Vengeance (21 page)

"Unofficially." She tucked her pistol into the leather satchel at her feet. "Parker suggested it might be pleasant to see the flower show at the Mall." She snorted. "Tulips. Yeah, right. But what the hell, Joannie likes flowers, so she's having a good time."

Joannie was Sheila's partner. She was as petite as Sheila was burly, but she matched, if not exceeded, Sheila in bloody-mindedness. They made a formidable team.

"Were you two following me earlier?" I asked as we left the range, heading back down the hall to the main room of the club. "Someone was behind me as I left the house this morning."

"Nope. It must have been somebody else in your fan club. Who else is interested in you? Besides that pissed-off woman at Delacroix Labs, of course."

I fumbled opening the door for her and almost smashed my face. "How did you know about--" Then I shook my head. I was getting a serious case of the Stupids. Parker probably had assorted cars as well as offices bugged. He never took chances.

Her low chuckle said she caught my error. "I have to admit, I was surprised when I saw her. She doesn't seem your type. That floozy sister seems more your kind of woman. You know, somebody with nice tits and--"

"I get the point. Thanks for that assessment of my intelligence."

Cerberus looked up at the sound of our voices as we entered the lobby.
Where'd you get to? I was starting to get worried
. Then he yawned and blinked.

Don't slip into a coma with concern
. I went to the counter where Sid and I repeated our routine. When we emerged from the gun vault, Cerberus was parked at Sheila's feet, staring raptly at her as she examined announcements on the Member's bulletin board.

"Nice club," she commented, rubbing Cerberus' head as he leaned on her. "How long have you been a member?"

I almost said
Ninety years
but stopped myself in time. "A while." I looked down at Cerberus. "I see you've met."

"I figured you for an Irish setter or some classy dog like that. This guy," and she looked down at Cerberus, who gazed up at her with the kind of attention he normally reserved for food, "he doesn't seem your kind of mutt."

I was getting a tired of being typecast. "He's not a permanent addition to my image." I strode past Sheila to the front door.

"Well, you know what they say. A dog is a babe magnet." Sheila's hearty chuckle echoed behind me. "Like you need a magnet. Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know I'm in town." She held out a slip of paper. "There's my contact info. Keep in touch with me. Let me know if you need anything. Joannie and I are glad to help."

I glanced at the paper and the numbers printed there. "Thanks, Sheila." I tucked the paper in my pocket and gestured Cerberus ahead of me. "Are you here for another reason?"

Her amused expression vanished and her face smoothed into a façade of cautious blandness. "Say what?"

"Did Parker decide I needed a backup on the hit too? Are you here to follow through in case I can't?"

She slipped on her sunglasses as we walked to the parking lot. "I can't say. Why, are there problems? From what I understand, this one's important. Parker sounded anxious about it." We paused by a big SUV. Sheila tapped in the code on the driver's door keypad and I heard the brief buzz of the security system being released.

"In what way?"

She paused as she opened the door. I know her eyes were examining me behind the reflective lenses of her glasses. "I think Lucinda Delacroix is going to be a casualty of war. I've done some poking around and there are people behind a man at Delacroix Labs who..." She once again touched her baseball cap. "Let me put it this way. There's a lot of slime near Miss Delacroix. Be careful it doesn't drag you down." She got behind the wheel of the SUV and peered down at me.

"You mean Masterson?"

"Masterson?" Sheila frowned at me, surprised. "No. I'm talking about Fairchild. Look out for him, Nico. He's in over his head in gambling debts to a really unsavory group. They're closing in. Be careful. The man's dangerous, if only by association." She drove away with a cavalier wave and a shouted "Call if you need me."

I considered her news as I drove home. I hadn't had time to dig deeply into John Fairchild's finances but I believed Sheila's assessment. She was a good researcher who wouldn't mess up anything as prosaic as a financial check. It appeared Lucinda was surrounded by men who could only cause her harm--me, Meyer and now Fairchild. She was like a sacrificial lamb, staked out and exposed.

When Cerberus and I pulled into the driveway, we passed Wayne Taylor at the mailboxes for our street located at the end of my drive. He watched as the dog emerged from the car then ambled out to sniff around the yard, examining every bush as though it was fresh from the nursery and newly planted.

"How's it going, Nico?" he asked.

"Fine, Wayne. How are you?" I joined him at the mailbox. I kept a post office box for serious correspondence, saving the home address for periodicals and minor bills. I flipped through the mail, wondering how I was going to make it up to Lucinda. I was probably damned forever in her eyes. It did look bad, of course, but if I could get her to listen to reason, maybe--

"Apologize," Wayne said.

My head snapped up. "I beg your pardon?"

He smiled at me, looking angelic with his wispy white hair and round face. "Edna told me about your lady friend yesterday. I recognize that look on your face. I've seen it in the mirror enough times. Just apologize. It's easier. Doesn't matter who's right or who's wrong, just apologize. Trust me. I've had eighty years of experience dealing with the opposite sex."

I almost told him that I had two hundred years of experience, none of which had helped me today, but I held my tongue. "I suppose you're right. But she jumped to conclusions."

So did you
, Cerberus said as he pissed on a juniper at the side of the garage.
You jumped to conclusions about Meyer
.

I glared at him. He'd been mercifully quiet on the drive home, giving me ample time to stew.

"I'll tell Edna you won't be coming to the potluck tonight." Wayne winked at me. "You've got some apologizing to do."

I sighed. He was right. "I'll get that lasagna I made. You may as well enjoy it."

