A Cold Day in Hell (7 page)

At that moment, Dr. Mitch Halpern ran up. “Had to park at the side,” he said. “You guys have about filled this place. Hi, Emma. How are you feeling?”

“Great,” she said, wanting only to get into Finn’s car and leave. She could see that Mitch was, as usual, in a track suit and exuding health.

He unzipped his bag and tugged out a stethoscope. “Kneel behind her so she can lean on you and relax,” Mitch said to Finn, hitching the blankets more tightly around her. He listened to her heart and lungs, smiling directly into her eyes as he did so. “Ready to run a marathon,” he said.

Mitch moved on to her belly and Emma held her breath.

“Breathe,” Mitch said, laughing. “We don’t want you to pass out. Junior sounds as good as Mom. Good. I would like you to go over to the clinic so I can take a better look, though, Emma. Best go by aid car.”

“There’s something wrong,” Emma said. “Isn’t there?”

Mitch shook his head emphatically. “If I was worried, I’d say so. I believe in caution.”

“I’ll come with you, cher,” Finn said. “There’s nothing to worry about. This is my baby, too, and I want to know both of you are perfect.”

“Sir! Chief Boudreaux!” Officer Sampson, who had put on a few pounds since his recent marriage, puffed toward the group. “Could I have a word, please?”

“If you’ve got something to say that’s to do with us, we’ll hear it if you don’t mind,” Finn said.

Emma leaned harder against him and reached up to hold one of his hands.

“Sir?” Sampson said to Matt.

“Okay, it can’t be that big a deal,” Matt said. “Shoot.”

Sampson shuffled forward and held out a hand. “This was on a chair in Out Back, sir. And this was on the floor.”

Emma couldn’t see what they were talking about.

“So?” Matt said.

“Mrs. Forestier says these are Mrs. Duhon’s purse and notebook. We can’t find any pieces of yellow paper out here.”

A
t Aaron’s house, Sonny asked, “How long d’you think they’ll be gone?” He propped himself beside Aaron on his bed and they watched the back lights on Eileen’s van bob up the driveway. She had dropped the two of them off after they got back from Chuzah’s. Now she was driving Angel back to his place.

“What is it?” Aaron said. “About twenty minutes each way?”

Sonny slanted a glance at him. “If your mom goes straight there and straight back.”

“She wouldn’t be running errands at this time of night.”

“Nope,” Sonny said. “Too bad he chose today to run to work.”

Aaron swallowed from a can of Coke. He followed this up with a handful of jelly beans.

Maybe it wasn’t easy to talk about your mother, Sonny thought. He tried not to think about his, but that was easy.

“D’you know how to use that gun Angel gave you?” Aaron asked.

Sonny sat up straighter. “He wouldn’t have given it to me if I didn’t. I grew up around guns. Makes sense to make sure I can look after us, especially now—unless we want Angel glued to us 24/7.”

“Will you teach me?”

They were from different planets. Sonny crossed his arms and took a deep breath. “Angel’s the one to do that. We’ll ask him.”

“Then my mom will find out.”

Different solar systems.
Sonny drew up his shoulders. “I dunno, then. I guess…”

“Drop it. But, thanks. Maybe I’ll talk to Mom about it, just feel her out.”

“
She
has a gun.”

“Yeah,” Aaron said.

Sonny figured it really was time to drop the subject. “Didn’t Eileen ever date before?”

It was a long time before Aaron said, “She was married to my dad.”

“Like how many years ago?” Sonny said.

“A couple of years.” Aaron tipped back his head and poured more jelly beans into his mouth, lifting his hand higher and higher but never dropping a bean. He coughed. “She went out with Matt Boudreaux last year, but they were just friends.”

Sonny felt guilty—just a little guilty. He’d known about Matt from something Angel had said. Angel didn’t like Matt Boudreaux.

“Off topic,” he said. “How close are you and Sally? She’s hot.” He needed to change the subject again and girls were close to his heart—and other things.

Aaron treated him to a slit-eyed stare. “None of your business.”

“Okay, but those eyes aren’t all she’s got that’s big. She’s got—”

“Cut it out.”

Sonny sighed loudly. “I think I’m getting through to Miranda. It’s about time she figured out I’m the best thing likely to happen to her in this hick town.”

“Yeah?”

He liked Aaron a lot, but talking to him took a lot of effort. “I’m thinking about a double date.”

