Knight In Black Leather by Gail Dayton (ebook reader ink .txt) 📕

The officer thrust the crutch at Eli who promptly dropped it, and straightened. "Is this your car, ma'am?"

"Yes. Yes, it is." She panted a little when she reached them. "Why? What are--?"

"I caught this man breaking into--"

"He wasn't breaking into it, for heaven's sake. He was helping me clean it out." Marilyn shoved her hair back and glared at the officer. "My daughter has been driving it and I needed to trade cars."

The cop blinked as he looked back and forth between them. "This is your friend?"

Eli nodded and held his hands out to be unlocked.

"You know this man, ma'am?"

"Of course I do." Marilyn plucked the wallet from the officer's nerveless fingers. "He's Eli Court." She took out his driver's license and handed it over. "He's living with me right now."

"Renting a room?"

Marilyn had known that she and Eli would get this kind of reaction, this wondering what two so obviously different people would be doing together, but it still annoyed her. "No." She snatched the license back, almost before he had a chance to look at it. "Any other nosy questions?"

The cop's eyes narrowed now. "You got any proof this is your car? We got a call from a Julie Ballard that someone was stealing her car."

Seething, Marilyn slapped her purse down on the hood of the car and started digging in it. "There's my ID. I'm Marilyn Ballard. Julie is my daughter. There's the registration for this car, and for the one I'm leaving her. There's my insurance card for both cars. Here...Here's a picture of Julie and me from Christmas. Happy?"

Eli nudged her with his shoulder. "Hey, Marilyn, chill. The guy's just doing his job."

The officer gave Eli a startled look, apparently not expecting support from that quarter. It surprised Marilyn too, but he was right. She took a deep breath and tried to get herself under control.

"Sorry," she said. "It's been a rough few days. Frankly, it's my daughter's throat I'd like to jump down. I called and left three messages that I was coming to trade cars today and she pulls a stunt like this. Just because she doesn't want the car I brought her, I guess."

"Maybe she didn't get 'em, huh? The messages?" The officer handed Marilyn her papers and got out his keys to unlock the handcuffs.

"Maybe." Marilyn stuffed everything back in her purse, not bothering with doing it neatly. "But I think she's been talking to her grandmother. Who has a tendency to call the police when she's unhappy about something."

"You might want to have a talk with her then, Mrs. Ballard. False alarms are serious business."

"Oh, I intend to, believe me." She'd like to wring the child's neck.

The officer handed Eli his crutch. "Sorry for the misunderstanding."

"Me too," Marilyn said with a grim smile. Eli just nodded.

When the officer was back in his car and gone, Eli and Marilyn finished the transfer.

"Now." Marilyn let out a long sigh. She was not looking forward to the upcoming talk with Julie, but she knew better than to avoid it.

"Go on," Eli said. "I'll wait here."

"I don't think so. It's cold, another cop could come along, and I don't want to sit by myself in that lobby. You have to come keep me company." Besides, if Julie met Eli instead of simply accepting what her grandmother told her about him, maybe she would realize he was a good person, not a thug.

Looking as if he'd rather be dragged down the street behind a car, Eli collected his crutch and limped behind Marilyn across the vast parking lot to the maze of walkways leading to the clustered dorms.

She was out of practice with these kinds of talks. Julie had been no trouble at all through her high school career. Which was definitely a good thing, given that Marilyn hadn't been in any shape to deal with any trouble. So was she now reverting to her bratty thirteen-year-old self because she finally had the opportunity? Or was it that she felt secure enough to act out now because Marilyn wasn't sunk in her funk anymore?

They'd almost reached Julie's dorm when Marilyn saw a familiar blob of purple. It looked like the coat she'd bought her daughter over Christmas break. Julie was inside it, hustling in the opposite direction as fast as her legs would carry her.

"Julie, wait," Marilyn called, leaving Eli behind as she broke into a jog.

Julie, of course, didn't wait. She hunched deeper into her coat as if she heard, but wanted to pretend she hadn't.

"I know you hear me, Julie Ballard!" Marilyn shouted louder, hurrying faster.

Unable to pretend any longer that she didn't know the maniac woman galumphing after her, Julie stopped, turned. "What do you want?"

Breathless, Marilyn came to a halt beside her daughter. "We need to talk."

"What for? Go talk to your little boy toy. You don't need me." She turned to stalk off.

Marilyn caught her arm, pulling her back, spinning her around. "Check the attitude. You're my daughter, Julie. You'll always be my daughter and nothing--do you hear me? Nothing will ever change that, or my love for you."

"Yeah, whatever." The patented roll of the eyes was back. Marilyn hadn't seen that in a long time.

"Talk to me, Julie." She wanted to shake her till her eyes rattled in their sockets. But of course she didn't. "Why did you call the police? You knew I was coming to exchange cars."

Julie's eyes went wide in a surprise that was as fake as her eyelashes. "You were? Gosh, I didn't know that. I thought that sleazoid was trying to steal my car."

"Don't pull that with me. First of all, I think you need to remember just whose car that is. Mine, not yours. And if you thought it was being stolen, why were you running away from me instead of coming to see what happened? Let's get past all the lies and excuses. What's going on in that head of yours?"

"Gee, Mom, I don't know. Why don't you tell me?"