Dead Spaces: The Big Uneasy 2.0 (22 page)

Zach’s eye may have twitched. But Hannah managed another step closer to her.

“That’s true,” Hannah agreed, “but if you’re going to shoot us anyway, there’s not a huge incentive for us to leave this room. From our perspective, this is just a better place to get shot.”

She stared at Miz Cookie long enough for Zach to shift forward in his chair. After a period of frowning concentration while she considered this, Miz Cookie smiled with real delight, except for her eyes that showed some white around the red edges.

“I see the problem. You need incentive.” She shifted the gun toward Ingrid. “How’s this. You don’t leave quietly with me, I shoot her.”

That’s when Ingrid grabbed her gun hand.

F
erris had
a little trouble talking the nurse into letting him go to Ingrid’s room, let alone take a pile of food in there. He juggled it all and reached for the door. He heard the crash just as he got the door to open. He froze at the sight of Hannah, Ingrid and Zach—stretched across the bed—wrestling with what appeared to be a crazed, middle-aged woman in black.

Then the woman took a swing at Hannah.

He tossed the food and dove into the fight.

The gun discharged once, shattering a wall clock, then Zach twisted it from her hand and climbed off his daughter, panting from the exertion.

The loss of the gun appeared to enrage her even more. As first a nurse, then a security guard showed up and piled on, but she just kept twisting and screaming. They finally got her flipped over and Ferris cuffed her. Hannah sat on her shoulders, the guard on her legs as she continued to twist and moan.

Ferris, his nose about an inch from Hannah’s said, conversationally, “I’m gonna go out on a limb here…X?”

She rubbed at a bloody scratch above her eye and grinned. “Don’t you love it when an equation comes together?”

I
t shouldn’t have
surprised Hannah how fast the Bakers could assemble—or in this case—reassemble. After the past week, nothing should surprise her. But she was still surprised. Of course, it was late. No traffic. Bet there’d be some red-light tickets in the mail next month though.

What wasn’t a surprise—after the bulk of the Bakers followed Ingrid to her new room—leaving she, Ferris and Zach alone with Alex, Ben and Frank in the mess of the old room was that her brothers looked to Zach for an explanation. She got a kick out of their shock when Zach waved them toward her. Ferris might have hid a grin.

“I think you’ll find she’s the one with the answers.”

Three sets of eyes regarded her skeptically.

“If you had information—” No surprise it was Frank who turned a bit pompous.

“Until tonight I mostly had guesses,” Hannah admitted. She looked at Ferris. “I had a feeling something might happen, so I left a message for you, just in case. Surprised you got it so fast, seemed like your cell was out of battery? Your timing was perfect.”

“I never got it. I came because I thought you might be hungry.” He pointed at the tumbled mess of food mixed with the broken machinery.

“Oh.” She studied it then smiled at him. “That’s so sweet—”

Three low growls cut her off.

“Talk,” Alex said.

“It’s all your fault, you know.”

“Mine? What did I do?”

“Your coffins. Your girlfriend.”

The three brothers exchanged big brother looks, then found places to get comfortable.

“But there was nothing useful in the coffins,” Alex said. “Was there?”

“Well, there was one thing I didn’t tell you about,” she admitted. “I found Uncle Charlie’s class ring tucked down in the side after everyone left.”

A long silence, then Ben broke it. “Okay, I get you might have wanted to think about it, but why not mention it later?”

“Because it disappeared. I came back from lunch, you were there, Frank.”

He nodded. “The brick was missing from one of the coffins.”

“Both thefts seemed to be so random, so weird, but I guess it got me thinking about the past and who would still care about it now. So—” she almost said we again. “I started digging.”

“Zafiro? That’s why you asked for that file?” Frank demanded. “You should have—”

“Told you what? All I had were vague ideas and this feeling that something was happening out there. A storm coming, but one that wasn’t showing up on radar. And there were things.”

“Things?” Alex arched his brows.

“Like that weird non-hit on Guido Calvino. And then the kids who shot at him showed up in the morgue.” She didn’t mention Charlie or Ellie. That was Zach’s story—and theirs—to tell when they were ready, though she hoped they talked to Nell first. “And those stupid rings kind of seemed to run through it all. And your code.” She hesitated there. She couldn’t tell them how she knew about that without talking about Ellie and Charlie, so she skipped over that. “Miz Cookie—”

“Miz Cookie?” Ben spoke for all of them this time.

