aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65 (28 page)

“Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked while I caught my breath. He took the bar of soap and started to wash my back.

“I was going to after I took my shower.”

“I woke up and you weren’t there.”

“I’m sorry,” I said with another kiss. “I won’t let it happen again.”

“Good,” he said as his soapy hands slid down my 255

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sides.

“Aidan, I have to go to work,” I protested faintly.

“I’ll drive you.”

“How does that make a difference? I still have to be there at the same—ooohhh,” the rest of my case was cut off by Aidan’s convincing counterargument. That morning I learned that fireworks go off even in the shower.

***

Since Aidan did end up driving me to work, he had to pick me up too. After we left downtown, to my surprise, we didn’t head back to the apartment.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To the marina. We might as well look for Joey’s dad.

I’m really starting to get into this whole detective thing.

It sounded like in the letter that his dad has a boat at the marina. I thought we could nose around.”

“Nose around? Where’d you get that? What, are we rooting for truffles?”

“Don’t be a smart ass.”

We parked and walked around the marina for a few minutes looking for someone. The place seemed pretty deserted and most of the boats were covered in canvas for the winter. Finally, we found someone struggling to pull his canvas boat cover down far enough to snap it on.

“Excuse me,” I called. “Do you know a Mr. Taylor who has a boat in this marina?”

The man turned and eyed us suspiciously. He was an older man, rough and weathered by years in the ele-ments. I began to feel vaguely guilty under his gaze; for what, I didn’t know.

“Nope, sorry,” he said finally. Then as we started 256

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away, “Could you guys give me a hand here, mebbe?”

“Sure,” we quickly agreed. We stepped onto his boat, named the Mildred Belle, and for the next few minutes helped him pull the cover taut enough to snap in place.

“Thanks, I appreciate the help,” he said when we’d finished. “She’s named after my wife.”

It took me a minute to realize he meant the boat. “She must have been very flattered,” I said uncertainly. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel having a boat named after me.

I suppose it would be an honor.

“She died two years ago, a year before I got this girl.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“She’d suffered for a long time. Cancer.”

I didn’t know what to say. Luckily, Aidan stepped in. “My dad died of cancer, too,” he said. The two men stood in a companionable silence for a few moments, sharing a common grief.

“You wouldn’t happen to mean Jack Taylor, would you?” he said finally.

“Jack Taylor?” I said cautiously. I didn’t know if that was who I meant or not.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know, maybe…”

He looked at me with renewed suspicion. “Why are you looking for him?”

“He’s my best friend’s father.”

“Well now, Jack’s boy jus’ died a few weeks back.”

“That was him; Joey.”

He nodded as if I’d spoken the secret password. “Jack was right broke up over that. I was here the day he heard tell about it. On the radio, no less! Helluva way to hear your boy is dead.”

“Yes, sir, it is. I wanted to find him to tell him how 257

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sorry I was.”

“Well I’m sure he ain’t here today; it being winter and all.”

“Well if you should happen to see him, could you tell him Will Keegan was trying to get in touch with him?”

“Will Keegan you say? I’ll do that.”

“Thank you.”

He watched as we walked away. He was still standing on the dock staring after us as Aidan backed out of our parking space and drove away.

“Another dead end,” I sighed.

“Maybe not. Let’s wait and see.”

“The longer we wait the longer the killer has to get away with murder.”

“The killer hasn’t gotten away with anything yet. We still have a chance here, Will. Don’t give up.”

“I’m not giving up. I just hate this feeling that we’re spinning our wheels while something awful is getting ready to happen.”

“Nothing awful is going to happen. We’re going to get this guy.”

“I hope you’re right.”

***

I left work early the next day to go with Caitlin to the doctor. It seemed like we sat in the waiting room forever while we waited to be called. Eventually, a nurse called Caitlin back, leaving me adrift in a sea of very large, very pregnant women. I could feel what little tes-tosterone I had being leached out of me as I sat. Just as I was about to break down and read Martha Stewart Living, the nurse stuck her head back into the waiting room.

