Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Hi,” I said happily. “You’re on speaker, we’re in the car.”
“I have to go to the hospital––”
I gasped. Hannah caught her breath, and Jake immediately put his hand on Hannah’s shoulder.
“––not for me,” he said quickly, “but because of Pazzi.”
Wait. “Isn’t Pazzi the one who was in rehab?” And no, I, along with my children, and Jake, probably shouldn’t have known that, but it would never go any further, as we all knew if we wanted to know things, then keeping secrets was key.
“Yeah,” Sam grumbled, “that’s him.”
“Is he the only one who got hurt, Dad, or did his partner, Sen Yamane, get hurt as well?”
He grunted over the line, and I could tell right then he was annoyed, not upset. “No. Just Pazzi. He’s the only one the bookcase fell on.”
I didn’t even want to know.
“How, um, did a bookcase fall on him?” Jake asked before I could ask when he thought he would be home.
“You know that scene in the first Mummy movie where Evie is on the ladder and she knocks over all the bookcases in the library?”
“Oh no,” I said softly.
“Hell yes,” he groused.
Apparently, it turned out that the marshals had to go into a bookstore downtown along with the Feds to pick up a dealer selling a dirty bomb to a buyer on the dark web, but wires got crossed—again, seemed like the theme of the day—and the only thing the man was selling were, in fact, books. Unfortunately, to get the “drop on him,” Pazzi went high, lowering himself from the stairs that led to the second floor onto the top of one of the bookcases. And yes, they were bolted to the wall, but the store was old, so was the wood, and could not take his hundred and sixty-five pounds on top. It got wrenched from the wall and hit the next one, and books are heavy, especially the rare ones in the reference section.
The Feds were in trouble because it was them with the wires crossed, and so they were paying for the overtime and everything else, but the destruction of the reference section was not on them. That was on the marshals. Plus, one of the bookcases fell on Pazzi, and Redeker was fairly certain he broke his wrist.
“Ian wouldn’t even let me go in there, he said it was that stupid, but I have a great picture of books covering Pazzi and his legs sticking out.”
I wouldn’t even smile, because if I did, I’d laugh.
“Daddy, that’s terrible,” Hannah scolded him. “Reference books are really heavy. He could have gotten a concussion.”
“He could have met his end from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,” Jake chimed in. “Now that would be terrible.”
“Jacob!” Hannah scolded him.
“What? I’d rather be killed by a geology textbook, for heaven’s sake.”
“You just don’t get Shakespeare. It’s supposed to be spoken, not read.”
“Whatever you say,” he placated her.
“So you’re going to see him at the hospital?” I asked, getting the conversation back on track.
“Just to check in. I’m not gonna stay. Becker’s on vacation with his family, but when he comes back, we have to have another conversation about Pazzi.”
“His heart was in the right place,” Hannah contended.
“Yeah, that’s great and all, but his brain needs to catch up.”
“So until Chris returns, Ian gets to yell at him,” I said, chuckling that time.
“That’s right.”
“Why yell?” Hannah asked her father. “I mean, c’mon, Dad. The man was crushed by books. I’m sure he’s horrified already.”
“Ian is actually getting better at this stuff, so it’s possible he’ll just make him feel like a dumbass—which he is—and there won’t be any yelling at all.”
“People are allowed to make mistakes,” Hannah argued.
“True, but Pazzi’s annoying,” he grumbled. “And this whole day has been odd.”
“It was nice to meet Finn’s family,” I said cheerfully. “You seemed to like his father.”
“I did. We’re going fishing. But don’t start inviting them over when the rest of the family is there, all right?”
Nice that when he said family, he meant mine, my brother, his wife, their kids, but most of all, meant our friends.
“I just like things the way they are,” he explained, just in case I’d never met him before in my life.
“Yes, dear.”
Hannah chuckled and Jake smiled.
“I had a hard time reading Anne. Did she like us or not?”
“Right?” I agreed. “I got the feeling she thought things in our house are different than in hers, but at the same time, we’re probably the only same-sex couple she knows.”
“Agreed. Perhaps she just needs to see more of us.”
“Yes.”
“Not a lot more,” he rushed out.
“Of course.”
“And I’m not goin’ over there for Easter. Hell no. If they call, just suggest something in April. Tell them we have plans.”
“Which we do.”
“We do?” He groaned.
“Yes, dear. Every year. You guys go to Easter Mass the night before and then for brunch, we go and see your mother, take her an Easter lily…any of this ringing a bell?”