”

“I guess not, not much anyway.”

She calmed herself with a deep breath, then shot me a furious look, followed by, “Why? Why would you do such a foolish thing?”

“To make it up to Chief.”

“Make what up?”

“I knew how badly he’d feel if Miss Elly were in trouble. He’d want to know. I wanted to get more on Mr. Lewis so’s that Chief could arrest him. I did it because…” I pulled back the words and held them behind my teeth.

“You did it because of what? What were you trying to make up to him?”

I stared at her. But she wouldn’t budge. Her eyes held mine. “I wanted to make up...killing his wife. I thought that if I got something on that sneak, Mr. Lewis, and got him away from Miss Elly, then Chief could marry her and he’d have a new wife and he’d be happy. I just wanted him to be happy.”

Whatever it was that I said seemed to knock all the words from her brain. Her mouth hung open and she breathed through it, every breath making her sides heave. Then she blinked it away and squinted at me. “My god,” she whispered more than said. “It’s my fault. He could have killed you and it would have been all my fault.”

“No it wasn’t Maggy. You weren’t even there.”

“I told you those things. What have I done?” She turned to Mike, water spilling from her eyes. “It would have been all my fault.”

Mike shook his head and went to her. “Nothing happened, Maggy.” I watched as my sister crumpled into his arms. She was full out crying now, her body shuddered against Mike.

“I’ve been so cruel,” Maggy whispered to his shoulder. She turned to me.  “I’m so sorry. What I said was out of spite, Kelly. I blamed you for something that was not in any way your fault... because I had to have someone to blame... as if having someone to blame would give her death meaning. I’m so sorry. It was wrong of me.”

Above the table, a fly buzzed around in circles over one of the blue checks. He didn’t like it much and decided to land on a white check, instead. He hopped awhile then settled in to clean his rear legs. “It doesn’t matter, Maggy. I knew...” I looked up and her eyes met mine. “I knew you didn’t mean it.”

“I never really did.” She had calmed down a lot. “So, what happened?” The corners of her mouth turned up into a sad smile that scarcely reached her eyes. “I promise, no more outbursts.”

Mike led her back to her chair and pulled it out for her before he sat in his own. He asked Maggy, “You going to be all right?”

“Yes. Go on.”

He picked up the pad and began flipping up the pages as he finished each one. Once he was done with the whole thing, he asked me, “You said these numbers are what he dialed?”

“Yes, sir.”

“The exchange is for Four Oaks. Mind if I use your phone, Mag?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Mike dialed the first set of numbers on the sheet and waited as it rang on the other end. Then all of a sudden he looked up and glanced at me. “No, ma’am. I’m afraid I miss-dialed. Thank you ma'am.”

Mike hung up. “That was the Four Oaks Hospital switchboard. According to this,” he said holding the notes up. “He asked for a Mr. Taylor and immediately started talking to Perretti.”

“That’s right, Mike.” I remembered the talk now. I thought it was strange he didn’t even get to talk to Mr. Taylor. I remembered him too. We even played a couple of games of backgammon when Craig, my intern, couldn’t oblige me. That was the first time I saw Mr. Lewis. He came up and interrupted one of our games. He was a sneak all right, and he made Mr. Tayler really angry when they took to talking. It was all coming back in a shot that left me numb.

“What is it Squirt?” Mike asked when he saw me starting to fret.

I looked at him. “I remember it all.”

“The phone call?”

“No. Before that.”

Mike’s eyes darkened. His eyebrows came together as he stared at me. “What do you mean ‘before that'?”

“Where I saw that Mr. Lewis before. Why I wanted to find out what he was up to. I liked Mr. Taylor. But I knew Mr. Lewis was up to something. He walked like a sneak, even there, at the hospital. He was up to something, all right. He pulled Mr. Taylor away one time and they took to whispering.”

“Wait a minute,” Mike said. “You saw Mr. Lewis while you were in the hospital, and you met this Mr. Taylor, too?”

“I played Backgammon with Mr. Taylor whenever Craig was too busy.”

“You’re kidding,” Mike said. “What did he look like?”

I thought back to when I was stuck in the hospital after I broke my leg falling from one of Sam’s trees– back to the garden and the cement pond full of over-grown goldfish. I pictured Mr. Taylor in front of me.

“He was shorter than you.”

“How much shorter?”

“Not sure, Mike. He was in a wheelchair. But he didn’t sit as high as you do...I’d say he’s more Maggy’s tallness, only he was wider. He had dark hair, but it was turning white around his ears. His eyes were so black you couldn’t see the middle part. He had a lot of hair in his eyebrows and it was turning white too. And he had face hair, like Mr. Griffin, only his was mostly black.”

“Anything else? Any marks?”

“He had a scar.”

“Where?”

I put my finger on my neck and ran it down. “Right here. It went into his shirt.”

Mike smiled.

“What is it?” Maggy asked him.

“She just described Tony Perretti.”

“Who’s he?”

Mike turned to her. “Just one of the most powerful crime bosses in Chicago.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Wish I was, Mag. I wonder what he’s doing in Four Oaks and in the hospital… Can I use the phone again?”

