Deadly Obsession (A Brown and de Luca Novel Book 4) (9 page)

“Mason Brown,” he said when he finally shook enough sleep from his brain to locate the damn thing, which was on the coffee table right in front of him and nearly dead, by the way.
Note to self: plug in the phone.
He tried to make his voice sound crisp and clear, and not like he was half-asleep.

“Mason? Mason? Is it you?”

That
voice blasted any remnants of mist from his mind. “Marie?”

“Are you alone? I have to talk to you. Mason, they’re coming. They’re coming after you. I know it. And the boys, too! There are demons in their eyes.”

“Okay, okay, calm down. Calm down, Marie.”

She was crying softly. Sniffling and sobbing into the phone. It sounded messy. “They’re coming. The demons. They’re coming.”

“Marie, listen, it’s okay. The boys are safe, all right? They’re safe.”

“You have to get me out of here!” A very loud whisper this time. As if she was desperate and afraid of being overheard. “They know I’m on to them. They’ll kill me, Mason. You have to get me out of here so I can save the boys.”

“All right, listen, the boys are safe. I’m gonna come and see you, okay? We can talk then. I’ll come tomorrow. Is that all right, Marie?”

“Today! Come today. You have to come today!”

He looked at the clock. The boys would be home soon. He couldn’t take them to see her, not in this state. He could leave them with Rachel, but dammit, she’d been doing everything for him and the boys lately. He was afraid he was asking too much. Pushing her too fast.

“I’ll come today.” He would find a way. She was a mess. And she was sick. He didn’t hate Marie. He detested her disease, though. “I’ll come today, Marie, all right? Just be calm, do what they tell you. I’ll come today.”

“Bring your gun. They’re everywhere. They’re inside the walls. I hear them in there.”

“Okay, Marie. It’s all going to be—”

“Marie?” someone asked from her side of the call. “Where did you get that cell phone?”

“No. No, don’t take it away, no. No! Give it back!”

There was a shrill scream, followed by the sounds of a struggle. Mason closed his eyes in pain for his sister-in-law and held the phone away from his head to dull the noise, but he didn’t shut it off. He left it on, waiting. And then a sane-sounding voice came on the line. “Is anyone there?”

“Yes. Mason Brown. I’m Marie’s brother-in-law. What the hell is going on there?”

“Um, well, Mr. Brown—”

“Detective Brown,” he corrected. “I’m on my way there. And if I find that my sister-in-law has been harmed...”

“I promise you, Detective, it sounded a lot worse than it actually was. We just sedated her and took her back to her room. That’s all. No one hurt her. We don’t do that here.”

“Where did she get the phone?”

“I don’t know. But when I disconnect from this call, I intend to find out.”

He nodded. “I’m coming up there. I need to see for myself that she’s okay. And I’m going to want to talk to her doctor.”

“Detective, as I told you, we just sedated her. She’ll be out for a while.”

“It’s an hour-long drive, plus I need an hour to make arrangements for the kids. And I can always talk to the doctor first. If whatever sedative you gave her lasts longer than that, then maybe you’re using too much.”

“I thought you were a detective, not a doctor.”

She was getting short with him. Okay, he probably had it coming. But hearing Marie scream like that...

“I’ll be there in two hours, give or take.”

“Fine. I’ll let the doctor know. Is there anything else, Detective Brown?”

He hesitated, bit his lip, then blurted it out. “I want her room locked, and I want you to make sure no one gets near her until I’ve seen her.”

He heard her heavy sigh, knew what she was thinking. That he’d bought into Marie’s paranoid delusions. That he believed her crazy assertions that people were out to get her.

He didn’t.

But he was a cop. You just didn’t brush that kind of claim off without checking into it first. Period.

And dammit, if he could manage it, he was going to take Rachel with him. But how could he ask that of her, when Marie had drugged her, tried to kill her and damn near gouged out her eyes while she lay paralyzed and helpless, unable to fight back?

How, after that, could he ask her to come with him to make sure Marie was safe and getting the care she needed?

He made a face, but he dialed her number anyway.

She answered with a chipper “hey, Mace” that made him unwilling to spoil her great mood. “What’s up?”

