“Man or woman?”
“He wasn’t parked under a streetlight. I couldn’t tell. Didn’t get a look at the other face because the person’s back was turned toward me. But I can tell you one thing for certain—the person was dressed in black and was a whole lot bigger than Mrs. Chandler.”
“Big enough to be a man?”
“Sure. Or a tall woman.”
“Then what happened?”
“Then I looked away.” Mr. Wingate looked a bit abashed. “Trying to get myself retucked in my pajamas, not that that’s any major feat these days, and when I looked up, the person was gone.”
“And the cop?”
“Sitting there, but motionless. Looking down, or so it appeared, but not moving a muscle. I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Just went on back to bed.” He sighed. “Now I know the poor fellow was dead.”
Fourteen
1
Nicole huddled in Carmen’s car, watching the activity outside. “Do you always have a thermos of coffee in your car?” she asked as Carmen handed her a cup. “Or were you expecting to bring it to me at a crime scene?”
“Bobby doesn’t want me to take cream and sugar in my coffee anymore. The weight, you know. So since we take two cars and I usually leave first, I stop along the way, get my thermos filled with coffee just the way I like it, and hide it at the store.”
“My goodness, you’re devious!” Nicole smiled until she sipped the coffee. “This also tastes more like a banana split than a cup of coffee.”
“Half that sugar is artificial.”
Nicole took another sip of the hot if sickeningly rich coffee, and watched as Ray questioned her neighbors. She wondered what they were saying.
“The street is a mess,” Nicole said. “Police cars. Patrolmen. Detectives. The ambulance. I’m glad Shelley’s not here to see it.”
“You’re not going to bring her here this evening, are you?”
“No. We’ll go to Mother’s.”
“That’s an exciting prospect. A million questions. Lectures. And as I remember, your mother isn’t crazy about Jesse.”
Nicole’s eyes filled with tears. “Jesse’s gone, Carmen. When I got back last night, the padlock on the gate was broken.”
“Oh, no,” Carmen said sympathetically. “Well, he’s run off before and he always comes back just fine.”
“This isn’t a case of the neighborhood kids letting him out, Carmen. Last night two men were murdered here, and a dog would have been in the way, making all kinds of noise.” A tear ran down her cheek. “How do I tell Shelley that on top of everything else, Jesse is missing, maybe dead?”
“You don’t say he might be dead. He’s not.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because if the police had found his body, they would have said something. It isn’t lying around. Believe me, Nicole, whoever killed that cop and the bum was too busy to bury or hide Jesse’s body. Besides, the dog moves like greased lightning. No one gets hold of him unless he wants them to.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Nicole said hopefully, wiping at her wet face. “He must have gotten away.”
“Sure he did.”
Nicole looked up quickly and saw the false gleam in Carmen’s eyes. She’s only trying to cheer me up, she thought, and it almost worked. “I guess I’ll just have to hope for the best,” she said tonelessly. “But even if he comes back here tonight, the house will be empty.”
“Then he’ll keep coming until he finds you.” Carmen stared ahead. “Nicole, Jesse being missing isn’t your biggest problem right now.”
Nicole didn’t answer. Ray was talking to Newton Wingate. He’d been a widower for nearly twenty years, and Shelley and Jesse seemed to be his best friends. Nicole thought he was a sweetheart. Roger thought he was senile and a potential child molester.
“Nicole, are you listening to me?”
“Yes, Carmen, and I know Jesse isn’t my biggest problem. I haven’t lost my wits, as you implied to the police.”
“Nicole, I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve had this idea in my mind ever since you brought up those masks. Or rather, ever since I talked to Bobby about who bought them.”
Nicole looked away from Newton Wingate. “What did he say?”
“He said Roger has one. A wolf.”
Nicole’s facial muscles slackened. “Roger!”
“Well, not really Roger, Lisa. But she said she was buying it for Roger.”
“Carmen, when was this?”
“Before Christmas, before her parents threw her out and she still had some money to toss around.”
“Well, it couldn’t have been Roger out in the backyard wearing the mask.”
“Why not?”
“Roger wearing a wolf mask and scaring his daughter half to death? It’s ridiculous, even for him.”
“Maybe he hired someone to do it. Maybe they were supposed to look in your window and got the wrong one.”
“Carmen, why would Roger do such a thing?”
