Twisted Hunger (36 page)

Brevowski frowned. “You aren’t still thinking of going to the police, are you?”

She shook her head. “Not yet anyway. What I
am
going to do is get myself invited to Jones’ home in Sausalito and find something that you’ll consider admissible evidence. As long as I’m invited in, it’s not trespassing, right? So if I happen to see something and tell you about it, you could get a search warrant and confiscate it legally. Is that correct?”

“Close enough. Are you absolutely certain you want to do that?”

“No. I’m not absolutely certain about anything. But it stands to reason that if my mother saw something in that house that ultimately brought an end to her life, I might be able to see it too. And if the senator is responsible in any way for her death, I want to make sure his plans for the future are put to an end as well.”

“I was hoping that would be your attitude. Just keep me posted.” He opened her car door then turned back to her. “I think you should call Madigan. You know what they say about two heads being better than one.”

She made a face at him. “I already intended to do that.”

As he stepped out of her car, he added, “If it looks like Madigan wants to play hero, it will be up to you to stop him. Tell him whatever you have to, but we can’t let him blow this thing up before we’re ready to move. The people I work for don’t look kindly on anyone who disrupts their plans. By the way, I’m sorry about his friend. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to contact him.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Instead of going back upstairs to her apartment, she drove straight to Conley’s Motel.

* * *

The look on Luke’s face when he opened the door was worth surprising him. Ellery was certain he didn’t know whether to be overjoyed or run for cover.

“Ellery! I’ve been going nuts waiting—” He stepped aside. “Please come in… or I can come out, whichever you’d like.”

With a shake of her head, she walked past him and into his room. “My coming here is an act of consideration, not to be mistaken as forgiveness. I’m still furious with you.”

“You have every right to be. Would it help if I let you pluck out my nose hairs? I believe that was your punishment of choice the other night.”

She almost smiled but caught herself. “Actually, I was thinking along the lines of giving you a bikini wax, but that’s not what I came here for either. I have some information that you want. I also have some very bad news.”

His eyes narrowed. “What kind of bad news?”

She bit her bottom lip. It had seemed simpler on the way there. “Let’s sit down.” He followed her lead to the table and two chairs in the corner. “I went through everything you gave me.”

He leaned forward. “And? What did you think?”

“I checked on the senator’s business trips. I found correlations for New Orleans and Atlanta. I also know that he was in Los Angeles on May 17.”

His fist slammed on the table. “
Damn
! I knew it. It’s him. Theodore Jones is the fucking Eye Doctor.” He lurched out of the chair, strode across the room and came back. “Do you believe me now?”

“Sit down, Luke. There’s a lot more I have to tell you. What I’m about to tell you is highly confidential. You can’t repeat it to anyone. But if I don’t confide in you, you’re liable to go off half-cocked and get yourself killed.”

Ellery began with her mother’s heart attack in Jones’ home and, with the exception of telling him about Detective Harris, she brought Luke up through today’s conversation with Brevowski. She told him about her undercover assignment and everything she knew about the senator, as well as her assumption of his guilt, then went on to tell him about Henry Levitt.

The more Luke heard, the more deeply he frowned. For several seconds after she finished, Luke simply stared at her. Finally, he let out a huff, shook his head and sat back in his chair. “And here I was feeling guilty for keeping secrets from you. I’d be furious, but I’m too relieved to finally have someone believe me. Obviously, I’m in agreement with your conclusions about The Eye Doctor being behind both your mother’s and Levitt’s deaths. I’m also open to the possibility that it could be the senator rather than his brother.”

“I just want to make one thing perfectly clear. My withholding my assignment from you was nothing like your lying to me or pretending to fall in love with me just so you could use me for your ulterior motives. I wanted nothing from you. I
needed
nothing from you. I would never have even spoken to you if you hadn’t been sooo…
pushy
.”

“You’re right about that. I was pushy. I wanted your undivided attention and I was going to do whatever was required to get it. And maybe my lies about what I was doing in Sacramento seem less honorable than your omissions of the truth. But I did not pretend to fall in love with you for some ulterior motive. I
am
in love with you.”

She crossed her arms and glared at him. “Stop saying that.”

“Stop accusing me of lying about it and I’ll stop having to defend myself with the truth.”

She stuck her knuckle in her mouth and bit on it until the urge to argue with him went away. “I came here to fill you in so that you would not continue with this investigation on your own. Not only could you get yourself killed without accomplishing anything, you could jeopardize what chance there is of stopping him.”

“Stopping him from getting in office or stopping his killing spree?”

“It’s the same thing.”

“Is it?” he asked, leaning toward her again. “It sounds to me like your man Brevowski doesn’t care about The Eye Doctor’s victims as long as Jones is kept out of the White House.”

“Well, you’re wrong. It just so happens that Brevowski was the FBI agent who collected most of the information you have on The Eye Doctor.”

Luke blinked at her. “Really? Why didn’t you say that to begin with? Then he must know Terrell. He told me about an agent, but he didn’t mention his name.”

Ellery took a calming breath. “Wait. There’s something else I haven’t told you yet, and I don’t want to blurt it out. It’s just that you always get me so…”

“Flustered?” he suggested, looking innocent.

