Forgotten Place (28 page)

My mouth tightened into a thin line. 
Repugnant as the suggestion was, it was a promise I could
make.  "Jerry, by the time that happens, I have no intention
of being a resident in Darkwater Bay."

When I left the locked unit, the urge to
break into a dead run for the exit almost overwhelmed me.  Mr.
Sykes' curiosity prevented a fast escape.

"Dr. Eriksson, I am truly stunned that Jerry
cooperated with you," he said.

I shook my head and lied through my
teeth.  "That wasn't cooperation.  It was a game. 
Score one for Jerry Lowe."

"Then he wasn't willing to help you with
your case?"

"Of course not.  Which I completely
anticipated."

"Dr. Eriksson, may I ask why you wasted your
time talking to him if you knew he wouldn't cooperate?"

I smiled at Sykes.  "Because sometimes
what a man doesn't say is more important than what he says."

Devlin cupped my elbow and led me out of the
hospital.  "You realize that Sykes didn't believe a word you
said back there.  Until the last thing, that is.  He
looked like he might swallow his tongue.  What do you make of
it, Helen?"

"Who knows?  Who cares?  Sykes is
nobody, Devlin."

"So Lowe didn't say anything useful?"

"He'd deny it all if asked, which is why I
kept your Blackberry.  I recorded the entire
conversation."

"It's inadmissible."

"Against Lowe, sure, but not against Riley
Storm.  Lowe knows exactly what happened to Harry
McNamara.  And I have no doubt how he got his supply of
succinylcholine now either."

"Dr. Storm?"

"Yes.  We need to get back home and see
what Crevan learned about our homicidal pathologist and bring
everyone else up to speed."

"How does any of this help us get to
Datello?"

"One domino falls and they all fall,
Devlin.  Believe me when I tell you that a man like Riley
Storm isn't going to prison for anyone, no matter how much
incentive Datello tries to provide.  Why else would Lowe kill
Southerby if not because Datello was afraid he'd confess murder for
hire?"

"There isn't enough yet that links directly
to Datello."

"Not by a long shot, but after we talk to
David tomorrow, I have a feeling all of that will change."

"Helen, are you sure you really want to go
ahead with that?  Maybe you should tell Orion."

"I'll make a deal with you.  If he
shows up before we leave tomorrow morning, I'll tell him.  But
I'm not going out of my way tracking him down when he made it
perfectly clear that he doesn't want to know what I'm doing
anymore.  He entrusted me to the care of others, so he can
live with it now."

"Forgive me for pointing out the obvious,
but it sounds like you resent the fact that he's off doing
something else right now."

"Doing
someone
else is more like it," I
muttered.  "Look, if Orion shows up, he shows up.  We
have a case to solve.  Do you want to be the one who gets the
information that links all of this into one neat little package or
not, Devlin?

"Sure I want that.  If that's your real
goal here, fine, but I don't want to get sucked into the middle of
something else that has nothing to do with police work."

"Fair enough.  I think our next step is
to have a conversation with Dr. Storm."

"Do you think he'll cooperate?"

"Oh, I'm sure that Lowe is getting
information from the outside.  He'll make sure Riley learns
that I am sympathetic to his side of this story."

"Do I want to know how you
convinced
Jerry Lowe
that you are sympathetic to a killer?"

"I intimated that Jerry and I have something
in common," I said.  "Hurry back to my house.  I'd like
to share what we know with everyone, Devlin."

"And I wish that
we
actually knew
everything," he said.

~

The second I walked through the front door,
I felt the tension suck air out of my lungs.  "Ah hell,"
Devlin muttered over my shoulder.  "I'd say the jig is up,
Helen."

Indeed it was.  We hadn't showed up to
search the Ireland home at the appointed hour, not to mention, the
sanctioned plan called for me to be ensconced in my office with
boxes of meaningless pages from David Ireland's past. 

Crevan was pacing.  Ned sat in a chair
with his hands draped loosely over his knees.  It was he who
spoke first.  "I sure hope you have a good explanation for
where you've been, Helen, because your disappearing act – in the
presence of my partner no less – is not going over well this
afternoon."

