Bad Habit (4 page)

“
Only one of them. The other man
was yelling about where Colin might have hidden the
money.”

“
Ah, the money,” he said. “How much
money are we talking about?”

She studiously wiped the sweating iced tea glass
with a paper napkin.

“
Colin didn’t tell her about
it?”

She shook her head adamantly. “Teri didn’t know
anything. She never even had a chance to unpack.”

He spread his hands. “Why the rush?
She could have stayed home and returned the bag another
later.”

A tinge of color appeared high on
her cheeks. “I don’t have the answer, Angel.” She turned the blue
eyes on him. “May I call you Angel?”

He had to stop himself from saying,
‘Yes, Sister’. “Of course, Bernie.” He had to grin at the way she
pronounced his name.
Such a little
gringa
. “She wasn’t tired of him after two
weeks of togetherness?”

“
They were in love.”

“
I see,” he said, with a smile. “I
didn’t realize you knew so much about love, Bernie.”

“
I know my sister.” She leaned
forward, entreating him with her baby face.

This little one doesn’t have the
skill to lie convincingly. She’s been holding back out of loyalty,
but now she’s spilling her gut.
Angel tried
not to stare at her lips. He gazed at her for a long serious
moment. “She needs to come in. I can protect her.”

She caught her lower lip between
her teeth, causing a tightness in his chest. He reached for his
iced tea and drained the glass. He welcomed the stab of pain to his
head since it chased away all impious thoughts.

She sipped her tea and answered a
few more questions for him. He paid the check and held the door for
her as they stepped outside into the liquid heat.

“
I forgot how hot it is here,” he
said. “I’ve been melting since I got back.”

She turned sharply, looking up at
him with something like fear in her eyes. “You’ve been here
before?”

“
I grew up here. My parents, aunts
and uncles, sisters, brother and cousins all live here.” He opened
the car door for her, indicating she was to get in.

“
But you live in New York City
now?” She slid onto the seat as he went around and got
in.

“
Yes. I joined the Navy after high
school. I was on a battleship in the Gulf. I fell in love with The
City during Fleet Week. I was the kid who walked around staring up
at the tall buildings.”

“
Me, too.” She bit her lower lip
again.

“
You lived in New York City?”
Angel’s attention riveted to her eyes. She was holding something
back.

“
Just to visit Teri.” She gnawed
her lip. “She gave me the grand tour.”

“
What did you like best?” She was
definitely nervous but this information seemed inconsequential.
What would make a nun misrepresent the truth?

“
Everything.” Her brow furrowed.
“The harbor. The Statue of Liberty. Central Park. China Town.
Little Italy. Broadway.” Her face puckered like she was going to
cry, but she pressed her lips together and drew in a
breath.

Probably worried about her
sister.
“It’s a lot cooler there.” He
smiled, hoping to put her at ease.
Something I said set her on edge again
.

“
Try to wear cotton,” she said. “For
the heat. Cotton breathes and keeps you cool.”

“
I’ll try to remember that,
Bernie.”

He drove the short distance to the
convent, but she redirected him to on aging brick apartment
complex.

“
You don’t live with the
others?”

“
I live with three nuns,” she said.
“We’re all in our twenties. Mother Superior thought we would be
happier with our own place.”

“
That’s pretty radical,” he
said.

“
For a nun, you mean? It’s because
the nuns here are mostly pretty old. Mother didn’t want to lose us
so she’s made our environment youth friendly, as she
says.”

“
She sounds like quite a
lady.”

“
Mother Immaculata is very dear to
us.” She opened the door and stepped out onto the curb. “Thank you
for the tea, Angel. Please forget about Teri and find the men who
killed Colin. When she knows they’re in custody, she’ll be able to
go home.”

“
And you’ll get the word to her when
I do?” Angel looked at her skeptically.

Large blue eyes assessed him. She
shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“
It would be easier if I could talk
to her in person. I could use a description of the killers. If she
comes forward I can protect her as a witness.”

“
She doesn’t know anything more
than I’ve told you.” Closing the car door, she turned, stepping
onto the sidewalk leading to the maze of older apartments shrouded
in overgrown shrubbery.

He watched Bernie disappear into
the shadows. Although he hadn’t gone to church in some time, he
thought he could still go to hell for staring at a nun’s
ass.

“
What a waste!” He put the car in
gear and pulled away from the curb.

His only key to this murder was a
hot nun. He couldn’t treat her as he would anyone else who withheld
information. He couldn’t threaten her with incarceration. He
couldn’t sweat her. No good cop/bad cop.

But he could keep her under
surveillance because he knew she would eventually lead him to
Teri.

Angel pulled into the Alamo Motor
Lodge and parked in front of his room. He went inside and gathered
the case files from his bed. He felt restless and dissatisfied with
his progress. Another shower cooled him off.

He tried to sleep, but the
photographs of Teri Slaughter tormented him. Teri Slaughter, rich
young professional with power in every molecule. They had lived in
the same city, but might as well have been on different
planets.

Then there was Bernie. Angel knew
if he’d tracked her, the killers could, too. She took chances.
Keeping her safe would be difficult. She was too naïve to realize
there were bad people out there.

He closed his eyes, visualizing her
translucent skin and eyes the aquamarine color of sea glass.
Bernie’s hair was the same color, but Teri’s haircuts cost a
fortune. Bernie’s hair was cropped at the nape of her neck. There
was a hint of curl but it looked wash and wear. The two women were
poles apart though there was a strong bond between them.

He needed to question Teri. If she
was as innocent as Bernie claimed, she needed protection. She could
describe the killers, talk to the police artist, look at mug shots.
She needed to do it soon if she was to stay alive. If Bernie was to
stay alive.

