Chapter 5: The Knock

Stevie leaned out the passenger window.

"Leighton. Do I need to call somebody?"

"No," I said, without looking away from Johnny. "Take her home. I'll be there by midnight."

"I'm sharing my location with you. And with God."

She slid over to the driver's seat and pulled out with my sleeping daughter in the back.

Johnny and I stood in the emptying lot.

"Not here," I said. "Somewhere with no cameras."

"I know a place."

The place was an all-night diner on Division Street with cracked red booths and a waitress who called everyone "hon".

Nobody looked up when a three-time All-Star walked in with a handprint on his face.

We sat across from each other.

"Tell me the morning again," I said. "Every word."

He told me.

The gray suit and the earpiece were the ones I already knew.

"He called me son," Johnny said. "He said it was handled. He had a pin on his lapel. A little silver V. I thought it was the hotel's."

My coffee cup stopped halfway to my mouth.

"A silver V."

"Yeah. Why?"

"Vanderhoff Logistics. Every person on my father's security detail wears one."

He sat back slowly against the red vinyl.

"Your father," he said.

"Somebody on his payroll."

"Your father didn't know me. I was some kid who played for the team his box was in. Why would he care where I slept?"

"He didn't care where you slept," I said. "He cared where I did."

The waitress came back. Johnny ordered two slices of marionberry pie without looking at the menu.

"I'm your nutritionist," I said.

"It's Saturday. You're off the clock."

"I'm never off the clock. I know your iron levels."

"Then you know I need the berries."

I almost laughed. I hated that I almost laughed.

The pie came. He pushed one plate across the table to me with two fingers.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Hockey Star's Forgotten Baby Mama from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.