They never talked business at the table, she noticed.They did talk loudly and without restraint.It seemed to her that they would argue for the sake of arguing, and it was fun.It was also something that she was going to have to get used to.She loved this family so much that she wondered how she’d made it for so long without them in her life.Especially Aaron.
Clean up was done by the men.Even Franklin and Frank pitched in where they could because she’d been helping cook.They not only put the few leftovers away, but they also loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen.It was as pristine as it usually was when there was no one around but the four of them.Mac was so full that she wanted to take a nap.
“Your brother Shawn is in town.”That perked her up, and she looked at Aaron to see if he’d known.“He’s staying at the local hotel.I’m running a check on the card he used.Someone by the name of Clair Baker.He said that she’d given it to him to use, looking for his sister and brother.He also had a long visit with Benjamin while he was at the stationhouse, too.”
“Did he say what he wanted?”Zeno said that he’d not spoken to him but knew that he’d been upset with his brother.“I can imagine.When Benjamin told me that he was going to be on the straightand narrow, I wondered what Shawn or Dad would have to say about that.He’s not bothered me since he apologized to us.”
“Is Shawn any meaner than your other brother?Before I forget, your dad will be released soon.I’m to understand that he’s been in prison for stealing cars and selling them on the open market.Stupid move if you were to ask me.He was stealing them right off the street in front of his house and selling them to people in the same town.”Mac told Alaric that her dad had always been lazy about things and was certainly stupid about everything else.“This will be his third conviction if he causes any trouble around here.We don’t take kindly to strangers messing with our town.”
“He’ll cause trouble when he’s in town.He’ll think that he owns the place once he sees how small the police department is.He’ll try to muscle his way into things that are of no concern to him.”Aaron said that he’d try.Mac nodded before continuing.“Something else you should know, he’ll have a gun on him.So will Shawn.Shawn hasn’t been out of prison long either, but I know for a fact that he’s carrying.He also carries a bunch of knives.He thinks that he’s good with them.And if I were you, I’d look into his activity concerning that card lady, Baker.I would bet she’s more than likely dead someplace and no one knows that she’s been robbed, too.”
“Thanks.That’s a lot of information we might not have gotten without you.”She said that she’d been around them longer than they had.“And it shows.I’ll have someone in Virginia look into Clair Baker to see what we can find out.If she’s dead, then we’ll have to look hard into Shawn causing her death.”
They talked about her dad and brother until they needed to go home.It hadn’t been her plan to take up all the conversation, but she was glad that they were taking her seriously.They were bad people, and when they got here, she was going to have to watch out for them.They’d do worse to her than Benjamin had tried to do when he arrived.
She went up to bed at ten.She was going to sub at the elementary school starting Monday and was excited to have something to do.She’d been lazing about the house for too long, and she needed some activity.Being glad for the exercise equipment in the basement, she knew that she’d be hurting when she was able to walk again without the boot.Usually, she would walk fast when she could, but since she’d been laid up, there was no way that she could do it just yet.
Aaron joined her just as she was getting into the bed.“I wanted to tell you that I’ll keep an eye on Roland and Shawn.They’ll get the same treatment as your other brother did if they start their shit.”She said that she was surprised that Shawn hadn’t done anything yet.“So am I, to be honest.But I’ll keep an eye on him too.If they think they’re going to gang up on you, being that there are two of them, then I’ll have one of them arrested.You can’t hang out with a known felon when you get out of prison.”
“I thought about that.This Baker woman, do you need my help finding things out about her?I can still get into the computers at work and wouldn’t mind doing some research on her.”He said that would save him a lot of time if she could do that.“I’ll start on it first thing in the morning.It’ll be nice to have something to occupy my mind other than when I can get out of the house.Your parents have been great about everything, too.”
“Mom said she’s having so much fun having another woman in the house.She also mentioned us having her a grandbaby.I guess you talked to her today.”She told him what she’d walked in on when his mom was in the kitchen.“I knew that she had trouble with depression after Darius was born, but I didn’t know she was still fighting with it.That’s the reason that we started the Saturday night dinners so that she’d have something to look forward to once a week.And I think we all look forward to it too.I know that I do.”
“I love you.”He kissed her on the mouth but didn’t come any closer.“Something wrong?I thought we could have a little fun tonight since the house is empty again.”
“I promised Dad that I’d come back down and keep him company.I think that he and Reagan are going into practice for a while then he’ll retire.I don’t think that he wants to think about that.”She told him to have fun.“Thank you, my dear.I believe that I will.Good night.I love you too.”