“Keep on thinkin’,” Aaron said. “Those two aren’t panting to go out with us.”

“Well, I’m panting. I’m in pain…you’re, well, we’ll work it out.”

Aaron looked like his mind had moved on. Time to get back to the Angel-Eileen question. Sonny thought it would be good for Angel to have someone else to fill up a lot of his time. The guy was decent, but he cramped Sonny’s style.

Sonny slid down flat and watched the muted television flicker colors on the ceiling. “My mom dated.”

“Yeah?” Aaron stopped chewing for a second, then carried on. “How long after your dad was dead?”

“He wasn’t.”

Aaron choked on his jelly beans. “Sorry.”

“S’okay. They’re both dead now.” Now what had made him spill his guts to Aaron? True, he’d never had a good friend before, but he knew better than to get loose lips. Angel would kill him if he found out. “Aaron?”

“Yeah?”

“In my family we don’t talk about personal stuff. I’d get in trouble for that. You understand?”

Aaron landed a floppy punch on Sonny’s chest. “What you tell me stops here.”

“Same for me,” Sonny said.

They both fell silent.

It would be good to be able to talk about stuff, Sonny thought. What was going on was hard. Angel was the best but he had his own crap to deal with.

He’d waited long enough to ask the big question. “Hey, I don’t want to pry, but you were majorly bleeding when Chuzah picked you up out of that swamp.” He twisted up his face. Swamps would never be big with him.

“Was I?” Aaron turned his head away, looking for another subject to distract Sonny. “I got to get rid of all the kids’ books in those shelves. Mom won’t let me toss ’em, but I can box ’em up.”

Later he’d go back to what happened out there. He wasn’t ready to talk about it.

“I’ll help you with the books,” Sonny said.

“Thanks.”

“I just about live over here. Your mom must get sick of it.”

Aaron looked back at him. “My mom likes you, even if you are an asshole around her most of the time. She doesn’t give up on people.”

“She will,” Sonny said and felt mad because he sounded like he felt sorry for himself. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t loosen up with Eileen—except she was a woman. “Was your mom always on her own, before Angel came along? Except for when she was seeing the cop, I mean.”

“She worked at the shop. Same as always. And she had me and some girlfriends. She and Matt still get along.”

“No other men?”

“No.” Aaron sat up straighter. “You keep pushing about that. She’s never been the kind to look for men.”

“She’s pretty.”

“Yeah.”

“I can tell Angel thinks so, too. You’ve seen the way he looks at her?” Sonny was really warming up to the idea of Angel and Eileen being more than just friends because their boys hung out together.

“My mom’s quiet,” Aaron said. “I don’t think…Angel’s big and tough.”

“He’s not tough with her. I think he wants to be real soft and gentle with her.”

“What are you sayin’?”

He shouldn’t have mentioned this, Sonny thought. He cleared his throat and thought about the way his dad had taught him to say things carefully. “I just think Angel and Eileen would be a nice, er, couple. They don’t do much except work and look out for us. They ought to go out for dinner, maybe a drive.”

“Where would they drive?”

“Oh,” Sonny shrugged. “Around. You know. To some nice places. They could even go to Mississippi. New York’s great but it’s a long drive.”

“Okay,” Aaron said. “Quit pussyfooting around. You’re talking about them having sex. Go on, say it. You think your uncle’s horny and my mom’s convenient.”

Holy crap.
“Watch your mouth. Don’t talk about your mother that way. I meant just what I said. They’re nice people and they could do worse than be real good friends. You ought to be thinkin’ what’s gonna happen to Eileen when you move on. Or are you sticking around Pointe Judah for the rest of your life? Maybe going to work selling hedgehog boot-scrapers at Poke Around?”

Aaron sighed. “When I get caught up with school I’m going to college. Okay, I’m sorry I got pissed at you. I just don’t like thinking about my mom having sex, okay?”

“Sure.” Sonny smiled to himself and wondered what Aaron would have done if he’d walked in on his mother having sex—with two men—and neither of them was his father.

“Angel’s okay.”

Sonny’s stomach flipped. “He’s the best guy I ever knew. Cares more about me than anyone else ever has.”

“You think my mom will come right back?”

I’ve got a big mouth.
“Probably.”

Aaron scrubbed at his face.

