Deadly Violet - 04 (11 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

What was I doing sitting in the snow? The last thing I remembered, I’d been closing in on the Little Girl. Hoping, at the very least, to get more information out of her. Something must have gone wrong, but I couldn’t figure what. And so I stared around.

Willets was peering down at me. And so was Martha. But then I turned my head to the other side, and tensed up with surprise. Then stood up, smiling.

“Lauren?”

I could scarcely believe it. But she was there, and smiling back at me as well.

“Hi, Ross!” she chimed.

How come she had returned? I hadn’t seen her since the summer. Our visitor from Boston beamed at my amazement, gave me a brief hug and kissed me quickly on the cheek. A bolt of energy
– a connection – passed between us, but I did my best to ignore that.

“I don’t believe this,” I said. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Getting you out of trouble. And not for the first time, I might add. Lehman called me.”

I was silent for a short while, struggling to get my head around what had been going on.

“Looks like you’ve got more trouble than you can cope with,” Lauren added.

“Uh,” I shrugged, trying to look casual. “It always looks that way. We always manage.”

But that made me sound a good deal more confident than I felt. My head was still noticeably blurry, as if I’d been fed some knockout drops. And I hadn’t been expecting anything like that. We’d gone into this believing we were the only people who could help. But apparently, not even me and Cassie were immune to this whole Amethyst business.

“You’ve been okay otherwise?” Lauren asked. “You’ve been managing without me?”

“Give or take a siege or two.”

She didn’t know what I meant by that, and a line appeared across the bridge of her nose. But then something else occurred to her, and her face took on an urgent look.

“How’s Saul doing?”

It had obviously been bothering her since she had left, which told you what kind of person she was.

“He’s fine,” I told her.

And saw her expression brighten.

“He came out of the coma several months back,” I explained. “Had problems with his memory at first. But he’s fully back to strength.”

And Lauren’s smile was huge and genuine when she heard that.

“That’s terrific. Big relief.”

But then she stopped and tightened up. Because Cassie had gotten to her feet as well, and was staring at her wordlessly.

Lauren shot a glance across and greeted her with, “Hey.”

Then looked away again.

Cassie’s face was very stony, and the color had drained from her cheeks.

“Lauren?”

The lieutenant’s gaze swung back in her direction, but with both her eyebrows raised.

“Lost the suedehead hairdo, I see,” she remarked.

And she was about to look away again, when Cassie broke across.

“You might not believe this, but I’m glad that you came back. I never got a chance, last time, to apologize for … what happened.”

We’d become so close down the past couple of years that I could feel her awkwardness and pain as though they were my own. ‘What happened,’ indeed.

The last time Lauren had been here, Cass – under the influence of the Shadow Man – had tied her up and left her in the forest at night for the animals to find. And a couple of them had done, shortly before I’d gotten to her. There’d been bloody scratches on her face, and Lauren had been terrified. It wasn’t really Cassie’s fault – she literally hadn’t been herself. But it had been an awful incident, one I didn’t care to think about too much.

But Lauren remembered it only too well. How could anything different be possible? Her eyes widened slightly, and her face went stiffer.

“It wasn’t your fault – I get that. So forget about it,” she replied.

She said the words mechanically, without a hint of passion.

No one could blame her for feeling that way. She was only human, after all. But Cassie’s eyes went slightly damper.

And that was something that practically never happened. I gawped at her, astonished. You can usually find her picture in the dictionary, next to the term ‘hard-nosed.’ Apologetic simply ain’t her style. And by the way the rest of us were looking at her, everybody understood that.

But I thought that I could see it. Cassie can be difficult sometimes. She’s more rough edges than a lump of coal, and can be stubborn and pig-headed and sarcastic. But she’s basically a decent person who has helped a lot of folks. What had happened in the forest … it might not have been her fault, but it had still taken place. The guilt at what she’d done was weighing down on her appallingly, and she was struggling to find the right words to express it.

I watched her lips keep trying to move, wishing I could help her. But she was going to have to do this on her own.

“Ross told me how brave you were when Hanlon’s demons started coming through,” she said. “And you saved his life on Union Square – I know that. If there was any way that I could turn the clock back … any way to make things right ...”

Lauren glanced across at me, wondering how genuine this was. And when I pursed my lips and tipped my head, she appeared to relent. Her features slackened and her frame lost its rigidity. And, after a bit of thought, she shook her head and let out a soft sigh. And then she reached across and laid a hand on Cassie’s shoulder.

“Why not put it all behind us and make a fresh start, okay? You don’t hogtie me any more, and I won’t point my gun at you.”

Which she’d done when they had first met. Hell, it hadn’t been the best of starts.

“Is that a deal?” she finished up.

“You mean it?” Cassie asked.

Well …” Lauren looked uncertain for the briefest moment, but then nodded. “Well of course I mean it.”

Cassie beamed, and reached across and hugged her, so hard that Lauren almost started gurgling.

“Let her go,” I muttered, although I was smiling. “She thinks you’re trying to kill her again.”

“Oh, sorry.” Cass released her. “Thanks for your help, by the way. Again.”

Lauren just stared at the ground.

“Don’t mention it.”

“So what now?” Cass inquired carefully. “You’re headed back to Boston?”

“Anxious to get rid of me?”

“That’s not what I meant,” my friend came back, sounding slightly hurt.