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“Mr. Keegan?” she said. “Caitlin has asked if you would come back. The doctor said it’s okay.”

“Me? Come back there?” I squeaked.

Several of the other mothers grinned and I heard one say, “He sounds just like my husband the first time I asked him to come back.”

The nurse nodded encouragingly and I reluctantly followed her back. She led me into an examining room where Caitlin lay on a table, her stomach exposed and covered in what looked to me like Vaseline. Her doctor was sitting next to her holding a small device to Caitlin’s stomach. They were both staring intently at a monitor.

They turned toward me as I came in and I immediately felt myself begin to blush. The doctor was a woman, and judging by her dark complexion and the red dot in the middle of her forehead, I guessed she was from India.“You are jes’ in time to see de baby,” the doctor said with a warm smile.

“See the baby?” I repeated.

“Yes, on the little TV here,” she pointed to the monitor.I looked at the screen but all I could see was static and undefined shapes and shadows. “Where is it?” I asked.

“Right dere. Dat’s de head,” she said pointing, “and dat’s de arm. Oh, look, he’s waving!”

“He?” Caitlin asked while I stared hard at the screen.

“It’s too early to tell, I jes’ said he. It could be a she.”

Slowly, while they talked, a tiny alien-like form began to appear before my eyes. It reminded me of those puzzles that were so popular when I was a kid; those geometric designs that if you stared at them long enough 259

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hidden 3-D images slowly formed.

A sense of awe swept over me as I stared at the image on the monitor. I was looking at a person that hadn’t even drawn its first breath yet. This tiny life was still being formed even while I watched. Its tiny organs were being shaped, its mind developing, and yet the gene patterns that would determine if it was right-handed or left-handed, blonde or brunette, blue-eyed or brown were already established. Wonder and amazement filled me, and a verse I remembered hearing in church ran through my mind: “For you have created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Caitlin and the doctor both stopped talking and turned to stare at me. I realized I had spoken the words aloud.

“It’s from the Bible; Psalms,” I said self-consciously, as I blushed once again.

“Listen to dis,” the doctor said. I was grateful for the distraction. She twisted a knob on the monitor and suddenly a sound filled the room. It was a fast-paced, wet-sounding rhythmic beating.

“The heartbeat?” Caitlin asked.

The doctor nodded.

I stood for a moment as the sound washed over me.

Then suddenly I couldn’t breathe. It was as if all the oxygen had been sucked from the examining room. I needed air; I needed out of that tiny room.

“Excuse me,” I gasped and quickly let myself out of the room. Forcing myself not to run, I made my way outside where I stood gulping in the cold air. An overwhelming feeling of responsibility had come over me in the examining room like I had never felt before. Some-260

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how, none of this had seemed real until that moment.

Even with the baby books it had seemed distant, almost imaginary, like I was playing let’s pretend.

But it wasn’t pretend. Now I had seen the baby with my own eyes, heard its heartbeat with my own ears.

The baby was real. And I had committed myself to raising that child. And in just a matter of months, it would be born and I’d be holding it in my arms. Would it be a girl or a boy? What would it call me? Daddy? The very thought took my breath away. But I’m not the father, I reminded myself. Joey is. And then a small voice whispered, but Joey’s dead.

And then a new fear crept into my mind, closing my throat and filling me with a sense of loss like I had never known. What if Caitlin met someone else and fell in love? What if she got married? I’d be out of the picture for good. As scared as I was, I knew I wanted more than ever to be a part of this baby’s life.

While I was still thinking about that, Caitlin came out.

“Ready to go?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said slowly.

“What happened in there? One minute you’re fine, the next you’re spouting Bible verses and going all pale.”

“It just kinda hit me all at once. I mean, this is really happening. That’s a real baby in there and I’m going to be at least partly responsible for it.”

“Do you want to back out? Nothing is official yet. If you want out, now is the time.”

“No, I don’t want out. In fact, I want to do this more than ever, now. I’ll try to find a lawyer tonight so we can start the legal stuff.”

