Chasing Suspect Three (28 page)

“You went down to see him in Miami? And look
at how you got all dressed up for him.” He fell silent. She started
to explain, but he shushed her. He didn’t want to hear it. “I
believe we need some serious time away from each other.”

“Are you going to let me explain?”

“I think I’ve got it. You got carried away,
you had been drinking. You didn’t intend for it to go that far, it
was just sex, you don’t love him at all. Sound familiar?”

“I didn’t drive to Miami today to see him. It
was all business. I was hoping to locate the girlfriend of John
Larena. I did find her and one thing led to another. I’ve
discovered the true identity of the murderer. Did you hear what I
said? You’re supposed to give me a high-five right now.”

“Maybe later.”

“I phoned him, the FBI guy. He was across
town. And gave him the name. He was still trying to make out with
me. The creep propositioned me on the phone, said he’d have me
summoned into court, to reveal my source unless I went to his
apartment. I told him to go to hell.”

Chip was beginning to soften. “Coercion by a
person in a position of authority is a serious offense. He could
face severe consequences.”

“If I had my way, he would. Of course, I
don’t know if he’ll follow through on his threat or not. The good
part is the feds are moving in to search the killer’s apartment.
It’s more complicated than that. But, I never got it on with him at
any time. I came over here just dying to tell you all about it,
because you’re the one who loves me and I love you.” She stood and
took a step toward him. “It’s not fair for you to jump to all those
conclusions with no justification.”

He stood, raised his hands, and exclaimed,
“Finally! Are we now ready to talk about fairness?”

There it was. She understood. That was it.
After listening to him, watching his face, and looking into his
eyes she felt like a foolish teenager. They weren’t at the end. She
could live with this man. His attack on her was painful. His
outrage was sincere. His genuine indignation had proved his
innocence to her. She was satisfied. He had acted appropriately and
discarded the woman. He had rejected the woman years ago and
rejected her again today. The past was trashed with that diary.
Forget about the diary, and assume he had been telling the truth
all along. All she had to do was trust him.

She reached for her wine glass and drained it
without hesitating. “Chip I’ve been foolish...I apologize for
distrusting you without any conclusive evidence. I think I have my
head on straight now.”

“But all along you had all the conclusive
evidence you needed—my past actions. The trust that I’ve built up
over the last year. That’s what trust is, isn’t it? That’s what
love is.”

She nodded. The diary that had so screwed up
her mind would never be mentioned. Never. Entirely irrelevant. She
didn’t know if real people were in that diary, and now she didn’t
care. It had nothing to do with the two of them and had been
trashed where it belonged. She had Chip, and Claudia most certainly
was jealous of her. She smirked; perhaps the whole thing was phony,
now she didn’t care. If somewhere in all this, he needed to be
forgiven, then she forgave him. As of now, the slate was clean.

He moved in front of her and put both hands
on her shoulders holding her at arm’s length. She studied his face
and then locked onto his eyes. His look was soft as a pillow and
his eyes were loving her.

She was about to blather out more words about
how sorry she was for being so stupid, and how he hadn’t deserved
any of it. He halted her in mid sentence with a finger on her lips.
“So you’re okay now, nothing bothering you?”

“Nothing you can’t fix.”

His hand went around her shoulders and slid
them down her back as he pulled her closer, which just then was
exactly what she wanted. She leaned into him, burying her face
against his chest. All the negative thoughts were gone.

She whispered, “I want your hands on me. I
want them all over me, and now.”

They exchanged the special glance that lovers
have understood for thousands of years, and he followed her into
the bedroom.

They stood together beside the bed and
undressed while trying to hold a kiss. Then he sat on the edge of
the bed and she stood in front of him between his knees with her
feet wide apart. She ran her hands up his brawny arms, held his
face in her hands, and kissed him again.

He held his hands up and smiled. “You want my
hands touching you?”

“Don’t miss anything.”

His fingers went to her neck and shoulders,
glided up and down her back and down the length of her legs. She
closed her eyes and threw her head back giving herself up to the
sensations. Minutes later, he cupped her buttock in his hands and
pulled her forward to kiss her breasts. After a moment, she pushed
him back on the bed and said, “Move on up on the bed...on your
back. I want to lie on top of you for a minute.”

