Wicked Obsessions (7 page)

"No!"
her mother screamed, just as the wicked belt whipped through the air. But Selena understood the order was for her and she obeyed. She knew it was her mother's only way of protecting her. In spite of the fear and hatred making her small body shake, she stayed quietly in her place long after her father left the room and her mother lay still on her bed.

Someday, she promised Juliette, he'll be sorry. I won't always be so little. This time her mother had protected her, but Selena vowed there would come a time when she would take care of her mother.

How will you do it?
Juliette asked in the musical voice that only Selena could hear.

"I don't know," Selena whispered back. "He's so very big."

"
I'll help you. And when you do all the things I say, you will become the Protector.
"

Selena liked the sound of that so much, she gave Juliette a happy hug. When she thought it was finally safe to come out of hiding, she became aware of a problem that made her tears start all over.

She had wet herself again.

Chapter 4

Tuesday morning, Teri came awake with a start, as if she had forgotten to set her alarm for an important appointment. She yawned and rubbed her eyes before focusing on the clock on the nightstand. To her amazement, it was after ten. She had no appointments, nothing pressing to take care of, no reason to feel guilty over sleeping in for a change.

As she had done the last five mornings, she glanced at Rico's side of the bed and reminded herself that he was gone. She had given him the money he needed on Friday, he had signed the settlement agreement and, exactly as she had ordered, he hadn't returned or bothered her since. She was happy about that. She just hadn't expected him to stay away.

In fact, she was truly surprised about that. Chilly fingers of suspicion scraped her spine. What if he took the money and ran off? No, it wasn't enough for him to do that. But what if he took the money and gambled it away instead of paying off his debt? Under threat of sure death he may have gone into hiding. No, she was positive he was far too frightened to mess with them. Could it be that he was actually just living up to his promise to stay away? Dear God, could she be that lucky?

She took a leisurely shower and headed to the kitchen. She saw the flashing light on the phone but figured whoever it was—especially if it was Rico—it could wait until she had her coffee. For the past several nights, she had shut off the ringer just in case he might have tried to catch her in a moment of weakness, or half asleep, but this was the first morning someone had called before she got up.

When she finally turned the ringer back on and started listening to the messages, she was glad it had been off. There were two calls from Gary, a co-worker of Rico's, who wanted him to call as soon as he got in, as well as a call from Mr. Kelly, Rico's supervisor. The level of his profanity indicated just how angry he was with Rico for some reason. Teri scribbled down the numbers each had given. There was also a call for Rico from someone named Horse who had some interesting advice to share, which she immediately deleted, and Drew and Selena each said they'd see her later today.

The calls from Gary and Mr. Kelly were very odd but before she could return either call, the phone rang. The caller ID displayed one of the numbers she'd just written down.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mrs. Gambini?"

She recognized the angry voice from the message. "Yes. May I help you?"

"This is Kelly. His boss. Where the hell
is
that bastard?"

Teri forced herself not to respond as crudely. "Rico's not here and I don't know where he is right now."

"Did he ever get home last night?"

"He... he doesn't live here anymore."

"Look, Mrs. Gambini, I'm sorry if I'm upsetting you, but Rico's in deep shit if he doesn't get in here
pronto."

Teri took a deep breath. "And
I'm
sorry, Mr. Kelly, but I haven't seen or heard from Rico since Friday. You will undoubtedly talk with him before I will, so you can stop leaving obscene messages on my voice mail."

"Oh. I see." His tone indicated that he understood more than she did.

She had thought it was strange when Rico hadn't tried to worm his way back home but she couldn't imagine anything that would keep him from showing up at work on time. Her mind jumped back to her earlier thoughts about what might have happened to him if he hadn't used the money to pay off his debt. Technically however, the thug had said he had until five o'clock today.

Forcing those worrisome thoughts out of her head, she realized Mr. Kelly was the first person she'd told about Rico being gone from her life. Before returning to her studio, she called Selena to tell her she didn't need to come up today. She really wanted a little more alone-time before having to explain anything to her.

"Are you
sure
you don't need me for anything? Just to keep you company? It's no trouble," Selena managed to insist with barely a suggestion of a whine.

"No, really—I'm making some progress on the new painting and that's something I need to do without... company. In fact, I'm not sure I'm going to want to stop tomorrow for the shoot we discussed. I'll give you a call tomorrow morning and let you know."

"But, um, how's everything going with Rico?"

Teri paused. Selena asked that question in every conversation they'd had for the last several days, to the point where Teri had begun to regret having confided so much to her. She found it more comfortable to give the same noncommittal answer each time. "Fine. Everything's fine. I do have to get to work now, hon. I'll call you tomorrow." Teri knew if she could see Selena now, she'd be pouting, but she didn't have the patience to soothe her young friend today. She'd make it up to her later.

She depressed the hang-up button and was about to call Drew when she realized he hadn't left a number. She checked caller ID but where his should have been, it only said
Unknown
. She thought of calling his cousin Ann at her office, then decided against it. There was really no valid reason he couldn't use the darkroom today while she was painting, as he had done two other times this week already.

After putting out some cat food and refilling the bird feeders, she went back inside her studio and tried to use her painting to block out all thoughts of Rico. He was a full-grown man and she was no longer his caretaker.

