A Marked Man (29 page)

Annie screamed.

She tried to fight him, she struggled, but his body pressed down on her and she was no match for his strength.

“I want to stop,” she said clearly. “Please let me go, now.” Be firm, she’d been told. Don’t do anything you don’t feel comfortable about.

“That’s not what you said to the boy who fucked you in high school. Or to the men who paid your rent and kept you in drugs in New Orleans for years.”

She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. Why would he behave like this? Why would he put a ring on her finger and talk of marriage, then do this? How did he know about her shameful past after the baby died? Annie started to cry.

“Shut up.” He pushed her skirt up to her waist and tore off her panties.

“Don’t,” Annie said. “I’m not a bad person, not anymore. If you think I am, why did you want me?”

He laughed. “When you went down in the woods today, you shouldn’t have gone alone,” he sang. “Those people in the pirogue spoiled everything. No one comes up that inlet. I should know, I’ve studied it. Everything would have been perfect. You were going to drown and no one would ever figure out how. This is so much messier.” He pinched her belly hard and laughed when she cried out. Pitching his voice higher, he said, “Mama won’t be back till late.”

Annie shook so badly her teeth clattered together. “I’m not sure when she’s coming home. I knew there was time for you to nap and feel better is all.”

“You’re terrified,” he said. “I like to see a woman terrified. I like her to struggle and wish she’d never met me. Women like you wouldn’t get punished without men like me. A woman like you made me HIV positive.”

The panic roared out of control. Annie screamed again, and Martin slammed a hand over her mouth before he ripped her bodice apart and crammed fabric into her mouth. She gagged. He caught hold of her hair and turned her head to one side. “Oh, no,” he said. “No choking to death till I’m ready, tramp. Once a tramp, always a tramp.”

Blood pummeled her eardrums. The orange sun had died and shadows filled the room, turned it black and white in her eyes.

She felt him tie one of her feet to the bed and kicked at him. He finished and grabbed her flailing ankle. With her legs splayed wide apart, he secured the second foot and immediately stuffed her cotton panties between her thighs.

“There,” he said, still at last. “You lie there and think about the things you hookers do to decent men.”

From his pants pocket he took an old lighter. He eased it apart and dripped stinging fluid between her legs. With the lighter back together, he flicked a flame to life.

Annie’s eyes filmed over. When she wailed her pain, the cloth in her mouth moved deeper into her throat. She smelled burning hair, felt scorching skin.

From somewhere close she heard her mama call, “Annie, whose car is that outside? Who is with you? I’ve brought someone you used to know. He’s been lookin’ for you. You’re gonna be surprised.”

Martin turned toward the door, his features stretched wide, tight. He started in that direction, then returned to wrench the twine from her wrists. “Lyin’ bitch,” he muttered. “Filthy, lyin’ whore.”

Annie struggled to sit up, beating at the already dying lighter fluid flames.

And a man shouted, “Something’s burning. In that room. Call the fire truck.”

Mama had come home early. She and a stranger would come in here.

The fire was out but Annie hurt so badly she gulped to breathe. The air tasted oily.

Staring about, his eyes wide and glassy, Martin spun around and rushed the other way, banged into the foot of the bed as he went.

He ripped back the lacy curtains.

Martin couldn’t get the windows open.

Silence lasted so long Annie felt tears sting her eyes. He hated what she’d told him, especially the parts he’d known nothing about, the worst parts.

“And it was Bobby your mother met somewhere and brought home?”

“Yes. It turned out he was back from college and wanted to take up where we left off.”

Max stood up and stared across the bayou. Why had she thought he might accept what she told him and tell her it didn’t matter?

“Did you start seeing Bobby again?” he asked.

“No. I couldn’t have forgotten how he left me alone when I was pregnant. Not that I had any right to be choosy.”

He faced her. “You have a right to be choosy, you always did.” Sitting beside her again he hugged her until her ribs hurt. “Bastards, both of them. Martin—”

“He’s in jail. It turned out I wasn’t the first woman he’d attacked. I was just the first he’d…mutilated.”

“You are not mutilated, dammit. You haven’t seen mutilated. You belong to me, got that?” Giving another crushing embrace he pressed his cheek to hers. “If I set eyes on Bobby Colbert again, I’ll kill him.”

“He didn’t do what—”

“What he did was just as bad. Worse. He destroyed your confidence so the other freak could take advantage of you.”

T
he ice cubes melted as the tea hit them. And the tea came out of the refrigerator.

“Damn, it’s frustratin’,” Spike said, whipping off his Stetson and wiping his brow with a forearm. “Every turn I take goes nowhere.” He slapped the hat back on and took a glass of tea from the old picnic table out back of the rectory.

The meeting planned for that morning had been postponed until later in the day, until after the autopsy on Lee. They were waiting for Reb and Marc to arrive. Max felt out of place in the gathering on Cyrus’s dried-up lawn. Cyrus, Madge, Guy and even Annie looked at home but he was an interloper. He couldn’t even fathom why he was so welcome given the amount of hostility he’d met from some people in Toussaint.

