Criss Cross

Chapter 86

Nolan claimed we’d broken his knee, separated his shoulder, and cracked his ribs when we tackled him. He demanded a doctor and an attorney and then clammed up, as was his right. Mahoney took him into federal custody, and we parted with plans to meet again in the morning.

Bree drove us home. The storm had passed by the time we’d dropped Sampson at his house and parked in front of our own. I peeled myself off the passenger seat. My clothes were torn and caked in that thick copper-colored slurry.

“You look like an extra in a zombie movie,” Bree said, and she chuckled.

“Feel like one,” I said, rubbing my sore ribs. “I hit something hard.”

We started up the porch stairs, and I barely gave the scaffolding between our house and the Morses’ a second thought.

“You think Nana Mama’s going to let you walk on her clean floors with you looking like that?” Bree said. “Go on around to the basement shower.”

I sighed. “All right. And I’ll hose off my pants before I go inside.”

“Even better,” she said.

I leaned to kiss her. She jumped back and laughed. “Not on your life.”

“Kiss of the zombie!” I said. I threw my hands up Frankenstein-style and chased her a few feet.

Bree shrieked with laughter and then scrambled up the stairs and across the porch. She opened the front door, looked over her shoulder, grinned, stuck her tongue out at me, then went inside.

I loved seeing Bree light up like that, more girl than woman, more regular person than cop, and all because I acted like a little boy. It made me feel pretty darn good at the end of a long and complicated day that had gone sideways more than once.

But all in all, we’d made serious progress. If we didn’t have M in custody, we had someone who knew him. Nolan had said as much. To me and to Marty Forbes.

The shower was long, hot, and wonderful. Dinner — roast chicken in a citrus-mustard sauce, a recipe Nana Mama had gotten from the Rachael Ray Show — was on the table when I entered the kitchen, feeling like a new man.

“You clean up nice,” Bree said.

“Every once in a while.”

“Bree said you were covered in mud,” Ali said.

“Head to toe.”

“I wanted a picture.”

“That wasn’t happening.”

“Dad?” Jannie said. “Aren’t you going to ask me how my first day back went?”

I’d completely forgotten. “School. Yes. How are you feeling?”

She sat up straighter and smiled. “Pretty good, actually. Those vitamins really do work after a while.”

“No tiredness during the day?”

“Just once, in study hall. I put my head down and took a ten-minute nap. When do you think I can start training again?”

My grandmother said, “I know you’re champing at the bit, but the last thing you need is a relapse.”

Jannie looked glum.

I said, “Nana’s right, and you know it. So, let’s say the rest of this week, you stay on that vitamin regimen and stretch all you want while we see how you do at school. Things go well, you can start to run next week.”

My daughter chewed the inside of her cheek before saying, “So, right now, I’m, what, twelve weeks from the first of those meets?”

“Sounds right, but you have to take it easy, no pushing hard out of the gate.”

“But I like to push hard out of the gate,” Jannie said with a playful moan.

“And you will,” Bree said. “In twelve weeks.”

Jannie held up both palms. “I officially surrender.”

“Sometimes you have to surrender in order to fight another day,” Nana Mama said.

“Who said that?” Ali asked.

“I did,” my grandmother said. “Just now.”

“You should write that down, Nana,” he said.

“No, you should write that down,” she said.

Ali stared off into space for a second and was about to say something when his phone dinged. He pulled it out and looked at the screen, and a smile bloomed softly on his face.

“See?” my grandmother said. “They can’t keep their attention off their screens and on real life. I say write that down, but then — ping! — off he goes.”

Ali stuffed his phone back in his pocket, got up, and grabbed a notebook and a pen. “No, Nana, I’m going to write down all the stuff you say, and we’ll put it up on Twitter once a day. You know, like, hashtag-crazy-good-stuff-my-great-grandma-says.”

There was dead silence for a moment and then Jannie started laughing. “That could work!”

“Right!” Ali said, holding up his fist in triumph. “Nana Mama goes viral!”

My grandmother stared at both of them as if they’d lost their minds, which caused Bree and me to start laughing. It took only a few moments before Nana started to chuckle with us. “Honestly, I have no idea what’s so funny,” she said, “but it doesn’t matter. A good laugh will keep you from going toes up and six feet under.”

“Write that down!” Jannie cried, and we started laughing all over again.