“Sorry, when she’s not crazed, she kind of looks like a cookie lady.” Five males eyes stared at her like she was crazed. “
Gladys White
said something about the rings while we waiting for her to shoot us. You remember, Zach?”

“Would that be the ‘that stupid old man gave it away’ part?”

“Sounded to me like she needed them for some reason.” She shrugged. So many questions and she’d probably never get all the answers. Zafiro was dead. So were the wise geezers and the lawyer. “She admitted to killing Calvino, Afoniki, Leblanc and her four minions.”

“And Dunstead,” Zach reminded her.

“Oh yeah.” She held back a yawn. “You should be able to match her gun to to the deaths. I’ll go out on a limb and speculate that she killed her husband, too, though she didn’t shoot him. She was seriously losing it and then when we tackled her—well, you saw it…Logan.” Man, would that ever come easy?

“I caught the part about her running the world and none of us would be able to stop her,” he admitted. “If she does make it to trial, do you think the wise kids will do something about her?”

No one seemed to know.

“We’re already working on getting a warrant on her house.” Frank gave her one of those looks that big brothers give their little sisters when they realize they’ve underestimated them. “You actually recognized her as a Zafiro, just by looking at those old photos?”

“If I hadn’t been so distracted by almost getting blown up I might have put it together sooner. My brain was trying to connect the dots. But maybe it’s just as well I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t have any proof. And it’s all pretty crazy.”

“Not enough for a judge, that’s for sure,” Ben said. “But…dang. Good job. Well, except for this mess.” He looked around, pushed a paper-wrapped burger with the edge of his shoe. “Pity about the food. Looks like you brought enough for everyone, Ferris.”

Hannah gave it a regretful look, too. “That is a lot of food.” She looked at him, finding she still had energy to enjoy the warmth in his eyes when their gazes met.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he explained. “Or your dad.”

There was a small rumble of discontent from the brothers. Hannah pushed out of the chair. “I’m tired. I’m hungry and Logan is taking me home.” There’d she done it, said his name without hesitating. Score one for the tired cutter.

Ferris took her arm, but Ben’s voice stopped her at the door. “Hannah?”

“What?” she gave him a suspicious look.

“You can thank us later for your wrestling skills.”

Hannah laughed. “Good night, you jerks.” She paused and said over her shoulder, “You know, you don’t totally suck.” She blew them a kiss and left before they could respond in kind. Of course, that only postponed the day of reckoning, but she was okay with that.

“
T
hanks
,” Hannah said, turning in her doorway and giving him a tired smile. She wished—well, she wished a lot of things, but right now, she’d be grateful to be merely “tired.”

“It was my—” he paused.

“Pleasure?” She grinned. “To roll around on the floor with a crazed middle-aged woman wearing a girdle who was trying to scratch your eyes out?”

“It’s hard to get a grip on those things.” He looked alarmed. “You don’t—”

That made her laugh. “Not yet, but one could be in my future. I won’t lie to you.”

“By then I’ll probably need one, too.” He grinned, but his eyes were serious, intent. “I know you’re tired, exhausted—”

“At least I’m not hungry, thank you for the second, and successful, attempt to feed me.”

“You’re welcome.” His chest rose and fell in what might have been a sigh. “Will you go out with me? On a date?”

She found she had one last smile left in her. “I would love to.”

He had a really good smile left in him, too. And the kiss managed to curl her really tired and trod-upon toes.

“
H
e will want
to marry you. Me, he will ask to be his mistress,” Mirabelle said, with lazy conviction. She sipped her cocktail and exchanged an amused look with Cinzia. “I understand why Aleksi chose Dimitri. It’s not like he had other options, but Bett and Phin chose poorly despite much better options.”

“Do you think Phin tried to…change his choice there at the end?” Cinzia ran a finger around the rim of her glass.

“To the children’s book author? No.” Mirabelle shook her fair head. “If he had, he’d have changed his trust, shifted the money. Giving Nell the ring was a message to Claude that anyone was better than he was. That’s all.”

“You are probably right.” She uncrossed, then crossed her long, bare legs and stretched a little. The water looked deliciously cool, but it was an illusion. It would be warm as a bathtub, not to mention the damage it would do to her hair. “It’s been a strange week.”

Who’d have thought some crazy middle-aged woman would try to pick up the long dead mantle of Zafiro? Not that she blamed her for the girl power moment, but really, it was too deliciously ironic. She’d managed to take out two notorious mob figures and then herself. It took a peculiar level of incompetence to cause so much trouble without actually accomplishing anything significant. The two old men would have died anyway.

