Bad Habit (13 page)

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CHAPTER TWELVE

Teri accepted Angel’s outstretched
hand, allowing him to lead her upstairs and out onto the screened
balcony that opened off the central hallway.

Three wicker chairs were arranged
in a companionable circle across from a wooden glider placed close
to the outer banister. Each seat was equipped with a worn quilt or
crocheted throw. An orange and white kitten was curled up on top of
one of the quilts. A romance novel with a page turned down had been
left on top of an old wooden trunk being used as a table. Teri
thought this porch must serve the family well as a place for
communicating secrets and maybe for keeping some as
well.

“
I need to tell you something.”
Angel gestured to the glider and, when she was seated, dropped down
beside her. “Remember the Private Investigator who was watching
your apartment? He was killed last night or early this
morning.”

Teri drew in a sharp breath. “Where?”

“
They found him about fifty feet
from the stairs to your former place of residence.”

Her stomach roiled as the
realization set in. The killers had followed her and they had
killed again. “What happened to him?”

“
It was dark and I couldn’t tell if
he was shot or stabbed but there was a lot of blood.”

Teri winced, her gag reflex working
overtime. “He’d be alive if I had stayed in New York.”

Angel frowned at her. “Don’t think
that way. Maybe you’d be dead if you’d stayed in the City. Did you
ever consider that?”

She nodded, her throat constricted. “Many
times.”

“
Whoever killed him cleaned out his
pockets and took his ID. My card was probably in his
pocket.”

“
Why would they do that?” She
fought down the taste of bile rising from the pit of her
stomach.

“
Probably looking for this.” He
flipped out the memory card from Marcel’s camera. “We need to see
what’s on it.”

Angel drove Teri to view Marcel’s
memory card. The nearest place with the capacity to print photos
was a large discount store. Angel used the equipment and Teri
looked on as he flipped through each shot. There were quite a few
photos of various nuns, some taken from the back of the
chapel.

Teri recognized herself in several
shots walking with Clem and Connie and going up the stairs of the
apartment. She saw herself leaving with the paper bag of cash when
she had taken it to the bank. She drew in her breath but Angel
didn’t seem to notice.

“
Marcel seems to have done a good
job of keeping you under surveillance but I don’t think he knew who
he was looking for.”

“
Why not?”

“
He has as many pictures of Clem,
Miriam and Connie as he does of you. He was taking photos of every
female who entered or left the convent and school. He followed the
four of you when you went to the apartment but he was shooting
wild.”

“
I hope so.”

“
What I don’t know is if he sent any
of these photos to the man who hired him.”

All the blood rushed from her head
as she stared at the photos. “There!” Teri stopped Angel’s progress
through the file. “That’s one of them!”

Angel stared at the photo under Teri’s finger and
clicked to enlarge it.

“
It’s him! It’s him!” Teri jumped
up and down and then glanced around at the people who looked her
way. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “It’s the man who killed
Colin.”

Angel printed out the picture. The
man in the photograph loitered by the entrance to the convent,
leaning against the low stone retaining wall surrounding the
grounds. Above the local limestone, wrought iron was woven ornately
into a semblance of privacy and shelter. The man peered through the
wrought iron so intently he hadn’t noticed Marcel.

“
Marcel must have shot this from
his car,” Angel said.

Colin’s killer was stocky with his
graying hair cropped short. Reflective sunglasses hid his eyes.
High, flat cheekbones and a ruddy complexion offset his mouth, more
like a gash cut into a stone face.

“
Do you need anything while we’re
here?” Angel pocketed the memory card and took her hand.

“
Like what?”

“
Do you need something else to wear?
Shoes? Underwear?”

“
Yes.” A grin spread across her
face. “Yes, I do.”

He handed her a credit card.

Teri was astonished. Other than her
grandfather, no one had ever done such a thing. Teri Slaughter had
always paid her own way. She looked up into Angel’s eyes and
realized he was once more taking care of her. “Thanks.” Her voice
came out husky as her fingers closed around the card.

He accompanied her as she went to
the department with female clothing. She selected a sundress,
another pair of jeans, a pair of shorts and a couple of knit tops.
She proceeded to the shoe department and added a pair of sandals to
the pile. Finally she grabbed a couple of lacy bras and panties
that were not cotton. She took a short pink satin night gown and
tossed it over her arm.

Angel watched her with a wide grin
on his face.

“
What?” she asked.

“
You’re such a girl.”

She fought down the warm rush that
filled her chest. “You sound like that’s a bad thing.”

He shook his head. “It’s definitely a very good
thing.”

“
There’s something else I need.”
She went to the fragrance counter and spritzed several samples.
“Which one do you like?” She offered her wrist for Angel to
smell.

Angel grasped her wrist and held it to his lips
sending a tingling sensation to her inner core. He pulled her to
him and pressed his lips against the side of her neck.

“
This one,” he said. “Whatever is
right here.”

His tongue traced a line on her
throat, causing her pulse to throb.

She almost dropped the tester
bottle. “I can’t believe you can make me feel this way in the
middle of a store with a million people walking around.”

“
What way?” He held her against
him.

“
You know,” she said.

Angel gave her the smile he seemed
to save for her.

They went through the checkout line
and Teri asked Angel to get her a bottle of water from a vending
machine. When he stepped out of line she handed the cashier money
from her pocket. Angel met her with the water as she waited for him
by the exit.

