Lexington Connection (27 page)

“No wonder you acted like you could take anyone you wanted,” Jessie said in a low voice. “No wonder it was so casual, just when you were in the mood. No wonder it was always on your terms. Just like your father.”

“Jessie, it wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like?” Jessie demanded, advancing on Diana, shaking off Julie’s arm. “Tell me what it was like for you when I was so glad to hear from you, to know I had you for a few days. Tell me what it was like when I came to you, wanting you, trusting you.” She forgot Diana’s warning about Margaret, or didn’t consider it when she took hold of Diana, so she was totally unprepared for Margaret’s hands on her when Margaret jerked her away from Diana and slammed her against the wall.

“No!” Diana ordered as she stepped in between the two women. She felt someone at her back and realized that while she was pushing back Margaret, Julie was preventing Jessie from coming back at them. “It’s all right, Margaret,” Diana assured her bodyguard and hoped she was right. “Just a little knowledge.”

“A little knowledge,” Jessie spat out over Julie’s shoulder. “A little knowledge would have been you had another girlfriend. A little knowledge would have been you were married.” Jessie was shaking, but letting Julie keep her back against the wall. “Being the daughter of one of America’s regional crime lords is not a little knowledge.”

Diana turned around, dismayed to see the anger, revulsion on Jessie’s face. “Neither was you being a cop,” she said calmly, surprised at her relief it was out in the open now.

“I never hid that. It just didn’t get said. You assumed I worked at the horse farms because we never talked about our jobs. However, we did talk about our families!”

Julie still stood between them, she still wouldn’t let Jessie away from the wall as she looked over her shoulder at Diana and Margaret.

“Yes, we did,” Diana agreed quietly.

“And you never said—” Jessie broke off, unable to even say anything else. “You never—All those times—” She closed her eyes, breathing hard, still angry. “Damn you, Diana. Damn, I wish I’d never laid eyes on you!” She turned away then, hiding against the wall as Julie put her arm around her.

Diana took a step forward only to be stopped twice, once by Margaret’s hand on her arm, the second by the look Julie gave her as she protectively stood in front of Jessie. She gave a last lingering look at Jessie and turned toward Margaret.
Too much, too much happening all at once. Maybe jail would be peaceful and quiet.

“Come away.” Margaret drew Diana out of the room. “Come out into the kitchen.”                

***

Jessie reeled from the shock, unable to fully comprehend, and yet it explained so many things. No wonder Waldo was cautious; no wonder Margaret was a bodyguard; no wonder Diana needed a safe house. No wonder. She just couldn’t believe it. She slid down the wall, crumpled into Julie’s arms.

The worst of it was remembering how open she had been with Diana, how she had trusted her. She had talked about her father, talked about Nicki, talked about Julie, she had laid bare her emotional vulnerabilities, and Diana had sat there and listened. Oh, God, she had even
wanted
her,
desired
her, and now it was like—like something sordid and revolting.

“Calm down, Jessie,” Julie soothed as she stroked Jessie’s hair.

Jessie shook her head. “You don’t know, you don’t understand.”

“I understand you’ve had a shock,” Julie spoke quietly, soothingly. “I understand you’re upset.”

“Upset!” Jessie raised up to stare into Julie’s face. “Upset? I’m upset when I can’t find my car keys, I’m upset when I spill the milk, I’m upset when I’m overdrawn at the bank. This is way past upset.”

“Yes, I understand,” Julie repeated.

“No, you don’t.” Jessie leaned back against the wall. “You don’t understand about Czar Randalson. He’s had his fingers in every piece of criminal pie in the entire region. Drugs, gambling, prostitution, trafficking. You name it, and he’s into it or behind it or bringing it here.” She shuddered at her contact with it. “We’ve been after him for years but he’s always had slippery lawyers, or scared off witnesses, or paid people off. We’ve been thwarted at every turn.”

“But that’s him,” Julie pointed out carefully. “We’re dealing with Diana.”

“It’s the same thing!” Jessie got to her feet, shaking in her emotion of mixed rage and newfound fear and even shame of her association with Diana.

“No, it’s not.” Julie got to her feet and still faced Jessie.

“Are you defending her?” Jessie challenged her.

Julie looked confused. “Not exactly,” she said. “But yes. For as scary as Diana is, she is the one who took us out of Waldo’s clutches. She didn’t have to, not if she’s as terrible as you say her father is.”

