Leopard's Baby

Jennifer Roberts wheeled the stroller into the church yard where the bazaar was being held. With her was Sandra Burnham, the nurse/nanny, and two security guards who stayed close behind her. Several women came over to view Brendan. He’d just been fed and was dropping off to sleep. Jennifer beamed as the women crowded around the stroller. They oohed and aahed over the baby and made comments about how cute he was, how much he looked like his late father, and what a good job Jennifer was doing in raising him. One of the women asked if she could hold him.

“Perhaps it’s better to let him sleep,” Burnham said. “He’s just been fed and…”

“Nonsense, Sandra,” Jennifer broke in. “It’ll do him good to see more people than just you, Curtis, Karla and me. We’ve been keeping him cooped up in the house.”

The woman reached for Brendan. Before she could touch him she was pushed aside by a young girl who appeared to be about eleven or twelve. The girl bent over the stroller and began snapping pictures of the baby while murmuring to him. One of the security guards grasped her by the left arm with his right hand, pulled her upright, and attempted to take the phone away from her with his left hand. She blocked his left hand, freed her arm from his right hand, and punched him in his lower abdomen. He bent over retching, and moaning in pain.

The women, including Jennifer, began to shriek. Brendan started to cry. The second security guard stepped forward, his hand on his gun, and also reached for the girl. Burnham scooped up Brendan and tried to comfort him, but his screams only got louder.

“You going to shoot a pre-teen girl, asswipe?” the girl derisively asked the security man.

A man in a clerical collar trotted over and said, “I’m Father Blaine. What’s all this commotion about?”

Everyone started talking at once. The girl snatched Brendan away from Burnham. He immediately ceased crying, wrapped his arms around her neck, and put his cheek against hers. She rubbed his back and spoke quietly into his ear.

“She’s going to hurt the baby!” Jennifer yelled.

“The hell I am,” the girl said. She pointed at Jennifer and added, “He’s my nephew. That bitch won’t allow any of his mom’s relatives to see him.”

“What do you mean he’s your nephew?” Blaine asked.

“You know his mother, Tammy?” the girl asked as she stepped right next to Blaine. “I’m her sister, Tiffany. I ask you Father. Isn’t it right that his maternal grandmother, his uncle, and me, his aunt, should get a chance to see him?”

“His mother is a dangerous criminal!” Jennifer shouted, waving her arms. “She’s in prison right now. Her family is no better. They’d be a bad influence on him. Look how she assaulted one of my security men. The courts gave me complete control over who may or may not visit my grandson. I don’t want any of those evil people near him!”

“Bullshit!” Tiffany declared. “Your guy attacked me. Who was the only one who could get him to stop crying? It wasn’t his nanny. It certainly wasn’t his grandmother. She’d be afraid to pick him up. He might spit up on her snooty outfit. She probably spent enough on it to feed the poor of this city for a month.”

“Call the police!” Jennifer bellowed, practically apoplectic with rage. “I’ll have her arrested! She’s violating a court order.”

“Now Jennifer, let’s be sensible about this,” Blaine said. “She’s just a young girl. We should be able to reach an accommodation without calling in the authorities. Perhaps if she just handed the baby back to your nanny and left, we could pretend this unfortunate incident never happened.”

Burnham started to reach for Brendan. As soon as she touched him he began to wail. Tiffany darted behind Blaine. Brendan quieted down and clung tighter to Tiffany.

“I have a counterproposal,” Tiffany said.

“Yes?” Blaine asked.

“I think you’re a reasonable man, Father,” Tiffany said. “My sister told me how nice you were to her at her husband’s memorial service. I’ll hold my nephew for ten minutes. I expect he’ll be asleep again by then. I’ll place him in the stroller and leave. In the meantime, you take pictures of us with my phone.”

“Out of the question!” Jennifer proclaimed. “I want the police here! Right now! I want them to arrest this little trollop. And I’ll be speaking with my attorney later today.”

“Jennifer, it probably would take the police close to ten minutes to get here,” Blaine said as he put a hand on Jennifer’s shoulder. “Be reasonable. The police are not going to arrest a young girl for wanting to see her nephew. At worst they’ll give her a stern lecture and drive her home. Show some Christian charity. That’s what Jesus would do.”

Jennifer saw the people around them nodding in agreement at Blaine’s words. She knew she might have pushed her outrage a little too far. Reluctantly, she agreed.