“Yes, dammit, now stop it. What I have to tell you is— It’s serious, and it’s going to upset you, and I hate the fact that I have to be the one to tell you.”

His expression sobered immediately. “What is it?”

“Your friend, Terrell… he’s alive… but he’s in bad shape.” She related what Brevowski told her about the fire.

Frustration had him out of his chair and pacing again. “You don’t believe it was an accident, do you?”

She shook her head. “And neither does Brevowski.”

“That
sonofabitch
! I don’t know how he did it, but I know he did.” He grabbed her hand. “Come on. We’re going to Los Angeles.”

She rose but pulled her hand away. “I understand that you’re worried about your friend. If you need to go see him, go, but there’s no reason for me to go too. Besides, I have to be at my desk first thing tomorrow morning as though nothing is wrong. I’m still working… on both jobs.”

“Not a problem. We’ll catch a shuttle flight down, check on Terrell tonight, pay a visit to Sheriff Patterson—”

“Whoa! The sheriff is the one who’s been passing on inside information to Jones.”

“I’m sure it was unintentional. Why wouldn’t he tell the senator anything he wanted to know? Once he’s given all the facts—”

“Brevowski explained to me very clearly why we cannot go to the police. We don’t have enough hard evidence—”

“I know that. Terrell was also very clear about it. Assuming The Eye Doctor was behind the fire, I want to make sure the sheriff does something to protect Terrell, that’s all. I’m not worried about him being hurt. Terrell’s body is very familiar with that condition. He’s been shot, stabbed and beaten to a pulp, but he always pulls through. He has a very strong will to live, but he needs the opportunity to recuperate. That won’t happen if Jones can get to him while he’s vulnerable.”

“But why do I have to go?”

“For my peace of mind. If you’re with me, I don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re safe.”

“I don’t need you to protect me.”

“Fine. Then you come along to protect
me
. If Jones went after Terrell, he’s probably already figured out that I’m a threat also. Or you can just protect me from myself. Once I get down there, I just might go crazy and call a press conference or something.”

She clucked her tongue. “All right. I’ll go with you. But this doesn’t change anything between us.”

“Right,” he said, sticking his wallet in his back pocket and picking up his Eye Doctor file. “Nothing has changed. I still love you and you still hate me.”

She shot him an exasperated look. “If I
hated
you, I wouldn’t have come here myself. I would have sent Brevowski… or maybe the senator himself. I’m just very angry with you.”

He shrugged and opened the door for her. “Well, that’s something I can work on.”

She rolled her eyes and walked out the door. “That is such a male response.” She started toward her car but he pulled her in the opposite direction, toward the motel lobby. “My car’s that way.”

“So is mine,” he said. “And we’re going to leave them there while we take a cab to the airport. From what you told me about Brevowski, if he figures out where we’re going, he’ll find a way to stop us. This way, we’ll be landing in Los Angeles before he realizes we’re not still in my room.”

“I don’t think he followed me—” Luke’s smirk cut her off again. “Okay, maybe he did and I didn’t see him, but it’s for my protection.”

“Maybe it is for your protection, and maybe he’s keeping an eye on you to protect his people, whoever they are. I wonder what would happen to us if we actually tried to go to the police with what we have.”

Ellery recalled Brevowski’s warning about stopping Luke from disrupting the plans of the people he works for, but it hadn’t sounded at all threatening. “They’re certainly not going to assassinate us, if that’s what you mean.”

“Tell me something, Miss Winters, considering how many years you’ve been in politics, how is it that no one’s ever knocked off your rose-tinted glasses?”

“I am not naïve, Mr. Madigan, I simply choose to believe that people are innocent until proven guilty.”

“No kidding? I would have sworn you thought I was guilty the minute you met me.”

She nodded. “True, but that just shows you how perceptive I am.”

Chapter 20

Diane had been somewhat concerned over Ellery’s turn-down that morning. With all the stress in her life this weekend, Ellery should have been well primed for spending the day with a female friend. She had even begun to wonder if she had inadvertently done something to make Ellery leery of her.

Now that she could see where Ellery was spending her afternoon, however, she felt reassured. Personally, she’d prefer to pass the time in a motel room with a sexy companion also.

She had no idea why Ellery would have lied to her about her plans, but then again, the way some women’s minds worked was often a mystery to her.

* * *

Frank Patterson had been in a lot of tight fixes during his long career in law enforcement, but never had the situation looked this hopeless. If he went one way, he could get his throat slit. The other way meant survival, but he’d lose his balls.

If Harris had not come to him with that cockamamie note about Teddy Jones being a killer, it would never have entered his mind to consider anything so outrageous. But he had, and then Harris’ house was blown up with him in it. Abe asked the name of the witness who may have seen Neuman’s executioner—then the witness suddenly committed suicide. On the surface, the two incidents had no apparent connection to each other, but considering how Neuman was murdered…

If Jones was some guy who worked at the corner gas station, he would already have been picked up, broken down and incarcerated without bail. But the brother of a state senator, who just happened to be the popular, rising political leader onto whose coattails he had attached himself decades ago? There was no way either of the Jones brothers could even be questioned, without Patterson himself suffering a major loss.

There was no way Abe could know, of course.
But what if he did?