Love Under Two Benedicts (16 page)

“Oh, I know. I know it’s not my fault. That’s not always how it feels.” She lay back against the stacked up pillows. Her mind replayed the dream that had catapulted her from sleep. Then she frowned. “This one was different.”

“How so?” Matthew asked.

“It
felt
different. Usually, I’m in the car, looking at the store, watching Philip’s progress through the aisles. He was a tall man. Six and a half feet. When he went into that store carrying Sean, they were always in sight. And I would always watch because sometimes Sean would make the cutest faces. Anyway, the dream always is the same and I have this sense of danger as I’m looking at them. Only, this time, I sensed danger lurking
outside
of the store.”

“Maybe because the gunman was about to go in?” Steven asked.

“I…I don’t think so,” Kelsey said. “Something outside of the store, in the parking lot. Something that made me shiver. And this time, in my dream, when I turned to look back
at
the store, I couldn’t see them. I couldn’t see Philip and Sean.”

“Maybe it was different because you’re different,” Matthew offered. “Maybe because you’re moving on with your life, a little.”

“Maybe,” Kelsey said.

“Think you can go back to sleep now, sweetheart?” Matthew asked.

Kelsey knew she was still a little shaky from the nightmare. Yet she also felt better in its aftermath than she’d ever felt after one. She snuggled down into the bed and sighed when Matthew and Steven surrounded her with their heat and, yes, their love.

Kelsey’s mind lingered on the meaning of her nightmare even as sleep began to claim her again. Maybe Matthew was right. Perhaps the significance of the dream was simple. Maybe her subconscious was telling her that Philip and Sean really were gone, and it was time for her to move on with her life.

* * * *

Matthew found himself easily distracted as he pursued the threads of the investigation the next morning. He and Adam were both deep into the search for Benny’s mother. Despite the sense of mission he felt, more than once he found himself stopping and staring off into space.

He’d risen with Steven, showered, and left while Kelsey was still asleep in their bed. Neither of them had wanted to wake her. Steven planned to do just the necessary first-thing-in-the-morning chores, and then, if Benny was still asleep, head back to bed and some private loving time with their woman.

Matthew scanned the data he’d gotten from the Department of Motor Vehicles while his mind also grappled with another mystery. Something about Kelsey’s dream nagged at him, but damned if he could put his finger on what or why. Finally, he got up to pour himself a second cup of coffee, then stopped by Adam’s desk. He wanted to pull a string. Because it would be a personal use of department resources, he’d run it by Adam. He wouldn’t do so if the sheriff said no.

“What’s up?” Adam asked.

“I want to call Carmichael over in Austin and ask him to send me the file on the murder of Kelsey’s family.”

“She was pretty upset last night,” Adam said. “It must be hard, trying to take care of your woman without knowing all the facts. Sure, go ahead.”

“Thanks.” Matthew hesitated for just a moment, then shrugged. “It isn’t that. Or rather, it isn’t just that. She had a nightmare last night, and when she told me about it, something got my cop instincts quivering.”

Adam raised his right eyebrow. “In that case,
hell yes
, go ahead and get that information.”

“Thanks.” Matthew went back to his desk and put in a quick call to his acquaintance on the Austin P. D.
 
Patrick Carmichael promised to dig the file out of the archives and send it along. He thought it had been stored digitally, which would mean Matthew could have the information as soon as that afternoon, if he was lucky. He thanked the man, then went back to work on the dozens of tiny details that most people didn’t realize comprised the brunt of police work.

He and Adam were scanning a list of vehicle registrations. There’d been so many they’d split the list in half.

“Trying to see how many cream and rust-colored ten-year-old Ford Crown Vics there are in this part of the state is proving to be a pain in the ass,” Adam said.
 
He sat back, rubbed his eyes. “I was thinking of sending a BOLO to the Highway Patrol, anyway.”

“It can’t hurt. What about the hospitals?” Matthew asked. He waited and knew when Adam understood.

“Now there’s a thought. Woman’s scared enough of her boyfriend to leave her child behind, you have to figure the prick’s put her in the hospital at least once already.”

“I know that article on the restaurant in the Waco
Tribune-Herald
was picked up by papers in Austin and Dallas, but I’m going to focus on the hospitals in Waco. I don’t think the woman came from that far away.”

“Good thinking,” Adam said.

Matthew shrugged. “Hell, I have to do something. I promised Benny I’d try and find his mom today.”

“You know,” Adam said, “he doesn’t seem as upset as I would expect a child to be who’d been dumped with strangers.”

“He said something last night about his mother telling him that Kelsey would babysit him. Which means she prepared him for this. Even so, you’d think he’d be hysterical. He is only four. At that age, usually, a kid can’t reason well.”

“Unless he’s had to grow up pretty fast,” Adam said.

Matthew nodded. Adam’s tone of resignation matched his own feelings. Then he remembered what Kelsey had said in the aftermath of her nightmare last night. “A mother’s first sacred duty is to protect her child no matter what,” he said now.

“Pardon?”

“After Kelsey’s nightmare last night, Steven and I were trying to reassure her that her son’s death wasn’t her fault.”

“Of course it wasn’t,” Adam said.

“Well, Kelsey said she knew that, but that it had been her duty as his mother to protect her son. Yesterday, I was pretty pissed at the woman who’d desert a little boy, leaving him with strangers. Now I think I’m feeling a little more compassionate. Maybe the woman believed this was her only option to keep Benny safe, to protect her child.”

