Whiskey Island (54 page)

“Happy St. Paddy’s Day,” she muttered.

The door opened, and Jon Kovats walked in. She had never, in her entire life, been so glad to see anyone. She burst into tears for the second time that night.

“Case…” He pulled a chair up beside her and took her hands. “Some night, huh?”

“Just tell me, is he dead?”

“What’s the answer of choice?”

“No!” She looked up, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “I think.”

“He’s not dead. Won’t be, either, unless somebody else gets to him. There are a couple of cops who took Niccolo’s statement at the saloon who’d like to get their hands on the guy. But I think he’s safe enough in the hospital.”

“The NRA stinks. I wouldn’t own a handgun if my life depended on it—”

“As a matter of fact, it did tonight.”

“No, it didn’t! Megan keeps a gun in the drawer under the cash register. But even if I could have gotten to it, I wouldn’t have. It’s just that when I saw Rayburn aiming at Niccolo…”

“You shot him.”

“No. I just tried to get the gun away from him. It went off in my hand.”

“Funny, there’s always a lot of that going around.”

“It’s
true
this time. I didn’t even know I’d shot him until I saw I was holding the gun. It all went so fast.”

“Would you have shot him if you’d had the chance? If you’d been given seconds to think about it? If you’d known it was the only way to stop him from taking Ashley?”

She rubbed her fingertips over her cheeks, wiping away tears. “What is this, a quiz show?”

“Just answer me.”

She considered. “No. I hate him, the bastard. But he’s sick, and he’s a human being, not an animal.”

“That’s a good answer. Remember it when they come to take your statement. It was purely accidental.”

“It’s no lie, Jon.”

“The rest of it won’t be so easy.”

“I know. They’re going to charge me with kidnapping, aren’t they?”

“No way that’ll happen. You could get stuck with a lesser charge, but I’m going to see what I can do about convincing my office otherwise. If we prosecute you, our publicity will be horrendous. The fact that Rayburn came after you with a gun, the fact that Niccolo heard him admit to the things he’d done to Ashley—”

She corrected him. “Alice Lee.”

“The fact that an investigator in Florida who’s looking into this has located Alice Lee’s former baby-sitter, and she’s willing to testify against Rayburn—”

“What? How did you discover that?”

“I tracked the investigator down just this afternoon. He was hired by a local ‘group of concerned mothers,’ and he’s been on the sitter’s trail for a month.”

“That would be the same group of women who placed Alice Lee with me.”

He shrugged, as if to say that this was more than he wanted to know. “The baby-sitter disappeared with her folks about the time Alice Lee’s custody case was pending. Seems her folks came into some unexpected money and left town late one night. The girl went with them, of course. But she’s a good kid, and willing to tell what she knows now that they’ve found her. She knows a lot, too, because she was in the Rayburn house a lot, and her folks’ sudden inheritance should be easy enough to trace to Rayburn.”

“It’s over, then? They’ll release Dana from jail and she’ll get Alice Lee?”

“It looks good.”

Casey wasn’t crying now. “Then whatever happens to me will be okay. Alice Lee’s safety’s worth whatever price I have to pay.”

“Case, you never had to sacrifice yourself to buy redemption. You know that, don’t you? You know that little boy’s death wasn’t really your fault.”

“I never set out to sacrifice myself. I set out to help a little girl. If they decide to put me in jail, I won’t like it, but at least I’ll know she’s finally safe.”

“I’ll do everything I can to keep that from happening. On one condition.”

She sat up straight and folded her hands on the table in front of her. “And that would be?”

“That you come home with me when this is over. I’d rather not let you out of my sight for a while. And you need me. You know that, don’t you? I’m not saying you made a bad decision here, but I am saying you could do with someone to talk to when the urge hits you to help a child under the table, so to speak.”

“I’m more than satisfied with the way this turned out, Jon. Without your help.”

“Then will you just come home with me because you belong there? Because it’s the right place for you to be?”

“Because I love you?”

“That would be good, too.”

Her expression softened. “I do love you, you sanctimonious law and order junkie.”

“No man’s ever heard a finer sentiment.” He leaned over, covered her hands with his and kissed her.