Sonny drew in a long breath. “Chuzah said your clothes were too messed up to clean so he threw them away. That’s how you got to come home in a dress.”

He expected the elbow he got and laughed.

“Chuzah’s okay,” Aaron said. “He said we could go back there if we wanted to return the kaftan.”

“I don’t think I’ll want to.”

Aaron took a bit to say, “I’m going to. I like Locum. When I was a little kid we had a dog and he went everywhere with me. He was only a mutt, but he was the best.”

“What happened to him?” Sonny said.

Aaron frowned and sighed. “I don’t know. Ran off, I guess. One day he was there, the next he was gone. It was tough. Wouldn’t you like to have a sidekick like Locum?”

“He’s okay for a dog. There was blood on my clothes, too. I got it on me when Chuzah carried you back to his place. It was comin’ through his fingers.”

“Forget it, will ya? It must have been something from the swamp. It just looked like blood is all.”

“You were shot,” Sonny said bluntly.

Aaron didn’t answer him and Sonny sat up. He put on the bedside lamp and glared at the TV. Some black-and-white movie had come on. Loads of men in fedoras and ties hanging undone arguing with some guy behind one of those old-fashioned windows, the ones they used to have inside banks. Looked like a major heist gone wrong.

He touched Aaron’s side and saw how he recoiled. “So show it to me,” Sonny said.

Aaron got off the bed and shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. He paced back and forth.

“Look,” Sonny said. “We’re in this together. All of it. Whatever happens, I’ll be there for you.”

“And I’ll be there for you.”

“So show me.”

Aaron hauled up the left side of his T-shirt and walked close to Sonny. “Satisfied?”

Sonny sat on the edge of the bed and touched a round, brownish bruise on the skin just beneath Aaron’s ribs. Aaron turned slowly around to show a matching mark on the other side.

“Entry and exit wounds,” Sonny said. “Or that’s where they should be. That’s too freakin’ creepy.”

A
ngel lived on an oxbow lake not too far from The Willows, the building project he was currently managing for Finn Duhon.

When Eileen had asked him why he’d chosen to buy an old house by the lake when oxbows disappeared eventually, he had said, “Because almost no one else lives there. Anyway, whoever built that place of mine had imagination. They knew it would stand, lake or no lake, and maybe there would always be someone to love it. I’m going to do a lot of the renovating myself.”

He had big hands. Eileen watched them on the wheel while they drove the winding road west and out of town. His hands gave her a funny feeling; she wanted to take and examine them, to find out how the bones and the veins and the muscles felt. “You do think it was okay to leave the boys like that?” she asked.

“They’ll be fine. Aaron’s a smart kid and Sonny knows a lot about how to look after himself. I pity anyone who tries to get in there after them. Anyway, Sonny would call me if he needed to.” He smiled at her. “We can’t keep them locked away. Learning to react effectively in bad situations takes practice.”

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “That’s good then, I guess. It’s quite a way from your house to your office.”

Angel worked with Finn in a suite at the old Oakdale Mansion but spent a lot of hands-on time at whichever building site needed his attention.

“I never liked living in towns.” He chuckled. “Not even little burghs like Pointe Judah.”

“How early do you start out when you come into town?”

“Early.” He smiled. “A lot earlier if I run. I don’t do that too often.”

The road narrowed and Angel took a half-right where tire tracks intersected shaggy grass and the old oaks made a tunnel. Ahead the area was black and rain continued to fall. Eileen didn’t relish the drive home once she’d dropped Angel off.

At last the headlights picked out the house, three stories of faded faux antebellum. The place might have been pretty if it were the real thing, but Angel said the land was a find and he intended his new house to sprout out of this old one and look similar—only better.

“Light by the door went out again,” Angel said. “I’ve got to take a look at the wiring.”

“Must be nice to be so handy with those things.”

He put on the emergency brake. “Anything you need done, just call and I’ll do it. You like gardening and plants?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling and looking toward sets of double doors to the left of the entrance where Angel was having a conservatory refurbished. “That’s going to be so lovely. Your conservatory. If I were you, I’d probably just about live out there.”

“Hey.” He turned sideways. “Christmas is coming. I was trying to think what to give you. How about a greenhouse? Unless I build it from a kit, it won’t be finished in time, but it wouldn’t take so long. I’d rather build one from scratch. That way I could help you design exactly what you want.”

