Heartbreaker Hero: Eddie's Story (Maine Justice Book 4) Page 5

  When he took her home, she hung around his neck. “Come on in, Eddie.”

  He said, “No, I guess not. You’d better sleep it off.”

  He drove himself home very carefully and showed up basically sober at his mother’s the next day for dinner.

  By the third Christmas, he and Harvey were good friends. Harvey still yelled at him once in a while, when Eddie did something stupid, like let a drug dealer whack him with a wrench when he should have seen it coming. Eddie credited Harvey with saving his life that time. He’d gotten mad earlier, when Eddie got his flashlight out and the batteries were dead, but that didn’t stop him from laying out a guy that was about to kill Eddie.

  Since then, Eddie had gotten a little smarter, and he no longer scheduled any dates on Christmas Eve. When Harvey dropped him off after work, he said, “Coming over later?”

  “Sure,” Harvey replied, and drove off in his beat-up old green Ford.

  At seven-thirty, he was at the door. No beer this time, but he brought Eddie a rechargeable flashlight. “Keep it in your truck,” he said.

  “Thanks, Harv.” Eddie handed him a high capacity flash drive.

  “What’s this?”

  “Your Christmas present.”

  He looked at it and said, “Thanks, Eddie. I use a lot of those.”

  Eddie had beer in the refrigerator, and they had a few.

  By the fourth Christmas, they were best friends. Eddie had a lot of respect for Harvey. Finally, he felt Harvey saw him as an equal, not an impetuous kid.

  When Harvey hadn’t shown up by nine o’clock, Eddie stuffed the box of ammo he’d bought him in his pocket and walked over to his apartment house.

  He knocked on the door and waited. Maybe he wasn’t there, after all. Maybe he’d gone early to his sister’s, without saying so. Eddie knocked again and had started to turn away when the door opened.

  Harvey was bleary-eyed. “Hey, Ed.”

  “Hi. I was…worried about you.”

  “Come on in.”

  Harvey walked ahead of him into the living room and sat down. Eddie sat down, too, trying not to count the beer bottles.

  “You okay, Harv?”

  He shook his head and stared at the ceiling.

  “I’m not usually this sloshed,” he said after a while.

  “No, you’re not.” It struck Eddie that ammunition wasn’t the best present for a depressed person.

  “Don’t know how I’ll drive to Hillsboro tomorrow.” Harvey sighed. “Shoulda quit and come over to your house.”

  “How about some coffee?”

  “Sure.”

  Eddie went out to the kitchen and microwaved a cup of water, then stirred instant coffee into it.

  “Shouldn’t let it get to me.” Harvey took a sip, made a face, and took another sip. “It just hits me once in a while, really hard.”

  Eddie figured he was talking about his ex-wife, Carrie. Harvey had told him some by then. Enough to make Eddie be really careful who he hooked up with.

  After two cups of coffee, Harvey went to his room and brought Eddie a book on reloading.

  “Pretty funny,” Eddie said and brought out the box of ammo. “Of course, you want to be sober when you use that.”

  “Natch.”

  The fifth year, Harvey had come at eight o’clock, carrying a six-pack of Pepsi.

  “Thought we’d better not have a repeat of last year,” he said apologetically.

  “Great.” Eddie got out the cookies, and they sat and talked. Eddie told him stories about his cousins, and Harvey got to laughing after a while.

  Eddie knew him pretty well by then, all of his deepest hurts. He knew Harvey despaired of ever having a family, and that if he thought about that too much he’d go to pieces. He was a man who rarely lost control, but that would do it—thinking about Carrie, and the baby that hadn’t made it, and how he was probably going to be alone for the rest of his life.

  Eddie had tried to fix him up with women once or twice, thinking he was doing his friend a favor, but Harvey didn’t seem to want to try. Eddie got him as far as picking up a couple of girls at Clark’s one Friday night, but when it was time to make the move and leave with them, Harvey pulled him aside.

  “I just can’t do this, Ed.” He had a wounded look.

  Eddie almost argued but decided it wasn’t going to take. He apologized to the girls, told them his buddy wasn’t up to a night on the town, and took Harvey home.

