Twisted Hunger (38 page)

She sighed and shook her head. “For heaven’s sake. Do you even know how to shoot the thing?”

“Terrell’s father showed me all I need to know.”

“Are you aware of the statistics about handguns? A very large percentage of people end up getting shot with their own guns.”

“Well then, I don’t have to worry since, technically, it’s not my gun.” He paused for her to appreciate his sense of humor but when she only huffed at him, he asked, “Have you got a better idea for how we can protect ourselves if Jones, or Brevowski, or whoever else is in on this, decides that we’ve become a nuisance?”

She lifted her chin. “I was thinking of writing a letter to someone I know in Congress. You know, ‘If anything happens to me, give this letter to
The
Washington Post
‘. That sort of thing.”

“In which case, you’ll already be dead. I don’t know why, but that doesn’t make me feel better.”

“I meant that I would use it as a threat, to keep anyone from harming me… us.”

He made a face and shook his head. “I’m keeping the gun.”

“Fine. Just tell me this. How do you intend to get it back to Sacramento? They won’t let you take it on the plane without being licensed to carry it.”

“I, uh, figured I’d drive back.”

Ellery sighed. “And when were you going to tell me that? When you dropped me off at the airport? You know, for someone who says he wants to spend the rest of his life with me, you don’t seem to trust me very much.” The one side of his mouth lifted in a half smile, and she sighed again. “That was an observation, not a change of heart.”

“Either way, you’re wrong. I would trust you with my life. I just thought you wouldn’t want to know about the gun.”

She had to look away. He wasn’t touching her, but his eyes were reaching inside her mind and telling her all sorts of things she didn’t want to know. “Don’t lie to me again. We need to be able to trust each other.”

“Deal,” he said and held out his hand for a shake. When she hesitated to accept it, he teased her. “It’s only a handshake, Ellery—an agreement between partners. It’s not like I’m trying to steal a kiss.”

She felt her cheeks flush as she gave him her hand. It was bad enough that she was afraid to make contact with him, but to have him realize why she had hesitated made it even worse. As she expected, he took advantage of her weakness once her hand was enveloped in his. There was nothing restrictive about his hold, but she was unable to pull away.

“I know you feel it,” he murmured, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. “And I know I made you really angry, but I need you to give me a break here.”

“I can’t,” she said, keeping her gaze on their hands.

“Why? And don’t say it’s because I lied to you or you can’t trust me, because you and I both know those aren’t the real reasons. If you didn’t believe you could trust me, you wouldn’t be with me right now. And don’t try to tell me that you can’t forgive me because I used you to get what I wanted, because you know what happened between us wasn’t one person using another. And let’s not forget the part where
you
were keeping secrets from
me
.”

She tried to withdraw her hand then but he tightened his grip. “Please don’t do this, Luke. Not now. If you want me to forgive you and assure you that I’m not angry, I can do that. But don’t push me for any more.”

He squeezed her hand then released it. “All right. I can be satisfied with forgiveness… for now.” He touched her chin to get her to meet his eyes. “You can trust me. I swear it on Terrell’s life.”

Rather than respond as her heart told her to, she said, “Let’s go see how he’s doing.”

Terrell wasn’t doing any better, but he wasn’t doing any worse either. Seeing the big, handsome man lying there like a mummy—as helpless as her mother had been—brought tears to Ellery’s eyes, even though she didn’t know him personally. Luke’s stories had made her feel like he was an old friend.

Mrs. Harris was optimistic as she told Luke, “The doctor said if he makes it past the next forty-eight hours, his odds of survival will start going up. He hasn’t come to yet, but they’re keeping him very heavily drugged because of the burns.”

Knowing how vain Terrell was about his looks, Luke had to ask, “How serious are the burns?”

His mother frowned. “The doctor said he’ll have some bad scars on his body, but there’s only one area on his face that was burned, on the right side, and if it upsets him too much there’s always cosmetic surgery. Anyway, Maria doesn’t seem to care if he has a few more scars.”

“That sounds like Maria,” Luke said with a smile. “I heard she was standing guard. Where is she?”

“I sent her to the cafeteria to get us some coffee. She doesn’t like to leave him, but I pulled rank. She’ll be back any second though. I like this one, Luke. She reminds me of myself when I was dating Terrell’s father.”

When Maria returned, Luke pulled her aside and left Ellery to chat with Terrell’s mother.

“I’m glad you decided to stay with him,” Luke told her. “I don’t want to name names yet, but I’m pretty sure the person behind the fire is very high up, high enough to get inside information from the sheriff.”

Maria raised her eyebrows. “That would explain why Sheriff Patterson has suddenly taken a leave of absence. I always did think he was a chicken-shit ass-kisser. At least he had the courtesy to assign a guard. Don’t worry, Luke. I’ve been crazy about Terrell for years. Now that I finally got his attention, I’m not going to let anything else happen to him.”

From what Maria said, Luke’s plan to speak with the sheriff was no longer viable, but at least the main reason for wanting to talk to him had been taken care of.

On the way out of the hospital, Luke told Ellery, “You know I have to drive back, but if you’d rather fly…”

Ellery frowned at him. “Wouldn’t that defeat the idea of us protecting each other?”

“I wanted it to sound like you had a choice,” he said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes and got back to business. “Have you thought about why Jones would try to kill Terrell?”

Luke glanced at her. “I assumed he knew that Terrell was suspicious of him.”

“Why?”

“I’m not positive, but I sent him the photo from the beauty salon and some conclusions I’d drawn. I dared him to find out where Jones was on May 17. He may have questioned him to prove me wrong. Or, more likely, he said something to the sheriff and it got passed on.”

