Daddy's Little Killer (16 page)

"Then you heard the news."

"That the biggest buffoon in police
administration is trying to lure you into signing a contract? 
Yes.  You forgot to erase the messages on your voice mail
before you left Georgetown."

I pulled out my badge and waved it in front
of him.  "You're about ten hours too late, David.  It's a
done deal.  And it's pretty sanctimonious of you to deem this
city a career ender after what the FBI has done to my professional
reputation in the past three days."

"Don't do this –"

"You need to leave, David.  Don't come
back.  Don't call me.  If you want to talk to me again,
you can do so through my attorney."

"Helen."

I stepped away.

"Stop running from me.  Don't expect me
to believe it's an accident that of all cities in the country for
you to make a fresh start, you'd pick the one where Sully's nephew
happens to live."  David grabbed my arm and prevented
retreat.  His voice was low, intimate, too quiet for anyone
within earshot to hear. 

I supposed later that it looked like a
lover's quarrel.  The twosome quickly transformed into a
triangle – at least as far as any witnesses were concerned.

Orion plucked me out of David's grasp and
bared his teeth.  "Are you alright, Doc?"  One arm
shielded me from David.

"Yes, I'm fine.  Mr. Orion, this is
Supervisory Special Agent David Levine."  The introduction
didn't quell Orion's protective instincts.  The man was like
an apparition.  I hadn't even noticed him lurking around.

"I don't care if he's the freakin' director
of the FBI.  Nobody grabs you like that."

"Who the hell is this guy, Helen?"

"A concerned bystander."  I looked up
at Orion.  "Please let me handle this.  I don't need you
protecting me."

"It didn't look that way to me."

"Johnny, please.  Let me handle
this.  David was about to leave anyway, weren't you,
David?"

"No, I wasn't leaving.  I'm not going
until you come to your senses and come home."

"This
is
her home," Orion growled. 
"Helen, who is this guy really?"

Jealousy arced like lightning between his
eyes. 

"He was my former supervisor.  I'm not
leaving here, all right?  We'll meet later like we planned and
I'll explain everything.  Right now, I need to get back to my
dinner guest.  If you'll both excuse me."  I stared hard
at David.  "Good bye, David.  I wish you only the
best."

I hooked my arm through Orion's and gave a
not-so-subtle tug.  Smoldering eye contact held between David
and Orion, but he acquiesced and fell into step beside
me. 

"What the hell were you thinking?"  My
lips barely moved around the smile pasted on for the benefit of the
spectators in the lobby.  "Are you trying to make things worse
for me?"

"Doc, I see two guys accost you, one of them
grabs you, and in light of what happened Monday, not to mention in
your hotel room this morning, what am I supposed to think?"

"That I know what I'm doing and can take
care of myself."

"Like you did with the detectives Monday
evening?"

"That's hardly fair.  I was unarmed at
the time, and the last thing I needed was to draw more attention to
myself by throwing down with them in a public lobby."

Orion's laugh lacked
amusement, fell hard on the side of incredulity. 
"
Throw down
?  With those two goons?  Doc, they collectively
outweigh you by five hundred pounds."

"Oh would I love to give you a demonstration
on why bulk doesn't matter right about now, but I've kept Maya
waiting long enough.  Could you please be patient for another
hour before you completely destroy any chance I've got to figure
out what's really happening in this city?"

"I'll wait.  Your friends from
Washington are still watching you."

I resisted the urge to turn around.  I
didn't need to anyway.  Orion was right.  I could feel
their eyes boring into our backs.  "Do me a favor, if it's not
too presumptuous to ask."

"Name it."  He shot a boyish grin down
at me.

"I need to talk to Tony Briscoe
tonight.  I can't trust this place to be secure enough." 
I pulled the electronic device from my pocket and gauged Orion's
reaction to it.  "Also, you need to let your guard know that
Forsythe is sending someone over to the room to sweep for more of
these tonight."

