Lethal

Chapter 26

Diego approached the property under cover of darkness, rain, and dense, sculpted shrubbery. Bonnell Wallace’s home was one of the stately mansions on St. Charles Avenue.

From an intruder’s standpoint, it was a fucking fortress.

Landscape lighting had been well placed for flattering accent. The risk it posed was negligible. Diego saw a hundred ways that the artificial moonlight could be avoided.

Problematic, however, were the spotlights projecting from ground level up onto the exterior walls and bathing them with thousands of watts of illumination. A shadow cast by that light would be thirty feet tall and would look like an ink-print on the gleaming white brick.

He assessed the perfectly maintained lawn and the eighty-thousand-dollar car parked in the circular driveway, and determined that the security system’s quality would also be the best that money could buy. State-of-the-art contacts would be on every door and window, with motion and glass breakage detectors in every room, and, in all likelihood, an invisible beam around the perimeter of the property. If it was broken, a silent alarm would be activated, so that by the time an intruder reached the house, police would already be surrounding it.

None of these obstacles made breaching it impossible, but they presented difficulties that Diego would rather avoid.

Through the front windows, he could see into a room that looked like a study. A heavyset, middle-aged man was seated in a large chair, his feet up on an ottoman, talking on the telephone and frequently sipping from a glass he kept close at hand. He looked relaxed, uncaring that the lighted room was on display and that he could be seen from the street.

That was a statement in itself. Mr. Wallace felt safe.

In this neighborhood, someone who looked like Diego would immediately arouse suspicion. He was confident of his ability to be invisible when he needed to be, but even so, he kept a wary eye out for patrol cars and nosy neighbors out walking their dogs. Rain trickled beneath his collar and down his back. He disregarded it. He hunkered there, nothing except his eyes moving as they periodically scanned his surroundings.

He watched and waited for something to happen. Nothing did, except that Mr. Wallace traded his telephone for a magazine that held his attention for almost an hour. Then he tossed back the remainder of his drink and left the room, switching out the light as he went. A light on the second story came on, remained on for less than ten minutes, then went out.

Diego stayed where he was, but after another hour, when it became apparent to him that Wallace had gone to bed, he decided that his time was better spent somewhere else. He would resume his surveillance in the morning. The Bookkeeper would never be the wiser.

He slithered from his hiding place and walked a few blocks to a commercial area where several bars and restaurants were still open. He spotted a car in a dark and unattended lot and used it to drive himself to within a mile of his home, where he walked away from it, knowing that within minutes urban predators would have it stripped down to the wheels.

He went the rest of the way on foot and let himself into his building without turning on a light. He didn’t make a sound as he entered his underground living quarters. For once, Isobel was sleeping free of bad dreams. Her face was peaceful.

Diego wasn’t at peace and he didn’t sleep.

He sat gazing at Isobel’s serene face and puzzling over why The Bookkeeper had assigned a talent like him to such a Mickey Mouse job as “keeping an eye on” Bonnell Wallace.

“I don’t know.”

Honor’s voice had grown hoarse from repeating those three words. For two hours, Coburn, who was seemingly inexhaustible, had been hammering her with questions about Eddie’s life, going back as far as his early teenage years.

“I didn’t even know him then,” she argued wearily.

“You grew up here. He grew up here.”

“He was three classes ahead of me. We didn’t notice each other until he was a senior, I was a freshman.”

He wanted to know about every aspect of Eddie’s life. “When did his mother die? How did she die? Does she have family he was close to?”

“Nineteen ninety-eight. She was on chemotherapy for breast cancer. Her system was weakened by the treatments, and she died of pneumonia. She had one surviving sister. Eddie’s aunt.”

“Where does she live?”

“She doesn’t. She died in 2002, I think it was. What does she, or any of this, have to do with what you’re looking for?”

“He left something with someone. He put something somewhere. A file. Record book. Diary. Key.”

“Coburn, we’ve been through this. If such a thing exists, I don’t know what it is, much less where to look for it. I’m tired. Please, can’t we wait until morning and pick this up again then?”

“We may be dead in the morning.”

“Right, I may die of exhaustion. In which case, what’s the point?”

He dragged his hand over the lower half of his face. He stared at her long and hard through the darkness, and she thought he was about to relent, when he said, “You or his dad. One of you has to have it.”

“Why not another cop? Fred or Doral? Besides Stan and me, Eddie was closest to the twins.”

“Because whatever it is, it surely implicates them. If they had it, they would have destroyed it. They wouldn’t have been hovering around you for two years.”

“Waiting for me to produce it?”

“Or just to make certain that you never did.” While he thought, he repeatedly socked his fist into his opposite palm. “Who ruled Eddie’s car wreck an accident?”

“The investigating officer.”

He stopped the hand motions. “Let me guess. Fred Hawkins.”

“No. Another cop. He happened upon the wreckage. Eddie was already dead when he arrived.”

“What’s this officer’s name?”

“Why?”

“I’d like to know how he happened upon the wreckage.”