She handed him back the credit card and he tucked it
in his pocket. “Thank you for everything,” she said.

“
My pleasure.”

Teri thought about the large cash
balance in her New York bank account and the many assets she had
accrued over the years. She thought about her spacious
well-furnished condo filled with expensive investment art objects.
She thought about the stacks of hundred dollar bills stashed in a
safety deposit box here in San Antonio. And yet, this cop thought
he should buy her whatever she needed. She couldn’t stop
smiling.

“
Where are we going now?” she
asked.

“
To the library.”

“
You want to read?”

“
I want to use their anonymous
computer. I didn’t want to use the ones at my parent’s
house.”

The central library was a large
granite edifice. Angel parked in underground parking and they
walked two blocks to the cool building that smelled like libraries
everywhere. They perched on stools while Angel logged on and sent
the photo of the unknown man who had killed Colin. Teri smiled as
he used two fingers to peck out a brief note to his boss. He wrote
that he was following up on several leads and that this man had
been identified as one of two involved with the death of Colin
Dowd. He requested any information on the man as well as known
associates.

“
Now what?” Teri looked around at
the other users. Most were students using the computers to look up
subjects for term papers and printing out copious amounts of
research material.

“
I’m sure my boss will be calling
me once he has the photograph. Usually these thugs hang out with
the same crowd during their entire career. They also end up making
friends with other thugs they’ve served time with. We’ll see if
this guy is in the system.”

“
So what do we do while
waiting?”

“
We try to stay cool,” he said.
“What do you want to do?” He smiled encouragingly and reached for
her hand.

Suddenly, she knew exactly what she
needed. “I want to call my sister. I feel so far away from
her.”

“
Let’s go.” They retraced their
steps back to the car and Angel turned the air conditioner on full
blast.

Angel opened his door and stepped
out of the vehicle.

“
Wait,” she said. “You don’t have to
go.”

“
I’m sure you need some privacy. A
lot has happened since the two of you last talked. I’ll be right
outside.” He closed her inside the car and leaned against the
fender.

Angel Garcia continually amazed
Teri with a world of large and miniscule considerations. He was
caring and sensitive while thoroughly masculine and protective. Not
a bad combination.

Teri punched the number of the
convent in Maine into her new cell phone. She asked if she might
speak to Sister Bernadette, hinting that it might be an emergency
so they would pull her out of class.

When Bernie picked up the line she sounded slightly
breathless.

“
I’m sorry if you had to run,” Teri
said. “There’s no emergency. I just needed to hear your
voice.”

“
That sounds like an emergency to
me.” Bernie could convey a picture of happiness using only her
voice. “Have you been painting? How are your classes going? Do you
like teaching?”

“
Slow down,” Teri laughed. “I loved
teaching and the classes went well. The girls and the nuns were
absolutely wonderful. I could almost forget about all the terrible
things that happened.”

There was a long silence. “That
sounds as though you’re not teaching now. What
happened?”

“
A New York police detective came
after me. He saw right through me. I fooled everybody else but not
this guy. He’s pretty amazing.”

“
This sounds like it’s going to be
interesting,” Bernie said with a laugh. “Let me sit down and you
can tell me all about him.”

“
He’s from San Antonio and his
family lives here. He took me to his parent’s house and I met all
of his family. They’re all so loving and kind. I understand why
he’s the way he is.”

“
And how is that?” Bernie
asked.

Teri heard the grin in her sister’s
voice and remembered the times in college when she would come in
from a date to talk to her big sister. “He’s smart and handsome and
affectionate and caring...”

“
Hold on,” Bernie said. “I’ll get
the Vatican on the other line and nominate him for
sainthood.”

“
No, he’s way too sexy to be a
saint.”

“
So while I’ve been up here
worrying about you, you’ve been socializing with this sexy paragon
of virtue?”

“
I’m sorry if you’ve been worried
about me. There has been some trouble here. A man was
killed.”

She heard Bernie’s sharp intake of
breath. “Please be careful.”

“
Angel is doing a great job of
taking care of me.”

“
Angel?”

“
That’s his name. Detective Angel
Garcia.”

“
If anyone ever needed an angel,
it’s you.”

“
And Bernie,” she added. “I was
painting. I did one of the farm and I painted you swinging in the
apple tree.”

“
I wish I could see it.” Bernie’s
voice sounded soft, as though she was on the verge of tears. “I
wish we could paint together again like we used to.”

Teri felt the rush of tears
gathering, and fought them off by pressing her nails into her palm
and taking a deep breath. “We’ve had some really great times,
haven’t we?”

“
I was just thinking of when you
fell out of the tree and broke your arm. I felt so guilty for
letting you get hurt.”

“
Silly Bernie,” Teri said. “I was a
clumsy little monster trying to do everything you did. I shouldn’t
have tried to climb that high. It wasn’t your fault.”

“
You’ll never convince me of
that.”

“
I better let you get back to
class,” Teri said reluctantly. “Don’t be a bystander.”

Bernie laughed. “Maybe I should advise you to start
being a bystander. It would be safer.”

Teri swallowed hard. “Yeah, but
we’re not bystanders, are we?”

“
We were raised to be
participants,” Bernie said. “I wish you were here. My students are
working with clay. It’s so much fun. You’d love to get your hands
into it.”

Teri felt a pang of regret. “I wish
I’d completed my degree in Art and gotten a teaching certificate
like you did. The teaching really was fun, but I wasn’t completely
armed for the task.”