Force of Habit: A Falcone & Driscoll Investigation (25 page)

“Don hid in the closet, and Sandy read a big book from the nightstand. When Ms. Falcone came home, Sandy hid behind the bedroom door and locked it as soon as Ms. Falcone came into the room.”

“She read my Bible?”

“If that’s what the big book is. Sandy always had this weird religious streak.”

Giulia wondered what Blake would think of her religious background. Or if he even cared. He might not wonder anymore why she was still a virgin, if he knew. “Urnu threw me onto the floor and trapped me in a scissor hold. He pulled my hair so I had to look up and told me he’d staged this for me.”

Aida came out from the exam room and piled ointment, gauze, and ibuprofen packets in Giulia’s lap. “In case you don’t have them at home, honey. Insurance covers these supplies anyway. Be back in a minute with a bag.” She walked through the door at the far end of the hall.

Giulia’s heart glitched. “I never thought about that. I don’t have insurance any more. I can’t pay for any of this.”

Frank’s frown rivaled one of Hogarth’s. “What are you talking about? Of course you have insurance. I gave the receptionist all the information she needed.”

“But we agreed.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

Hogarth cleared his throat. “I knew it was too good to be true, Ms. Falcone. What happened after Donald had you on the floor?”

Giulia couldn’t process it. Frank hated her. He thought she used sex as power, just like Urnu. Oh, God, no. She was the polar opposite of Urnu. But Frank didn’t—

“Ms. Falcone?” Hogarth had his teddy-bear expression again.

Later. Think about it later.
“Um... He said he took the photos and doctored them. He bragged about his computer skills. Do you know about the photos?”

“Frank told me. Go on.”

She didn’t want to describe this. Not in this public hall with janitors and doctors and nurses walking by every few minutes.

Blake said, “I can help.”

Blake wanted to make things easy for her? Like she wasn’t sub-human? Was Hell freezing over?

“Sandy climbed on top of me, but Don called her over and she went, just like a dog.” Blake shrugged. “For a woman who liked to control, she sure knew who her master was. She slapped Ms. Falcone several times, and then the two of them took off her clothes.”

“
Go dtachta an diabhal iad
.”

Hogarth stopped typing. “Frank, speak English.”

“Never mind.” Frank looked up as the opposite door opened.

Giulia took a steadying breath. “I can finish. Urnu told Sandra to have Mr. Parker watch and then said he was going to punish me for, for biting instead of sucking.”

“Did he explain that? Frank, what’s the problem now?”

Frank stared at Urnu being wheeled out of the room across from Giulia by a muscular male nurse. Handcuffs fastened Urnu’s wrists to the arms of the wheelchair. His swollen face already had the beginnings of bruises, but they didn’t affect his teeth-baring smile.

“Your little virgin looks good naked, Driscoll. Think of my hands on her if you ever get her into bed.”

Giulia never saw Frank
move. One moment he was leaning against the wall next to her. The next moment Captain Hogarth and Blake were dragging him off Urnu, and Urnu’s mouth was gushing blood.

“Bastard! Let go, Jimmy—I’m gonna beat the shit out of him!”

Hogarth shoved Frank’s shoulder against the wall. “Frank! Get a hold of yourself!”

“He’s the bastard who tried to rape Giulia in the park. Let go of me, Jimmy!”

Blake put his weight against Frank’s other shoulder. “You can’t fight both of us at once. Back down.”

Hogarth jerked his head at Urnu. “Nurse, get the prisoner out of here and tape his mouth shut, will you?”

Urnu spat, and a tooth clinked onto the floor. “Tell him, virgin—tell him how I’ll mount you in front of Raging Death. Tell him how I’ll cut out your heart and eat it—”

Hogarth kicked Urnu’s wheelchair. “Shut up, freak, or we’ll let Frank go and I won’t officially see anything he does to you.”

The nurse stopped gaping and wheeled Urnu backward into the exam room, as Pamela van Alstyne barreled through the double doors at the end of the hall.

“Blake! Blake, darling, are you all right?” She launched herself at him. “I got a speeding ticket because of you, you ridiculous man. What happened? Oh—your neck—is it serious? Do you need a transfusion? I don’t know my blood type, but I’m sure our family doctor does.” She clutched Blake and wept into his collar.

Blake looked over her head at Frank and Hogarth. He’d lost his grip on Frank when Pamela crashed into him, but both men were gawking at Pamela anyway.

