Tunnel Vision (19 page)

She whiled away nearly two hours watching

women and listening to the mostly country-western music. Periodically, a woman approached her for a dance and she had been glad to accept. She enjoyed dancing and, for the most part, the conversation had been pleasant as well. She began to relax and felt her body fall into a comfortable rhythm. The more she danced and the more women she met, the more she ventured to ask others to dance. Even sober she was having a surprisingly good time.

HE SHIFTED HIS car into park and sat patiently, waiting for Maggie Weston to enter her duplex. He’d give her a little time to get comfortable or perhaps wait until the lights were turned off for the night. He pulled the tab on a soft drink can and settled in, waiting for the right time. She could tie him to the murder of Cruz Garcia. He mentally slapped himself for being so stupid. The dumb bitch probably didn’t realize why she had to die.

He blinked when headlights from an on-coming vehicle hit him. He ducked his head, not taking any chances. The car, a flashy red Mustang, slowed in front of the duplex and turned into the driveway.

“Shit,” he muttered. He watched as a woman dressed in jeans and a short-sleeve pullover readjusted her clothing and ran a hand through her medium length dark hair as she approached the front door to Maggie Weston’s home.
Now what
, he thought. He wanted to finish his business and get back to his life. MAGGIE WAS EXHAUSTED after the scene with

her father and had only arrived home from work a few minutes before her doorbell rang. She groaned and contemplated not answering until the doorbell rang the second time.

“Carrie!”

“Hey baby,” the woman said with a smile. “You don’t look ready for a night out. Just get home?” she asked as she stepped into the room and pulled Maggie into a warm embrace.

“I’ve just had the worst day of my entire adult life,” Maggie answered, returning the hug.

“Well, sit down and tell me all about it.” Carrie Landers said. She smiled as Maggie ended the embrace. “You may be tired, but you still look good enough to eat.” She kissed Maggie softly. “We can stay home if you want to.”

“No. It’s just that with everything that happened today, I forgot about our date. Maybe a night out will take my mind off the problem.”

“So what’s the problem?” Carrie asked.

“My father showed up at work today and outed me,” Maggie answered, her voice quiet.

“Why would he do a dumb thing like that?”

“Because he thinks I’m sleeping with my training officer.”

“What?! Why would he think something as stupid as that?”

“Because it’s Royce Brodie,” Maggie admitted.

“Oh, I see. You didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t need to tell you,” Maggie said angrily.

“That was eight years ago, for Chrissakes! There’s nothing going on between me and Royce. She barely tolerates having me in the squad room.”

“Take it easy, sweetie. I wasn’t accusing you of anything. I’m not the enemy here,” Carrie said.

“I know you never liked Royce, Carrie, but I can handle my own problems.”

“I didn’t like the way she treated you is all.”

Carrie took Maggie in her arms again and held her.

“I’ll never treat you like that, Mag.”

“I know. Let me grab a quick shower and change clothes, okay? Then you can take me someplace fabulous for dinner. I’m starving!” Maggie laughed. HE FOLLOWED THE Mustang into Austin and

found a parking slot nearby where he could observe Maggie and her companion walk hand-in-hand into Suzi’s China Bar and Grill on Anderson Lane, just off Loop One.
Why you little dyke
, he thought with a smile. He’d eaten there a couple of times and it was good enough to impress his dates. It also meant he’d be waiting for at least an hour and probably longer, judging from the number of vehicles in the parking lot. He opened his car door and got out, walked across a side road to a convenience store where he purchased another soft drink and a bag of popcorn. If he’d known killing Maggie Weston was going to take all night, he would’ve brought a book.

Nearly ninety minutes later he sat up straighter in his car seat when he spotted Maggie leaving the restaurant. She was laughing at something the other woman had said. The Mustang backed out and turned onto the side road to get back on Loop One. He followed at a discreet distance and turned behind them at the Fifth-Sixth Street exit. They were driving into the downtown area where traffic would be more congested. The Mustang finally turned onto Sixth Street and entered a public parking garage. Across the street he saw the flashing neon sign for Mama Jean’s, a local gay and lesbian bar. He drove around the block and pulled into the parking lot of a post office sub-station. Paying the attendant five dollars, he walked across the busy street and turned the corner in time to see Maggie and her companion jog across the road and walk into the bar.

