Marshall's Park, The Complete Series . 01-2014 Page 3

  “Fields,” the officer replied with a shrug, which suggested to Aiden that he was used to repeating his name. “I’m sorry for calling at this early hour, Mr. Reid, but you were on my way home and I thought you’d want to know that Mr. Thomas has been released.”

  “Released? How?” Aiden’s jaw dropped open on its hinge in disbelief and he beckoned the officer inside. Leading the man down the hall so that their voices wouldn’t wake Kaylee, he waved to the kitchen table and sank onto one of the chairs, indicating that Officer Fields should do the same. “Did he get bail or something?”

  “Or something,” Officer Fields said wryly. He sat in the proffered chair, removed his notebook from his jacket pocket and flipped it open. “Mr. Thomas was released without charge in the early hours of this morning. His story was verified by both a work colleague and his supervisor late last night. He’s been employed at the park for the last four years as Monty, the animal park’s mascot and has no criminal record.” The officer’s gave him a reassuring smile. “It would seem it was all a big misunderstanding. He really was taking Kaylee to a meeting point.”

  Aiden’s eyes widened with each sentence that left the officer’s lips, his stomach sinking. Shit! It was true? Everything he’d been shouting, well, screaming, was true? And I accused him of being a pedophile… a child snatcher! He was aware the officer was still talking but his interest was only dragged from his inner turmoil by one word. Assault. “I’m sorry, what?” he asked.

  “I said, Mr. Thomas has been advised of his right to bring assault charges against you, but we’ve not received a complaint from him… yet.”

  “He can do that?” Aiden said, completely aghast.

  “Well,” Officer Fields raised an eyebrow. “You did assault him, Mr. Reid.”

  “I thought he was taking my kid,” Aiden spluttered. “I’m an investment banker, for God’s sake, I can’t have a criminal record! I’ll lose my job!”

  “Mr. Reid.” Officer Fields held up his hand. “As I said, Mr. Thomas hasn’t made any such complaint. But we will keep you informed of any developments.” He stood and put his notebook back into his pocket, the movement an indication to Aiden that he was done. “Look, Mr. Reid, if you want my advice, maybe an apology and a six pack wouldn’t be the worst idea you’ve ever had. I’ll see myself out.”

  “What the hell is all the commotion? You sleepwalking again?”

  Aiden glanced up as his Aunt Patti walked into the kitchen, her flowery housecoat tied tightly around her waist, her feet in bunny slippers.

  “That was the police,” he answered in a monotone. “The freak from yesterday is apparently Monty Meerkat himself and was released without charge. Although if he wants to, he can bring charges against me for assaulting him.” His aunt stared at him open-mouthed.

  “Who… what… who?”

  Sighing heavily and remembering that Patti had been out at her weekly bridge game when they arrived home the night before, Aiden quickly explained the situation, including the conversation he’d had with Officer Fields. He glared at her as she tried to bring her mirth under control. “Are you finished?” Aiden queried.

  “Let me get this straight,” Patti said, sitting down in the chair the cop had vacated. “You lose Kaylee, which we will be talking about; then you see her being led away by a guy dressed as an employee from the animal park you’re in and automatically assume he’s kidnapping her. Then, to compound your assumption, you dive on top of him in front of Kaylee, before having him arrested and carried off. All without stopping to consider he might be telling the truth?”

  Aiden blushed under the weight of her gaze. “She’s my kid—what else was I supposed to think? Ow!” He winced and put his hand to the back of his head where she’d slapped him. “What was that for?”

  “I was hoping to knock some sense into you,” Patti drawled sarcastically. “Not that it’s ever worked before.”

  Aiden glared at his aunt and mumbled beneath his breath as she stood up and began to make coffee. He hated it when she made him feel like he was twelve and had been caught stealing from the cookie jar. Even more, he hated it when she was right. He watched as she moved around the kitchen with the ease of someone half her age, which was indeterminate because she refused to divulge that information.

  Aunt Patti was his father’s older sister. She’d moved to Southern California thirty years ago when she’d married beneath her, according to her family. Which in essence meant that she had married a man who had never seen the inside of a country club in his life. Which was a stupid assumption, because her husband had made a fortune in the construction business. Of course, that didn’t stop his mother inviting her every Christmas, birthday, high day and holiday, just to show Patti what she was missing by thumbing her nose at the great institution that was the second wealthiest family in Dallas.

