31. Cunning Queen

THIRTY-ONE

Cunning Queen

Lucinda had given him a keycard.

Even so, late the next morning, Rus still knocked before he used it, stuck his head in and called, “It’s Rus!”

Madden came around the corner.

His heart shrank when he saw her in a cute black dress with tiny white polka dots and black velvet hearts on black netting that overlaid a shell. It had a pleated skirt, short sleeves and a satin bow tied at the throat.

“Hey, Mr. Lazarus,” she greeted.

“Hey, doll,” he returned, coming in. “How you doing?”

She scrunched her mouth to one side.

Yeah.

Indira came around the corner, also in black. Hers was a shiny material that looked like a buttoned-up coat and had sleeves that ended below her elbows.

She looked him head to toe in his suit and tie and gave him a small smile.

“Rus, come in. Do you want coffee?”

He shook his head.

Madden took off, calling, “Mom! Mr. Lazarus is here!”

He moved to Indira who held out both hands.

He took them, squeezed, let her go and asked quietly, “How’re your girls doing?”

“Cin, fine. Or at least, she hides it well. Madden, not as fine,” she answered.

He nodded.

It was the day they were saying goodbye to Brittanie.

Indira walked him in, stopping them at the pool table at the corner. “I hear you’re making progress.”

“Yes.”

“Good.” She looked up at him. “Thank you for getting her to move down here.”

“It’s temporary. Then they’ll be safe to go home.”

“I know.” She gazed off into the suite where the primary bedroom was, undoubtedly also to where Lucinda was still getting ready and to where Madden had disappeared, and said, “When Alice Pulaski was missing, I didn’t sleep for a solid three days. Although she was better at putting her makeup on to hide it, I don’t think Cin did either. Jaeger took time off, came up and slept on their couch for two weeks. By then we knew Alice was gone, and we were wishing she was back to missing. Even now, sometimes I hold on to a hug so long, Maddy squirms and thinks I’m weird.” Again, she looked up at him. “With this going on, I’m glad they’re close to you.”

He didn’t know what to say, so he simply nodded.

“Thank you for taking us to the funeral,” she said.

“My honor,” he replied.

She reached out and took his hand.

Rus thought that was sweet, his fingers closed around hers, and he squeezed.

The thing was, when he was done squeezing, she didn’t let go.

* * *

They were sayinggoodbye to a beautiful young woman who died too soon.

And he was going to kill the middle-aged skank who was sitting in the front row.

The burlesque was dark, and the club was closed, and neither would open until the next night.

Lucinda wanted Brittanie’s friends to have time to say goodbye, think of her and grieve.

The tables had been moved, and chairs that were covered in a light pink material were lined up to face an expansive array of huge bouquets made of cream, light pink and dark pink roses. These nestled around two poster-size pictures of a happy, alive Brittanie on easels, as well as a table filled with other photos and mementos of her.

There was a reading stand to the side where a female pastor was handling the ceremony.

The seating was theater style, curved, and Lucinda had Gary, Dakota, Keyleigh, her boyfriend Declan, as well as Melanie seated front and center.

She and Indira, with Madden sandwiched in between, sat at the front, but off on one of the wings.

In the congregation, among the other mourners (and the house was packed), Cade sat with Jason and Jesse, and sandwiching stone-faced Jace, who Rus didn’t see take his eyes off the display at the front once, were Celeste and Delphine.

The pastor had clearly done her homework and had lovely things to say about Brittanie.

After a thankfully short prayer, she opened it up to the crowd and several friends walked to the front to share.

Keyleigh was the last, turning to a portrait on an easel, talking directly to Brittanie but telling them all Declan had asked her to marry him that weekend, and she’d actually sent an entire, excited text to Brittanie before she realized she’d never receive it.

She got this out before she dissolved into sobs and Declan had to go fetch her.

It was also when Rus got choked up.

Gary wept silently through it all, and since his dad was showing emotion, Dakota did the same.

But Melanie spent the entire service shooting filthy looks Lucinda’s way.

On one hand, he got it.

The streamlined, black turtleneck dress Lucinda wore, with her healthy hair hanging straight around the sides of her face, the silver pumps on her feet, the thick silver bangle at her wrist and large, interesting silver ring on right middle finger, she was the height of funereal elegance.

And Melanie, wearing a too-short dress that looked like a black-and-white print of a patchwork quilt, and she had not taken the time to deal with the roots in her hair, was not.

On the other hand, her daughter’s ashes were sheltered among the roses in an ornate urn not ten feet from her, she’d been murdered at twenty-five, so how the woman could be anything but destroyed, Rus couldn’t fathom.

He was worried she’d get up and say something, ruining all the effort it was clear Lucinda put into the service, before the pastor closed the proceedings, asking everyone to stay and share a light luncheon buffet that would soon be served.

At first though, no one moved, because suddenly, static played over the sound system, like someone was changing the channel.

Rus knew what was coming, so he clenched his teeth so he wouldn’t lose it.

When the guitar hit, Gary’s quiet weeping became audible. Not loud sobs, but he could be heard, and Dakota wrapped his arm around his old man’s shoulders and tugged him close.

It took Jace until the lyrics started to drop his head, and when he did, Celeste curled into him, burrowing her face into his neck.

Jesse visibly swallowed and both his hands were clenched into fists. It didn’t take long before Bohannan’s hand covered one of them and remained there.

And, “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd played.

Rus was glad she did it.

It was wholly devastating.

But at least Lucinda got to say what she needed to say to Brittanie.

It was beautiful, how everyone stayed seated until the very last moment of the song, the wind whistling, taking Brittanie away.

And then it was done.

She’d never be there again.

But those who were kept going.

