God, why do I get involved? So much for the casual run-in.
“Yeah, look I owe her, can we talk so at least I’m covered? And you must be Mandy, I’m Dev Haskell, a friend of Josh’s mom and this idiot.” I nodded at Josh.
“He’s okay,” Josh laughed.
Mandy held out her hand, tentatively, the rest of her seemed to remain surgically attached to Mister Lucky.
“Nice to meet you, Mandy. We need to talk, you hanging around with bums like Josh. You seem like such a nice girl, I should probably set you straight. You guys got time for coffee, an early lunch, late breakfast?”
“Mom must have really got to you, man.”
“Let’s just say I find myself in the doghouse, once again,” I said.
“We know how that goes,” Josh scoffed.
“You guys lead the way, I barely got out of high school so I’m lost here,” I said.
We were having an intimate conversation in the midst of about a thousand other people in a giant cafeteria. Everyone had been over charged for bad coffee and some sort of lousy pastry with a name I couldn’t pronounce and had already forgotten. We’d been chatting and laughing for the better part of an hour. I swore Mandy to secrecy, then told her some Sunnie tales.
“So there you have it. She was understandably pissed off because I still had her laptop and, well you know how she can get.” I finished with a last swallow of coffee, it hadn’t improved with age.
“You get the one word treatment?” Josh asked.
“One word?”
“Yeah, you know, how you doing? Fine. Anything wrong? No. Want something to eat? No. Did you read about the tsunami? Yes. Who needs it? After a while you get the message, she’s pissed off, but isn’t going to tell you why.”
“Well, look she’s a mom and she’s worried about you, both of you.” I tried to sound understanding, it was a reach.
“What does she think we’re gonna do?”
I looked at him for a long moment, instead of saying the obvious with Mandy there, I countered.
“Aren’t you the guy that smashed up her Prius? Didn’t you spray paint something on the wall of your high school locker room? Remember the little rusty Volvo station wagon you totaled about a week before high school graduation? Weren’t you the one who got caught mooning on the team bus junior year? Didn’t…”
“What?” Mandy shrieked and started laughing.
“Okay, you can spare us all the details, Dev.”
“Look, take some advice from someone whose been kicked around the block a few times. Sit down and talk to your mom, it’ll make life easier for everyone. Oh, and just in case she didn’t mention it, keep the grades up. Both of you,” I shot a look at Mandy.
I felt the vibration on my ankle and in my pocket simultaneously.
“Pardon me for a moment, I better check in,” I listened to the message, entered my code number, followed by the pound sign, just like I was instructed. Then looked at Josh and Mandy.
“That a case you’re working on?” Josh asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got to check in periodically.”
“Almost sounds like you’re released and being monitored,” Mandy chuckled.
I looked at her a moment.
“Oh, sorry, my Dad’s in the County Attorney’s office up in St. Louis County. He tells us about the low-life types with ankle bracelets having to do that stuff all the time. Most of them never seem to be able to get their act together.”
“Oh, I don’t know…”
“You’re wearing an ankle bracelet? Cool. God, what’d you do, Dev?” Josh, suddenly thrilled with my unfortunate spell of bad luck.
“What makes you think I’m wearing an ankle bracelet?”
“Let me see it, man.” Josh’s eyes were wide, he grinned from ear to ear. Mandy’s eyes were wider.
“You won’t tell your mom, will you? I’m not kidding.”
“God, you really are,” he said, shooting a glance at Mandy. “Let me see it,” then he slid his chair back to get a better look.
I glanced around then hiked the leg of my jeans up enough to expose the monitoring device.
Both kids bent over for a closer examination under the table. A number of heads glanced over in our direction. I didn’t know if they were looking at me or Mandy’s silky thong.
“What’d you do? What’d they nail you for? DUI I bet, right?” Josh said from under the table.
“Will you two get up here and stop making a scene, everyone’s looking.” I was trying my best not to, but my eyes caught just the bottom of the lacy tattoo across Mandy’s lower back then followed a bright green thong back down into her low cut jeans.
She sat up and smiled at me.
“So what’d you do?” Josh asked sitting up.
“More of a little misunderstanding then anything else. I’m just in the process of tying up some loose ends in the investigation, then I’ll get this thing off.”
“It was a DUI, right?”
“I don’t think they bother with that just for a DUI, well unless you were a habitual offender or something,” Mandy said.
“So I was right, DUI?”
“No, look, just forget it, and whatever you do, please don’t mention it to your mom.”
“Oh, this is so great, she sends you to talk to us and you’re out on release, fantastic!” They both started laughing.
“Look, can we just keep this between ourselves, please.” I pleaded.
“Fucking fantastic,” Josh was still laughing.
“Look guys, promise me.”
“We promise, Mister Haskell,” Mandy said, she was still chuckling.
“Thanks Mandy, call me Dev, I’m becoming your second biggest fan.”
“Okay, okay, we won’t bring it up. Make sure to give us a good report, will you?” Josh said.
“I’ll do that, look you want to win her over? Just make sure those grades are up. You know she’ll back off once she sees that.”
They both nodded.
I glanced across the room, scanned the crowd. I was about to wrap things up when I went back to a woman carrying a tray to a table. My look must have given away more than I intended, first Mandy, then Josh followed my gaze.
“Forget it, Dev, she’s taken,” Josh said.
“What?”
“You’re looking at the hot woman in that sort of rust colored sweater, right? The one over by the door sipping her coffee?”
“Josh, God,” Mandy said and punched his arm.
“Her? No, I was looking at someone else. Why who is she?”
“I don’t know her name, she’s the wife or girlfriend of one of our professors,” Josh said.
“Doctor Death,” Mandy said.
“They’re both nuts,” Josh added.
“The guys name is Doctor Death?”
“Actually it’s Kevork, you know like Jack Kevorkian, that assisted suicide guy. She’s crazier than he is.”
“Why do you say that?”
“We heard them going at it in his office after hours one night. We were up there using the department printer for a bunch of handouts for a class. She was screaming at him, calling him names, swearing, threatening him. She was absolutely over the edge, a nut case.” Josh said.
“It was really scary. We just left and went back to my place,” Mandy added.
“Yeah, she’s a nut job.” Josh said, glancing back at the woman for a brief moment.
“Certifiable, you can’t imagine,” Mandy added.
Actually I could imagine. I watched Kiki calmly sip her coffee. She took the smallest nibble from some nondescript pastry, then made a face and pushed the pastry plate aside.
“What’s the guys name, again?” I said.
.”Doctor Carroll Kevork, he’s in the chemistry department.” Mandy said.
Chapter Forty-One
Tempted as I was to follow her, the last thing I needed was to have Kiki turn around and see me in a hallway at the University of Minnesota. That would do nothing for my attempt to look like a model citizen. I left the kids to grab and grope one another while I went back to my office and did an online search of Doctor Kevork. Most of what I found was unintelligible university-speak. Did these people ever sit down over a beer and casually chat? Probably not.