  So that fifth year, they exchanged presents like normal people. Harvey gave him a nice necktie to wear to court, and he got Harvey a new regulation shoulder holster. He’d seen that the strap on the one Harvey had worn all his detective days was torn nearly through. They drank Pepsi and talked about a stubborn case they had then, and when Harvey got up to leave, Eddie was sorry to see him go.

  Now another Christmas had rolled around. Their traditional Christmas Eve rendezvous had been scratched off the schedule by Jeff’s wedding, and Eddie had felt unsettled, knowing Harvey’s present was still in his truck. He got it and Jennifer’s, and one for the two of them, and went back into the house.

  Leeanne still sat by the hearth, talking to Jennifer, her left hand fiddling with the jade cross. Her dark hair framed her face, and Eddie felt the pure sweetness of her. Feelings of unworthiness threatened him, and he thought he knew a little bit of how Harvey felt toward Jennifer.

  Jennifer sat on the couch with Harvey, her head resting trustingly against his shoulder. He kept his arm around her and smiled at Eddie when he came in with the packages. Was he thinking of Christmases past, the way Eddie was?

  He sat down in a chair near Harvey, wishing it was his own house and that he and Leeanne were the happy married couple.

  The changes he’d seen in Harvey in the past year were astounding. Last summer, he’d laughed when Eddie said he was a different man, but it was true. He’d fallen in love, he’d beaten his depression, and he’d given up alcohol. The big catalyst was God. From the day he met Jesus Christ, everything changed. He looked the same, only happier. He was Eddie’s same best friend, only better. And he’d shown Eddie how to change, too.

  Eddie held out the package to him. It was flat and heavy. Harvey looked at it speculatively. To Jennifer, Eddie passed a lighter one.

  “Go ahead,” Harvey told her.

  She opened it and pulled out a blue maternity T-shirt with the words, “Le bébé d’Harvey” on the front. Eddie’d had it printed at the mall. Jennifer was usually pretty conservative. Harvey was, too, but he was so proud of Jennifer, he wanted everyone to know about the baby. Eddie had guessed wearing it in French would make it discreet enough for Jennifer.

  She laughed and held it up so Leeanne could see. “Awesome, Eddie! Thanks. I love it.”

  Harvey grinned. “Pretty cute, Ed.” He started in on his wrapping paper. The gift was an old metal advertising sign, with Ted Williams holding a baseball bat and saying, “Make mine Moxie.”

  “All right,” said Harvey. He was into antiques in a minor way, and he liked stuff with local ties. Eddie had seen the sign at a flea market in September and known he wouldn’t find anything better if he waited.

  “Hang it in the study, by your desk,” said Jennifer. She and Eddie were both too young to remember Ted Williams in his heyday, or even the Nissen bread commercials he made when he was older, but Eddie’s father loved the guy and had told stories about him.

  “This one is really for the baby.” Eddie passed Harvey a box about a foot long and eight inches deep.

  Abby had clued him in that Jennifer wanted to decorate the nursery with a Noah’s ark theme. At the mall, he’d seen a soft sculpture set—the ark that you could open and put the animals inside. Two elephants, two bear cubs, two zebras, two kangaroos, and two fluffy sheep. They were soft and cuddly, perfect for little hands.

  “This is wonderful, Eddie.” Jennifer picked up one of the sheep and stroked it.

  “It’s great, Ed,” Harvey said. “Thank you.” He and Jennifer set the
ark up on the coffee table, and it looked better than Eddie remembered. He was glad he’d gotten it.

  Jennifer smiled. “It will be perfect in the nursery.”

  Leeanne had come close when Harvey opened the box, and she helped arrange the animals going into the ark.

  “You know, I thought everyone would be disappointed that we couldn’t go home this morning,” she said, “but I think this has been my best Christmas ever.”

  “Me too,” Jennifer said. “Our first real Christmas.”

  Eddie hadn’t thought about it, but she was right. For all four of them, it was the first time they’d really known its meaning. He slid his arm around Leeanne, and she smiled at him.

  “Okay, Ed, you ready for yours?” Harvey asked.

