Out of Body (22 page)

Marley only just stopped herself from saying, “Cozy.”

Without pausing, Gray pulled up a third chair and indicated for the women to sit, which they did. He joined them and said, “Wine?”

Sidney echoed Marley’s, “No, thanks.” Marley crossed her legs and jiggled a toe. She didn’t check out how Sidney might be looking at her.

“Let’s have it,” Gray said. “We don’t have to worry about being overheard here.” Lawns in need of mowing stretched away from the house. Coming close to the gallery without being seen would be impossible.

“I’m only going to talk to you, Gray,” Sidney said. “I don’t know Marley.”

“Really? I thought you’d lived in New Orleans all your life.”

“I have.”

“But you never heard of the Millets.”

Sidney sighed. “I try not to take any notice of silly gossip. I come from an old family, too, and we keep above that sort of thing.”

“Silly gossip?” Marley said.

Sidney waved a white hand. “Psychic or paranormal or whatever. Rubbish. Everyone knows there’s no such thing. And the red hair. Decent people would be sympathetic to something like that.”

Neither Gray nor Marley responded.

“You can’t help being born with hair like that. The gene must be very strong. You could always dye it, though.”

Gray hummed.

Marley gave Sidney a sweet smile. “I knew the first time I saw you that you had a generous heart. Thank you.” People like Sidney Fournier weren’t good at recognizing sarcasm and Marley wanted to gain the woman’s confidence. “You’ve been through a lot with Amber missing, Sidney. It must have been so hard to have people pushing you from all sides. I’ll never understand why men of the law-and-order type don’t have more empathy.”

Sidney shook her head. She was even more beautiful in the failing light, the gold tones from the setting sun accentuating her olive skin and the fine bones in her face. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s been so horrible. And I haven’t known where to turn.”

“Why, Sidney?” Marley inched closer to the other woman. “You have family and friends.”

Sidney burst into tears, shocking Marley, who got up and rubbed Sidney’s shoulders. She patted her back. “Take it easy. Give yourself time. Take some deep breaths.” She glanced at Gray who looked bemused.

“It’s my family and friends I’m worried about,” Sidney said. “I don’t know what to do. I want to go to the police, but I can’t. It’s too dangerous.”

“They said you didn’t want to talk to them at all,” Gray pointed out.

“I’ve been threatened,” Sidney said through gulps. “Not openly. Oh, no, it’s very subtle, but I know what it all means. If I say anything about what I think, someone will get hurt.” She passed the back of a shaky hand over her mouth. “If they haven’t already. I think they have, don’t you?”

Marley looked at Gray who gave a slight shake of the head. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Sidney,” he said. “Tell me what you wanted to say.”

Sidney got up and paced the length of the back gallery. She stopped in front of them. “I got a call from a man who said he can prove I’m the one who knows where Amber is. He said I’d be accused of doing something to her and I’d go to jail. He said…he said they could convict me without a body.” She cried again. “Just ignore me. I haven’t been able to tell anyone anything. It’s all bottled up inside.”

“The police need to know,” Gray said gently.

She nodded. “For all I know you’ll both go right to them and tell them about me.”

“We won’t,” Marley said.

“If I sent them an e-mail they could trace it back to me?” Sidney said.

Marley wondered at Sidney’s lack of savvy. “Yes,” she said simply.

“Then I don’t know. I could get a cheap cell phone to call them, then throw it away after I use it.”

“You could,” Gray agreed.

“I’m afraid.” Sidney sat down on the very edge of a chair. “Could someone frame me for killing Amber?”

“We hope she isn’t dead.”

“Yes.” Sidney sounded on the verge of hysteria. “But that man talked as if she was.”

“Did you write down the number this guy called from?”

“I panicked. I forgot to look.”

Great.
“Did you recognize the voice at all?” Marley asked.

“No. But I think it’s all about covering something up. I think there was…Amber doesn’t have a son. Who would say she does? Why? Except to try stopping you from making anymore enquiries, Gray.”

“So who made the call to the cops and said he was Amber’s boy?”

“I don’t know,” Sidney said. “Have they tried to find out?”

