Always Watching (43 page)

And the alcohol only fueled his mood.

The most he said in a single statement was a
remark when I passed on a glass of wine with dinner.

“
Now that is truly a
shocking development.” 

Fortunately, it was muttered low enough for
my ears only.  It was a direct hit.  Food was like
chewing broken glass.  Everything hit my stomach in the form
of toxic acid.  Half way through dinner, I quickly excused
myself and hurried to the bathroom.  Every morsel came up with
bitterness and heartache mingled with it.

There was no soft soothing accompanying my
bout of morning sickness after dark, no cool compress to the back
of my neck.  It was me, the porcelain goddess and overwhelming
sadness.

By the time I got back to the table, Johnny
was on the phone across the room.

“
Asking for her
specifically, huh?” he cast a cold glance in my direction. 
“Well that comes as no great shock, Tim.  I scared the wits
out of the poor thing the other day.  She’s got some sort of
date with a potential witness tonight in another thing we’re
working on.  I’m not sure she’ll be able to get over there
until tomorrow.”

“
Johnny?”

He waved me aside.  “Yeah, I’ll tell
her.”  He clicked off the phone. 

“
They were moving Payette
from the shower back to her isolated cell and something
happened.  She flipped out and started asking for you and only
you,” he said.

“
I should go right
away.  It could be important –”

“
You’ve got your
thing
with Detective
Mackenzie,” Johnny cut me off.  “It’ll wait until
morning.”

David approached cautiously.  “Johnny,
did something happen?  Ms. Payette asked for Helen again?”

“
Yeah, but it’ll
wait.  She’s not going anywhere.  Helen’s got other plans
for her night.”

My lips rolled inward.

“
How about a
compromise.  I developed a fairly good rapport with Florence
this afternoon.  What say after dinner the two of us head over
to OSI together and I’ll talk to her?”

Johnny shrugged. 
“Suit yourself.  She specifically asked for
Miss
Helen.”

“
Perhaps it would be
better if Crevan took me out there and you went with Devlin and
Helen to meet this girl Fantasia,” David
suggested. 

Johnny’s grin chilled me to the bone. 
David took a step backward.

“
I wasn’t invited,
David.  You’ll come to OSI with me if you really think
Payette’s sudden desire to talk can’t wait for morning.  Are
you done with dinner?  I’m ready to head back.  I’ll
probably be there later than you’ll want to stay.  I guess I
could send you back in one of OSI’s cars.”

“
Enterprise delivered my
rental this afternoon,” David said.  “But you’re not driving
in this condition, Johnny.  I’ll find something to do while
you work.”

I heard his molars grinding beneath the
ticking muscle of Johnny’s jaw, but he didn’t argue.  After a
frustrated beat, “Suit yourself.  Let’s go.”

His parting shot was directed at
Devlin.  “Your old pal from Montgomery was out at OSI looking
for you Mackenzie.  They told him you were working with my
wife tonight.  Might want to turn your cell phone on so he can
find you.  Unless of course, you don’t want the
interruption.”

Johnny and David were barely out the door
when Crevan slipped into peacemaker mode again.

“
You should go get this
interview done right away, Helen.  Get your head back in the
case.  I’ll clean up here and head over to OSI and talk some
sense into him.”

I couldn’t stop crying.  Wisely, Devlin
didn’t ask for a translation of what transpired between the lines
over dinner.  Or maybe he already suspected why Johnny was so
angry with me.  Hadn’t he warned me that dinner at the house
was a bad idea?

Some sort of unspoken communication passed
between them, but Devlin didn’t argue.  He grabbed a box of
tissues from the bathroom off the mudroom and steered me back into
the garage.

“
I’ll drive.”

I pressed the keys into his hand and drifted
around to the passenger side of the Expedition.  We made it to
the end of the driveway before the inquisition began.

“
Helen, what the hell is
going on?”

I sniffled, opted for a handful of tissues
and blew hard.

