The Obsession (34 page)

“I appreciate your staying,” he told her as he turned up her drive. “I know it was long.”

“People really loved her. I think when you hear as much laughter as you see tears it’s a testament to that. People loved her, and won’t forget
her. I wanted to stay, which isn’t something I say often about any sort of event that involves so many people, but I did want to stay. And I didn’t realize until I did that I’ve become part of the community. Or at least crossed that careful border into the edges of the community.”

He parked, then just sat a moment. “You bought this place, and nobody else was willing to put the time, money, and vision into it. You shop local, you hire local, and that counts a whole hell of a lot. You put your art at Krista’s, and it’s something people notice, take stock of. You’re hooked up with me, and people notice and take stock of that, too.”

“I bet they do. New York Naomi and Our Own Xander.” She smiled now. “I’ve heard myself referred to that way, which is why it surprised me to realize I’d crossed that border.”

“You might always be New York Naomi. It has a ring. God, I’ve got to get out of this suit.”

“And I’ve got to let that poor dog out. We were longer than I thought we’d be. Where’s Lelo?” she wondered.

Xander glanced over at his friend’s truck. “Around somewhere. The rest will be coming along, get a few hours in yet.”

He waited while she unlocked the door and deactivated the alarm—and the dog raced in from the back of the house to wiggle and wag and lick and lean.

“Okay, okay, I know we were forever.” But when she started to open the front door, Xander stopped her.

“He’ll be all over the dirt. He should go out the back.”

Though he intended to go straight up and ditch the suit, he went with instinct when Tag raced toward the back of the house, ran back a few feet, raced back again.

Something’s up.

“I’ll let him out,” Naomi began as Xander started back. “I know you want to change and get to work.”

“I’ll go up the back.”

He relaxed when he saw the reason for Tag’s actions. Lelo—already
out of dress clothes and into work mode—stood on the other side of the glass doors, pouring potting soil into the first of two containers.

Grinning, Lelo shifted the bag, gave a thumbs-up.

“Hey,” he said when Xander opened the door. “You’re sprung!” He laughed, setting the bag down to rub the dog all over. “I’d’ve broken him out, but the door was locked. He was pretty upset at first. Weren’tcha, yeah. Shaky and whining, but he settled down pretty quick when he saw I was sticking around. Sorry about the nose prints on the glass.”

“Yours or his?” Xander asked.

“Har. I couldn’t stay anymore at the, you know, thing after the thing. The first time I’ve ever seen Loo cry, and that just . . . wow. The other guys’ll be along, I guess, since you are. I got a jump.”

“Yes, you did.” Naomi studied the planters. Lelo had been exactly right. They might have grown out of the house, and were the perfect size for her needs, just steps from the kitchen. “They’re perfect, Lelo. They’re wonderful. I love them.”

“Turned out pretty good. I’ve got some herbs and tomatoes, peppers, like that, out in the truck. I can plant them up for you.”

“You got all that?”

Shuffling, he adjusted his battered straw cowboy hat. “I was going right by the nursery anyway. Anything you don’t want, I’ll take home. My mom will plug it in somewhere.”

“Can I take a look? I’d like to change and plant them myself. It’d be nice to balance out the day making something grow.”

“I hear that. These’ll be ready for planting by the time you’re ready. Oh, and Xander? It’s been a while since you’ve put in time on my dad’s crew, but you oughta know not to go stomping around on dirt just seeded.”

“I didn’t.”

“Well, somebody did since we knocked off yesterday. No big. I’ll have it raked out.”

“Where?”

“Around the front side. No big, like I said. I was just ragging on you.”

“Let’s have a look. Naomi, keep the dog back.”

“We’re not going to put you—or whoever—in jail for tromping over the topsoil,” Lelo said, but led the way down. “I’ll get those plants while we’re out there. You can carry a flat unless you’re worried about getting dirt on your suit.”

“I may burn this suit.”

It took some doing, but Naomi managed to stop the dog from racing after them, pulled him inside long enough to clip on the leash.

By the time she came out the front door both Xander and Lelo had hunkered down to study the ground. And her nerves began to fray.

