Forgotten Place (17 page)

"It could've been suicide, but if Southerby
had no qualms about confessing to murder... it doesn't make
sense.  Why kill himself?  He could've gone to prison
with a badge of honor and probably gotten parole after twenty-five
years.  You all don't use the needle out here do you?"

"Technically, the death penalty is still
available, though no prosecutor in the state has sought it since
the Supreme Court lifted the ban in the late 70s."

"Maybe he didn't want to be the test case
for reviving it.  The murder of a popular assistant district
attorney would've warranted special circumstances."  I tapped
one finger to my lips and started pacing.  "Was Billy Withers
at the ME's office when all of this business happened?"

"I think so.  Why?"

"I'd like to talk to him about what he
remembers.  I can't get past the fact that somebody disposed
of Southerby's body and all the fluids and tissue samples that
would've been collected as standard procedure during the
autopsy.  Maybe he remembers something.  Seeing unusual
activity.  A link between Storm and Datello.  Who
knows?"

"I grilled everybody who worked out there
after Storm smugly informed me that the court order was moot
because the body had been misplaced, probably released and not
properly documented."

"Was he in the habit of releasing the
evidence along with the body?  Maybe it's Riley Storm that I
should talk to."

"You'd get farther with Datello, Helen."

"Speaking of the little troll, do we have
any idea where he is or what he's been up to this week?"

"OSI is watching, as always.  It's been
business as usual, but Danny would never be so careless to drop his
façade of law-abiding citizen for a second, especially not if he
was involved in an attempted murder."

"Was Lowe the chief of detectives when you
arrested Southerby?"

"Not quite, but he was lobbying hard at the
time."

"And Harry McNamara died before Southerby
was in custody."

"Yeah.  Heart attack."

"Riley's favorite," I muttered.  "If
Storm did someone a favor by disposing of Southerby's remains
before anything could be proved beyond what he certified as the
cause of death, I could sure use some leverage to persuade him to
tell me the truth."

"Good luck with that.  Riley is...
different."

"Aren't you all."

Johnny steered me back to the chaise and
nudged me down.  He crouched in front of me.  "I wish you
would believe me when I say that I'm doing this for your own good,
Doc.  I'm not trying to punish you or cut you out of the
case.  In fact, this has nothing to do with the job.  Why
is that so hard for you to believe?"

I turned away from the probing eyes. 
"I get it that you'd feel guilty or bad or whatever if I
died.  It's the methods I find objectionable.  I'm not a
child.  I'm not your girlfriend.  I'm nobody,
Orion.  I'm not your problem."

His fingers tugged my chin
into a head-on view.  "Is that what you think?  That
somehow I see you as my
problem
?"

"You'd be better off if I did die.  The
secret would go with me to the grave.  It would be justice for
what I did, for the way my reluctance to tell the truth led you to
do something very stupid.  I am a problem, Orion, whether you
choose to see it that way or not."

Johnny stared at my right knee.  "I
hoped it would give you some peace of mind, Helen.  I never
dreamed for a second that what I did would send you into a tailspin
that resulted in this."  His hand waved vaguely from my head
to toe region. 

"So I'm your problem."

"I'd be a monster if I didn't bear more than
a little bit of responsibility for this."

"Fatten me up and ease your conscience."

He looked up quickly.  "It's not like
that.  It's gonna be... well, let's just say that I won't be
happy to see you leave Darkwater Bay in the near future.  I
can't let it happen until I know you're healed and not," he
paused.  "Shit."

"I'm not shit?"

"Skeletal remains."

"I concede that I lost sight of
recovery.  I'll even admit that it was easier to bide my time
waiting for the immobilizer to come off by letting the oxycontin
help me sleep through the past few weeks.  I'm eating. 
I'll get better.  You made your point."

Soft laughter chuffed from his throat. 
"Is it possible to trust someone completely on one hand but not at
all on the other?"

"I don't know what that means."

"Doc, you might be completely sincere, but I
don't trust you to tell me the truth.  I think if I walk out
on you before I'm sure you're at least eating halfway normally
again, that you'll revert back to wine and pain killers before I
hit the gate."

