Someone's Watching (27 page)

The door was unlocked; why didn’t Robbie just come in like she always did?

Jeremy crossed the room and opened the door.

Not Robbie. A sexy chick wearing a see-through shirt over a bikini. On second glance, he recognized the blonde girl from the pool. She was hugging herself, her face wet with tears, her nose red. Jeremy just stood there caught off guard. The girl came inside without asking, looking behind her as though afraid someone was following her. Jeremy closed the door after her. He hesitated for a second, then locked it.

The girl was barefoot.

Angel. That’s what Tyra called her. Damn, she looked young, despite the sexy body. Young and scared shitless.

“Hey,” he said softly. “What’s wrong?” His impulse was to give her a hug, but he didn’t dare touch her. She looked like she might scream or something if he did.

She began to cry harder. “You, you said I could come here. Remember? You, you said.”

Just like Elise. He couldn’t help himself. He slipped his arm around her and held her like he would his sister. She didn’t resist, just cried against his chest. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s okay.”

He led her to the sofa and she sat down. She wiped her face with the back of her hand. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

“Here is good,” he said. “Do you want water or something?”

She shook her head. Her face was puffy. Her red-rimmed eyes were a dark gray. So dark he couldn’t read them. She let out a shuddering sigh.

He sat down beside her on the sofa. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Tyra. Someone with a knife. I ran away.” She spoke in gasps. “Climbed around the balcony. I’m afraid. Afraid he’ll come after me.”

Tyra? Maybe a half hour ago, Tyra had been screaming at Jeremy at the pool. What was going on here? “Who’ll come after you?” Jeremy said. “Start at the beginning.”

“After you left the pool. Tyra was angry. We went upstairs. Someone followed us into the elevator.”

“Who?”

“He’d been at the pool—wearing a floppy hat and a stupid shirt.”

Jeremy remembered the man lying on one of the lounge chairs using his beach bag for a pillow. “Did you see his face?”

“Not really. He was wearing sunglasses.”

“So he got into the elevator. Then what?”

“We got out on our floor. So did he, but he kept walking. When
Tyra opened the door, he like jumped out of nowhere. He grabbed her and held a knife to her throat.”Angel hugged herself. “He, he cut her. He said he’d kill her.”

Jesus. “And you ran away?”

She nodded.

“Did you see anything else? Hear anything?”

Angel slid her feet under her. She was trembling hard.

Jeremy got up and took a pale blue blanket from the closet. He wrapped it around her.

“Thank you.” The tears started up again. “Thank you for being so nice.”

He waited for her to calm down. “Tyra might be hurt,” he said. “I should call the police.”

“No. No.” She pressed herself against the corner of the sofa. “Not the police. Please no.”

“Okay, no police. I won’t call the police.”

She blinked her dark eyes rapidly. Wrapped in the blanket, she looked like a swaddled injured bird.

“Talk to me.”

She shook her head.

“You said you’re afraid the man will come after you. Why? Why would he come after you?”

“The DVDs. He was yelling at Tyra. Asking where the videos were.”

“What videos?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he was in one of them.”

Tyra, Angel, videos? “Did you and Tyra make videos with men?”

“I guess.” She pulled the blanket up and gripped it beneath her chin. Only her face was visible. A small, frightened face.

“I know you don’t belong with Tyra,” he said. “Was she keeping you against your will?”

Angel stared down at the Oriental rug.

“Please. Talk to me. I’m not going to do anything that would hurt you.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Let me help you.”

She sank into the sofa. “I’m tired. I’m really tired.”

“Okay. Sleep a while.”

She rested her head on the arm of the sofa and closed her eyes.

Within seconds, her breathing became soft and even. Her brow relaxed. A child’s sleeping face.

What the hell was she doing in this mess?

Robbie’s world was coming undone. And it had all started with her father showing up at her door. Why hadn’t he stayed away? Her life had been perfectly fine until he appeared and announced she had a sister. A sister who had gone missing. And since then, terrible things had been happening. Kate’s friend’s unexplained death, Brett’s murder, and now Jeremy was under suspicion as his killer.