“Not only didn’t I walk across here, but my foot’s bigger than that, Lelo. Buy a clue.”

“Yeah, I guess I see that, but I just figured since it’s coming and going toward the back. I guess one of Kevin’s guys.”

“They knocked off before you did yesterday, haven’t been back today.” He looked up to where Naomi fought to keep the heroically straining dog from pulling her forward.

“Sit!” He snapped it out, and to Naomi’s—and probably to Tag’s—surprise, Tag sat.

“Your brother’s got about an inch on me,” Xander said. “I can’t say I noticed his feet, but I’m betting they’re close to my size. I take a thirteen.”

“Yes. I know his size because he hit it in high school. It’s not easy to find that size off the rack.”

“Tell me about it. Give him a call, Naomi. Somebody’s been out here, snooping around.”

“Well fuck, Xan.” Lelo pushed to his feet. “I never figured that. Maybe that’s why the big guy was so upset when I got here.”

Xander circled around, took the curving path of recently set pavers. “He’s on here, right?” Taking the phone out of her hand, Xander pulled up her speed dial list. “Go ahead and take the dog around the back, but don’t— Never mind. Lelo, take this dog around back and keep him away from that dirt.”

“Sure. The back door was locked,” he said as he took the same path
as Xander. “Front, too, because I’m going to admit I tried it, thinking to let Tag out since he was so upset at first. The house was locked up, Naomi. I don’t think anybody got in. Probably somebody just wanted to look and see what you’re doing up here.”

“Maybe.” She surrendered the dog. “Thanks.”

When she turned to go in the house, Xander gripped her arm.

“I need to see if anything’s been taken or—”

He just shook his head, kept talking to Mason. “Yeah, they’re pretty clear. Enough to see size and tread. Yeah. Yeah, we’ll be here.”

He handed Naomi the phone. “Just wait here. I’m going to check inside.”

“It’s my house, Xander. My things. I’m not going to stand here wringing my hands while you go look under the damn bed for me.”

He’d have cursed if it wouldn’t have been a waste of breath. “Fine. We’ll go check inside.”

They went upstairs first, and she turned straight into her studio. Even the relief of seeing, at a glance, that nothing had been touched didn’t ease the anger.

Still, Xander checked the closet, the powder room, and began going systematically room to room.

“Nothing’s been taken or moved,” she told him. “I know where things are. When you’re in the middle of deciding what you want where, and where to keep it until, you know.”

“I’m going to check the basement.” When she gave him that
look
, he did curse. “I’m not riding the white horse, okay? Nobody got in here past the locks, alarm, the dog, but I need to check.”

He stripped off the suit coat, the tie. “Mason’s going to be here any minute. I just want to go down, take a quick look. You can change out of that dress or not, but if you want to walk around outside, see what the hell, you’re going to want to get out of those skyscrapers.”

She stepped out of the classic black pumps. “I’m out, but you’re right. No one got in here, and I appreciate your being thorough and checking the basement. I’ll change.”

“Good.” He hesitated. “You know, Lelo’s not as stupid as he looks.”

“He doesn’t look stupid—and yes, he’s going to start putting things together when the police and the FBI come out here because somebody walked across the fresh dirt that’s my lawn.” She drew a breath. “You can tell him.”

“Tell him what?”

“Whatever you think he should know. I’m going to tell Jenny and Kevin. I’m going to tell them all of it.”

“Good.” He took her face in a firm grip. “You crossed that border, Naomi, because you wanted to. This is part of being on the other side. I won’t be long.”

Alone, she changed into knee-length jeans, a T-shirt. She still intended to plant. Goddamn it, she’d plant her new containers. Maybe she was afraid—she wasn’t stupid either. But over that fear ran a strong, hard line of anger.

And that she’d hold on to.

She went out on the deck, saw Lelo and the dog playing throw it/fetch it, and stood, just for a moment, looking out at the blue and the green she’d made her own.

She didn’t have to tell herself she’d do whatever she had to do to keep it. She already knew.

S
he didn’t know the other agents in their dark suits and sunglasses, but she doubted they were much different from the ones who had swarmed over the house, the woods in West Virginia seventeen years before.