He didn’t want to dive right into it, so he said, “I miss you. How has your day been?”

“Right. What’s going on?”

“You don’t believe I miss you and want to know how your day’s been?”

“I would, if the undertone in your voice and your phone vibe weren’t screaming ‘liar, liar, pants on fire.’ You know you can’t fool me easily, right?”

“I’m not trying to fool you. Jeez, Rache, can’t you let a guy ease into things now and then?”

“I don’t believe in wasting time.”

“So telling me about your day is a waste of time?”

He could almost see her backing down, settling herself. “I walked Myrtle this morning, and we saw a pair of red-tailed hawks sort of dancing around each other over the lake. Well, I saw them, anyway. It was pretty amazing.”

“Nice.”

“Then I had lunch with a friend, came back here and wrote a whopping thirteen pages on the new book.”

“Does it have a title yet?”

“Not yet. I’m mulling.”

“Hmm. Who was the friend?”

“Excuse me?”

Aha! Now
she
was the one trying to gloss over something she didn’t want to discuss. “Who was the friend you had lunch with?” he asked, curious now.

“Um...Rosie.”

“My partner Rosie?”

“Yeah. I wanted to pick his brain about our mystery woman.”

“You get anywhere?”

“He doesn’t believe she exists. But he’s still looking into it. How’s your arm?”

“It hurts, but if I take anything I zone out. Actually fell asleep on the couch this afternoon. Like an old person.”

“Well, you’re not twenty anymore.”

“I’m the same age as you, Rache.”

“Like I said, how bizarre for a young stud like you to be napping by day.”

“Yeah, I thought that’s what you said.”

“Okay, charmer, you’ve buttered me up sufficiently. Tell me what’s going on.”

She was smiling now. He could hear it in her voice, in her breath, and see it clearly in his mind. He hated like hell to wipe that smile off her face, but he didn’t have a choice. Not really. “I had a phone call today...from Marie.”

She was quiet for a beat or two. Then, “They gave her telephone privileges?”

“No. They didn’t seem to know where she got the phone. It was a cell. She was ranting about demons being after her, and me and the boys. Said they live in the walls. Something like that.”

“Ah, hell, Mason. I’m sorry.” She sighed heavily into the phone. “You know, in all the spiritual systems out there, everything I’ve researched to write my books, everything I’ve read, every guru I’ve talked to, no one seems to have an explanation for mental illness. It’s miserable. And Marie is not a bad person.”

“She tried to kill you.”

“Well, yeah. But it wasn’t her. It was whatever’s wrong with her. Hell, Mason, it’s clear why they used to think this kind of thing was caused by demon possession. It takes over entirely. It changes people into someone they’re not.”

“That’s generous of you to say.”

“Not really. It’s just the truth. So what else did she say?”

“She wasn’t lucid, really. She was begging me to get her out of there.”

“I don’t blame her.”

“I told her I’d come to see her tomorrow. She was crying and saying ‘today’ over and over.”

“So then we should go today.”

It felt as if every muscle in his body relaxed. He didn’t even realize they’d all been tensed up until she said that. “We, huh?”

“Yeah.” The word was heavy. As if everything that followed it had all been condensed into those four letters. He heard what she didn’t say in that one word—that they were a team, that when he faced tough things she wanted to be beside him—and it made the load he’d been carrying feel lighter.

“I’ll get Mom to stay with the boys.”

“Or they can go stay with her.”

“Either way, I’ll pick them up at school, and then we’ll head out.”

“Are you going to tell them where you’re going?”

“No. It’s torture for me to know what she’s going through. The fear she’s feeling, the confusion. No point in putting that into their heads. She’s still their mother.”

“Always will be. I’ll be ready whenever you are. Can we bring Myrtle?”

“Yeah, we shouldn’t be inside more than an hour. She’ll be okay in the car that long, right?”

“With the doors locked, motor running and AC on,” she said. “What car are we taking?”

“Jeep,” he said. “I want to drive.”

“Yeah, yeah. You hate me looking at interesting sights while you’re in my passenger seat. Fine. You can drive.”