“We take a dim view of cop killers,” Jessie said menacingly.

“He wasn’t going to kill you, Jessie,” Julie said slowly. “And I’m not a cop.”

“
What!
” Jessie gasped, unable to believe that Julie knew. Diana had said she wouldn’t tell her. Did she lie about that too?

“They threatened me with a lot of things, but they assured me they weren’t going to kill you.” Julie swallowed, paused in an effort to regain some composure. “I think Diana can be scary as hell when she wants to be, but I don’t think it’s in her nature. She came in and got us both away, not knowing for sure if she could cross her family. Even now we’re sitting in her safe house, hiding from everyone, your people and her people. That doesn’t sound like her father to me.”

Jessie refused to even think there might be something good. “We’re just bargaining chips!”

“For what? With whom?”

Jessie made no response. She had no answer.

Julie went to Jessie and put her arms around her. “Jessie, I know you feel betrayed. I understand that. I would be, too. But I’m not sure Diana’s betrayed you. Yes, she didn’t tell you, but what would you have done if she had?”

Jessie tried to think but she couldn’t, not coherently. “I don’t know.” She was calmer now, at least if she tried to think of Diana and not her father. Right now, she didn’t want to think. If she thought, all she could see in her mind’s eye was Diana, bigger than life.

“Come, sit down,” Julie coaxed. “You need to absorb this.” She looked. This room didn’t have many chairs, which meant the library or the kitchen. Margaret decided for her when she came to the door.

“You need to come in here.” It didn’t sound like an invitation.

Jessie shook her head. Margaret’s attitude was probably going to change now. She’d really screwed it up this time, but maybe it was just as well. It would be hard to be treated as a “guest” with the way she was feeling about Diana.

“Come sit down,” Margaret ordered, pointing to the chair at the table. There were already two mugs waiting for them. “I brewed tea, lemon balm, soothing. Relaxing. You need it.”

Jessie sat down, not sure about Margaret’s changed attitude. Maybe she needed to check the tea for poison. No, the way she felt right now, she’d drink it.

“You too,” Margaret pointed to Julie. “Have some tea.”

“Where’s Diana?” Julie asked.

“She had some things to take care of.” Margaret looked at Jessie but she spoke to Julie. “She tells me her papa is dying.” When Julie made no response, Margaret turned to look at her. Jessie even turned to see what her answer would be.

“Is that true?” Jessie demanded.

Julie opened her mouth but said nothing, shook her head. “I can’t say,” she said finally.

“That was not a question. Diana said it was so.” Margaret leaned back in the chair. She didn’t look displeased. “That means changes.”

“Yeah.” Jessie sat up, still upset, but the ramifications sank in. She looked at Julie, back at Margaret.

“I know you are upset with Diana,” Margaret said slowly. “That’s how I felt when I found out about you.” Jessie bristled. “I thought you would get my Diana killed.” She looked Jessie over. “Now, how many years later, I still have the same fear.”

“Look,” Jessie protested. “I never put Diana in danger.”

Margaret stared at Jessie for several minutes. “You listen,” she said finally. “You don’t hear.”

“Damn it!” Jessie shot to her feet, glancing at Julie. Diana had told her the same thing. Julie had even said the same thing. She was tired of hearing this. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She glared at Margaret. “If you’ve got something against me, then spit it out in plain language. Maybe I’ll hear it then.”

Margaret didn’t even look perturbed. “Against you? I could write a book, but I’ll start with the simple things so even a smart cop like you can understand.” Her sarcasm was scathing.

Jessie drew back, surprised at the depth of Margaret’s animosity. Julie caught her by the arm. Margaret saw and didn’t even blink. “You got a warning that your undercover role was blown, a big risk to Diana. And did you listen? No, you knew better. So how did you like the months in the hospital? Surgeries?” She sneered. “Maybe you still have nightmares from it. Maybe you see the whole thing again. Maybe even today, you wake up in a cold sweat.”

Jessie fell back into the chair, unable to comprehend what Margaret was saying. “Diana?” Julie looked from Margaret to Jessie, but Jessie couldn’t drag her eyes from Margaret’s face. She shook her head. “No,” she said in disbelief.

