Body of Lies (16 page)

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Authors: Deirdre Savoy

Tags: #Romance

BOOK: Body of Lies
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Unfortunately, he had a schedule to keep.
Fifteen
The next morning, Alex dragged herself into work at eight o'clock. Saturdays were usually early and short, worked for the sole purpose of accommodating patients that couldn't make it in during the week. She'd slept fitfully the night before, when she'd slept at all, the case and its implications, both professional and personal, weighing on her.
She'd heard on the news about the senseless killing of Nancy Parks and the even more senseless way her young killer had tried to cover his crime. Now Morales was dead. No one would ever know if his overdose was intentional or not.
Alex supposed she should feel grateful that the boy felt any remorse at all. But the only thing he seemed to regret was mutilating the girl when he didn't know she was alive. That was the part of the night's events that seemed brutal and out of place for him. It only proved that people could rationalize any behavior as necessary as long as they wanted to badly enough.
She guessed that's what Zach had called her about yesterday. She'd turned off her cell phone before the meeting with Roberta's brother and hadn't turned it back on until she got home. She'd seen he'd called then and listened to the message from Alice telling her that he'd called the office. It had been nearly six o'clock then. She hadn't bothered to call back, since it was almost time for Zach's nightly visit. That is, if he kept to his schedule.
Or maybe she hadn't called back, figuring he'd come if he couldn't reach her. She'd wanted to see him, and not only because she wanted to share with him the information she'd gotten from Roberta's brother. She'd been trying to deny to herself and him that there was still anything between them. She'd been punishing him for the fact that there was. His abandonment had hurt her as nothing else in her life had. She'd been walking around with that ever since, allowing it to color every relationship she'd had since, including her marriage.
She knew she'd never get past any of that if she didn't face it. Isn't that what she told her patients all the time—they had to own their own pasts, to look the events of their own lives in the face and put them in the proper perspective? So far, she'd done a lousy job of taking her own advice.
Sitting at her desk, she picked up the phone to call Zach. Her first patient wasn't due for another fifteen minutes. That should give her enough time to arrange a meeting between them.
Before she could finish dialing the number, there was a knock on her door. “Anybody home?” Roberta peeked her head in the door. “When did you get in?”
“About five minutes ago. What's up?”
Roberta pushed the door open and stepped in. She carried a long white box, the type florists used for long-stemmed flowers. “Believe it or not, these just came for you. Alice asked me to bring them back.”
Yeah, right
. Roberta just wanted to snoop. “Who are they from?”
“Doesn't say. There's no card. Could someone have a secret admirer?”
Alex stood to take the box Roberta extended toward her. Aside from the pink ribbon around the box, there was no marking on it of any kind, not even an address tag from the florist. Undoubtedly, Roberta referred to Zach, but flowers weren't his style. He'd simply show up on your doorstep and melt you with that smile of his. If he wanted something from her, he'd have been there last night. “Don't start that again.”
Roberta held up her hands as if to surrender. “All I'm saying is that maybe whoever sent them expected you to know who they were from.”
That wouldn't be a bad idea, except no one she knew would be sending her flowers out of the blue. Maybe they came from some reporter hoping to butter her up for an interview. Although the press was no longer swarming around her office, a few stalwarts were still calling.
The intercom on Alex's desk buzzed. “Tommy Barnes is here for you.”
Alex pressed the appropriate button to be heard by the receptionist. “Thanks, Alice. Can you send him back?”
“No problem.”
To Roberta, Alex said, “Duty calls.”
“Yeah, well, I'm expecting an update as soon as you open them.”
“We'll see,” Alex teased, though she admitted to herself that she was curious, too. But whatever lay inside that box, she didn't want it distracting her while she attended to her patients. She stowed the box behind her desk where it couldn't be seen, then went to the door to greet Tommy.
 
