Paint It Black (32 page)

“Necie, what’s he talking about?” Cougar asked.

I took a deep breath. “Don’t shoot him, Cougar. He’s my father.”

“What?” Cougar laughed, but his eyes were hard. “You’re joking, right?”

“I wanted to tell you. I tried—”

“When?” he snapped. “All these years we’ve been working together, and …” He paused, and his face went stony. “You’re the mole! All this time, you’ve been saving his ass.”

“That’s not true! I wanted to put him away more than anyone.”

“And what about Angel? Even after your father shot him, you tried to help him destroy evidence.”

“I love Angel. I would never do anything to hurt him.”

“All that time at the hospital … it was guilt, wasn’t it? You didn’t expect it to go down like that.”

“How can you say that?” I said. “You know me better than that.”

“I don’t know you at all.” Cougar cast a baleful look at Barnes, then spun and stalked back the way we’d come.

“Cougar, wait!”

“Stay away from me!” he yelled.

“Wait here!” I commanded Barnes, and chased after him.

He strode purposefully, his long legs widening the distance between us until he was little more than a shadow up ahead.

Suddenly, a group of men jumped out from behind the trees and wrestled him to the ground. I pulled my gun, but I couldn’t discern his shadow from theirs.

My heart raced. I had to do something.

Someone clamped a hand over my mouth. I struggled and bucked against him.

“Denise, stop it,” Barnes hissed. “If you run out there, you’ll both die.”

“Check around!” one of the men yelled. “There was a girl with him earlier.”

“Come!” Barnes said urgently. The hand that clamped my wrist was surprisingly strong.

I struggled again while he dragged me into the forest. “Where are we going? I have to help Cougar.”

“They’ll take him to the house.”

“You don’t know that. They could just shoot him and leave him there, like you did Angel.”

“Maria will want information. She’ll want to talk to him. I know a way in. Please, Denise, trust me.”

Trust him? I’d spent my whole life not trusting him. But with Abby and Cougar’s lives at stake, I had no choice.

I wasn’t sure how long we walked, but it seemed like forever. I was cold, tired, and terrified of what might be happening to Cougar while we tromped around the woods.

“Here,” Barnes said. “This is how we get in.”

I stared down at the drainage ditch poking out of the hillside.

He pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and said, “I’ll go first.”

On his hands and knees, he entered the small tube,
leaving me little choice except to follow. The smell of rotting leaves and stagnant water gagged me.

“It gets better in a minute,” he said.

A few seconds later, he added, “Watch your step, there’s a drop-off.”

The little tube spilled out into a cavernous room.

“What is this?” I asked, following the beam of his flashlight as it played on the stone walls.

“The house was built by bootleggers in the twenties. This is an escape route. The house itself has a few tricks, as well.”

He led me into a larger tunnel. We wandered around for nearly an hour, so long that I’d half-convinced myself Barnes was stalling, when he said, “There’s the ladder.”

The flashlight beam jerked crazily, flying from the ladder to the wall to his feet.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m … fine,” he gasped. “Just a little … winded.”

“Maybe you should rest a minute.”

In response, he began to climb.

“Where does it come out?”

“Basement.”

We climbed a few more feet, and he snapped off the light. I heard a long, scraping sound as he pushed away the section of flooring.

Once inside, we paused, listening. Then we split up to search.

The house was eerily quiet. Damn it, she was gone again.

I went through room after room, thinking of the day we’d found Angel in the snow.

Then I opened a door and entered a bedroom with pale blue carpet and walls. A pile of clothing lay on the floor at the foot of the bed.

I edged forward, my heart pounding in my ears.

A low, soft groan came from the other side of the bed. I ran around the corner, and what I saw knocked the breath out of me.

Cougar lay facedown on the carpet, naked and bleeding. Blood smeared the powder blue carpet around him, streaked his skin like war paint. He groaned again, and I realized he was regaining consciousness.

I scrambled over, falling on my hands and knees beside him.

“No!” he yelled—a low, guttural cry filled with fear and pain.

I realized he couldn’t see me through his swollen left eye. “Cougar, it’s me, Necie,” I said, and touched his shoulder. He jerked violently at my touch.