“I only hate you looking at interesting sights when it means you’re ignoring what you’re supposed to be looking at. The road.”

“I like looking. What can I say? I went twenty years without being able to. Cut a chick some slack, will you?”

He smiled and realized how much better he felt. Rachel had that effect on him. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay.”

She hung up. He hadn’t, he realized, told her about the return of the home care nurse. In his head, he heard Rachel saying “Sounds like the title of a slasher flick.
Return of the Home Care Nurse.
” Her imagined dramatic tone had him smiling again, despite the thunderstorm Marie’s call had unleashed in his head. Rachel had a way of cutting right through shit like that. She got to him.

A knock at the door had him heading through the kitchen with the phone still in his hand. His nurse was standing on the other side of the door, smiling and carrying what looked like a Crock-Pot. It was as if thinking about her had summoned her.

* * *

Mason Brown opened the door to let her inside. “I was just going to call you,” he said, by way of greeting.

So he’d been thinking about her nonstop, too. “I know I’m early,” she said. “I was passing by anyway, and I wanted to see if you needed anything from the grocery store.”

“No, but thanks for asking. We’re fine. My mother’s been keeping us pretty well stocked.” She’d brought another batch of premade meals before leaving on her cruise. She’d wanted to cancel when he’d been hurt, but Mason had insisted she go and promised they would all be fine without her.

“Okay.” Gretchen set the Crock-Pot on the counter. “Chicken and dumplings,” she said. “I made enough to feed an army, so I figured I’d bring the excess over here.”

“That was thoughtful. Thank you.”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” She reached up to pick a speck of lint off his shirt and let her fingertip accidentally brush over his neck. “So...why were you going to call me?” she asked softly.

“Um, to tell you not to come over tonight. I won’t be here. I have a...an errand.”

An errand. More like a date with that horrible woman he was seeing. He was going to feel so much better once he was rid of her. “Good thing I came early, then,” she said. “I can change those bandages now, so you’ll be all set for later.”

He looked at the clock. She did, too. “You have to pick the boys up from school soon, don’t you?”

She was certain he was amazed by her insightfulness. He didn’t know she’d been watching him, and watching those nephews of his, as well. “I could sit with them tonight, if you need someone.”

“I was going to ask my mother—”

“Don’t be silly. I’m right here, and I’m at loose ends. I could use a few extra bucks, to be honest.”

“Who’s staying with
your
kids?” he asked.

She lowered her eyes quickly, thinking even more quickly. She’d forgotten for a second that she’d told him she had kids. It made her seem more womanly. More trustworthy. She would have to come up with a way to explain their absence once she and Mason were together, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. “Their father has them for a few days.” She managed a few on-demand tears, then lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “It’s so hard for me when they’re with him. They’re my life, you know?”

“Yeah. I do know.” He heaved a sigh, and she knew he was trying to figure out a way to explain her presence to his bitchy girlfriend later. Then he said, “The boys think they don’t need a sitter. Frankly, I’m not sure they do, either. Jeremy’s practically an adult, and Josh just turned twelve.”

“I get it. So if I’m going to sit for them, we have to come up with some kind of cover story to explain my presence here.” She looked around, drumming her forefinger against her bottom lip as if she hadn’t already concocted a plan. “I know,” she said eventually. “We can say you paid me a little extra to do some housework. They can’t argue with that. It’s not like they want to do it themselves, and you’re not supposed to be exerting yourself, so...it’s perfect, don’t you think?”

Mason pressed his lips together and nodded. “Ten an hour work okay for you?”

“Works great. I’ll run my errands and be back here in about an hour.”

“Thanks, Gretchen. I appreciate the help.”

Oh, yes, this was excellent. The ideal opportunity. She would be the one home with his boys, prettying up the house and watching over the children who meant so much to him. She would be the image of the nurturer until she found the right moment to get rid of the little rug rats altogether.

This was perfect.

7

I
sat in a visiting area that contained an ancient, fat-assed television and several round tables with plastic chairs around them. Comfy I was not. Wouldn’t have been even in an easy chair, what with the two oversize orderlies at the door and the patients wandering the hall, coming right in sometimes. Either staring and listening, or pretending we weren’t there.