MAGGIE FOLLOWED CARRIE into Mama Jean’s.

Carrie Landers had been her best friend since their training days at the Austin Police Academy, and they began dating not long after Maggie passed her detective’s exam. Before she and Carrie started going out she had been to Mama’s alone many times, but there hadn’t been many nights she had been forced to go home alone. She almost always managed to find a passing fancy to take her mind off her loneliness. To celebrate Maggie’s new job Carrie had planned a special evening beginning with dinner, a little dancing and something much more intimate later. While Carrie went to the bar to buy the first round, Maggie went in search of an out-of-the-way table. When Carrie re-joined her, they tipped their drinks back. As she set her glass down on the table, a familiar figure on the dance floor caught Carrie’s eye.

“Well, there’s a face I hoped I’d never see again,” she said.“What?” Maggie asked, following Carrie’s gaze.

“It’s your ex.”

Brodie directed a dazzling smile at the woman she was dancing with.
A beautiful smile
, Maggie thought.
It used to take my breath away when she smiled at me like
that.
She watched as the dance ended and Brodie escorted her dance partner from the floor, her fingertips barely touching the small of the woman’s back. They took long, thirsty drinks from the bottles they had left along the dance floor railing. As Brodie brought her bottle to her lips, Maggie felt her stomach clench and she longed to be that damn bottle, just to feel Royce’s lips touch hers again. Jesus Christ! She shook her head to clear her mind. She was losing it. Brodie ran her hand slowly to the back of the woman’s neck and pulled her closer as she said something to the woman that brought a smile to her face.

“How about a dance?” Carrie asked as she ran her hand down Maggie’s back.

Smiling, Maggie took her hand and followed her to the dance floor. The song was a slow tune, and Carrie drew Maggie close to her. As they made their way around the floor, Maggie caught a glimpse of Brodie. The woman she had been talking with was gone and she was watching the couples dance. As they made their second turn around the small floor, Maggie turned her head to look for Brodie. A moment later their eyes met and stayed on one another. Maggie wanted to reach out to her. She had made a mistake by going to Cedar Springs. After the fiasco with her father that afternoon, Maggie wasn’t certain she could still hold her head up at work. She had been completely blindsided when he appeared.

She turned toward Carrie and said, “I need to speak to Brodie for a moment.”

Resting a hand on top of Maggie’s, Carrie said,

“You’re better off without her.”

“I know, but we’re working on a case and I forgot to tell her something before I left this afternoon,”

Maggie lied.

Brodie’s white long-sleeve shirt seemed to glow under the black lights scattered around the club as she chatted amiably with the woman she had been dancing with earlier. Taking a deep breath for courage, Maggie tapped her on the shoulder. As soon as she saw her former lover, Brodie’s smile evaporated

“Weston,” she said, her eyes turning cold.

“Enjoying your evening?”

“Could I speak to you privately for a moment?”

Maggie asked, casting a glance at the woman with Brodie.

Turning back toward the other woman, Brodie said, “Don’t go away. It’s a work thing.”

Maggie followed Brodie to a corner of the bar and waited for her to turn around.

“I wanted to apologize for my father. We had a fight earlier in the week and I didn’t know he’d show up where I worked. I…I’ll turn in my resignation if you want.”

“What’s done is done. You can do what you want, but don’t let him force you into doing something you don’t want to do. He’s pissed because he doesn’t control you any more and he can’t stand that. Never could.”

Maggie looked around the club nervously and spotted Carrie talking to a group of women. On an impulse she asked, “Would you like to dance?”

“Aren’t you with someone?” Brodie asked. She had seen Maggie dancing with Carrie and privately confessed a twinge of jealousy to herself. She wasn’t particularly happy with the way she was feeling about Maggie, but the memory of dancing with her was too strong to ignore.

“Yeah, you probably remember my friend,

Carrie.”

“I remember her calling me a good-for-nothing drunk after you were hurt.”

“A lot of people said a lot of things they shouldn’t have back then, including me. One dance can’t possibly hurt anything. It’s just a dance.”

For a moment, the corners of Brodie’s mouth looked as if they might actually curl into a smile.

