good mimic, catching the young woman’s not quite suppressed
o
sounds, the mechanical flatness of her voice.
“He wants me to work for him.”
“Really?” Lloyd’s eyes lit up. It was, quite possibly, the only time that Tess had ever managed to impress Lloyd, who was consistently underwhelmed by the mundaneness of her life as a private investigator. That, and the fact that she didn’t know tae kwon do, or how to use nunchakus.
“Yeah, but it’s not my sort of gig, Lloyd. More security than investigation or paper trails, and I’m a one-woman agency. I simply don’t have the personnel.”
“But you would be working on a
movie
. A movie made by the son of Philip Tumulty, the guy who made
The Beast
.”
Given his youth, Lloyd had no use for the gentle, nostalgic — and, truth be told, very, very white — comedies made by Tumulty senior. Tess wondered how Tumulty would feel to learn that there were, in fact, some Baltimoreans who preferred the special effects epics that had made him rich while destroying his artistic cred.
“I wouldn’t be working on the movie, Lloyd. I’d be babysitting a spoiled actress.”
“Still…” He groaned in frustration at her stupidity, her obtuseness at rejecting this golden ticket into a rarefied world.
“Lloyd, buddy, why don’t you get a head start on the dishes?” Crow asked. Lloyd slumped back in a sullen teen pout, and Crow added: “You
promised
. I said you could bunk here tonight, and you said you would clean up the kitchen. Remember?”
“He has his own apartment,” Tess said, waiting until Lloyd was in the kitchen and out of earshot, where odds were that one in ten pieces of crockery wouldn’t make it out alive. “You went to a lot of trouble to set him up, get him to establish some independence, but he seems to be here more and more.”
“He
had
his own apartment,” Crow said. “That didn’t work out so well.”
“Don’t tell me…”
In the six months since Lloyd Jupiter had invaded their lives — and Tess could not help thinking of it as a criminal act, given that it had begun with a series of misdemeanors and felonies — Crow had done everything he could to help the teenager stand on his own two feet, but it was proving far more difficult than even Tess had anticipated.
“He started letting some old friends flop there. Drugs followed, although I’m pretty sure that Lloyd’s not using. He’s content with smoking a blunt now and then, and I’m not a big enough hypocrite to lecture him on that. But when the landlord got wind of what was happening, he evicted him.”
“You can’t evict someone just because you suspect illegal activity.”
“You can if your tenant is an inexperienced seventeen-year-old who doesn’t know his rights. Anyway, Lloyd tried going back to his mom’s. That lasted all of a week.”
“His stepfather?”
“Yeah, there’s no bridging that gap. Lloyd called me today, asked for bus fare, thought he could go back to the Delaware shore and stay with the friends he made there over the summer. But there’s not enough work to keep him busy off-season, and an idle Lloyd is a dangerous Lloyd, at least to himself.”
“So he’s staying with us — and you’re heading out of town tomorrow to scout polka bands. Wow, I just gave birth to a seventeen-year-old and I didn’t even know I was knocked up.”
“It’s only temporary. And you know money’s not the issue.” Lloyd did have a small trust, controlled by Crow, who doled out living expenses while trying to goad him into getting ready for college. “Finding a way to fill his days is. He’s
bored,
Tess. As long as he’s bored, he’s going to be in trouble.”
The phone rang. “Ten-thirty,” Crow said. “You could set your watch by this woman.”
“I’ll tell her no tomorrow,” Tess said. “I don’t have the energy to talk to her tonight.”
“You know, if you said yes — well, it’s my understanding that a film crew is kind of elastic.
o
sounds, the mechanical flatness of her voice.
“He wants me to work for him.”
“Really?” Lloyd’s eyes lit up. It was, quite possibly, the only time that Tess had ever managed to impress Lloyd, who was consistently underwhelmed by the mundaneness of her life as a private investigator. That, and the fact that she didn’t know tae kwon do, or how to use nunchakus.
“Yeah, but it’s not my sort of gig, Lloyd. More security than investigation or paper trails, and I’m a one-woman agency. I simply don’t have the personnel.”
“But you would be working on a
movie
. A movie made by the son of Philip Tumulty, the guy who made
The Beast
.”
Given his youth, Lloyd had no use for the gentle, nostalgic — and, truth be told, very, very white — comedies made by Tumulty senior. Tess wondered how Tumulty would feel to learn that there were, in fact, some Baltimoreans who preferred the special effects epics that had made him rich while destroying his artistic cred.
“I wouldn’t be working on the movie, Lloyd. I’d be babysitting a spoiled actress.”
“Still…” He groaned in frustration at her stupidity, her obtuseness at rejecting this golden ticket into a rarefied world.
“Lloyd, buddy, why don’t you get a head start on the dishes?” Crow asked. Lloyd slumped back in a sullen teen pout, and Crow added: “You
promised
. I said you could bunk here tonight, and you said you would clean up the kitchen. Remember?”
“He has his own apartment,” Tess said, waiting until Lloyd was in the kitchen and out of earshot, where odds were that one in ten pieces of crockery wouldn’t make it out alive. “You went to a lot of trouble to set him up, get him to establish some independence, but he seems to be here more and more.”
“He
had
his own apartment,” Crow said. “That didn’t work out so well.”
“Don’t tell me…”
In the six months since Lloyd Jupiter had invaded their lives — and Tess could not help thinking of it as a criminal act, given that it had begun with a series of misdemeanors and felonies — Crow had done everything he could to help the teenager stand on his own two feet, but it was proving far more difficult than even Tess had anticipated.
“He started letting some old friends flop there. Drugs followed, although I’m pretty sure that Lloyd’s not using. He’s content with smoking a blunt now and then, and I’m not a big enough hypocrite to lecture him on that. But when the landlord got wind of what was happening, he evicted him.”
“You can’t evict someone just because you suspect illegal activity.”
“You can if your tenant is an inexperienced seventeen-year-old who doesn’t know his rights. Anyway, Lloyd tried going back to his mom’s. That lasted all of a week.”
“His stepfather?”
“Yeah, there’s no bridging that gap. Lloyd called me today, asked for bus fare, thought he could go back to the Delaware shore and stay with the friends he made there over the summer. But there’s not enough work to keep him busy off-season, and an idle Lloyd is a dangerous Lloyd, at least to himself.”
“So he’s staying with us — and you’re heading out of town tomorrow to scout polka bands. Wow, I just gave birth to a seventeen-year-old and I didn’t even know I was knocked up.”
“It’s only temporary. And you know money’s not the issue.” Lloyd did have a small trust, controlled by Crow, who doled out living expenses while trying to goad him into getting ready for college. “Finding a way to fill his days is. He’s
bored,
Tess. As long as he’s bored, he’s going to be in trouble.”
The phone rang. “Ten-thirty,” Crow said. “You could set your watch by this woman.”
“I’ll tell her no tomorrow,” Tess said. “I don’t have the energy to talk to her tonight.”
“You know, if you said yes — well, it’s my understanding that a film crew is kind of elastic.
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