Darkness Exposed (20 page)
“Mary, where are you and what’s wrong?” the tenor in his voice changed immediately and his strength was reassuring.
“I’m at Gary’s office,” she said. “Something happened, suddenly I was very dizzy.”
“Like drugged dizzy?” he asked.
“Maybe,” she said. “I can’t walk.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he said.
“Ian, it takes fifteen,” she said with a slight smile.
“I’ll be there in ten.”
She hung up the phone and slid it back in her pocket. “Ian’s on his way,” she said. “I truly apologize for the bother and, oh, for the cookies.”
She looked beyond Gary and saw the plate on the floor and most of the cookies scattered around it.
Gary chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry about those,” he said. “It looks like quite a few are still fine and losing some will save me from overeating.”
Mary smiled. “Thank you, while I’m having a moment of coherence I need to invite you to the brunch we having Saturday morning. It will be at eleven and my grandmother is already planning the menu.”
“That’s sounds very nice,” he said. “May I bring something along?”
Mary smiled, but shook her head. “Normally I would say yes, but this time it’s my grandmother’s party, so I dare not.”
“Well, I would be delighted to accept your invitation.”
Standing, he pulled a chair across the room so Mary could put her feet up. “Are you comfortable? Do you need a blanket or some water?” he asked.
Shaking her head, she realized she was feeling a little bit better. “No, thank you. But you know, I think I’m feeling a bit better.”
“Well, you just sit there until Ian arrives. Let’s not take any chances.”
True to his word, ten minutes after she’d hung up with him Ian burst through the door. He immediately saw Mary and rushed to her side. “How are you feeling?” he asked, cradling her face in his hand.
“A little silly,” she replied.
“Ah, well then, you must be doing better. Silly is two steps up from dizzy.”
Ian turned to Gary. “I owe you my thanks for taking care of her,” he said, and shook Gary’s hand.
“No problem, she was a model patient,” he replied. “I’d be happy to take care of her anytime.”
Ian turned back to Mary, “Shall we go home now?”
She nodded, started to rise and squealed when Ian scooped her up in his arms. “Ian, I can walk,” she said. “I’m barely dizzy at all.”
He hoisted her higher in his arms and she threw her arms around his neck to hold on. “Aye, now that’s better, me darling,” he said. “No more lip from you until we get you back home.”
“But Ian,” she said, “I can walk.”
“I have to use the man boobies for something, darling, else they’re just for show,” he whispered.
She giggled.
“That’s a girl,” he said. “Now put your head on my shoulder and snuggle in tight. I’ll get you to the car safely.”
She did as he requested and had to admit that she did feel a wave of well-being when she was held in his arms. “This is so not me,” she whispered, as Ian carried her through the parking lot. “I kick butt, I don’t faint.”
He chuckled into her hair. “Well, if you tried kicking just now you’d be sitting on your butt, I’d say.”
He put her on her feet outside the car and opened the door for her. She climbed into her seat and buckled herself in. Ian went around and got in the car and started it up. Then he turned to her, his face suddenly serious. “So, tell me. What happened in there?”
Mary shook her head. “I seriously have no idea,” she said. “One moment I’m standing at the counter, asking for Gary, the next moment the world has gone all tilt-a-whirl.”
“Did you feel faint when you walked up the stairs?”
“No, I felt fine,” she said. “Honestly, there was nothing.”
“And how are you feeling now?”
She took a deep breath and did a self-assessment. “A little shaky,” she said. “But for the most part, I feel fine. I can tell you for a few moments in there, I didn’t feel like myself at all.”
Ian paused. “Well, then, maybe you weren’t.”
“Maybe I wasn’t what?”
“Maybe you weren’t yourself,” he said. “You and Jeannine have bonded, so to speak. You not only allowed her to share your body, but you shared her memories. Those memories are now your memories too. Something that happened today might have triggered a delayed response in you and your body reacted.”
Mary nodded. “Well, considering that I’ve met with all of the potential suspects on our short list that makes sense. So, it was just a one-time thing.”
“Well, that’s what I’m hoping,” Ian said, “Could be, because you have her memories, that this might be a recurring issue for you.”
“Well, crap,” she said.
“Aye, crap indeed.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Mike opened his eyes and looked around the room. This was certainly the Christopher Columbus method of haunting; materialize in a place and then find out where it is. The house was tiny and everything seemed worn. It had the feel of a bachelor pad, no knickknacks or feminine touches to make it feel like home.
He moved to the kitchen. The countertop was filled with an assortment of cereals, snack foods and dirty dishes. The kitchen table was stacked with newspapers. The older model white refrigerator was a little dingy, but it was free of magnets, pictures and take-out menus, except for two newspaper articles that were taped to the door with duct tape. The first one was about the murder of the Taylor family. The paper was slightly yellow and there were a few small stains on the edges, but the photo was the same as Mike had seen in the Chief’s office and on Bradley’s computer. The other article was a small piece about the release of Paul Taylor on good behavior.
Mike took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, it didn’t take a genius to figure this one out.”
He moved through the kitchen and stopped by the bathroom. A nightlight had been left on and it shone on the counter that was clear except for a water glass and several containers of prescription pills. Mike lifted the first, expecting something for arthritis. The bottle read, “Oxycontin.” He remembered that was powerful stuff. Jack’s arthritis must be pretty painful for him to be on that kind of stuff.
He picked up the second bottle. It was labeled “Nexavar.” What the hell was Nexavar for?
“That you Mike?”
Mike dropped the bottle with a clatter and turned. Jack was standing in the hallway, watching him.
