Lexington Connection (19 page)

“Very good, Jessie. I appreciate that.” Diana turned Jessie around enough to unlock the cuffs and remove them. Jessie’s arms fell forward and she swayed, almost going down before Diana caught her. “Sit down.” Diana positioned her firmly on the toilet. The bathroom was so small there was nowhere for her to fall without hitting something. Toilet, sink, shower.

“Now let’s get all this crud off you and see what’s underneath.” The thought did occur to Diana that Jessie might be shamming but she didn’t think so. She turned on the shower, adjusted it to as fine a spray as she could get, adjusted the temperature. Jessie unbuttoned her torn shirt but winced as she tried to slide it off her shoulders. “Ribs?” Jessie nodded. “Let me.” What she discovered when she slid the shirt off Jessie’s shoulders was not a pretty sight, bruises and cuts all over.

As she stripped off the rest of Jessie’s clothing and tossed it in the corner, Diana realized Jessie would never manage the shower by herself. “Well, babe, it’s been a long time since we showered together. Any problem with me in there with you?”

“Julie?”

“Not a chance. I’ll send in Margaret.”

Jessie shook her head. “You’ll do.”

Diana quickly undressed, tossing her clothing where it wouldn’t get wet. She pulled Jessie to her feet, and then, maneuvering Jessie within her arms, they stepped together into the shower. “Lean over me. I’ll take care of everything else.”

Jessie braced her arms on the shower walls, the water running over her as Diana maneuvered in front of her. The shower was so small they couldn’t move without brushing against each other.

“Too warm?”

“A little,” Jessie said with a nod, and Diana reached around her to adjust the temperature. When Jessie nodded, Diana pulled down the washcloth, the soap and began to lather her.

“Is she your lover?” Jessie finally asked. She stood with her arms on the wall over Diana’s shoulders. She closed her eyes and bit her lip as Diana touched her. Diana tried hard to be gentle on the bruised flesh.

“Who? Margaret? No, hard to be lovers with someone who’s changed your diapers. Not impossible I understand but wasn’t anything I was able to do. Margaret went from my nursemaid to my nanny to my tutor to my bodyguard. Never a lover.”

Jessie held her breath as Diana moved down her torso. Diana lathered and soaped and very gently washed away dirt and dried blood from so many small cuts and scrapes. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Jessie asked finally when she started breathing again.

“About my family? Well, at first it was immaterial. One-night stands don’t need that kind of information. Then, it just didn’t matter.”

“It mattered,” Jessie said. “But now I understand why you freaked out when you discovered I was a cop.”

“Freak? Did I freak?” Diana gave an exaggerated response. She wanted to distract Jessie from what must certainly be painful. “And here I thought I passed it off rather well, calm, cool, collected. Just honest surprise.”

“No.” Jessie was able to smile a little. “You freaked.”

“Damn.” Diana frowned at the memory of her shock. “Another failure.”

“Enough that I went back to work and ran a check,” Jessie confessed.

Diana shook her head in amusement. “Knew it. Always figured whatever you did, you’d be good at it. A cop? You’d check out those suspicions. Didn’t find anything, did you?”

“No, of course I didn’t know if you were using your real name. When I added up all I really knew about you, I realized it wasn’t much.”

“Yep, we definitely did the here and now bit,” Diana quipped. “The name is real, at least it’s the one on my birth certificate.” She pulled down another cloth and lathered it well. “Here. I don’t suppose you want me to do your privates, and I said I wouldn’t presume on our past relationship. You manage or want some help?”

“I’ll manage.”

“Thought so.” Diana knelt down, taking care of Jessie’s legs, ignoring what was happening at her shoulder level. Finished there, she moved around to stand behind Jessie, adjusting the spray to go over Jessie’s back. “Ready to turn around?”

Jessie carefully turned with Diana’s hands supporting her. Diana angled the shower to flow over Jessie, rinsed her well.

“I appreciate,” Jessie stumbled over the words a bit. “I appreciate you taking care of Julie, her panic.”

“No problem. Don’t need Waldo in front of me and a hysterical woman behind me.”

“You read her real good, but then you always were good at reading people.”

“Helps. Here, bend down, stick your head under, let’s get your hair washed.” She helped Jessie move around. “Gotta say though, she surprised me. Thought a cop’s wife would be of tougher stuff.”

Jessie shook her head. “Always a problem with violence. Was an issue for years.” Then she stopped as if she’d said too much.

“Jessie,” Diana said carefully as she gently lathered Jessie’s short, dark, thick hair. “You’re a good cop.”

