Bouquet of Lies (27 page)

Thirty-three

DAN FELT A mixture of emotion he’d never experienced before.

He wouldn’t say he felt sorry for Lacey’s mother exactly. She made some bad choices and hadn’t fought for her kids. But then, he knew, life wasn’t a dress rehearsal. You got one shot at every situation and she’d been up against a powerful family. Money often trumped fair play. What chance was there if she’d fought? None. The best she could do was sneak stealthy visits in the middle of the night.

As he drove to his house, Lacey followed in the Spyder, and his thoughts turned to her.

It was late. Three-thirty in the morning. The conversation with Crystal had been a long one. When they’d finished, his uncle had put her in protective custody. She’d protested, but not with much vigor. In fact, she seemed resigned. His uncle didn’t want anyone getting wind that Crystal was still alive. He never corrected what had been printed in the press.

Dan glanced in the mirror to make sure Lacey was still behind him and saw that she was. He wondered what Crystal’s story had done to her. If he was feeling wistful, odd, peculiar, then what was Lacey feeling? Would she put on that humor-shield of hers and act like she could handle anything? It seemed to be her first reaction to any challenge. He loved that she was strong and brave and always tried to make the best of things. Still, he hoped she was more introspective this time. She’d been cheated out of a mother. Emotionally starved all her life. And now she’d been given the news that her sister was actually her half-sister and her aunt. It was crazy. A lot to deal with. Plus, there was Randy. He was dangerous. Humor was a good thing. But not the only thing.

He frowned. His uncle obviously didn’t have enough evidence to arrest Randy or he would have done it. Sometimes cases were like that. The cops knew who the bad guy was. They knew who they needed to put behind bars. But they couldn’t because there wasn’t enough proof.

Dan pulled into the driveway and Lacey parked behind him. She got out of the Spyder carrying a little overnight bag. They walked in the house together.

“Well, that was a fun evening.” She put the bag on the coffee table. “Who would have known my family was even more screwed up than I thought? On the bright side, and believe it or not, there is a bright side. Darla has her mother.” Her voice lowered. “Yeah. Darla has her mother.”

“What about you?” Dan stepped closer.

“Me?”

“She’s your mother too.”

“Like I need a mother.”

“Don’t you?”

“No. I needed answers. And I got some of them tonight.”

“Because you’re the strong one.”

“You’ve got that right.”

He could try to make her see that she needed more than answers. That she was wiser than that. He also knew emotions had to play out in their own time.

He felt his heart would burst. There in the soft living room light, Lacey stood before him. Vulnerable in her need to be strong. Beautiful. Protector of her sister. Survivor of hard knocks. He loved her. He did. He wanted her. He wanted her to lean on him. Tap his strength and his need to protect and serve. He smiled. Protect and serve. Motto of the LAPD. But he didn’t mean it that way. He didn’t want to serve her. He wanted to love her and be able to say it out loud.

“What’s that funny look on your face?” Lacey gave him a coy smile. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I don’t know. What are you thinking?”

“That you promised me some monkey business.” She stepped closer.

“I never promised.”

Her mouth formed an exaggerated pout. “Still got us on a schedule?”

“I’m not thinking about schedules right now.”

She brightened. “Well, then?”

“Well then, what?”

“What is this?”

“Not monkey business.”

“What then?”

“I love you.”

She froze.

“I mean it,” he continued. “Even if you don’t say it back. Even if you don’t love me, I love you. I think you’re the most wonderful person on the planet. You care and you fight and you try to make the best of everything. But those are reasons and reasons don’t have a lot to do with it. I love you. That’s how I feel. I can’t help it and I don’t want to help it. I love you so much it sometimes drives me crazy. You’ve made me feel again. Things that hurt, sure. Things I haven’t told you yet. But mostly you make me feel wonderful. I catch myself singing in the shower, and I don’t sing. I love you and I want you to know it. And I’m afraid to say this, but I want you in my life, forever if that’s possible.”

He prayed she wouldn’t make a joke.

She opened her mouth to say something, but then she didn’t. And he saw her lips tremble just before she turned her back to him.

Love? He loved her? That word got thrown around so much . . . Did she love him? She felt his arms go around her and pull her to him, her back against his chest. One of his hands pressed her abdomen as the fingertips of his other hand brushed her jaw line and moved down her throat.

“Oh,” she gasped and her eyes closed. Love? Was this love? Could it be?

He swept her hair aside and his lips found the small space behind her ear and he kissed her there before his kisses traveled slowly down her neck.

This was Dan. Dan touching her, loving her. Her mind swirled, her body all mush. She stroked his arm and breathed.

He turned her to face him and took her in his arms. He placed his mouth on hers and her arms went around him. This was their deepest kiss yet. Their most passionate. She tasted him and the taste was delicious. They took a breath.

“This isn’t monkey business,” he whispered.

He put his lips on her again and she responded. With arms wrapped tightly around each other, they moved toward the bedroom, their mouths pressing and loving and hungry. Their energies united as their bodies soon would, and all thinking vanished into oblivion.

