Closet Confidential (22 page)

“Man.” I yawned as I staggered back upstairs after walking the dogs in the morning. “I don’t know how parents cope. Did you get back to sleep, Jack? Silly question. Of course you did. You snored all night.”

“Mmmf,” he said. He was balancing little Jack on his hip and squinting at the can of formula. “I think he misses his mother.”

“Don’t we all? I think I’ll find out what’s happening there.”

Before I could check with the hospital, Sally called. “Oh boy. Have you seen the news yet today?”

The news would mean Todd Tyrell, my least favorite announcer, and my answer to that question was always the same: “No.”

“Don’t turn it on.”

“What?” Sally has had a crush on Todd Tyrell since we were fifteen. She never misses Todd on television and expects me to share her enthusiasm. She always thinks I should watch him. “Why not?”

“Oh boy.”

“Is it Pepper?”

“They’re exaggerating on the news, but it’s not good.”

I slumped on the sofa and rubbed my left temple. “What’s happened?”

“Apparently there’s bleeding on the brain. They’re doing their best, but it’s worse than yesterday.”

“Bleeding on Pepper’s brain?” I must have yelled that because Jack was at my side immediately.

I thought back to my conversation with Pepper when she’d sat up straight after being told to keep still. Did that contribute to this?

I whispered, “What’s the outlook? Does Benjamin know?”

“He says it’s guarded.” Sally’s voice was breaking.

“Guarded?”

“Could go either way.”

“My God. That’s terrible. I can’t believe it. I’ll go over.”

“Don’t bother. They won’t let anyone who isn’t a close relative in to see her. She’s in ICU. Charlotte?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Take care of yourself. This is awful for you, too.”

I croaked, “What about you?”

“I’ve got a houseful of kids to keep my mind occupied. You’d better keep your brain busy, too. And tell Jack he can drop Little Nick off here for the day or until Nick the Thick shows up. What’s one more?”

I glanced at Jack. “All right. But I’m not sure he’ll be willing. In fact, I don’t know if he’ll give him up without a fight.”

“Whatever. We’re all here in play central and the door’s open. Well, we’ll open it if he knocks.”

I filled Jack in on Sally’s call and watched his face fall. I decided to bite the bullet. I took a deep breath and turned on WINY news. “Let’s see what they’re saying officially.” As usual, Todd Tyrell’s giant teeth filled the screen and his grating voice scratched at my brain. I shuddered.

“And update on the crime wave sweeping our community—”

“Just the facts, you jackass,” I said bitterly. “If you try to make entertainment out of what’s happened to Pepper, I will go over there and make you eat those teeth.”

Jack said, “Are you talking to the television set?”

Little Nick said nothing.

Pepper’s wedding photo flashed across the screen. She was beautiful, shining, white veil flying high, strapless wedding dress revealing toned shoulders and arms. The best day of her life if you went by her face.

Todd Tyrell’s face returned.

A shot of the woods and police officers combing the area flashed across the screen.

I pressed mute to dim the sound as the phone was ringing again.

Tierney.

“Don’t watch the news,” he said.

“Too late. Why didn’t you let me know what was going on? Is Pepper clinging to life?”

“I’m letting you know now. The next twenty-four hours will be crucial. We’re all rooting for her.”

“Me, too.”

“I know this is hard for you, when you reconnected and everything.”

“Yes. What about Nick? Is there any sign of him?”

“Nothing. Nowhere.”

“Connor?”

“Yes.”

“I thought of something. Nick couldn’t have walked out of there.”

“We had already thought of that. The main road is busy enough so that he would have been seen.”

“So either he’s still in the woods. Or he hitched a ride. Or—”

Nick’s handsome face flashed across the screen. This shot was from the wedding album, too. He also looked happy. Maybe to be getting married. Or being Nick, maybe from squeezing one of the bridesmaids.

Tierney didn’t let me finish. “That’s right. But don’t think about that stuff. We’re hoping to find him.”

“Alive, you mean.”

“That’s the plan. It looks like he was in your car.”

“Are you sure?”

“We found traces.”

“Well, actually, he was in my car. He stopped me yesterday—was it only yesterday?—and pretended to give me a ticket. He got into the passenger seat briefly.”

“What?”

“He—”

“I heard you, actually. That’s so far removed from procedure that it caught me by surprise.”

“I told him it wasn’t the way to do it. But it might explain why you’d find a strand or two of his hair and maybe fingerprints.”

“Maybe.”