  Consequently, of course, fighting with his own urge to rebel, Aiden adored her and looked forward to her visits with great excitement—knowing that, even if it was only for a few days, the house would be filled with the light and laughter that Aunt Patti brought with her. Which is why he’d ended up on her doorstep with his father’s check in his pocket and Kaylee in his arms. Patti, being Patti and by then a widow, had asked no questions, simply nodded, taken the baby from his arms and made coffee—just like she was doing now. Aiden sighed as she put a mug filled with the aromatic liquid in front of him on the table, and he curled his fingers around it. “What if he presses charges?”

  “I suggest you head on over to Marshall’s Park and kiss enough ass to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Patti replied, sipping at her own coffee as she leaned back in the chair. “And it wouldn’t hurt to take a pair of pretty green eyes with you to sweeten the pot either.”

  “Are you suggesting I use my daughter’s cuteness as a ploy to sweet-talk this man into not pressing charges?” Aiden stared aghast at his aunt.

  “Unless you think you can manage it on your charm alone.”

  Aiden sighed heavily and scrubbed his hands over his face, mumbling through his fingers, “I’ll go wake her up.”

  *

  Glancing into the rear view mirror, Aiden flashed Kaylee a smile. A smile she did not return—again. When he’d woken her and explained they had to make an apology to Finn at the park, her response had been a flick of dark hair and the stomping of feet downstairs. Aiden knew from experience that she was not happy. Sometimes he spared a sympathetic thought for Kaylee’s future husband. His daughter had perfected the art of the cold shoulder by the time she’d hit the terrible twos.

  “You can’t ignore me all day, you know,” Aiden teased. The glare from the back seat begged to differ. “I’m gonna need your help to find Finn. I don’t even remember what he looks like.”

  “That’s ‘cause I know him better.”

  Yes! Aiden sent up an inward cheer… signs of life. “Exactly,” he replied, biting down the urge to come up with a quippy response regarding her immediate knowledge of all things Finn, after only minutes in the man’s company. “So I’ll need your help.”

  “Okay,” Kaylee’s affirmative was begrudging. “But I’m still mad.”

  “Why are you mad?”

  “You hurt Finn, daddy. And so did the coppers.”

  Aiden’s mouth fell open. Coppers? Patti must stop watching old gangster movies when Kaylee is around. “I know, baby,” he said softy, “and I’ve said I’m sorry for what I did. That’s why we’re going to see Finn. So I can say sorry to him in person.”

  “Did you get him a present?”

  “Um… no. Should I?” Aiden bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud at the incredulous expression on Kaylee’s face. It clearly said he was a complete amateur and should be thanking his lucky stars he wasn’t attempting the apology alone.

  “’Member when I told Jacob White he smelled like pee? You made me get him a stupid Power Ranger,” Kaylee said firmly, folding her arms across her chest. “And it wasn’t a lie!”

  “Oka
y, okay,” Aiden said, pulling onto the freeway. “We’ll get him a present—and Jacob White doesn’t smell of pee.”

  “You sit next to him, then.”

  Sensing Kaylee wasn’t letting go Jacob White’s hygiene problems any time soon, Aiden neatly changed the subject. “So, what do you think we should get him?”

  “Who?”

  “Finn,” Aiden said patiently.

  “Oh,” Kaylee tapped her chin with a forefinger, her thinking pose. “A Monty. We should get him a Monty. The big one. We should get two.”

  “Why would we need two?”

  “So Finn’s one will have a friend.”

  The ‘duh’ was suggested by her tone and Aiden shook his head slowly. She may only be five, but she wasn’t stupid. Sometimes her large vocabulary and quick-thinking were not a good thing. Aiden knew she’d been after one of those huge Monty dolls for an age. She obviously saw this as the opportune moment to add it to her ever-growing collection of stuffed toys—under the guise of helping him apologize to Finn.

  “Right,” Aiden replied, dragging out the word to firmly indicate he was on to her. She might think he was a thousand years old, but he still had all his faculties. Every one of which he knew he would need as he signaled for the next exit.