“Of course. Call came from somewhere in the city, but they couldn’t trace it. So far there’s no record of Amber Lee having a child. There’s nothing much on her at all. Speculation is she probably left home young and she’s been on the move most of the time since.”

“There’s something I do know.” Sidney looked all around and dropped her voice. “What did Danny tell you about him and Amber?”

Marley thought about it. “At first he said she didn’t really know how much she meant to him. He made it sound like it was a one-sided thing with him crazy about her and Amber joking along.”

“That was a lie.”

Gray drummed his fingers on a thigh.

“But he did tell me he was crazy about her,” Marley said. “It wasn’t until later that he let it out they were lovers and lived together.”

Sidney crossed her arms tightly. “Amber did love Danny, but he was jealous. Mad, jealous. He beat someone up once just for talking to her. She and Danny had troubles for a long time. She was finally finished with him. She’d already moved out when she disappeared. He’d been following her everywhere and threatening to kill her if she didn’t come back to him.”

She got the stunned response she must have wanted.

“And you don’t think the police should know this?” Gray asked.

“I’ve got to go. I’ll be late for my first set.”

“J
ust like that,” Gray said, watching Sidney’s taillights swing down the driveway and turn out onto River Road. “What do you make of it?”

“She didn’t need the elaborate setup to give you her information,” Marley said. She paused. “Or maybe she thought she did. I believe she’s scared—even if I’m not completely sure why.”

“I think she’s
really
scared.”

“Did you believe her when she talked about someone trying to frame her?”

“Why would she make it up?” He kicked up some gravel. “I’d like to know more about her relationship with Amber.”

“Yes,” Marley agreed. “She wants us to tell the police about Danny, doesn’t she?”

“Yep. Question is, what if she’s being straight with us and it would be dangerous for her to talk—to the cops? Or if it came out that she was responsible for letting information out that got to them.”

“She doesn’t really have information,” Marley pointed out. “She’s guessing. And we don’t know if everything she says is true. She was suggesting Danny Summit could be a murderer.”

“We’ve got to think. Nothing’s standing still with Nat. He’s got people taking New Orleans apart.”

Marley laughed. “It’s funny the way you talk about cops when you used to be one.”

“It has its advantages,” Gray said. “I can put on a couple of different hats and the appropriate brain is inside.”

This time Marley sniggered. She put a hand to her face and made a snorting sound.

“That funny?” Gray said.

“It’s a pretty interesting picture.”

“That bottle of wine’s still on the back gallery,” Gray said. “Maybe that’s what we need to help us think clearly.”

“It’s getting awfully dark out here.”

“I saw citronella candles back there. I’ve got you for protection. You’ve got me for protection. And I’ve got a gun.”

“Let’s have some wine,” Marley said. She hooked a hand under his arm and they returned to the back of the house.

Gray lighted two buckets of citronella with matches left for the purpose. He put one bucket on the table and opened the wine. The ice in the bucket was long melted. Sidney hadn’t forgotten to bring a wine opener, and she’d left it behind with everything else she’d brought with her.

They sat, drinking white wine that tasted good even if it was tepid, and listening to frogs and crickets while fireflies winked in the tops of tall grass.

“Knock, knock, Marley.”

Momentarily disoriented, she turned to Gray who looked out into the darkness.

She gave a long, long sigh.
“Sykes?”

“Permission to enter?”

“Very funny. You’re already in.”

“Nope. Only on the doorstep. I’ll go away if you insist.”

“What are you doing here, Sykes?”

“You’ll just have to let me off the hook. Uncle Pascal again. He’s not himself, girl. He’s jittery and it’s all your fault. It doesn’t help that our dear papa is passing through and asking questions.”

“He doesn’t have any right to ask questions. And I thought he’d already left.”

“He has,”
Sykes said.
“But Uncle Pascal’s been so uptight all day in case Papa asked more about what’s going on with you, he’s a wreck. So here I am to make sure no one has to rescue you.”

“And I’m great, thank you. You’re kind to care.”

“I came for our uncle.”

“Of course,”
Marley said. Sykes preserved his reputation as selfish and only out for himself. It might fool most—Marley wasn’t among them.

