Close To Danger (Westen #4)(57)
“Helped get the place cleaned up and furniture moved in when the county decided to covert the old house into the halfway house for the troubled teens,” he said as he slowly turned, taking in all the changes she’d made.
Melissa had transformed the kitchen from a sterile industrial feeling space to a homey room. The cabinets had all been painted a cheery yellow. Yellow and blue print curtains hung at the windows. The metal table and chairs the county had provided were replaced with an antique looking, white-washed table and chairs—material from the curtains covering the upholstered bottoms of the six chairs.
“I can’t really take all the credit. One of the projects I got the boys involved in was painting the cabinets. Geoffrey liked doing the painting so much, he’s been slowly painting rooms for me. In fact, he’d been asking so many questions of Joe over at the Knobs & Knockers, that Joe hired him to work in the paint section of the store.”
Daniel remembered Geoffrey Hamilton. Kid had been kicked out of four schools in Columbus for disruptive behavior, fights with students and teachers. When he was caught stealing food at a grocery he was headed to a juvenile detention center until a judge reviewed the file and had him tested. Geoffrey was not only ADA, but he had severe dyslexia. Being shipped back and forth between two parents who neither cared about his education or his behavior as they advanced their mutual business careers, he’d managed to slip through the school system to the point he couldn’t read or write as a sophomore. That’s when he was given a chance to straighten his life out at the Westen House.
Geoffrey wasn’t the first young man to flourish under Melissa’s care here.
“You’ve done a remarkable job, both here and with the guys staying here,” he said and was rewarded by a pink flush in Melissa’s cheeks.
Quickly, she lowered her eyes, shaking her head. “Oh, I haven’t done much. They’re good kids underneath all their problems.”
Daniel knew that wasn’t true and also knew her sudden self-deprecation had more to do with her lousy ex-husband’s abuse and destruction of her self-esteem. He’d push the point that she had indeed achieved quite a number of good things since moving into Westen House, but suspected it would only make her more uncomfortable.
“Where would you like me to put Lexi?” he asked to change the subject.
“Oh, this way,” Melissa said, leading him past the downstairs bathroom to a hall with two bedrooms. “This is my part of the house. The boys are all housed upstairs. I think she’d be more comfortable down here with me.”
She led him into the smaller of the two rooms that had a daybed covered with frilly pillows on one wall. The other long wall housed what could only be described as a crafting center. A sewing machine table and desk were flanked by floor to ceiling shelves stocked with material, papers, ribbons and other do-dads that Daniel had no idea what they were or what they were used for.
“Wow,” was all he could say as he stared at it.
Melissa stopped pulling back the covers on the daybed. “I like to sew and do crafts.”
“I can tell. It looks pretty organized.” He smiled at her to let her know he really meant it, then turned and sat on the bed, slowly unwrapping the quilts from around her.
“Dear Lord, poor little thing,” Melissa said, helping him ease Lexi under the blankets and quilt, tucking her bear in beside her. They turned out the light, but Melissa turned on the hall light and left the door open. “In case she wakes up and doesn’t know where she is.”
Daniel smiled to himself as he followed her back to the kitchen. The way she’d just tucked in Lexie and brushed her straggly long brown hair off her face told him Lorna and Libby had been right. Melissa needed someone to mother, just as much as Lexi needed some mothering.
“Do you…do you think she’ll come for her?” Melissa asked, stopping at the back door.
“Who?” Daniel asked.
“Her mother,” Melissa raised her dark blue eyes to his. “Will she come looking for her? I mean, she must’ve had a good reason for leaving her alone like that.”
Yeah, she needed a fix.
He kept that idea to himself. Libby, Lorna and Deke all believed it would be best if the mother’s possible drug addiction was kept quiet for now, until the weather broke and they got a chance to find Rose. Whether they found her dead or alive, Daniel wasn’t sure which would be best for the little girl.
But Melissa’s question did send off his internal warning system. What if Rose came looking for Lexi? What if she wanted to use her for payment for her drugs? Worse, what if Rose and her dealer showed up her, putting Lexie, Melissa and the teens in the house in danger?
“With this weather, and as bad as the roads are, I don’t think Lexie’s mom will come looking tonight.” Daniel slipped a business card out of his wallet and handed it to her. “This is my cell phone number. If she does, or anyone suspicious comes looking for her you give me a call and I’ll come right over.”
Puzzlement filled Melissa’s face. “Even her mother?”
“Especially her mother. She abandoned her, Mrs. Compton. That means she has no right to come and take her from you. Libby Reynolds is the county social worker and she put that little girl in your care until the court can decide what to do next, okay?” Daniel laid one hand over the one she held the card in.