Ruthless (35 page)

“You should take the pictures off your wall.”

She glanced at the makeshift case board she used for homework. “I don’t want to forget them. If I leave them right there, I can’t. No matter how many cases I investigate, I won’t forget those faces.”

“How about you make a separate case board at work for the ones you need to get back to when you can?”

That wasn’t a bad idea. “That could work.”

“I mentioned your landlord the hero in my press release.”

“I saw that.” Jess had thanked Mr. Louis at some point between washing Cagle’s blood off her face and his body being carted off by the coroner’s office. “But what he did was very dangerous, and I can’t help wondering if we could have taken Cagle alive if dear old George hadn’t made that bold move.”

“We had no way of knowing the gun wasn’t loaded,
Jess. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. You can’t second-guess yourself or the SWAT commander’s decision. Every move today was the right one.”

She sighed. “Maybe.”

Except she didn’t have her period. That was wrong in so many, many ways.

“I think, when the forensics business is done—” Jess bit her lip, summoned her courage to say it “—that we should allow the parents to see Cagle’s basement if they want to.”

“I thought about that, too. Their children were there for who knows how long. Maybe it will help with closure, since we can’t tell them where this burying tree is.”

“I hate that part.”

He tugged at a strand of her hair, wrapped it in his fingers. “I know. I do, too.”

She reached up and caressed his jaw. “Make love to me, Dan.” She needed to feel alive… to feel him inside her.

“First you need to check out your
other
present.” Those blue eyes of his twinkled.

“What other present?”

“Look in the chocolate box.”

She grabbed the box, anticipation making her grin. “You didn’t need to get me presents.” She moved aside the top tray of candies, and beneath it, where more rows of chocolates should have been, was a slim velvet box. “Dan!”

“I got it at that charity auction my mother held a couple weeks ago. It made me think of you.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the mention of his
mother
. She opened the box and her breath trapped in her chest. “Oh… it’s beautiful.” It was a heart-shaped locket on a gold chain. Not a new one. Old, very old.
A tiny diamond sat in the center of the locket. On the back the words
you are my heart
were engraved. She batted her eyelids frantically but the damned tears slid down her cheeks anyway. She slugged him on the shoulder. “Thank you.”

He brushed at her cheeks with his fingertips. “You had a locket like this when we first met.”

She nodded. “It wasn’t so fancy. Plain old gold colored, no diamond. Lil gave it to me. I don’t know what happened to it.”

“And it didn’t have this.” He took the locket from her and opened it.

Inside the locket was one of those silly pictures of them done in the old mall photo booths. The air fled her lungs and for a moment she couldn’t speak. “You kept that old picture all these years?” God, they were so young.

“Of course.”

“Help me put it on.”

The mattress shifted as he got onto his knees. He fastened the delicate chain and she pressed the cool metal of the locket against her skin. “I love it. This is the best present anyone ever gave me.”

He shoved the box of chocolates aside and pushed her down onto the bed. “You’re the only present I’ve ever wanted.”

She smiled, swearing silently at herself for crying some more. “I love you, Dan.”

The look of joy in his eyes had her trembling like a virgin. Tenderly, he opened her robe and kissed his way down her body. She responded instantly. When he lingered near her belly button a new rush of tears stung her eyes.

He dragged the robe off her and then she slowly helped him undress. Once they were both naked, she kissed him all over, paying special attention to the scar left by Eric Spears’s knife.

When their bodies were entwined fully she stopped thinking and let the wondrous sensations fill her up, making her whole again.

Sunday, August 22

T
he alarm sounded and Jess sat up in bed. She stared at the clock. Eight o’clock, but it wasn’t the alarm clock that had awakened her.

Someone was coming to her door.

God, she hoped it wasn’t Mr. Louis with breakfast.

She snatched up her robe and cinched the belt tight. She stared at the monitor and she had to close her eyes and look again.

Wanda Newsom.

What the hell would her aunt be doing here? Dan had picked up those damned useless notes on the family’s medical history. Notes that told Jess and Lil absolutely nothing.

“Who’s out there?” Dan, braced on his elbows without a stitch of cover over him and looking far too good, yawned. “Do I need to get dressed?”

“It’s Wanda.”

“Your aunt?”

The knock she’d expected came, echoing through the room.

“Just stay put,” Jess ordered.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She released the locks and slipped out the door closing it behind her.

Wanda looked a bit startled, or maybe she just hadn’t expected to have to back up suddenly.

Jess wasn’t going to waste time exchanging social pleasantries with the woman. She didn’t deserve the necessary energy. “Is something wrong?”

Wanda held her purse close to her chest, as if she feared Jess might try to snatch it from her. She was dressed up, for Wanda anyway. Conservative was the theme. Evidently she was on her way to church. Hoorah for her. Too bad she hadn’t thought about that back when she had two little girls to raise instead of only worrying about where her next score of drugs would come from.

“Your sister called and told me she was going to be all right. She said there was a test I needed to get.”

