Darkness Exposed (16 page)
Mary opened the drawer in the counter and pulled out a teaspoon. While Rosie was busy scolding Ian, she stepped forward and scooped some of the dough out with her spoon.
“Hey,” Stanley yelled, “Mary just stole some cookie dough.”
“Tattle-tale,” Mary said, sticking her dough-covered tongue out at Stanley. “Besides, I used a spoon, not my finger.”
“Mary, I thought you were the mature one here,” Rosie said.
“Excuse me?” Stanley asked. “She’s the mature one? I’m old enough to be her grandfather.”
“And you have cookie dough under your fingernail,” Mary said.
“Stanley!” Rosie chided.
“Busted!” Mary grinned.
Ian grinned over at Mary and motioned with his head towards the cooling rack. She nodded eagerly. He grabbed another cookie and tossed it across the room to her. She took a bite and closed her eyes in complete ecstasy. “Oh, Rosie, these are so good,” she said.
“Better than sex?” Jeannine asked, appearing in the kitchen.
Mary grinned. “Well, they’re better than sledding.”
“What?” Ian asked.
Mary chuckled. “Never mind.”
“Okay, all of you, out of the kitchen,” Rosie stated firmly. “We can’t go interview bad guys if you are eating all of the cookies up. Go, go get dressed. Now!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ian said. “Stanley, do you want to use the shower first.”
Stanley nodded, “Yeah, then I get first dibs on the cooled cookies.”
Mary walked over to the fridge and pulled out a Diet Pepsi. “Breakfast anyone?” she asked.
“You’re as bad as Bradley,” Jeannine said. “How can you drink that stuff?”
Ian poured himself a cup of tea. “Aye, I couldn’t stomach it,” he said. “Rosie, tell her she shouldn’t be drinking that in the morning.”
“You just don’t understand the finer things in life,” Mary said. “Right Rosie?”
“Oh, no, dear, I think that stuff is going to lead you to an early grave,” she said, popping a cookie into her mouth. “Of course, so is this.”
Ian grabbed another cookie and bit down. “Aye, but this is a lovely way to go.”
“Why thank you dear,” Rosie said. “Mary, will you listen for the timer? I’m going to run upstairs and get dressed.”
“No, problem,” Mary replied. “Take your time.”
Once Rosie left the room, Jeannine hovered over to the stove. “I miss this,” she said, running her hand over the dials. “I used to love to bake.”
“I didn’t realize you cooked?” Mary said.
She shook her head. “Oh, no, I was really bad at cooking. But, I loved baking. Cookies, brownies, and cakes,” she smiled. “I would bake during the day, and we’d go out and pawn it off on the neighbors in the evening. If Bradley ate half of what I made, he would have been as wide as he was tall.”
“Your neighbors must have loved you,” Ian said.
Darkness fell across Jeannine’s face. “Obviously not all of them.”
Mary nodded. “Yes, you’re right.”
“So, Rosie mentioned you are visiting the bad guys today,” Jeannine said. “Who are you going to see?”
Ian sat down at the table and pulled out the yellow pad with the names on them. “This is just to start,” he said. “We’ll see if they lead us to any more leads.”
Mary joined him at the table, “We thought we’d start with the people you had contact with on that last day,” she said. “Do you have any insight you can add.”
“Mercedes had a huge ego,” she said. “And she is very susceptible to flattery.”
She turned to Ian. “Especially from hunky men.”
Ian grinned. “Well, I’ll be sure to turn on the charm.”
“We’re going to be placing discreet bugging devices in their homes,” Mary said, “Any suggestion where we should place it in Mercedes’ house?”
“Probably her office,” Jeannine suggested. “She spends most of her time there. And it seems to be the room she and Harvey use when they are having private discussions.”
“So, how do we get her to show us her office?” Ian asked.
Jeannine smiled. “Ask her about her real estate awards,” she said. “She has them mounted on the walls in her office.”