"For God sake, she didn't disappear
anywhere, Ned," Devlin said.  "We did exactly what we said we
were going to do, but got a hot lead from the ME and followed up on
it.  The second we finished, we came straight back here to
fill you guys in on what we learned."

Oxygen rushed through the house.

"Really?" Crevan ceased wearing the finish
off my hardwood and bounced on the balls of his feet.  "What
was it?  When we called Maya to see if you showed up there,
she never said a word."

Devlin chuckled.  "In a not so rare
moment of female solidarity, Helen persuaded her to let us share
the news.  It's pretty big.  Would you like to sit down
and listen to it now, or is there more scolding in store for
us?"

A third voice joined from the vicinity of
the mud room.  "I'd be very interested to learn why Helen
wasn't home going over David's office paperwork the way she agreed
to do."

My heart sank just a little bit.  Dev
must've felt it because he shot me a sympathetic glance.  I
gave my word after all.  If Johnny bothered showing his face
before Friday morning, I'd come clean with everything – including
my requested presence in Washington D.C.  Never mind that he
would go nuclear when he learned that I spent the morning chatting
face to face with Jerry Lowe.

I was deliberately slow explaining what Maya
and I pieced together over Harry McNamara's corpse that
morning.  I even paused to go to the kitchen to rummage for
something to drink, hoping that a little demonstration of appetite
might cushion the blow.  My shadow, newly returned,
followed.

"What are you doing, Doc?"

"Looking for that tea you made the other
night."

"You won't find it in a box.  Keep
talking.  I'll brew."

The theory of how McNamara
died brought all activity to a stop.  "And of course the
logical conclusion, considering who allegedly found him
unconscious, and
his
history of using drugs that incapacitated his victims led me
to believe that maybe –"

Johnny slammed a cup on the counter hard
enough to crack it.  "You went to see Jerry Lowe?"

Crevan, Ned and Devlin inched backward
involuntarily.  I stood my ground. 

"It's not like I went in there alone. 
Devlin was with me the entire time.  I wasn't out of his sight
for two seconds.  Lowe was restrained in a chair.  Did
you think he'd chew through leather to get at me?"

"I think if there's one man on earth
inclined to try, it would be him.  Jesus, Doc!  Have you
lost your goddamned mind?"

"He's involved, Johnny.  I explained
what the mortuary told Devlin.  Storm set the whole thing up
to incriminate poor Billy if anybody ever got suspicious.  And
Lowe, with very little prompting from me, perpetuated that lie as a
defense of his succinylcholine-supplying pal.  What does that
tell you?"

"So that's why you wanted me digging into
Riley's background," Crevan said.  "Johnny, I think they're
onto something huge.  You guys aren't gonna believe what I
found."

Chapter 25

Johnny gritted his teeth.  "Can it wait
fifteen minutes, Crevan?"

"I suppose.  It's gone undiscovered for
all these years, I can't see how a few –"

"I'd rather hear it now," I crossed my arms
over my chest and planted my feet firmly.

Johnny gripped my right arm in a vice of
flesh and bone and steered me out of the room.  "And I
would've much rather that you called me before you went off to meet
with a man who'd do or say anything to best you.  Life is full
of disappointment, Helen.  We need to talk in private before
one more word is said.  Got it?"

He maneuvered me into the bedroom and shut
the door.

"You can let go any time, Orion."

"Back to that are we?  Do you ever keep
your word when you give it, Helen?  You promised me that you'd
cooperate."

"And I have!  I'm eating.  I'm
taking the non-narcotic pain medication.  I'm on the stupid
Prozac.  I'm sleeping.  I'm not running off investigating
anything without proper backup!  What more do you want from
me?"

Johnny's fingers dug into the flesh of my
upper arms and kneaded.  "I would've preferred to know in
advance that you wanted to talk to Lowe.  Why shouldn't be a
question."

"Maybe if you'd been
around
to
know,
you would've!"

His eyes widened a little bit, and Johnny
sucked in a deep breath.  "I was in Montgomery filling Joe in
on what's happening with the case, Helen.  Is that the sort of
errand you wanted to be included in?"