“
That’s not an
answer.”

“
He’s angry.”

“
Well no shit
Sherlock.  Is this because I showed up for dinner tonight, or
is he still on the rampage because you wanted to do this thing with
the hooker with me instead of him tonight?”

I buried my face in my hands and shed a
little more emotion.  If it weren’t for the pregnancy, I’d be
fighting back, making Johnny’s anger look reasonable and pale in
comparison to mine.  But no.  That’s not how things were
now.  I was this sniveling wreck, a wimpy sap who couldn’t
pull it together for two seconds of a well-deserved
counterattack. 

“
Helen, you’re really
starting to scare me.  What’s wrong?  Jesus, why would
Crevan think it’s a good idea to send you out on the job in this
condition?  I’m taking you back home.”

“
No, don’t!” I
rasped.  “Please.  I’m sorry, Dev.  I’ll pull myself
together.  Just give me a few minutes.  All
right?”

We rode in utter silence for no less than
ten minutes.  The lights from gaudy and questionable
businesses on Mercer Boulevard illuminated the inside of the
SUV.  The aftershocks in my heart were still firing
regularly.  I shuddered and shook more tears free.

“
Talk to me, Helen. 
Did I do something that made Orion hate me even more?”

Head shook.  More tears.

“
Then what
happened?”

I sucked in a deep breath.  “It was
me.  I said something and he took it the wrong way, and now he
won’t listen to me explain what I really meant.”

Devlin pulled over against the curb. 
Scantily clad women strolled past the car peering at the emotional
show.  Peep show for the hookers.  Not very erotic, but
had the magnetism of a really bad car accident.

His hand perched on my shoulder and massaged
gently.  “What did you say, Helen?  How could you ever
say anything that would make him that angry?  And why is it my
fault?”

Air shuddered from my lungs.  “Because
I told him that I love you.”

Devlin’s hand stilled.  “I see.” 
It fell away.

“
And now you hate me
too.”

“
No, but I’m a little bit
confused.  Why would he marry you –”

“
I said it last
night.”

“
Still confused.  If
you love me, why would you marry…” the thought died in his throat
for a moment.  “You meant that you love me as a friend, and he
thought what I stupidly did just a moment ago.”

I nodded.

“
Helen, why didn’t you
just qualify the remark?  Then.  Now.”

One shoulder lifted.

“
Are you sure it’s only
friendship you feel?”

“
Dev please don’t
–”

“
I’m sorry. 
Really.  God, I don’t know when to leave well enough alone, do
I?”

“
It’s not entirely your
fault.  I haven’t exactly kept the line from becoming
blurred.  It was horribly unfair to you.”

“
Yeah,” he said
softly.  “It really was, Helen.”

“
I’m so sorry.  And I
do love you as my friend.  But Johnny…”  Tears clogged
the path of freedom for my words.

“
He’s your hero, the one
that made you believe in love again, isn’t he?”

I nodded.  “So much.”

“
Then you need to fix
this.”

“
He won’t listen to
me.”

“
Tell you what. 
We’re at Fantasia’s over-the-sex-shop apartment.  You’re still
in no condition to talk to a potential victim.  I’ll go see
her alone.”

I opened my mouth to protest.

“
Ah-ah, unless the goal is
to scare the girl to death.  You’ve got a mascara river
flowing, my friend.”

My heart swelled with friendly love for what
Devlin just offered.  Forgiveness.  Understanding. 
A concrete boundary that could never again become fuzzy.  I
nodded.

“
And while I’m inside
talking to this girl, you’re going to dry your tears, blow your
nose, and dig that cell phone out of your purse and call
Johnny.  You’re going to tell him exactly what you just told
me.  If that doesn’t make a dent in his thick skull, I’ll
offer to
eat
my
hand if it makes him amenable to listening to reason.”

