Chapter 18

   

"I DON’T THINK he needs to go to a place like that." Anna was adamant. Lily had called her partner immediately after she left the jail with the news that Kristy wanted to meet her face to face.

"I don’t either, but she’s still got those goddamned papers on John Moss’ desk. All she has to do is call him and say give Andy to Lisa Parker. I know you don’t want to do this, sweetheart. I hate to ask…”

"I don’t care about that, Lily. I’ll go see her if she wants. I just don’t want Andy to have to go there to see her. Can’t Rick arrange to have her meet him at the courthouse or something?"

What? "You don’t care?"

"No. If she needs to talk to me to satisfy some curiosity, I’ll go. I’ll see her this afternoon if she wants. But if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather Andy never set foot inside a jail."

This is about what you want for Andy? "Um… okay. I’ll talk to Rick and see what he can arrange. Are you sure about this?"

"Absolutely. Tell her I’ll be there today."

  *  *  *

 

"Fucking bitch," Kenneth McGinnis muttered under his breath. He and his public defender had gotten the devastating news when they reached the courtroom.

Causwell knew something was up, since the defendants were not delivered from the jail together. Someone had already summoned Parker, the bailiff said. When Lily walked in with Rick Patterson, he knew his client was toast.

Out of the eyes of the jury, Rick introduced himself to the court as Kristy Parker’s new attorney and requested a continuance of the recess so that he might complete negotiations with the District Attorney. Wostyk granted the recess, postponing the trial until nine a.m. on Thursday morning. That would give the DA time to locate the shirt and complete the necessary tests to link it to the crime.

  *  *  *

 

In her wildest dreams, Anna hadn’t expected to be sitting in the visitors’ room of a jail, moments from coming face to face with a murderer. A murderer with her partner’s face, she acknowledged as Parker was led through the door.

Kristy took a seat at the picnic style table across from the beautiful dark-haired woman. On the far side of the room, an older couple–parents, Anna thought–met quietly with a crying young woman in an orange jumpsuit. Other than that, she and Kristy were alone.

"I’m Anna Kaklis," the tall woman started, almost mesmerized by the familiar green eyes across the table.

"I know who you are. In fact, I know quite a bit about you. You sell cars. And you have a big house in Brentwood. And you make lots of money."

Anna tried to remember what information she had put on the social services forms.

"And you and my sister have rings just alike. Isn’t that sweet?"

"Well there must be something you don’t know, or you wouldn’t have invited me down here for a chat."

"Not a chat, really. I just wanted to see what you looked like. Although I was curious…”

"About what? Perhaps I can enlighten you."

"About why you cared enough about me to ask your friend to be my lawyer."

"Because I care about Lily, and she said you needed a lawyer."

"So you did it for Lily, not for me."

"I’d say that’s right. But if justice gets served in the meantime, that’s a good thing too."

"So is that how you feel about Andres too?"

"I beg your pardon?" What does Andy have to do with this?

"Do you put up with him because you care about Lily and that’s what she wants?" That’s how it had been when she first started hanging out with Kenny. He liked her and he put up with Andres. But when Andres got to be too much trouble, he had to go.

"No, it isn’t like that."

"Tell me what it’s like, then."

Anna was almost afraid to say how she really felt, knowing this woman’s penchant for using Lily’s concern about Andy to manipulate her. But Lily and Rick had reached her last night, persuading her finally to do the right thing in this murder case. Maybe she had one more "right thing" in her.

"I’ll tell you how I feel about Andy. I adore him. I think he’s sweet, he’s smart, he likes to have fun, and he loves my dog. He makes me laugh, he makes me sad when his feelings get hurt or when he doesn’t feel well. He makes me feel good all over when he hugs me. Kristy, I want him to live with us from now on. Even if Lily should leave me, I’d want him to stay. That’s how I feel about him."

As Anna’s words poured out, so had Kristy’s tears. She had once had the chance herself to love the beautiful little boy just the way Anna had described. She could never have given him things like they could, but she would have taken care of him. Instead, she had let him down when she chose Kenneth McGinnis.

Unable to deal with this onslaught of emotions, the prisoner suddenly stood. "I need to get back to my cell."

"No, wait." Anna wanted to say one more thing. "Lily says when you go to prison the state will put Andy up for adoption, but it will take a long time. And he might be moved again. If you sign the papers tomorrow, we can start the process now of making it permanent. Will you do that for Andy? For all of us?"