 
Zach sat across the table from his brother in the Royal Coach Diner on Boston Road. Over breakfast they'd discussed the usual topics, sports, recent cases, their sister, Joanna. Adam had asked how Stevie was doing, but hadn't mentioned Barbara. Now, as they lingered over coffee, Zach remained silent, hoping to give his brother an in to talk about his marriage if he wanted to.
But it didn't look like Adam was going to take the bait. He set down his coffee cup with an air of finality. “I should be going.”
Zach should have known better. Usually, you had to hold a figurative gun to Adam's head to get him to tell you anything. Zach wasn't opposed to holding a literal gun either, if that's what it took. “Not yet. How are things going with Barbara?”
Sighing Adam sat back. “Is that what you really asked me here to talk about?”
“Partly. Mostly. What's going on with you two?”
Adam fingered the napkin at his place setting, an action that struck Zach as a nervous gesture. Adam letting his emotions get the best of him was a novel concept, but there was a first time for everything.
“I didn't want to discuss this with you for reasons that will become obvious. I didn't think you'd understand.”
Adam paused just long enough for Zach to wonder whether there was a particular reason for Adam's statement, or if it was the same old one: his brothers' belief that since he didn't share their temperament he couldn't understand them.
“We've never had any secrets between us before, but suddenly she's going places and not telling me where she's gone. She's distant and when I ask her what's wrong she says ‘nothing.'”
Zach inhaled and let his breath out slowly. What Adam meant was that
Barbara
had never kept secrets from him before.
She
had always let him know about her whereabouts and explained her moods. Zach knew his brother didn't have it in him to be that forthcoming with anyone. But he thought he knew where Adam was going with this and he didn't like it. “What do you think it is?”
Adam lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “She's having an affair.”
Zach shook his head. He didn't believe that. For one thing, most people having affairs went out of their way to appear normal, unless they didn't care or unless they wanted their spouse to know. They made up plausible excuses for where they were so their spouses wouldn't question them, or at least tried to. Stevie described her mother as having been mopey, and even Adam noticed something was off. That didn't sound like an affair to him.
Besides, Barbara was more straightforward than that. If she ever tired of his brother, she'd give him ample time to pack his shit, then throw him out and go on with her life from there. Still, whatever was going on sounded serious enough to concern Zach.
“How's your sex life?”
For the first time since they'd started on this topic Adam looked him squarely in the face, his expression thunderous. “Do you have to reduce everything to its basest element?”
“No, not always. But I remember reading somewhere that people who were having affairs were often more affectionate, either to cover their tracks or their guilt.”
The waitress came by, depositing their check on the table. Adam snatched it up before he had a chance to. Adam edged his way out of the booth.
“Thanks for listening.”
As Adam strode away, Zach muttered under his breath, “Not a problem.” It occurred to him to go after his brother and tell him that if he really wanted to know what was going on with his wife he should sit her down and have a decent talk with her, but he doubted Adam had listened to one word he'd said.
“Well?”
Alex almost laughed at the look of expectation on Roberta's face as she reappeared in her doorway. Alex was sure it was only the demands of Roberta's clients that had kept her at bay for the last couple of hours. “I haven't even opened them yet.”
Roberta flopped into the same chair she'd occupied before. “Now, don't keep a girl in suspense. What did he send you?”
“Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We don't even know if they're from
him
, as you put it.” Though Alex admitted to herself that some small part of her wished they were.
She picked up the box from where she'd left it and set it on her desk. The elasticized bow slid off more easily than she'd anticipated. She tossed it aside, then worked on getting the box open. It was taped shut on either side. Using a fingernail she sliced through the tape on one side and managed to get the box open. Inside were two dozen white roses in perfect condition.
“Damn,” Roberta said standing. “Someone
really
likes you.”
“Mmm,” Alex agreed. Someone who'd left the card inside the box instead of out. She picked up the envelope that bore her name. It wasn't written out but cut from what she recognized as one of the business cards she'd had a lifetime ago when she worked at the hospital and taped onto the envelope.
That in itself was odd, but the card inside held another surprise. For a long moment she simply stared at the letters pasted together to form words. Her mind struggled to wrap itself around their import, aside from the obvious Bogie reference.
“Son of a bitch.”
“What?” Roberta rose to her feet again. “What does it say?”
Alex didn't answer. She'd already picked up the phone to call Zach.
 
 
Zach drove to Alex's office, with what his nephew would have called the quickness. He arrived even before the two squad cars he'd asked to sit on the place until he got there. Before he'd hung up with her, he'd told Alex to lock her doors and not to allow anyone in or out until he got there. He was glad to see she'd taken him seriously, since the downstairs guard wouldn't let him in until he showed his badge.
“Are you new?” Zach asked him, since there'd been no one on guard the last time he'd been there.
“Started yesterday.”
Zach looked the kid over. His height topped Zach's and Zach would be surprised if he couldn't bench-press twice his own weight. Considering the NYPD was practically knocking kids like this over the head and dragging them off to the academy, Zach wondered what this guy was doing in a low-paying security job—unless for some reason he couldn't make the grade. That might make him someone Zach didn't want in Alex's domain. They had enough crazies running around already.
To test the waters, he asked. “You take the test?” Anyone who had would know what he meant.
There was pride, not guile, on the kid's face as he answered. “Waiting to hear back.”
Zach nodded. “I've got a crime scene team on the way here,” he said before moving off toward the stairs.
Alex was waiting for him in the reception area, sitting in one of the chairs that lined the wall. She was wearing a simple blouse and a slim black skirt that rode up to bare her knees and long shapely calves. His gaze snagged for a moment on her legs, encased in sheer white stockings to match the color of her blouse.
Damn. He'd had a thing for white stockings ever since he could remember. They reminded him of his sister back in the day when she was a nursing student, and her friends, particularly the one who, when he was fifteen and untried, let him take them off her.
He blinked, as if to banish the image from his mind, and focused on Alex's face. There was a time for fantasies, both those involving Alex and those that didn't. This wasn't it. But at least the memories and the sight of her calmed him a little. She seemed relaxed, but there was something brittle in the smile she sent his way. She stood, and only then did he pay attention to the dark-haired woman sitting beside her. She had a Mediterranean look to her, either Greek or Italian, very pretty. He knew Alex had two partners in this office. He hadn't met this one before.

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