They wore regular clothes. But they had a dulled energy around them. Like a sheet thrown over a lamp. Something was smothering their light. But that something was also the only thing keeping them from going up in flames. I know it sounds bizarre, but that’s what I picked up. Volatile, explosive energy being smothered because the only other option was to let it blow.

Mason sat beside me, with Marie across from us.

The last time I’d seen her, I’d been paralyzed, slowly suffocating because my lungs couldn’t move, staring up into her face while she got ready to cut out my eyes. She knew that my new corneas had been her husband’s. And she’d told me, at what was almost my end, that she also knew he was a serial killer. She’d kept his secret, and it had proved too much for her.

She’d lost it.

I almost did, too.

Mason’s hand closed around mine like I was weak and in need of comforting or some sappy shit like that. I rolled my eyes and focused on Marie. She looked back at me. Not guilty. Not remorseful. Not murderous. Just sort of blank.

“I don’t have to be here,” I said to Mason. I’d said it before. But he’d had a death grip on my hand all the way through this place.

“Yeah, you do,” he said. And I heard the rest, the part he didn’t say.
I need you here.
And I almost got choked up over it. Yes, I’m a sap where he’s concerned. No point denying it.

Then he said to Marie, “You were doing so much better.”

Her dull gaze shifted to his. She was skinny. Her cheeks were sunken, which made her vacant eyes seem bulgy.

“What happened to change that?” he asked.

She just looked at him for a second, tipping her head a little to one side. Then she looked past him instead. It was a longing look, that one. And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know who she was looking for.

“I couldn’t bring the boys, Marie,” Mason told her. “You wouldn’t want them to see you like this. When you’re better.”

She swallowed hard.

“Can you talk, Marie? Can you tell me what’s going on?”

Mason’s voice was thicker than usual. But I didn’t need to hear it to know how he was feeling. I felt the emotion rising off him in waves, like heat off a racehorse.

She looked at him. Just looked at him. There was nothing there. Nothing.

“She was so agitated she was a danger to the staff.” The nurse’s voice startled me. I’d hadn’t sensed her presence, because I’d been completely enmeshed in Mason’s feelings. Not just knowing them, but feeling them myself.

Her name tag said Vee Davis, RN.

“She stole the cell phone from one of the CNAs,” the thirtysomething redhead went on. “Nurses’ aides,” she added when I frowned at her. “Donna knew she wasn’t supposed to bring her phone onto the floor, so she didn’t report it when she realized it was missing.” She shrugged. “She’s new, was afraid she’d get fired.”

Mason nodded. “So the way Marie’s acting right now is because she’s medicated?” he asked.

“Heavily,” Nurse Davis replied. “We didn’t have a choice, Detective.”

I looked from the two of them to Marie again. There was a little dribble of drool at the corner of her mouth, and my heart ached for her. She’d had it tough. No one knew how tough. Her mind just wasn’t strong enough to take it, and it broke.

I leaned a little toward her, and her lazy gaze came back around, rested for a second on mine. “It wasn’t you, Marie. You were sick, like your brain had a cold, and what you did was a sneeze. A cough. A symptom. It wasn’t you. I’ve let it go. I want you to know that.”

I felt her reaction like a ripple through calm water. She heard me. I hoped it helped her a little.

Mason put a hand on my arm. “We should go.”

I nodded, stood up.

“The boys are fine, Marie,” Mason told her. “They’re doing really great. You’d be proud of them. And I’m taking good care of them. I got Josh a puppy.”

I felt the little leap in her heart when he said that, and I smiled at her. “Wait, I have pictures.” I took my phone out, glancing at Mason, and then the nurse, as well. She nodded, but watched Marie like a hawk while I scrolled through recent photos and found the ones I’d taken of the boys with Myrtle and Hugo. Then I held it in front of her almost blank eyes. They shifted a little, and then there was a light in them. Like for just a second she was fully there, a dolphin arching out of the waves. But she submerged again, just as quickly.

I leaned closer, so I could see the phone as I swept my finger across the screen to move to the next picture.

