Always Watching (29 page)

Wouldn’t that be welcome – and
simple. 

Somehow, before we got back to my house, the
consequences of my shock became abundantly clear.  Denial is
not only a good friend, but she’s contagious.  Johnny focused
on the case, the business at hand.  In many ways, it was the
most professionally he’s ever behaved toward me, especially when
there wasn’t an audience around pressuring him to be officious.

I accepted the gift with greed and
gratitude. 

It wasn’t long before Crevan called.

“
Orion,” Johnny
said.  He slapped the speaker button on my office phone hard
enough to crack plastic.

“
Johnny, do you think you
and Helen could come out to OSI?”

“
Why?  What happened
now?”

“
I’ve got the sketch
artist working with Florence Payette,” Crevan said, “but she’s not
being particularly cooperative.  I thought maybe Helen would
have better luck with her than I am.”

“
Can’t you get Beatrice to
talk to her again?” I asked.  “She was the one with
rapport.”

“
I tried that, Helen,”
Crevan said.  “She’s asking for you. 
Specifically.”

“
Has she said why?” Johnny
asked.

I felt a spectacular tantrum building in the
pit of my formerly cast-iron stomach.  “It doesn’t matter if
she did or didn’t, Johnny.  We need that sketch.  We’re
running out of time to find a way to significantly diminish the
impact of Agent Preston’s dying declaration.  Crevan, we’ll be
over there in half an hour.”

My finger depressed the button to release
the call before Crevan could respond or Johnny could argue.

“
Stop treating me this
way, Johnny.  Business as usual.  Remember?  Or is
it your plan to disrespect my wishes and start passing out cigars
right now?”

“
Of course not,” he
growled in frustration.  It bled from every pore in his body,
increased the atmospheric pressure in the office to the point that
breathing became difficult.

“
Then what’s your excuse
for needing her reason to talk to me before we go?”

“
She abducted a baby
roughly three days ago, Helen.  Forgive me if that hasn’t
engendered a whole lot of trust.”

“
Oh.”  It deflated my
anger quickly.  “Well, you haven’t met her, Johnny. 
She’s got no will of her own.  The fact that she asked for me
is significant.  We need to find out why.”

He gripped my arm in a vice of flesh and
bone.  “And what if she was ordered to ask for you? 
Think about it, Helen.  You said it yourself.  She
doesn’t have a will of her own.”

“
All the more reason to
talk to her.  This is a safe environment.”

“
Yeah, we thought that
about letting Preston talk to Datello.  Look where that got
us.”

“
That wouldn’t have
happened if you’d been there, Johnny.  I’m not insisting that
you let me handle this alone.  Am I?”

“
No,” he
frowned.

“
Don’t look like I’m
pulling the wool over your eyes.  You’re not missing some
sneaky ulterior motive here.  I’m focused on the case. 
Beyond that, I have no agenda.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
It’s what I need right
this second.  Something familiar, something I know, something
I don’t have to think to do.  Please understand that it’s no
reflection on how I feel about you or… or this latest wrench in the
plan.”

“
My baby is a wrench in
the plan?”

“
That came out
wrong.  It’s left me feeling a little blindsided, and until I
can mull things over without feeling guilty about abducted children
or dead ones washing up on the shore –”

“
Fine,” he rasped. 
“I get it.  Keep your head in the case.  I’ll do my best
to pretend none of this is happening too.”

I stepped close to him, forced him to wrap
his arms around me by nothing more than proximity.  “I’m not
mad at you.  I’m not to the point where shock has given way to
elation.  Not yet.  You’ve always been so patient with
me, Johnny.  Please don’t stop now.”

“
It’s not easy for me
either, you know,” lips pressed against my temple.  “I never
really considered having kids before.  I told you I wasn’t
opposed to the idea with you, but that’s a far cry from planning to
have them.”

“
Are you sure this is what
you want?”

“
Now that I’ve got
it?”  I felt the smile stretch against the side of my
head.  “Yeah, Doc, I’m absolutely sure that I want this. 
We created a life, out of pure love.  That means something to
me.”

It meant something in the light of his
religious superstition.  Yet I couldn’t dismiss the tiny
flutter of excitement, curiosity about what our child would be
like, how his or her father would dote and love and support and
never be a disappointment… like mine had been in the end.  No,
that would probably be my role.

Chapter 24

The pieces of my bizarre behavior of late
fell into place quickly.  I went from dread and panic to
kicking myself for missing what seemed so obvious.  All this
happened between my house and OSI.  Pregnant brain.  It
transformed me from someone utterly vain regarding intellectual
abilities to a moron of unrivaled stupidity in a matter of
minutes.  All it took was the time between peeing into a
little plastic cup and a quick dip of a stick into the
straw-colored fluid.

My self-confidence took a severe hit by the
time Johnny parked outside OSI.

“
What’s wrong?” ever
sensitive, Johnny picked up on the shift in my mood.  He
gripped my hand gently.  “Second thoughts?”

“
About the baby?” 
Just like that, it was no longer a nebulous, vague and nondescript
fetus.

“
I believe those would be
third, or fourth thoughts at this point in the day.”  He
lifted my knuckles to his lips.  “I meant about talking to
Payette.”

“
I wish I knew how you did
that,” I muttered.

“
How many times have I
told you I know you?”

“
A billion.  At
minimum.  To answer your question, yes, I’m having second
thoughts.  I suddenly feel stupid and clueless.”

“
Because you didn’t see
what some of us suspected?”

I nodded.

“
Well, if pregnancy fell
into the same category of unfathomable crime, you’d have beat us
all to the conclusion.”

I impaled him with a glare.  “Thanks a
lot, Johnny.  That makes me feel so much better.”