"Where the hell did you find that?" 
Anger.  Determination.  Swift assessment of our
surroundings.  Either Orion was as practiced a liar as I am,
or he truly was surprised that someone was interested enough in
what I was doing to bug my hotel room.

"The room.  After you left, I had
Haverston process the scene."

"Good thinking.  We'll find a quiet
place where we can speak without any ears listening."

"Alone, Orion."

"What?"

"I want to speak to Briscoe alone."

"Why?"

"I need background information from someone
who isn't too close to the investigation.  You, my newest
shadow, are in this up to your eyeballs whether you can see it or
not."

"You learned something new?  About
Gwen?"

"We'll talk after I finish up with
Maya."

"Screw that.  Ditch her now and talk to
me."

"You have serious issues with patience,
Orion.  No wonder you nabbed the wrong guy in the Bennett
case."  I let him ponder that, extricated myself from his arm
and returned to dinner with Maya.

"I take it your conversation with Officer
Haverston was serious."  The plate of antipasto was seriously
picked over.  Maya left me a few olives and some cheese. 
She grinned.  "Sorry.  I was hungrier than I
realized."

"It's all right.  I'm going to have to
cut dinner short anyway.  Things are heating up in the
investigation."  Still, which investigation was left to her
assumption.  I had a niggling suspicion that everything might
be linked.  God only knew who else's conversations were being
monitored.  It might've explained how I ended up on someone's
radar in Darkwater Bay before George Hardy even called me.

"Are you all right?  You seem rather
grim, Helen."

"Our federal tax dollars at work," I
muttered.

"What?"

"Oh, two of my former colleagues from the
FBI showed up while I was talking to Haverston.  Apparently,
they felt it was appropriate to come see me for an update on their
investigation into Rick's murder rather than pick up a
telephone."

The more I thought about David's message,
the more conspiracies popped into my brain.  If he lied, if it
was their intent to lure me back to the FBI where a conversation
without legal representation could be finagled, it would explain a
lot.  Nobody would be so careless not to freeze the Marcos
assets Rick had managed.  Not even the morons in Darkwater
Bay's Central Division would make a mistake like that.

I frowned and considered the surveillance
device in my pocket again.  Had the FBI truly tracked me down
today, or had they been following me all along?  Wendell never
conceived of the advanced tactics on the horizon for law
enforcement when he subtly trained me all those years ago.

"I'm still hungry.  Do you have time to
have a proper meal before you have to leave?"

I picked at the remnants of the
appetizer.  Hunger was muted by raging distrust of everyone's
motives.  Everyone but Maya.  "I think I've lost my
appetite, Maya.  I'm so sorry."

"Hey, you gotta take care of yourself in all
of this too, kiddo.  You already look like a gust of our
evening fog could lay you out flat."

I noticed the ground cover when my flight
was landing in Darkwater Bay.  Before the plane's descent, the
heavy mist obscured specific light, but magnified what lay beneath
at the same time, giving an eerie glow to the coastal
city. 

"Does the sun ever break through the clouds
out here?"  I forced a smile and picked up my menu.  "If
not, I could probably make a fortune if I hung a shingle and
started working as a psychotherapist.  The depression rate in
this city must be off the charts."

"It rains about three hundred sixty days a
year, or so I've been told.  I can remember one brief bout of
sunshine in January, shortly after I arrived.  The natives
attributed it to global warming.  You should've seen all the
squinting motorists.  I don't think you can buy a decent pair
of sunglasses in this city."

No wonder I stuck out like a sore thumb at
Central Division when I walked into the building.  It must've
been akin to an alien invasion with my bug-eyed shades. 

I picked at the food on my plate,
rearranging more than consumed.  Maya noticed. 

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Hmm?"

"This thing with the FBI showing up.  I
know you said that his death didn't really have an emotional
impact, Helen, but he was your husband for a long time."

"He lied to me for a very long time
too."

"Are you ready to move on?"

"I don't know.  What does that mean,
really?  Move on.  Wipe the slate clean.  Start
over.  Why do human beings feel the need to seek out something
similar when the first shot was a massive failure?"