***

Jennifer was still steaming on the ride home. She lashed out at her security men, saying, “A lot of good you were, allowing that little delinquent to grab the baby. What am I paying you for? What would you have done if she ran off with him? How could you let a girl less than half your size get the better of you?”

“She took us by surprise,” one of the men said. “We were trying to stop her without harming her. It wouldn’t look good for you if men in your employ injured a little girl. Especially in front of your priest.”

“The situation is actually worse than you think,” the other security man said. “While you were off campaigning with your husband, the mother’s brother came to your house.”

“Am I surrounded by incompetents?” Jennifer asked in a shrill voice. “Why didn’t you just throw him out? Or have him arrested. These people keep hounding me. They must be stopped! Did he get in to see the baby?”

“He didn’t see the baby. He said he came to visit Karla. He and another girl toured the grounds with her. They never entered the house.”

“I’ll have to speak to my daughter,” Jennifer said as the car came to her home. She made a decision. “Sandra, take Brendan inside. The rest of you come with me. I’m going to see Merritt immediately.”

“What will you do for lunch?” Burnham asked. She gently took Brendan from his car-seat.

“I’ll get something later.”

***

“Look at these neat pictures, Mom,” Tiffany said to Olivia. “When you see Tammy later today you can show them to her.”

“You took an awful chance going there,” Olivia said. She was of two minds as she lingered over pictures of her grandson. She was glad to see them, but worried about her youngest.

“No big deal,” Tiffany replied trying, without much success, to appear nonchalant. “Broad daylight on the grounds of a church. They weren’t going to do anything to me.”

“How did you get there?”

“Candi drove me and waited nearby to bring me home.”

“Listen, Tiff,” Olivia said. She hugged Tiffany. “I appreciate the pictures and I know Tammy will also. But don’t do anything like that again without checking with me first. When it comes to our family that woman is psycho. Eventually we’re going to want to get Brendan back. She’s not going to just give him to us. Your visit will warn her that outside of her house, we can get to the baby. If she increases her security, when we make our move people are more likely to get hurt. Understand?”

“I guess so,” Tiffany said with a pout.

“Also, it’s not good to show the world how strong we are. People will probably think you got in a lucky punch on that guard. At least I hope they think that. But if it happens too often we’ll get unwanted attention. Members of our family have been in the news too much as it is. Being were-leopards gives us capabilities ordinary people don’t have. But it also has burdens and risks. It’s important for us to keep out of the limelight. You’ll probably become one soon. When you do be sure to keep that in mind.”

“I thought I was doing something for Tammy,” Tiffany said as she wiped her eyes. “You said she didn’t look good after your last visit.”

“I will show her the pictures,” Olivia said as she again hugged her younger daughter and kissed the top of her head. “I know she’ll appreciate them. You know, however, we have to keep a low profile. Understand?”

“Yeah, yeah. There’s one other thing you should know about, Mom.”

“What?”

“When I was fighting with their guards I felt a tingling all over my body.”

***

“I’m always glad to see you, Jennifer,” Merritt Covington said as his secretary ushered her into his office. “I was headed out to get some lunch. Would you care to join me?”

“I need to discuss something… private with you,” Jennifer said. “Would you order something in for us?”

Jennifer and Covington gave his secretary their orders. Jennifer waited until the secretary left and closed the door behind her. Then she proceeded to tell him about the incident with Tiffany and the report from her security man about Tyler’s visit with Karla.

“I’m afraid I have some… equally distressing information for you,” Covington said. “I was informed about him calling on Karla. I thought I would be proactive and intimidate the young man into leaving you alone. It didn’t work out. That, unfortunately, is an understatement. At my behest one of my former clients, Sean Higgins, sent men to rough him up. He easily handled the two men who were sent to do the job and forced them to reveal who they were working for. Their boss might lead them to me, and from me to you.”

“Oh my God,” Jennifer said as she put her head down between her hands. “Their entire family, even the little girl, are blessed with unbelievable physical prowess. Why is our lord rewarding them so? What if the little monster had run off with the baby? My guards, two big strong men, seemed like putty in her hands.”

“I doubt they’ll try something like that while the baby’s mother is still in prison. Our plan to get her sentence extended worked if nothing else did. She’ll be there for at least another year.”