Honor stood up quickly and went out onto the deck but stayed near the exterior wall of the wheelhouse so the slender overhang of the roof would protect her from the rain.

Coburn followed her. “What?”

“Nothing. I needed some air.”

“My ass. What?”

She slumped against the wall, too tired to argue with him. “The officer who investigated Eddie’s car crash was found floating in a bayou a few weeks later. He’d been stabbed.”

“Suspects?”

“No.”

“Unsolved homicide.”

“I suppose. I never heard any more about it.”

“Thorough sons of bitches, aren’t they?” He stood shoulder to shoulder with her, staring out at the rain. “What did Eddie like to do? Bowl? Golf? What?”

“All that. He was a good athlete. He liked to hunt and fish. I’ve told you that.”

“Where’s his fishing and hunting gear?”

“At Stan’s.”

“Golf bag?”

“At Stan’s. And so are his bowling ball and the bow-and-arrow set he got for his twelfth birthday.” She said it with asperity, but he nodded thoughtfully.

“Sooner or later, I’m gonna have to pay Stan a visit.” Before she could address that, he asked her to describe Eddie.

“You’ve seen his picture.”

“I mean personality-wise. Was he serious and studious? Lighthearted? Moody? Funny?”

“Even-tempered. Conscientious. Serious when called for, but he liked to have a good time. Loved telling jokes. Liked to dance.”

“Liked making love.”

She figured he was trying to get a rise out of her, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Looking him straight in the eye, she said, “Very much.”

“Was he faithful?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

“You can’t be positive.”

“He was faithful.”

“Were you?”

She glared at him.

He shrugged. “Okay, so you were faithful.”

“We had a good marriage. I didn’t keep secrets, and neither did Eddie.”

“He kept one.” He paused in order to give the statement significance, then lowered his voice to a whisper. “Everybody keeps secrets, Honor.”

“Oh really? Tell me one of yours.”

A corner of his mouth tilted up. “Everybody but me. I don’t have any secrets.”

“Absurd thing to say. You’re wrapped up in secrets.”

He folded his arms over his chest. “Ask away.”

“Where did you grow up?”

“Idaho. Near the state line with Wyoming. In the shadow of the Tetons.”

That surprised her. She didn’t know what she had expected, but not that. He didn’t look like her image of a mountain man. Of course, he could very well be lying, inventing an unlikely past to protect his cover. But she went along. “What did your father do?”

“Drank. Mostly. When he worked, it was as a mechanic at a car dealership. He drove a snowplow in the winter.”

“He’s deceased?”

“For years now.”

She looked at him inquisitively. He didn’t respond to the silent question for so long that she didn’t think he would.

Finally he said, “He had this old horse that he kept in a corral behind our house. I named it, but I never heard him call it anything. He rarely rode it. Rarely fed it. But one day he saddled it and rode off. The horse came back. He didn’t. They never found his body. Of course they didn’t look very hard.”

Honor wondered if the bitterness lacing his voice was aimed at his alcoholic father or at the searchers who had given up on finding his remains.

“Dad had ridden that horse near to death, so I shot it.” His folded arms dropped back to his sides. He stared out into the rain. “No great loss. It wasn’t much of a horse.”

Honor let a full minute pass before she asked about his mother.

“She was French Canadian. Tempestuous by nature. When riled, she would launch into French, which she never bothered to teach me, so half the time I didn’t understand what she was screaming at me. Nothing good, I’m sure.

“Anyhow, she and I parted ways after I graduated high school. I attended two years of college, decided it wasn’t for me, joined the Marines. My first tour of duty, I got word that she’d died. I flew to Idaho. Buried her. End of story.”

“Brothers or sisters?”

“No.”

His facial expression was as devoid of feeling as his life had been devoid of love from any source.

“No cousins, aunts, uncles, nobody,” he said. “When I die, ‘Taps’ won’t be played. There’ll be no twenty-one-gun salute, and there won’t be anyone there to get a folded flag. I’ll just be history, and nobody will give a shit. Especially me.”

“How can you say something like that?”

He turned his head toward her, registering surprise. “Why does that make you angry?”

Now that he’d asked, she realized she was angry. “I genuinely want to know how someone, anyone, could be so indifferent when speaking about his own death. Don’t you value your life at all?”

“Not really.”

“Why not?”

“Why do you care?”

“You’re a fellow human being.”

“Oh. You care about mankind in general, is that it?”

“Of course.”

“Yeah?” He turned the rest of his body toward her, until only his right shoulder was propped against the wall of the wheelhouse. “Why didn’t you beg him to come get you?”

She didn’t follow the shift in topic. “What?”

“Hamilton. Why didn’t you tell him where you were so he could send someone to pick you up?”

She took a shaky breath. “Because after what I’ve seen and heard over the past day and a half, I don’t know who to trust. I guess you could say I chose the devil I know.” She meant it in jest, but he didn’t crack a smile.

He inclined an inch toward her. “Why else?”

“If I have something that will convict The Bookkeeper, then I should help you find it.”

“Ah. Patriotic duty.”

“You could put it that way.”

“Hmm.”