~*~
Her feet were killing her, and she had three more streets to go.Having a walking mail route was good for her, but right now all she could think about was going home and putting her feet up.But Anna knew that wasn’t going to be possible because she had to pick up Harri at preschool, then go home to fix dinner.As soon as she put the last of her mail in the last slot, she was headed back to her car and then the rest of what she had to do today.
“Excuse me.”She turned with a smile on her face, thinking that she didn’t want to have to deal with anyone today.“You keep delivering my mail to my neighbors.I live at Forty-One Main Street, not Forty.”
“I’m just covering this for the person who is on vacation.Have you gone to your post office and talked to them about this?”She said that she’d told the other woman to take care of it.“I’m afraid that my hands are tied.I can’t do anything about it.You’ll have to go to your local post off—”
“I’m telling you, and you’re going to have to fix it.I don’t have time to run down to the post office every time my mail goes missing.Just do as you’re told, and things will be fixed.Like I said, I’m not going to do it, so you’ll have to.”She only smiled at the woman, knowing full well that she wasn’t going to do anything about it.If her mail was going to the wrong address, then perhaps she’d done that with the company that was mailing it to the wrong address.It was no concern of hers.“Are you listening to me?”
“I am listening to you.Did you get with the company that is mailing it to the wrong address?”Rolling her eyes at her, Anna was ready to give up when the police drove by.Instead of letting them pass, the woman stopped the cruiser by jumping out in front of it.She must have done this before, as the driver had slowed down when he was driving past.
“This woman is stealing my mail by putting it in someone else’s mailbox.”She tried to explain to the officer that she wasn’t doing any such thing, but again, he must have been used to her.He pulled out his notepad and began writing things down.“You’ll have to arrest her because she said she’s not going to do shit for me until I pay her.”
“Lies.”The officer said he was taking care of it.“Then do something about the lies that she’s spewing.Money was never mentioned.I simply told her that I’m new to this route because of the other woman being on vacation.I never once said that she’d have to pay me in order to get her mail delivered to her.”
“Ms.Reynolds, you know that you were told if you caused any more trouble with the mail people, that you were going to have to pick up your mail at the post office.I’m going to ask you how she stole your mail by putting it into someone else’s mailbox.”She told him that she’d stolen it right out of her box and put it into the neighbor’s.“Let me get this straight.You said that she put it in a different mail box?Let me see this mail, and we’ll get this straightened out.”
“I don’t know what I did with it.”Nodding, the officer put his notebook away.“Well?Are you going to arrest her?She’s stolen my mail and told me that she was going to charge me extra when she had to deliver to my house.”
“Did she say that she was going to charge you extra, or did she say that she wanted you to pay extra for her to give you back your mail?It’s really important for you to get it right, Ms.Reynolds.There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding about what you were saying.”She said she was going to report him.“You do that and make sure you get my name right.It’s Alaric Dresden.Just like the town.”
When she stomped away, Anna looked at Officer Dresden and told him that she’d done none of those things.He nodded and told her that they’d been having trouble with Ms.Reynolds for some time now.That she gets lonely and causes trouble.
“She scared me a bit.No one told me about her when I took over this route for a couple of weeks.”He said that he thought that she was new.“Just temporary.Millicent is off for the next two weeks, then she’ll be back.I’ll go back to my old route, and she can deal with her.”
“They’ll make her pick up her mail at the post office now.Which is a good thing.She gets a little high-strung in the summer months when she can track you guys down.We’ve discovered that shefilled out the paperwork wrong for the two companies that send her mail.Usually, Millicent just puts it in her box, and that’s the end of it.For a while, anyway.Then she complains about having the mail delivered to the wrong address.Like I said, she just gets lonely.”She asked what she should do about it.“Nothing now.She’ll have learned her lesson for a couple of weeks, then she’ll go back to her ways.She’s harmless.”
“Thank you.”He told her that it was her pleasure.“I have to go.I have to pick up my little girl from preschool camp.I don’t know why it’s called that.It’s just like every other day at the school.”He nodded, and she realized that he more than likely had better things to do than to hang out with a woman who had a four-year-old.“Thanks again.”
She was nearly to the mail car when she realized that her feet weren’t hurting so badly.Wondering if it had to do with the little break she’d given herself, she decided she was going to do that daily.It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to walking; she walked ten to twelve miles a day, it was her new shoes that were giving her fits.As soon as she got back to where her car was parked, she got inside and stretched her toes.That felt better, too.On the way to school, she made herself do breathing exercises.There was a reason that she was told to do them, and she’d been putting it off in favor of working so hard.