“We’ll do it better,” she said.

Cinzia nodded, not needing an explanation, as her lips curved into a smile. “Shall I marry him? Or let him think I will? And you, will you sleep with him?”

She shrugged. “Why not? I’m sure there will be benefits of some sort. And don’t they say that you should keep your enemies close?”

“It’s too bad Guido doesn’t like women,” Cinzia said, “or you could marry him and sleep with them both.”

“He will still want to marry, will need to marry.” Mirabelle said. “He might ask me because well, you know what would happen if that got out. The gay wise guy? He wouldn’t last a week.”

Cinzia chuckled. “No, he wouldn’t.” She sighed. “A pity we don’t dare. But we need the right kind of chaos.”

Mirabelle nodded. “The right kind.” She paused again. “I wonder where they are?”

“The rings? Yes, it would be…useful to know that.”

“But not critical.”

“No,” Cinzia agreed, “not critical.”

T
he message was cryptic
, intriguing but not enough to shift him if he hadn’t known the last threat to his control of the Calvino empire was gone. Zafiro was as crazy as the three old men, it seemed, but he and his last heir were neutralized. And eventually, she’d join her crazy great grandfather in hell.

So he went back to the cemetery. Curiosity was ever his curse. And he had bodyguards to protect him from his curiosity.

At first he thought it was Zach Baker waiting by the crypt that should have held his cousin Toni’s remains. But then he turned at his approach and Guido saw his mistake. This man was a Baker, no question, but older than Zach Baker and just enough different.

“Guido Calvino?”

How did this man know him and he did not know this man? No sign of a weapon, but that did not mean he didn’t have one.

“I’m Charlie Baker. Zach’s big brother.”

“I didn’t know he—” he frowned, a vague memory teasing at the edges of his mind. Had there been a brother?

“Zafiro, Bett, and Phin strongly suggested I leave town when I was eighteen.”

Guido felt like he should know this, but he didn’t. He half shrugged. “That was a long time ago.”

“Yes, it was. You see, Ellie was in love with me. They didn’t like it. Bett hated it in fact.”

“I see.” He was certainly starting to. “And now that they are gone, you’ve come back to…?”

“Ellie would like to meet her granddaughter. Without any complications.”

He considered the man. Bett might have hoped he’d avenge his abandonment by his unruly wife, but he actually didn’t much care what had happened thirty years ago. And it had resulted in his inheriting everything. So, in a way, Ellie had helped him. “You won’t have trouble from me.”

“Helenne?”

“Well, her activities are limited by a little tracking device on her ankle. And much of her energy is focused on hating Claude.”

“And Dimitri Afoniki?”

“Why would he care who you are or why you left?”

“I have your word?” The steady gaze held his with disturbing intensity.

“Do you trust it?” Charlie didn’t speak, so he added, “You have my word I have no desire to incur the enmity of the Bakers.”

Charlie smiled slightly. “Then we’re good.”

“Are we?”

Charlie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Are you good?”

“I was done with Bettino Calvino thirty years ago, when Ellie left with me.”

“Then we are good.”

Charlie nodded, turned and walked away. Didn’t even look back. Not many had the guts to show him their back. Was he being disloyal? If he was, what did it matter. This was not a man he wanted as an enemy. Not to mention all those Bakers.

“
A
re you nervous
?” Ferris asked her.

“I passed nervous about six blocks back.” She managed a smile though. “I mean, I think Nell’d like to meet her, but what if she doesn’t? Ellie..and Charlie, they’d feel so bad. And they’ve waited so long.”

“Do they know?”

“I told them I’d talk to her but not when. Everything’s been so crazy, but I just couldn’t wait. If it was me, I’d want to know—you’re a brave man to go with me.” She gave him a look with a little anxious in it. “You and Alex? Are you okay?”

“I think so. We had a, well, I wouldn’t call it a talk.” He grinned.

“Let me guess, he grunted a few times, growled some and then?”

“I pointed out that he wasn’t your father.”

“Brave man for sure.” She tipped her head to one side. “Well, you’re still breathing and the bruises are from Miz Cookie, so you must be in the region of okay?”

He laughed. “Is Sarah going to be there?”

“I don’t know. Not even sure Alex will be there. I only talked to Nell.”

