Always Watching (42 page)

“
The world is full of
selfish individuals.  That aside, does Florence strike you as
one of them?”

“
I think the only
happiness Florence has ever known in her life is caring for
babies,” I said.  “So how does that parlay into being the
beloved co-worker and shining beacon at Saint Mary’s
Hospital?”

“
She volunteered to work a
lot of extra shifts over the years, Helen.  We’re talking tons
of them.  In fact, according to her employment record, some of
the comments from her co-workers when she was nominated for awards
included those indicating that Florence never said no when someone
was in a jam and needed her to cover a shift.”

My skeleton suddenly pulled out of its
slouch in the chair.  “So maybe Sherman wanted her readily
available, on call for the hospital even, should Celeste Datello go
into labor early.”

“
How could she have
guessed something like that would happen?” it was Devlin’s jaded
opinion this time.  “I mean, it was her first kid. 
Aren’t they notoriously late and not early?”

“
Stress,” I rasped. 
One hand involuntarily cradled my belly.  “She was under an
enormous amount of stress after Danny was arrested.  That and
all the delays, the approaching trial, the threat that was issued
just a couple of days before… oh my God.  They
wanted
her to have that
baby sooner than later.”

“
Now you’re thinking like
the girl I know,” David said.  “So Eugene bites the
dust.  Melissa can’t deal with ferrying Florence back and
forth between Darkwater and Montgomery.  She decides she wants
the Datello baby, either because she really did experience a
stillbirth or it was her plan to snatch somebody’s baby
anyway.  She comes up with the special order from Mr. Sherman
and delivers it personally.  She camps out a babysitter to
make sure that Florence toes the line.  Hell, it wouldn’t
matter to someone as abused as Florence was if Holmes knew the
truth or not.  Florence
believed
that Sarah Holmes was Ms.
Sherman’s best friend.  That was enough to keep her in
line.”

“
Did you talk to
Florence?” I asked.

“
For the better part of
the afternoon,” David said.  “You nailed it, my dear. 
This woman doesn’t have a will of her own, and even if she did, I
doubt she’d recognize it.  By the way, what did Johnny do that
terrified her so badly?  She caught a glimpse of him this
afternoon and I thought the poor woman would soil
herself.”

“
He demanded to know why
Mr. Sherman was so excited when he found out I relocated to
Darkwater Bay,” I said.

“
That
is
disturbing.  I wish I’d
known she said that when I talked to her this afternoon,
Helen.”

“
I think the mystery is
solved.  Connect the dots, David.  When I showed up in
town, Jerry Lowe wanted me here.  I’m not sure why, and doubt
I ever will.  At one point, I thought he wanted to match
wits.  Then I thought he wanted me dead.”

“
He did, my dear. 
We’re fortunate he failed.”

“
He chose to fail,
David.  He had me drugged on his sofa.  He could’ve taken
my head as another trophy and nobody could’ve stopped
him.”

“
It doesn’t explain why
Sherman would be pleased that you were here,” he said.

“
Excited doesn’t mean
pleased.  He tried to pressure Joe into making sure that Lowe
served his sentence at Dunhaven, which ironically, he is
anyway.  When Joe didn’t go along, Sherman was pissed off
enough to start donating money to Datello’s pick, Terrell
Sanderfield.  I realize that my presumption sounds a bit
grandiose, but I suspect that they weren’t so happy to have me
around after Jerry Lowe was arrested.  If Sherman was involved
in human trafficking through Darkwater Bay, it makes sense that he
wanted the status quo in force around here.”

“
Perhaps,” David peered at
me in a way I couldn’t recall seeing before.  I’d seen that
look on his face many times in the past, but never directed at
me.  Usually it was reserved for the person of interest he was
profiling.

I squirmed under the scrutiny. 
“What?”

“
Hmm, nothing,” he
said.

I slapped one hand on the table.  “I’m
starved.  What sounds good for dinner?  Dev, be a dear
and call Crevan.  I’d love it if he could join us
tonight.”

