To My Senses The Nicci Beauvoir Series Book 1 (45 page)

“
How did Sammy find
you?”

He turned to me. “Through
some business associates I had worked for in the past. They
recommended me.”

“
Was it lucrative?” I
asked, intrigued, as I took a seat in the chair next to
him.

“
Yes, very. But it was also
a lonely life. Relationships are hard to maintain when you
disappear for months at a time. Friends can ask too many questions,
and women eventually want a commitment that you cannot make. So,
you learn to keep your distance. You also learn to be a bit of a
wanderer. I had an apartment I visited two or three times a year in
New York. Otherwise, I was mostly on the road, living in
apartments, hotel rooms, or the houses of strangers.”

I touched the scar above
his right cheek. “Was it dangerous?”

“
At times.” He nodded.
“High power business secrets are worth a lot of money to the right
people. It had moments where it got pretty damn scary.”

I curled against him and he
pulled me into his arms. “I’m glad you’re finished with all of
that. Now you can stop running from the world and settle down in
it.”

“
I’d like that,” he
breathed. “To stay here, and be left in peace with you, is all I
desire.” His body suddenly tensed. “Nicci, I want you to promise me
something,” he whispered into my hair. “Promise me that no matter
what happens, you will never forget how much I love
you.”

“
I promise.” I nuzzled my
head against his chest. “What could happen, David?”

“
Nothing, Nicci,” he
asserted, as his lips grazed my forehead. “Absolutely
nothing.”

***

A week later, I was upstairs in the study
typing and David was in the patio painting, when my phone rang. It
was my father.

“
I need you to come in town
and go to your Uncle Ned’s office.” My father sounded very short on
the phone.

“
Is something wrong?” I was
a little alarmed.

“
No. I have finally taken
your advice and told Lance to give up his half of the company. He
is going to sign over all of his shares to you.”

“
Me? What am I supposed to
do with it?”

“
I’ll run everything, don’t
worry. I just need Lance’s financial drain out of my hair. I’m
getting ready to launch a new division of the company in plastics
recycling, but I can’t get the damn financing from the bank until
your uncle is off the books. I’ll explain the rest when you get to
town. Meet me at The Grill Room for lunch when you are finished at
Ned’s.”

I hung up in a slight state
of shock. I was going to inherit half of the company about twenty
years sooner than expected. It would be a great deal of
responsibility and, eventually, a great deal of work. I went
downstairs to tell David.

“
I have to go to New
Orleans tomorrow, early. It seems Uncle Lance has finally agreed to
give up his half of Beauvoir Scrap. He is signing it all over to
me.”

David gave a small cry of
celebration. “About bloody time,” he said, sounding more Irish than
ever. “I told your father to do that months ago. I knew he couldn’t
keep Beauvoir Scrap viable with Lance on the books. I’m glad he’s
finally forging ahead with that plastics company.”

I gaped at him, amazed.
“You knew?”

“
Of course. I told him he
needed to diversify out of the market, to protect himself from
another plot like Sammy’s.” He wiped the brush in his hand on a
rag. “Why don’t you invite your father up to see the place? He
hasn’t seen all the work we’ve done. I have some errands I can run
tomorrow while you’re out.”

“
What errands?” We had run
errands together for weeks. I couldn’t imagine what else he would
need.

He grinned. “You’ll see
tomorrow when you come home.”

“
See what?” I
persisted.

David chuckled. “If I told
you it would not be a surprise then, would it?”

“
I don’t like the sound of
that.”

“
Nicci, allow me the luxury
of trying to surprise you with something for once in our
relationship.” His eyes pleaded with me.

“
All right, but I don’t
like it.”

***

The next morning I awoke at
sunrise, leaving David asleep in bed. The traffic into the city
would be slow, and my appointment with Uncle Ned was early,
followed by lunch with my father. Gazing down at David, sleeping
peacefully, I hated to leave him. I wanted to never leave his side
again. I leaned across the bed and kissed his face, which was
smashed against the pillow.

“
I love you,” I
whispered.

The traffic took longer
than expected and I was twenty minutes late to Ned’s office. When I
arrived, Uncle Ned was waiting, along with a secretary and a
notary. The meeting went on for hours. An endless mound of transfer
of stock and tax papers had to be signed and notarized. That was
followed by a lengthy discussion about profit disbursement. By the
time I walked out of Ned’s office, I was beginning to wonder if
this was a wise idea.

My father was sitting
quietly at a table in The Grill Room, reading the menu, when I
arrived.

I took the menu from his
hands. “Hello, Dad.”

He smiled while I took the
seat across from him. “You’re glowing.”

I blushed. “Does it
show?”

“
All over. I haven’t seen
you this happy since…well, since you were with him before.” He
inspected me with his reading glasses. “You’ve changed. I’m not
quite sure what it is. Things must better with David this time
round.” He took off his reading glasses and put them away in his
suit jacket pocket.

“
Better, definitely. He
wants to make it legal.”

Dad cried out happily and
clapped his hands together. “I knew it! I am very happy for you,
Nicci. You won’t have ugly children with David.” I rolled my eyes
at him, but his exuberance would not be contained. “I’ll have to
call Val and Lance. They’ll be overjoyed.”

The waiter brought me a
menu. While I looked over my options, I said, “I thought I would
never get out of Ned’s office. What the hell are you and Uncle
Lance trying to do? Drive me insane?”

My father took a sip of
water. “Ned is very thorough. He wanted to make sure you understood
everything you were signing. Ned and Lance finished up everything
yesterday before your uncle left town. I was waiting for you to
sign all the papers before I went ahead with the plastics deal. I’m
sorry I couldn’t meet you over at Ned’s but I have been on the
phone all morning, getting contractors lined up for the new
plant.”

