Page 18 of Carlos
Carlos: I hate secrets.
Bulldog: But you love solving a good mystery.
Bulldog: Promise me one thing?
Carlos: Yeah?
Bulldog: I’ve seen the way she looks at you. I think you can help her heal. When she does tell you what happened to her husband, I need you to promise you’ll listen and not make assumptions. The law isn’t always black and white.
Carlos flinched. Had her husband been a dirty cop? But that didn’t mean Clara was dirty. If anything, it made her even more innocent and in need of protection.
Whatever her reasoning, Carlos knew she was worth the fight. Worth protecting. Both her and her son.
Carlos: I promise.
Zoe took a deep breath before knocking on the door. It took a minute before Jenna answered and, when she did, her smile broadened.
“Come in,” she opened the door wider to allow Zoe and Kyle inside.
Kyle ran to the backdoor and stared longingly outside at the playset in the yard. Zoe still felt bad for taking him away yesterday.
“Can we sit outside so he can play while we talk?” she asked Jenna.
“Of course. Head on out. I’ll grab us some drinks and be right there.”
Kyle was out the door before Zoe could agree to Jenna’s offer. She hurried outside after her son.
Next to the playset was a wooden pergola with a two-person swing hanging from chains. Zoe took her seat while Kyle climbed, fearlessly, up the rungs to the platform. He continued up two more platforms until he reached the tallest with an attached twisty slide. Kyle bounded down with no hesitation.
“Remember the metal ones we used to have to sacrifice a layer of skin to go down?”
Zoe let out a small chuckle as her son immediately started his climb all over again. She accepted the offered drink from Jenna. “I have a scar on my right thigh from one. There was a metal spider-climb at my childhood church that I cut myself on. I think my dad’s words were ‘walk it off, it didn’t hit an artery.’”
Jenna took the open seat next to Zoe. “We certainly grew up in a different era.”
Zoe glanced at Jenna, who was probably about twenty-five years older than she was. “I’m sorry I left yesterday. I should have stuck it out. That was rude of me.”
“I understand your fear, Clara. I don’t know your story but I can sympathize.”
Zoe took a deep breath before she said, “Zoe. My name is Zoe.”
Jenna tried to keep the shock off of her face, but Zoe saw it. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Zoe. But I think I’ll stick with ‘Clara’ until you’re ready to tell more than just me your name.”
Zoe nodded her agreement. “You should… I lived with you for six months and you never asked. You should know what happened, what I did.”
“Does my husband know?”
“I don’t know,” Zoe confessed. “Conner wrote him a letter but I never read it. He might have explained everything or nothing.”
“Do you want me to ask him to come here?”
Zoe looked over at the playground where her son was starting his fifth journey down the slide with the same enthusiasm as his first. “No,” she finally said. “I think… I’ve never told anyone what happened. The only ones who know were involved. I don’t think I can handle an audience right now.”
Jenna nodded her understanding. “Fair enough. Do you want me to keep this from him?”
Zoe turned to her right to look at the other woman. “Would you? If I asked you to?”
“Of course.” Jenna pointed between the two of them. “We women have to stick together. The other ol’ ladies and I have a weekly group. The men aren’t the only ones with their secret meetings.”