And he couldn’t find Roche. That was what ate him up—his twin had gone missing and Max didn’t dare ask if anyone had seen him. Kelly knew he wasn’t around and worried the same as Max did, but Kelly wouldn’t be back in town until tomorrow.

Annie wore a blue-and-white striped polo shirt, a blue cotton skirt that hit her just above the knee and white sneakers. She looked pretty and fresh—and sad.

She took two glasses of tea and brought him one. “Is everything coming to a dead end?” she asked.

“You sure that’s the term you want?” he said and grimaced. “Sorry. We’re all getting punchy. Some cases do fade away without solutions but I can’t believe this will. If there’s a link between the things that have happened here, I wish someone would figure it out.”

“That’s the million dollar question,” Guy said. “The mystical
link.
”

As usual, big, black Daisy rested beside Guy, her head on his foot. Madge’s Millie made running attacks, landed on Daisy’s head repeatedly and got no more response than the flick of an ear or a loud snort. Annie was reminded of a horse swatting at flies with its tail.

“It’s too hot,” Madge said and got a laugh out of the group. “Yeah, I know, that’s obvious and it’s almost always too hot around here. But when you’re hot
and
worried, it’s worse.”

“Sure is,” Cyrus said. He did the unusual and removed his shirt, hung it on a pigtail belonging to a kid member of the bronze statue on the lawn. They called it the Fuglies.

Annie sized Cyrus up frankly, surprising herself. He was no soft man, not one teeny bit soft at all. And he had spent enough time working outside in the yard he loved—without the shirt evidently—to be both tanned and muscular.

She tried not to, but glanced at Madge anyway.

Madge rolled a glass of iced tea back and forth on her forehead—and cast Cyrus sidelong looks.

“We’re marking time,” Max announced. “All this standing around is getting under my skin.”

Spike strolled in his direction and Max steeled himself to be told he wasn’t needed here.

“Any ideas about a link?” Spike said. “You were with Reb at the autopsy. Anything at all?”

“I don’t know.”

Spike jutted his head forward. “You don’t
know?
”

“Science isn’t always perfect,” Max told him. He dropped his voice. “I don’t feel right talking about it when Reb is in charge. I haven’t done an autopsy in longer than I want to remember. I was along for the ride today.” And because Reb had wanted his opinion on the neck wound they had found.

“But you
might
have seen something interesting, or suspicious.”

Max filled up his cheeks with air and kept his eyes firmly on Spike’s.

“Okay,” Spike said. “I get it and I even understand. Damn, I wish Reb would come.”

“Hard day for her. And Marc. They feel responsible for Lee.”

“Responsible,” Spike said. “She was too old—”

“Yeah.” Max cut him off. “Since we’re talking about things people shouldn’t feel responsible for, you’ve got to know I’ve heard the stuff about Homer and Charlotte. Charlotte isn’t happy, but you know that.”

Spike kicked up a small cloud of dust. “You mean I shouldn’t feel responsible for it, but you figure I do?”

“I can tell when a group of people are suffering.”

“Okay.” Spike put an arm around Max’s shoulders and led him on a slow downhill walk. “You asked. Nobody else has said a word because they don’t want to get caught up in a family feud. But you asked and I’m glad ’cause now I’m gonna let it all out.”

“Sure,” Max said, wishing he’d kept his mouth shut.

“My father is a horse’s ass.”

Max wiped away all expression and made sure he neither nodded nor shook his head.

“My father listened to some gossip from someone in this town and fell right in the hole they dug for him. He’s making all our lives a misery, includin’ Vivian and this is not a good time for that to happen. In fact, if my father doesn’t make a move to put things right real soon, I’m going to run his…I’m gonna get real mad. I’ll flatten him if he doesn’t fix things. Charlotte’s miserable. Vivian’s miserable because Charlotte’s miserable and Wendy’s miserable because Charlotte and Vivian are miserable
and
because her grandpa, who is just about her favorite person, is a miserable son-of-a-gun.”

“You’ve got trouble,” Max said.

“You don’t say much, do you?” Spike said.

Max pulled in the corners of his mouth, then gulped at his tea. “Want me to talk to Homer?”
No, he hadn’t just said that.

“You?”

Max was so grateful to hear amazement in Spike’s voice. “I didn’t mean to be presumptuous. Forget—”

“Damn good idea,” Spike said. “Homer has a lot of respect for the medical profession. I’d truly appreciate any help you could give us.” He slapped Max on the back. “Thank you.”

Max breathed deeply through his nose and before he could get himself into more trouble, Reb and Marc emerged from the side of the house.

“Fan my brow,” Spike murmured. “This is hard on everyone, but look at these two.” He glanced at Max. They both nodded and went to greet the newcomers.