  He’d wondered whether he should prepare a speech, or just wing it. But what the hell was he supposed to say? ‘I’m sorry I called you a pedophile, smashed your face into the ground and had you thrown in a cell with the local drunks. Please don’t send me to the Big House’? Aiden sighed heavily and steered the car through the entrance gates of Marshall’s Park.

  *

  After spending twenty minutes driving round and round the parking lot to find a space that wasn’t closer to home than the zoo, Aiden and Kaylee headed to the ticket booth. The girl in the wooden cubicle pasted a ‘I’m so bored I would really rather be anywhere else but here on a Sunday’ smile on her face as they approached.

  “Welcome to Marshall’s Park, how may I help you today?”

  Aiden fished some notes out of his wallet. “An adult and a child, please.”

  “How old is the child?”

  The girl’s voice was a dull monotone and Aiden shook his head slowly. If this was the type of impression the park wanted to create, he was amazed they were still open. “Five,” he said in an overly cheerful voice, hoping to elicit some life from the teen—unsuccessfully. She took his money and pushed some change back through the slot in her window. The tickets were printed and nonchalantly shoved toward him in the same manner along with the least enthusiastic ‘Enjoy the Marshall’s experience’ he had ever heard.

  Tickets in his pocket and Kaylee’s hand in his, Aiden headed across the concourse to Monty’s outdoor theatre. A show was in progress and Aiden couldn’t help but smile at the screams of laughter from the assembled children as Monty ambled up and down the stage. As the giant meerkat began to show off his tap dancing skills, Aiden squinted—immediately mentally slapping himself for thinking that would suddenly enable him to tell who was inside the damn suit.

  Gazing around the staging area, Finn spotted a park employee disappearing through a door off to the side. “Come on, cupcake,” he said to Kaylee, gripping her fingers firmly. “Let’s go find Finn.” He would have been lying if the non-jaywalking, parking ticket paying, ten percent of his paycheck straight into his savings account, part of him balked at opening the door marked private. Following the rules had been heavily ingrained from birth and the last time he didn’t abide by them, he’d ended up in Aunt Patti’s kitchen measuring formula and making up bottles.

  “Come on, daddy.”

  Aiden registered the impatient note in his daughter’s voice and grabbed the handle before he could throw Kaylee over his shoulder and run back to the car like the rule-following pussy he was. Opening the door, Aiden paused with one foot inside the room. The man sitting on a wooden bench, knocking back a Coke, was not Finn Thomas. Unless Finn Thomas had been changed so much by his overnight stay in jail that he’d turned into what Aiden could only describe as Cousin It. He didn’t think he’d ever seen so much hair on a man, which was thankfully tied back in what must have been a foot long ponytail. The guy looked like he’d have been happier working in a biker bar than a zoo. Although he could well have been mistaken for one of the exhibits. Now what did Aiden do? Luckily he didn’t have to think about it too long. Kaylee pulled her hand from his and stomped into the room ahead of him. Now that his choices had been limited, Aiden followed her and the door closed behind them.

  “Hello,” Kaylee held out her hand to the man on the bench. “I’m Kaylee Reid.”

  The man shook her tiny fingers and solemnly replied, “Hello, Kaylee Reid. I’m Chris Bishop.”

  “That’s my daddy. He wants Finn.”

  Aiden’s cheeks warmed as Chris Bishop threw him an interested glance. “Is that so?” Chris said as he stood up. “May I ask why?”

  “He’s gotta ‘pol,” Aiden bit back a smile as Kaylee struggled with the word. “‘Polerguise? Anyway, he’s gotta say sorry.”

  “Say sorry?” Chris frowned and his get met Aiden’s again. “Sorry for—?” Aiden inwardly cringed as Chris obviously realized exactly why Aiden had to say sorry. It would appear bad news traveled just as fast as good at Marshall’s Park. “Ah, you’re the guy who—?”

  “Yes,” Aiden cut him off at the pass and motioned to Kaylee. “I’m the guy who. Do you know where we could find Mr. Thomas?”

  “It’s Finn’s day off,” Chris replied, narrowing his gaze as he gave Aiden the once over, leaving him feeling as though he’d been weighed, measured and definitely found wanting.