“No!” he yelled. “No!”

“Cougar, it’s me. It’s only me. Necie.”

“Necie?” he whispered.

“Yeah, baby. It’s me. What did they do? Where are you hurt?”

“I’m okay,” he said, shaking his head and struggling to sit up.

“You’re not okay. I have to call an ambulance.”

“No! Just… get my clothes.”

“But—”

“Get my clothes!”

While I helped him dress, he asked, “Where’s Barnes?”

“Looking for Maria.”

Cougar leaned back, resting his head against the wall. A thin line of blood and spittle trickled down his chin. “So I didn’t dream it?” he asked softly.

“No,” I said. “But it’s not what you think.”

I talked to him while I finished buttoning his shirt and helped him to his feet, but I wasn’t sure whether he heard me or not.

“Does Grady’s mother smoke?” he asked abruptly.

“No. Why?”

He picked a cigarette butt off the floor, examined it, and shoved it in his pocket. “Let’s go.”

“Wait!” I grabbed him and he flinched. “Where are we going?”

“Your mother-in-law’s. She knows where Abby is.”

“How—”

“We’ll talk on the way,” he said. “I want to get out of this fucking house.”

We collected Barnes and left out the front door. No one manned the gate this time. Cougar maintained an
angry silence until we reached the highway.

“The cigarettes,” he said. “When we went to Grady’s mother’s house, you remember how he put his out before going inside? When we went into her parlor, it smelled like smoke in there, too, only different. She sprayed air freshener and coughed. On the end table was one of those little rock and marble displays. There were a couple of cigarette butts in it. She noticed, and it pissed her off. She used a tissue to pick them out, and I noticed they had lipstick stains. They’re the same brand Maria smokes, and they’re some fancy kind—”

“From France,” Barnes said.

“—not the kind you buy at the 7-Eleven.”

“So she and Grady …” I said numbly.

Cougar shook his head. “I don’t think so. You saw him at the morgue. He wasn’t faking. That leaves—”

“Elizabeth,” I finished.

At first, I simply felt relief. If Elizabeth had Abby, she was safe. But the more I thought about it, the angrier I grew. “How could she do this, to Abby or Grady?”

Her accusations rang in my ears. Did she really think I was such a horrible mother she had to steal my child? And who better to help her than the woman bent on destroying me?

I don’t remember what else—if anything—was said on the rest of the trip to Elizabeth’s. All I could think was, “Find Elizabeth, find Abby.”

By the time we pulled up at her house, my nerves were singing. I slammed the car in park and was running up the lawn before Cougar could even open his door. The front door was locked, so I pounded on it with both fists.

“Hang on!” Grady yelled.

He threw open the door, and I saw the fear in his eyes. “Necie, what is it?”

“Where’s Elizabeth?” I demanded, pushing past him. I screamed her name up the stairs.

“She’s not here,” Grady said. “She drove to Lansdale. There’s a private detective there who’s supposed to be really good.”

“Have you got the address?”

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

Cougar walked in. Grady blinked at his bloody, battered face, but Cougar didn’t acknowledge him at all. He stalked past him to Elizabeth’s parlor.

“Hey,” Grady yelled. “Hey!”

Cougar dumped the wastebasket and picked a cigarette butt off the floor. With his free hand, he retrieved the one from his pocket and held them out to me. The butts were identical.

“Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” Grady asked.

I spun to face him. “Your mother paid Maria Barnes to take Abby.”

“Is this some kind of joke?”

“Why else would Maria’s cigarette butts be in the
trash can? Has she been here, with you?”

Grady stared at the butts. “No! I told you—” He looked at me, and I’m sure my eyes mirrored the desperation I saw in his. He ran from the room and returned, clutching a piece of paper. “I’m going with you.” We ran for the car. Grady jumped in the backseat and yelped, “Who the hell is this?”

I’d almost forgotten Barnes was with us. “Grady—” “Grady! The man who hit my daughter?” “Your father!” Grady shouted. “The drug dealer?” Ignoring them, I peeled tires pulling away from the curb.

“What coward hits a woman?” Barnes asked. “You
killed
people, and you’re judging me?” “Should’ve had
you
killed.”