Thirty-four

LACEY STARED UP at the ceiling. She heard Dan’s rhythmic breathing and knew he was asleep, even as they held hands.

Lovemaking with him had been beyond her expectations. Her skin still bathed in sweat, she loved his scent on her. Neither one of them took a shower afterward.

Daylight was on its way and she pushed thoughts of Dan out of her head. She couldn’t indulge in that right now. Darla and Randy would be back in a few hours and she was their target. She hadn’t shown the photo Jake had sent to anyone. Nor had she handed over the list she’d found in Randy’s apartment. It was still stuffed in her bag. The unexpected appearance of Crystal had caused her to put the evidence she’d gathered on the back burner.

She needed a plan to get her sister back. A plan to expose Randy. She didn’t know if the note was enough to get him arrested and she didn’t want him
just
arrested. Even if the charges stuck, she wanted Darla to know the truth about the man she married. If he was arrested and Darla still believed in him, then Darla would hate her forever. Forever! They would never have a good relationship again.

Another thing. If the note wasn’t enough to keep Randy locked up, what happened when he was released? Arsenic in her coffee? Cyanide in her tea? Were people still able to get their hands on cyanide? Maybe she should buy a new fireplace poker and wait in the library for Randy.

Okay. This wasn’t a joke. The sun was already erasing the gray from the room. She had to decide what she was going to do and she had to decide fast. She looked at Dan and swallowed. Whatever she decided, she wouldn’t involve him. He might try to stop her. Actually, the more a plan of action formed in her mind, she knew he
would
try to stop her. Her plan was iffy and it depended on getting through to Darla.

She kissed Dan softly on the cheek. So softly he didn’t stir. She took his hand, put an arm around him and snuggled close. She felt him respond to her touch with a touch of his own and murmur something she didn’t quite catch.

She closed her eyes, satisfied that she knew what she had to do about Randy, and finally drifted off to sleep.

Lacey and Dan sat at the kitchen table, eating breakfast together, although Lacey wasn’t hungry. Nervous energy fed her system. She managed to down three bites of cereal.

“That’s quite an appetite you’ve got there, Lace. Something on your mind?”

“Don’t think so. I’m pretty mindless after last night.” She grinned at him. “Where’d you learn all those tricks?”

“Tricks? That’s what you call what happened between us?”

“You know what I mean.” She glanced at the clock, calculating when she should go.

He didn’t smile. “Tricks.” He sighed. “Maybe I do.” He took a sip of coffee.

“Now don’t get all morose. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was a compliment.”

“Oh.” He took another sip of coffee and his eyes told her he was analyzing her.

She didn’t have time for this. She
had
meant it as a compliment. She glanced at the clock again.

He put his coffee cup down. “What’s going on?”

She smiled at him and shrugged. “You mean aside from the fact that my mother has miraculously returned to my life and there’s a killer on the loose and I didn’t get enough sleep?”

She glanced at the clock one more time.

“It’s a few seconds later than the last time you checked.”

“A few seconds, huh?”

“Do you have to be somewhere?”

“Everyone has to be somewhere.”

He smiled slightly. “Touché.”

Ah. He jokes. That’s better.

“I was just thinking, wondering, when Darla and Randy will get back.”

“Oh. You’re nervous about that.” He nodded like he understood.

“Yeah.” She moved to his chair and, standing behind him, slipped her arms around his shoulders. With her cheek against the back of his head, she spoke. “I have to go.”

He grabbed her arms before she could move away. “You
do
have to be somewhere.”

“I have errands.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No. They’re things I have to do on my own.”

“Like what?”

“Don’t do that.” She pulled her arms free. “I have to go and I don’t have to explain.” She walked to the sink and held on. She was balancing a tightrope here. She didn’t want to be a bitch, but she didn’t want him to know what she was planning. He couldn’t spend the day with her. She had to show Uncle D her evidence and then she had to get home. She had to set her plan in motion and he would stop her. “Don’t crowd me.”

“I don’t mean to crowd you.” He moved to her. “I’m sorry. I’ll never put you on a leash. I promise. But if I can’t be with you, then how do I ever get in there?” He tapped a finger where her heart was.

She looked at him, and didn’t answer.

“I was afraid you’d put more walls up if we made love too soon.”

“I don’t have walls up and it wasn’t too soon.”

He smiled. “No. It was great.” He kissed her.

She worked to keep her emotions in check. “Okay,” she whispered, feeling wimpy when she knew she had to be strong. There was no time for discussions about walls and feelings or promises about a future that was uncertain. She had no time for anything, except taking care of business. He could come with her for the first part, if he wanted. That would be her compromise.

“I’m sorry, too.” She entwined her fingers behind his neck. “And, if you want, you can come with me to the police station. That’s my first errand. I need to show a couple of things to your uncle. After that, I need to do some running around on my own.”

He kissed her. She kissed him back.

Seated at his desk at the police station, Uncle D stared at Randy’s “to do” list.

“Why didn’t you show me this last night?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I got sort of sidetracked when my mother showed up.” Lacey sat across from him, Dan in the chair beside her.