  He handed Eddie a small box, and he opened it, not knowing what to expect. Inside, folded in tissue paper, were two tickets. The ice show at the Civic Center, for New Year’s Eve. Harvey and Jennifer were watching him, smiling.

  “You guys didn’t have plans for next Friday night, did you?” Harvey asked.

  Eddie held them out to Leeanne. “Will you go?”

  “What is it?” She looked close and squealed. “Of course I will!”

  “You’ll have to stay here this week, I guess,” Jennifer told her.

  Leeanne jumped up and hugged her, then Harvey. Eddie wished she’d transfer a little of that energy his way.

  “Do George and Marilyn know about this?” he asked.

  Harvey said, “Not yet, but I think I can fix it. We’re always happy to have Leeanne visit, and she has a couple more weeks of vacation before school starts again.”

  “Let’s have some of that leftover wedding cake,” said Jennifer. “We have to get rid of it.” She and Leeanne got up and went to the kitchen, laying plans on the way for the coming week.

  Eddie said, “Thanks, Harv. This is the best present ever. Not just the tickets, I mean, but, well, you know.”

  “Better than a six-pack?” he asked.

  “Much.” Eddie laughed. “God has been pretty good to us both this year.”

  “We were pathetic, weren’t we?” His eyes were looking back at the past.

  “Yeah.” Eddie thought about it for a second. “I guess I was wrong. This isn’t the best present. The best present of all is what God’s done for us. We are different people, aren’t we?”

  Harvey put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder and steered him toward the kitchen and wedding cake and two gorgeous, sober women. Eddie couldn’t help drawing the contrast to the night he’d hauled him to Clark’s and tried to convince him they were having a good time.

  Chapter 5

  Sunday, December 26

  On Sunday morning, Harvey arrived at Eddie’s apartment building to pick him up at seven-thirty. It felt like an ordinary work day.

  “Can we search Kyle Quinlan’s house today?” he asked.

  “Not yet.”

  A stack of crime scene photos waited on Harvey’s desk—prints of the ones Eddie had taken. He’d left his SIM card in the photo lab, so they could make high-resolution prints. Bard and O’Heir had filed electronic reports, and Harvey sat down and started reading while Eddie studied the pictures.

  At last Harvey sat back in his chair. “Doesn’t add up.”

  “Maybe it will after we have the autopsy report,” Eddie said.

  “Maybe.”

  Harvey was clearly frustrated. Because of the weekend and the holidays, it could be days or even weeks before they got results from the medical examiner. After all, the next weekend would be another holiday blowout. If Harvey could have done one little thing to push them toward solving the case at that moment, he would have.

  “I guess we’d better go to church and let the people do their jobs when they come back to work tomorrow,” he said.

  Eddie slipped into the singles Sunday school class five minutes late. Leeanne and Abby were sitting together. Charlie Emery was sitting beside Abby, but Leeanne had put her purse on the chair next to her, and when Eddie walked quietly toward her, she moved it and smiled up at him.

  Harvey had gone into the adult class in the auditorium to find Jennifer. When Sunday school was over, Eddie, Abby, and Leeanne went out there to join them, and Charlie Emery tagged along, keeping Abby talking. He just didn’t get it yet. She’d turned him down for dates, but he kept coming back.

  The Larsons’ pew was full. George and Marilyn Wainthrop sat beside Jennifer, and next to Harvey were Mike and Sharon Browning.

  Mike, the police chief, didn’t claim to be a Christian, but his wife certainly was, and Mike had started coming to church with her a few months earlier to humor Sharon, or at least that was vibe he gave off at the time. Eddie was starting to think he was taking the Bible seriously now.

  Travis and Randy came from the teen class and squeezed in next to George, so Eddie took Leeanne into a pew farther back, next to Rick and Ruthann Bradley. Jeff Wainthrop’s bride, Beth, was Rick’s sister.

  “Have you heard from the honeymooners?” Ruthann asked Leeanne.

  “No, not a word,” she replied.

  Ruthann smiled. “Beth called us last night.”

  “Where are they?” Eddie asked.

  “In Hawaii.”

  “Wow,” said Leeanne. “They really kept it a secret.”