And she ordered herself not to give a single thought to what might happen at five o'clock today if he hadn't paid his debt.

Teri had almost convinced herself to stop worrying about what he had done when she heard the sound of a car's engine in the driveway. She looked out the window expecting to see Drew, yet hoping it was Rico. Instead, there was a blue-uniformed officer getting out of a white and blue police car. Her stomach churned with the certainty that something had happened to Rico. She had been fighting it all morning, but that hadn't kept the truth away.

Then again, what if Rico hadn't paid his debt and this was another messenger from that "certain Irishman"? Her perverse memory called up stories of criminals pretending to be cops. Might a killer also steal a police car to flesh out his disguise? For one cowardly moment she considered staying within her locked studio, but her common sense told her that would only postpone the inevitable. With trembling fingers she unlocked the door and stepped out onto the landing as the officer approached the front door of the house.

"Officer?" she called down, and waited for him to locate the source of the summons. When he returned to the driveway and looked up at her through his dark aviator glasses, she noticed how his right hand rested on the top of his holster. Again, she had to force herself to speak. "May I help you?"

"I'm looking for Mrs. Rico Gambini."

Swallowing her cowardice, she descended the stairs to join him in the driveway. At least that way she was out in the open, on level ground, in case he turned out to be a fraud. "I'm Mrs. Gambini. Has there... been an accident?" She held her breath, waiting for his answer.

"Not that I'm aware of," he replied in a way that made Teri think he had dropped the word "yet".

"Is your husband at home?"

"No." She made a mental note of the number on his silver badge, then decided to answer his next question before he asked. "I haven't seen or heard from him since Friday afternoon."

"Is that normal?"

She shook her head. "No. We..." She took a deep breath and decided the truth was the only explanation that would work. "I made him leave and told him to never come back. We're getting divorced. His boss called this morning. Said he hadn't shown up. He was really angry. Did he call you? Did Rico do something wrong at work?"

He hesitated a moment, as if trying to decide if she was worthy of any information. Using a minimum of movement, he slowly extracted a notepad from his back pants pocket and a pen from his shirt. The sight of him preparing to write down anything she might say unsettled Teri a bit more before he finally explained.

He glanced at his pad. "His boss is Mr. Kelly?"

"Yes."

"Apparently, Rico never checked in properly at the end of his shift Saturday. Just left his truck in the lot with the keys and some mail still in it. He said Rico broke a rule now and then but this was more than an infraction. Kelly also advised that your husband's car was in the employee lot and no one could say for sure if it had been there continuously since Saturday or not."

"What?" The knot in Teri's stomach tightened. "That doesn't make any sense, unless he... went off with someone else." She exhaled heavily.
That
was probably why Kelly had sounded like he knew something she didn't. "What should I do?"

"Tell me, Mrs. Gambini, were the problems between you and your husband sufficient to cause him to take off?"

She frowned, thinking again of the seven-thousand-dollars in cash she had handed Rico a few days ago and came to the same conclusion she had before. It wasn't enough to run away on. "I don't think so."

"Any other problems that might have caused him to disappear on his own?"

On his own?
As opposed to, with someone else's help? Teri considered telling the officer about the gambling and the animal that had threatened her, but the consequences of pointing a finger at someone so dangerous without any proof were too great. She still held on to the possibility that Rico might show up later today with a screaming hangover and empty pockets. She elected the coward's answer. "I'm really not sure."

The way the officer's mouth curved downward suggested he didn't believe her. "Well, that's about it, then. Thank you for your help." He put away his pad and pen and walked back to his car.

"Just a moment," Teri called as he opened the car door. "What are you going to do now?"

"Basically, the post office just asked us to keep a lookout for him. There's no official complaint against him. So unless someone files a missing person's report, there's nothing else for us to do."

"But what if... what if Rico doesn't show up today?"

"Anytime after twenty-four hours, you can file a missing person's report. Then the process begins with tracking down when and where he was last seen."

Teri was about to ask another question when Drew's car pulled into the driveway next to the police car. She watched the officer's car back away and tried to give Drew a pleasant greeting. It fell short, which he noticed immediately.

"Good mornin'," Drew said, eyeing the retreating vehicle. "Trouble?"

She would have lied without hesitation except for the fact that he had been part of the audience that had witnessed her previous humiliation. But that didn't mean she had to tell him any details. "I don't know yet."

A big gray tomcat that had been crouching beneath the stairs throughout her discussion with the police officer now sauntered out to inspect the new arrival. When the animal rubbed itself against Drew's snakeskin boot and meowed, he leaned over to pet the creature's furry head. The little kindness earned a mental nod of approval from Teri. Her gaze moved to the photographer's case slung over his shoulder and the shopping bag in his hand, and she changed the subject. "Do you have a lot to do today?"

His grin gave her spirits a little lift. "Yes, thank heavens. Having Ann on my side is getting my new career off the ground in a hurry." Holding up the bag, he added, "I picked up a few props for some still-life pics for a public relations firm. They do a lot of print ads so it could mean a lot of work for me. I sure wouldn't object to any advice you might be willin' to part with." This time his smile was accompanied by a wink.