As folks got up to mingle, and Melanie made a beeline to Lucinda, Rus, who’d been standing off to the side with Moran and Porter, strode forward.

“Take Madden,” he murmured to Indira as Melanie arrived at Lucinda.

He felt her startled look, but she bundled Madden away just as Melanie demanded, “I want her ashes.”

Rus put his hand to the small of Lucinda’s back, opening his mouth to say something, but he should have known better.

“You can’t have them,” Lucinda replied sedately.

“She’s my daughter, I want her ashes,” Melanie spat.

“I’m aware she’s your daughter. And next weekend, Gary, Dakota, Keyleigh, Declan, Madden and I are going to put her in the river. She loved the river and that’s where Gary and Dakota want her to be. It’s going to be a private ceremony. Of course, if you’d like to be there, you’re welcome.”

“You don’t get to pick where she goes,” Melanie retorted.

“I didn’t,” Lucinda replied.

“I’m taking her with me,” Melanie declared.

“Then how ’bout you give Cin the twenty K she dropped on this shindig?”

Gary was there, and even if his face was haggard and still wet with tears, his words were snide.

Melanie turned on Gary. “I’m not sure what this has to do with you.”

Gary’s bloodshot eyes bugged out and his face turned purple.

Rus pressed in at Lucinda’s back, because he knew Gary was going to blow, and he wanted her out of there.

And then, Gary didn’t blow.

“You’re a miserable individual, Melanie Iverson,” he said in a defeated voice. “And you can’t have her. She hung out with little Maddy by the river, and they played in it when Maddy was a little thing and that’s where Maddy wants her. So that’s where she’s gonna go.”

Rus got choked up again.

Melanie started to say something.

But Gary kept talking.

“I knew you’d pull shit, so I asked. And as her dad, I got rights. And as the person who claimed her and paid for all this, Lucinda has rights too. You got nothin’. You wanna fight it, punch at the sky all you want, woman. By the time you rake together enough cash to take us to court or whatever, my beautiful Brittanie will be free and breezy.”

Melanie looked fit to be tied.

Not reading the situation, that being that Gary had sorted it, Dakota butted in and asked, “Where’s my dog?”

At this point, Rus guided Lucinda away while looking toward Moran, who had Dakota’s dog on his four acres south of town. He’d been rechristened Smokey. And Moran’s two chocolate labs had adopted him as one of their own.

Fortunately, Melanie didn’t know that.

And Dakota would never find out.

* * *

He sawher outside on the deck alone.

So he left Keyleigh, Declan, Gary and Indira with Lucinda in Lucinda’s kitchen, since they’d moved the final mourners down to the more intimate space of her house once everyone else had left.

Rus walked out to the deck.

To Madden.

He stopped next to where she was leaning against the railing, her ankle twisting, staring at the river.

“You wanna be alone?” he asked.

“Not really,” she answered.

“You hanging in there?” he asked.

“I guess,” she answered.

Regrettably, that was all he had.

“Mom says you have a daughter,” she remarked.

“Yep. Twice as old as you and at the University of Florida. Her name is Sabrina. I have a son too, he’s older. He’s called Acre.”

“I’m gonna have a daughter.”

“They’re the best.”

“Britt loved Jason Bohannan and said they were gonna make baby girls, and she said I could be their big sister.”

Shit.

Rus pulled his thoughts together and then gave it to her straight.

“Well, sweetheart, as horrible as it is, and as much as it hurts, there was a lot that Brittanie wanted to do that she won’t get to do. But she leaves us with things that make her stay special, even when she’s not with us. All the memories you have with her in them. But also, she taught us to live it up while we’re here, because sometimes, we just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Yeah,” she whispered. “Live it up.”

He looked down at her shining dark head. “It’s not fun to know all that.”

She didn’t look at him but kept her eyes to the river when she spoke.

“No. It’s funny, though. You said that. You said it just like her. One of the things Britt always said was, ‘Live it up.’ We’d make popcorn and she’d melt butter for it, and she’d melt a whole lot, look at me and say, ‘We gotta live it up, baby.’ Or she’d do my hair before we’d go to the grocery store, and it’d be all fancy, and she’d say, ‘Who cares, we’re living it up, you and me.’ So I guess that’s right.”

“I know it is, honey.”

Finally, she tipped her head back to look at him. “Do you think she lived it up enough before she went, Mr. Lazarus?”

No, he didn’t.

“I think a woman who knows to melt all the butter they want for popcorn knew how to live life, Maddy.”

“I hope so.”

He ran his hand over her hair then turned and leaned into his forearms on the railing.

He knew that conversation went okay when Madden returned her attention to the river too, but she did it leaning down his side.

The water rushed over the rocks like it had before either of them made it to the earth, and as it would after they were both gone.

Together, they stayed close and watched it race away.

And they did this for a long time.

* * *

He was walking backto his SUV after hitting the grocery store when his phone vibrated against his pectoral.

He pulled it out of his inside suit jacket pocket, looked at it, and saw he had a text from Moran.

He opened it up and read, Carrie Molnar hasn’t checked in and hasn’t come home. She’s in the wind.

Goddamn.

Shit.

* * *

“Momma!I don’t wanna be an immunologist when I grow up! I want to be a fashion designer!”

They were in the big seating area of Lucinda’s suite.

When Rus had hit the store, he’d got what they needed, and he’d microwaved several bags of popcorn, then melted extra butter to pour on.

They’d gone through a slew of napkins.

After Madden said that, he turned his head to look at Lucinda.

She didn’t look thrilled with this announcement.

But he should have known.

They were all on the couch, Madden’s head on his thigh, her feet in her mother’s lap.

They were watching Cruella.

And he was learning Disney had already figured it out.

The really interesting story was what went into making the cunning queen.