She struck like a cobra, grabbing a handful of my hair in a clawlike hand and yanking my face close to hers so my ear was mashed to her face. “She’ll kill you first.” Her whisper was wet and rancid, and I cringed away as Mason grabbed hold of Marie, the orderlies lunged into action and the nurse extricated her fingers from my hair. I lost a few strands, I’ll tell you that much.

I stood up and stumbled a little, but Mason had my back, literally, arms wrapped around me, holding me steady and moving us both away from Marie, who was by now in the firm grip of one of the orderlies. She’d gone limp, though. No more struggling. I thought it had taken all she had to grab me like that. There wasn’t anything left in her.

And then I realized that was an accurate statement on every level. She was like a hollow shell, for the most part. Brief glimpses of emotion, and then nothing again.

We stumbled into the hall, the nurse accompanying us. I was looking back, but Mason turned me around. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure?” We stopped at the elevator. The nurse swiped a keycard to call the car. Mason smoothed my hair.

“Yeah. I’m sure. We need to talk to her doctor. Find out what the hell they’re giving her. ’Cause it’s too much, whatever it is.” I said it with a quick look at the nurse.

She shook her head. “I’m telling you, she was out of control. I’m not going to let my staff get hurt. I’m sorry she couldn’t talk to you, but my people come first. I don’t know what to tell you.” She shrugged. “Give her some time to calm down and try again. She’s not usually like this, you know.”

“That’s why I want to know what instigated it,” Mason said. “Did anything unusual happen before this...break?”

“Nothing I’m aware of.”

The elevator doors opened, and Mason and I got in.

“Dr. Cho’s office is on One East,” she said, then stood there while the doors slid closed on us.

Mason let his breath out all at once.

“Man, that sucked,” I said. “Come here.” He did, and I slid my arms around him and hugged him close. “You heard the nurse. She’s not usually that bad. This could be just a temporary setback.”

He nodded against my shoulder. It surprised me the way he kind of curled into me, let me comfort him. I couldn’t remember that ever happening before. The guy’s only flaw was that he cared too much. And seeing his sister-in-law like that was breaking his great big caring heart.

The elevator stopped, the doors opened, he straightened up and turned around, and we stepped out into the lobby. A quick look at the directory on the wall sent us in the direction of Dr. Cho’s office.

He was as small as a jockey, with the shiniest blue-black hair I’d ever seen and a perfectly centered soul patch beneath his lower lip, and he answered our knock himself. “Come in, come in. I’ve been expecting you.” He opened the door wider and waved us inside. “You’re Detective Brown, yes?” he asked as we walked in. He looked Mason up and down, sizing him up and not hiding it one bit.

“Yes. I’m Marie’s brother-in-law,” Mason said, extending a hand. Dr. Cho shook it, then looked at me just as thoroughly. Not like he was leering, more like he was truly interested in people in general and us in particular. “And, you are Ms. de Luca. The writer.”

“Good to meet you, Dr. Cho,” I said.

“Here, sit down.” He hurried toward the desk at the end of the room but didn’t sit down behind it. He just paused to grab a file off it before heading to a sitting area with four leather chairs and a glass-topped coffee table with magazines scattered over it. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you,” Mason said, speaking for both of us as we sat in side-by-side chairs. I didn’t know antiques, but I had a feeling the massive desk was one, and a valuable one, too, as elaborately carved as it was.

The doctor stood behind one of the chairs and flipped open the file. “Yes, I see both your names are listed here on the form.”

Mason had insisted my name be added to Marie’s privacy forms while he’d been in the hospital and I’d been caring for the boys, just in case anything happened to him and decisions about her care needed to be made. She hadn’t even argued. It had touched me that he trusted me that much.

“Your sister-in-law’s condition is apparently in flux,” he said. His accent was barely there. I’d only just noticed it myself. “She’s been lucid, calm and stable for quite some time. But suddenly...there’s a whole new set of delusions.”

“What kinds of delusions?” Mason asked.

“She saw a demon. Claims it was in someone’s eyes. And that it’s after you, Detective Brown, and her sons, as well.” He nodded at a monitor on his desk. “I was watching your visit with her, hoping to get a clue to what has triggered this setback. What did she whisper into your ear, Miss de Luca?”