She hadn’t stood with them, as she did now, but had watched the news reports in the safe house when her mother slept.

Now she wasn’t a child; now it was her house, her ground.

So she brought out cold drinks and started a jug of sun tea on the deck because it reminded her of summers in New York and how Harry had added mint from his kitchen garden.

She didn’t interfere, didn’t ask questions—yet—but she was present.

If somehow he watched, through a long lens, through field glasses, he would see that she was present.

Sam Winston stepped over to her, adjusted his ball cap. “I’m sorry about this, Naomi. The fact is somebody could’ve taken advantage of the house being empty just to satisfy curiosity. Point Bluff’s got a lot of people curious.”

“But you don’t think that.”

He inhaled through his nose. “I think we’re going to take every precaution and turn over every stone. The FBI has people who can study those footprints, give us a sense of height, of weight, give us the shoe size, even the make. If this is who we’re looking for, he made a mistake.”

“Yes, he did.”

Maybe not the same mistake the chief meant, Naomi thought. He’d made one by coming into what was hers. He’d made one by helping her pump that anger over the fear.

She went over to Lelo’s truck. They’d be sending him away—as they had the others who’d come to work. She’d get the plants, at least take them around to the containers.

When she found none, she decided Lelo had taken them around for her already. With the dog again on a leash to keep him from rolling over the evidence, she took him around the far side of the house with her, and onto the deck.

Tears swam when she saw the flats and pots lined up on the deck, and her own garden gloves, spade, and rake beside them.

“He’s a sweet man,” she told the dog. “Remind me to stock some Mountain Dew. That’s our Lelo’s drink.”

Though Tag objected, she tied the leash to a picket. “You need to stay with me, let them do what they have to do around front.” To soften the insult, she got him a bowl of water, a biscuit.

Then she crouched, rubbing the spot between his ears that made his eyes roll back in bliss. “Was it you? Did you chase him off—big, fierce dog? Did some good fairy put you on the side of the road that day for me?” She laid her head on his. “Did you scare him as much as he scared you? Well, we’re not going to let him scare us. We’re going to take a bite out of him, you and me, if he tries it again.”

She pressed her lips to his muzzle, looked into his wonderful eyes. She’d fallen in love with the dog, just as she’d fallen in love with Xander. Against her better judgment.

“There doesn’t seem to be a thing I can do about it.”

She rose, then walked to her pretty new containers to plant.

Xander found her tamping the dirt around a tomato plant while the dog stretched out full-length in the sun, half snoozing.

“They’re pretty much done out there, and said there’s no reason the landscapers couldn’t get back to it tomorrow. Kevin’s crew, too.”

“That’s good. That’s fine.” She picked up a pepper plant. “Do you know why I’m doing this?”

“It looks obvious, but tell me.”

“Besides the obvious, I’m planting these herbs and vegetables. I’m going to water them, watch them grow, watch the vegetables flower and watch the tomatoes and peppers form. I’ll harvest them and eat them, and it all starts with what I’m doing right here. It’s a statement. I need to do some research, but I think you can plant things like kale and cabbage in the fall.”

“Why would you?”

“I can make some very good and interesting dishes with kale and cabbage.”

“You’re going to have to prove that to me.”

She kept planting while he went in, came out, and stood watching her.

“He ran away,” Xander began, and she nodded.

“Yeah, I saw that.”

“Saw what?”

“The footprints. You don’t have to be an expert to conclude, or at least speculate. The ones going toward the house, toward the side are different from the ones leading away. Leading away they’re farther apart, and with a kind of skid—moving fast, even running.

“I bet he
strolled
around the back here. The son of a bitch. Cocky, confident. I don’t know if he’d intended to break in or just look, but he wasn’t feeling cocky and confident when he left. The dog scared him.”

Tag thumped his tail at her quick glance.

“I think he came around here, and would’ve gone in if the door hadn’t been locked—or maybe planned to get in anyway, but the dog scared him off, defending his territory. Defending what’s ours.”