“I’ve got some interesting tidbits of news
,” Sykes said.
“Our papa might really be making progress digging up the Millet mysteries.”

Marley felt excited and jumpy, but had to keep a blank face.
“You have terrible timing. I want to know all about it, but I can’t now—obviously.”

“You’re quiet,” Gray said. “But your mind is doing somersaults.”

She sat very still and calmed herself. She flattened her emotions and pushed Sykes to a corner of her consciousness.

“You’ve known Nat Archer a long time,” Marley said. “Is he someone we could talk to off the record?”

Gray was quiet for a while before he said, “I think so. He’s always been a maverick—never played the rules completely straight. What d’you have in mind?”

She wasn’t sure.

“Ask him to come out here,”
Sykes said.
“It’s not far. He’s in a war zone and he’s an army of one being fired on from all sides. Everyone wants this case broken and they want it broken yesterday. The new disappearance could be all it takes to set off mass hysteria.”

“I haven’t heard too much about those old unsolved disappearances with what’s going on,” Gray said. “But the
Pearl Brite incident might be enough to start people making connections.”

“Why—” Marley cut herself off before she could ask what made him make those comments right when he made them. It sounded as if he was answering what she’d heard Sykes tell her. “You’re right,” she said, trying for a breezy tone.

“We need a scrambled frequency here.”

“You’re talking about something that’s nothing to do with you,”
Marley said.
“What do you know about the case? Have you been spying on me?”

“No. And it hurts me for you to think I would. I live here, too, remember?”

Marley ignored Sykes. She couldn’t make herself feel guilty for tromping on his delicate sensibilities. She almost laughed.

“So you think we should try to get Nat out here?” Gray said.

She cleared her throat. “Gray, I didn’t say anything about asking Nat to come out here. You’re reading my mind.”
Or in this case, picking up on what I’m hearing from my brother.

“No. You said that.”

“No, I didn’t,” Marley told him.

“You’re looking for these signs or whatever.”

“It might be nice to have Nat come out where the territory feels neutral, though,” Marley said. “He always seems on duty. Do you think he drinks too much?”

“You never stay on topic.”

“Butt out, Sykes.”

“Why? You gonna have sex under the stars?”

“Nat knows what he’s doing,” Gray said. “He’s always in control. We’d better get back to the Quarter and find him.”

“No sex under the stars? Aw, shucks.”

“My turn is going to come, bro. Just you wait.”

“You don’t need anyone’s permission to call this cop yourself. Just do it.”

Marley consigned herself to dealing with these two.
“I’m calling him.” She found her phone in her bag. “What’s his number?”

“I wish you wouldn’t do this,” Gray said. But he took out his own phone, punched in a programmed number and handed it to Marley.

“He’s got possibilities, sis. Some guys would have refused to give you the number, let alone dialed it for you.”

Marley agreed, but didn’t give Sykes that message. She waited, watching stars pop in a pewter sky above the black-shadowed crowns of trees.

“Nat Archer.”

Marley swallowed and set out her proposition. She finished with, “I think it’s time I explained a number of things I haven’t wanted to talk about. I don’t think I’ve done any harm yet, but maybe I can make a difference now.”

“I’m on my way,” Nat said. “Thanks, Marley.”

She smiled and closed the phone.

“Why the smile?” Gray said.

“He’s a nice guy.”

Gray leaned toward her across the little round table. “That’s a switch. D’you have any idea how sexy you look by candlelight?”

“I’m gone,”
Sykes said and Marley felt his instant absence.

She widened her eyes at Gray. “I like you by candlelight, too.”

He peered at his watch.

“What is it?” Marley said. “Did you forget an appointment.”

“Nope. I was just figuring out how long we’ve got before Nat can make it out here. Long enough. Just. Sit on my lap. Please.”

She tingled all over, but more in some places than others….

Gray reached for her hand and guided her in front of him. She started to turn sideways, but he held her where she was.

He ran his hands slowly up beneath her white cotton
skirt, parted her aching thighs and settled her where she fitted the best, squarely astride his hips.

For seconds they absorbed the physical shock of their contact. They connected with their mouths and the night turned all white heat and the rushing clamor of arousal.