He felt her smaller, soft body stretched out
on his sturdy frame. Her weight seemed to be nothing. She was silky
smooth and he could again caress her with both hands and smell her
warmth.

She slid up on his body and kissed him, he
responded with a different kiss—definitely the kiss of love. She
paused for a moment to look down at him, actually look at him,
almost in awe. She propped herself up on her elbows and said,
“
Wild nights, wild nights. Were I with thee, wild nights would
be our luxury.
”

“Luxury?”

“Isn’t sex with the one you love a luxury?”
The entire poem was coming back to her. She continued, “
Rowing
in Eden. Ah, the sea. Might I but moor tonight in thee
” Every
exciting line had come back. Everything was right. She wiggled her
body around on top of his.

“I’m beginning to get this,” he said. “Eden
is paradise. Being together is paradise.” His hands had been
gliding up and down on her backside. Now he wrapped his arms around
her tightly, kissed her gently, and felt her soft tongue touch his
own. He whispered, “Might I but moor tonight in thee
.
”

She returned his kiss, and it started off
gently. But after a few seconds, she couldn’t get enough of him.
Hurriedly, she rolled over putting him on top. Then she grabbed his
hips and forcibly yanked him forward.

A
mazing how
beautiful Florida can be in the morning. Sandy had no idea about
the outside weather, but what a lovely morning it was in Chip’s
bedroom. You can hear birds singing in a storm, if your heart is
right. Chip had gone in late having willingly dallied when she
pulled him back into bed.

She rolled over and buried her face in his
pillow breathing in his essence. For the first time in days, she
felt at peace and unhurried. Nothing quite like having your love
life nicely secure in a bulletproof package tied up with a lovely
silk bow on top. She stretched back on the stack of pillows and
casually looked over at the clock.

She sighed.
Rowing in Eden. Ah, the
sea.
Now back to the real world. She searched for her phone to
check for messages and found it in the pocket of her good suit coat
piled on the floor, the skirt crumpled nearby behind the chair. She
held up the wrinkled suit and smiled at the minor casualty from
last night—nothing an iron wouldn’t fix. She thought she had some
clothes in his closet, although she didn’t normally keep much at
his place.

Her phone listed one missed call at around
ten last night and four calls this morning. No way would she have
taken a call last night. She hadn’t wanted last night to end, let
alone be interrupted. Two calls this morning from Jaworski, who
almost never called her. Something important must be up with him.
And two from Martin, she was supposed to meet him but not until
late afternoon. Martin would ease her gently back into the real
world. She wouldn’t mind speaking with him.

He answered with an unusual sparkle in his
voice, “Thank God you phoned back, I’ve been dying to tell you. I
pulled off something very nice last night, Sandy “

“So did I, but you go first.”

“Last night was a huge success. I phoned Judy
and told her I’d like to come over, and I was bringing a pizza. Get
it, Sandy? I took your advice. Not a fancy restaurant just pizza.
She was surprised I called. She said it was too late, eight
o’clock, they had already eaten, and it’s a school night. I hadn’t
thought of any of that. I felt stupid. You know what she said?”

She was already laughing at the excitement in
his voice. “What did she say, Martin?”

“Well, nothing for almost a minute and I
died. Then she said, ‘Ice cream, Martin. You can bring over some
ice cream, if you want. Nicola likes chocolate chip mint. She can
stay up.’ Can you believe it? The three of us sat at the kitchen
table eating ice cream. I was worried about Nicola at first, as she
didn’t really look at me. She seemed detached, as though she’s
thinking, so what’s the big deal with the ice cream anyway?”

“You were getting the standard ‘you’re boring
me’ routine. She’s a teenage girl. Adults are either boring or
cool—no one is in between. You’re lucky she showed up.”

“I think she’s exceedingly sharp. She’s
taking Algebra and was stumped by one of those word problems, you
know, Train A leaves at a certain time going a certain speed and
Train B leaves at yahta, yahta, yahta...and when do they meet? I
explained and she caught on immediately. I told her I’d be happy to
help with her French, as well. That brought out a tiny smile. We’re
all going to drive over for an outing at Blue Cypress Lake this
weekend.”

