Indivisible. Part 50

"Miles Forsythe. He's an inventor whose first patent at sixteen kind of set him up. And he's a whiz at architectural design. He could ..."

Sarge looked up, clearly distressed.

Piper patted his hand. "You just think about it, Sarge. If someone else snaps up the Half Moon, then that's our answer." She tried not to show how badly she hoped it wouldn't be. "But it wouldn't hurt your retirement to have-"

"What do I care about retirement?"

"Well, then a new venture."

"I'm too old for that."

Piper crossed her arms. "That's playing both sides."

He glowered. "Watch your step, soldier."

"Yes sir."

"You talked your way into this outfit, but you have a lot to learn."

"Yes sir, I do."

"Takes more than fancy recipes to keep a business on its feet for the long march."

"That's your job, Sarge."

He rubbed his jaw. "You really want this? You want it so much you can taste it?"

"Tastes as good as that huckleberry maple sugar coffeecake."

His mouth spasmed as he fought off the smile and lowered his brow. "Tell your investor to put together an offer for the Half Moon. We'll see where it goes."

Squealing, Piper threw her arms around him, not easy the way he was bent. "Oh, Sarge, you won't be sorry."

To her surprise he didn't say he already was, but rather, "Make me proud, soldier."

Recognizing the distinctive throat clearing, Jonah opened his eyes. Through a new row of "get well" plants on the swing arm table, he saw Moser-and Sue.

"If you really need to sleep, we can come back." Moser's careful elocution a.s.sured they would be back, they would deal with it.

He sighed. "Leave us alone, Moser."

Moser looked at Sue. "I'll be outside." His shoes squeaked on the mopped linoleum.

She waited until the door clicked, then dove in. "I'm sorry, Chief."

"I'm sure you are."

"I couldn't stop myself. Every time I thought of Sam dead and those sc.u.mbags pa.s.sing more and more drugs, Sean Bolton selling at the school-where Eli will go one day-I just couldn't let it go."

"We had leads. We had an active investigation. We had manpower."

"I know." She paced. "But Caldwell knew Beatty and Newly had tagged him. When I relieved Beatty-"

"How exactly did you do that?"

She gulped. "I told him you were mixing things up. He took my patrol."

With a slow blink Jonah added that to the cauldron.

"Caldwell didn't notice me. He made his move, and I couldn't miss the chance. We couldn't miss the chance."

"To blow up a meth lab? Incinerate three people? Injure fellow officers? You went in unprepared and forced the action."

"I knew once you were there-"

"You disobeyed direct orders."

"I know. I was so mad when you sent me back, but ..." Her face contorted. "I could have been killed. And Eli would have had no parents." She pressed a hand to her belly. "You were right every step of the way."

"Law enforcement involves risk. Any traffic stop can prove fatal. It's my job to minimize the risk to my officers. It's your job to use proper judgment and trust me."

She stood straight. "If this costs me my job, I understand."

He scrutinized her, weighing and sifting. "You're on three weeks' suspension. Use that time to decide if you want to be a cop, or if you're just a vigilante."

Her breath came in a gasp. "I will. Thank you, Chief. Jonah. Thank you."

"Send Moser in." Then to Moser, "What's the word from Hao on Sam?"

"The meth was laced with PCP. At that dose, a fatal c.o.c.ktail."

"Sam might not have known. Can Hao give us homicide equivocal or accidental?"

"Already did."

Jonah settled back in the bed. "She'll get the life insurance?"

"Far as I know."

"Is my wife outside?"

Moser nodded. "And I might say about time, Chief. About time."

Propped up in the bed, Lucy's lips were blue-tinged violets, her forget-me-not eyes overlarge in sunken sockets. In just the last hours, her skin had grown so pale it glowed, thin threads of veins at her temples. She looked up from the puppies in her lap. "They're so still."

Liz felt her chest constrict as though bands were crushing the breath from her. She had thought, really thought ... "They love it when you hold them."