“You ought to know that the scenario you just outlined is the one those trained feds and cops outlined a few minutes ago. It’s how they see it.”

“Well, aren’t I fucking clever?”

He arched an eyebrow. “I think so.”

“I’m so pissed off. I should probably level that out before I plant any more. I don’t think you should plant living things when you’re so incredibly pissed off. You’ll probably end up with bitter tomatoes.”

She yanked off her gloves, tossed them down. “He used her again, Xander. He used Donna, used the fact that everyone who’s usually here would be at her funeral. That makes me sick inside.”

“Then think of this instead. That stray, that dog who wandered from place to place as much as you used to, stuck, like you stuck. And scared the bastard off. He didn’t leave here strolling, Naomi, just like you said. He left with his heart knocking and his knees shaking.”

“Damn right, he did. Damn right,” she repeated, and strode up and down the deck. “If he tries it again, he won’t get to leave, heart knocking, because he’s going down bloody. If he thinks I’m an easy mark, that he can come for me whenever he damn well pleases, he miscalculated.”

“I get the value of mad, as long as it doesn’t walk with stupid and careless.”

She whirled to him, eyes dark green fire. “Do I look stupid and careless?”

“Not so far.”

“And that’s not going to change.” She calmed a little, told herself to keep the mad in a back corner until she needed it. “Do you think Kevin and Jenny can get a sitter? I’d like them to come over, I want to tell them sooner rather than later, but not with their kids around.”

“I’ll make it happen, if you’re sure.”

“I am.”

“What time?”

“Whatever works for them will work for me. I’m going to finish these containers, clean up, so any time that works for them.”

—

W
here did you confess your blood ties? Naomi wondered. The scarcity of furniture in the living and sitting rooms made that difficult. Sitting around the dining room table on folding chairs seemed too uncomfortable.

She opted for where she herself felt most relaxed and brought more chairs out to what she thought of as the kitchen deck.

“Do you want me here?” Mason asked her.

“You have work?”

Did she serve food? Naomi wondered. What sort of canapé suited the moment, for God’s sake?

My father’s a serial killer. Try the crab balls.

“I mean, of course you have work, but something specific?”

“The team’s meeting for a briefing, but I can catch up with it if you want me here. This is hard for you.”

“Why hasn’t it ever been as hard for you?”

“I wasn’t in the woods that night. I didn’t go down into that cellar. I didn’t find Mom. She was his last victim.”

“You never were.”

She remembered that day in the coffee shop, after she’d bolted from the movie theater. How young he’d been, and how strong and steady.

“You resolved so early on not to be, to be everything he wasn’t. And however much I denied it, ignored it, shoved it back, I let myself be his victim. I’m done with that. Go to the briefing. Find a way to end this, Mason.”

She put a tray together—cheese, flatbread crackers, olives. It kept her busy until Xander got back from a roadside call and Mason left.

“Do you know how many people don’t pay attention to, or just don’t believe the fuel gauge?”

“How many?”

“More than you think, so they end up paying more than double what the gas would’ve cost in the first place, so they bitch about that—like you should make the service call as a fricking favor. Are these any good?”

Look at him,
she thought,
heading toward scruffy again
. Annoyed with some stranger who’d neglected to get gas, unsure what to make of sesame and rosemary flatbread. Idly scratching the dog’s head as he decided whether to risk the fancy.

“You brought me lilacs.”

He looked over, frown deepening. “Yeah. Was I supposed to do that again?”

“Sometime. But you brought me lilacs in an old blue pitcher. That was when.”

“When what?”

Not really listening, she thought. She’d grown up with a brother. She knew when a male wasn’t really listening.

All the better.

“You told me when, and I’m telling you.”

“Okay.”

“Stolen lilacs in an old blue vase.”

“It wasn’t that big a deal.”

“You’re wrong. It was a very big deal, the biggest of my life, because that’s when. That’s when, Xander, I knew I was in love with you. I didn’t know what to do about it,” she said as—oh, he was paying attention now—his gaze snapped to hers, hot blue and intense. “I’ve never felt what I feel for you before, never believed I could feel it, so I didn’t know what to do about it. I have a better idea now.”