“Perfect,” Mary said.
“Jeannine, I want to have another session with you and Mary,” Ian said.
Jeannine slid to the corner of the room. “It wasn’t easy to be back there, Ian,” she said. “I don’t know…”
“I know it was hard,” Mary said, “Somehow I lived through all the memories you were experiencing. I felt them too.”
Jeannine moved closer to them. “You felt them?” she asked.
Mary nodded and closed her eyes for a moment. “His hands on my skin, his voice through the drugs, the cold and damp room and just the fear for the life of the baby,” Mary said. “Yes I felt it all.”
“So, when I remembered what happened, I wasn’t alone,” she said. “You were there with me.”
“The whole time,” Mary said.
“Do you want to do it again?” she asked. “Do you really want to go back there again?”
Mary took a deep breath and shook her head. “No, I don’t. But I will, because I want to find out who did this to you,” she said. “And I really want to kick his butt.”
Jeannine giggled. “I wish I was more like you, Mary,” she said. “I’ve never been very brave. I always ran away, instead of staying and fighting. I wonder…”
Mary stood and walked over to Jeannine. “You were brave,” she said. “You put up with everything that happened to you because you were protecting your baby. You were amazing.”
Jeannine turned to Ian. “We can do it again,” she said. “Mary and me, we’re going to kick some butt.”
Ian nodded. “Aye, I can see that,” he said. “Thank you, Jeannine.”
Jeannine started to fade away. “No, thank you. Both of you.”
Chapter Twenty-four
“So, how do I look?” Rosie asked, as she came down the stairs wearing a pink boucle suit with a multi-colored scarf draped over her shoulders.
“You look lovely,” Mary said.
“Why the hell you all dressed up like a frothy pink confection for some crazy killer?” Stanley asked. “You go back upstairs and dress in something less…less… Well, damn it, woman, you know what I mean.”
Rosie stopped at the bottom of the stairs and put her hands on her hips. “No, Stanley, I don’t believe I do understand what you mean,” she said. “And I don’t believe I’m going to change my clothes. I like being a pink confection.”
Stanley walked across the room and stood in front of her. “I say you’re going back up and getting yourself dowdied up,” he said. “Ian, tell her.”
Ian grinned and shook his head. “I’d say she should go out there just the way she is,” he said. “All of her beauty is bound to distract the man. And when you add those cookies to the mixture… Well, you’ll have no problem placing the bug in that house.”
Rosie giggled softly. “Thank you, Ian,” she said, slipping into her coat and picking up the plate of cookies. “Are you ready to go, Stanley?”
Stanley took Rosie’s arm and placed it firmly around his. “You stay close to me, girlie, understand,” he said.
Rosie smiled up at him. “Of course, Stanley,” she replied, scooting closer to him. “I’ll stay as close as I can.”
“Well, er, good,” Stanley murmured, reaching up and loosening his collar a little. “Just so you know who’s in charge.”
Rosie laid her cheek against his shoulder for a moment. “Oh, Stanley, I know who’s in charge.”
Once the door closed behind them, Ian turned to Mary.
“And why do you think they call women the weaker sex?” he asked.
“A man wrote the book,” Mary said with a shrug. “And his wife told him to put that in there.”
Ian chuckled. “Well, poor Stanley,” he said. “I don’t believe he’s realized yet that he’s good and caught.”
“Yeah, but I don’t see him fighting his way loose,” Mary said. “They’re both pretty smitten.”
Stanley helped Rosie down the slick driveway and on to the sidewalk. “Now, remember, we don’t want to do anything to make Bob feel threatened,” he said. “So, as far as he knows, we’re just new neighbors.”
“Yes, Stanley,” she said. “And I’ll distract him so you can put the bug somewhere in the house.”
“Yeah, but don’t take no chances,” he said.
“I promise, Stanley.”