"Because people are as varied as
snowflakes.  What was wrong with Rick might be very right with
someone else.  Not all men are deceitful creatures."

Thoughts drifted back to Orion for some odd
reason, probably the lies he told me in D.C.  Then there was
David's feigned concern.  The only man who never disappointed
me, who was always there with wisdom and love had been torn away
from me without so much as a glance at the circumstances and
justification for his actions.

Wendell Eriksson was judged an evil
man.  To me, he was the yardstick by which all others would be
measured for the rest of my life.  Suddenly, my heart ached so
deeply for my father that I wasn't sure I could bear the separation
for another moment.  Someday.  It was a promise, a mantra
I chanted to myself often since the beginning of our
separation.  Someday, I would find a way to bring my father
back into my life.

"Johnny Orion is back," Maya said
softly.  "I doubt a blind man could miss his interest."

"Hmm?"

"Orion," she repeated with a slight twist of
her neck.  "He can't take his eyes off you, Helen."

"I'm meeting him after dinner.  More
questions about Gwen Foster.  Don't get any ideas."

"You're being paranoid, kiddo. 
Johnny's one of the good guys."

"I thought you said he was a jerk."

"He's a brute.  That's what I called
him, and it wasn't in reference to his personality.  Johnny
Orion is a very respected person in this city.  I think if he
had a friendship with Gwen Foster, it was based on mutual
respect."

"Not his womanizer tendencies? 
Forsythe says Orion is famous for the one night stand."

"I wouldn't know anything about that. 
I know who he is, but we've never met, Helen.  If his
reputation is so well known that Ken would comment, I can't argue
with it."

"His reputation ... "

"Yes.  You know, that thing you
remarked on, what he's known for?"

"Maya, that's it.  You're
brilliant!  Sorry to run out on dinner like this, but I've got
to make a stop at central before I meet with someone later this
evening.  I'll call you soon."

Chapter 15

Orion's long legs didn't help him match my
stride when I rushed out of the Montcliff Wednesday
night. 

"Where are we going?"

"We are not going anywhere, Orion.  I'm
going.  Alone."

"I thought you wanted to talk to me."

I spun on my heel, nearly causing a
collision.  "Why didn't you tell me that Gwen Foster has a
child out there somewhere?"

"
What
?  Gwen didn't have any
kids.  Sure, she's been raising Vinnie since Frank died ten
years ago, but he's her cousin, Doc.  Why would you think
–"

"I thought she was an old friend,
Orion.  Was that another lie?"

"Of course it wasn't, but if Gwen had a
baby, don't you think I would've known about it?  A lot of
people would've known."

"What about her employer, a man that could
very well be keeping Vinnie Bennett from the police right
now?  Wasn't that a detail worth mentioning to me last
night?  It's not like I didn't bring Datello's name into the
conversation."

"Datello is a dangerous man.  I
wouldn't advise that you treat him like a suspect in this case
unless you've got hard evidence, Doc.  Or is it your goal to
amass as many enemies as you possibly can before one of them
finally gets to you?"

"Were you really at a convention in
Washington when we met?"

"Yes and no."

"Remarkably clear.  And you wonder why
I can't seem to bring myself to trust you even a little bit," I
fumed.  A moment later, my car was in sight in the parking
garage.

"Goddammit, Doc!"

"Let go of me."

"Or what, you'll show me
how mass is irrelevant when you're in the mood to
throw down
?"

I lunged close to his body, which
effectively weakened his grip on my arm.  One heel dug into
the back of his calf with a swift jab, while I grabbed his wrist
and jerked him out of balance.  Orion hit the concrete with a
thud and audible loss of breath.  My gun aimed between his
eyes before he had time to react.

"Now you know what I'm talking about,
Orion.  I can defend myself.  When I tell you not to
touch me, I mean it."

"Jesus," he groaned.  Orion rubbed the
back of his head.

I reached down and offered a hand, which he
ignored while slowly dragging himself to his feet.