The Mighty Quinns: Devin

“Yeah, after work. You might want to stop by and calm them down.”

“I’ll do that,” Dev said. He held out his credit card and signed the slip before scooping up the pair of grocery bags. “Thanks, Eddie. You’re a good guy.”

“I remember Elodie,” he said. “She used to come in here and buy candy when she was a kid. She was always really sweet.”

“She still is,” Dev said.

When he got to the cruiser, Dev threw the groceries in the back, then grabbed his radio. “Car zero-one to dispatch.”

“Dispatch,” Sally said. “What can I do for you, Chief?”

“Get Kyle on the radio and have him drive over to the Winchester mansion. There’s talk of some trouble. Have him sit on the place until I get there.”

“Ten-four,” Sally said.

He listened as she made the call, then pulled the cruiser out into traffic. By the time he reached Zelda’s, Jimmy Joe was waiting for him, his purchases scattered on the sidewalk in front of him.

Dev jumped out of the car and jogged across the street. “Nice work,” he said.

“What is all this stuff?”

“Grab the bucket and take it inside to Joanie,” Dev said. “Have her fill it with warm water.”

While he waited for Jimmy Joe, he gave Kyle a call. The officer reported that all was quiet at the Winchester mansion. When Jimmy reappeared, Dev sat him down on a bench. “You’ve got a choice here, James. You owe Feller for those tires and whatever else you took home that night. Now, if you aren’t interested in restitution, I can run you in right now and you’ll have the very first entry on your juvenile record at age sixteen. But if you want to take a different path, I can help you. What’s it going to be?”

The boy thought about the question for a long time, much longer than necessary as far as Dev was concerned. “I—I guess I want to do the right thing.”

“Jobs are hard to come by in this town, so you are now our newest entrepreneur.”

“Yeah?”

“You have a window-washing business.” As he described the steps to washing the huge plate-glass windows of the café, Dev pulled out the scrub brush and then the squeegee, demonstrating how to get the glass to shine in the sunlight.

Dev stood back and watched as Jimmy Joe took care of the other side. The boy quickly corrected his mistakes, and after another squeegee the glass was streak free.

“Done,” Jimmy Joe said.

“Not yet. Now you go inside and you tell Joanie to come out here and look at her window. If she likes the job, ask if she’d pay you for the job.”

“How much?”

“What do you think it’s worth?”

Dev could see the wheels turning in the kid’s head. He stared down the street. “I could wash all these windows. Even the buildings that are closed. It would make them look much better. Ten dollars.”

“Why don’t you do the first job for five and if she asks you back, you’ll charge her ten a week.”

“Every week? That’s forty dollars a month.”

“The car dealership has a lot more windows. You could charge them twenty.”

Dev left Jimmy Joe in front of Zelda’s, adding up his potential profits as he gathered up his new equipment. If Dev was right about the kid, his investment in equipment would pay off in the end. “One at a time,” he murmured to himself as he headed over to the Winchester place.

As he drove onto Wisteria Street, Dev noticed the cluster of cars parked in front of the mansion. Cursing beneath his breath, he hit the lights and the siren and raced up the street, coming to a stop in front of the mansion.

A crowd of men was gathered outside the front gate. Thankfully, someone in the group understood the meaning of “trespassing.” They were shouting at the house, and he saw Elodie and his mother standing on the porch, watching the scene unfold nervously.

He found Kyle in the midst of the small gathering, arguing with a slightly inebriated Jeb Baylor. Dev stepped though the group and nodded at his junior officer. “I told you to call me if there was trouble.”

“I thought I could handle it. They’ve had a few beers and are just letting off a little steam.”

“All right,” Dev said. “Everyone just settle down. Who here is carrying a gun?” Two of the men raised their hands.

“We have permits,” one of the men said.

“That’s fine. Kyle, take the two of them over to the car and check those permits for me. As for the rest of you, I know you’re upset and these wounds run real deep. But Elodie Winchester can’t help you.”

“She and her family walked away with all the cash. They owe us something.”

“You got something. You settled your pension case in court three years ago. It’s over.”

“It’s not over,” Jeb said. “We want answers.”

“Well, Jeb, why don’t you write down your questions and I’ll see if Miss Elodie would be interested in answering them in a more civilized setting. Take the boys here and sit down. Put everything on paper and I’ll talk to her. She says she’s going to be here for at least a week.”

That seemed to pacify the crowd and they gradually dispersed. Kyle walked over, an apologetic look on his face. “Sorry, boss.”

“Two of those guys had guns and they were all drinking. It could have gone bad real quick. Your first duty was to call for backup.”

“It won’t happen again,” he said.

“No, it won’t. Now I’m going to ask you to take my mother home. Stop by the grocery store if she needs to pick up something for dinner.”

Dev grabbed his own grocery bags from the back of the cruiser, then strode up the front walk.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” his mother said. “Those men were very angry.”

“Mom, Kyle is going to take you home.”

“But I have more work to do,” she said.

“No,” Elodie said. “You’ve been wonderful, but Dev is right. It’s time to go home.”

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Mary said.

Elodie glanced over at Dev, and he gave her a shrug. “Come at ten,” she said. “No earlier.”

“Good,” Mary said. “That will give me a chance to shop for supplies.”