“That makes sense. But have you considered the fact that if I knew you were lying about not knowing Terrell, Jones might have come to the same conclusion?”

Luke glanced at her. “Even if he did, he wouldn’t necessarily conclude that I’m a threat.”

She huffed. “Now who’s wearing the rose-colored glasses?”

“What’s your point?”

“I think you should go home, to Charlotte, before he comes after you.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been afraid of The Eye Doctor for twenty-one years. Now that I’ve come this far, I’m going to put an end to him, even if I have to use myself as bait.”

Until he’d said it aloud, she hadn’t understood what he thought he could accomplish on his own. He was planning to risk his life to draw The Eye Doctor out of anonymity. She might not be able to stop him, but neither could she just stand by and let him do it.

“If you insist on hanging around and being visible,
I
insist we stick close to each other as much as possible. I’ll drive back with you now then I think you should stay at my place. At least that way, you might fall under Brevowski’s protection.”

He made a face at her. “I’m not convinced that’s a good thing, but if it will make you feel better,” he let out a dramatic, long-suffering sigh, “I guess I could move in with you.”

“You can sleep on the couch,” she retorted.

After they were on the freeway north, he said, “Thanks for coming with me today.”

“You’re welcome.”

A few seconds later, he added, “And thanks for forgiving me for not being completely honest up front.”

“I guess we’re about even on that score.” She sighed and let go of the last bit of resentment she had about his deceiving her. She was tired and tense, and afraid of all sorts of things she could and couldn’t see. For a few hours with him Friday night, she had forgotten all of that, and it would be really nice to reach out for that kind of respite again.

She needed to be stronger than that. She needed to remember that she was an independent woman who didn’t need a man to give her a false sense of security.

As hard as she tried to think about anything else, every train of thought brought her right back to the man next to her. Perhaps it was only because everything else that came to mind was terrifying or tragic or perverse. Or perhaps it was just him, and the way he got under her skin no matter what else was going on. Again she reminded herself of why it would be disastrous for her to get into a relationship with a man who so easily stole away her common sense.

Why couldn’t he have just one horrible physical, mental or character flaw on which she could focus? Even his deception had been for honorable reasons.

Ellery was suddenly snapped out of her analysis when Luke turned up the volume on the car’s radio.

“Inside sources say that no one has seen or heard from the star of
Jack Morgan, P.I.
since yesterday afternoon. His car had been left in a motel parking lot in West Hollywood and was identified after the manager called for it to be towed away. Ross’ agent swears this is no publicity stunt and begs anyone who has any information to contact the police immediately.”

Luke turned the volume back down. “What do you think that’s all about?”

Ellery rubbed her tired eyes. “Normally, knowing him, I’d say it’s a major publicity stunt. But now I don’t know. I didn’t tell you—only because it didn’t seem important—I got a call from his agent’s office this morning, asking me if I’d heard from him. They were worried already because of an important meeting he had. I can’t imagine how his disappearance could be connected to the suicide of the Neuman witness or Terrell’s fire, but somehow…”

“Yeah, I agree. The hairs on the back of my neck are twitching. Other than his attending the fundraiser and being interested in you, can you think of anything—”

“
Yes
! The senator asked me about him Friday. He said his wife is a big fan and they wanted to invite him to their dinner party next weekend. I thought it was odd because the party is for some powerful Republican supporters, but I wasn’t about to question my good luck.” He gave her a quizzical look. “I need to get into that Sausalito house and, as Brandon’s date, I could have done that easily.”

Luke was torn between which statement to react to first. “What the hell do you mean by that? You’re not going anywhere near that house.”

Cocking an eyebrow at him, she retorted, “I beg your pardon? My mother died in that house. Brevowski thinks I might find the evidence we need there. I have to go.”

“Hold on. Am I to understand that you’re going back into the office? Despite everything we know?”

“It’s the only way. We’re close. You know we are. But if I don’t do this, he could get away with everything and go on, maybe all the way to the Presidency! Anyway, I know about him, but he doesn’t know about me, and Brevowski is watching over me. Discussion closed.”

“But—”

“I said, discussion closed.”

It took him a moment to shift mental gears. “Okay,
if
Jones is responsible for Brandon’s disappearance, what rationale could there be? Is there any way he could have some dirt on the senator?”

“I doubt that. He loves to gossip and if he knew something juicy about Jones, I’m pretty sure he would have shared it with me… and the press.”

“In that case, we’d have to put him on the list of murders with no apparent motivation.”

“Except the one in the killer’s mind. Isn’t that what motivates a serial killer? A private agenda of some sort?”

Luke filled her in on Terrell’s comments about serial killers, but wondered if the profilers had all been wrong in this case.

By two a.m., they were back in Sacramento, had turned in the rental car from Los Angeles and taken a taxi back to Luke’s motel. They decided to drive both her car and his original rental car back to her place, but first he needed to pick up his belongings. Ellery waited in her car while Luke surreptitiously went to his room. When he returned with his suitcase fifteen minutes later, his worried expression warned her that things had somehow gotten worse. Rather than explain, he hurriedly got into his car and motioned for her to follow.

As soon as they parked their cars in her parking lot, she demanded, “What’s wrong?”

He made her wait until they were safely locked in her apartment. While he conducted a search that included looking in every closet and under her bed, he finally replied, “Someone was in my room.”

“Besides housekeeping?”

“Definitely, unless the staff has started messing up rooms instead of straightening them. Whoever it was didn’t even try to hide the fact that he’d been searching through all the drawers. It was almost like he was letting me know that he knew about me.”

“You said
he
. Are you assuming it was Jones?”