“Of course.”

Mike picked up the phone and dialed.

“Yes,” he said into the receiver after a few minutes. “I’m trying to reach Mr. Taylor... Yes, I’ll hold.”

We all held while Mike waited on the phone. Then Mike suddenly turned to me and signaled me over. Mike turned over the receiver.

“Just ask him how he’s been. Tell him you miss your backgammon games, stuff like that.”

I nodded and put the receiver next to my ear.

“Hello.” I recognized Mr. Taylor’s voice right off.

“Mr. Taylor?” I asked.

“Yes. Who is this?”

“Don’t ya remember? I used to beat you at Backgammon, but I think you let me.”

“Kelly? Is that you, child?”

“Yes, sir. I just got to thinkin’ about you, is all.”

“Why’s that?”

“I darned near fell out of another tree, yesterday. I guess I got to thinkin’ about what would have happened if I did, and how boring it’d be without you there to play the game with.”

He laughed at the other end.

“So, how come you’re still there?”

“I had a brief respite and was able to go back home for a few months. But then, I had a relapse. I’m afraid I’m not quite out of the woods, yet. But on the bright side, the doctors all agree it won’t be long now. So, how have you been?”

“Okay, sir. I did end up making the team, like I said I would. Shortstop, no less. And we even made it to the finals, but we lost the last game.”

“Well congratulations to you for getting so far. What happened that last game?”

“My friend Sam died and I didn’t play. I s’pose the other team was more ready than we were." 

“Sorry to hear you lost a friend, child.”

“Yeah,” I told him, suddenly feeling real sad. I was really missing Sam. “It hurt a might.”

“Still does, from the sound of your voice.”

“I loved him; he was my grandfather.”

“I thought you said he was a friend?”

“Can’t a grandfather be a friend, Mr. Taylor?”

There was a bit of a pause. “Yes, child. Sometimes, a grandfather can be the best of friends. I wish you better luck on your baseball season this year, child.”

“Thanks,” I said, looking up. Mike was signaling me to stop, by using the umpire’s signal for safe. “I guess I should get off the phone now, Mr. Taylor, I kind of forgot to get permission for the call and my Pa just walked in the front door.”

Mr. Taylor laughed full out. “Well, it always is a pleasure to hear from you, child. You better go now, and take care of yourself.”

“I will, Mr. Taylor. You just take care of yourself.”

“Bye, now.”

“I’ll see ya,” I said back and handed the receiver back to Mike who hung it up.

“Same man?”

I nodded.

“What is it?” Maggy asked.

Mike didn’t answer her. Instead, he turned to me. “You said you saw Lewis there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you remember anyone else?”

I thought on it. Then looked up. “There was a guy with a scar down his face, but I never got his name. He came up once when we were playing Backgammon out in the garden. He wheeled Mr. Taylor away but I could still see. Mr. Taylor got really mad at him and he turned all red. I could see a vein sticking out on his forehead when he was finished. He didn’t want to even finish our game after he got done talking to that man.”

Mike's eyes clouded over with his thoughts.

“What’s going on?” Maggy asked.

“Gary Lewis was sent to get a ledger that listed Parretti’s crime syndicate by name. It was thought that Doug Lewis, Gary’s brother, had stolen the ledger and Gary Lewis was sent to retrieve it. But  it was never found. It was believed that Doug gave it to Elly, but Elly never saw it. Chief and Elly ransacked her place looking for it, but never found anything.”

“So?”

“So,” Mike went on. “Perretti has the most to loose should the ledger wind up in the wrong hands. Suppose Gary found it and blackmailed the man in Elly’s name. Perretti sends Gary to find Elly and retrieve the ledger, maybe even kill Elly for good measure. Gary finds her but he already knows she doesn’t have it, because he does. The minute he turns her in, he loses valuable blackmail money he’s extorting out of Perretti and maybe others listed in the book. So rather than kill Elly, he blackmails her for a while, for the death of his brother. Now he is collecting double extortion money. 

“Meanwhile, Perretti moves close by, out of sight, near the area he was told Elly would be found. What’s more out of sight than a hospital under the guise of a patient with a disease that could linger indefinitely? Now he can oversee the operation as his thugs tighten the noose on Elly. Perretti is still there, which leads me to believe he hasn’t located Elly in Gary’s absence and is still being blackmailed. So Gary must have a partner,” Mike looked at me. “The second person he called. The one who was, and maybe still is, holed up...” Mike broke off and looked at the note pad. He glanced at Maggy as he pulled the receiver loose from the wall phone. He dialed while reading the numbers off the pad.

Again we waited as Mike placed the call. He shifted his attention to the phone, “Uh, no ma’am. Sorry, wrong number. Yes ma'am, thank you,” he said and hung the phone back on the wall.

“Garden’s Hotel and Motel,” he told us. “This…” he looked down at the notes. “Snake Cameron may still be holed up there.”

“If Perretti thinks Elly’s is involved, then she’s still in danger,” Maggy said.

“I believe she is.”

“We’d better warn Chief.”