  Eddie leaned forward and said, “I thought they needed passports.”

  Ruthann made a face. “I think that was a bit of misinformation Jeff put out.”

  Leeanne asked, “How are they doing?”

  “Sounded like they’re having a great time. They hadn’t been there long when she called, but she wanted us to know they got there all right.”

  The pianist started playing, and everyone quit talking. Eddie looked around and saw that Abby had managed to get unstuck from Charlie and was seated in the row with Peter Hobart, between his two young boys.

  Watching Leeanne’s face, Eddie reached for her hand. She smiled a little, so he kept it. She had on the same dress she had worn to Jeff’s wedding, and the jade cross lay against the front. Her hair was loose and curled a little at the ends. She smelled a little like strawberries. Eddie had to force himself to pay attention to Pastor Rowland.

  After church, Harvey invited Peter Hobart and his sons to have dinner at their house. He and Jennifer were always inviting people over on Sunday. All of the Wainthrops were still there, so they didn’t invite many extras this week.

  When they got to the house, Jennifer and her mom were on turbo in the kitchen. Leeanne went to lend a hand, and Eddie helped Harvey move the tables and chairs around.

  Jennifer was pretty laid back about company. She believed in paper plates. She kept the meal simple, so her parents could eat quickly and get on the road.

  After lunch, the women organized a cleanup crew. Eddie offered to help, but they chased him out, so he escaped with the other men into the living room. Harvey launched a conversation with his father-in-law and Peter, and Eddie gathered he was buying Jennifer a new car for her birthday, which was coming up in mid-January. He got up and wandered into the study.

  “Hey, Travis, my man.”

  “Yo, Eddie.”

  Eddie sat down in Jennifer’s swivel chair. “How’s school going?”

  Travis rolled his eyes. “It’s lame.”

  “Okay. You’ve only got a few months left, right? I think you said you’re going to UMO in the fall?”

  “Yup.” He had some kind of castle game open and mostly ignored the intrusion, but Eddie didn’t take it personally. He was the same way at Travis’s age, only his family couldn’t afford a home computer then. Harvey’s house had half a dozen of them, since they were one of his and Jennifer’s favorite things.

  George came to the doorway. “So, Eddie, I kind of expected the death to be on the news this morning, but I didn’t hear anything about it.”

  “That’s because of the holiday,” Eddie said. “Normally reporters would have gotten to the scene a couple of minutes behind the medical examiner
, but everybody was in Christmas mode. Besides, I think Mike tried to keep it quiet.”

  “He can do that?”

  “Not completely, but yeah. There are ways.”

  George pulled up a chair and asked about the shooting range where Eddie and Harvey went to practice. They’d had to qualify in November with new Heckler & Koch .45s, and he was interested in that.

  Harvey came to the doorway and beckoned to Eddie. He got up and followed him to the sunroom. The kids were getting noisy, so Harvey took him into his and Jennifer’s bedroom. It was really nice, about three times as big as the bedroom in his old apartment. Eddie had only been in there once, when he helped move some furniture for them.

  The former homeowner’s wife had used a wheelchair, and the room had been added to the house to accommodate her. It had a handicapped-accessible bathroom and a huge walk-in closet, and the windows came low and overlooked the big back yard. The sleigh bed Eddie had helped Harvey pick out was in there, and the usual dressers, nightstands, and bookcases. Eddie liked to read, but Harvey and Jennifer were fanatics. They had bookshelves everywhere in their house.

  “Mr. Quinlan called me,” Harvey said. “His son Jordan is over there right now, and he asked if we wanted to talk to him.”

  “Jordan being the one who was Mike Junior’s buddy?”

  “That’s right.”

  Eddie nodded. “Couldn’t hurt.”

  “Okay, I’d better stick around until Jennifer’s folks go. I think they’re pulling out as soon as Marilyn decides she’s done in the kitchen.”

  “What about Leeanne?” Eddie asked. “Can she stay?”

  “George is fine with it. I told Leeanne, and she can break it to her mother.”

  “You don’t think Mrs. Wainthrop will mind, do you?”

  “Not really, although she’s still disappointed that she couldn’t get the whole clan up to their house this weekend.”