“Some good cop. Let myself get ambushed, lost my gun, badge.”

“They’re secure and it’s not like you just walked into something. Someone laid a trap for you.”

“Got my partner shot up.”

“Still Peterson?” Jessie nodded. “I can check on him for you. I do have some contacts.” Diana carefully rinsed Jessie’s hair. “You know, Jessie. You are a good cop, so I’m going to have to treat you like one.”

“Lock down,” Jessie supplied.

“’Fraid so.”

“If I gave my word?”

“Positions reversed would you believe me?” After a longer hesitation than Diana expected, Jessie shook her head.

“What are you going to do with us?”

“Well, I’m not going to kill you,” Diana said with a laugh. Then she sobered as Jessie turned away. “You didn’t think I might, did you?”

“I don’t know. Have you killed before?”

“Only to protect someone I cared about,” Diana protested. “Don’t hold that against me.”

Jessie shook her head. “I don’t understand you.” She leaned over, her head against Diana’s shoulder. “I loved you, but I don’t understand you.”

Diana blinked, caught off guard. In all the times they had slept together, Jessie had never said that. If she had. If she had, how differently things might have turned out. Diana snapped back to the present. She gently rinsed Jessie off. “Need to get you out and dried before you’re chilled.”

When they came out of the bathroom, both Margaret and Julie looked at them strangely, Jessie dressed in loose pants and buttoned shirt, Diana still wet from the shower. Jessie was cuffed again, this time with her hands in front of her.

“Your papa called,” Margaret reported. “I told him you were in the shower, and would call back.”

Diana nodded. She settled Jessie back on the bed. “You stay put,” she ordered gently. “Lie down if you want but don’t get off the bed.”

She checked on Julie, glanced at Margaret. Then she paced around the room, psyching herself up to call her papa. She loved him, had a special place for him, but he had a deserved reputation for volatility.

She finally went over to sit at the table, at an angle so she could see Julie and Jessie. She could feel the curiosity, the wariness, the apprehension from the three women.

“Hello, Papa.” Diana moved to the settee in the corner, glancing at Jessie and Julie on the bed, Margaret pacing the room. “Yes, Margaret said you called.” This was going to be a hard conversation she knew, and it was a gamble. “Oh, Waldo. Yes, he was not happy.

“Now, Papa, you know when I got into this, I told you I wasn’t happy about everything you did. You let me pick and choose. I told you then I didn’t want to have anything to do with cops, didn’t want them on my turf, didn’t want to deal with them, certainly didn’t want to be involved doing anything to them. And you agreed. Waldo broke those rules.” She paused, listening, laughed.

“Oh, Papa. He said
what
?…Now I’ve never said anything about your lovers. What makes you say anything about mine?…Oh he did? And you’re going to believe that lowlife? Papa, I’ve never understood why you let that slime bag in, but I certainly wouldn’t let him lay a hand on anyone I loved.” She listened, wondered if she would be able to pull this off. Margaret’s pacing indicated how nervous she was. Jessie was listening intently.

“Papa, bottom line. I said no cops, didn’t want any part of it. Waldo brought one in. Now I’m still willing to transport him, but I’m not transporting any cop. I don’t care what he says. I’ll walk first and he can do his time in his little cage…No, I haven’t decided what I’m going to do but if I go to jail, it’s going to be for something I do, not something I’m accessory to. Now if you won’t back me on that, then I can close up shop and put my feet up…I thought you might see it that way, Papa.”
Okay, first hurdle taken care of.

“Yes, Papa, there’s another woman here. Yes, I took her too…No, Papa, she’s not a cop…No, nothing to do with police work as far as I know…no, Papa, I’ve never spoken to her before…No, Papa, I have no claim on her.”

From the corner of her eye, she watched Margaret groan and turn away. She heard Jessie groan and Julie looked from one to the other, start to wail as she understood what Diana meant. Margaret was immediately there to silence her.

Diana forced herself to chuckle. “Yes, Papa, I know it’s a pain. I hate that he called you. He’s such a helpless prick. I never did like him. I’m only transporting him as a favor to you. After all, you’re my papa…yes, Papa, I know. You value loyalty and you pay all your favors back. I understand, Papa. Good values. You’ve drilled that into me since I was six. Today they call it networking.” She laughed. “I know, what goes around, comes around. Each generation discovers old values all over again. I know, Papa.”