Mason looked at me, and I knew he was waiting for the answer, as well. “She said, ‘She’ll kill you first.’”

“She?” Mason asked.

I nodded. “Apparently we’re dealing with a demon
ess.
”

“Dr. Cho,” Mason asked, “has anything happened that could’ve caused this shift in her condition?”

Cho sighed heavily. “I wish I knew. Things happen among the patients, of course. The staff don’t always know everything that goes on between them. And that’s to say nothing of what might be happening inside her mind.”

“Yes, but what about her sessions? What was she talking about?”

Cho took a breath. “Just one thing, really. Her son Jeremy’s graduation. She’s very upset that she can’t attend.”

“Do you think she was upset enough to have brought on this setback?”

Dr. Cho rubbed his soul patch with his thumb. “I didn’t think so. But then, who’s to say? I suppose it’s possible.”

“I want you to ease back on the medication,” Mason said. “The condition she’s in right now is inhumane.”

“And yet she still managed to attack Miss de Luca,” he said. “The medication is necessary, Detective. Not just for the protection of our staff here, but for Marie’s safety, as well.”

“Come up with something else, I don’t care, but don’t drug her into catatonia. Don’t make me bring in a team of experts to review your practices, Dr. Cho, because if I do, half of them will be lawyers.”

I put a hand on his arm. “Mason, he only wants to help her.”

Dr. Cho sent me a grateful nod, but my focus was on Mason. I let him know without a word that I was reading Dr. Cho, not guessing.

Mason read me loud and clear, just like he always did. He relaxed a little.

“Let me reassure you that this isn’t Marie’s usual state. She was only this heavily sedated because she became violent, Detective. She’s normally fine when she’s on her antipsychotics.”

Mason nodded, softening visibly. “I want her lucid. I want to be able to sit down and talk to her.”

“Your sister-in-law is psychotic, Detective Brown. That’s about the disease, not about her meds. You might never be able to sit down and talk to her.”

Mason sighed heavily. “I’m coming back here tomorrow. Have her clean by then.”

I got up, too, certain the doctor would comply. Hell, Mason even scared
me
when his voice got all deep and commanding like it had been just now. Gave me goose bumps. I settled a hand on his biceps and went with him out the door. He let his anger carry him out through the hospital and across the parking lot while I ran to keep up, and he only stopped at the Jeep.

“I hate this,” he said.

“I know.”

The keys were in his hand, but he seemed to have forgotten what to do with them, so I took them from him, tapped the button to unlock the Jeep, opened the passenger door and shoved him in.

“It’s awful,” I said. “She’s not even the same person anymore.”

“Not just that. I mean seeing her like this is hell, but...”

I had my hand on his shoulder, and I was trying to see what he was getting at in his face, or sense it in his aura, but I was striking out big-time.

He picked up his head, met my eyes and let it out. “I keep getting the feeling there’s a grain of truth in there somewhere. She’s trying to warn me about something.” He waited, and when I didn’t say anything he said, “Did you get any of that?”

“All I got was crazy, Mason. I mean, sure, it feels like the truth, but that’s because she believes her own delusions. They’re not lies to her, they’re her reality.”

He lowered his forehead into his palm. “She’s gotta get better. I can’t have the boys seeing her like this, but what if that means not seeing her at all? How do I explain that to them?”

“She was fine a week ago. Well, you know, for a lunatic. And she’ll be fine again.”

“We don’t know that for sure.”

“Whoa. Where did this big pile of negativity come from? ’Cause I know it ain’t
my
detective.”

He shook his head a little, like I exasperated him.

“There’s no point mourning her loss until she’s actually gone, right? For the moment, and until you have reason to believe otherwise, you have to believe she’s going to get back to where she was before this setback. Understand?”

Slowly, he nodded. “You’re right.”

“Duh. Spiritual self-help author and guru to the masses here, remember?”

He smiled into my eyes.

Inner Bitch woke up from a blissfully long nap.
Say it! It’s the perfect moment. Just say it!