“I thank you for that, Merritt,” Jennifer said. She paused as Covington’s secretary delivered their lunch orders. Covington instructed her to set up on a glass-topped table in a corner of his spacious office. When they were once more alone and had started eating, Jennifer asked, “Do you think you could manage to do something like that again?”

“It would be difficult,” Covington said. He put his sandwich down and rubbed his palms together. “However, it’s well known that prison is a dangerous place. The people there are not exactly society’s elite. It may be possible to arrange a more… permanent solution.”

***

Olivia and Tammy hugged. Tammy’s attorney, Justin Dombrosky, sat by himself listening to something or other over earphones.

“You’re looking a little less haggard than you did the last time I saw you,” Olivia said. “Are you getting more acclimated to prison life?”

“I got a job,” Tammy said. “Cleaning up in the kitchen after the evening meal. It’s hard work. Most prisoners won’t do it. I smell like grease after I’ve finished, but I get to eat more. Especially more meat. The regular meal portions tend to be small. I guess they don’t think women eat that much. They’re not used to feeding leopards.”

“I have a surprise for you,” Olivia said. She handed over a stack of photographs she’d printed from the pictures Tiffany had taken. While Tammy slowly went through them, Olivia related the story of Tiffany’s morning adventure.

“I can’t believe how big he’s gotten,” Tammy said with tears in her eyes. “Because of that fucking bitch I’m missing so much of his life. Tell Tiff I said ‘thank you very much.’ I especially like this picture of she and Brendan grinning at each other. My little sister is wonderful, but she’s also reckless. I worry about her. Jennifer is not above sending a cadre of goons to hurt her, possibly even kill her.”

“I worry about that myself. I warned Tiff not to do anything without clearing it with me first, but I’m not sure she’ll listen. She’s close to being ready to change, and she thinks she’s invincible.”

“You could instruct Candi not to take her places.”

“Tiffany would be quite willing to call Uber herself,” Olivia said as she rolled her eyes. “At least Candi could give me a holler should a situation arise. By the way, guess who claims she’s found her soul mate? Megan.”

“Megan?” Tammy said. A rare smile spread across her face. “Really? The girl who has more notches on her belt than any two guys I know? Who’s the lucky man? I hope he can keep up with her. Is he a real Adonis?”

“He’s her lab instructor in one of her courses. Name is Nathan Wolfe. He’s the same height as she is, wiry build, wears thick glasses. Physically well below the type she usually dates, but it makes as much sense as your brother being in love with Candi.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. I know it might be a year away, but I’ve arranged for false identities for you and Brendan, should it come to that. I’m going to leave them with Jeremy. If you walk out of here a free woman there’ll be no problem, but if you have to break out, I’ll be watched closely. He’ll be your best bet. I have some leads on people who might have had a hand in arranging the phony prenup, but we also have to be prepared to just snatch him. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but who knows. Unless we can prove the prenup was forged we’ll never get Jennifer to agree to let you have custody.”

***

“Good work on the last job I had for you, Manny,” Merritt Covington said to Manny Sebaro. They were meeting in the same dingy bar where they’d met previously when Covington had asked his former client to get Tammy’s sentence extended.

“You expected anything else?” Sebaro asked.

“Of course not. That’s why I come to you. You’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Sebaro said and blew a raspberry. “That’s enough small talk, Counselor. Flattering me isn’t going to help. You need something else done or I wouldn’t be looking at your face. What?”

“You cut right to the chase, don’t you?” Covington said. A man approached their booth and Sebaro waved him away.

“I’ve got too many irons in the fire to fuck around,” Sebaro said. He called another man over, whispered in his ear, and sent him away. “Tell me what you want, Covington. If we can agree on a price, it’ll happen.”

“The same girl you did something about last time.”

“What about her? Getting her sentence extended again is not as easy in the prison as it was in the lockup.”

“I’m looking for a more… permanent solution to keep her away from my principal.”

“I take your meaning,” Sebaro said. A smile slowly crept across his face. He named a figure.

Covington blanched and said, “That’s a hell of a lot more than I thought it would be.”

“You’re welcome to take your business elsewhere.”

Just for form’s sake Covington haggled. He didn’t want Sebaro to think he could name any figure and Covington would pay it. On the other hand he didn’t want Sebaro to get pissed and say something like, “Take your job and shove it.” They eventually agreed on Sebaro’s original figure, but with only twenty percent up front.