“Because he wants Shelley.” Nicole frowned. “Remember what he said to you at your father’s funeral when you got in an argument about custody?” Carmen went on. “He said something like ‘Don’t forget your past emotional problems or the police investigation you went through. I’ve got a ton of ammunition on my side and I’m going to use it.’ ”
“I remember,” Nicole said bitterly.
“So, I’ve wondered if he isn’t trying to make you look unstable—thinking you see people wearing wolf masks in your backyard.”
“Carmen, lots of people have prowlers. I don’t think my having one would make me look unstable.”
“But lots of people don’t think they’re being stalked by a guy who died fourteen years ago after murdering two men.”
“Think they’re being stalked?” Nicole returned hotly. “Thanks for having so much faith in me.”
“I have all the faith in the world in you, Nicole, but you were so traumatized back then,” Carmen explained urgently. “Your attack and Paul’s arrest were bad enough, but I’ll never forget when I called to tell you he was dead. You hung up. When I called back, your roommate said you’d fainted.”
Nicole remembered that day. For almost a year she’d waited for Paul to call her, but he never had. Then Carmen told her he’d been killed in a fiery car wreck. The world had turned dark for her that day, and the light had never completely returned.
“Then you came back to a city you hate,” Carmen went on. “Roger walked out on you and took up with a young woman half his age, your father committed suicide…My God, who wouldn’t be off track after all that?”
“I am not off track,” Nicole said through clenched teeth. “Ray believes me.”
“Does he? He didn’t sound like it to me. ‘Mrs. Vega, there’s a small chance that Paul Dominic is around.’ That’s what he said, and it doesn’t sound to me like he’s too convinced. I think you should stop talking about Paul.”
“Carmen, I saw Paul last night.” She pulled the cross from beneath her sweatshirt and held it out to Carmen. “He gave me this.”
“What’s that?” Carmen asked.
“Something I’ve been wanting to ask you about. It’s a silver and turquoise cross with wings engraved on the back made by your father-in-law. When I was nineteen, I told only you that I was seeing Paul, that I was having this necklace made for his birthday. Yet I saw Raoul when I dropped off Shelley yesterday and he asked if I’d married the handsome young man for whom he’d made the cross with the wings engraved on the back, the young man who was ‘a genius,’ who ‘appreciated art.’ He knew about Paul, Carmen. When did you tell him?”
All through her recital, Carmen’s face had been growing redder. “I’m sorry, Nicole,” she whispered. “I didn’t tell Raoul. I told Bobby a long time ago.”
“You told Bobby?”
“Yes. You know how crazy I was about him. I wanted him to admire me. I was so impressed that you were seeing someone like Paul Dominic, and
since Bobby was a musician, too, I thought he’d be impressed with you and with me for being your friend. I think it made him see me in a different light—you know, I wasn’t just a girl with a good figure, I was best friends with someone who was dating one of the world’s greatest pianists.”
“Oh, Carmen, that’s pathetic. Why you ever thought you had to try so hard to win Bobby Vega’s affection, I’ll never know. I don’t understand why you even believed he was worth it…” Nicole’s eyes narrowed. “Did you tell Bobby before or after Zand and Magaro raped me?” Carmen bit her lip and said nothing, her throat muscles working. “Before,” Nicole supplied. “And Bobby told Zand. That’s how he and Magaro knew where to find me.”
Carmen closed her eyes and placed her hands together, as if she were praying. “Nicole, please forgive me. I was so young. I was so desperate to have Bobby. I had no idea he’d tell anyone else. If you knew all the circumstances…”
“But we’d been friends since childhood. This was a secret,” Nicole said disbelievingly. “How could you?”
“I told you. I was stupid. And I only told Bobby. How could I possibly know what would come of telling him?”
Nicole glared at her. “Does he feel one iota of guilt for telling Magaro and Zand about my relationship with Paul and for what they did with that information?”
Carmen’s large dark eyes were pleading. “I’m sure he does.”
Nicole smiled without humor. “You’re sure he does, but he’s never said so. Just like he never said anything about Roger wanting to move out here to chase Lisa Mervin. He certainly knows when to blab and when to keep his mouth shut, doesn’t he?”
Carmen drew back, offended. “You can’t blame all your troubles on Bobby!”
“Can’t I? It seems to me he’s contributed quite a bit to them.”
Carmen’s head dropped. She twisted her watchband, and Nicole knew she was searching for something to say, but there was nothing. Not even Carmen could defend her adored Bobby this time. But she was also not responsible for his actions any more than Nicole was responsible for Roger’s. Carmen had told Bobby about Paul when she shouldn’t have, but she was only a teenager.
