Bad Habit (19 page)

Bernie stood staring after him,
feeling a vague sense of unease.

#

Teri sat at the Garcia breakfast table. She’d taken
a quick shower and tossed on her clothes. Thanks to her cropped
hair she could get away with combing it wet and leaving it to air
dry.

The sideboard was laden with bowls
of fruit, various flavors of syrup, confectioner’s sugar and
pitchers of ice cold milk and orange juice along with the steaming
hot coffee.

Isabel was making stacks of
fragrant buttermilk pancakes to order.

Teri waited while everyone was
served. She smiled at Angel’s great-grandmother as she ate a
pancake with sliced strawberries and confectioner’s
sugar.

“
Teri,” Isabel said. “How many
pancakes would you like?”

“
Oh, I’m waiting for Angel.” Teri
couldn’t help but blush when everyone at the table gave her a look.
She could only imagine that they knew she’d defiled their son and
brother.

“
No waiting. He’ll be down when he
comes down.” Isabel stood over her, anticipating her request. “How
about three to start with?”

“
Yes, that’s fine,” Teri said. As
soon as Isabel set the plate of pancakes in front of her, Angel
came loping down the stairs. He looked tense as though some dark
mood had mysteriously descended upon him.

Teri raised her face, expecting the usual forehead
kiss.

“
I have to go out,” he said
gruffly.

“
Angel, you need to eat your
breakfast.” Isabel’s voice held a plaintive whine.

He gave her a look that silenced
further objections. “I’ll be back,” he said. “Teri, you are not to
go out of this house. Do you understand me?” He stood, pointing a
finger at her as though she was a disobedient child.

“
I understand,” she said softly, a
roiling sensation in her gut. His change of attitude frightened
her. She watched him leave through the kitchen and slam the door
behind him.

Angel’s family exchanged
speculative glances. Teri cut into the pancakes and stabbed a
forkfull into her mouth but found it tasted like
sawdust.

#

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mother Imaculatta cleaned her
glasses with a cotton handkerchief. “Missing? Sister Clement isn’t
missing.” She raised her thin brows under her straight bangs. “I
saw her at breakfast with the other young ones.”

Angel frowned at her across the
polished conference table. He recalled his first meeting with Teri
in this same room. Now, he didn’t have time to waste on softening
the truth. “Sister, I received a call this morning from Sister
Clement and the man who’s holding her. I need to know exactly when
he grabbed her. I thought she was staying here at the
convent.”

“
Yes, they all are. Since Sister
Bernadette left and the man was murdered near their apartment,
Sisters Clement, Constantine and Miriam are staying together in the
old south wing.”

“
Would it be possible to talk to
the other two sisters?”

“
Of course, Detective.” Mother
Immaculata used the telephone to dial into the public address
system and called the two nuns to the conference room.

Sister Connie was the first to
arrive, looking puzzled when she spotted Angel. He stood, gesturing
for her to be seated. Sister Miriam scurried into the room,
blushing as though she was a tardy school girl.

The three nuns sat facing Angel,
their expressions reflecting curiosity and concern.

Angel cleared his throat. “Sisters, I need to know
when you last saw Sister Clement. She’s missing.”

Sister Miriam covered her mouth
with both hands, her eyes wide.

“
We had breakfast together in the
dining hall,” Sister Connie said. “Afterwards, Clem said she was
going to run over to the apartment and print out her lesson plans
on the computer. She should have come right back.”

Sister Miriam recovered a little
and spoke in a breathless voice. “That’s correct. She left right
after breakfast.”

“
And what time was that?” Angel
asked.

“
It must have been almost seven,”
Connie said. “The sun was up already. I watched her take off at a
trot.”

He resisted looking at his watch.
That had been almost two hours ago. She could be anywhere by now.
“Would you let me borrow a set of keys to the apartment so I can
see what happened?”

“
Are you going to look for clues?”
Miriam asked in a hushed voice.

Angel nodded, loathe to alarm them
further.

Connie held out her keys. “Please
find her, Angel.” She crossed herself.

Angel dialed Sergeant Tolliver’s
number as he strode briskly to the apartment. He explained the
situation as succinctly as possible. Tolliver said he’d meet him at
the apartment immediately. Angel sprinted up the stairs and used
Sister Connie’s key to enter.

He swung the door open and saw the
aftermath of an obvious struggle. The computer monitor had been
swept off the desk and a layer of papers was strewn across the
floor.

Angel stepped inside and tried to
walk around the edges of the crime scene. He checked the two
bedrooms but there were no other signs of disturbance. The back
door stood ajar. It led from the kitchen on a circuitous route past
the dumpsters to the side street.

“
I thought I told you to wait for
me!” Sergeant Tolliver’s booming voice resonated from the front
door. “Now you’ve gone and ruined a possible crime
scene.”

“
I was very careful, Sergeant,”
Angel said. “I had to make sure there wasn’t an injured victim
inside.”

Tolliver jammed his fists on his
hips and glared at him. “So, what’s your take, Mister Big City
Detective?”

“
I’m thinking Sister Clement was at
her computer. She told the other nuns she was coming right back
after she printed her lesson plans. It doesn’t appear that the
front door was forced but the back door was standing slightly open.
There are scratches around the lock.” Angel gestured for Tolliver
to follow him down the back stairs. “There might be prints. Don’t
touch the railing.”

“
You don’t think I know that?”
Tolliver stopped dead in his tracks and stared daggers at
Angel.

“
Just a reminder. Are the techs on
the way?”

“
They’re here. And just how the
hell did you get in?” Tolliver asked.

“
One of the nuns gave me her key.
Look! The shrubs are broken here. Sister Clem struggled with the
kidnapper.” Angel knelt beside the shrubbery and pointed to a
tortoise shell barrette. “That’s Clem’s. She wears it in her
hair.”