The argument would never end.  Trust
could never grow.  Hell, it couldn't even be bandaged unless I
came clean and told Johnny the truth.  Doing that would give
him no choice but to arrest me.  It would ruin his life. 
A taste of house arrest for a little over twelve hours already
proved to me that I'm not cut out for prison by any stretch of the
imagination.

I cleared my throat.  "I'd really like
to talk to Billy Withers."

"Maya wants to see you."

"Shit is right," I muttered. 

"You know how she'll react to this, don't
you?"

Nod.  Stare at the floor.  "I get
it.  I fucked up."

"You should try to get some rest before
dinner.  Our meeting got pushed back to eight, because I
wanted to make sure you didn't feel like people are watching how
much you eat and counting the calories."

"Except for you."

"That's different, Doc.  I'm the one
person you can trust to never betray how bad this really is. 
Go try to get some rest.  I picked up your apples and peanut
butter.  I'll bring something to you and you can catch a nap
for an hour or so.  Deal?"

I had two choices.  Press the
argument.  Let it go.  I chose the latter.  "Fine,
but the more you feed me now, the less hungry I'll be at
dinnertime."

"Smooth or chunky?  I wasn't sure which
you liked, so I bought both."

Big eye roll.  "Well heaven forbid I
miss the calories I might get from chunky peanut butter."

He brought a cup normally used to hold
cocktail sauce with a heaping scoop of the aforementioned paste and
half a dozen peeled apple wedges.  And a cup of hot cocoa.

"You never miss an opportunity, do you
Orion?"

"You looked cold."  Johnny opened one
hand and extended two white tablets with red T's imprinted on the
surface.  "Dr. Malcolm was kind enough to call in a five day
prescription for something called Toradol.  He said it was
helpful to you after surgery, and you could use it for a few days
without any problems."

No more comfortably numb for me.  I
tossed them back and sipped the cocoa.  Johnny sat near the
bed while I worked on the apple snack.  Annoying as
hell.  There was only one surefire way to make him go
away.  Cooperate.

"All done?"

I drained the cup of warm, sugary fat and
handed it to him.  "One hour.  You wake me either way,
got it?"

"You won't miss the meeting tonight. 
I'll call Billy and see if he can join us.  You should be
prepared for Maya to storm the gate if she finds out."

It was more than an hour, closer to three
when I woke spontaneously.  Unless my nose deceived me, dinner
was almost ready.  The familiar dull ache that habitually
numbed my fingers on waking after any sleep at all was absent when
I sat up.  I flexed my fingers.  Maybe the Toradol wasn't
such a bad idea after all.

Johnny had a cookbook open on the kitchen
counter and a variety of pots and pans on top of the stove.  I
sniffed appreciatively, despite deepening resentment. 

"Smells good.  What is it?"

"The only thing I can cook well.  Veal
parmigiana and linguini."

"You used a recipe."

"I suppose that cheesecake you made in
October was from memory and scratch."

"Absolutely."  I pulled out a stool at
the breakfast bar and sat down.  "Do I get a nice glass of
wine to go with dinner?"

"As long as there's no oxycontin on the
pharmaceutical menu tonight, that can be arranged.  Provided I
do the pouring."

"Every time I think you cannot insult me
more, you come up with something new."

"You left a glass in the office, Doc. 
More like half a bottle dumped in a rather deep bowl shaped like a
wine glass."

The clock chimed six.  "Two hours
before they show up.  What if I'm too drowsy from dinner to
stay awake that long?"

"I've seen how long it takes you to stop
playing with your food and actually eat it.  You'll be
fine.  It's not quite ready yet anyway.  Why don't you go
pick out the wine while you wait?"

I returned a few moments later with a bottle
of Castello d'Abola chianti and passed it over for approval.

Johnny lifted one eyebrow.  "I said
we're having veal, not the census taker's liver with fava beans,
darling."

