Previously Loved Treasures (Serendipity #2)(73)

Once the blaze was out and the patrol cars gone, the neighbors left but Caroline stood looking at the house. She was alone when Calvin walked over and suggested she should wait until tomorrow before going back inside.

“There’s still a lot of smoke in there.”

“What happens now?”

“George and me are gonna stay and keep an eye on the place,” he said. “Make sure there’s no flare-ups, stuff like that.”

“Is it ruined?” she asked tearfully.

“Not at all.” Calvin shook his head. “The kitchen, maybe, but the rest of the place should be okay.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “It won’t look nearly as bad in the morning.”

~

With Wilbur gone to the hospital Caroline and the seven remaining residents were homeless, but no one went without a bed. Max headed off to town saying he would spend the night with a friend. The neighbors opened their hearts and homes to the others.

Doc Payne went home with Missus Gomez, a widow with a forty-six-year-old daughter who was good-looking and extremely attracted to intellectuals. Before they even got back to the house, Mercedes had moved past the doctor title and began calling him Frank. She spoke in a throaty whisper and when she told him she was single, she leaned in so close her lashes fluttered against his cheek. It was three days before Doc returned to the house and weeks longer before he again picked up a dental magazine; he was far too busy visiting with Mercedes.

Louie stayed with the Casters who not only had a spare room but one with a television. “I don’t suppose you take in roomers,” Louie asked, but the answer was no. That lovely big room with a television and a refrigerator full of icy cold sodas was for their grandchildren when they came to visit.

~

As it turned out, Barbara Ann Percy welcomed the company. She had room enough for not just Rose and Sara, but Caroline, Laricka, and Harriet as well. With her house full of ladies in nightdress, Barbara Ann declared it a slumber party and brought out dishes of ice cream covered in chocolate syrup. After the ice cream was gone and Sara had drifted off to sleep, none the wiser about her daddy being hauled off to jail, they sat around the table and talked until there was nothing left to say.

Caroline tried to join in the conversation and she added a word or two occasionally, but her thoughts were on the house. She wanted to go inside, look around, see what had been damaged and what needed to be replaced. Although she’d never seen such things in the store, she was hopeful Peter Pennington carried refrigerators and stoves.

Max left thinking he’d spend the night at Maggie Sue’s place. He parked the car in front of her building, rang the vestibule bell, then proceeded up the stairs. Once on the second floor, he twisted the knob and found the apartment door unlocked.

“Sly little minx,” he said with a chuckle, believing she was waiting for him. As he crossed the living room he kicked off his shoes, then unzipped his trousers, and stepped out of them.

Unfortunately, the downstairs bell was broken and Maggie Sue had simply forgotten to close the deadbolt lock. When Max opened the bedroom door he found Herb Potter in the bed.

This time it was more than he could tolerate. Standing there in a pair of boxer shorts with his shirttail hanging loose, Max felt like a damned idiot.

“What the hell do you call this?” he screamed.

Maggie Sue said she called it an invasion of privacy and told him to get out. One word led to another, and before thirty seconds had passed he was hollering in a voice so loud the neighbors a block away heard him. Although Herb Potter was twice his size, Max demanded he get out of bed and fight like a man. By then Maggie Sue had already telephoned the police.

“She said she was gonna move in with me!” Max cried as the two policemen led him from the apartment carrying his trousers in his hand.

“You said you was rich,” Maggie Sue hollered after him. “You didn’t say you was crazy too!”

Hoping to circumvent any further problems, the officers suggested Max spend the night down at the stationhouse.

“It’s not like you’re under arrest,” the older cop said. “This will just give you time enough to cool down.”

“I ain’t gonna cool down!” Max yelled. “That damn woman’s a menace to society.”

The younger cop chuckled. “She ain’t a menace, she’s just Maggie Sue.” Which, in fact, was the truth.

While the other residents rested comfortably in neighboring houses, Max spent the night in a cell directly across from where Joe Mallory was sleeping it off.

~

Shortly after six Joe Mallory woke, and he was in a mood fouler than any he’d ever known before. He had no memory of being arrested and little memory of the events that preceded the arrest. Coming to the realization he was in jail, he took to banging on the bars and hollering to be let out. The racket woke Max.

The last he’d seen of Joe Mallory was at the bar back in Mackinaw. The agreement was he’d bring a picture of the girl and collect five hundred dollars. It took just a few seconds for Max to figure it out.

“Son of a bitch! You followed me here thinking you’d screw me outta that reward money!”

“Asshole,” Joe replied. “There ain’t no money.”

“You said—”

Joe gave a cynical laugh. “You’re a bigger * than I thought.”