He moved closer still, his nearness making her aware of her heartbeats, which had become stronger and faster. “And… and because… of what I’ve already told you.”

He stepped around until he was facing her, seemingly unmindful of the rain falling on him. “Tell me again.”

Her throat was tight, and not only because she had to tilt her head back in order to look up into his face. “Because of Eddie.”

“To preserve his reputation.”

“That’s right.”

“That’s why you’re here with me?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think so.”

And then he pressed into her. First his thighs, then his middle, his chest, and finally his mouth. She made a whimpering sound, but its definition was unclear even to her, until she realized that her arms had gone around him instinctually, and that she was clutching his back, his shoulders, her hands restless and greedy for the feel of him.

He kissed her openmouthed, using his tongue, and when she kissed back, she felt the hum that vibrated deep inside his chest. It was the kind of hungry sound she hadn’t heard in a long time. Masculine and carnal, it thrilled and aroused her.

He cupped the back of her head in his large hand. He pushed his thigh up between hers, high, and rubbed it against her, and continued kissing her as if to suck the very breath from her. She reveled in every shocking sensation.

He broke the kiss only to plant his hot mouth at the base of her throat. Boldly and possessively his hand covered her breast, squeezed it, reshaped it to fit his palm, felt her hard nipple, and hissed his pleasure.

And that brought Honor to her senses.

“What am I doing?” she gasped. “I can’t do this.” She shoved him away. He stood, impervious to the torrent beating at his head and shoulders, his chest rapidly rising and falling as he stared at her through the gloom.

“I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it to the bottom of her soul. But was she sorry for him, or sorry for herself? Sorry about letting it happen, or sorry she’d stopped it?

She didn’t know, and she didn’t allow herself to debate it. She rushed through the door of the wheelhouse, down the steps, and into the cabin.

Emily came awake, sat up, and looked around.

It was still kind of dark, but she could see, so she wasn’t scared. Mommy was there, lying beside her on the smelly bed. Coburn was in the other one. They were both asleep.

Mommy was lying on her side, her hands under her cheek. Her knees were pulled up until they were touching her tummy. If her eyes had been open, she would have been looking at Coburn. He was lying on his back. One of his hands was resting on his stomach. The other one was hanging off the edge of the bed. His fingers were almost touching Mommy’s knee.

She hugged Elmo against her and dragged her bankie along as she scooted to the end of the bed and climbed down. She wasn’t supposed to walk barefoot on the floor because it was so nasty. Mommy had said. But she didn’t want to sit down on it to put her sandals on, so she went on tiptoe up the steps and looked into the room with all the funny stuff in it.

Her mommy had sat her in the crooked chair and told her that it used to be her grandpa’s seat, and that he had let her sit in his lap while he steered the boat. But she’d been a baby, so she didn’t remember. She wished she did, though. Driving a boat would be fun.

Her mommy had got to drive it yesterday, but when she asked Coburn if she could drive it too, he said no because they were in a hurry, and he had better things to do than to entertain her. But then he’d said maybe later, we’ll see.

Coburn had told her not to get too close to the broken windows because the glass could cut her. She had asked him why glass cut people, and he said he didn’t know, it just could, and for her to keep away from the windows.

It wasn’t raining anymore, but the sky looked wet, and so did the trees that she could see.

Her mommy probably wouldn’t like it if she went any farther, so she tiptoed back down the steps. Mommy hadn’t moved and neither had Coburn, except that his stomach went in and out when he breathed. She pressed her hand to her stomach. Hers went in and out too.

Then she spied the forbidden phone and the battery lying at the foot of Coburn’s bed.

Yesterday, while her mommy and Coburn were cutting bushes off the boat, she’d asked if she could play her Thomas the Tank Engine games on Mommy’s phone. Both of them had said “No!” at the same time, except that Coburn had said it a little louder than Mommy. She hadn’t understood why they said no, because sometimes when Mommy wasn’t using the phone she would let her play games on it.

Mommy wasn’t using her phone now, so she probably wouldn’t mind if she played a game.

She had watched when Coburn showed Mommy how to put the battery in. She could do it. Coburn had said so.

He didn’t move when she picked up the phone. She lined up the gold bars on the battery and snapped it into place, just like Coburn, then turned on the phone. When all the pretty pictures came on the screen, she tapped on the picture of Thomas the Tank Engine. Of all the games, she liked the puzzle best.

Concentrating hard, she started with the wheels, then added the engine and the smokestack, and all the other parts, until there was a whole Thomas.

Each time she worked the puzzle, Mommy told her how smart she was. Mommy knew she was smart, but Coburn didn’t. She wanted him to know that she was smart.

She crept toward the head of his bunk and lowered her face close to his. “Coburn?” she whispered.

His eyes popped open. He looked at her funny, then looked over to where Mommy was sleeping before looking back at her. “What?”

“I worked the puzzle.”

“What?”

“The Thomas puzzle. On Mommy’s phone. I worked it.”

She held it up for him to see, but she didn’t think he really looked at it, because he jumped off the bed so fast he banged his head on the ceiling.

Then he said a really bad word.