She glanced around the room. Julie had her head buried on Jessie’s shoulder, Margaret was standing in front of Jessie and Jessie was glaring at her with murderous rage. “No, no, your calling is fine. If you hadn’t called, I was going to have to call you anyway…yeah, this thing with the cop. Really came out of left field, wasn’t prepared for this, screws up my plans. I’m going to have to take care of her…No, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll figure it out. Don’t worry it. I’ll do you proud…yeah, Papa, something is bothering me. I’m not going to make it back to say goodbye…No, Papa, I really won’t, and I’m sorry.”

This was going to be the hard part, she realized, maybe harder than she thought.

“Papa. I know…I know about Wednesday afternoons. And I know about Julie.” She didn’t dare turn to look at anyone. She listened to his protests. “No, Papa, I didn’t follow you, and I haven’t mentioned it to anyone. I was out on one of my excursions, and I went by the hospital. I saw you there without Jimmy so I waited. You looked so bad when you came out that I was curious.” She hesitated on some of the words. “No, I didn’t say anything, not even to Margaret. I know when it started, and I know when you stopped.”

There was a long pause and she listened to an open line. “And Papa,” she said with a sigh, “I know the truth about Julie.” She paused for a minute, trying to find the proper words. “She was sweet, Papa, wasn’t she? Kind to the distinguished elderly gentleman who came in every week without any family there to support him. She made something so difficult a little easier, didn’t she?”

She hated putting him through this. But she was hurt that he had not told her, not trusted her. For that, she didn’t mind using him, but at the same time, she would have been there for him.

“Yes, Papa, I know she was very nice to you. So, don’t you think you owe her something, payback the favor, payback the kindness…of course, Papa, I can do that for you. You know I would do anything for you. Yes, Papa, I know this is important, but I know something that you don’t know.

“You see, Papa, the police detective I have here, who I said I’d take care of, has a female lover. And that is the woman Waldo picked up and planned to torture to punish the cop. Yes, I know you’ve heard the rumors…yes, I know you didn’t like it but you would still permit it…what you don’t know is that her lover is Dr. Julie Carlton, Julie who was so kind to you at the clinic.”

She closed her eyes, barely hearing what her papa said, just listening to the sound of his voice that she would not hear many times more. She was a realist, knew he was not a good man, and in many eyes, deserved the painful death he was dealing with. She wouldn’t bother to argue with them. He was still her papa, and she loved him.

“Yes, Papa. I’ll take care of that. Yes, Papa, of course, Papa. You can trust me.” She closed her eyes, trying to keep her memories of the loving papa she knew. “Goodbye, Papa. I love you, too.”

She broke the connection and snapped the flip phone shut. No one said anything and she sat there for a minute, trying to regroup, to pull herself back together. Finally she let out a long breath and got up from the chair, turning. Margaret looked prepared to say something and Diana gave her a warning look.

“Not one word about this call,” she ordered. “Not to me, not to anyone else. You never heard it. Understand?” Margaret nodded and at her glance, Jessie nodded also.

Diana stretched, looked up at the ceiling. “Oh, but there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth,” she quoted. She brought her head down and looked at Margaret. “Ten minutes? Twenty minutes?” She was back in control. This thing about papa, she would deal with later.

“Fifteen.”

Diana nodded. “Did you get a vehicle?”

“Ordered a limo instead of a van. Thought we might as well be comfortable.”

“Good idea.” Diana pulled the chair from the table and dragged it over to place in front of Jessie.

“I think I owe you some information,” she said as she sat on the chair, leaning on the back of it, facing Jessie. Jessie still looked angry, bewildered, relieved. She glanced at Julie. The woman looked so badly frightened and Diana just couldn’t say anything, not even to reassure her. She reached over and patted her knee. She just couldn’t say anything.

She flipped her phone open and punched numbers, turned her attention back to Jessie. She watched Jessie as she spoke into the phone. “Hi sweets, how’s it going?…Good to hear…Need some information. You had a cop come in, about three days ago, maybe…yeah, that’s the one…What can you tell me?…Oh, I know information’s shut down. That’s why I’m calling you. Ahhh, good news, bad news…can’t tell you how often I’ve heard that in the past couple of days…Okay, give it to me. …Good news: he’s doing well.” She looked directly at Jessie and Jessie breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. “Okay, let’s have the flip side. …Ah, just a flesh wound, no sweat. But he had a heart attack, right there in the ER. If he hadn’t gotten shot, he wouldn’t have been in the ER, wouldn’t have been saved. Guess it was a lucky shot for him. That’s good, no, sweets. All is well…What’s that? Oh, Dr. Carlton? Yeah, I just found out about that. I’m sure she’s safe. No, you stay there. May take a while, you just stay there, low profile. Let me take care of everything. Thanks, sweets.”