“Can you see me?” Mike asked.
Jack continued to peer around. “Mike, is that you?” he repeated.
Mike looked around and saw the wall-sized mirror was in need of a good cleaning, which was perfect for his purposes. “YES CHIEF IT’S ME, MIKE,” he wrote on the mirror.
Jack came over and flicked on the bathroom light. The printing could be clearly seen. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said. “How ya doing, kid?”
Mike picked up the bottle of Nexavar and held it in front of Jack’s face.
“Oh, that,” he shrugged. “I always thought I’d die in a fire. You know, blaze of glory. But instead it looks like cancer is going to get me. I got colon cancer, Mike. I don’t have much more time. The drugs don’t fix it; they just ease some of the pain.”
“DAMN” Mike scribbled quickly on the mirror.
Jack chuckled. “Yeah, I feel the same way. But, hell, at least I wasn’t poisoned by some kookie woman.”
Mike laughed. “GOOD ONE” he wrote.
Mike moved past Jack and back into the kitchen. He picked up the article and brought it with him to the bathroom. “YOUR DAUGHTER?”
“Yeah, I figured that’s why you were here,” he said. “You kinda like that ghost of Christmas past? Come to show me my evil ways?”
“NO JUST TRYING TO UNDERSTAND” he wrote. “YOU TAUGHT ME TO SAVE LIVES”
“I was a bad father,” he said. “No I was a damn bad father. I missed pretty much everything from ballgames to graduations. There was always a fire, always a drill, always something. My kids grew up and they didn’t even know me.”
He moved past Mike and sat on the closed toilet seat. “Sorry, can’t stand up too long these days,” he explained. “So, anyway, I kind of just lived my life and let them live theirs. But as I started to get older, I realized that work don’t give you the same kind of memories that families do.”
He cradled his head in his hands and sat there for a few minutes. “Mike, I decided to reach out,” he said. “Decided I needed to get to know my kids and my grandkids. I needed to beg their forgiveness and try to start fresh.”
He took a deep breath, coughed a few times and looked up at the mirror. “My damn hand was on the phone when we got the call for the fire,” he said. “The fire that took their lives. I never got that chance, Mike. I never got to make it better…until now.”
“WHERE DID YOU GET THE PHOTO?”
Jack laughed. “Yeah, you are smarter than you look,” he said. “I got it from the evidence box. I put it up there in my office the day after I killed the son-of-a-bitch. I figured someone would see it after I was gone and put two and two together. I just didn’t count on that damn trough falling down and messing up my plan.”
“HOW DID YOU DO IT?”
Jack laughed bitterly and reached over for the first bottle. “Did you know that it’s easy to overdose on these little pills?” he asked. “And when they’re crushed and mixed with a drink it works even better. Makes it seem like the person had a heart attack.”
He shook the bottle in his hand. “It shouldn’t be that easy to kill a man. But it was, damn easy.”
“SO WHAT DO WE DO NEXT?”
Jack shook his head. “Oh, no, Mike,” he said. “You gotta do what you know is right. And I won’t fault you for it one bit.”
Mike looked at the man before him. The man who had guided him and taught him as he worked as a fireman. The man who was like a second father to him. What the hell was he going to do?
“YOU”RE NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING STUPID, ARE YOU?”
Jack laughed. “No, I ain’t about to take the easy way out, Mike,” he said. “You do what you have to do and I’ll deal with it.”
“YOU’RE STILL MY HERO, JACK.”
Jack wiped a tear from his eye. “Thank you, Mike, that really means a lot to me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Mary nestled deeper into the pillows and cradled the laptop against her legs. She had a cup of tea and a small plate of cookies within reach and she had been ordered to get some rest. She knew it was only nine o’clock, but she hoped Bradley was already home. She clicked on the video conferencing and called his computer. A moment later Bradley’s face appeared on the screen.
“Hi,” she said, covering a yawn.
“Hi, yourself. What are you up too?”
“Oh, I’m laying here about to turn in and I thought I’d give you a call.”
“Your life is so boring you have to go to bed at nine?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’ve been ordered to take some R&R,” she said without thinking.
“Why?” Bradley asked. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Nothing happened,” she said firmly. “It’s just been a couple of busy days, preceded by a couple of busy weeks and there was nothing going on tonight, so I’m getting extra sleep.”
Bradley took an audible breath of relief. “Sorry, I tend to get a little overprotective.”
“You think?” she said with a smile.
“So how’s the investigation going?” he asked.
She nodded and snuggled back against the pillows. “Actually, I think it’s going very well. We have a short list of suspects,” she paused and yawned again. “We’ve visited all of them and they are all coming to a brunch on Saturday morning.”
“Let me get this straight,” he said. “You’re going to have a group of possible murderers in your home on Saturday morning and you think that’s a good thing?”
“Well, not when you put it that way,” she said. “But we want expose them to a couple of things and see if they react.”
“Are you putting yourself at risk?”
Mary shook her head. “No, we have total control of the situation,” she said. “Rosie is doing all of the cooking, Jeannine is going to be there to let us know if anything they say or do reminds her of something and the rest of us are just going to be friendly and ask questions. Piece of cake.”
“What?”
“What do you mean, what?” she asked, her eyes beginning to close.
“What is it that you are not telling me, that you think I’m going to worry about?”
“Nothing,” she said, blinking her eyes awake.
Bradley snorted. “I was watching the camera earlier this evening when you came home with Ian.”
“Crap,” she muttered.
“So?”
“Ian’s heavy weights weren’t delivered, so he takes turns carrying us around instead?” she tried.
