James Born - Shock Wave

He stopped one pass in front of his face, just before it took his head off, as Emily said, “Let’s run some patterns.”

Tasker smiled as she hustled over to him to line up. Kelly, avoiding the discomfort of sweat, casually strolled up to Tasker. “I’ll hike the ball. She can run any pattern she wants.”

Tasker smiled at his ten-year-old’s attitude, obviously borrowed from his ex-wife. She had her mother’s looks and mannerisms. Tasker wasn’t sure if some young man would be lucky to meet her in twelve years, or doomed. To him it didn’t matter, because she was perfect.

Emily said, “Hit me past your car by the tree.” She took off like a small blond rocket.

Tasker let a high floater sail and watched as his youngest daughter plucked it right out of the air, never breaking stride. She tucked the ball under her arm and darted across the yard, dodging imaginary tacklers all the way back to him.

“What do ya think, Daddy? Can I play in the league at home?” Her high, doll-like voice made her seem younger than eight years old.

“Sweetheart, you can do anything you put your mind to.” He leaned down to kiss her, when he saw a Ford Crown Vic rolling down the residential street. As it crept along slower, he realized it was Camy Parks. The fading sunlight reflected off her light-orange hair. He said to his daughters, “You guys go in and play on the PlayStation for a few minutes. I’ll be right in.”

The girls didn’t need coaxing. They raced into the house from the front door. Tasker stood near the patio courtyard as Camy parked in his driveway. She smiled, strolling up to the surprised Tasker.

“Didn’t mean to chase off your girls.”

“No problem. What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’. Just thought I’d give you a rundown on the surveillance. Sutter relieved me a little early and I wasn’t up to his efforts to get in my pants, so I decided to drop by and fill you in.” She smiled, obviously pausing to see what he’d say about getting in her pants.

He avoided the whole issue. “I appreciate it, but a call would’ve been fine.”

“You’re on my way home, and I was curious what your house looked like. I knew it wouldn’t be a bachelor pad.” She looked the house over. “This is very nice. Cozy.”

Tasker smiled. “You should see my other house. It’s beautiful.”

“The one your ex-wife has?”

“Exactly.”

“Your girls are cute as can be. Their mother must be a knockout.”

“She is,” he said as a casual statement of fact. Tasker couldn’t take his eyes off her. In simple jeans and a T-shirt after a full day of work, she looked like a miniature model from Victoria’s Secret.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Camy said, “You wanna talk out here or can we go inside?”

“It’s nice out. Let’s sit on the patio.” He led her through the wooden gate that stood in front of the open patio. “Wanna beer?”

“Sounds good,” she said, sprawling into a lounge chair.

Tasker hustled inside, checking on the girls, who were playing one of the Super Mario Brothers games, and then grabbed a couple of Icehouse beers from the fridge. He had already decided that he didn’t want to introduce Camy to them. She was just a coworker and he didn’t want to confuse them. Besides, if they saw Camy, they might slip up and tell their mother about the sleek, beautiful red-haired woman Daddy was talking to. He didn’t need that.

He checked his watch and noticed that his ex-wife Donna would be by to pick up the girls soon. He might need to hurry this up a little bit.

“Here you go,” he said, setting the beer on the small table next to her.

She sprang up and spun to face him as he sat on the lounge chair next to her. “I’m not sure this surveillance is a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“I watched that place for a little over five hours, and in all that time only one car came and went. A black F-250 owned by an E. Conners. He’s the listed owner of the crappy little house, and it just looked like he was doing errands.”

“Is he in the KKK?”

“Yeah, all that checks out. The house belongs to Conners. ATF knows that much. Something’s not right. It’s not the kind of place that they just hang out at. Conners is probably the only one of those morons who owns a house, so he’s the leader. The house has an orange grove around it, and Conners owns the twelve-acre pepper farm on the same street. Daniel Wells doesn’t even show in our intel base.”

Tasker thought about it. He also thought about the hand that Camy had placed on his knee and left there. This lead might be thin, but it was all they had to go on for now. “Let’s do this: we sit on it over the weekend. If there’s no movement, next week we’ll get together and talk about it again.”

“That’s fine.” She leaned into him a little. “Now that you’ve got me in this thing, I want to go all the way.” She cut her green eyes up to his.

He could feel her breath across his face. His body tightened. “I’m glad you’re here. I mean on the case.” No, he meant he was glad she was here.

“I’m glad of both.” She smiled.

As he was thinking of something intelligent and profound to say, he heard a voice from the fence.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

Tasker jumped at the woman’s voice and jerked his head toward the open gate. His ex-wife, Donna, stood at the opening, looking right at him. He couldn’t get a sense of her feelings. Was she pissed? Surprised? She was smiling, but she didn’t exactly look happy.

Tasker stood up, causing Camy’s hand to flop back in her lap. “Hey, Donna.” He glanced at his watch. “Didn’t realize it was so late.”

“Apparently not,” Donna said, looking over at Camy.

Tasker cut in. “Donna, this is Camy Parks. Camy, this is my ex-wife, Donna.”

They smiled and nodded at each other.

Donna asked, “Do you work with Billy?”

“I’m an ATF agent. We’re involved”-she waited a second-“in a joint investigation right now.”

Donna looked at Tasker. “I’ll get out of your way. Are the girls ready?”

Tasker gulped a little air and nodded.

Then Camy said, “I was just leaving.” She was moving toward the gate before Tasker could say anything. After she was past Donna, she said, “Call if anything happens tomorrow.”

“Sure thing,” was all Tasker could say.

Camy said, “Nice meeting you,” to Donna and turned toward her car.

“She’s cute,” said Donna, as she watched her hips sway away.

“That she is.” Tasker felt like he was having the same conversation twice in twenty minutes. He added, “She’s an ATF agent working on a case with me.”

“So I gathered,” Donna said. “I saw what she was working on.”

“It’s not like that. She has a boyfriend.”

“She may have a boyfriend, but she was interested in you. A woman can tell these things.” She walked over and sat on a lounger. “Billy, is it smart to have the girls around women?”

“Aren’t they around men?”

“No.”

“What about Nicky? He is considered a man, isn’t he?”

She let it go and said, “I mean, women the girls don’t know.”

“How would they meet them?”

She shrugged.

“What’s the story on Nicky Goldman? Is he divorced?”

She nodded.

“How does his ex-wife feel about you seeing him?”

“They didn’t have kids, but she’s fine with it. You know her.”

“I do? Who is it?”

“Laura, the woman who builds the websites and helps at the girls’ school.”

Tasker stared at her. “Nicky was married to Laura Parker?”

“That’s her maiden name. She changed it back after the divorce. Why’s it so surprising they were married?”