Reb and Marc looked haggard. They had Reb’s old apricot poodle, Gaston, with them. The poodle looked suddenly puppyish when he saw the other two dogs and took off into the fray.

“You didn’t bring the children,” Madge said, but stopped talking with her lips still parted.

“They’re better with Amy,” Reb said. Amy was Marc’s sister who also lived at beautiful, rambling Cloud’s End.

“Of course they are,” Madge said, turning pink. “That was a dumb thing to say.”

Reb smiled at her. “No, they love coming here because you spoil them. They know you dote on them.”

“This wouldn’t be a good time, though,” Madge said. She offered tea to Marc and Reb. “Sit down and rest.”

“Thanks,” Reb said, accepting her glass. “I think I’d rather cover the things you’re wondering about first.” She leaned on Marc and he slipped a hand around her waist.

She shaded her eyes as Max and Spike joined them. “How much did you tell everyone?” she asked Max.

“I was waiting for you,” he told her.

“Okay,” Reb said. “There’s not much to say anyway. Lee was, as I suspected, a very healthy woman. We think she may have died of an embolism in her brain. There will have to be further tests that can’t be done here so unfortunately this will drag on longer.”

Max wasn’t surprised she didn’t mention the evidence they’d found of foul play. Reb made the briefest eye contact with him but it was enough to let him know she’d decided against any too-detailed public announcements.

“You mean a blood clot,” Annie said. “She hadn’t hit her head or anything, had she?”

“No,” Reb said shortly.

Spike crossed his arms and looked ready to interrogate her.

Guy took Annie and Max by the elbows and moved them to a bench beside a stubby palm with a bulbous trunk. “Looks like a good time to break things up a bit,” he said. “Take a seat. I’ve got a couple of pieces of news. One isn’t big, or it doesn’t look that way. The other is interesting—especially if we’re still looking at Michele Riley having taken off under her own steam. You’ll probably want to share some of this with Spike.”

Max hoped for good news but feared the worst.

“Bobby Colbert was kicked out of some military school back east and came home to work for his father,” Guy said. “Apparently his folks sent him to the school because he was hard to handle.”

Annie looked at Guy’s belt buckle. Just how much had he found out about Bobby?

“Haven’t we decided he’s mostly a nuisance with a crush on Annie?” Max asked.

Annie held her breath.

“Mostly,” Guy said. “But he’s hangin’ around and it looks like he tries to hook up with women who have money.”

Annie laughed. “Why would he want me, then?”

“Because he sees you’re successful. Apparently he’s talked about you driving a fancy new Porsche, living in a big apartment and making a lot of money at Pappy’s.”

Max remembered the bagel shop in St. Martinville. “You drove the Boxster in St. Martinville,” he said. “That’s when you ran into Bobby again. And you have a nice apartment. And I doubt Pappy’s stupid enough to underpay you.”

“It’s not my Porsche. Joe and Ellie don’t charge me enough for the apartment and it hardly has any furniture in it—not that Bobby’s seen it—and Pappy’s doing me a favor by givin’ me a chance. He pays me decently, but it’s not a fortune.” This made her angry and she flipped a hand. “Who cares about Bobby, anyway. Not me.”

“Good,” Max said, planning to keep an eye open for an opportunity to have another chat with Bobby Colbert.

“He got let off on a charge of theft by his father,” Guy said. “A friend of mine got this from a friend of his. The father contacted the cops in a rage and said Bobby was stealin’ from the safe. Had him taken in for questioning. Then Dad showed up, apologizing all over, and saying he found the money he thought had been stolen. End of case. Baby boy went home but he hates it there. Dad insists he work and Bobby isn’t interested. He’s lookin’ for a way out. I don’t think he’s a problem.”

Annie didn’t want to think about the man at all. Spike came toward them again and she waved at him, grateful for any diversion.

“Movin’ right along,” Guy said and paused until Spike arrived. “I found out Michele Riley was breaking off her engagement to Tom Walen. She told him a few days before she came down here. Apparently he was devastated.”

Max felt tension ratchet up between them. “She didn’t mention it.”

“He must have set off to meet up with her when she got here,” Spike said. “What do you bet he thought they’d have a better chance of workin’ things out in neutral territory?”

“Maybe,” Max said. He felt agitated, excited. Even though Tom hadn’t endeared himself, there was still no reason to wish the man harm. But given what Max and Reb were theorizing about in relation to Lee’s death, Tom could become very important. Not that Max could think of any connection between Lee and Tom. He thought about it, but his mind kept wandering to Roche. He didn’t know where to start looking.

“Come back to us, Max,” Annie said, tapping his arm. “Are you okay?”

He shrugged his shoulders up and down. “Lot on my mind,” he said. “We can’t toss unproven theories around, but Reb and I think whoever killed Lee had some medical knowledge.”

“
Killed
her?” Spike said.

Max bowed his head. “I shouldn’t have said that. We’d better get Reb over here.”