Lucy smiled. "So soft. So sweet." She labored over the words, drawing a rasping breath that caused a sympathetic rasp in Liz's throat.

"You should rest." She saw the fatigue in every part of her twin.

"No use."

"Don't say that." Liz crouched down beside the bed, taking Lucy's hand between hers. "You need to fight. You can't give up."

"I'm so tired."

Liz searched Lucy's face, willing her to continue. Fear and fatigue had settled deep inside her as well. But she wouldn't give up. "I'm going to fix everything."

Lucy looked away, fighting for each breath. "Lizzie, you should ... let me go."

She is part of me, my own self and not me. I feel her dying.

"Lucy. Do not let go." She gathered the pups into her arms, crying. For them, for her. No more experiments, no more attempts. It had to be now.

"Do you remember the park?" Lucy whispered.

Arm in arm, we prance across the park. We are special, rare, priceless. No one knows what we share so purely, so completely, so without regret. What do we care for the stares on the lonely faces?

"It had a merry-go-round." Lucy's voice had a small child's singsong tone.

"I remember." Liz smiled.

Swings and slides and seesaws had been unaccommodating, but they'd ridden the merry-go-round endlessly, Lucy's head against her shoulder, eyes closed. Liz had kept hers wide open and watched everything spin. In a whirl, she'd seen the faces staring, the fingers pointing, the whispers hidden behind hands. They didn't know. They could not imagine the joy of plurality, of complete unity.

Only we know, our minds so synchronized we hardly need to speak, our delight in each other complete.

Yet into that joy had come needle p.r.i.c.ks of desire to run without Lucy holding her back, to fling out her arms and fly solo. Shame dizzied her. Lucy had needed her then and needed her now. "It won't be long. I've found the one I needed."

"Oh, Lizzie," Lucy breathed. "Who is it?"

Liz clutched the lifeless pups.

"A friend of Tia's. She's perfect."

"He said yes!" Piper shrilled, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the cell phone. "At least, he said put together an offer and we'll see where it goes."

Miles said, "It will go."

His confidence boosted her already buoyant mood. "I sure hope you were serious."

"Have I ever not been?"

"Umm, yes." She laughed. "I went by the hospital to make sure Tia didn't mind if we took over her shop, but she's happy too."

"That's good."

"Anyway, I know we said your house tonight, but I forgot to water the plants. For, like, two weeks. Tia just reminded me."

"That's okay."

"Can you come over? We can still try out some recipes."

"I could make dinner."

"Really?"

"I do know how to cook."

She used her signal to pa.s.s someone on the highway. "I should think so with that gourmet kitchen. Or we could go out."

"I don't eat out if I haven't seen the kitchen."

"So that's why you scoped out my pantry?"

"I'd rather not remember that."

"It's one of my treasured Miles moments." She slowed as she entered the city limits. "I'll be home in about five minutes."

"I'll shower and see you there."

"Okay." He could have come straight over, but who cared if he liked getting clean? A lot.

She parked beside the house and got out. She might not be living here for long, but if their plan worked- She felt the sting and thought the monster of all wasps had stung moments before her limbs got spongy and her head rushed.

Thirty-Two.

When our two lives grew like two buds that kiss At lightest thrill from the bee's swinging chime, Because the one so near the other is.-GEORGE ELIOT In the waning western light, Jonah reflected her surprise. "Let me get this straight. Piper, Sarge, and Miles?"

Tia nodded. While the nurse had changed his bandages, she had slipped into the hall to hear Piper's news. "It sounds like Sarge is excited. He told Piper to make him proud."

"And Miles."

"Piper thinks he's something special. All the boys in town buzzing around her like bees." She smiled.

"How does that even work? With no touching?"

Incomprehensible to Jonah Westfall-thank G.o.d. "They'll have to overcome the barriers." She sat on the side of the bed where they'd lowered the rail, frustrated by their own barriers. "His affection for Piper and hers for him should be powerful incentive."

"I'm experiencing powerful incentive." He clasped her knee.

"Because you thought about touching."