“What’s the better idea?”

“To be glad you’re in love with me, too. To be grateful, really grateful it happened now after I’d already realized it was time to stop running. Or at least try to. To be happy it happened here where we both want to be. And to hope. To be brave enough to hope you’ll want to stay with me here.”

“Lilacs?”

“Lilacs.”

“Lelo needs to work one into his design.”

“It’s going out back, so we can see it from the deck. I told him I wanted to plant it myself.”

“We’ll plant it.”

Her throat closed; her eyes brimmed. “We’ll plant it.”

He stepped to her, caught her face in his hands. “I’m moving in. You’re going to have to make room.”

The first tear spilled over. “There’s plenty of room.”

“You say that now.” He kissed the tear away, then the second as it trailed down her other cheek. “Wait until I tell Kevin to build a garage.”

“A garage.”

“A guy’s got to have a garage.” He brushed his lips to hers. “Three-car garage, north side of the house, put a side door on the laundry room.”

“You’ve given this some thought.”

“I was just waiting for you to get used to it. I love you, Naomi.”

She lifted her hands to his wrists, squeezed hard. “You do. I know you do. Thank God you do. I love you so much we’re going to build a garage. Wait, a
three
-car—”

It was as far as she got before his mouth took hers, before the kiss swept her up, swept her away. Then to the delight of the dog, he lifted her off her feet, spun her around.

“You’re what was missing,” he told her. “Not anymore.”

“You told me you made me happy, and you do. But it’s more than that. You helped me understand I deserve to be. A thousand hours of therapy never got me all the way there.”

She sighed, drew back. “I’m still screwed up, Xander.”

“Who isn’t?”

The dog let out a yip, then raced toward the front of the house.

“Early-warning system says Kevin and Jenny are here.”

She drew a breath. “All right.”

“It’s going to be okay. Have some faith.”

“I’m going to borrow some of yours. My supply tends to run low.”

“Try regular fill-ups. I’ll let them in.”

She took the tray out, set it on the folding table, went back for glasses, plates, napkins, heard Jenny’s laughter.

As she opened a bottle of wine, Jenny came in.

“Great timing! Oh, Naomi, every time I get out here there’s more done. It must be crazy living in the middle of it, but it’s amazing to see it off and on.”

“I’m glad you could come. I know it was last-minute.”

“Worked out great. We had my parents over for dinner, and they took
the kids back with them for a sleepover. Fun for all.” She moved in for a hug. “I’m sorry you’ve had trouble. Kevin told me somebody was poking around out here while we were at Donna’s funeral. I’m sure it was just some kids trying to get a look in the house.”

“I think it was . . . something else. That’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“All right. You’re really upset. I shouldn’t make light of it.”

“I thought we’d sit outside.”

“Perfect. Oh! Look at these planters—Lelo built them? They’re wonderful. You’re really making this deck a wonderful outdoor living space. Kevin, look at these containers.”

“Nice,” he said as he came out with Xander. “How are you doing?” he asked Naomi.

“I’ve had better days. Then again . . .” She looked at Xander. Love, given and received, outweighed everything. “Let me get you some wine, Jenny. Then I’m going to dive right into this, get it done.”

“It sounds serious.”

“It is.”

“Oh God, are you sick?” Immediately, Jenny grabbed her arm. “Is something wrong, or are you—”

“Jenny.” Kevin spoke quietly, drew her back. “Come on, sit down.”

“Sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll shut up.”

Naomi poured wine for Jenny, for herself, but couldn’t sit. “Okay, straight in. Carson was my mother’s maiden name. It’s my uncle’s name. Mason and I had our names legally changed a long time ago. From Bowes. Our father is Thomas David Bowes.”

She wasn’t expecting blank, quietly expectant looks, and it threw her off.

“Not everybody knows who that is, Naomi,” Xander pointed out. “Not everybody gives a damn.”

“It’s familiar,” Kevin said. “Like I ought to know.”

“Thomas David Bowes,” Naomi continued, “killed twenty-six women—that he’s admitted to—somewhere between 1986 and 1998. August of 1998, when he was arrested.”