Bad Habit by JD Faver Page A

up at the sky. It was somewhat lighter and long fingers of
pink were just beginning to reach across the horizon.
    “ Ain’t that the damned truth?” He
dug a slightly wrinkled card from his pocket and handed it to
Angel. “I’m gonna check out your story and you better not be
holdin’ nothin’ back.”
    Angel made his way back to his car
and called Sister Clement on his cell. He told her what had
happened and that the local police might check to see if she had
seen anything. He asked her to be careful and suggested that the
nuns make the trek to and from the convent as a group and not to go
anywhere alone.
    “ Ooh, Detective Garcia. Do you think
we’re in any danger?”
    “ I couldn’t say, Sister but I think
it’s good to be cautious.”
    “ Do you think we should stay at the
convent for a few days? There’s plenty of room for the three of
us.”
    “ That would be a great idea, Sister
Clem.” Angel grinned as he spoke. “I’d hate to have something
happen to any of you.”
    He drove back to his parent’s house
making a detour to a bakery with a drive-through window. He picked
up fresh doughnuts and kolaches still warm from the oven. When he
entered through the back door, his mother was pouring a second cup
of coffee for his father.
    His parents turned to look at him with the same
expression they had given him when he was a teenager coming in
late.
    “ What?” he asked with a
grin.
    “ You’re up early,” Arturo
commented.
    “ I thought I’d pick up fresh
kolaches.” He set the boxes on the kitchen table.
    “ How thoughtful, Mijo,” Isabel said.
“And what else did you think you would do?”
    “ What do you mean?” he
asked.
    “ Don’t even play the innocent with
us.” Arturo folded the section of the newspaper he’d been
reading.
    “ What’s going on?” Isabel motioned
Angel to a chair and seated herself between her husband and oldest
son.
    “ I’m working, Mom,” he
said.
    “ Like I said before, what else?”
Isabel gave him a look that all mothers know how to deliver and
police interrogators would do well to learn.
    “ I told you, I came down here on a
case and I had to follow up on something. I can’t tell you more
than that.”
    “ And Teri? How is she involved in
your case?” Isabel spoke with quiet authority.
    “ I can’t discuss it with you.” He
tried giving them his stone wall face.
    “ But you can tell us whether you’ve
brought a felon into our home.” Arturo’s words earned him a little
slap on his arm from Isabel.
    “ No, no. We don’t think she’s a
criminal,” Isabel said. “It’s just that you work in homicide now
and we worry about you. We don’t think you would fall in love with
a bad person.”
    Angel grinned and snagged a doughnut. “And who said
I’m in love with her?”
    Isabel made a scornful noise in the
back of her throat. “Your face,” she said. “It’s written all
over.”
    “ Don’t you like her?” Angel gave
his mother a searching gaze.
    “ Of course I do! She’s perfect for
you and she’s Catholic. Her sister is a nun.”
    “ And you, Pop? What do you
think?”
    “ I think it’s about time you found
someone. You need to settle down and get married.”
    “ Yes, and make babies,” Isabel
said. “Your children will be beautiful. I want lots and lots of
beautiful grandbabies.”
    Angel rose from the table. “Well,
that’s settled then.” He headed up the stairs to grab a shower
before the others woke up. “I just have to tell her,” he said under
his breath.
    #
    Teri experienced a moment of
confusion when she awoke. She was in a child’s room with well-used
baseball equipment stacked in the corner. She stretched and smiled,
remembering where she was.
    Angel’s bed.
    She stared at the vintage Metallica
poster affixed to the ceiling. A stack of dog-eared baseball cards
sat on the bedside table under a lamp with more baseball cards
stuck in the shade. She was sensing a theme.
    A small desk by the tall casement
window