Dan reached across the desk. “Can I see that?”

Uncle D handed Randy’s list to him. Dan looked it over and eyed Lacey with concern. “Where’d you get this?”

Lacey flinched. “I might have broken into Randy’s apartment.”

Dan looked disturbed, but Uncle D didn’t bat an eye.

“Well. It’s something.” Uncle D took the paper back.

“I have this, too.” She took out her cell phone and pulled up the photo Jake had sent.

Uncle D stared at it. “Okay. That’s interesting.”

She showed the photo to Dan.

“Jake sent it to me. He stopped this woman from going in to see Darla. She’s Randy’s accomplice. But you seem to know that already.”

Uncle D looked her in the eye. “Why do you say that?”

“You’re too nonchalant. If I know as much as I know, you have to know more. Who is this woman? I haven’t a clue. This is my family. My life. My sister’s life. I need to know. I have a right to know.”

The big detective drummed his fingers on the desk. His eyes sized her up. “It’s unorthodox.”

“What is?”

“My telling you this.”

“Tell me what?”

“We know who the woman in the photo is. At least we know some of her aliases. She’s in custody as we speak.”

“What?” She glanced at Dan. “Did you know this?”

Dan shook his head. Her eyes went back to Uncle D.

“You sent your friend Jake to watch your sister. I told you I had a man doing the same thing. After Jake scared this woman off, she headed back to Los Angeles. We stopped her for speeding. She had no proof of insurance and her driver’s license was a fake. We impounded the car.”

Lacey raised a brow. “You O’Donnell cops love that trick.”

Dan grabbed her hand.

“We ran her prints. None came up a match to any that we found in the library of your house. But, you know. Gloves are a mandatory part of any killer’s repertoire.”

Lacey put fingers to her forehead. “Killer’s repertoire. What’s her name?”

“Bonnie Malone. Melissa Scott. Tina Gordon. Take your pick. And those are only the ones we got hits on.”

“Great.” Lacey shook her head. “None of those names mean anything to me.”

“We’re waiting on a warrant to search her apartment. Should have it any minute. Hopefully we’ll find something that ties her to the murders and to Randy.”

“She was at Randy’s motel last night. They talked. Jake heard Randy’s side of the conversation. And once she didn’t make it inside the motel room, didn’t she have to meet Randy and explain what happened?”

“No, they didn’t meet. He saw her get in her car and he probably called her. But they’re smart enough to use burner phones to communicate. And somewhere along the line, probably because she got spooked, she tossed hers. It wasn’t with her when she was arrested.”

“So what now?”

He shook his head. “The evidence we have that they know each other is flimsy. Both being at the motel. It’s a strand, not a rope. We need a lot more.”

“I like the old days when people strung up killers and sorted the evidence out later,” Lacey said.

“You don’t mean that,” Dan told her.

“Maybe not exactly. But in this case I’d have no problem.”

“The good news is she’ll serve time one way or the other. We’ve got some open charges that we can make stick.”

“How much time?”

“I don’t know. Maybe seven years.”

“But she gets away with killing my Dad, Maggot, Edward and Honey?”

“We don’t think she killed Honey.”

“Three for four,” Lacey responded.

“At least she’s not going anywhere. It buys us time. We’ll keep digging.”

“What about Randy?”

“I can’t talk about that,” Uncle D said.

“Did he kill Honey?”

“I can’t talk about that.”

“And this scam artist just claims she doesn’t know him and you can’t prove she’s lying.”

“Right now, we can’t even talk to her because she lawyered up.”

“You can’t trace their phone calls because they use disposable phones. What about Randy’s phone records from before now? Before they started this murder spree.”

“Shrewd question. But I can’t tell you any more than I’ve already said.”

“I hate this.”

“The life of a cop.”

Lacey thought for a moment. “Does Randy know she’s been arrested?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Everybody gets a phone call. She didn’t call Randy?”

“She just asked for a lawyer.”

“So he doesn’t know unless she had her lawyer tell him.”

“That would involve connecting him to her. Even with lawyer client privilege, she probably wouldn’t want to do that.”

“So if he doesn’t know and he can’t get a hold of her, it wouldn’t take much to force him to seek her out.”

“What do you mean?” Dan sounded anxious. “No.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”

“Go on,” Uncle D said.

“Randy and Darla are coming back today. What if I told him I found out our mother is alive? That you told me. He’ll want to tell this Bonnie-Melissa-whomever creature, right? Since he can’t call her, he’ll drive to her place. Your guys should be there tossing it by then. He rings the bell. You open the door.
Voila
! You got him.”

Uncle D smiled. “Well, not quite. Guys like him think on their feet. He’ll have some sort of explanation. But it’s something. Another strand.” The detective nodded and touched his fingers together. “Good idea, Miss Bouquet.”

She heard Dan sigh. “Is it too much to ask that I be with you when you tell him?”

“No leashes, remember?”

“You can come with me,” Uncle D said to his nephew. And he pulled a fresh bottle of Tums from a drawer and took one.