“
Where did Uncle Lance
go?”

“
Tahiti. Married wife
number five. A blonde named Linda.”

“
The one from Val’s
party?”

“
Now you see why I needed
you to sign the papers.” He patted my hand and his smile fell. “By
the way, Michael is already telling everyone that you left and it’s
all over. The news went around town like wildfire. Everyone was
quite shocked.” He snickered. “Except Sammy, of course. She called
to congratulate me for getting you to dump the moron. It seems
Eddie is back from Europe and has filed for a divorce from
Colleen.”

“
Oh, poor Colleen.” I
thought of all the times she had followed Eddie like a homeless
puppy, waiting to be noticed.

“
Not really. It seems
Colleen has taken up with Parker Roy. They moved in together last
week.”

“
Well, good for her. Val
once said everything works out in the end. How right she was.” I
smiled, thinking about that day at her house so long
ago.

We ate our lunch, laughing and catching up
with all the news about town. We had lost each other when David
left and now it was like things had never changed. We were close
again, closer than ever.

It was well after three
when I headed back to Hammond. I had called Ellen Kirby and told
her I would not be starting my new job at the psychiatric hospital.
I informed her I was relocating to Hammond and would pursue work
there. She must have heard about me and Michael, because she did
not sound too surprised.

The truth was, I didn’t
know if I would ever work in nursing. I didn’t feel the
overwhelming urge to prove myself to the world, as I had done
before. I just wanted to enjoy my time with David and see what
happened. I was in no hurry to go anywhere. I was happy where I
was.

When I made it home, it was
still light, but late in the afternoon. As I pulled into the
driveway, I didn’t see the red Jeep in the garage, so I figured
David was still out on his mysterious errand. I went inside and
decided to cook a victory dinner to celebrate our new
beginning.

***

About an hour later, there
was a knock at the door. I ran to get it, thinking it was part of
the surprise. A local police officer stood before me, flushed from
the late summer heat and holding his hat in his hand. He appeared
startled when I opened the door.

“
Sorry to disturb you,
ma’am. We are trying to locate any family of one David Alexander,”
he pronounced, reading the name from a small piece of paper in his
hand.

“
I am his fiancée,” I
managed, figuring the title would avoid any confusion.

The man’s face became
somber and he cleared his throat. “I am sorry, ma’am. There’s been,
ah, an accident. Mr. Alexander, your fiancé, was found by his Jeep
on Casper road.” He looked down at the ground. “Witnesses say he
was pulled over, helping someone change a tire.” The man paused and
cleared his throat again. “He was shot once in the back of the
head. He’s dead.” My vision blurred, as I heard him faintly say,
“I’m so sorry.”

Then, the world went
black.

Chapter 26

It’s been three months now
since I lost David. I don’t have any clear recollection of the
first few days after he was murdered. There were so many details to
be taken care of. The police closed the investigation, leaving the
crime unsolved. I never said anything to the police about David’s
past. There was no point. He was gone, taking all of his secrets
with him. Secrets someone did not want him to tell.

My father came to stay with
me for a few days. He tried to be stoic and reassuring, but when he
thought I wasn’t looking, he would cry. Uncle Lance came back from
his honeymoon, leaving his bride at the airport. He stayed for a
few days, as well.

I felt that David would not want an ornate
funeral, just something simple, to match his ways. The service was
only attended by a few people, my family mostly and some friends of
his from the art world. His Aunt Flo was also there. I had found
her phone number among his papers.

She was a frail, petite lady with the
determination of a bull. She shouted orders like a captain on a
ship, directing flower deliveries, and fending off phone calls with
the savvy of a polished politician. Flo and I would sit for many
hours at a time and talk about what we had known and loved about
David. He had her laugh and her eyes.

The day of the funeral, she
remained composed for most of the service, but when they lowered
him into the ground, she broke down and wept on my
shoulder.

A few days after the
funeral, there was a big article on David in the newspaper. It was
sensational reading. The artist with all the promise of a
successful career, gunned down in his prime. The phone calls from
agents and buyers started pouring in a few days after the national
press picked up the story. In death, David became the famous artist
he had hoped to be in life.

One of the many phone calls
came from a Mr. Barry Tujague, an attorney in Hammond. When I went
to his office, he turned out to be a very round man who ate
crawfish at his desk. Apparently, David had engaged his services
after he purchased the house. Mr. Tujague notified me that David
had drafted a will soon after he had arrived in Hammond. He must
have known one day, someone would find him. He left everything to
me: the house, all of his paintings, even the money in his Swiss
bank accounts.

I also got to keep the ring
he had purchased the morning he was killed, a two-carat,
pear-shaped diamond solitaire. It was to be my surprise when I
returned home. It had been among his personal belongings I
collected from the city morgue. I still wear it to this
day.

I eventually sold off most
of the Jenny’s, but I kept the two I treasured the most. The first
one he did of me still hangs over my father’s mantle. The last
painting he ever did is still hanging in the living room of our
home. In it, I’m sitting at the dining room table, typing away on
the old machine he had given me. The sunlight is shining through
the windows, illuminating me as I huddle over the keys. I think it
was the best painting he ever did. Sammy bought the one of me in
the wedding dress. I think she’s still hopeful that one day, Eddie
and I might make a match of it.

I also gave one of the
paintings to Cora. I brought it over to her a few weeks after the
funeral. She broke down and cried on her porch step when I
presented it to her. She had loved her boy so; at least, she had
something of his to remember him by.