Bogie McGruder returns to Boston after his brother, a cop, is gunned down on the
street. Since the Boston police are investigating the death of one of their own,
Bogie believes his trip will be a short condolence visit and a chance to meet
his secret love child.
Although Bogie wants to contact his ex-lover, Bailey
Hampfield, he’s reluctant to do so since Bailey dumped him four years earlier.
Knowing that Bailey had his child after she cut him loose, Bogie thinks it’s
time to establish a relationship with the three year old daughter he’s never
met. While he considers his options, Bailey gets in touch with him and asks for
protection. Someone is trying to kill her. Bogie doesn’t want to get involved in the BPD investigation into his brother’s death, but he continues to be drawn into it while trying to discover who is attempting to kill Bailey Hampfield. The investigations seem to parallel each other, then intersect and become intertwined. As the story develops, Isabella, a precocious child obsessed with martial arts, slowly becomes the focus.
The underlying theme of this fast-paced mystery is lies. Everyone seems to be running on lies and half truths. The only true character is The Girl in White Pajamas.
Chris Birdy was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, she did a four year stint in the Middle East. When she returned to the States, Chris settled down in the Boston area and became a true Bostonian by collecting college degrees while raising a family. For more than twenty years, Chris has been a member of the legal community performing investigative work for Boston law firms. Chris lives outside of Boston and in Palm Beach, Florida with her husband.
Two small figures sat on a couch in a house eleven miles outside of Boston. The
tiny Cambodian woman wiped a tear off her cheek with a shaky hand. The little girl with
a mass of red curls took the woman’s other hand. “Don’t be scared, Kim! I’ll protect
you. You’ll feel better tomorrow. Remember when Fluffy was hanging from the tree?”
The child lifted her right arm in the air and dropped her tongue out of the side of her
mouth to illustrate her point.
Kim nodded.
Isabella continued, “You told me I’d feel better tomorrow, and I did. I was still
sad but not so scared.”
They sat in silence staring at a TV screen. The small woman grabbed the little
redhead’s hand again as The Bride used her sword to slice off the arm of O-Ren’s lawyer.
Blood gushed from the gaping hole, and The Bride moved on to slay and maim the Crazy
Eighty-Eight Army. “This is Lucy Liu,” Kim said softly.
The child nodded as they watched their favorite part:
The Bride confronts O-Ren and O-Ren says ‘Silly rabbit.’
The Bride answers, ‘Trix are for—’
O-Ren finishes, ‘kids’.
20
Isabella giggled and Kim smiled. Then they watched the screen mesmerized as
the warriors had a fight to the death.
No one paid attention to a vehicle that stopped in front of their house on this
isolated road. As the car slowly drove away, the woman and little girl sat transfixed on
the couch surrounded by moving crates and boxes with a large bag of potato chips, a tub
of French onion dip and two juice boxes sitting between them–the breakfast of
champions.
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