I grinned.  "You're sick, you know
that?  Chianti is great with veal.  Gotta learn to trust
me on at least one thing, Orion.  Let it be something simple
like wine."

He stared at the label.  "I didn't mean
that I don't trust you, Helen."

"You do but you don't.  It's hard to
argue with the truth.  I haven't always been a shining example
of honesty."

"I'd give anything if you'd open up to me,
Doc."

Give a little, get a
little, eh Orion?
  I cleared my
throat.  "I didn't realize how I was making all of this worse
until Dev knocked me over and my shoulder started aching worse than
ever.  Dr. Chesney gave me a wakeup call that I
needed."

"I'm glad for that.  Speaking of the
shoulder, how did the new medication work?"

"All right."  I rolled the left
shoulder without wincing.  "Too bad he only gave me five days’
worth."

His eyes narrowed.  "You aren't getting
a little too reliant on pills are you?"

"I know.  You'd rather I develop a food
addiction."

Johnny wasn't about to take it
lightly.  "These medications are dangerous, Helen.  I
wish you would take what's happened to you seriously.  Go sit
down.  The veal is ready."

"I am sitting down."

He jerked his head toward
the table.  "A real meal.  Good food,
conversation,
chianti
.  What more could you ask for?"

"Freedom," I said softly.

Chapter 15

For as small as Maya is, it was downright
comical watching her claw her way past Billy and through Orion into
my house.  She skidded to a halt in the foyer for two seconds
before closing the last three feet separating us and crushing me in
an embrace.

"Jesus Christ and General Jackson.  Why
didn't you call me?"

"Maya, I'm fine."

"No," she whispered, "no you're not.  I
thought he was just being dramatic."  Maya pulled away and
looked at me with damp eyes.  "I don't know if I should hug
you or beat some sense into that thick skull of yours.  What
were you thinking?"

Orion, the obvious one of alleged dramatics,
had the good sense to intervene.  "She's doing a hundred
percent better now, I promise.  She was never so far gone to
argue the fact that she's fine."

"And standing right here.  You don't
have to talk about me like I've faded away into nothing. 
What're you doing here, Maya?  There's no victim for you in
this case.  Can you believe it?  We snatched one back
from the clutches of death."

"I heard all about it from Billy. 
After Johnny called this afternoon, we decided to dig through the
archives of the Most Highly Incompetent and have a look at his work
at the time.  You're not gonna believe what we learned." 
Maya patted the thick attaché case slung over one shoulder.

"Don't keep me in suspense," I said. 
"Spill it."

"Hold that thought, Maya.  You and
Billy are the first to arrive.  Eager as Doc is, there are
some other ears with legs attached doing the hard work on this
case.  I think they'd be interested in what you discovered
too.  Can't you ladies find something else to discuss while we
wait?"

I glared while she looked supremely pleased
with his presence. 

"You want me to discuss
something else?  How about the fact that you've cut me off
from the world, taken my phones, my keys,
locked
me in my house, hid my guns
–"

Maya's eyes widened.  "Why on earth
were you looking for guns, Helen?"

"Did you miss the rest of what he's
doing?  Have all of you lost your minds?"

She hooked her arm through mine and tugged
me toward the family room.  "I'm not sure you're thinking
clearly, my friend.  Thank God Johnny stepped in and did
something about this before I lost all patience and busted in this
place.  If I'd found you in this condition you'd be in the
hospital this instant, involuntarily if need be.  Who is this
moron doctor that allowed you to waste away to nothing?"

"Speaking of moron doctors, it seems yours
hasn't managed to make you bald," I grumbled without much tact
considering what Maya was going through in chemotherapy.  "You
look gorgeous, dammit."

She grinned.  "You ought to reconsider
this notion of shoving away the helping hand.  Ken's has made
a world of difference for me."

Johnny was in the foyer with Billy.  I
lowered my voice.  "Tell me what you learned.  I haven't
told Johnny everything I suspect, Maya, but Riley Storm's handling
of Southerby's autopsy could be a critical clue in this case."

"You're not gonna believe this, Helen. 
Storm actually was once a competent medical examiner."