Janice rolled her eyes. “Sally, you always have to be so nice. I don’t think you ever see bad traits in anyone.”
Sally ducked her head, but not before Rory caught a glimpse of pain in her eyes. Rory hastened to take the spotlight off her. “That’s why we all love you so much, Sally. Me, I’m always looking for the worst in people, so I find it. That was what was so shocking about Gideon. He looks rough and tough. He isn’t handsome in the accepted sense of the word, but I’m not in the least attracted to pretty boys.”
“What do you mean, rough and tough?” Pam asked, suspicion in her voice.
Rory shrugged. “Meaning lots of muscle. Tattoos. Scars. His hair is thick and unruly. He doesn’t really try to tame it, just pulls it back out of his way. The color is dark but streaked with silver. I thought that was unusual because he can’t be more than middle thirties; at least, he doesn’t look older than that. He has a mustache but trimmed. No beard but lots of dark scruff on his jaw. He has beautiful eyes. I mean gorgeous. At the same time...” She broke off, unsure how to put her feelings into words.
Gideon did have beautiful eyes. So blue. They could be blue like the sky. Or arctic blue like an icy glacier. Or what? Deadly. A piercing predator dark blue with a silver ring around the color. When that happened, he didn’t blink at all, and he looked as if he could see right through skin and bones into the very heart of you, where he could rip out every organ if he desired to do so. She didn’t want to say that. Nor did she want to say there was a part of her that reacted to that part of him.
“His eyes,” Cindy prompted. She looked around the room, sighed and stood up. “My little hooligans were supposed to stay right here or in the library next to us with the door open. Do you see the door open? Because I don’t.”
Lydia stood up as well. Her daughter was looking through a picture book right next to her on the sofa, but having a child, she knew the anxiety it caused when children were out of sight. Rory and the others immediately got up to help look for them. Cindy’s sons made an art of disappearing in the apartment building. They especially loved to hide in the laundry room. There were many intriguing places in the basement for the boys to slip into where adults couldn’t fit. They knew better than to leave the building, and so far, they had obeyed that mandate.
They had always played, running around every level of thebuilding, until the women had gotten the word that Dustin had been murdered. Now the apartment building was no longer a place for the boys to call a jungle gym. They had strict instructions to stay within sight.
Cindy pushed open the door to the hallway and called out for her sons. She had the mom voice down pat.
Isiah, her oldest, came running halfway up the hall. He looked pale, every freckle standing out. “Mom. You need to come now. Hurry.”
He waved his arms at her, his eyes bright, but he didn’t look happy. In fact, Rory thought he looked scared. Cindy must have thought so too because she began to run.
“What’s wrong, Isiah? Where’s your brother? Where’s Moses?” There was a hitch in her voice.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Moses wanted to slide down the garbage chute. We do it all the time, but he couldn’t. He got stuck because Ret was sliding down it before him, and he got stuck and it isn’t nice. MoMo is crying and I couldn’t reach him to get him back out.”
Rory’s heart dropped, and hard knots formed in her stomach. That didn’t sound good at all. She didn’t want to think about Ret. He wouldn’t slide down the garbage chute on his own. If Moses had landed on top of him and had gotten stuck, that meant Ret was dead. Dustin was dead. If Ret was dead and no one had seen Harvey or Jarrod since the cop had been killed, what did that mean? Her stomach lurched at the idea.
“Ret wouldn’t play in a garbage chute,” Janice whispered as they hurried after Cindy, who ran up the stairs, following her son.
“Moses shouldn’t be sitting on top of a dead man,” Lydia hissed, Ellen on her hip, her head turned away from the little girl so she couldn’t see. “He’s too sensitive. He’ll have nightmares for the rest of his life.”
Little Moses was only four. He was a firecracker, bright andfunny, but very sensitive. He followed his brother’s lead. Wherever Isiah went, Moses went. What Isiah did, Moses did. But Rory knew the two boys had very different personalities.
“Who will have nightmares?” Ellen whispered into her mother’s ear.
Lydia hushed her.
Rory’s mind had to solve puzzles. That was just the way she was. Now she knew she would be turning the pieces she had over and over in her head until she had more and she could fit them together and make them work, but nothing added up. A detective murdered in their apartment building. Dustin murdered. Now Ret in the garbage chute. Someone had to have put him there. No one had seen Jarrod or Harvey since the detective had been murdered. Were they dead as well?
They rounded the corner of the hall, and Cindy came to an abrupt halt, forcing those behind her to halt as well. Rory caught at Cindy’s shoulders as she rocked back. Isiah had run right up to the garbage chute. He’d propped the door open with a stick. There was a chair directly in front of it the boys had dragged from the little alcove about twenty feet away, where a small visiting area had been set up.
Cindy walked slowly up to the chute and peered down. “Moses. I’m here, baby. Mommy’s here now. I’ll get you out.”
Rory heard a little sob, and then it stopped, as if Moses had jammed his fist into his mouth.
“I need a flashlight to see how best to get to him,” Cindy said. Her voice shook, but she kept it together. That was Cindy. She had the boys, and she didn’t lose it when she had to be strong for them.
“I’ve got one on my keychain.” Rory passed her the keys. “It’s pretty bright, so tell Moses to close his eyes.” She could use the light against an attacker by flashing it in his eyes to temporarilyblind him. It wasn’t like she was the fastest runner in town, so she had to have other devices that would work for her if she was attacked.
“Mom,” Isiah said, tugging on Cindy’s leggings. “Ret’s there. I could see his head. There’s a plastic bag around it, and his mouth is open wide and so are his eyes. I told Moses not to look at him. I told him to stare up at the door. I tried to reach him to pull him back up, but I couldn’t get to him.”
“You did the right thing coming to get me. Moses, you need to close your eyes and keep them closed,” Cindy called down to her son. “I’m using Auntie Rory’s flashlight and it’s superbright. She says it could blind you. Close your eyes very tight while I look down and see how far you are. I want to know if I can just reach down and pull you up.”
“You’re too short, Mom,” Isiah announced. “Auntie Jan maybe could do it, or Auntie Pam, but not you.”
Cindy ignored Isiah’s proclamation. “Are you ready, Moses? Do you have your eyes closed? I’m going to shine the light on you.”
“Yes.” The answer was shaky.
