Sweet Dreams Boxed Set (59 page)

His door crashed opened, and the homicide lieutenant flew into the room with her weapon drawn, looking wildly around.

Baldwin drew down on her purely by instinct. A worthless move on his part, considering the Winchester .38 bullet that had lived in solidarity in his gun for the past few weeks was now lodged in the wall of his living room. They faced each other, guns sighted point blank between the other’s eyes.

Taylor was the first to flinch. She slowly holstered her weapon, never letting her gaze stray from Baldwin’s face.

“Why don’t you put the gun down, Baldwin?” she said softly. “I’m not here to shoot you. Or to get shot. Come on, put it away. Christ, you’re bleeding.” She started toward him, still mindful of the gun trained at her head.

Baldwin started laughing. Taylor was caught short, then smiled cautiously. He lowered the weapon, and she quickly took it from his hand and tossed it into the kitchen. He was doubled over by now, hysterical with laughter.

“Baldwin, I think we need to get you to a hospital. You’re bleeding badly.”

He hiccupped, still snorting with mirth. “No, Taylor. No hospital. What in the name of all that’s holy are you doing here?” He was calming down, but still held his sides as if he would explode.

“Wanted your opinion on something. And I wanted to apologize. We treated you badly today, and I’m sorry.” Her gaze took in the room, noting the disarray, the broken bottle, the phone lying askew on the floor. Her eyes trailed to his face. “Really, Baldwin, you’re bleeding. Let me fix it up for you.”

“Leave it.” His voice was sharp, and Taylor froze four feet from him. He turned toward the kitchen, then spun back and landed awkwardly on the couch. Taylor could see exhaustion shadow his face. She dared a step, and another, then sat quietly in the chair, looking at the fireplace while he composed himself. Damn, she had barely gotten here in time. Maybe she hadn’t been in time at all; she didn’t think a quick chat was going to change the man’s mind. She decided to try anyway.

“You wanna tell me why I saw you through the window with a gun to your head?”

Baldwin shook his head, smiling at her. “Seems I just can’t win. I’ve been working this little project for a while now, and I keep getting interrupted.” He leaned back into the couch, covering his eyes with his crossed arms. “Every time I’m all set and ready, the fucking phone rings, or someone knocks. Really Taylor, it would have been better if you’d come five minutes later. You’d have assumed I wasn’t home, and seeing as the shot went off this time, I’d be out of this hell.”

This
time. Oh, boy. She knew she’d have a job in front of her with Baldwin, just didn’t realize it would entail dragging him out of the jaws of Cerberus. She was shocked to see tears rolls down his face.

“I’m kinda glad I showed up when I did. You’d have been a hell of a mess to clean up.” Her tone was light, but the look she gave him wasn’t.

“Well, thanks, I guess.” He gave her the first genuine smile she’d seen since she met him that morning. God, it had only been a day, but she felt like he’d been under her skin forever. She let out her breath, suddenly aware that she had been holding it.

She gave him a small smile back. “Seriously, let me clean you up a little bit.”

“No, let it be. I’m fine. I want to know why you really came over here.”

He was staring at her so intently that she felt a shiver run down her spine. “To be honest, Sam had some news at dinner I thought you might be interested in. Some results from the tests on Shelby Kincaid and Jordan Blake came back.”

Baldwin looked at her with doubt. “And why do you think I’d be interested in any of it? I quit tonight, remember?”

“You can’t quit something you never started.” She was surprised at how bitter she sounded. Not exactly the tone to be taking with someone looked like he was prepared to kill himself a half hour prior. “I mean…”

Baldwin’s face had hardened. “I know what you mean, Taylor. You’re right. I didn’t want to be there, I didn’t want to work this case, and I certainly don’t intend to start now. Why don’t you take your do-gooding ass out of here?” He got up quickly and headed for the bedroom.

Taylor didn’t hesitate, ran after him, heart pounding. If he had a second weapon in there and was intent on finishing the job…

But Baldwin had only gone in the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. She let out a breath. Good. If he was going to tend his wound, he wouldn’t be trying to shoot himself at the same time.

“Baldwin, I…”

“I thought I told you to leave,” he said, not turning from the mirror, where he was gingerly dabbing alcohol on his cheek. “Damn,” he hissed.