She felt awkward, flustered. “I wasn’t angling for any favors. And a greenhouse is a ridiculously expensive gift, but thank you.”

“You’ve never angled for anything from me, Eileen. I often wish you would.”

She looked at her hands and blinked rapidly. He couldn’t know that she hadn’t had any practice asking for things from a man in her life.

“What is it?” Angel said. “Why do you look…scared, if I say I’d like to do something for you? There would never be any strings attached.”

“No! No, I would never think of that,” Eileen said. “I’m so unpolished. I never got all the finer points of interacting with people the way other girls did. I think I must have been the most unpopular girl in school. I’m so sorry if I insulted you.” She closed her mouth. Why did she babble like that? Well, she didn’t, except with Angel. And why was that?

“Eileen,” he said, leaning closer. “If you weren’t the most popular girl in school, then every guy in the place was dumb. I never saw a woman more beautiful than you.”

She grinned and immediately covered her face.

Angel chuckled softly and ruffled her hair. “I’d like to tell you all the ways you’re beautiful but you’d kick me out of the van and never speak to me again.”

“Why?” She frowned and slid her hands down enough to look at him.

He gave her an evil look. “Don’t ask. Ahh, you can ask. I’d describe all your positive points, and they are many, and then you’d slap my face.”

She punched his arm. “Get outa here, you soft soap. I’ve got to drive home.”

“Nope,” he said.

“Okay, enough joking around. It’s getting late.”

“I can get my motorcycle in the back of the van. Then I’ll drive you home and ride back.”

“You will not. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Don’t fib.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

He was very near to her. “I know,” he said. “Don’t you love it?”

Eileen didn’t answer. What she felt wasn’t new, just a little rusty. It shortened her breath and she was aware of a very strong man who could make light of almost anything, but a man who was tough and whom she barely knew. What did she know about him really?

“It won’t be any use arguing with me, Eileen. Besides, I’ve got your keys.” He pulled them from the ignition and rolled a little to put them into a pocket. “Let’s go in and have some coffee before you go home. This night has been hard on you.”

“Please give me my keys. I just need to get back.”

“No you don’t. Didn’t you hear Chuzah say he thought Aaron collapsed from shock? So if there was a gunshot, it missed him. That means we aren’t dealing with something to worry about—as long as we keep the boys out of the swamp after dark.”

Eileen processed what he’d said. “Anybody can miss a shot, can’t they?”

He looked straight ahead. Dim light caught in his eyes, and showed how his mouth turned down. “I should have known you were too smart to miss that slip. No,
anyone
can’t miss a shot. There are people who never miss.”

She swallowed. “What kind of people?”

He half-lowered his eyelids and she saw him bare his teeth. “The kind you’re never going to meet, thank God. Now, let’s get that coffee.”

“No.”

“Eileen.”

Now he was trying the forceful male on her and she was through with that stuff. “I don’t take crap from any man.”

He turned his head sharply toward her. Too much time passed for her to feel other than edgy. “Sorry,” he said finally. “You’re right. I got out of line there. Come on in and I’ll explain what I mean. I want you to accept one thing, though. Will you do that?”

“If I can.”

“Promise.”

“Angel, I don’t know. You haven’t told me what you want me to accept.”

He snorted. “I didn’t, did I? Trust that I can look after you and Aaron. Sonny already knows I can. I admit I had a moment earlier when I thought someone had gotten through the net, but I was wrong.”

“You’re scaring me.”

“Do you believe I’ll look after you?”

What was he asking her to agree to? He knew nothing about Chuck or the problems he could present. Was Angel telling her he intended to be more than a friend? She was a fool. He was offering to take care of her and Aaron.

“Yes, Angel, I believe you will. It’s a good feeling. I never had that before, not that I’m such a slender-stemmed flower I have to be staked up all the time.”

“You can stake me up any time, my flower.” He laughed and the laugh was full of fun. “Let’s go.”

She had been inside the house before, a few months earlier when Aaron had first become fast friends with Sonny. At that time it resembled the set of a horror film with curtains of cobwebs festooned between sagging ceiling beams and rotting carpets on the floor. She remembered walking into a spider and feeling smug because she wasn’t afraid of it and had just brushed it aside.

Those months had made a huge difference. Gone were the old rugs and the cobwebs, the damp wallboard and broken windows. They walked to the right, through the large hall, passed a central staircase leading up to a gallery and went into what must have been the grand salon. From what she saw, the place had a long way to go but Angel had spent a lot of time, and money, on his pet project.