David’s eyes narrowed.  Recognition
flashed in his eyes.  I’d seen that look before too, same
context.  I waited until Devlin left the room.

“
Spill it.  Why were
you profiling me?”

“
I wasn’t –”

“
Don’t lie to me. 
You gave me that dissection look.  What aren’t you telling
me?”

“
Johnny and I went to see
someone this morning before we went to OSI, Helen.  When you
mentioned Crevan, it made me think of it.”

“
Oh really?  Just who
did you go visit?”

“
Aidan Conall.”

“
Shit.  Johnny
promised me he wouldn’t confront him about that mess while we still
had this human trafficking thing on the table.”

“
He’s convinced that the
abduction of the Conall baby could be related.  Who knows how
long this thing has been operating in Darkwater Bay,
Helen?”

“
I was under the
impression that the city didn’t take a morality dive into the
cesspool until Jerry Lowe took over as chief of detectives at
Central Division sixteen years ago.”

“
True enough, but back in
the 1970’s, it was a lot easier to steal children, Helen. 
There was no such thing as an Amber Alert.  Hell we didn’t
even have ViCAP, AFIS or CODIS back then, let alone an agency
devoted to missing and exploited children.  You know
that.”

“
So what did Mr. Conall
say?”

“
Very little. 
Kathleen was far more forthcoming.  She said they made the
decision to tell Crevan when he was much older, out of fear that
he’d find out when he decided to become a police officer.  It
was Aidan’s decision to lie about the gender of the child. 
I’m certain by that point, he suspected his son’s emerging sexual
orientation, thought maybe the idea of a masculine brother might
make him toe the line so to speak.”

“
That’s the most
ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“
He is an angry, desperate
man.  He burst into tears when Johnny told him he knew the
truth about their daughter.  He cursed and ranted that he had
lived a life devoted to God, didn’t deserve the pain and suffering
he’d endured in his life.  Then he told us to mind our own
business and leave the past dead and buried where it
belonged.”

“
Poor Aiden suffered more
than Job,” I muttered my disgust for Crevan’s father.

“
Bravo, Helen.  I
wished at more than one point that you’d accompanied us this
morning.  Things are strained already, aren’t
they?”

My eyes connected with David’s
quickly.  “No.”

“
Helen…”

“
He hates
Devlin.”

“
And Devlin loves
you.  I suspect it’s an emotion not necessarily unrequited by
you.  Different context,” he added quickly at my angry
stare.  “Helen, Johnny is utterly miserable today.  Why
don’t you simply explain to him that you love your friend much like
you love me, or Crevan or even that old dinosaur Chris
Darnell?  He’ll understand it.”

“
No,” I said, “he
won’t.  I tried.  All he sees is that Devlin made a move
on turf he couldn’t even remember was his.  It’s been this way
since he lost his memory and saw Dev and I together on New Year’s
Eve.”

I scooted away from the table, drifted to
the refrigerator and stared inside for dinner.  Answers to the
universe’s most perplexing questions maybe.  A warm hand
rested on my shoulder.  “As I recall, he was similarly jealous
of our relationship at one point, Helen, until he realized that I
had merely evolved into something of a surrogate father
figure.”

“
I don’t think of you that
way.”

He pried me out of the fridge and turned me
to face him.  “Well, then forgive me for this, but I always
think of you as the daughter I never had.  I love you too,
Helen.  Not the way Johnny does, but there are many kinds of
love.  I know what Devlin Mackenzie gives you that you don’t
get from anyone else.  He simply believes you’re right. 
Always.”

My chin dipped to my chest.

“
I don’t think that’s a
bad thing necessarily.  Blind faith is something we’d all love
to have.  Just because Devlin has it and Johnny doesn’t, well,
sweetheart, it doesn’t mean that Johnny wouldn’t do anything for
you, even if he disagrees with you.  Devlin sees a tiny part
of who you are.  Johnny knows the whole thing.  He loves
you in spite of the things that maybe aren’t quite so
perfect.”

