Angel's Hero

Chapter 10

Running a hand through his hair, Conner went into the kitchen where Michelle was just finishing mopping up the mess on the floor.
He heard a loud gasp behind him, before the sound of scurrying footsteps brought the little boy from before in front of him.
"Are you really the Sheriff?" His head was tilted all the way back up to look into Conner's face.
"Yeah, kid. What's your name?" Conner smiled at the blonde child. His face was covered in freckles, and his eyes were as pretty a blue as the two women in his family.
"I'm Jackson. Jack to Granny. My friends call me Jay," He said the names so proudly. "You can call me Jay if you want?"
"I had a friend in the army called Jay," Conner smiled.
"Is he a hero, like you?"
"I don't know about me, kid, but yeah. He was the biggest hero of them all."
Conner caught the wince from Michelle at his use of 'was'.
"Then I'd like to be Jay for you, 'kay?" The little boy smiled at him and then nodded.
Laughing, and completely won over, he held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Jay."
Michelle watched the interaction between the man and boy, and felt a pang of longing. He may not know it, but Jackson was desperate for a father, or at least a father-figure.
He never asked about the man who'd sired him, understanding from a very young age that Owen was not his father in any sense. Owen Scarlett had just helped his Momma find him.
They'd left out the gory details, but knew one day he would come asking, and she and her mother had to be prepared.
"Mister Sheriff, how come you don't think you're a hero?"
"Call me Conner, Jay. I'm just doing my job. I get paid to be Sheriff," Conner was uncomfortable with praise. Always had been.
"But you don't get paid to be a fireman, right?"
"Uh," he hesitated. "No, I don't."
"Cos Momma said that's what vol-un-teer means. You do it 'cos you want to." Jackson rocked back and forth on his heels, his hands clasped at his back, his little big-boy voice sweetening everything he was saying.
"Yeah, I guess, but-"
"And you were carrying Auntie Angie like a princess. And she's, like, big."
"Jackson!" Michelle choked out her son's name. He continued as if he didn't hear her.
"So you must be real strong."
"Yeah, I'm strong. I have to be, to be able to carry princesses of all sizes to safety," Conner smiled broadly to the mother in the kitchen, holding a hand over her mouth, and shaking her head.
"See!" Jackson hopped. "You really are a hero! You just said so. You carry princesses to safety. Momma! I told you! He's a hero!"
The kid zipped to her, threw his arms around her waist and held her tight for a moment, before running back to Conner and throwing his arms around his hips, and ducked his head against Conner's side in an excited hug, bumping his cheek against the badge clipped there.
"Can I see?"
"Sure. Just give it back before I go to work, otherwise no one is going to believe it's me," Conner handed the badge wallet over with a wink, and laughed in delight as the little boy raced around the front room, before disappearing down the hall, where Conner heard a door slam open.
"I'm so sorry about that," Michelle blushed and laughed. Conner smiled at her easily.
"No problem. He's a pretty cool little dude," he looked down the hall.
"So, how's our patient?" Michelle rinsed out the mop before starting to wipe the floor for a second time. There was hardly any residue left. She'd made quick work here.
"Trouble," he sighed before catching himself. She snickered. "Sorry, she's asleep."
"Yeah, best thing for her now. What actually happened?"
"I'm not really sure."
He told her about the accidental phone call, which he would have to confirm with Angel herself when she was of sound mind. Then he told her what he suspected with the birdseed.
"You think someone deliberately covered her garden and porch with birdseed? Why would anyone do that? That's so strange."
"No clue," he scratched his chin, thinking. "You know, someone smashed out the tail lights on her Jeep last weekend, right?"
Michelle nodded. She remembered the story of their meeting, and how Angel had acted that night when talking about him.
"Does anyone have a reason to cause harm to Angel?"
"Harm?" Michelle looked shocked. "How do broken lights on her car, and bird poop on her house mean harm?"
"They don't, it's what's next that concerns me," Conner said grimly. "Could Angel have a stalker?"
"A stalker? Oh my god, do you really think so?"
"I don't want to jump to conclusions," he took out his notepad and scribbled his thoughts down. "I also don't want to be caught unaware if there is indeed a threat."
"Threat. Right," Michelle looked towards the hallway where Jackson had gone to play in the spare room. Fear played over her face.
"I don't want you to worry, I'll be keeping a close eye on her from now on," He smiled.
A real close eye.
Shit.
Was he ready for this? You didn't just have a casual romance with someone who'd kept their virtue this long.
Maybe she'd just never trusted anyone before?
Maybe she had scared off previous potential lovers with her virginal status?
Maybe she didn't like men?
Yeah, right. Maybe he knew absolutely nothing.
"Will you be around tomorrow for me to swing by and ask her some questions?"
"Sure. I'll be taking Jackson to school in the morning, but should be back by eight thirty. I don't have a shoot planned until tomorrow at sunset."
"Ah, yes. You're a photographer," he leant back against the counter in the center of the room. He should head out in the next five, but he could hear the kid fake-arresting criminals, and didn't want to have to halt the fun by taking his badge back.
"Stop! In the name of the law!" Sound effects followed.
"Sounds like Sylvester Stallone in there," Conner hitched a thumb towards the noise.