  “Fu… udge,” Aiden covered his curse and ran a hand through his hair.

  “But it must be your lucky day,” Chris added. “Finn’s helping out with some training sessions over at the dolphinarium. I’ll take you over there myself when my colleague returns from his break. He shouldn’t be too much longer.” Not entirely sure why, Aiden took a step back as Chris took one toward him. “You know he was in that cell for nine hours? For someone as soft as Finn, it might as well have been nine days. It’s gonna take a lot more than sorry before I’m satisfied.”

  “You’re satisfied?” Aiden was incredulous. Who the hell was this guy?

  Chris nodded slowly before holding out his hand in introduction. “Chris Bishop, best friend and roommate, nice to meet you.”

  Stomach sinking, Aiden shook the man’s hand. “Ah… right. Aiden Reid… the guy who.”

  “And you,” Chris spun on his heel and smiled at Kaylee as he dropped to his haunches before her. “How’s your knee?”

  “It’s ok,” Kaylee replied, lifting the leg of her pants to show Chris the Disney Princess Band-Aid covering the graze she’d sustained yesterday. “Daddy put some magic cream on and it don’t hurt now.”

  “Doesn’t hurt,” Aiden corrected out of habit. “Look, Chris,” he stumbled over what to say next. “I really am—”

  “Daddy,” Kaylee interrupted with a shake of her sleek brown head. “You have to polerguise to Finn, not Chris.”

  “She’s absolutely right, Daddy,” Chris drawled, nodding at the park employee who entered the room. He motioned to the door and grinned, the gleam in his eye telling Aiden that he was enjoying his discomfort way too much. “After you.”

  “Hey,” Chris’s colleague said as Aiden headed to the door. “Aren’t you the guy who—?”

  Aiden quickly ushered Kaylee through the open doorway as he hissed through gritted teeth, “Yes, I’m the friggin’ guy who!”

  Kaylee insisted they stop to buy Finn a Monty Meerkat stuffed toy, much to Aiden’s embarrassment and Chris’s amusement—although he put his foot down when it came to purchasing one for her. This apology was working out expensive enough, both to his wallet and his psyche, without adding to it on purpose. He was certain she’d ensure he made it up to her at some point.

  Chris said very little to Aiden as they followed him up and down th
e pathways toward the dolphinarium, not that he could blame him. The man did, however, engage Kaylee as they walked along. His daughter’s laughter was carried along on the breeze as Chris pointed out flowers, told her the nicknames of the animals they passed and even introduced her to one of his colleagues who was feeding the giraffes. The pure unadulterated joy on his daughter’s face warmed his soul as the young woman gave her a branch to offer up to the animal. He grinned as she giggled hysterically while the giraffe, whose nickname was Shorty, nibbled at the leaves. Aiden couldn’t believe how gently the huge beast snaked out his tongue to pull the leaves from their stalks, taking extra care to barely move the branch held tightly in Kaylee’s tiny fingers. Shorty’s beautiful deep brown eyes met his for single moment and Aiden could clearly see the giraffe’s scorn, ‘Unbunch, Pops. I’m a professional.’

  After practically dragging Kaylee away from Shorty with a promise that they would come back and see him real soon, Chris led them down a slope and through another door marked private situated around the back of the arena where the dolphin shows were held. The scent of fish assaulted Aiden’s nostrils the moment the door closed behind them and he pulled a face, smiling at Kaylee as she pinched her nose between her thumb and forefinger and stuck out her tongue to show her distaste. Aiden realized they were beneath the arena itself and the fish scent was quickly forgotten as he and Kaylee were both distracted by the huge glass panels of the enormous show pool situated in the center of the low-lit room.

  “Daddy,” Kaylee gasped as a dolphin streaked through the cool blue water. She ran toward it and pressed her hands to the glass. Aiden echoed her intake of breath as one of the dolphins spotted her and swam over to investigate. They had only watched the dolphin show from the benches around the arena, along with the other visitors to the park. To see the beautiful mammal up close and personal was an experience that left Aiden in complete awe.

  “Finn’s outside in the training pool,” Chris said. “Come on, Kaylee. Wanna meet Bubbles and her little girl, Ariel?”