Little moons of moisture soaked into the
front of my sweater. 

“
You know I’m
right.”

“
Yeah,” I sniffled
softly.

“
So explain it to
Johnny.  He needs to know that you love him in a way that
you’ve never loved anyone else in your life.”

“
Maybe if he’d stop
avoiding me for five minutes and listen, I could.”

David reached for the phone hanging on the
wall.  “Call him.  Tell him that you understand he’s
busy, but you really want and need your husband at home with you
for dinner tonight.”

“
Joe’s upset about this
Sanderfield thing, and I’ve already –”

“
He’s not working on a
single thing that couldn’t wait a couple of hours, Helen. 
Call him and ask him to come home for dinner.  Don’t let this
thing fester and drive a wedge between you.  Especially not
now.”

I took the receiver in hand and reached for
the touchtone keypad.

Chapter 36

Johnny rushed through the garage door with
eagerness in his eyes – until he saw the assembled crowd. 
Devlin.  Crevan.  David.  His shoulders
squared.  “I didn’t expect to find all of you over here
tonight.  Are we having an impromptu meeting about the case
and I was invited as an afterthought?”

Crevan piped up with an ever-diplomatic
response.  The man was truly the polar opposite of me. 
When I bristled, he soothed.

“
Of course not,
Johnny.  I think you’re wife is just eager to close this case
so she can have all her evenings quiet and alone with her
husband.”

Johnny’s eyebrows did the wolf dance, but he
didn’t respond. 

David nudged my arm. 
Silent direction. 
Go greet your
husband
.

I drifted across the gulf separating us and
wrapped my arms around him.  “I made pot roast.  Are you
hungry?”

A stiff kiss followed. 

“
Long way to drive for
dinner.”

“
I thought we could talk
later,” my voice dropped close to a whisper.

“
Before you go out with
him?”

“
Before we interview a
potential victim in this case.”  Simmering started below the
surface.

“
And this is a
conversation you feel you need backup for, or are they merely
witnesses to what an unreasonable bastard I’m being?”

“
Johnny please.  I
love you.”

“
You love
everybody.”  He sidestepped me and went toward the butler’s
pantry.  A moment later, Johnny reappeared with a bottle of
Glenlivet.  “Am I the only one who could use a stiff drink
after the week we’ve had?”

I slipped out of the room with David on my
heels.

“
Get back in there and
talk to him, Helen.”

“
I tried.  He won’t
be satisfied with anything I say.”  More molten tears dripped
from my chin.  “Maybe I should remind him that since we
haven’t actually consummated our marriage yet, he could get it
annulled.”

“
Helen, you’re being
utterly ridiculous now.  And what do you mean –”

“
He left me alone, in a
guest room in Joe’s stupid mausoleum last night,” I hissed. 
“Are you happy now?  Do you get it, David?  This isn’t
some little scrape that needs a kiss and a Band-Aid.  Johnny
is
that
angry
with me.”

“
Oh dear,” he
sighed.  “Well, let’s make the best of it.  Maybe he’ll
settle down over dinner and realize that you’re not pining away for
another man.”

“
Maybe I should be,” I
muttered.

“
Don’t do anything
rash.  If you love him –”

“
I do love him.  It’s
not my fault he can’t see that, David.”

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and
dabbed the tears from my cheeks.  “Let’s go have dinner. 
Try to keep the conversation neutral.  Perhaps, as grotesque
as this sounds, it’s better to simply discuss the horrors of human
trafficking over our meal.  Yes?”

I agreed and followed him back to the
kitchen where we dined at a very terse table.  The case
discussion was awkward.  Johnny was sullen, drinking more
Glenlivet than eating the meal.  His responses were snorts,
grunts and single syllables.  There was no question in
anyone’s mind that he was beyond angry by the end of the
meal.