"Oh, yeah. Huge fan of Rocky and Judge Dredd," she smiled.
"Really? The kids got good taste. Stallone is my favorite." He smiled, mighty pleased with that fact. "You taught him well."
"Not me, sorry," she was done with the cleaning, and lifted the bucket to empty the dirty water into the sink. "That's all Angel. She's an action hero movie buff."
Hmm, another point in her favor.
Someone to watch good ol' action flick's with.
Although, if he got her into a dark room, he doubted he'd be able to focus on the screen.
"What makes her such an expert?" Conner was suddenly very interested in the chance at watching a movie with the ever-surprising woman asleep upstairs.
Sighing, Michelle turned to him and studied him intently; silent for a solid ten seconds as she scrutinized his face. He raised his eyebrows in question.
She nodded. "Follow me."
Suspicious, but more than a little curious, he trailed after the woman down the hall to where her son was playing.
"You chasing after Rico, kid?" Jackson laughed and flashed Conner's badge back at him. "'I am the law!'" He tried the lip curl Stallone was known for before zooming out of the room and crashed to the floor in a fake explosion.
"Man, he's got a wicked imagination."
Conner stopped in his tracks as he looked up. His mouth fell open.
Every surface, and every inch of exposed wall was covered in framed movie posters.
He stepped closer to the wider wall opposite him, and let his eyes travel over the collection.
"Whoa! Impressive! Wait-" He peered closer at the nearest poster, and stepped back with wide eyes. "These are all signed by the stars! That's amazing. What is she, some sort of groupie?" He teased.
"Nope," Michelle waited.
"Hey!" he pointed to one he recognized. "They filmed this one in my hometown. My dad was Sheriff of Ely, Nevada at the time and he'd been able to get me on the set to meet the actors. I remember her," he pointed to the star on the poster. "Cassy Cole. I think I'd been about Jackson's age and she blew me a kiss. I was a goner," he laughed at the memory.
The movie had been a huge hit, as were most of Cassy Cole's films. They were a franchise, a series of movies based around the character Susannah Danger, Cassy's role.
She was a Wild West cowgirl who'd kicked some serious butt as a bounty hunter.
Conner looked at other posters, and saw they were all Cassy Cole's films. Only a few were of other action films from the nineties that he recognized. Some, which he didn't know, had Cassy front and center in cheesy and poorly drawn images for what were obviously cult horror flicks. Must have been her earlier work.
"Why does Angel have these?" something niggled at the back of his throat. He felt something in the air.
Conner stepped closer to one of the actress's latest works, and something on her face triggered his senses. Something around the eyes.
"She's Angel's mom," Michelle watched for his reaction. His head whipped around to look down at her, is eyes wide.
"Angel is Cassy Cole's kid?" He was shocked. He hadn't expected that.
But hang on...
"Angel said her mom died in a fire last year."
"She told you? Yeah. It broke her." Michelle sighed, looking back at the wall of her friend's tribute to her lost mother. "It was an accident. Gas main or something."
"But I was in Miami last year on a brief break from Afghanistan."
He visibly winced, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. Too late he realized what he'd said, and Michelle's eyes widened, speculatively. "You were over there? I thought you were based State side?"
He nodded. "Yeah I don't spread it around. People tend to want to hear gory details about us blowing up terrorists. I don't like to talk about it."
Michelle nodded. "My folks were in Iraq when they met. Mom is a pretty good ear should you ever want to chat."
Tiny Sienna Winters' was a soldier? He couldn't picture it.
"You said you were in Miami last year?" Michelle prompted.
"Yeah, sorry. I was there on break. I liked to move around when back this side and being a fireman kept me busy, and fit. I heard about the fire that had killed the actress. It was ruled as arson, not accidental."
"Arson?" The blood drained from Michelle's face. "Doesn't that mean that the fire was started deliberately?"
Conner nodded.
"Angel's mom was murdered?"
Another nod.
"Oh," she whispered. "No."

*

Out in the hallway, Jackson stared down at the shiny badge in his hands.
He wanted to be a hero like the Sheriff.
Man, he couldn't wait to grow up big like the Sheriff and be strong like him so that he could fight all the monsters in the world.
The hallway in front of him changed, morphing in his young mind, fuelled by his imagination, to one of a battlefield where he had to leap from the walls and over obstacles to chase down the bad guy.
Running as fast as he could inside, he zoomed into the front room, and leapt onto the sofa, and tumbled.
He fell over the side and caught his elbow on the coffee table shooting that weird pain up his arm.
Opening his mouth wide in a silent scream, Jackson tried to not make a noise.
He wasn't a baby anymore, and only babies needed hugs and kisses from their Momma's.
Sitting up slowly, he went to the window to look out at the Sheriff's car, still rubbing his elbow softly. He wanted to go for a drive in it.
His stomach dropped.
Was his imagination still going?
Was that the bad guy he chased in his dreams standing in the shadows?
He heard his Momma and the Sheriff coming down the hallway, and turned his head to look at them walking into the light of the kitchen, both looking sad.
Jackson frowned.
What's wrong with his Momma?
He turned back to look at the car outside, and, relieved that it was only the three cars out there, he went back to get the badge.
He would have his own one day.
One day.