“Pammy, it’s not serious. The crazy stalker stabbed me, but I’m all stitched up now.”

“Stabbed you? Oh, Blake, when the policeman called I thought you were going to die.” She stopped sobbing and raised a beautiful, tear-streaked face to him. “I thought I was going to die. You’re never leaving my side again, Blake Parker, do you hear me? Never.”

Pamela extracted a lace-edged handkerchief from a minuscule evening bag and wiped her eyes. Then she held out her hand to Frank. “Mr. Driscoll, thank you so much for explaining those evil photographs to me. I was such a jealous fool.”

She turned to Giulia. “Ms. Falcone, please accept my apologies. I allowed my emotions to override my common sense.”

Giulia was sure she just heard Pamela say Frank had told her the photos were faked. She held up her bandaged hands. “I’m afraid I can’t shake hands, but of course I accept your apology.” It must have been a trick of her ears.

“Ms. Falcone, whatever happened to you?”

Blake put his arm around Pamela. “She’s a hero, Pammy. Sandra and her brother kidnapped me. Ms. Falcone was injured trying to get a knife away from Sandra.”

“Sandra Falke was stalking us?” Pamela’s elegant nose wrinkled. “I should have known. Of all your dalliances, she was the only one without a pedigree.”

A coughing fit struck Hogarth. Frank slapped Hogarth’s back, and they both turned and faced the wall.

“Ms. Falcone, I don’t know how to thank you. You’ll come to our wedding, of course. And if there’s ever anything we can do for you, don’t hesitate to contact us.” She touched her cheek to Giulia’s and kissed the air near Giulia’s ear. “Can we go home, Blake? I’ll have Pilar make
gambas pil
pil
just for the two of us. I know how much you like them.”

Blake grinned. “Frank, you’ll have a check tomorrow morning. A wedding invitation, too. Ms. Falcone, thank you.” He leaned over her chair and spoke in Giulia’s ear as Pamela replaced the handkerchief in her bag. “You’re one helluva woman.”

He kissed Pamela’s hand before he returned to his wheelchair. “I’m all yours, Pammy.”

Pamela didn’t stoop to a girlish giggle, but Giulia detected a touch of foolishness in her smile. She pushed him into the reception area and the doors swung closed behind them.

Giulia blew out a breath. “Frank, I don’t think all of Blake’s drugs wore off yet. He just spoke to me as an equal.”

Hogarth finally stopped choking. “Dalliances? Pedigree? Was the woman serious?”

Frank didn’t smile. “Big of him, Giulia. Yes, Jimmy, she was. I’m amazed she condescended to talk to me this morning. Being the hired help and all.”

Hogarth leaned on the supply cart and reread the last sentences on his laptop screen. “Ms. Falcone, you were finishing your report when that touching reunion happened. I’d like to get you and Frank out of here before I transport the snake to jail. What happened after you realized he was the one who attacked you in the park last week?”

Almost done. Then maybe she’d never have to think about Urnu again. “When he was watching his sister for a minute I worked my arm free—he’d tangled my sweater around my arms and they were stuck above my head—I hit his nose. I don’t know how much force I put behind that one, but he lost his balance and then I punched his nose as hard as I could.” She almost smiled. “Did I really break it?”

“You did. I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance to do more. Then what happened?”

“His sister attacked me with her knife. That’s when I fell into the closet doors and broke them. Urnu grabbed my ankle and Sandra slashed me. I heard Frank yelling in the hall and kicking my door, and I grabbed her wrists. Then Frank was at the bedroom door and I almost got away, but she came at me again and I missed my grip and grabbed the knife blade instead.”

“When I busted in, Falke’s brother grabbed my ankle and I kicked him.” Frank took a tongue depressor from the supply cart and tapped it erratically on the cart’s metal rim. “Knocked his head against the wall, I guess, because he stayed out for a while. I warned Falke to get off Giulia. Instead, she pulled the knife free and tried to plant it in Giulia’s chest. That’s when I shot her.”

Hogarth typed for another minute and closed the laptop. “That should do it for tonight. Frank, I’ll start the mountain of paperwork you’ll need to fill out because of the shooting. You’ve got Parker and Ms. Falcone as witnesses, so it won’t be much more than a giant pain in the ass. Stop in to the station tomorrow for all that. Call Parker and tell him to come down, too.”