“Why not?”

As the driving beat of Melissa Etheridge’s
I’m the
Only One
began, the disc jockey announced in a husky, sultry voice over the microphone, “Shadow dance, ladies. Show your partner what you’ve got to offer her tonight.”

As Brodie started toward the floor, Maggie stopped. Maybe asking for a dance hadn’t been such a great idea after all.

“Do you want to dance or not?” Brodie asked. Glancing at the dancers already on the floor, Maggie looked back at her and took her hand. As soon as they were on the floor, Brodie spun Maggie in front of her and slid an arm around her waist, pressing her hand firmly against Maggie’s abdomen, pulling her closely against her own body. “Just relax,” she breathed softly into Maggie’s ear, sending a chill down her body. Shadow dancing was as amazingly sensuous as Maggie remembered as their bodies began moving together as one. There was something erotic about feeling but not seeing her partner’s body move against hers as she trailed one hand slowly down Maggie’s arm and side. It could have been her imagination or the sensations her body was feeling, but it seemed as if Brodie’s hand had slipped slowly down her abdomen, her fingers spread. Maggie felt her body reacting to the movement of Brodie’s body against hers.

Almost without Maggie realizing it, the tempo of the music changed and slipped smoothly into another song. Taking her cue from the beat of the music, Brodie stepped around her gracefully, facing her as the dance continued. Maggie felt her hand slip to the small of her back, drawing her closer once again.

“How long have you been dating Carrie?” Brodie asked.

“A few months,” Maggie answered.

“I hope you have better luck this time.”

As she opened her eyes, the coldness she had seen in Brodie’s eyes was replaced by something softer, something that took her breath away. Hurt?

Disappointment? She ran her hand along Brodie’s neckline and rested her head in the hollow of the taller woman’s shoulder, feeling contented … secure for the first time in years. Brodie shifted her body, allowing her lead leg to slip slightly between Maggie’s thighs. She felt her breath quicken at the movement and hoped Brodie couldn’t feel her heart beating faster against her chest. She had wondered how she would feel if Royce ever touched her again and now she knew. Every cell of her body

remembered. When the music began to fade away, she didn’t want to release her grip on the taciturn detective.

“Thanks, Weston,” Brodie said as they finally left the dance floor.

Maggie laughed. “Even off duty you can’t bring yourself to call me by my first name again.”

“It was just a dance,” Brodie shot back. “Don’t make more out of it than it was.”

“Perhaps,” Maggie said to herself as Brodie walked away.

HE ORDERED A beer and found a nice secluded spot partially in the shadows next to the bar. He stood there a while, leaning against the wall. He watched Maggie and the brunette glide around the dance floor and felt nauseated. He would be doing the world a favor by killing her.
One less dyke in a world that was
sick enough already.
When the two women returned to their table, Maggie looked around the club and sipped her drink. A moment later she said something to the woman with her and left their table. She walked directly toward a tall, older woman and spoke to her. He nearly panicked as the two women moved toward the corner of the bar where he was watching. Had Maggie seen him and gotten reinforcements to confront him? He shook the idea away in his mind and shrank back father into the shadows.
You tramp
, he thought when he heard Maggie ask the other woman to dance.

He thought he saw Maggie hesitate when the dance was announced. Apparently a shadow dance was something special. Once the dancers began to move, he licked his lips. The way Maggie embraced this woman was different, more intimate. There was a sense of familiarity in the way they touched one another that he found extremely arousing. Maggie Weston was turning out to be a much more interesting person by the minute. His eyes followed the older woman as she wove through the crowd.

BRODIE MADE HER way to the ladies room and splashed cold water on her face. Damn, Maggie felt good in her arms. She had danced with a dozen women that evening, but none had caused her body to react the way it had with her. It was stupid and senseless. She couldn’t allow it to go any further. It wouldn’t be fair to Maggie. She was with someone else now and Brodie knew she wouldn’t be able to handle the rejection that would come from anything more serious. She was drying her hands and face when the bathroom door opened and Carrie stepped into the small room. She leaned against the wall, gazing down at the floor until they were alone. Brodie turned and leaned against the sink as she tossed the damp paper towel into the nearby garbage can. “Something I can do for you, Landers?” she asked.