Kristy’s tears were unchecked as she nodded. "Can I see him one more time?"

"Of course," Anna assured. "It’s already arranged."

  *  *  *

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to American Airlines Flight 119, service between San Francisco and Los Angeles International Airport. At this time, we’d like to invite our first class cabin to board…”

"That’s us, pal," Lily said, crawling under a row of seats in the crowded departure lounge to retrieve the matchbox X5 Anna had given the boy on his first visit to the Premier BMW dealership.

Their business in San Francisco was finished. Early Wednesday afternoon, police recovered a bloody t-shirt and bandana from the flat rooftop of a two-story building four blocks from the Graves loft. Both had been wrapped around a stolen silver candlestick so that they could be easily thrown. Hair samples from the bandana identified its owner as Kenneth McGinnis, sealing the prosecution’s case. Unwilling to gamble his fate further, McGinnis agreed to plead guilty on Thursday afternoon to first degree murder in exchange for a life sentence. He was headed to San Quentin.

In accordance with her agreement, Kristy Parker also pleaded guilty to second degree murder and would be sentenced to 25 years at the Valley State Women’s Prison in Chowchilla. She would be eligible for parole in 15 years.

The excited boy stomped energetically down the jet bridge to board the plane, Lily guiding him into the window seat in Row 4. Anna followed, taking the aisle seat directly across from her partner.

The blonde had been bowled over on Wednesday afternoon when Anna asked her how quickly they could get papers together for Kristy to resign her parental rights.   

"Well, there are a lot of forms involved but they usually keep them in a packet. It’s just a matter of filling in the information and getting her to sign."

"So could it be ready by tomorrow afternoon?"

Lily chuckled; Anna was in her CEO mode. "I think the papers are the easy part. Who’s going to strong-arm my sister in signing them?"

"She’s ready, sweetheart. I told her we wanted him and that we didn’t want to wait and take a chance that he could be moved again."

"You told her we wanted him?"

"Yeah. We do, don’t we?"

Oh my god! "Anna, are you sure?"

"I’ve only been this sure about one other person in my whole life."

The tall woman’s back would probably recover eventually. It wasn’t every day she caught 115 pounds of running jumping screaming blonde.   

A businessman gestured toward the window seat in Anna’s row. As she stood to let him in, she looked down on the gleeful four-year-old peering out the window telling Lily all about the different colored suitcases being loaded into the hatch below him.

"I can’t believe they let kids fly in first class," the man grumbled. "A hundred dollars for an upgrade and we have to put up with jabbering rugrats."

That’s my rugrat, and his ticket cost $1,100. I’d say he has a right to sit wherever he wants. Biting her tongue, Anna managed to keep that thought to herself.

Andy settled down, but the businessman persisted. "Listen to him. I bet he doesn’t shut up all the way to LA."

Will you?

He loved it when he had a chance to make conversation with a beautiful woman like this knockout sitting next to him. "So what kind of work do you do?"

"I sell cars," Anna answered dryly, extracting the headphones from the seatback pocket in front of her. There was no music as yet–they were still on the ground–but that wasn’t the point. Headphones in place, she buried her face in the latest Car & Driver in an attempt to discourage conversation.

"So does your boss make you read that kind of stuff to keep up with the industry?" The obnoxious man reached into her magazine and pointed at the article she was reading.

"Something like that," she answered, turning back to her magazine.

Lily stretched to retrieve the X5, this time from underneath Anna’s foot.

"Can’t you at least keep his toys over there where he doesn’t bother other people?" the man barked rudely.

Lily looked at Anna, the blue eyes saying "I’ll handle this." If Andy hadn’t wanted the window so much, Anna would have traded seats with him right then.

"I tell you. People have no control over their kids at all these days. They just let them do whatever they want," he went on.

"I bet he’s not bothering you half as much as you’re bothering me," Anna snapped. "At least he knows to stop talking to people when they cover their ears!"

With the headphones still in place, Anna hadn’t realized that she was practically shouting at the man. That is, until the woman behind Lily began to applaud, joined soon by the two men sitting behind Anna and the jerk.

The rest of the ride was peaceful, except for the occasional delighted squeal from the small boy as he discovered new things he liked about flying.