You are Mine (10 page)

“I’m confused,” Caroline confessed,
frowning. “How will her sister help us?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out. I
don’t know if she’s still living in the same place, but if not, we
can track her down and find out what she knows about her baby
sister.”

Caroline’s frown became more pronounced. “Do
you really think she knows anything? It doesn’t seem plausible that
Brickman would allow Ida to share anything with anyone about their
lives together.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Brian agreed, “but
Ida and her sister are -- or at least they were --very close, and
when we dated, Ida told her everything. Ida could never keep a
secret, and I’m banking on her still having that flaw. I’ll look
her up when we get home, and if I do find her, I’m going to put in
a call to Cap to see if he can help.”

“What exactly will you ask Captain Thompson
to do if you do locate this sister of Ida’s?” Caroline asked.

“I’d like to question her to see what she
knows, and I thought it would be best if we made it official, so
I’m going to ask Cap to either come with me, or arrange for another
officer to do so.”

“But don’t you think the police might have
thought of talking to her already?”

“Oh, I’m sure they have, but that’s why I’d
go along. Rose always liked me and she might tell me something that
she wouldn’t have told the police. Besides, I’m not so sure the
police would still be asking her questions. They might have when
this first began, but it’s been seven months since Brickman and Ida
disappeared the second time, and it’s not unreasonable to think
that the police may not have checked in with Rose since then.”

“Right. Okay. Should we leave right now?”
Caroline asked just when a deep roar could be heard in the
distance, seemingly resonating throughout the entire thirty-five
acre animal park. Suddenly, children came running from every part
of the zoo, all seemingly headed to the same destination. They
rushed around adults who were either being dragged along or left
stupefied by the sudden onslaught.

“What on earth?” Jae exclaimed over the
noisy stampede.

Chuckling, Caroline tried unsuccessfully to
stay clear of the mad dash. “One of the big cats has come outside
and is clearly wide awake. Let’s go!” she said and grabbed Brian’s
hand to follow the crowd.

***

THE night was heavy with clouds and the
threat of rain as Brian and Captain Dan Thompson made their way to
Rose Patterson’s A-framed house on the west side of the city.
Secure in Dan’s car, the two men discussed their upcoming meeting.
“Now, I’ve read the brief file we’ve got on Ms. Patterson, but tell
me what you know,” the Captain said, “tell me your impressions of
her.”

Brian looked over at his friend, a man
approaching retirement age, with a face that looked as if he’d
earned every one of his sixty years the hard way. His dark, lined,
craggy face housed brown eyes that could go flat and hard as steel
in a blink, but under normal circumstances were affable and
patient. He briefly and questioningly turned those eyes on Brian
now before gazing back at the road.

Brian couldn’t relax, and had been on edge
ever since he’d gotten the call informing him that the meet with
Rose was confirmed for that night. He looked out the window just as
a bolt of lightning shined stunningly against the backdrop of the
black sky. “What can I tell you about Rose?” he began pensively as
the tension continued to strum along his spine. “Let’s see…she’s
definitely the nicer, the more practical and saner of the two.
She’s as beautiful as her sister, but doesn’t have the same flash
and fury that made Ida the whirlwind that she was, and probably
still is. Rose is two years older, divorced and childless. The last
time I had any contact with her, she was considering trying to
become a foster parent.”

The captain navigated a turn before asking,
“And if she knew anything about her sister’s whereabouts do you
think she’d tell us?”

Brian had closed his eyes to block out the
approaching storm and with his head back on his seat, thought about
his answer for a moment. “She might, yes,” he finally decided.
“Rose is big on seeing the difference between right and wrong and
then acting accordingly, but she also loves Ida and when I knew
her, they were extremely close. She was protective of Ida, and at
the same time, was always trying to get her to do the right thing.
So my answer is if she knows something, she certainly won’t call up
the police and volunteer the information, but if asked, she’s more
likely than not to tell you what she knows.”