She wished—oh, how she wished—her father had never come back.

She locked her bicycle to a post near Jeremy’s building. It was early afternoon and very few people were about. A girl walking her dog, a UPS man, a young couple pushing a shopping cart with groceries. Robbie went inside to the large, open lobby area.

She shivered as she waited for the elevator. Why did they keep the air-conditioning so damn cold in here? A middle-aged man and woman in long terry-cloth robes were at the concierge’s desk. The concierge’s arms were folded across his chest. Robbie took the couple to be visitors, since most of the people who lived here were young. The woman’s voice was shrill. Her husband was trying to calm her down.

The elevator door opened.

“Just lying in the hallway,” the woman said to the concierge. “It’s a mess. A bloody mess.”

Someone had probably left garbage out in the hall, but the
woman was clearly overreacting. Robbie stepped into the elevator and pressed eight. The elevator took forever. What next, she wondered? Would the police pursue the lead of Kate’s sandal at Mike’s house? Would they change the focus of their investigation away from Jeremy and to someone connected with Mike? Was there even a link between Joanne’s and Kate’s and Brett’s deaths?

The elevator opened.

What should she and Jeremy do next? Waiting here for the cops definitely didn’t seem to be the smartest option.

She went down the hallway to Jeremy’s apartment. She tried the knob. It didn’t turn. That was odd.

If the door was locked, he probably wasn’t home. Where would he have gone? Should she wait for him here? She still had the key to the apartment. Jeremy knew that. When she’d tried to give it back to him after she moved out, he told her to hold on to it.
In case of an emergency
.

She unlocked the door and pushed it open. She was surprised to see Jeremy standing in front of the sliding glass door, staring at the sofa. His eye was still swollen, his hair mussed, his beard like smudged charcoal covering his cheeks and chin. He seemed to be thinking about something and didn’t notice her. His expression was wistful. She remembered a time when he used to look at her like that.

How she wished they could go back to the way it had been. Just yesterday, it had seemed like they almost had. She started toward him. “Hey.”

He looked startled, then brought his finger to his lips, signaling for her to be quiet.

She didn’t understand. Was someone else here? She stepped around the sofa.

A girl—a woman. Young, but not so young. Blonde, with the face of a child and a body that any female on South Beach would
envy. She appeared to be asleep, wrapped in a pale blue blanket—one that was all too familiar to Robbie. The top of the blanket had fallen away from the girl, revealing a bikini-clad body and a sheer cover-up that did anything but.

Robbie wanted to scream. How could you? How could you, Jeremy? That’s our blanket. Ours!

Jeremy seemed to read Robbie’s face. He took her hand and pulled her toward the sliding door. “Shhh,” he whispered. “Outside.”

She was too stunned to speak. He closed the door behind them and they stood on the balcony, the air thick.

“I don’t want to wake her,” he said. “She’s been through a lot.”

“A lot?” Robbie found her voice. “I’m sorry. She’s been through a lot? Who the hell is she?”

Jeremy looked surprised. “She lives in the building. She came by a little while ago, all scared and shook up. This woman she lives with—one of the club girls named Tyra—was attacked at knifepoint. Angel came here. She didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Angel?”

“That’s her name.”

“Why did she come here?”

“I once told her she could.”

“I see.”

“It’s not like that.”

“No, stop. It’s not important. We don’t have any claims on each other.”

“But we do. We have major claims on each other.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and pulled her toward him.

“Please, Jeremy. Not now.” She was overloaded with emotion.

“Okay. Not now, but later.” He kissed her forehead. “Right now, we need to figure out what the hell’s going on here.”

“You mean with this girl?”

“With this girl. With Tyra.”

“The one who was attacked?”

“Yeah. Tyra’s a regular at BURN. I always figured her for being a high-end hooker, or something. But then, I saw her at the pool a couple of times with Angel. And it bothered me. Angel definitely doesn’t belong in this scene. Then she comes by here a little while ago, banging on my door, and tells me someone attacked Tyra, saying he wanted the videos.”

“What videos?”

“I’m not sure. But the way I’m putting it together is that Tyra and Angel brought guys back to their apartment and made videos with them.”

