Cavanaugh on Duty(20)

Shamus cocked a puzzled brow as he regarded his oldest son. Taking a long swig from the bottle first, he asked, “What d’you mean ‘what’s going on?’”

The question was just a little too innocent, his father’s attitude just a wee bit too defensive. He was right, Andrew thought. Something was up.

“You look a little off your game, Dad,” he told him, then took a guess at the cause. “The security business not exactly living up to your expectations? Maybe a little too tame for you?”

Shamus laughed as he studied the condensation on the side of the bottle. “I lived in a retirement community in Boca Raton for eight years, Andy. Anything’s more exciting than that.”

They’d take it slow, Andrew determined. His father never liked saying anything straight out. “Actually, I’m surprised you waited that long to strike out of that place.” Although, he had to admit that by the end of the seventh year, it looked as if his father had turned over a new leaf and decided that the quiet life was more to his liking.

“‘Strike out?’ Hell, boy, I ran away from there.” He grinned, pleased with himself and the action he’d taken in that respect. “Far as I know, those people who ran the place are still looking for me.”

If that was the case, then he would have already received a call from the woman who oversaw the community, asking if he’d seen his father. He had a feeling that the people in charge had breathed a sigh of relief when Shamus had left.

“You might want to go back there,” Andrew suggested, “clear things up, move out your things.”

“Anything of value I had I took with me. Far as I’m concerned, they can have the rest. I don’t intend to set foot in that place again.” For a moment, he paused, watching as the sun began to dip in the sky, preparing to set. Sunrises and sunsets always filled him with wonder. At his age, he was grateful to see each one. “Besides, I’ve got more important things on my mind.”

Now they were getting to it, Andrew thought. “Like what?”

Shamus took another pull from his bottle. “Andy, you ever think about expanding this security firm that you’ve set up?”

Well, he hadn’t seen this coming. “I already have. As the company got more clients, I hired on more guards, more software techs to monitor the security systems.”

“No, not that kind of expanding,” Shamus said with a touch of impatience as he shook his shaggy head.

His father had momentarily lost him. “What other kind is there?”

Warming to his topic, Shamus leaned forward, closer to his son. “Adding another wing to the business,” he said, mystified that Andrew couldn’t see that. “Like private investigations.”

“Are you talking about having private detectives, Pop?” Andrew asked.

Shamus’s face lit up. “Glad to see we’re on the same page,” he declared heartily.

Andrew held his hand up, as if to slow his father down for a bit. “I’m not on a page, Pop, I’m just looking at the title on top.” He’d begun the company with a certain focus in mind, providing decent, affordable security for the average family, and, as far as he was concerned, he was accomplishing that. “Why would I want to have private detectives?”

His father looked at him as if the answer was self-evident. “Well, most of the guys who work for you are retired cops. The way I see it, having a private detective section available to your clients would just be a natural progression of things.”

A hint of amusement played across Andrew’s face. “Oh, you do, do you?”

“Yes, I do,” Shamus affirmed with feeling.

Andrew felt as if he was back on the force, trying to draw reliable information out of a witness. “And just what kind of ‘things’ do you see us investigating?”

Shamus shrugged his wide shoulders, then took another long pull from his bottle.

He was stalling, Andrew thought. Why? For dramatic effect? Or because this was hard for him to talk about?

“Oh, I dunno,” Shamus finally said loftily. “Maybe specialize in locating lost family members, that kind of thing.”

It was time to get to the heart of the matter. His father, now that he thought about it, had the ability to dance around a topic all night. “What’s this really about, Pop?”

“Can’t a father look out for his son’s interest?” Shamus asked, growing defensive again.

“Sure he can,” Andrew responded soothingly. “And I appreciate it, I do.” He eyed his father as he continued. “He can also level with his son, which would be even more appreciated.”

Shamus laughed self-consciously. Andrew saw right through his roundabout approach. “Once a cop, always a cop, huh?”

“Something like that,” Andrew conceded. “Now give, Pop. What’s on your mind? Why do you need a private investigator? Investigating what?”

Shamus grew quiet, thoughtfully regarding the near empty bottle of beer. He tilted it to and fro, watching the remaining liquid inside move from one side of the bottle to the other. Finally, he asked, “You remember my telling you about your grandfather and grandmother?”

“You told me Grandpa was a homicide detective, that he liked to drink a little more than he should and that was why he and his wife split up.” People took a dim view of divorce back then, usually condemning the woman because it meant that she didn’t try hard enough to keep her marriage together. He knew his father hadn’t had an easy time of it, coming from a broken home. He’d turned out incredibly well-adjusted and kind, given what he’d had to endure.

There was no humor to the smile that was now on his lips. “Your grandfather used to like to drink a lot more than he should,” Shamus corrected. “My mother put up with it as long as she could, and then she just took off,” he said, his voice sounding as hollow as he’d felt at the time of his abandonment.

It was time to call him out, and then end this, Andrew decided. “Okay. Where’s this going, Pop?”

Each word he uttered left a bitter taste on his tongue. “Well, when she took off, my mother took my younger brother with her.”

Very few things surprised Andrew. At this point in his life, he’d seen and heard it all, far more than the average citizen. But this caught him completely off guard.

“You had a younger brother?” Andrew asked, stunned by the words his father had just uttered. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

At first it seemed as if his father hadn’t even heard his question. “At the time I was pretty hurt that she took Jonny and left me. I kept waiting, night after night, for her to come back, to say she’d made a mistake and meant to take me with her instead—or at least too. After a year, I decided she wasn’t coming back, that she’d left me with Dad on purpose because she didn’t want to have anything to do with either one of us.” He looked at Andrew, shame and sadness mingling in his eyes. “I didn’t tell you or your brothers about it because I was ashamed that your grandmother didn’t think I was worth taking with her.”

Andrew didn’t see it that way and it hurt to see how wounded his father was by this even after all these years. “Could have been a lot of reasons why she picked him over you,” he offered. “From what you said, your brother was younger. Maybe he was sickly.”

The shaggy head moved from side to side. “Nope.”

Andrew wasn’t about to give up. “Still could have been a logical reason why she chose him and left you. Maybe she thought you were strong enough to look after your dad because he needed someone to keep him from drinking himself to death.”

Shamus blew out a breath as he shook his head. “I doubt if she was being that thoughtful, but thanks for trying.”

“Does this have anything to do with you wanting to expand the security company?” Andrew asked, trying to tie the whole thing together and get his father talking about the present rather than just exclusively the past.

“Absolutely,” Shamus said with feeling. “I’m in my seventies, Andy. I don’t know just how much time I’ve got left—”

“About thirty years,” Andrew countered without even a hint of a smile. “If they don’t catch a bullet,” he continued, thinking of his late brother, Mike, who had died in the line of duty, “Cavanaughs are generally very long-lived.”

The key word here being “generally,” Shamus thought. “Yeah, well, until I find that carved in stone by the Big Guy,” he nodded toward the sky, “I’m going to move forward as if there’re no guarantees on that.”

For now, he tabled the discussion on how much time he had left. That wasn’t the important part. “Anyway, I want to have Jonny tracked down, see what happened to him, if he’s still alive. If he ever got married and had any kids. It’s been bothering me lately, not knowing,” Shamus confessed.