“Got it.”

“Ms. Falcone, you’re a strong lady. Make sure you tell Frank just how lucky he is to have you.” He kissed Giulia’s cheek. “And remember, if you ever want a better job—”

Frank pushed Giulia’s wheelchair past Hogarth. “Good night, Jimmy. Thanks, Jimmy. See you tomorrow, Jimmy.”

“Wait, Frank.” Giulia twisted in the wheelchair. “Captain Hogarth, thank you for everything. And I really am unemployed—”

“No, you’re not.” Frank spun her chair around and backed her through the doors to the main entrance. “I’m just getting my car. Don’t go anywhere.”

Giulia stayed put because exhaustion had planted a sixteen-ton weight on her chest.

“You okay, honey?” Aida returned and scooped all the supplies into a blue plastic hospital bag.

“Just tired.”

“The cops took the psycho out another door and off to jail, so you won’t have to hear his foul mouth anymore.”

That lifted half the weight. “Oh. Good.” Giulia smiled up at her. “When’s your next night off?”

“Wednesday, honey. Why?”

“I told you. Girls’ night out. First drink’s on me.” Giulia stopped smiling. “That is, I mean, I’m not trying to push you, I just want to thank you for how kind you’ve been.”

Aida stooped and hugged her—gently. “Honey, I can count on two fingers the patients who’ve ever looked at me like I was a human being and not a piece of hospital equipment.” She chuckled. “Not including the unconscious ones, of course. I haven’t had a girls’ night out in ages. Where do you want to meet?”

“Have you been to the Mexican place downtown, Salsa Fresca? I heard they make a great margarita.”

“If there’s a margarita, I’m all for it. Seven okay with you?”

Giulia gave her a modified thumbs-up. “Fine. You’ll be able to spot me. I’ll be the one with the spiffy hand accessories.”

Frank’s Camry stopped before the sliding doors.

Giulia leaned against the
headrest and closed her eyes. This wasn’t much different from her last strained car ride with Frank. Employment status in doubt, reputation still in shreds, silence the width of the Antarctic between them.

She didn’t look like the loser in a cat fight that time. She glanced to her left. Frank had the same frown on his face, though. Well, she was tired and hurting and in no shape to battle her boss. Ex-boss.

“Frank, why did you tell Captain Hogarth I still work for you?”

“Not now. I’m driving.”

At the next stoplight, she said to the dashboard, “Did I hear Pamela say you told her the photos were fakes?”

“I said, not now.”

At least you listen to me, dashboard. You need dusting. Frank should take better care of you. I need more than dusting. I should take better care of me. Let’s weep on each other’s shoulders. You don’t have shoulders. Sorry.

“Giulia, wake up. We’re here.”

White light from tall metal halide lamps illuminated the inside of the car. A breeze with the scent of running water blew against her face. Frank had opened the windows. Nice smell.

She yawned. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to crash.” She looked through the windshield at the spotlit sign of some hotel or other. “Why are we here?”

“Your apartment is a crime scene. You can’t go back there for a few days.”

“What? All my stuff is in there. My purse—”

“Your purse is in the back seat. I took it off the counter when I left with Blake.”

“Didn’t you break the front door? It won’t lock. I’m not sure all my neighbors are trustworthy.”

“Jimmy’s guys took care of it. He sent for your landlord and a locksmith while they were loading you onto the stretcher.”

That made sense. She guessed. Muscles ached in places she didn’t even know had muscles. They didn’t make thinking easy. The ibuprofen packets in the bag on her lap looked good. She could probably swallow two pills dry. She ran her tongue over her teeth.

“Frank, I don’t have anything with me. I need the basics: Toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant.”

Giulia looked again at the inn’s carved and painted sign.

“We’re at the Creekside? I can’t afford this place.” She sat up straight and grimaced. “All right, if I can’t go home, could you please drive me to someplace cheaper? The Sleep Cheap Inn is only a couple of miles from here. I can swing a night in there. Two if I have to.”

Frank switched off the engine and finally faced her. “You seriously want me to dump you in that cockroach haven? How do you plan to sleep? Or do nonstop eighteen-wheelers rattling the windows soothe your nerves?”

There. He dropped the polite mask. Dealing with a sarcastic Frank was cake when compared with two crazed Falkes.