They walked up the walk to Bob’s house and climbed up the stairs to his front porch. Stanley rang the bell and then stood in front of the solid steel door that only had a peep hole, no window.
“Don’t like people looking in,” Stanley whispered to Rosie. “That ain’t a good sign.”
“Maybe he’s shy,” Rosie whispered back.
“Humph,” Stanley said.
After a few moments they could hear the door being unlocked and then it was opened a crack. “Can I help you?” Bob asked curtly.
“Hello,” Rosie said with a brilliant smile. “We’re your new neighbors. We live just next door. I was baking this morning and thought I’d bring you over some cookies.”
“Oh? New neighbors?” he said, widening the opening.
“Yes,” she said. “We just moved in with our grandchildren. They’re newlyweds, so we wanted to give them a little time alone. I’m sure you understand.”
The door opened wider. “Moved in with grandchildren?”
Rosie moved in closer, thrusting the plate of cookies ahead of her. “Well, our granddaughter and her new husband,” she said. “I’m Rosie and this is…”
Stanley moved forward and extended his head. “I’m Stanley, her husband,” he said. “And you are?”
“Bob. Bob Turner,” he said.
“Well, howdy, Bob,” Stanley replied. “You don’t mind if we come in for a moment or two? My Rosie here makes the best cookies in the whole state of Illinois.”
“Um, no, come in,” he said. “Come in.”
Stanley put his arm around Rosie’s shoulders and guided her into the small foyer.
Rosie swallowed a gasp and forced herself to smile at Bob. “Well, it seems you are a collector,” she said as she looked around house.
Almost every inch of space was covered with stacks of newspapers and magazines, towers of boxes and piles of clothing. The furniture was covered, the floors were covered, the bookcases were covered and even the bathroom was filled. There were little pathways, just wide enough for one person to walk down, throughout the house.
Rosie and Stanley both jumped when they heard the distinct click of a steel bolt into a lock. They turned to see Bob locking them securely into the house. “You can’t be too careful,” Bob said. “Scary things have happened in this neighborhood.”
“No, really?” Stanley responded. “This seems like such a nice neighborhood.”
“Oh, about eight years ago,” Bob responded. “The woman next door disappeared.”
He looked at Rosie and smiled. “I’m sure you wouldn’t want that to happen to your wife, would you?”
Stanley pulled Rosie a little closer. “No, I sure wouldn’t,” he said. “Course, nothing like that would happen while I was around.”
Bob shook his head. “Good man,” he said. “Protecting your wife should be the first priority in your life. Too many men think about themselves first.”
Rosie swallowed and refreshed the smile on her face. “Where would you like me to put these cookies?” she asked. “In the kitchen?”
Bob pondered the question for a moment. “No, no why don’t we all go to my office,” he said, “then we can sit, visit and get acquainted.”
They followed him through a maze of garbage to the back of his house. Rosie almost screamed when a mouse darted from one stack across their path to another one, but Stanley placed his hand on her shoulder for reassurance. She turned and sent him a grateful smile. Stanley felt his heart hit the ground and then bounce right back up. Well, dammit, I’m in love with her, he suddenly realized.
As they passed through the house, Rosie’s stomach clenched tighter and tighter. The house was filthy. She could see mouse droppings on most of the exposed surfaces, cobwebs hung everywhere and the air was filled with smell of mold. She shivered. How does someone live like this?
Bob finally led them to a door that was closed to the rest of the mess. He opened it and, unlike the rest of the house, Rosie could tell there was sunlight streaming in from the windows. He entered the room first and motioned for them to follow.
The room was spotlessly clean, with a small desk and chair in one corner and a floral love seat, occasional chair and small coffee table in the other corner. Rosie couldn’t believe the difference. “This is a lovely room,” she said without thinking.
“As opposed to the other rooms in my home?” Bob asked.
“Oh, I didn’t mean that,” Rosie said, placing her hand over her mouth.
“Please sit down,” Bob said, pointing to the love seat.