Tolliver called for a crime tech to
come and bag the barrette.

Angel followed the path to the
where it led out of the complex onto the side street. This was the
entrance he’d used before. He’d parked on this street when he left
Teri crunched down on the seat and where she’d been seen by the man
who took Clem. He alone, was responsible for the kidnapping of
Sister Clem.

#

Angel returned home feeling
dejected and guilty. The SUV was missing from the garage. He
unlocked the back door and secured it behind himself. The large
house was strangely silent. The knot of fear tightened in the pit
of his stomach. He drew his weapon and soundlessly made his way
from room to room, determining that the downstairs was
uninhabited.

He avoided the second step because
of the loud creak and crept up the stairs, alert to any sound. He
opened the first door, Elena’s room, but it was empty, as was
Mikey’s. The next room was shared by Esme and Rosario but it was
vacant as well. He crossed the hall to the room that he’d shared
with Teri the previous night and swung the door wide. Empty. The
next room was his great-grandmother’s room. They never left her
alone. He peeked inside, but her bed was made up and she was gone.
The only other room was his parent’s bedroom. He twisted the knob
and opened the door in a rush, leading with his weapon.

“
Jesus!” Teri shrieked.

“
Holy Mother!” Isabel
screamed.

His great-grandmother sat quietly
rocking and nodded at him in greeting.

He drew a deep breath and holstered
his gun. “Where is everyone?”

“
Angel! You scared me to death.
Don’t ever do that again!” Isabel sat on her bed with her hands
clasped to her heart.

Teri stared at him, wide-eyed.

“
Sorry ladies.” Angel gave Teri a
look and she came running to his outstretched arms. He felt the
knot in his stomach untie itself as she clung to him.

“
What’s wrong?” she whispered
against his neck. “Please tell me the truth.”

“
There’s been a development in the
case. I’m sorry if I scared you. The house was so
empty.”

“
Arturo took the kids to school.
Everyone’s gone,” Isabel said. “But you said Teri had to stay here
so Abuelita and I stayed with her.”

“
Your mother was showing me the
family album.” Teri gestured to the photo pages laid open on the
bed.

“
That should scare you away,” he
said. “We have to talk.”

“
You sound like a talk show host,”
Isabel said. “Go ahead and talk.” She waved them out of the
room.

Angel led her to his room and
closed the door. He took off his jacket and hung it over the hook
on the back of his door.

“
Let’s sit down.” He rolled up his
shirt sleeves.

Teri sank onto the bed, her face
displaying evidence of a growing dread.

He didn’t trust himself on the bed
with Teri so he pulled up his desk chair and straddled it
backwards.

When Teri spoke her voice was soft
and controlled, almost a whisper. “Whatever it is, just tell me. If
you have to arrest me, go ahead. I’ll cooperate with the
investigation, even if I have to sit in a jail cell until you’ve
caught the killers.”

He cupped her cheek in his palm.
“If only it were that simple. I’m afraid that Clem has been
kidnapped.” He watched her face register shock, anger and fear. “I
got a call on my cell this morning from Clem. She handed the phone
off to the kidnapper. It was the man who recognized you last night
when we were at the nun’s apartment.”

“
Omigod! Not Clem. It’s entirely my
fault.” Tears rolled unchecked down her cheeks.

He shook his head. “No, it’s
entirely mine.” He reached out to wipe away her tears. “This
morning, I went to the convent to talk to the other nuns. They said
Clem went back to the apartment. I checked there and saw signs of a
struggle. It looks like one or more men took Clem out the back way
to a car near where we parked.”

A strangled sob escaped her throat.
“What can I do? I’ll do anything you want.”

“
It’s a kidnapping, Teri. It’s out
of my hands.” Angel stroked her cheek, watching helplessly as his
words tore her world apart.

“
What does that mean?” she
asked.

“
Tolliver called in the FBI.
They’ll run the show from now on.”

“
Surely there’s
something...”

“
The crime techs are processing the
scene. They may recover prints or other identifiers. I want you to
work with the police artist and come up with a picture of the man
you saw.”

“
A sketch artist?” Teri
asked.

“
They do it with computers
now.”

“
Well, I do it with pencils.” She
went to the corner and picked up her box of art materials and a
sketch pad. She opened the box and removed a soft lead drawing
pencil and settled cross-legged on the bed.

“
Why didn’t I think of this?” Angel
asked.

She closed her eyes for a moment
and wrote at the top of the page. “He was tall...as tall as you but
not as muscular. He was thin and wiry, at least forty but he could
be as old as fifty. He was wearing a brown suit. I immediately
thought that he must be hot in a New York City suit.” She began
drawing, making a series of circles and lines that suddenly came
together to look like a face.

“
That’s great,” Angel
said.

“
His forehead was wide and his
hairline receded. His hair was reddish-brown and slicked back. Then
his face narrowed with craggy cheekbones and chin.” She elaborated
on the sketch. “His nose was long and the bridge was narrow.” She
finished and held it back for a moment. “Yes, this is the man who
saw me in the car.”

He kissed her forehead. “This is amazing. I forgot
who I was dealing with.”

Teri grabbed his shirt front,
forcing him to sit beside her on the bed. “Tell me what the
kidnapper said to you.”

He looked away for a moment, then
gave her a searching look. “He said he recognized you and that you
had something he wanted. He threatened to hurt Clem unless you
called him back.”

“
Let’s call him back right now.”
She rose to her feet, but Angel grabbed her arm.

His stomach knotted, dreading the
words he had to say. “Teri, if Clem has seen their faces, they
won’t let her live. She could be dead already.”