Margaret watched her. “She told you point-blank, ‘Don’t go. You’ve been made.’ Did you listen?” Margaret shook her head. “No. But Diana knew. She knew you. So she goes to see for herself. She loses all common sense when you’re involved.”

Jessie was stunned into silence.

“I couldn’t believe it when she disappeared that day,” Margaret went on. “She’d never done anything in the field before, a babe in the woods. And hit men like Kaplan never leave witnesses, no matter who they are.” She continued to glare at Jessie. “As soon as I heard, Kaplan killed, female cop in the hospital, oh, I knew, I knew then where she was.” She glared at Jessie. “Such a risk, she didn’t even know how big a risk. For you.”

Jessie reached out to take hold of the table. She had to hold on to something solid. All of it came flooding back, the informant, the familiarity, the little things she couldn’t put together. She had had the idea it might be Diana. She found nothing to prove it. Or disprove it. “Margaret, I didn’t know. Really.”

Margaret folded her arms. “She warned you.”

“I didn’t know where it came from.”

“You were
warned
?” Julie burst out as she finally realized what they were talking about.

“It was an anonymous tip,” Jessie said as an aside to Julie.

“Did you really expect a name and address?” Margaret mocked.

Jessie searched Margaret’s face. She had to be lying, but how could she be? Who knew? “Then she was the one who tracked down the inside leak, Henderson, the dirty cop,” Jessie said suddenly. “How did she do that? What did she know?”

“My Diana, she knows a lot,” Margaret started.

“Margaret!” A cold, emotionless, hard voice from the hallway door. They all jerked around to see Diana there, an angry Diana who fastened her equally cold gaze on Margaret. “You talk too much.”

“Maybe you don’t talk enough.”

“Is that true?” Jessie stood up, just as much to deflect Diana’s anger from Margaret as to elicit more information. “Were you the woman in the clearing?”

Diana never took her gaze from Margaret, who didn’t move. “Yes.”

“But why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why should I?”

“I would have believed you.”

“You don’t think I was taking enough of a risk that I should reveal my identity to someone in a department where there was a leak?” She finally looked at Jessie. “God, Jessie, get real.”

“I wouldn’t have identified you.”

“Well, I figured what you didn’t know you couldn’t say.” She looked back at Margaret. “Not like some other people.”

Margaret braced herself. Diana looked over at Julie, who looked from one of them to the next, completely confused.

There was a moment’s silence when no one spoke and they all stood looking at each other, waiting. Then Jessie managed to put things together even more. “You used my gun.”

“I didn’t carry a weapon then. It wasn’t until after that I thought it might be more prudent on occasion.” Diana came on into the kitchen, walked by Margaret and opened the cabinet for a glass, opened the refrigerator for the pitcher of iced tea. “A lot of things changed after that.”

“You killed him,” Jessie repeated, still trying to put the final pieces together.

“Considering he was standing right over us, I didn’t have many options.” She took a drink, turned around to face Jessie. “You think I had any other choice?”

Jessie shook her head. “I—I couldn’t remember, just him asking what you were doing there.”

“Yeah, he was a little surprised.” Diana drank the tea. “Then you were bleeding like mad, your backup wasn’t anywhere close. Thought Life Flight would never get there. I was never so happy to hear sirens in my life, before or since.”

“How’d you get away?”

“First one there must have been a rookie. Put him on you so you didn’t bleed to death. Told him I’d direct the others in. Pointed them in and walked into the trees. Guess I got lost in the confusion.”

Jessie shook her head. Every time she thought she knew everything, something else was revealed. “You could have gotten killed.”

“It never occurred to me.” Diana looked directly at Jessie. “Remember, I have tunnel vision.” Margaret made some unintelligible sound.

“Why did you do it?” Jessie asked in bewilderment.

Margaret made some sound of disgust as she got up and even Julie looked at Jessie in amazement.

“And what was I supposed to do?” Diana asked. “Let them kill you?”

“You could have—” Jessie started her stock answer of calling the police but stopped before she finished it. Diana raised her eyebrows and shook her head. Jessie collapsed back into the chair. “I didn’t know,” she said weakly. She buried her face in her hands.

Her mind was a whirl, she could not take it all in. First, Diana’s father. She still couldn’t get a grip on it, like someone beloved turned into a monster right in front of her. Then right on the heels of that, the monster turned into the guardian angel. How was she supposed to cope?