“I sleep better when I’m not spending money I don’t have. In case you’ve forgotten, Mr. Driscoll, I have no job. Tonight’s events will prevent me from interviewing for a doughnut-maker position tomorrow morning. My landlord will probably evict me because of the damage to my apartment, and I’ll lose my security deposit on top of that. Ten days from now, when the stitches come out of my hands, the dollar store might have an opening for a cashier. What part of this scenario leads you to think I have money to waste at a three-star hotel?”

He slammed his hand on the gearshift. “How many times do I have to say it? You are not unemployed. You are Driscoll Investigations’ partner-in-training.”

“Since when? Yesterday afternoon I learned that I’m a bad influence on Sidney. That my skills are nonessential. That my boss is incapable of adjusting his initial conclusions no matter how wrong they are. Forget the facts, everyone. If it’s on paper, it must be true.” She bent over her aching, glued torso.

“Giulia, what hurts? Can I help?”

“Everything hurts. You weren’t there. You didn’t see it. He lied to her, and she believed him. Of course she did—he’s Urnu the Snake. He mesmerizes people. He has sex with new cult members in front of the rest of the cult. He told me that he wanted Scott in the cult only to get me in that bed.”

“Wait. I’m not following all of this. Falke’s brother wanted to have sex with the Second Violin and with you?”

“Yes, Frank, wake up. Have you missed the theme of this investigation? He tried to rape me and Pamela in the same night. Blake used all the exes for what he could get from them. Urnu convinced Sandra that sex is power. She wanted Mr. Perfect so bad that she made herself into Urnu’s slave. Didn’t you hear Blake in the hospital? Urnu snapped his fingers and Sandra got on her knees and—” She choked on the phrase. Every cell in her body had had enough of words about sex, watching sex, being forced into sex.

“And gave him a blow job.” Frank lowered his voice. “Yes, I heard him.”

Two boys and a girl on skateboards zipped past the windshield. The girl performed a kick flip and laughed as one of the boys tried and failed.

Giulia watched them rather than look at Frank. “You don’t understand the extent of their violation. She had sex with her brother in my room. She nearly had sex with Blake in my bed. She helped Urnu cut off my clothes with a knife that matched his weird-colored eyes.”

“Giulia—”

“Funny, isn’t it? I once thought what a perfect sitcom Blake in my apartment would make. It turned out to be porn theater of the absurd. Sandra must’ve been Urnu’s prize pupil—she graduated from dressing up Barbies to undressing me in two short weeks.”
Shut up, Giulia. Frank doesn’t care. Go live under a bridge so you’ll bother no one but the rats. You don’t matter.
“Forget it. I don’t know why I’m explaining all this to you. You told me more than once what you think of me. Look, if you could just drive me to the Sleep Cheap, the last words you’ll ever have to hear from me are ‘Thanks for the ride.’ ”

“I don’t... I mean...
hifreann is damnú
. Giulia, before I drive you anywhere, don’t you want to know how I showed up at your door just in time to be the hero?”

She moved her eyes to Frank’s face. “That’s right. You did.”

“Where is an appreciative audience when I need one?” He formed a tentative smile. “You gave me the idea, you know. I went back to the office this afternoon to see what you’d worked on. I read your notes about an accomplice and I threw them away.”

“You what?”

“I know, I know. I was mad. Don’t say anything yet. Why didn’t you open the overnight delivery?”

She rolled her eyes. “Because I never open mail not addressed to me.”

“Thought so. You should’ve broken that rule for once. It came from my friend in D.C. who did the fingerprint check.”

“The pomegranates. Of course.”

“My friend e-mailed me on Friday to tell me it was coming. That’s why I went to the office Saturday. When I didn’t see it on the door, I assumed he didn’t make the Saturday delivery cut-off. Not till this morning did it occur to me that you might’ve picked it up and brought it to my desk. I didn’t have time before orchestra call to go to the office, but I dashed there as soon as the show was over. I found a charming photo of one Sandra Falke with spiky hair and too much makeup holding a row of numbers across her chest.”

Giulia’s brain went from “standby” to “on.”

“Sandra was arrested once?”

“Yup. In college, for possession. Half an ounce of pot. Only an overnight jail stay, but her fingerprints are on record.” Frank’s smile changed from amused to exasperated. “I picked up the phone to call you and remembered you were out with the Second Violin. I called Blake. No answer. I wonder if that’s when Sandra and Don were following him, waiting for the right moment to slip him their combo drug.”

