Blue Dahlia

open the door herself to see Luke, rosy with rage, his fists bunched at his side. “What’s the matter?”
    “He’s looking at me.”
    “Oh, Luke.”
    “With the face, Mom. With ... the ... face. ”
    She knew the face well. It was the squinty-eyed, smirky sneer that Gavin had designed to torment his brother. She knew damn well he practiced it in the mirror.
    “Just don’t look back at him.”
    “Then he makes the noise.”
    The noise was a hissing puff, which Gavin could keep up for hours if called for. Stella was certain that even the most hardened CIA agent would crack under its brutal power.
    “All right.” How the hell was she supposed to gear herself up for sex when she had to referee? She swung out of the bath, through the boys’ room and into the sitting room across the hall, where she’d hoped her sons could spend the twenty minutes it took her to get dressed companion-ably watching cartoons.
    Foolish woman, she thought. Foolish, foolish woman.
    Gavin looked up from his sprawl on the floor when she came in. His face was the picture of innocence under his mop of sunny hair.
    Haircuts next week, she decided, and noted it in her mental files.
    He held a Matchbox car and was absently spinning its wheels while cartoons rampaged on the screen. There were several other cars piled up, lying on their sides or backs as if there’d been a horrendous traffic accident. Unfortunately the miniature ambulance and police car appeared to have had a nasty head-on collision.
    Help was not on the way.
    “Mom, your face looks crooked.”
    “Yes, I know. Gavin, I want you to stop it.”
    “I’m not doing anything.”
    She felt, actually felt, the sharp edges of the shrill scream razor up her throat. Choke it back, she ordered herself. Choke it back. She would not scream at her kids the way her mother had screamed at her.
    “Maybe you’d like to not do anything in your room, alone, for the rest of the evening.”
    “I wasn’t—”
    “Gavin!” She cut off the denial before it dragged that scream out of her throat. Instead her voice was full of weight and aggravation. “Don’t look at your brother. Don’t hiss at your brother. You know it annoys him, which is exactly why you do it, and I want you to stop.”
    Innocence turned into a scowl as Gavin rammed the last car into the tangle of disabled vehicles. “How come I always get in trouble?”
    “Yes, how come?” Stella shot back, with equal exasperation.
    “He’s just being a baby.”
    “I’m not a baby. You’re a dickhead.”
    “Luke!” Torn between laughter and shock, Stella rounded on Luke. “Where did you hear that word?”
    “Somewhere. Is it a swear?”
    “Yes, and I don’t want you to say it again.” Even when it’s apt, she thought as she caught Gavin making the face.
    “Gavin, I can cancel my plans for this evening. Would you like me to do that, and stay home?” She spoke in calm, almost sweet tones. “We can spend your play hour cleaning your room.”
    “No.” Outgunned, he poked at the pileup. “I won’t look at him anymore.”
    “Then if it’s all right with you, I’ll go finish getting ready.”
    She heard Luke whisper, “What’s a dickhead?” to Gavin as she walked out. Rolling her eyes to the ceiling, she kept going.
     
    “THEY’RE AT EACH OTHER TONIGHT,” STELLA WARNED Roz.
    “Wouldn’t be brothers if they weren’t at each other now and then.” She looked over to where the boys, the dog, and Hayley romped in the yard. “They seem all right now.”
    “It’s brewing, under the surface, like a volcano. One of them’s just waiting for the right moment to spew over the other.”
    “We’ll see if we can distract them. If not, and they get out of hand, I’ll just chain them in separate corners until you get back. I kept the shackles I used on my boys. Sentimental.”
    Stella laughed, and felt completely reassured. “Okay. But you’ll call me if they decide to be horrible brats. I’ll be home in time to put them to bed.”
    “Go, enjoy yourself. And if you’re not back, we can manage it.”
    “You make it too easy,” Stella told her.
    “No need for it to be hard. You know how to get there now?”
    “Yes. That’s the easy part.”
    She got in her car, gave a little toot of the horn and a wave. They’d be fine, she thought, watching in the rearview as her boys tumbled onto the ground with Parker. She couldn’t have driven away if she wasn’t sure of that.
    It was tougher to be sure she’d be