Sirens Read Online Free

real special that a body can’t find except only in Paris.”
    “What?” I asked, excited, bouncing a little, not understanding what it meant for him to go to Paris then. “What, Teddy?”
    “Oh, it’ll be a big surprise,” Teddy had said, and winked.
    And when he came back only half a year later and handed me the fancy box with the scarf, I still didn’t understand. His hair had become short and stiff, and his back and his eyes had turned stiff, too.
    “Like I promised” was all Teddy said as I opened the box and unfolded the scarf and draped it over my shoulders.
    I stroked it and thanked Teddy, but he turned away and disappeared into his room before I could tell him how happy I was that he was home, how much I had missed him, how many newsecrets I had to share with him, how many new words I’d written during that half year he was gone….
    I never really got Teddy back from that war. Not really. And all I had now was this scarf and the precious things that lay atop it.
    I touched them one by one. The medals in their hinged boxes. One, two, three of them, those medals, all points and hard edges and high-sounding words.
    “Keep these for me, Josie-girl,” Teddy’d said when he left almost a year ago. “I’ve got to go away for a while. Got to lay low.”
    Then he’d asked me to cover for him. That business that still gave me a chill.
    “It should only be for a time,” he’d said. “Then I’ll be back.”
    “Why wouldn’t you be back?” I’d asked. “You will, won’t you?”
    Teddy had chewed his lip, not looking at me. “This is a secret you’ve got to keep. Not tell Ma, not tell Pops. It’s life and death.”
    I began to tremble. “How can I keep this from Ma and Pops?”
    He took both my hands. “You can’t let on to anybody. Not anybody. Especially not Ma and Pops. You’ve got to pretend. Swear it, Jo.”
    I tasted a bitter tang; the misery we would put our parents through was gall. But I swore, and now it was almost a year, and I had to believe that any day now Teddy would come back and everything would be all right again.
    I put the medals back on the scarf and folded it over them and tied the corners into a tight knot and tucked the bundle deep in my suitcase under the books so that even the red poppies disappeared beneath the weight of leather and parchment.
    Yes, Teddy was right. Life can be downright dangerous.

    Pops came into the kitchen while I was eating breakfast. Worry worked at his mouth. “I got a telephone call. It’s best if Jo stays up in her room until I can get her to the train.”
    Ma and I exchanged a quick look. She nodded at me, and I rested my fork on my plate.
    I rose and started to my room, but a slight cough by the front door stopped me. The door was open to let in the spring air, the screen door keeping out the flies. A man stood on the other side of the screen.
    Our eyes met, and he held mine like he was a hypnotist. I’d seen him in the flesh only once before, but I knew who he was. His picture was in the paper often enough. Mr. Daniel Connor. Boss man of the East Side, heir to the throne left vacant when Big Al Capone went to Chicago. Boss of my pops now, too.
    Without turning away, I said, “Pops?”
    Connor’s eyes were gray, the color of steel. He was young for someone with such power, maybe not even thirty. His eyes held mine, and something twisted inside me. I was alone on a steel-gray sea, and he was reeling me in, much against my inclination. He was a devil of a man
    My heart slowed, and then time slowed. His lips formed a small smile that vanished in an instant. I didn’t like him. But he had my attention.
    Pops came in behind me. “Go to your room, Josephine.” As I turned away Danny Connor tipped his hat.
    I left the door of my room ajar and leaned against the wall next to the jamb. Daniel Connor had a soft, pleasant voice for someone built so square. I supposed he didn’t need to use his voice when, from what I’d read in the paper, his