Brian grew quiet again, contemplating the
meeting with Rose. His anxiety level was way too high and he knew
it was because of the possibility of Rose having information they
could actually use to take the fight to Brickman. Deep in thought
again, Brian heard Cap speaking, but did not distinguish words. All
he heard was sound.

“Sorry, Cap. What were you saying?”

Captain Thompson pulled the car over to the
curb and clapped a large, friendly hand on Brian’s back. “Pay
attention, boy. I said you were right about us dropping the ball
regarding Ms. Patterson. We paid her a couple of visits and haven’t
been back since.”

Brian was looking at the house, but
shrugged. “I’m not surprised. We all have our priorities and new
cases crop up that are more immediate and urgent.” He opened the
door and stepped out of the car to the sidewalk. He looked at the
house again. Something was off about it, he knew, and felt his
stomach drop like lead. It was dark and there was no sign of
movement that he could see. He hoped that it was because of the
late hour, but his churning gut told him otherwise.

Before Cap could get completely out of the
car, Brian had covered the brief distance of the sidewalk to the
house, and was up on the porch before the other man had even made
his way around the car and to the sidewalk. Brian heard him
hurrying to catch up with him. “This is all off, Cap,” he yelled
over his shoulder as he rang the bell. “Way off.”

Beside him now, Cap agreed. “Yes. I feel it
too.”

“What did Rose sound like when you spoke to
her to arrange our meeting?” Brian asked. “Was she nervous at all?”
He’d wanted to call her himself, but had been advised not to. He
put his finger on the bell and left it there, and could hear the
sound of it reverberating inside the house.

“No, not nervous,” Cap said as he opened the
screen door. “She sounded more resigned than anything.” He pulled
out his baton and began hitting it against the door. “Police,” he
yelled, “Open up!”

Brian was bending in front of the window,
trying to see through a break in the curtains. He scowled and
hurriedly moved to the other side of the porch to try his luck with
the second window. The break between the two panels here was a
little wider and he tried to adjust his eyes to the darkness
inside. Frustrated because he saw nothing but shapes and shadows,
he called, “Yo, Cap! Let’s see your Maglite.”

Captain Thompson had stopped knocking by
now, and he released the screen door to walk over to Brian.
“Maglite’s charging,” he said, his hands going to a pouch on his
duty belt. He pulled out a black flashlight with a slim neck and
somewhat large head. “This will have to do,” he said and gave Brian
a friendly shove. “Step aside, son.”

Brian only moved enough to look over the
other man’s shoulder. The light from the LED bulb was especially
bright and they could see well into the room. Brian saw that
nothing much about the living room had changed since he’d last been
there as an invited guest. Cap was moving the light in concentric
circles around the room, and Brian’s gaze followed wherever the
light landed. And he could tell by the way the light wavered that
Cap and he saw them at the same time: a pair of slim ankles ending
in black flats and sticking out from behind a high-backed sofa.

BRIAN stood with Jack at the curb in front
of Rose’s house. He’d called his friend to update him after Cap and
he had broken down the door and found Rose’s body. She’d had a
single bullet hole in the middle of her head, which indicated a
professional hit. Cap had called for back-up before they’d gone in
and now the entire block was blazing with red and blue lights from
emergency response and police vehicles. Arms folded and leaning
against Jack’s car, Brian and Jack watched the action in and around
the house.

“So the police are thinking that she either
talked to her sister on the phone about your meeting or that the
place is bugged, correct?” Jack asked.

“Right. They’ve got technicians in there now
checking for devices.”

“What are your thoughts?”

Feeling angry and sad, Brian found that he
was barely able to shrug his shoulders, or drum up much interest
for speculation. “I don’t have any.”

“How did Caroline take it?”

“I called her a few minutes before you got
here, and she’s upset about the murder, of course.”

Jack turned and looked at him. “I know this
turned out to be a huge disappointment, but on the way over here I
thought of another way we might be able to get in the game.”

Brian felt not a flicker of interest, but
lifted a brow and then turned to open the passenger door on Jack’s
car. “Tell me on the way to my house. I need my wife.”