34

“T
he commotion woke Ashley,” Peggy said. At the sound of the gunshot, Peggy had come downstairs in her bathrobe. Since then, she had gone back and forth between floors to make statements and check on the little girl upstairs.

“Her real name’s Alice Lee.” Megan was still having trouble accepting everything that had happened tonight, but the pieces were beginning to fall into place. “I can’t believe Casey’s been hiding her from her father.”

“For good reason,” Niccolo said. “I heard enough to testify to that.”

Megan couldn’t believe that, once again, Niccolo had stumbled onto the scene exactly when he had been needed. “You know, Nick, you seem to be working under some sort of guiding light. You just happen to show up at the carjacking. You just happen to show up tonight when Casey needed you.” She frowned. “Why did you show up? And why did you call earlier?”

He glanced at Peggy, still in her bathrobe. “Before I go into it, let’s settle what’s going to happen next. Peggy, do you want to stay here tonight with Ash—Alice Lee? I don’t know when or if Casey will be coming back.”

“Casey’s going to be all right, isn’t she?” Peggy said.

“Truthfully? My best guess is she’ll get off with a slap on the wrist.”

“Should one of us be down at the station, even if she doesn’t want us?” Megan was still unhappy that Casey had refused to let her come along.

“Jon’s with her, and he can do a lot more than we can. Father Brady’s calling an attorney to represent her, somebody from St. Brigid’s who’s top-notch.”

“Thanks. The only lawyers related to us are ambulance chasers or politicians.” Megan put her hand on his arm. She’d had trouble not touching him ever since she’d walked in to find him on the saloon floor administering first aid to Bobby Rayburn. For one terrible moment she’d thought he was the one who had been shot—again—and she hadn’t been able to bear it.

“No problem. Peggy?”

“I don’t really want to stay here. I’ll be fine tomorrow, but tonight?” Peggy rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Megan, can we come to your place?”

Niccolo answered before Megan could. “Better yet, why don’t you all come to mine? I’ve got the room, and Alice Lee likes my house. I think she’ll be comfortable there. Besides, I need to talk to both of you.”

Megan liked the idea more than she could say. “I’ll get Alice Lee. Peggy, you get whatever you’ll need.”

“You don’t have to ask twice.”

Peggy started up the stairs, but Niccolo held Megan back. “It’s a good thing you wouldn’t come to the phone when I called earlier, but just for the record, why didn’t you?”

“I was hip deep in catastrophes. A broken faucet spurting gallons of water on the floor, two guests who needed taxis and someone to keep them from driving away on their own, sixteen missing plates of corned beef and cabbage—” She broke off the recitation. “Did you think I was giving you the brush-off?”

He smiled a little. “Yeah. Maybe I did.”

“If I ever do, you’ll know it. It won’t be that subtle.” She put her arms around him, which she’d wanted to do since coming on the scene. “Nick, I’m a mess. I know I am. But be patient. I’m working on this.” She looked up at him. “I’m glad to see you have a few insecurities yourself.”

“More than a few.”

“I’m thrilled you’re staying in town, even if I didn’t sound like it earlier. But I was upset at how thrilled I felt, if that makes any sense to you. I don’t want to need you so much, damn it.”

“You don’t need me, Megan. You’ll always be able to make it on your own. You need
us.
Together.”

She stared up at him. “Is that it?”

“My interpretation. Feel free to modify it, if you like.”

“I’ll mull it over.”

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back; then he pushed her away. “Go get Alice Lee. I’ll be warming up my car.”

Alice Lee, unaware that her father had made a midnight visit to the saloon, settled into a bed at Niccolo’s house and promptly fell back asleep. Megan, who had tucked her in and waited for her eyes to close, came downstairs to find Niccolo preparing tea for himself and Peggy.

He turned at Megan’s approach. “Want some?”

“I’d rather have a drink.”

“There’s red wine on top of the refrigerator. White inside it.”

She knew where he kept the wineglasses, and filled one with merlot. Then she sat beside her sister and eased off her shoes.

“Ashley’s asleep?” Peggy asked.