“What do you think?” Angel asked. He turned on the recessed lighting in the high ceilings. It shone softly down pale caramel walls. Refinished oak floors glowed. White canvas drops covered areas of the floor where decorating and building materials were stacked.

The only furniture in the room was an oversized circular ottoman, antique; its heavy pink brocade upholstery and fringe shabby and torn in places.

“It’s wonderful in here,” she said. “You’ve done so much. Congratulations.”

He smiled and looked as she’d never seen him look before, carefree and boyish. “Take a seat on the ottoman, my lady. Or, let me see—you could always sit on the ottoman. I decided to keep it because it seems to fit in.”

“Wait till it’s reupholstered,” she said. “It’ll be a knockout.”

“You think?” He frowned.

“I know. You’ve got great taste.”

“So have you, Eileen. I like you in red.”

She shrugged. “Thanks. It’s just an old sweat suit.”

He looked her over from head to toe—rapidly. Not rapidly enough for Eileen to miss the sexual appreciation in his narrowed eyes.

“I can’t put it off any longer,” he said. “I’ll have to show you the kitchen.”

Rubbing her hands together as if in anticipation, she caught up with him and followed through a long corridor framed with open studs, to the kitchen at the end. The lights were on and she could see a lot of umber color.

“Are you going to have a dining room?” she said.

“Sort of.”

“If it’s as far away from the kitchen as that salon is, you’ll never get a warm dish on the table.”

Angel didn’t respond. He bent to straighten some loose boards just in front of the kitchen door and stepped inside.

Eileen followed and hid a smile. “You’re enjoying this moment.” The kitchen was part of a great room with a huge, wooden-topped island delineating the two areas. Already Angel had an iron rack hung with pans immediately above the island, and a table and chairs stood in the as yet untouched—apart from newly sheet-rocked walls—dining and sitting room areas of the space.

In a corner, where an uncurtained window wrapped around, stood an undecorated Christmas tree.

Angel saw her looking at it and crossed the room to quickly push in a plug. A zillion tiny colored lights blossomed. “Voilà,” he said. “I haven’t got any ornaments for it, but I wanted Sonny to have a tree.”

From the way he looked at the lighted tree, Eileen decided Angel wanted it for himself, too.

“Now coffee,” Angel said. He returned to the kitchen and pulled forward a stainless steel coffeemaker on a stone-topped counter. The appliances were all stainless. The stove was gas, an Aga, and all business.

“Would you mind if I just had something cold?” Eileen said. “I’m so thirsty.”

“Sure. You want to go back to the other room?”

“I’ll sit at the table.”

The smell of fresh paint hung around and Eileen wrinkled her nose. She liked it, all clean and new. At the level of the high ceilings in the kitchen there were narrow plaster moldings of vegetables, fruit and loaves of bread in a lighter shade than the umber walls. She felt a twinge of envy. It would take time, but one day she’d be able to think about moving from the tiny house she’d shared with Chuck. At least with him gone, she and Aaron had enough space to spread out.

Chuck was a subject she wanted out of her mind.

Angel came around the island with a large glass of white wine in one hand and red in the other.

She smiled up at him. “I had water in mind.”

“Then you should have said so.” He put the white in front of her.

“I thought you were going to tell me to take my pick,” Eileen said.

“You prefer white.”

“Mmm.”

She sat at one end of the table. He pulled a chair close and dropped into it so that their legs touched under the table and their elbows touched on top. Eileen felt too aware of him but she wasn’t about to make a fool of herself by moving away.

“This is nice,” he said and sighed. He drank from his glass and watched as she sipped from hers. She passed the tip of her tongue over her upper lip, caught him following with rapt concentration and felt herself turn the color of the crimson sweat suit.

Eileen looked away. “Now you can tell me what you meant about feeling better because if someone shot at Aaron, they missed.”

“I could. Why spoil a nice moment?”

“For most men it takes a whole lot more than a drink at a kitchen table to…make…a nice…moment.”
Careless chatter.
“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

“I was afraid you didn’t. Sonny is with me under unusual circumstances. He is here because he’s had difficulties, but they weren’t anything to do with him getting into trouble.”

She frowned and moved the base of her glass back and forth. That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. “Could I taste the red?” she said, buying time.