“Come on, man, let me do that.” Taylor pushed her way into the bathroom and grabbed up the cotton before he could resist. She felt all the fight go out of him as he slumped against the counter. He didn’t resist when she finished cleaning the cut, pulled out a bandage and gingerly placed it over the wound. On impulse, without thinking, she reached in and kissed it.

Baldwin jumped and grabbed her wrists. “What did you do that for?”

Taylor was at a loss for words. She mumbled something and backed away. He let her go.

Baldwin turned and stared in the mirror. He shook his head, snapped off the light and followed Taylor’s trail. He could hear her in the kitchen, messing with ice. He sat on the couch and said nothing.

She came out of the kitchen with an improvised ice pack. She handed it to him with a shrug. He took it and set it carefully on his face. The cut was starting to throb. Taylor stood with her arms crossed, looking at him as if he were a ticking bomb that would go off at any moment. He met her eyes and gave her a weak smile.

“There’s Advil in the cabinet next to the refrigerator. Will you get me four?”

Taylor nodded. She needed to get out from under that gaze. She took her time finding the pills. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing, but as long as it kept the gun out of his hand, she’d keep doing it. She spied the revolver under the kitchen table. Picking it up gingerly, she checked the chambers, found them empty and stuffed the gun in the back of her jeans.

Baldwin’s eyes were closed when she came back in the room. She thought maybe he’d gone to sleep, but jumped when his deep voice softly rumbled, “Thanks.”

“Sure.” She got the feeling he was thanking her for more than the painkiller. She handed them to him and backed away again, stationing herself against the mantle of the fireplace.

“Have you ever been in a place, Taylor, where the only thing good that you can feel is being out of it?”

“Yes, I have.”

Baldwin’s eyes shot open, and he saw her staring at the marble inlay at the base of the hearth. He felt the sadness radiate from her. He started to ask, stopped himself. He didn’t like to talk about his demons; he couldn’t imagine she would either. He was surprised when she answered the unspoken question.

“I shot a fellow detective a few months ago. Killed him. Let’s leave it at that for now, okay? So yeah, I’ve been there. It’s not a nice place to be. Besides, I don’t think talking about
my
problems will help you right now.”

Baldwin was intrigued, but didn’t push it. His natural inclination was to fall back onto his training and try to draw her out, but he laughed instead.

“Sure thing. Neutral ground then. What was so important to bring you over here at midnight to interrupt all my grand plans?”

Taylor was suddenly serious, all business. A spark flashed in her eyes, and she grinned.

“Aconite.”

Twenty-Eight

Baldwin sat up in surprise, wincing as the ice pack smacked hard against his cheek. He leaned back slowly. “Aconite? They were poisoned with aconite?”

Taylor was happy to see she’d capture his interest, the investigator in him coming to life. At least for the time being.

“Yep. Sam noticed that the panels for both girls showed a high level of alkaloids in both the kidneys and liver. She had her buddy test for poisons, and aconite showed up in lethal doses. Some way to go, huh?”

“What exactly does aconite do to the system?”

“That’s the bad part. According to Sam’s crash course, it’s a central nervous system depressant. Vomiting, flushing, blurred vision, dry mouth, lowered body temperature. Severe burning sensation in her mouth—tongue, lips and throat. Also causes paralysis and intense pain. Could have taken up to six hours to die. It’s not a pleasant death.

“Sam also confirmed Jordan had the same herbs scattered on her body as Shelby and got an ID on the them. It’s a real mishmash.” Taylor pulled her notebook out of her coat pocket.

Baldwin realized she still wore her suede coat, and figured she must be getting hot. “Take off your coat and stay awhile?”

“Ha.” She hesitated a moment, then shrugged out of the coat, tossed it on the back of the chair and sat down, reading off the list.

“Rosemary, sage, sandalwood, basil, pennyroyal, bay, white sage, anise, chamomile, clove, fennel and lavender. All can be grown in the garden, or bought in a million places.”

“And the aconite? Can it be grown or bought?”

“Both. Sam had one of her guys pull it up on the Internet. There are a billion websites that sell it, and it can be grown in someone’s back yard.”

“So we’re dealing with a gardener of some sort.”

“Sam also found that there are specific uses for all of these herbs. The Wicca websites give a lot of information on what to use when, for ceremonies, celebrations, holidays, burials.” Taylor used the last word lightly.