The homicide lieutenant nodded, and then gazed out at the far horizon.

“I don’t think I’m driving any more tonight. The roads are frozen over. And besides, by the sounds of it, I might be needed here.”

She was planning to see this through, precisely like the last time that she’d been here. And that made Cass look happier than ever. It gave her a proper chance to make amends.

“You can stay at my place, if you like.”

Lauren looked across at me again, and I tipped my head a second time. And it looked like that was going to seal the deal. They were no longer enemies.

At which point, Willets cleared his throat.

“Now that we’ve decided we all like each other,” he asked, “can we get in out of this damned cold?”

Privately, I felt relieved by the arrangement Cass had made. It meant that Lauren didn’t have to bunk down at my house again. And it wasn’t that I had any problems with her. Actually, it was the opposite … I liked her far too much. We’d gotten on really well the last time that we’d been together, and had found out that we had an awful lot in common. Added to which, she looks remarkably like Alicia, my missing wife.

Who I’m hoping is still out there somewhere. Who I’m still hoping to find some day. And that being the case, emotional involvement with another woman – it isn’t impossible, I’d never say that. But it’s far too complex for a fellow like myself. I prefer to keep my eye on one particular ball.

If Alicia was out there somewhere, then my two missing kids might be there with her. And I never let myself forget that.

But that was half hope and half speculation. And it was important, at this time, to keep my focus on the present.

The bunch of us wound up at Martha’s house. Despite the fact she comes from money, it’s a homey, comfortable place. By this hour, every cop on duty in Raine’s Landing had been alerted to the situation and been told to call in anything suspicious. So I kept my cell phone on, in case Saul felt the need to get in touch.

We gathered around Martha’s dining table. She disappeared into her well-stocked kitchen, and came back ten minutes later with a casserole she’d heated up. It was beef bourgignon, which I’d never had. It looked great and smelled terrific. And Willets started tucking into great big mouthfuls of the stuff. But the rest of us, myself included, didn’t have an appetite and largely prodded at it with our forks.

Martha served red wine as well. And I kept taking little sips, trying to figure out why some people made such an almighty fuss about it. I’m a beer guy, not the least bit used to other stuff. So maybe that explains what happened twenty minutes later.

Between bites, Willets was filling Lauren in on the specifics of what was happening. And she was listening intently, taking everything in. But she was punctuating most of what he said with grunts or sighs or comments. And she’d done a lot of that the last time that she’d been here.

“This goddamn town,” I heard her mutter.

Then, a few minutes later, “I don’t know how you stand it.”

And in spite of the fact I liked her, I was starting to get angry. She was talking about the place where I’d been born. I’d grown up here, and spent my whole life in among its people. I’d become a cop when I’d turned twenty with the specific intent of protecting them. And the last couple of years, since I had left the force, I had done nothing but.

“Monsters and more monsters,” I heard Lauren groan.

And I’d finally had enough.

“You seem to forget something.” I said loudly, leaning across the table at her. “We might be trapped here by the curse, but we still get the news from the outside world. And the last time I looked –”

And I jabbed my finger at the darkness out beyond our borders.

“- there were whole
nations
out there being ruled by monsters. They sit in grand palaces, and call themselves presidents and generals, but they’re real live monsters all the same. That doesn’t bother you?”

Lauren looked surprised and opened her mouth to respond, but then her eyes went glassy.

“There are death camps out there,” I went on. “Massacres and genocides and ethnic cleansing. Wars being fought for no good reason, and people starving in a world full of food. And you think
this
place is scary?”

“And it gets worse,” I continued, before she was able to respond. “By my understanding, there are people out there
– ordinary folks – who think it’s a terrific idea to go at each other like wild animals over which country you come from, what language you speak, what color your skin is, which altar you worship in front of. How does that make any sense? People here don’t give a damn that Lehman’s a few shades darker than the rest of us. We judge him by who he is and what he does.”

Willets looked embarrassed, but that didn’t stop me.

“And
no one
in this town has ever hurt the Levins, much less tried to wipe them out.” My voice was rising as if it had a will of its own. “What kind of diseased rat has to crawl inside your brain for that to start looking like a good idea?”

I should have slowed down. Part of me knew it. But a storm had been unleashed inside of me. I simply couldn’t.

“And I’ll tell you something else,” I almost bellowed. “Sure, things get bad round here from time to time. And when that happens, we have to turn around and fight. But at least we know exactly what we’re fighting for. And how many people from your ‘normal’ world can say
that
?”

The whole table had fallen silent. Not a rattle. Not a peep. Everyone was staring at me wide-eyed, even Cass. I wasn’t really known for letting rip with noisy, angry sermons.

Lauren looked like she was trying to think of an appropriate response, aware this was the first time she had genuinely upset me. But the only thing that she could manage, in the end, was to pinch her lips together and then whistle gently.

“That was quite a speech,” she murmured.

And how long had I been preparing it? Most likely, my entire life.

“I always knew that he was that way,” Lauren said, when Cass finally let them into her house.

Cass had returned on her bike and Lauren in her Ford, so this was the first chance they’d had to talk privately.

“Capable and measured,” the lieutenant smiled, “but with a fire burning underneath.”

“He’s a good guy through and through,” Cassie agreed, flipping on a light bulb. “Why else do you think I’ve stuck with him?”