“I hope he is. I think she’ll need him.” He stopped, meeting her gaze outside the door. “You okay with that? With them?”

She looked a bit rueful. “We’ve all struggled with it, as you know, but…yeah. I am. I am little worried about Helenne and what she might do, but that’s their problem. Mostly.”

Ferris chuckled. “Yeah, you Bakers rally round the flag faster’n any group of people I’ve ever seen.” He tapped lightly on the door, but before he could try the handle it opened.

Sarah stood in the opening, her eyes sober and concerned. “Well, you all look a bit banged up, but alive. I still can’t believe…”

“Miz Cookie had some seriously crazy depths,” Hannah said.

Sarah laughed at that. “Lucky for me she paid for the wake in advance. I thought she looked odd that day, but kind of put it down to the funeral. Did you know she had a jazz funeral for him?”

“Wow. I wonder if they’ll get paid?”

She laughed again. “You don’t happen to be free on Friday do you, Hannah? I’ve got a gig—”

“She is
not
free,” Ferris said, taking her arm. “She has a date.”

Sarah’s brows arched. “Really? Um, does Alex know? He’s in there with Nell.”

“He knows,” Hannah said. “He’s as okay with it as he can be.”

“Are they in the kitchen?” Ferris felt it time to move on from this. “You coming with?”

“Do I need to come with?” Sarah looked from him to Hannah.

“Maybe,” Hannah said.

Sarah shut the door. “More bad news?”

Hannah kind of shrugged. “And no, Alex doesn’t know. Not sure he knows we’re coming.”

“I’ll come, if only to protect you from him.”

H
annah loved Sarah’s kitchen
. It was like walking into a hug. Except for the space occupied by Alex. He looked suspicious and defensive. Nell looked apologetic.

“Look who stopped by,” Nell said, clearly trying to let her know she hadn’t brought him in.

“What’s going on, Hannah?”

“It’s okay, Nell, as long as you promise not to tell any of the sibs until Zach’s had a chance to talk to them,” she amended.

“Zach?”

“Let’s sit down, shall we?” Sarah suggested, pulling out one of the stools on the work side of her big wooden table.

Still suspicious, but now also puzzled, Alex settled Nell and then sat next to her.

“Has Alex filled you in on things?” Hannah asked, wondering how she’d gotten roped into another situation requiring people skills.

“I have,” he said. “What’s this all about? Was there something you didn’t tell us the other night?”

“Well, duh, obviously.” She gave Nell an apologetic smile. “I’m better with dead people, sorry, that’s wrong, too.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Nell said, unease turning to puzzled. “Just take your time.”

“I’m better over the phone, but this isn’t the kind of thing you tell someone over the phone.”

Nell’s color faded. “Someone…died?”

“No!” Hannah exchanged a worried look with Sarah. “At least, this is New Orleans. Someone died, but not someone—actually, just the opposite. Someone—they are both alive. Charlie and Ellie, I mean.” How not to break news, she mentally castigated herself.

“Alive?” Nell started up. “Where?”

“Here. They moved here about the time things got crazy for you. They saw your picture in this online magazine. Your books…they wanted—they were afraid to make things worse. I found them by, well, kind of by accident.” No need to mention she’d worried they turned into geriatric murderers.

“You’ve talked to them?” Alex said, a bit grimly. “Zach? Zach knows?”

Hannah gave him a look and turned back to Nell. “They’d like to, you know, meet you. If you’d like to meet them?”

Her eyes filled with tears. She covered her mouth with her hand. Sniffed. “If? Oh my gosh. When? How? Where? They’ve been together? Please tell me they at least had each other….”

Hannah nodded, her eyes pricking with tears. “They are living at the Happy Endings Retirement Center.”

Nell laughed, a laugh that broke on a sob. She looked at Alex. “I have a grandmother that doesn’t suck.”

“And she has a wicked sense of humor,” Sarah said, wiping tears from her eyes, too.

Alex folded Nell into his arms, holding her tight as her shoulders shook. He looked at his little sister over her head. Hannah held up a hand. “Save it for Zach. I’m just a bit part in that story. An accidental walk on.”

Nell pulled back, wiping at her face with her fists. “I want to see them, talk to them…”

Hannah pulled out her cell and handed it to. “Just punch that number.”

Nell looked at, then looked at the phone, hesitated, then pressed it and held the phone to her ear. It only had time to ring once.

“H-hello? Grandma? It’s Nell.”