“Then Nicola went to bed, and you and Judy
talked until late about everything under the sun, didn’t’ you?”

“As a matter of fact we did. How did you
know?”

“Marvelous, I couldn’t be happier for you.
What’s happening today? Are you doing the surveillance bit we
talked about?”

“You bet. I’m sitting here in my car. This is
a great spot you found in the municipal parking lot. I can look
straight down the alley. No one is going to question me here. I
can’t see the back door of the beauty spa, however I can see the
rear of Claudia’s car. The alley’s one-way this way, so she has to
come right toward me. What have you been up to?”

“Just handling some personal things. Why
don’t you stay there? I’ll come over in an hour or so, just need to
grab a shower.”

“A shower? I thought you were at the
office.”

Might as well tell him, he’d be happy for
her. “I’m at Chip’s. I’ll see you in a bit.” She hung up before he
was forced to come up with some awkward response.

She looked in his closet and was pleased to
find her brown jersey wrap dress. Whenever did she leave that
there? It was in reasonable good shape. Fine to start the day. She
should have been wearing it last night. It comes off in a hurry and
doesn’t wrinkle when you throw it against the wall.

Within the hour, she had parked her red
convertible next to Martin’s black Lexus in the municipal parking
lot. He got out and walked over to her just as her phone rang.

Jaworski started right in, “My, my, my,
aren’t you the busy one?”

She motioned for Martin to get in beside her.
“Eddy, I was going to phone you. You aren’t going to believe what I
learned yesterday.”

“Let me stop you right there. Lieutenant
Triney at the sheriff’s office called. He wanted to give you a
heads up. There’s a Deputy U.S. Marshal wandering around town with
a criminal subpoena looking for you. You must have pissed off some
very important person.”

“The feds believe I’m withholding
evidence.”

“Are you?”

“More or less.”

“Now for the good news. I’ve been on the
phone all morning with Agent Heppard. He’s a good man, don’t you
think? I don’t know where to start. He said you gave him the true
ID of the guy in our morgue. His name is actually Gerardo Diaz, but
then you know that. The FBI searched his apartment in Hialeah. They
found the murder weapon! You hear that?”

That’s what she had been waiting to hear.
“Fantastic, Eddy. Definitely linking that guy to the Larena murder
absolutely had to happen.”

He continued, “Yeah. They stormed the guy’s
apartment and found four handguns. One was a .45 caliber automatic,
the same type used to kill John Larena. I faxed down our ballistic
report. The details match up. You found the killer, Sandy. We’re
sending an officer down with the actual slugs and casings for a
final ballistics check. You still there?”

“I’m listening go on.”

“You don’t sound all that excited. You solved
my murder case, cleared your client of a murder charge, and gave
the FBI another lead on their Miami drug investigation.
Congratulations.”

“What can I say? I work in mysterious ways.”
She didn’t feel much like celebrating, but forced a smile at Martin
who had no clue what was going on.

“I don’t know what those two women were up to
identifying the corpse as Richie Grant, Margo’s boyfriend. Shapiro
wants an explanation from you on that.”

“I don’t blame him. It made it look as if her
boyfriend killed her husband. Richie isn’t the killer but he’s
still out there. I don’t understand why the women said the corpse
was Richie. Maybe so you’d stop looking for him.”

“I’d love to find Margo and ask her,” he
said. “What’s Claudia Mertens going to tell me?”

“Some bull about how she didn’t actually know
him. Met him only once or twice. Other than that, Shapiro must be
happy about all this.”

“Certainly is. But he wants to talk with
you.”

“I’ll give him a call.”

“I owe you thanks for locating the killer in
my case for me. At the very least, your client is a fugitive for
jumping bail.”

“I wish I could find her. I might never get
another dime out of her, but I’m still willing to help her. I’ll
spin it into mere failure to appear in court. If she ever shows up,
I’ll get it dismissed. You guys scared the hell out of her.”