What followed was a scene that had played out at the Parker household hundreds of times. Lane hopped into the shower and quickly washed body and hair.  Jess went to the basement to pry her brothers away from the video game they were playing. The good news this time was that neither needed to shower or change clothes.  Lane was in and out of the shower in 15 minutes.  With nimble fingers she quickly wove her hair into a French braid.  She threw on her favorite jeans, sandals, and a Henley t-shirt. At 4:20 they were in the garage.  As Lane gave the keys for the Escalade to Jake, Jamie called shotgun.  She and Jess got into the backseat.

The house was less than a 15 minute drive away from the church, so the Parkers arrived at about 4:40.

Jake pulled into the parking lot and could see Ben leaning against his SUV.  As Jake parked, Ben approached the Escalade.  He saw Lane was seated behind Jamie.  He reached the SUV and opened Lane’s door.

“Hey Red.  I just got a call from Lila.  She wants you to answer some more questions.  I told her I’d check with you, to confirm tonight at seven o’clock at your house or tomorrow morning at nine o’clock at the station.”

Lane looked at Ben and then to the kids.  “We can do seven o’clock tonight at home.  If we order Jack Stack to go, pick it up, and eat at home.  It’ll feel less confrontational in my kitchen. You guys okay with Jack Stack to go?”

The kids looked at each other and then Jamie nodded agreement.

Lane looked at Ben as they ambled toward the Church’s entrance.  “Will Detective Hunter be coming or will it just be Detective Crane?”

Jake, Jess and Jamie had hung back a little and followed Ben’s and Lane’s path to the Church.  “Let’s get Mom to catch a ride back to the house with Ben.  We can volunteer to go to Jack Stack and get food and bring it home.”

Jamie nodded. “Yeah, give us time to strategize.”

Jess added, “Sounds like Detective Crane has Mom in her sights for this.”

After Mass, Jake put their plan into action suggesting Lane ride home with Ben while they went to the restaurant and waited for the food.  Jess started laughing as they made the drive to the restaurant.  Jake looked at her in the rearview mirror and Jamie turned around.

“WSF?”  Translation – “What’s so funny,” the guys said at the same time.

“It just came to me... How many Parkers does it take to solve a suspicious death?”

Now the guys laughed too.  They made up or had heard these jokes since they were kids.  Their friends often took any joke about how many blondes does it take to do something and turned it into how many Parkers does it take. They were a close knit little group and others who didn’t have close family ties didn’t usually “get” it.

“We know Mom didn’t do anything except try to help someone she thought was unconscious.  We need to figure out why this Lila Crane is after Mom.”  Jake told his siblings.

“One word,” Jess said from the back seat, “Ben.” Her brothers both turned to look at her.

“You weren’t at the police station.  I was, and let me tell you, Lila Crane’s eyes never left Ben.  This isn’t about Mom, it’s about Ben.”

Jake and Jamie had never heard anything so completely and absolutely ridiculous.  That’s the way it is with guys, they have trouble seeing their mothers as anything but mothers. Jess on the other hand saw her mother for the beautiful woman she was. When Jess was four or five, she had been with Lane when Lane found she had lost the ticket to get out of a parking garage.  When Lane approached the parking attendant’s booth, she explained to the young male attendant that she’d lost the ticket; he told her it was okay, no charge.  As they drove away, Lane marveled aloud that the sign said there was a $5.00 charge for a lost ticket.  Little Jess looked at her mother and said, “Sometimes it’s good to be a pretty blonde lady.”  Even at that age, Jess understood the power a beautiful woman had over men.  And even then she knew her mother was a beautiful woman.

She knew that Ben and her mom were finally actually dating; and while she understood what that meant, she was pretty sure her brothers were still oblivious to it.  She remembered a kid she knew in Omaha who had gotten into a really heated discussion with the Priest who was teaching religion class. The discussion was about Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth.  The guy would not believe that his mother, who was the mother of five more, wasn’t a virgin.  Sometimes it was hard for kids to think of their parents as people.

Then there was Ben’s looks.  She saw it a lot in L.A.  Guys or girls who were unspeakably beautiful and the way the ordinary people reacted to them. She didn’t understand it, they were just people. She’d witnessed the way women looked at Ben.  Yes, he had George Clooney looks and Kennedy charisma.  She just didn’t care, he was still just Ben to her.  But she’d seen women stop dead in their tracks, everywhere from church to the super market, when he walked in.  Of course, she’d seen similar reactions from people of both genders when her mother walked into a room.  She had accompanied her mother to a Cancer fund raiser two years ago, it was a formal affair at the Governor’s Mansion in Topeka, and she could still remember the hush that came over the room as she followed her mother in.  She also knew that neither Ben nor her mother was aware of the effect they had on people around them.

They only had a few days to sort this out, and then she would be jetting back to L.A.  They needed to resolve this or she’d be leaving Jake and Jamie to deal with it by themselves. The only consolation was that Mom wasn’t having to go through this one without them this time.

Chapter 5

The Enemy stays for dinner

The doorbell rang and Ben answered it.  Lila was dressed in black spike heels, tight black skinny jeans, and a black cami under a short black denim jacket.  Her blue-black hair was again pulled into a tight pony tail.

“Who was it?” Lane called from the kitchen.

“It’s Detective Crane,” Ben said aloud while mentally he added, “And she’s early.”  Lila followed Ben as he walked to the kitchen.

Lane had grown up in a rural region of Iowa where having friends or relatives drop by unannounced was almost a daily occurrence.  She was unflappable when it came to unexpected guests, even of the official police variety.  Lane invited Lila to sit at the table.

“Would you like something to drink - soda, iced tea, or water?  I can make coffee if you’d prefer. I’d offer wine, but I imagine that you’d prefer not to drink while you’re working.” Lane picked up Ben’s glass of iced tea from the breakfast bar and moved it to the table.  Lila looked at Ben’s glass.

“Is the tea brewed?”

Ben nodded. “Yeah, this is a raspberry and regular half and half blend that Lane does.”

“I have plain brewed tea if you’d prefer. I don’t put sweetener in my tea,” Lane said as she filled two rocks glasses with ice and poured tea from each pitcher for Lila to sample.

“Please, try both and let me know if you’d like a glass of either.  Don’t be shy about asking for something else if you don’t like them.”  Lane put the glasses in front of Lila then got her own glass before sitting.  “Ben said you had some additional questions.”

Lila took a sip first from one glass then from the second glass making a face after each.

“How about a glass of Coke,” Ben said as he stood and moved toward the cupboard where the glasses were kept.

Lila smiled, thinking it was a good sign that Ben still remembered her preferred non-alcoholic beverage.

Lane watched Lila staring at Ben.  What the hell was going on? She knew that Ben and Lila had dated and that it had been over for three months.  She also knew that Ben had stopped seeing Lila when he and Lane had started dating.  To say that there was something going on between them was an understatement.  The tension was palpable.  Everyone has heard or read about emotions in the air being so thick you could cut them with a knife; Lane was experiencing it.  She just wished she knew what emotion was in the air.