#

Quietly, Teri slipped inside the
darkened apartment. She locked the door behind her and twisted the
deadbolt into place, feeling a little more secure for having done
so.

From the kitchen, the clock on the
stove cast an eerie illumination. She made her way to her bedroom,
thankful that Clem had the A/C cranked down.

Teri sat on the edge of her bed and
slid out of her shoes. Pushing them under her bed, she took off the
rest of her clothes. She pulled her cotton gown from under her
pillow and sat holding it against her breasts.

She didn’t like the way Detective
Garcia made her feel, especially when he smiled. Teri Slaughter
knew the look he was giving her. She’s known it all her life. Even
with the extra pounds, she knew he was attracted to her, no matter
how unlikely the pairing.

That didn’t bother her as much as
the incredible attraction she felt to him. He stirred something
deep inside her that she didn’t want stirred at the moment. Sitting
beside him in the restaurant had felt dangerous, like she was being
drawn down into a vortex. Where would she land if she let herself
fall?

A single tear slid down the side of
her nose and dropped onto the cotton gown. In her previous life,
she’d slept between the finest Egyptian cotton sheets with a thread
count so high they’d felt like silk against her skin. She had
rested her head on plump down pillows and slept in an array of
lovely silk gowns.

She stood and let the stream of
cool air from the window A/C blast over her nude body. Inhaling
deeply, she swallowed her tears and pulled the gown over her head
before she slid between the coarse cotton sheets.

It was ten-fifteen on a Friday
evening. Friday was the night she and Colin always went out to
dinner. They should have been dining at a trendy restaurant and
laughing and enjoying an excellent wine.

She could hear Clem breathing over the whir of the
A/C.

Teri felt so alone. Another tear
blazed a trail from the corner of her eye to her ear. She wiped it
away.

Colin was dead and Teri had given
up her entire life just to stay alive. She hoped she’d been right
in trusting Angel and that he would find the killers soon. She
hoped his handsome choirboy face masked a nimble brain and
Superman’s heart.

She wondered if she was going to
hell for lying while impersonating a nun.

#

CHAPTER FOUR

Angel tossed and turned. He kept
drifting off to sleep only to wake fitfully with a beautiful face
haunting him. But he couldn’t tell if it was Teri or Bernie. He got
up and splashed cool water on his own face.

He sat in the chair in front of the
air conditioning vent and thought about the two women.

He recalled Colin Dowd’s sunburned
face, evidence of his recent vacation, and his bright blue eyes
staring vacantly at the ceiling.

The small caliber bullet wound in
the middle of Colin’s forehead turned out to be a .25 caliber
hollow-point, the same kind that had been extracted from the door
of Teri’s car. It had exploded inside Colin’s skull. A close
quarters assassin’s bullet.

Colin’s boss and co-workers had described him as
being brash and cocky, but with a winning personality. If Colin had
a fault, Martin Kelso said it was promising more than he could
deliver. If he got in trouble, it was Teri who bailed him out.

When Angel checked Teri’s
apartment, he searched for a glimpse of her in her lavish
lifestyle. Pale buttery shades in various textures from silky
sheers to heavy weaves defined her space.

Teri had been fond of having her picture taken and
the camera loved her. Tall and slim yet athletic looking, she had a
deceptively simple style that took time and money to achieve.
Teri’s appointment book was filled with manicures, pedicures,
massages, facials, body waxing, personal trainer, haircuts and a
diet and exercise regimen that was followed with a religious
fervor. The making of Teri Slaughter was an enterprise in
itself.

Still, Angel was in awe of her
beauty and style. He stared at her photographs until he could
almost feel her silky hair on his fingertips. He smelled the
perfumes in her dressing room and opened her lingerie drawer.
Nothing was good enough for Teri Slaughter, especially Detective
Angel Garcia.

Angel had expected to have the case
wrapped up long before Sister Bernadette returned from Ireland, but
that hadn’t happened.

This lack of results had led him to
be slumped in front of the air conditioner in a humid motel room in
San Antonio that smelled a little of mold and bleach, unable to
cool down enough to sleep. Unable to get Teri Slaughter and Bernie
off his mind.

Something was bothering him and he
couldn’t quite get a grasp of it. When he’d first met Bernie he’d
been amazed by her resemblance to her sister. She sat across from
him, looking sweet and slender and he’d been overwhelmed by the
urge to protect her.

But he’d gotten a flash of
something strong underneath her seemingly fragile exterior. He’d
never met a nun who couldn’t hold her own. She was wearing Teri’s
face, translucent skin and a cropped version of Teri’s hair. The
eyes were disarmingly clear, ringed by a fringe of unadorned lashes
and brows.

Angel jerked upright, grinning in
the dark. The brows had been professionally done at one time and
were growing out. He was glad that he’d been raised with four women
and was familiar with their grooming routines.

“
Hello Teri,” he
whispered.

#

Angel Garcia leaned against the
stone balustrade under the portico connecting the schoolrooms to
the chapel. Classes were over and the uniformed students poured out
the double doors. Some of the girls cast flirtatious glances at
Angel as he waited.

Most of the students had thinned
out before Teri made her appearance. “Detective Garcia?” She
sounded surprised.

He took the hand she offered, holding it longer than
was necessary. “Bernie, I thought you were going to call me Angel.”
He gave his name the Spanish pronunciation.

“
Angel.” She smiled as she tried
to say it his way.

He liked the way her lips formed his name. “Where
can we talk privately, Bernie?”

“
The memorial rose garden beside
the chapel.” She gestured to a path that wound through beds of
fragrant roses of every variety.