“Hold on,” Mike said. Again he picked up the phone and took to dialing. He leaned against the wall with the receiver plastered to his ear. “Yes,” he said after a while. “Can you please connect me to the police department?”

Mike waited. When the phone was picked up at the other end he said, “Lieutenant Johnson, please.”

Again we all waited. 

Then when Lieutenant Johnson picked up at the other end, Mike said, “Terry? Mike Flannery here... yeah. Not yet, he’s still at large... actually it’s about another matter I’m calling. I need you to check out a location for me.... yeah. The Gardens Hotel and Motel. Guy by the name of Snake Cameron checked in there around this time last year... Yeah, I know that was a while ago. Just check out the motel and see if he’s still there.  If not, see if you can get a line on him ... No, if he’s still there, don’t move in on him, call me back, I don’t want him spooked under any circumstances ... You can reach me at Extension: MF 1224. It’s Chief Broden’s residence. If I’m not here, fill him in on what y’all find out.”

Mike said his “laters” and hung up the phone. He turned to Maggy. “Terry is going to run a check on the man and the hotel and let us know if he’s still there. Until then we’ll wait. When your father gets back, we’ll fill him in.”

Maggy nodded that she understood.

“I think I’ll go back to Chief’s office and try to finish putting all this together in some sort of cohesive report. What are you two going to do?”

Maggy looked at me. “I guess we had better start baking for tomorrow. Aunt Martha will be here in a few hours, I’d like to have it finished before she gets here, so that I can start supper.”

Mike nodded and kissed her cheek in front of me. “Never seems to end, does it?”

Maggy smiled. “No, it never does.”

Mike smiled for her and kissed her again, this time full on the lips before leaving for Chief’s office.

Me and Maggy spent the better part of three whole hours baking: cupcakes, brownies, rolls, sweat breads, cookies (three different kinds–chocolate chip, oatmeal and sugar-snaps). We even made a cake that was three stories tall. She helped me put all the icing on and wrote all the mushy junk on top of it. When that was done, Maggy carefully set the little lady decked out in white and the man with a black hat on top that we’d bought in Springdale the day before. She cut out a white heart all in lace and framed them, before setting the cake on the side board in the dining room. She was just giving our work the once over when someone knocked on the front door.

“I’ll get it,” I yelled at her on my way to the door.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she shot back heading me off. “It could be anyone at that door.”

“All right, Maggy,” I told her and stopped in the hall. “But I bet its just Aunty.”

Maggy smiled and pushed past me. I watched her peek through the window before she unlatched the door and opened it. Aunty breezed in with a small handbag slung over her shoulder. Maggy took her bag and coat from her. She slid the coat on a hanger and set the bag by the front landing.

“Kelly, dear,” Aunty said at me, as she came down the hall. “How are you?”

“Fine, Aunty.”

“So, what have you been up to all day?”

“We’s just baking. It’s in there.’’ I pointed through the kitchen to the dining room. 

Aunty pushed passed me and through the kitchen. She examined everything closely and nodded.

“Maggy, you’ve outdone yourself. All of this looks wonderful. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you had the cake done professionally.”

“Thank you, Aunt Martha, but I had a lot of help.” Maggy nodded to me.

“I see.” Aunty turned to me just as the front door opened up a second time. It was already a quarter to four according to the clock on the kitchen window ledge. Next I knew, Joe was sliding past Maggy to the kitchen table and setting down all his schoolbooks.

Aunty told him ‘hello.’ He hugged her and said his ‘hellos’ back.

“How was school today, Joseph?”

“Same as always, Aunty.” He looked at me and shrugged. “Your assignments are in the green folder.”

I nodded.

“Tell your brother ‘thank you,’ Kelly,” Aunty insisted.

“Thank you, Joseph,” I said and he laughed.

When I turned back to Aunty, she was glaring at me fiercely.  She asked, “Have you been having trouble sleeping?”

“No, ma’am.”

“You look very tired.”

“She’s been having nightmares, Aunty,” Maggy told her. I gave her a sharp piercing gaze to mind her own affairs, but it was too late.

“You have a big day tomorrow,” Aunty declared. “I think you had better march upstairs and take a nap.”

“But Aunty!” 

“Kelly, dear, you look exhausted. I would hate for you to pass out from said exhaustion in the middle of the ceremony, tomorrow. Now march upstairs and get into bed.”

“But I ain’t tired!”

“Yes, you are. And now you’re getting cranky.”

“I’m only getting cranky ‘cause yer picking on me!”

“Kelly!” Maggy shouted. I looked at her and caught the fire in her eyes. “You do as Aunt Martha says and take a nap. You do look tired. It’s been a long day, and tomorrow promises to be a longer one.”

I noticed Joe was also staring at me and I didn’t think I could stand it. 

I sighed. Fine. “All right.” I left the room. I didn’t want to go to sleep; it never did me any good, leastways not lately. They just didn’t understand that. It wasn’t their fault that they didn’t. I turned at the kitchen door and looked at my aunt. “I’m sorry, Aunty,” I told her and went upstairs.

© Copyright 2025 C J Driftwood. All rights reserved.