“
Don’t be sarcastic. 
It wasn’t meant as an insult.  There’s no rule that says you
have to outsmart everyone in
every
category under the sun, Helen.  It’s all
right that some of us have insight into other things.”

“
Meanwhile, all I have is
tunnel vision for monsters and demons.”

“
Well, you do tend to be a
little… negative.”

“
This isn’t
helping.”

Johnny laughed softly.  “I’m not trying
to insult you.  Did you ever see that old Disney movie
Cinderella?”

“
The animated
one?”

“
Yeah.”

“
If you’re about to
compare me to any of the wicked steps –”

“
Of course not.  It’s
just that you’re not the type of person to spontaneously break out
into song with the pet birds and mice.  There’s nothing wrong
with it.  God knows, you’ve seen more of the dark side of
mankind than the good that’s fostered the trait in you.”

“
But?”

“
But nothing. 
Stepping away from that life was huge, probably the first in many
changes that’ll broaden your perspective on humanity.  You
don’t have to look for the worst of the worst anymore.”

“
Yet here I am.”  I
stared at the back entrance to the state police building in Bay
County.  “Another monster, another battle of wits with the
dark side.  So much for retirement.”

“
Say the word.  You
want to walk away from this and start shopping for baby clothes and
nursery furniture, it’s good with me.”

“
Well it isn’t with
me.”  It truly was an involuntary gesture, the palm that
pressed over my still flat belly.  “How could I ever live with
myself or trust my ability to protect a baby if I don’t care about
other children in need, Johnny?”

“
You can profile behavior
and work on pulling the threads of this rather tenuous theory of
ours together without talking to suspects.”

“
Payette could give us an
important lead, even if someone else told her to ask for
me.”

“
Only one way to find
out,” he said.

I knew it, but that didn’t bolster my
flagging confidence.  Nothing but facing the task, putting it
behind me would.  “I’m wasting time, and it’s not like me to
do this.  I’m starting to worry that I’ll never feel like me
again, Johnny.”

“
Evolution,” he
grinned.  “You’ll be who you’re meant to be.  It’s all
part of becoming the next stage for all of us,
sweetheart.”

“
Johnny, do you think you
can put together half a dozen photographs for me?”

“
Of?”

“
I don’t care.  Five
guys and Preston.  We shouldn’t waste time trying to cajole
Florence into describing him to a sketch artist.  A photo ID
would suffice.”

“
Zack would like the
artist’s rendering better, Helen.  It’s harder to claim that
we made our choice in a photo array obvious to her.”

“
Tape the
identification.  Tape our whole conversation,” I said. 
“I’m not going to lead her to identify someone that isn’t
guilty.  If she doesn’t pick Preston, it means that we’ve got
another guilty conspirator out there that we need to find. 
Right?”

“
I guess.  It would
be easier if she identifies Preston.”

“
Have we heard from Dev
yet?”

Johnny’s lips turned downward.  “Yes,
Helen.  We already talked about this.  He hasn’t found
anything yet.  I believe his exact phrase was that the house
looked like a show place for a newly developed community.  All
the furnishings in the right place, but no secrets hidden in the
attic.  Remember?”

“
Maybe we should
–”

“
Go inside and talk to
Florence Payette and let Devlin do his job,” Johnny interrupted me
before I could postulate on the wisdom of joining Devlin in
Montgomery.  “After that, we’ve got to figure out how these
people are communicating.”

“
Or I could take a run at
Melissa Sherman.  I’m not a cop, Johnny.  I’m under no
such obligation to grant her request that an attorney be
present.”

“
You’re contracted to OSI
on this case.”

I grumbled all the way into the building
until Crevan’s frenzied pacing distracted me.

“
Thank God you’re
here.”  He cupped my elbow and led me toward one of the
interrogation rooms.  He detoured into observation before we
reached the destination where I suspected we’d find Florence
Payette.

“
What’s going on?” I
asked.

“
Melissa Sherman’s
attorney is demanding to see Payette, represent her.  I
already called Zack.  It looks like this sleaze ball Curtis
Marcel has filed an emergency petition with the court.”

“
To represent
Payette.”  Sleaze ball was right.  “Crevan, has Florence
ever asked for an attorney?”

“
No, but Marcel is arguing
diminished capacity.  We haven’t got much time.  If the
judge rules in Marcel’s favor, if Zack loses the argument that
there is a conflict of interest in the attorney representing the
woman that Payette believes owns her –”

“
Whoa, wait a
minute.  I thought she said Mr. Sherman owned her.”

Crevan mussed his hair with one hand. 
“Well, that’s the thing.  You told her that Sherman is
dead.  Now she says that she can’t talk if Mrs. Sherman
doesn’t tell her to.”

Vulgarity burned my lips like acid. 
“What else?”

He didn’t have to wonder why I expected this
was only half the problem we faced.

“
Well, since the emergency
petition is forcing a judge to look at the case, Marcel is going to
push for all charges against his client to be dropped based on
Agent Preston’s statement before he died.”

My eyes met Johnny’s.  “You’d better
get over to the district court and make sure this judge understands
what we’re facing if he rules in favor of a kidnapper, accepts the
word of an FBI agent who murdered Danny Datello as gospel
truth.”

“
Crevan, will you make
sure Doc goes straight home when she’s done here?”

I objected before he could agree.  “For
God’s sake, Johnny.  I can work the case from here until you
get back.  Who knows how long Payette will want to talk to
me?  If I can get her to identify the man she gave Sofia
Datello to, it could be what sways the judge to see this so-called
emergency hearing our way.”

His finger stabbed Crevan’s chest. 
“You stay with her, every second.  Got it?”

I watched Crevan’s Adam’s apple bob in his
throat. 

“
Sure, Johnny.”