We walked to the car and got in.

“You’re quite a guy, Mr. Keegan,” she said once we 261

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were out on the road. “One of a kind in fact. Are you sure you’re not straight? We could run off to Vegas right now, get married by an Elvis impersonator.”

I laughed. “I don’t think Aidan would be too happy about that.”

Her head snapped around and her eyes grew wide.

“I thought you and Aidan were just friends.”

“We were. Now—we’re more than just friends.”

“Oh. Well—”

“Does that bother you?”

“No,” she said quickly. A bit too quickly? “It just—

surprised me.”

We drove the rest of the way to her apartment in silence. I couldn’t tell what if anything that meant.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

As soon as I walked through the door of our apartment, I stopped dead in my tracks. Obviously, Aidan had beaten me home. Curtains had been drawn over the windows to block out any light and candles flickered on every possible surface. The smell of Italian food and the soulful crooning of Billie Holiday filled the air.

“Aidan?” I called.

He appeared out of the kitchen with a shy smile. “Surprise?”

I’d never seen him like this; he seemed almost timid, as if everything depended on my reaction. He was dressed in jeans and a jade green silk shirt. It was obvious that he’d gone to great lengths to make this a special night. I frantically searched my memory trying to figure out what I had forgotten. Was I missing an anni-versary? A birthday? I couldn’t think of anything.

“What—I mean—did I miss something?” I said finally.

“No. I just wanted to surprise you, to show you how much I love you. There’s been so much going on…”

I crossed the room quickly and wrapped my arms tightly around him. We kissed for a few minutes before he suddenly pulled back.

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“The bread!” he gasped as he ran back into the kitchen. I followed him.

“You baked bread?” I said.

“Well, I cheated. It’s the frozen kind. But I made ma-nicotti.”

“The frozen kind?”

“No, I really made it. I found a recipe on-line. I don’t know how it turned out. I haven’t tasted it yet.”

“Well if it tastes anything like it smells, it’s going to be delicious,” I said as I slid my arms around his waist again.

This time all I got was a quick peck on the lips.

“Save it for dessert,” he said with a grin. “We can’t let the food get cold.”

We ate dinner, which turned out even better than it smelled, in the living room on a blanket Aidan had spread out on the floor. Afterwards we made love, slow and relaxed, just enjoying each other’s body. As we lay content in the afterglow of our lovemaking, I told Aidan about how seeing the baby had affected me.

“This is really important to you, isn’t it?” he asked softly.

“Yeah, it is. I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want to be a part of this baby’s life, even though it scares the living shit out of me at the same time. Now I’m just worried that something will happen and I’ll lose this chance. I need to find a lawyer.”

“Ilana is a lawyer,” Aidan said. “In fact, I think she handled the custody battle between Adam and his ex over Kane. And I know she handled all the legal stuff with Killian.”

“Do you think I could call her?”

“I don’t see why not. I’ll call Adam in the morning 264

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and get her number for you.”

I kissed him. “Thanks. So what’s the story on Kane?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, at Thanksgiving he said something about his mom talking to him again and just now you mentioned a custody battle.”

“Oh, I don’t really know the whole story. Killian could give you the scoop better than me. I think it all started back when she and Adam split up. She couldn’t handle that he was gay; she wouldn’t let Seth and Kane see him at all. When Seth told her he was gay, she kicked him out and wouldn’t let Kane have anything to do with either of them. There was a big fight over Kane being able to live where he wanted. I think she finally just wrote him off too.”

“That’s awful!” I said. “Seth was the one who was murdered wasn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“God! That family has been through hell.”

“But they got through it by sticking together. Killian is like another son to Adam and I know Killian thinks of Kane as his brother. And from what Kane said at Thanksgiving, I guess his mom has finally come around and she’s talking to him again.”

“So it all worked out in the end?”

“Yeah, I guess it did. You don’t get to see many happy endings in real life; it’s nice to see one every now and then.”