Megan didn’t correct her. It would take time for all of them to get used to the little girl’s new identity. “She asked me why the police were at the saloon.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her somebody had called them because they’d heard a loud noise downstairs.”

“And she bought it?”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it? She bought it because she was too tired to use that agile little mind of hers. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more questions tomorrow.”

“I saw the way you carried her inside. You’ve grown pretty fond of her, haven’t you?”

Megan didn’t deny it. What was the point? She’d been pretending to be someone she wasn’t for a long time, and everyone who loved her had seen right through her. The truth of that, the truth about who she was, was only just beginning to become clear to her. But it had been clear to others for a long time.

She lifted her head and felt naked without her usual defenses. “She’s a great little girl. Now it sounds like she’ll have a chance at a normal life. With her mother.”

“She’s going to need therapy,” Peggy said. “She’s been through a lot.”

Niccolo set tea on the table in front of Peggy. “She’s a strong kid. With the right kind of help she’s going to get through this.”

The telephone rang, and he disappeared from the room to answer it. Peggy sipped her tea and Megan her wine, both straining to hear, without success.

Niccolo reappeared. “That was Casey. They aren’t going to hold her at the station, since there aren’t any charges against her at the moment and no one seems in a hurry to file any. She made a guess you’d be here when no one answered at Megan’s.”

“Where is she now?” Peggy said.

“She’s at Jon’s. She’s going to stay there for the night. She said to tell you both she’ll talk to you in the morning. She’s beat.”

“I’m glad she’s not alone. What did you want to talk to us about?” Megan was more than relieved. Now she could turn her attention to Niccolo.

“When I called the saloon earlier, I wanted to tell you that Rooney was here.”

Peggy set down her cup. “Here? In this house?”

“I left my address a couple of times in places where I thought he might find it. He finally found his way here tonight. And it
is
Rooney. Megan, he talked about you and Casey.”

The effects of twenty-four hours with no sleep, the busiest day of the year, and Casey shooting Alice Lee’s father, were catching up to Megan. This new information was too much to assimilate. “
Was
here? When you made the call?”

“Sitting at this table eating Cheerios. That’s why I kept pushing to get you on the telephone.”

“What did he say? How did he look?”

“Where did he go?” Peggy added.

“I don’t know where he went,” Niccolo said, starting with the last question. “I left the room to call Megan, and he left while I was on the telephone. I drove around the neighborhood for more than an hour, but he’d vanished.”

Suddenly the wine didn’t seem like such a good idea. Megan pushed it away. “Why did he come
here?
Do you know?”

“I’m not really sure. He ate. He rested awhile. Then he moved on. Maybe it was as simple as having the address of a safe place to stay for a little while.”

“And he didn’t say anything?” Megan could see Niccolo mulling over how to answer. “Look, we know he probably doesn’t make much sense. Just tell us what he said.”

“First, that he has plenty of places to go, and there’s plenty of food if a man knows where to look. I think he was reassuring me that he can take care of himself. Maybe he wants me to reassure you.”

“How did he look?” Peggy asked.

“In need of a bath, but otherwise neat enough. Hair combed, teeth in decent condition. He had a big bowl of cereal, but he wasn’t ravenous. He ate slowly, sipped his orange juice.”

“What else did he say?”

Niccolo seemed to be trying to put the conversation in some sort of order. “He said something about boys, about not understanding things. I thought he was talking about Josh.” He realized Peggy might not understand. “I have a teenager living here with me, and he was the one who let Rooney inside.”

Peggy nodded.

“And then?” Megan asked.

His expression clouded. “He talked about his little girls. He said the stars took them. I told him he still had three daughters, but they were adults now. I’m not sure he understood that.”

Peggy’s voice caught. “The poor man.”

It sounded as if Peggy were talking about a stranger, but that didn’t surprise Megan. Rooney
was
a stranger to her. She had few real memories of him. “The stars seem important to him, from what you said. It’s like he talks about them almost as if they’re people watching him.”

“That’s exactly how it sounds. He told me once the stars were the Trinity, but today it sounded more as if the stars are people from his past. Ancestors, maybe?”

Megan cleared her throat. “I can guarantee no Donaghue who ever lived fits neatly into the Holy Trinity.”