“Lots of people ride in my car: Jack, Lilith, the dogs. . . .”

“We didn’t find fingerprints from anyone else in the system. We’re not expecting to find your friends or pets in AFIS.”

“Well, yeah. What about Margaret? Is she still at the hospital?”

“They sent her home when Pepper went into surgery. She’s probably still sleeping.”

“What happened?”

“According to Officer DeJong, who was guarding the room, around eleven o’clock, Margaret decided to walk up and down the corridor, to stretch her legs. Pepper was sleeping. While she was gone, DeJong heard a thump and opened the door. Apparently Pepper had gotten out of bed and then fallen. Luckily he was able to press the help button and a doctor and a nurse got there in seconds. He was pretty shook up.”

I didn’t ask if Tierney had slept. Something told me he hadn’t. “Wait a minute, if there’s no sign of Nick, who authorized the surgery? Was Pepper awake?”

He paused. “I believe her parents are on their way from Florida or wherever they retired to. They must have okayed it.”

Pepper’s parents? Things were dire indeed.

Tierney interrupted my thoughts. “Think positive. I’ll try to keep you informed about Pepper. I know that she’s the one you’re close to.”

After he disconnected, I stared at the screen. A trailer for a coming movie. I thought about Tierney’s words. Pepper was my friend. And Nick had been in my life for years, too. I even cared about him in a weird way. Had he actually left his wife to die and me at the mercy of a would-be killer?

Jack interrupted my thoughts. “Pepper’s parents. Whoa. This is out of control. What about Little Nick?”

“Let’s hope his own parents are going to be all right.”

“Both of them.”

“Both of them.”

I knew one thing for sure and that was that Pepper would not want her child to live with the same man who had left her bruised every week as a child.

I could have used a great big Jack-hug at that low moment, but he had turned his attention back to Little Nick.

That left me to worry about Pepper. Why had she gotten out of bed? What had she remembered?

Sally was right. Sometimes the best thing when you can’t help is to keep going. The To Do list I’d written the night before seemed so innocent now. It didn’t have
Grieve for friend
. It didn’t have
Save Little Nick from evil grandparents
. It did have two closet appointments and a trip to the library, a bit of dog training, and routine business development and office chores. Somehow, none of that held much interest for me at that moment. But still it was something to do as the hospital had said only family visitors for Pepper, bizarre in this case.

Jack also had a full day ahead of him.

He declined Sally’s offer and took Little Nick to the bike shop with him.

“What if he cries and disturbs your customers?” I still had trouble adjusting to the bike shop as day care.

“They can find another bike shop. Babies are part of society. The little dude likes it there. People have to learn to—”

“Okay, okay. I guess he’ll be all right there. It’s not like a typical nursery, that’s all.”

“Why not? We have music and bright colors on the bikes and nice things to look at. Plenty of objects to help develop his muscle control. He’ll be more than all right. It’s not like he’s walking yet. He wants someone to smile and play a bit. Did you see him smile at me?”

“Fine. I concede defeat.”

I helped Jack cart out the mountain of gear and jiggled Little Nick on my hip as he set up the car seat in the Mini. Little Nick looked around for Jack and reached for him, but I didn’t take it personally. The kid was making a wise choice. Jack double-checked the car seat that Sally had dropped off and tucked the gurgling baby into it. I thought the boys looked pretty happy as they headed off to business. Was it my imagination or did Little Nick smile at me, too?

Whatever. It felt good, even as I felt a wave of fear for him and what his future might hold.

Jack’s ancient Mini was only big enough for the boys, so I checked with my insurance and called the car rental company they recommended. I sat tight until that office could drop off my replacement vehicle.

Unfortunately that gave me a lot of time to think about Pepper and what had happened. It wasn’t enough time to have any of it make sense.

Harry opened the door and blinked at me in surprise. “I didn’t expect you.”

I blinked back at him. “But didn’t we make an appointment?”

He glanced behind him. “We did, Charlotte honey, but I’ve been watching television and isn’t that your friend who—?”

“It is. And I have to keep busy or I’ll go nuts. The only thing is that if something . . . dramatic happens, I may have to leave.”

“Naturally, you would have to. We’d understand completely. Some events take precedence.”

Of course, the Beauchamps would understand. I lowered my voice. “Did Lorelei see the news? That would be terribly upsetting for her so soon after your daughter’s accident.”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about that, honey. She never watches the news. Never listens to the radio. Doesn’t want to know. Just wants silence. She won’t even have music playing.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing today. Considering.”