"Take it as a peace offering," he suggested. "Women like a man who can cook. Edna goes crazy for my pancakes." He waggled his eyebrows

Peace offering
, Cerberus commented, sniffing around the mailbox post.
Great minds think alike.

I opened the garage door and the dog bounded ahead of me. "Hold on, Wayne," I called back. "I'll give you half." I went inside and put the one casserole into a picnic basket with the Velveteen Rabbit, the hard-boiled eggs and dye kits and the tiramisu. Then I came back out and handed the other dish to Wayne. "Tell Edna I'm sorry I couldn't attend." I tucked the picnic basket into the trunk of the Jag, away from inquisitive dogs. "You're right, though. I'd better get over there and start explaining."

He took the dish. "Edna will understand. Some things are more important than socializing. I remember one time..."

My cell phone in my jacket pocket rang. I pulled it out and checked the screen, recognizing the number as one Sheila gave me. "Sorry, Wayne. I need to take this." I opened the phone as Wayne continued to reminisce about his past romantic encounters.

"Nico, it's Sheila. There's a problem."

"What kind of problem?" I frowned as Wayne juggled his casserole dish and his mail, trying to keep it all out of the reach of Cerberus, who was edging closer for a sniff. "Dog, get away from that, you can't have any," I muttered. "What are you, a bottomless pit?"

It smells good. You'll share with me, won't you?

Wayne chuckled and turned away. "I'll get this home before thievery is done. Talk to you later, Nico."

Sheila said something, but I didn't catch it. "What?"

"I said Joannie just called me. She was tailing your lady friend, Lucinda. Looks like somebody decided to help you out with your job. Miss Delacroix had a car accident on the freeway going to her house. Somebody drove her off the road. There's an ambulance on the scene right now." Sheila paused then said, "It looks bad. You'd better get out there."

Sheila's words reverberated in my brain as I drove. "Joannie said that a big SUV came out of nowhere. Miss Delacroix didn't stand a chance. The rescue team was probably going to cut her out of the car."

Where are they? I don't see them
.

Cerberus was peering over the passenger seat, his eyes focused on the right side of the freeway. I tried to lock him in the house, but he avoided me, jumping in front of the car until I almost ran him down. I finally allowed him in the backseat just to get him out of the way so I could get on the road.

"It should be close." I barely remembered the frantic drive through rush hour traffic. I had given up on the north-south freeways in favor of side streets where I flew through stoplights and dodged slow traffic. We emerged on the east-west freeway about a mile west of where Sheila said the accident had occurred. Fear, rage and a paralyzing regret all warred inside me. "If I find her alive I swear I won't let her go. We're going to settle what's between us. I swear, I won't--" I saw lights in the distance. "There."

A quarter-mile ahead of us an ambulance with flashing lights was pulling away from the shoulder of the road, a squad car blocking traffic to allow it to pass. Cerberus and I got stuck in a traffic jam with other cars, waiting for the lane to open. As we inched past the accident spot, I saw two State Patrol officers, examining what was left of Lucinda's car. I briefly considered stopping for more information but the ambulance was still in sight and too enticing. I sped after it as fast as traffic would allow, glancing once at the crumpled red Subaru and the heavy black skid marks on the road.

She was lucky she didn't go in the ditch
, Cerberus said as we passed.

"That post stopped her." The small car was pushed against a guardrail that spanned a drainage ditch. "Otherwise she'd have gone in."

Who did it?

I glanced in the rearview mirror. He stared at the damaged car as though it would answer. "I don't know. But we'll find out.

I maneuvered the Jag through traffic until we were two cars behind the ambulance, which traveled with flashing lights but no siren. I took that as a positive sign. I refused to consider it might mean the occupant wasn't in need of urgent medical care because she was dead. It was a possibility that ghosted through my mind, which I squelched.

The ambulance left the freeway at the same exit Lucinda and I used the other night, but instead of going left, it went right at the bottom. I followed, thankful for light traffic that let me stay close. Six blocks later, the ambulance pulled into the emergency entrance of a hospital. I parked in an Authorized Medical Personnel slot and almost fell out of the car in my haste.

"I'm family," I called out as paramedics swarmed out of the entrance toward the waiting ambulance.

Let me out! Let me out!

I opened the back door of the Jag and Cerberus jumped into the path of two blue-suited orderlies as he raced to the ambulance.

"Sir, you can't be here." A tall, thin man in hospital blues attempted to block my path.

I didn't pause but barreled ahead, grabbing the ambulance door and pushing it wide. "I'm a physician. I know the family." I tried to move past him, but he was surprisingly strong and pulled me back.

Cerberus lunged upward, stopped by one of the paramedics in the ambulance and the driver, who jumped down from the cab and looked angry enough to start swinging. "Get down," I said to the dog.

I want to see her
. He angled for the open door, paws slipping on the metal surface.
I want to see her.

"Lucinda?" I leaned into the ambulance but was jerked back by a new orderly, this one bigger and beefier than the first one.

"Sir, you need to get back."

"Cerberus?" Lucinda's voice carried clearly from the ambulance.

The dog barked and eluded the paramedics, scrambling into the back and almost knocking over a female paramedic sitting next to the gurney.
Lucinda, I'm here
, Cerberus woofed, pushing forward and thrusting his nose into her outstretched hand.

"What is that dog doing here?" the tiny woman in a paramedic's uniform demanded as she stood up from Lucinda's side. "Get that animal out of here. This is a sterile environment. We can't have animals here."

I swung up into the cramped space. "Sorry." I reached for Cerberus. He skittered away from me, paws clicking on the metal floor and flattening himself under the gurney where he peered balefully out at us all.

I'm not leaving her. No way
.