Matthew saw Adam’s jaw tighten. His cousin, for all that he was a man of the twenty-first century, had a lot of old-fashioned notions and could be pretty rigid in his beliefs sometimes. In some areas, there was only black and white for Adam Kendall, no shades of grey.

Finally, Adam said, “It’s not my place to judge the woman. Let’s find her first. You could be right in your assessment, but I’ll tell you what I know. Hell, what we both know, really. If she did leave the boy here to keep him safe or to please that bastard she’s with—well, that doesn’t bode well for her to my way of thinking. She’s still likely to get beat on.”

“We’re certainly on the same page there,” Matthew said.

* * * *

“Fucking kid.” Connors had been stewing since the evening before, when he’d watched his well thought-out plan disintegrate before his very eyes. Now, twelve hours later, he paced his motel room on the outskirts of Waco and tried to come up with a new plan.

He had to act soon because he was running out of time. He’d had everything planned last night, knew exactly what he was going to do. After making eye contact with that bitch in her restaurant, he was going to “accidentally” run into her as she locked up the place that night. That was one of the few times she was alone, without either one of those muscle-boys hanging around her. He’d watched her lock up several times now, and he knew her routine and the routine of the community. That hick town all but rolled up the sidewalks at night. There would have been no one around to even see him.

Thank God Cora Lynn’s mother had fallen and broken her hip. He couldn’t believe his luck and had insisted his wife go and stay with her mother in Houston for however long it took for her to
 
be better.

Win-win for him because his wife thought him a hero and he had time to deal with the Madison woman.

He figured he’d been home, and home free, by now.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Drawing back the curtain, he peered out at the early morning activity. Folks were traveling, some on vacations, some off to work. Offices and coffee shops and malls would be collecting their employees, getting ready for the retail crowd.

Bleary-eyed, most folks just went about their business, their Monday morning routine so ingrained they never thought twice, never
looked
twice.

An idea occurred to him, and he sat for a moment, thinking it through.

He knew where the Madison woman lived, a small apartment building at one edge of town. He knew where she spent most nights and that she drove herself there. And he also knew that she would return to her own apartment when her lover, whichever one of those pretty boys she was fucking, went to work.

The restaurant was closed today. So she’d likely spend the day doing her errands. She’d be out and about in her car. Yeah, this could work.

He couldn’t use his own car, of course. So far, he’d been noticeable but didn’t stand out. What he was about to do would sure as hell stand out. Broad daylight. But if he used another vehicle, it would work.

He knew just where he could get that other vehicle, too. He’d have to hustle. No time for a shower and breakfast. He’d grab a coffee and donut at the coffee shop next door and be on his way.

Connors threw his few possessions into his duffle and vacated the room. Within ten minutes, he was approaching the mall he’d passed by each time he headed to Lusty.

A quick check of his watch told him the stores weren’t open yet. He pulled his car into a spot some distance from the entrance and proceeded to drink his coffee and eat his donut while he watched the mall’s employees arrive for work. Anyone noticing him would figure he was just scarfing down his breakfast before heading inside.

He met his own gaze in the mirror and checked that his disguise held out. He was going to be very glad when he could ditch the padding, wig, and mustache for good.

Returning his attention to the arrival of the employees or, more specifically, their vehicles, he finished his coffee. He picked, then discarded, a few candidates for what he had in mind.

Then he saw it, the perfect car. An older economy model, the vehicle wouldn’t possess any of the modern anti-theft devices so popular these days. The driver, a young woman, locked the vehicle by pressing down the inside button instead of with a fob. The car, a shit-brown Taurus, would be perfect. Not only would it
not
stand out, it was larger than the little hybrid the Madison woman drove.

Connors waited a bit longer until the flow of people and cars had eased.
 
Inhaling deeply, he prepared himself to move. He’d gathered a few supplies, just in case. Grateful now that he had, he donned the latex gloves, then touched the lock pick he’d secreted in his pocket. His nerves steady, he set out.

Though he hadn’t actually done this for a few years, Wesley found he hadn’t lost his touch. He was inside the car in mere seconds. The vehicle was neat and clean inside. That spoke to the personality of its owner.
 
As he’d predicted, no after-market security devices had been installed on this car.

God bless women and their simple little minds and trusting little souls
.

The engine started on the first try. He grinned when he saw the car had a full tank of gas. Whistling to himself, he put the vehicle in gear, passed his own parked car, and headed back toward Lusty.

Chapter 15

Kelsey surfaced from a deep well of sleep to the sensation of a hard, naked cock pressed against her bare ass.

She smiled slowly, inhaled deeply, and recognized the scent of her lover. “Steven,” she said.

“Good morning, love.” He pressed his entire body close to her. His heat penetrated her skin, sinking into her very soul. Arousal and comfort intertwined, filled her, and she sighed in pleasure.

“What time is it?” She kept her voice to a whisper, not wanting words to overwhelm the sensations coursing through her.

“Early yet, not even eight.”

“Benny?”

“Still sound asleep. It was late when he finally settled down for the last time last night. I know kids need routines and all, but I vote we let him sleep for a while longer.”

“Oh yeah? How much longer would you suggest?” She couldn’t keep the seductively teasing tone out of her voice. Steven had begun to rub his cock against her. Her pussy was sopping wet, ready for him.

“Long enough.”

She felt his movements against her back. That, combined with the sound of foil tearing, told her what he was doing. Anticipation raced through her blood.

Steven leaned over her, moved her right leg forward, and worked his latex-covered cock between her thighs until he stroked the wet folds of her pussy.

“I was going to play with you until you were ready, but seems like I don’t have to.”

“Play with me anyway.”