BRIAN took a last look around the bathroom
to make sure he hadn’t left any wet towels lying around, turned off
the light and walked into his bedroom. Caroline was sleeping
soundly and he was quiet as he approached the bed. Guilt and
sadness overwhelmed him and getting in behind Caroline, he pulled
her back into his arms so that he was spooning her body. Mumbling
in her sleep, she automatically adjusted her body to his and was
soon sleeping soundly again. He took in her scent, stroked her soft
skin and used her as balm for his troubled soul.

His eyes wide open in the pitch darkness of
the room; he allowed the image of Rose’s dead body and sightless
eyes to flash into his head, and in his pain, gripped Caroline
closer to him for comfort and buried his face in her hair.

Her subconscious recognizing that something
was terribly wrong, Caroline awoke in increments. Her mind cleared
more quickly than usual as she swam towards consciousness and she
frowned worriedly as she got her bearings. “Brian?” she
whispered.

He didn’t answer, only squeezed her tighter
and began to shake. Alarmed, Caroline turned in his arms to face
him. When he dropped his head to her chest, she rubbed it
soothingly. “What’s the matter, baby?”

“She wouldn’t be dead if I hadn’t come up
with the brilliant idea to talk to her. Oh, fuck!” he moaned, his
voice filled with guilt and rage.

Caroline slid her hand under his chin and
lifted his face to hers. “Hush, darling,” she whispered between
gentle kisses to his cheeks. “It’s not your fault.”

“Aw, damn, Caroline,” he said agonizingly.
“I might just as well have shot her myself.”

She continued to speak in low, soothing
tones, though there now was a firmness that hadn’t been there
before. “That isn’t true, and you know it. Brickman and the man who
actually shot Rose Patterson are the ones responsible for her
murder, not you. You were only doing what you could to protect your
family. It was a reasonable move that anyone would make.
You
weren’t the one to pull the trigger, so stop this. It’s Brickman we
have to blame, so you take this latest monstrous act and add it to
his tally. It will make it that much more satisfying when we
finally catch the bastard.”

She pulled his head down to rest on her
shoulder and began stroking his hair, her heart clinching in pain
and sympathy at his continued silence. “This has nothing to do with
what happened tonight, but I want you to know that you are the most
extraordinary man I know, and what makes you so incredibly amazing
is this bottomless well of love you have for those you care about,
including me. Sometimes I look in your eyes and I’m simply awed at
the love I see there just for me. It…” she paused because just
thinking about what she had in him overwhelmed her with emotion and
made her voice break as she continued, “It humbles me completely
and makes me weak in the knees. I wake up every morning happy that
you’re in my life; thrilled that you chose me and we chose each
other, and knowing that I must have done something really right to
be lucky enough to be able to say that you’re mine.”

He tightened his arms around her waist even
more, and she rested her cheek on his head, continued to stroke. “I
know, darling; I’m right here. I’ve got you.”

Chapter Seven

Brickman tossed a set of keys on the
catch-all table near the front door and continued down a short
hallway that lead to the living area of the small Ranch-style house
he’d been forced to hunker down in on the northwest side of
Chicago. Avoiding capture meant staying under the radar and that
precluded living lavishly, as was his usual custom. He sighed
forlornly. So, no, he couldn’t scoop up a penthouse apartment on
Lake Shore Drive for the short time he planned to be in the city.
It also meant that he couldn’t allow some do-gooder to throw a
wrench in his plans by doing what she saw as her moral duty by
telling the police what she knew.

He sat on the sofa and tried to relax with
the glass of wine one of his men had set up for him. He leaned back
against the cushions and congratulated himself on his genius. He’d
left the bugs in Rose Patterson’s house instead of having them
removed when he’d left town two years before. He smiled with
satisfaction and mumbled, “Bravo, Alex, bravo,” conveniently
forgetting that he’d been on the run before he even left town, and
that even if he’d been able to afford to give those bugs a first,
let alone a second thought, he hadn’t had time to dismantle
them.