"No."

"I could've told you what I was doing, but
frankly, I didn't think you'd react to it particularly well, this
being Downey Division's case and all.  It matters to Joe that
this is done carefully and correctly.  We want more than an
arrest.  We want charges and evidence that can only have one
result – a guilty verdict."

"And Devlin and I just made a huge step in
that direction," I said.  "So why berate me for doing what you
and the governor want done?"

"Because I know you," he murmured. 
"I've watched you leap without bothering to look for the past six
months.  Jerry Lowe is a dangerous man, Doc.  Leather
restraints or not, he could still hurt you.  Do you have any
idea what he's capable of doing?"

"Of course I do.  He's getting
information from the outside, Johnny.  There's not a thing
going on in this city that he doesn't know about.  Which is
exactly why I played him the way that I did.  He needs to
believe that I'm as corruptible as the next guy in Darkwater
Bay."

"And he bought that?"

I shrugged and twisted out of Orion's
grip.  "Not at first.  Seems he heard about my – what did
you call it – public display of affection at Weber's press
conference yesterday."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him that women do what they have to
do to keep the enemy off balance."

"Was that the truth?  Is that the only
reason you've been cooperating with me?"

"Johnny –"

"Answer the question, Doc.  Are you
manipulating me, giving me what you think I want so I don't realize
what you're really up to?"

"I said what I had to say to Lowe, not
you.  Since you don't trust me, I realize there's nothing I
can do to convince you it's the truth."  Or was there? 
"I also let Jerry believe that my relationship with Maya mirrors
the one I suspect he shared with Storm."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"That she is open to a little prescribing on
the side."

"And that's what led you to believe that he
got this succinylcholine from Storm?"

I nodded.  "He even went so far as to
offer Riley's services to me should Maya ever cut off my
supply.  I taped the entire conversation on Dev's phone,
Johnny.  I know we can't use it against Lowe –"

"But we could against Storm." Johnny sighed
heavily and dragged his hand over his face.

"Something else happened this morning,
Johnny.  I promised myself that I'd tell you if you showed up
before tomorrow morning."

He eyed me warily.  "And if I had been
delayed in Montgomery?"

"I would've taken Devlin with me."

"Taken him where, Helen?"

"I talked to David."

"Levine?"

I nodded.  "Remember the plan to speak
to him this morning?  I called.  He was acting strangely,
having a conversation on his end that clearly wasn't with me. 
He called me Mr. Carlyle for heaven's sake."

"And from this you got what exactly?"

"He said he'd like to discuss the portfolio
options in person.  Tomorrow night in Washington."

"So you and Devlin were planning to jet off
tomorrow without saying a word to anyone."  Johnny started
pacing.  He raked one hand through his hair.  "It could
be a trap, Helen."

"David wouldn't do that to me.  The FBI
doesn't have to operate that way.  They know where I am. 
If they wanted a conversation, all they have to do is come pick me
up and force the issue.  True, I could refuse to talk without
an attorney, but that kind of subterfuge isn't really
necessary."

"Unless they're using David's relationship
with you to catch you without an attorney, with your guard
down."

"And he wouldn't be part of that.  He
wants to tell me something, Johnny, and he couldn't say what it was
over the phone or in front of whoever he was with this
afternoon."

"Did you have a chance to ask him about
Southerby?"

"No, which is another reason that I have to
go see him tomorrow night."

He stared at the floor.  "With
Devlin."

I opened my mouth, clamped it shut again and
looked away from him.

"Helen, is that how you want this to play
out?  Devlin goes with you to Washington?"

"What do you want?"

Johnny sighed and started
pacing again.  "What I want.  I'd like to turn back time
a couple of months and simply accept that earning your trust
doesn't happen over night.  I'd like to have been in the loop
on
that
case and
made sure you didn't get hurt.  I wish I could go back six
months to the night I met you, so I could've started out with a
clean slate instead of a lie.  What I want is impossible, so
that leaves me in the unenviable position of trying to make sure
this plays out the way you think it should."