Tap Dance (Dance Series)

chapter Thirty One



We buried Aunt Estella on Friday morning, right next to my uncle. It was a beautiful day and there was a great turnout.

Greg had finally pulled his head out of his ass and stepped up by taking care of all the arrangements. He and I were dealing with her death, her murder, the best we knew how. We had both learned at an early age, with our dads dying, that life is fleeting and it's easier to let the grief come when it hits.

That it takes time to heal.

Ram was at the service, only giving me a kiss on the cheek. The look we shared when he glanced back at me went straight to my heart.

And I kept it there with both hands.



*.*.*.*.*

I went straight from the funeral to Shady Acres. I needed to let my mom know about Aunt Estella. In the younger years, they had been great friends and my aunt was a frequent visitor after I had to put Mom in the nursing home.

"Hey, Mom," I said softly coming through the door of her room. She was sitting in a rocking chair I had gotten for her after she complained that the chairs in the home didn't 'move'. Back when we lived in Cortez, she had a rocker/recliner which became her base of operations after Daddy died.

I picked up her hand and saw her startled eyes turn towards me.

"How're you doing today?" I asked softly, my eyes moving over her face to try and judge if she was 'here' or lost back in her past.

"I'm fine," she said slowly and I could tell she was trying to, struggling to, remember me.

"It's me, Momma. Marianne."

"Why do you look so old, Marianne? Have you been in my makeup again?" This was a common question she'd asked since the illness had hit. But, at least this time, she wasn't yelling at me that I couldn't possibly be her sweet little girl.

"Mom? Aunt Estella passed," I said softly wondering how she was going to process this information. Back in the day, they had been the best of friends and were so very close. Even when Mom was not in the here - and - now, she always remembered who Estella was and it had made me kind of jealous.

"Of course she did, dear. He told me already."

Wait…what?

"Who told you that, Mom?"

"You know," she said firmly. "Him. The beautiful one."

"I'm sorry. I don't know who that is," I said slowly.

She looked around her room and then leaned towards me.

"The dark angel," she whispered glancing all around again.

I didn't know how to respond. Was she having visual hallucinations now?

"He told me that Estella died when he hit her on her head with one of Greg's trophies," she continued on a whisper.

"He said he would kill me next if he didn't get what he wanted," she said, sitting back in her rocker with a smile.

Excuse me?

"Did he tell you what he wanted?" I was willing to play along because this was scaring the ever-loving shit out of me and I needed more information before I got the authorities involved. And, by authorities, I meant Ram.

"No. He said I knew what he was speaking about and I better watch my a-s-s." My mom had never been much of a person to swear, even forsaking anything even similar sounding to a curse word.

"I need to go speak with the nurse. Will you be okay?" I asked and as her eyes came back to mine I could see that she, the 'she' that I knew and loved, was gone.

I ran down the hall to the nurse's station after giving her a kiss good-bye, which she accepted with more than a bit of confusion.



*.*.*.*.*

The director was refusing to move my mother. Said it was a waste of time and of valuable resources just because an Alzheimer patient claimed to have been told something. He insisted she could've overheard the staff talking and recognized Estella's name.

I had already called Ram and left a voicemail.

I even called the Matrix guy and left him a voicemail.

But I wasn't leaving until someone did something to help protect my mom.

I had been in the visitor lounge for five hours when I heard Ram speaking with the receptionist.

I never moved so fast in my life as I did when I ran and collided with him. And as soon as I felt his arms around me, all the defenses I had built around myself crumbled.

It took the director speaking with him to make sense of what I'd tried to blubber, but I'd been crying so hard even I knew he wouldn't understand what I was saying. And, as soon as the director repeated what I'd heard from my mom, Ram took charge.

My mother was moved to a different room while she went to dinner, a room which faced the same direction as her old one, but was just across the hall. The visitors log was opened and Ram could see no one but me had signed in to visit her but copies of the log were made. Ram said he would have someone call and check with each visitor to see if whoever had visited my mom could've signed in to see another patient.

My boyfriend even came with me and I introduced him to my mother. It was unfortunate that she didn't know me and had no clue who Ram actually was and wouldn't probably ever know who he was.

But I did.

I knew I had introduced two of my heart's very own people. Even if one of them wouldn't ever know or remember.

We were outside by my car, arms around each other with our lips pressing softly while my tears poured softly, silently when we heard Agent Grant pull in next to us.

"God damn it, Patel!" I heard the Matrix agent yell. "Get your God damn hands off her immediately!"

Ram slowly disengaged his lips from mine and raised his head slightly.

"No," was all my gorgeous boyfriend said.

"I said get your hands off her, Patel."

Ram raised his head a bit more and jutted his chin in the direction of Agent Grant who was somewhere over my left shoulder.

"I'm done listening to you bad mouth her, Grant. You've got concerns, take it up with Grantham's District Attorney. Make some formal charges. Otherwise, shut the f*ck up."

From the stillness of Ram's body, I was thinking these two were in another pissing contest but, since they were on the job, consisted of just staring each other down.

"Christ! I hate podunk towns…" I heard the agent grunt out before his voice moved out of the range of my hearing.



*.*.*.*.*

Ram and I were just starting to discuss the logistics of being together when my cell rang with the standard ring tone. The display said 'unknown caller'.

I looked at Ram and he nodded.

"Hello?"

"Marianne? Where are you?"

"Hi, Steve. At Mom's nursing home, why?"

"I need to see you. Can you meet me at your house at eight?"

"Tonight?"

"Yeah, babe. Tonight. Can you meet me or not?"

"Sure. I guess. Any reason for the visit?"

"Stop f*cking with me, Marianne," Steve said with a tone I'd never heard from him.

"I'll be there at eight, Steve. No worries," I tried to assure him while bugging my eyes at Ram who had gone completely still.

Steve disconnected without further words.

I raised my eyes to Ram, who just nodded before looking away.

"I'll follow you, Pyari, and park around the corner," was all my Police Chief man said.