“
Devlin –”

“
It’s all right,
Helen.  I get it.  And this is gonna be all right. 
But please don’t take this the wrong way.  You’re head hasn’t
been in the game all week and you know it.  You’re bouncing
all over the place.  I didn’t know why before.  Now I
do.  Get your love life squared and then for God’s sake, help
us close this case.  We need your brain. 
Deal?”

I nodded.  “Thank you.  For… for
everything.  I wish Johnny could see how things really are
with you.  He’d understand it then.”

Devlin patted my shoulder and pointed at the
box of tissues in my lap.  “Fix yourself.  Call
him.  Wait right here.  Got it?”

I watched him fling open the door and
disappear into the stairwell of the building.  Fantasia. 
I crossed my fingers and hoped that she’d be the one, the link that
we needed to prove that there was more to this mess than Florence
Payette.

The mirror on the back of the sun visor in
the Expedition revealed a mess worse than Devlin described. 
My cheeks were dissected with black streaks where rivulets of tears
carried Revlon from eyelashes down to my chin.  I started
dabbing away the damage and wondered what I could possibly to say
to Johnny to get his attention this time.

My fault.  My fault.

I could’ve put an end to this ridiculous
argument last night if I had followed him and insisted that we talk
right away.  I could’ve done it this morning at the
courthouse.  His hesitation was because he didn’t know if I
wanted to see him.  And what had I done?  Rubbed this
stupid interview in his face.

The temptation to beat my head against the
dashboard grew.  What could I say now?  How could I undo
a succession of stupid mistakes?

Worse thoughts filled my head.  Devlin
was right.  I was still off the game, out of my typical mental
place that let me cut through the bullshit around me and see the
truth.  I had to fix this thing with Johnny.  I owed it
to Celeste Datello, her daughter, poor abused Analynn Villanueva,
even Florence Payette with her lifetime of abuse in the clutches of
slavery.

I
had
to be me again.  And I
needed Johnny for that to happen.  Fingers dug through my
purse until the cool device slipped through them.  I grabbed
the phone and pulled it out.

A light knock at the window interrupted
before I could call Johnny and start righting one of my many
mistakes.  My eyes pivoted right, expecting the face of a
stranger.  They widened with recognition. 

His hand made a cranking motion.  I
reached over and engaged the ignition switch.  Rolled the
window down.

“
What on earth are you
doing here?”

He grinned at me.  “Looking for
Devlin.  Where is he?”

“
Upstairs interviewing a
potential witness in a case we’re working on.”

Nod.  “Yeah, he mentioned it.  The
human trafficking thing, right?”

A chill tickled its way down my spine. 
Had Devlin discussed this sensitive issue outside our circle? 
“I’m afraid I can’t discuss it with you –”

“
No need,” he
grinned.

Before I had time to react, Andy Gillette
pressed a stun gun into my chest.  A jolt, muscle shredding
pain and darkness followed.

Chapter 37

The phone vibrated in his left breast
pocket.  He smiled.  Yes, it was incongruent with the
words coming out of his mouth, but that was the way life was from
time to time.  He nodded at the men at a table near the front
of the room.  Nothing overt, just enough to let them know that
all was as expected. 

The Eriksson bitch was out of the way, once
and for all.  And that sap of a man she married?  Well,
he’d be so devastated by the loss of his bride of just over a day
that he’d never see the sledgehammer that was about to hit from
behind.

Oh, her loss would sting harder than the
real goal.  Stupid man.  Yet even Orion was of no
consequence.  His days were numbered.  Very soon,
everything in Darkwater Bay would be as it should’ve remained.

But without Jerry Lowe.

He concluded his comments and conveyed his
regrets that he would not be taking any questions and nodded to the
men in suits waiting in the wings.  The other two men
interested in the text he received met him before he slipped
away.

“
Well?”

He nodded. 

“
What did Gillette
say?”

He pulled the phone out of his pocket and
read the text.

“
On schedule for
departure.  All according to plan.”

“
Excellent,” the younger
of his two companions said.