“But why would the man threaten Tyra and ask for the videos?” Robbie thought for a moment. “Unless the videos were made without the men’s knowledge.”

“And then were used to blackmail them,” Jeremy said.

Robbie remembered something. “What does Tyra look like?”

“Tall, skinny, gigantic breasts. A lot of copper-colored hair.”

“Darkish skin?”

“Yeah. You know her?”

“Maybe,” Robbie said. “Last Friday at BURN, I saw the congressman who killed himself on Sunday. He was very drunk, or maybe even drugged. He was with two women. One looked like you describe Tyra.” Robbie glanced through the sliding door at the sleeping girl on the sofa. “The other one looked like her.”

Jeremy pressed his back against the balcony railing. Beyond, the bay was almost perfectly still. A couple of girls were sunning themselves near the pool.

“So let’s say Tyra and Angel brought him back to their apartment and made a video of their evening together,” Jeremy said. “Then, either Tyra or someone she’s working with could have blackmailed the congressman the next day. If the video became public, he’d have a huge amount to lose.”

“Maybe even enough to explain why he committed suicide.”

Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck. “But then, who’s the guy who attacked Tyra? Another blackmail victim?”

“Sounds like it.”

A shrill voice came from the pool area. Robbie looked over. The middle-aged couple in terry-cloth robes who had been arguing with the concierge were talking to a man in a sports jacket. Two cops were standing nearby.

“Tell me again what happened with Angel,” Robbie said. “You said she came here because someone was attacking Tyra at knifepoint?”

“That’s right. Followed them to their apartment.”

“Their apartment in this building?”

He nodded.

Robbie had a nagging feeling, like there was something she was supposed to know, but it just wasn’t connecting. “Does Angel know what happened to Tyra? If the man hurt her?”

Jeremy shook his head. “She ran away.”

The shrill voice rang out again. The woman was pointing to a lounge chair, then gestured toward the building.

Just lying in the hallway
, the woman had said.
It’s a bloody mess
.

The woman hadn’t been talking about someone’s garbage.

“Tyra’s dead,” Robbie said.

“What? How do you know?”

“The woman at the pool. She saw something. That’s why the cops are here.”

“Shit,” Jeremy said.

“What’s wrong?”

“She and that man were at the pool when Tyra started screaming at me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I went down earlier to ask Tyra about some people at BURN.
Whether they could be connected to Brett’s death. And she started screaming at me to get the fuck away from her.”

“And that man and woman saw you?”

Jeremy nodded.

Several more cops had arrived at the pool.

“Jesus, Jeremy.” Robbie grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the apartment. “The cops are going to think you did it. We need to get away from here.” She slammed the sliding door shut after them.

The girl shifted on the sofa and the blue blanket fell to the floor. Her shoulders were slender, and the arch of her back swooped down into a perfect rounded butt.

“Come on, Jeremy,” Robbie said. “Wake up your friend and let’s go.” She started to turn away from the girl, but something caught her eye.

At the base of her spine, just above the edge of her bikini was a bluish mark.

Robbie bent closer. It took her a second to process what she saw.

An arrowhead tattoo.

The girl opened her eyes. She looked startled at the sight of Robbie.

Not possible, Robbie thought. Not possible. Even though the arrowhead tattoo was the same as Kate’s Facebook picture, this girl had blonde hair, eyes the color of slate, full lips and high cheekbones. Nothing like Kate’s high school photo. But then Robbie remembered what Kate had written to Joanne.
You were always better than an angel
.

This girl’s name was Angel, which could explain—

“Who are you?” the girl asked, pulling up the blanket and covering herself.

“Robbie. Robbie Ivy.”

The girl’s mouth was open, eyes wide, as though Robbie were a ghost.

“Robbie’s a friend of mine,” Jeremy said.

Robbie stared back. Right age, right size. Even the girl’s heart-shaped face was the same as in Kate’s photo.

“Robbie,” Jeremy said. “We need to go.”

“And who are you?” Robbie asked the girl.

The girl hesitated. “My name’s Angel.”

“Your real name.”

“I, I don’t know what you mean.”