I glanced at Cougar. He gazed out the window like he didn’t even hear them.

“Shut up!” I yelled, and mercifully, they did. For awhile, at least. I gave up trying to referee and instead tried to explain to Cougar why I hadn’t told him the truth. Who knew whether he believed me or not? He merely stared straight ahead.

“Please don’t hate me,” I begged, and put my hand over his.

No response.

Thirty minutes later, we pulled up to a neat, cream-colored house.

Grady sighed. “Necie, if you’re wrong—”

But we both knew I wasn’t. We ran to the door, and Grady knocked. He motioned me over, so that if she glanced out, she wouldn’t see me. Cougar caught my gaze and motioned that he was going around back, in case she tried to get out that way.

The shade fluttered, then Elizabeth opened the door, looking pale and tense. Then she spotted me and tried to shut the door. I shoved hard and barreled my way inside.

“Where is she?” I cried. “Where’s Abby?”

“Shhh,” Elizabeth said. “Please … she’s sleeping.”

“Mother!” Grady said, his mouth tight with rage. “How could you? You know we’ve been going crazy—”

“I know, and I’m sorry, but I was only trying to protect Abby. The two of you were tearing her apart!”

I took the stairs two at a time, with Grady on my heels. I opened doors, searching for her. In the last room, I found an empty bed with a bear propped up on it. The curtains billowed in the open window. The bear held a note written in red marker.

It read,
Too Late
.

CHAPTER
17

E
lizabeth appeared in the doorway. I grabbed the note and thrust it in her face. “Do you know what you’ve done?” I screamed.

Her pale face grew even chalkier. “But … she was just here. I checked on her half an hour ago.”

Barnes tugged at my sleeve. “Let’s go, Denise,” he whispered. “I know where she’s going.”

Grady yelled after us. I told him to call the police and let them know Maria was in the area.

We left him there with his mother. Back on the road, Barnes said, “Her grandmother’s old place. Maria might take her there to avoid the roadblocks.”

“We need to call Bill,” Cougar said.

“No,” Barnes said. “We go in there with guns blazing and they’ll both die.”

“Why don’t you call her?” Cougar asked. “You taught her everything she knows. Call her off.”

“I don’t know if I can.” He stared at his hands. “Maria is very angry at me. When I asked her about Abby, she was enraged. Accused me of choosing Denise over her. A couple hours after we talked, someone tried to shiv me in the prison yard.”

“You think Maria tried to have you killed?”

“I called her, asked for help. I was moved to a new cell, with a man who said Maria was paying him to protect me. He tried to kill me.”

“So you escaped not to save Abby, but to save your own skin?” Cougar asked.

“No! I realized how out of control she was, what she might do.”

“Who was the other body?” I asked. “I assume one of them was your cell mate?”

Barnes shook his head. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”

“Murdering bastard,” Cougar said, then looked at me. “Is this the kind of help you want?”

I met his gaze. “I want any help that gets Abby back.” To Barnes, I said, “So, what do we do?”

Barnes had a plan in motion, an operative he trusted on the inside. When he asked us to wait until nightfall, Cougar was enraged and I was frustrated, but we had to do as he asked. We rented a cheap motel room with
double beds to catch a little rest until we could meet with his man.

Cougar immediately entered the bathroom, and I heard the shower come on a moment later. Barnes squeezed my shoulder and stood. “Get some sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s time.”

“Where are you going?”

“To stand watch.” He gave me a tired smile. “Never trust anyone completely, Denise.”

He went outside, shutting the door behind him.

Cougar emerged from the bathroom shortly afterward, fully clothed and toweling his hair. He merely nodded when I told him where Barnes had gone. Then he walked over to the other bed and lay down with his back to me, facing the wall.

I rose and pulled the shades. Hesitantly, I approached the bed. Cougar didn’t speak when I slipped in beside him, but he flinched when I wrapped my arms around his waist. I wanted to tell him so many things—

Thank you
…

I’m sorry
…

—but I didn’t know how. Would he ever forgive me?

He covered my hands with his, and I felt a tear slide down my nose.

Barnes was wrong. I did have someone I could trust completely.