“Did you go after Sandra?”

“No, I decided to park in Blake’s driveway and wait for him. I didn’t want to deal with more of his ‘I need that promotion’ whining. I wanted his express permission to take this to the police. I would’ve gone anyway if he said no. As I crossed the threshold, I stepped on one of those six-by-nine envelopes.”

“Oh, God.”

“It was a note like the others. Part of it read, ‘It’s time for you to be punished,’ and another part said, ‘Your friends have turned into your enemies.’ Or something like that. There was a photo of you on your bed, too.”

“I don’t want to know, Frank.”

“Yes, you do. You were naked—”

“I said—”

“Shut up, Giulia. You were naked and your chest was cut open and your heart was missing. For one second, I thought she’d already killed you. But she wrote a time and date in the corner: ‘Midnight, Monday, June eighteenth.’ Ten minutes from now.”

Giulia saw herself on her rug, on her bed, Urnu and Sandra keeping her alive from six until midnight raping her and cutting her until the Snake chose to finish his battle ritual. She remembered now: when Sandra had asked for the knife to take Giulia’s underwear, Urnu said something like, “Not time for it yet.” The image of herself, filleted, expanded in her head until she saw nothing else.
What else would they have done? Would they have violated me
together? Would they have forced Blake to assist? Would they have forced that drug into me so I couldn’t stop myself from enjoying—

“Giulia. Giulia, stop shaking. You’re safe now. She’s dead. He’s in jail. You’re with me. You’re okay.” Frank pushed the hospital supplies onto the floor mat and contorted his body until his left leg straddled the shift and he balanced half on Giulia’s seat and half on the hard plastic catchall between the seats. Then he put his arms around her, and with a light touch rested her head on his chest. “Does that hurt anything?”

“No.”

“Okay, now just listen for a minute. That photo looked just as real as the other ones. I turned on all the lights and got the loupe and studied them. I looked at the one you said showed the rug instead of the sheet. I looked at shadows and angles of light.” He swallowed and her head moved with his Adam’s apple. “I realized that if one photo was faked, then all of them could be faked.”

Giulia shouldered herself out of Frank’s embrace. “I told you that from the moment she taped them to the door.”

“I was furious, Giulia. All the bragging Blake’s done over the years rushed into my head, and I jumped to conclusions. You don’t want to know how many women he’s slept with. The last time a girl said no to him, he was a senior and she was a Bible-thumping freshman. She actually lectured him on purity. He repeated most of it to me and got ticked off when I laughed.”

“So you decided to un-fire me.” Anger—good, clean, righteous—filled her with a hit of energy. “Rather, you decided to overlook the fact that I quit yesterday.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll say it as often as you want. I was a pig-headed idiot who didn’t know enough to analyze the facts without emotion.”

“That’s a start. So tell me why I should keep working for you.”

“Because you’re talented. Because you’ll be wasted stocking cheap shampoo and stale candy at the dollar store.” He rested his hand on her shoulder, but without the protective embrace. “Because you’re not a pig-headed idiot who digs in her heels and won’t accept an apology.”

A man and woman parked two spaces over, their car swathed in white paper streamers and finger-painted everywhere with phrases like
Just Married
,
Congratulations
, and
Honk and they’ll kiss
. They walked to the inn’s front door, kissing, and half a dozen people appeared at the entrance, throwing rice and blowing bubbles.

Giulia stared at Frank’s dashboard, looking for a cosmic answer in its dust patterns. Frank had been a first-class worm for days, but he’d just saved her from a terrifying death. And she wouldn’t be the Franciscan she still was inside if she refused to forgive him.

“Sandra sent me the same note.”

Frank’s arm twitched. “What?”

“The one you said she attached to the last photo. She broke into my apartment Saturday and hid it in my flute case.” How calm she sounded. “I don’t know which Prophet said it, but she found an effective closing line: ‘You are fallen, never to rise again.’ ”

Frank snatched away his arm. “She broke into your place yesterday? Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve—”

“You would’ve what?” Giulia bounced against the seat when he moved, and her glued skin stretched. “Told me to ask Scott for protection? Told me how appropriate it was that my apartment was open to all, just like I spread my legs for anyone who asked?” Her desire to forgive evaporated. “I tried to tell you before and after the show. You turned your back on me both times.”