Baldwin raised an eyebrow. “Wiccan burial rites, huh? Could be some kind of cult, too. Herbs and poisons. Think finding the girl at the Parthenon has anything to do with this?”

“Oh yeah, definitely. We’re going to have to do some in-depth research on the uses of the poison, see if there’s anything that ties it to the locale. I don’t know what the relationship is, but it’s too kooky not to be a part of the pattern.”

“And Jordan had the poison in her system too?”

“Yes. Her COD was the stab wounds to her heart, but she’d ingested the aconite prior to the kill shot.”

“Maybe it didn’t work quickly enough and he stabbed her to finish her off?”

“Could be.”

“So where do you go from here?”

Taylor eyed him coolly. “I don’t know, Baldwin. That’s why I came over here tonight. I thought maybe you’d seen this kind of stuff before, because I sure haven’t. Thought maybe you’d like to help us find out what it all means. Help us find this asshole before he kills another girl.”

Baldwin was looking into space. “Sacrificing. Not killing. He’s sacrificing them. The question is, why?”

Ah, she had him. She knew that look. Anyone who got a theory, a glimmer of an idea got that spaced out look of being lost in his or her own mind. She’d been like it enough times herself to recognize the cause. She decided to take the chance.

“So, are you in?”

Baldwin shook his head. “Huh?”

“I said, are you in?”

Baldwin tried to look her in the eye, but failed. This woman had witnessed the most desperate act of his life, and in essence, saved him from himself. Would he be able to work with her day after day to find a madman? Would she be able to work with him, knowing he wasn’t altogether stable?

He dragged his eyes back to hers.

“I’m in.”

Twenty-Nine

Taylor was reluctant to leave Baldwin alone, but she knew he needed some time to process what had happened over the last few hours. She’d laid out a few ground rules, including not playing Russian Roulette until the investigation was closed, which he snickered at but nodded gravely in agreement. She had cautiously offered the name of a good friend who happened to be a psychotherapist, and was shocked when Baldwin hadn’t brushed her off. He hadn’t jumped up, shouted for joy and demanded the number to make an appointment on the spot, but at least he had taken the suggestion. She left her friend’s number on his kitchen counter. The next steps were up to him.

She pulled into her driveway and was amused to see a little face staring out the window, eyes in slits of bliss at the sight of her mommy finally making it home for the night.

She turned the key in the lock and could hear the disgruntled mewing from outside. She pushed open the door and laughed when the cat flipped onto her back, desperately begging for a tummy rub. Taylor was only too happy to oblige.

“There’s my little baby. I’m so sorry I had to leave you for so long. Were you lonely? Did you miss your mommy?” She’d long since given up feeling embarrassed talking baby talk to a cat. She rubbed and scratched the kitten’s ears and was rewarded with a long, rumbling purr, then a quick nip on the top of the hand as a reminder not to do it again.

“Ouch, brat, that hurt.” Taylor stood up, sucking the tiny puncture on her hand. “Fine then, see if you get any loving. Interesting day today, though? Did you have any visitors? Did Greg the bunny come see you?” A rabbit had taken up residence outside the side of the house, and came to feast on the bird food scattered on the ground in front of Jade’s favorite window. “Maybe we should put out some food for him in the morning.”

Taylor wandered into the kitchen, grabbed a Diet Coke from the refrigerator and made her way back to the couch. She picked up the remote and put it down. She wasn’t in the mood to surf for an old movie or other distraction. She was thinking about Baldwin.

Jade followed her to the couch, jumped up into her lap, kneading her way to Taylor’s shoulder, where she settled in with her nose pressed into her neck.

“Oh sweetie, that tickles.” She stroked the cat, lost in thought. “You know, John Baldwin is a complete mess.” The purr in response was the only encouragement she needed.

“He’s as screwed up as I am. He lost three of his men and feels totally responsible. He may be, for all I know. But wow, he’s on the edge. I found him getting ready to shoot himself tonight. I can identify with that. I mean, there were a few times there when I didn’t think I was going to make it.” The feelings she’d been bottling up all night overcame her, and she choked back a sob, her shoulders starting to shake. Jade didn’t seem to mind, and kneaded a little more, settling in closer, giving her a hug. Taylor squeezed back, trying to get herself under control.