Jess was going to give Lil what for. They were not obliged to tell this woman anything. Jess gave herself a mental kick in the butt. That wasn’t fair. No matter that Wanda had let them down when they needed her most, she had a right to know about any possible health issues. “Lil’s going to be fine. Yes.”

“I hate to bother you so early but I was afraid I might not catch you if I didn’t come this morning.” She smiled, it looked forced. “I see you on the news. I know you’re very busy.”

Jess folded her arms over her chest. “Well you got me. So what’s up?”

Wanda looked away for a moment and Jess rolled her eyes. She had no patience for this woman’s theatrics. None whatsoever. She should f’ing get on with it.

“I lied to you, Jessie Lee.”

Well, duh! “If you’re hoping for forgiveness, Wanda, I’m the wrong person to talk to. Try your priest.” What was with all these people from her past suddenly confessing? First Corlew and now Wanda.

Pain etched its way across the older woman’s face.

Harsh, maybe, but that was how Jess felt.

“I don’t blame you for hating me. I know what I did.”

Jess met her gaze then. “I don’t hate you, Wanda. I just don’t like you very much.”
Keep your cool, Jess
. “What is it you came here for?”

“Your mother and I were close at one time. As close as you and Lil.”

Jess didn’t see how that was possible, but whatever.

“I fell apart after my Johnny was killed in the war. I did a lot of things I shouldn’t have. Helen tried to help me but I pushed her away. So she stopped coming around. Mostly to protect you girls. You were more important to her than anything else in the world.”

Jess didn’t want to listen but somehow she couldn’t stop. The train had crashed and she couldn’t look away from the devastation.

“When you were about seven, Lil was nine I think, your mother came to see me. It had been a year or so since we’d seen each other.”

Jess said nothing, just let her talk.

“Lil was in school but you’d been to the doctor for shots that day.” She smiled again, her gaze distant as if she were looking back. “You were running around the house
getting into everything.” A faint smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “It took awhile with keeping you from climbing the curtains, but your mother finally admitted the fears that had been tormenting her.”

If this was some attempt on Wanda’s part to draw Jess back into her life, she could forget it. Jess held her tongue. Whatever her aunt’s motives, anything she could learn about their parents she wanted to know.

“I didn’t really ever intend to tell this to you girls. There wasn’t any point I could see. After they died… who was it going to benefit? Just something to add to the bad memories of loss.”

“What is it my mother confessed to you?” She needed to get to the point. Jess was hungry and she needed to pee.

“Your mother would be very proud of both of you. But these past couple of weeks, all these terrible cases you’ve been working on have got me to thinking that maybe you need to know what your mother told me. It’s been weighing on my heart, and I can’t hold it in any longer. I believe the Lord wants me to tell you now.”

Jess signaled for her to get on with it.

“Your mother was worried about your father. She said he was involved with people… bad people. She couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me anything specific, but she made me promise that if anything ever happened to her or you kids that I would go to the police and tell them that her husband had connections to bad people and that at times she feared for her life as well as those of her children.”

“Are you talking criminal connections?” This made no sense.

“I don’t know. That’s all she told me. And that was the last time I saw her. If I tried to call after that she wouldn’t
talk to me. If I went over there she wouldn’t come to the door. Finally, I refused to leave, and she told me through the door that it wasn’t safe for me to be there and that my being there put her in danger. He didn’t want her to talk to me or see me. That’s what she said.”

“That makes no sense.” Outrage filled Jess. “I remember my father and my mother. I don’t recall anything even remotely resembling what you’re telling me in any of the memories I have of them.” How dare this woman try to ruin what few memories she had of her parents!

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.” Wanda’s chin hitched up a notch. “But I did what your mother said. When they were killed in that accident I went to the police. Nothing ever came of it. That’s the way it is when you live on the wrong side of town. No one cares. But I gave my statement and I signed it. It must be on file there somewhere.”

If there was any investigation into her parents’ deaths the file would be God only knew where. “I don’t know what to say to all this except my father was a salesman. He traveled a lot, but when he was home he laughed and played with Lil and me.”

“Whatever you remember, your mother was terrified of the evil your father was involved with. And for some reason evil seems to gravitate toward you. If you don’t care what happened to your parents or how it relates to your life, think of your sister. What touches you touches her.”

Jess’s jaw dropped. What the hell?

That was apparently all Wanda had to say since she hurried down the stairs and rushed to her car and drove away.

Jess’s first thought was to toss out the whole
conversation as the ramblings of a demented old woman who’d damaged her brain with alcohol and drugs.

But, if there was one speck of truth to what she said, Jess needed to know.

Had the woman just tried to tell Jess that she was a magnet for evil?

If so, she was behind the curve. Jess already knew that. Didn’t matter anyway. At least she hadn’t likened Jess to a coonhound the way Dan’s mother had.

Jess went back inside and locked the doors. Dan had brewed two cups of coffee. He passed a cup to her. It smelled amazing, but the best part was that he served her in the buff. “What would you like for breakfast? I can run out and get something,” he offered.

It just wasn’t fair that he looked that good after all these years.

Oh well, she might as well take advantage of her good fortune.