She looked at her friend. Her skin was pale, her eyes swimming with tears, her lower lip nearly bitten raw. Nicole knew she was writhing with guilt, and she hated to see Carmen in pain. Besides, the mistake Carmen had made fifteen years ago was such a tiny thing compared to all that had happened to Nicole later, things Carmen had always been there to cushion with unflagging love and support. At the moment Nicole was mad at the world, but she couldn’t let anger and bitterness eat her up until it drove away everyone, including her best friend of so many years.
She reached out and touched Carmen’s hand. “It’s all in the past, now. Let’s forget it.”
“You mean it?” Carmen asked tremulously.
“Yes.”
“Swear?” she asked the way she used to when they were children.
Nicole smiled. “Swear. But Carmen, I did see Paul, and he did put this necklace on me, his necklace.”
Carmen closed her eyes. “Nicole, you were so shaken up after the mugging, you could have mistaken any man who looked remotely like Paul for him. And the necklace—Raoul could have made others.”
“He promised me he wouldn’t.”
“He might have broken his promise. His Alzheimer’s started long before he gave the store to Bobby. He probably forgot he even made a promise.”
“I’m telling you, this necklace is exactly the same,” Nicole burst out. “Why are you so stubborn on this point?”
“Because of how it makes you sound,” Carmen retorted with equal force. She lapsed into an imitation of Nicole. “ ‘Paul Dominic is stalking me. I’m afraid he wants revenge. No, I was wrong. Paul and his heroic dog saved me on the River Walk and Paul put his necklace on me.’ It sounds crazy, Nicole. Then you find a dead body in your backyard and you go and make everything worse by arguing with that policeman Waters, talking on and on about silencers and threading gun barrels and nitric acid residue.”
“Nitrate residue.”
“Oh, who cares? You scared me!” Nicole looked at Carmen, whose eyes brimmed with tears. “Nicole, listen to me. Don’t you know what Roger could do with all this in a custody hearing?”
Nicole opened her mouth, but she had no quick answers. Carmen was right. She had no concrete proof of Paul Dominic’s return besides the necklace, and there was no one but her to verify that it was Paul’s. What she did have was two dead men she thought Waters would like to prove she killed. Roger could use all of this against her in court to get custody of Shelley, especially when he pointed out that fifteen years ago she’d almost had a nervous breakdown and had had to sit out a year of college until she was well enough to return. “What should I do?” she asked weakly.
“First, and most important, stop ranting and raving about Paul Dominic. And stop showing how much you know about guns, for God’s sake.”
“I don’t know a lot about guns. What I threw at Waters was just trivia.”
“Oh, sure. That’s certainly how it sounded.” Carmen looked at her earnestly. “It’s perfectly obvious what happened. Don’t forget that Roger showed up on the River Walk last night and got royally humiliated in front of you by one of your students. A couple of hours later, you got mugged by a guy who Roger probably paid to peek in your windows wearing a wolf mask Lisa bought. Roger saw you out with me. He could have called your house and, when there was no answer, realized Shelley was staying somewhere else. So he got this guy to break in. He got carried away and killed the cop DeSoto had posted out here. Then he came in to do God knows what to you.”
“You’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?” Nicole said slowly.
“It doesn’t take a lot of thinking.”
“Well, it all makes perfect sense up to a point. Roger might have paid Dooley to come in. Then what happened? Izzy Dooley, in a fit of guilt, shot himself in the head and hanged himself in my tree, being sure to don a black hood like Magaro and Zand?”
Carmen looked blank. “Okay, I don’t know what happened after he got in your house. But something did.”
“That’s an understatement.”
Carmen raised her hands. “Maybe Roger came to his senses and came to your rescue, killing this Dooley person before he could kill you.”
“And then hanged him and put on a tape of Paul playing at Carnegie Hall?”
“All right, I don’t know what happened. Let the cops figure it out. That’s their job. But please stop babbling about Paul Dominic. We’re dealing with a real, live person here, Nicole, someone who means you great harm.”
“And you don’t think Paul means me harm?”
Carmen looked as if she were going to scream. “Only if it’s from beyond the grave. He’s dead, Nicole. Get that through your head. Paul Dominic is dead.”
But he’s not, Nicole thought stubbornly, shifting her gaze. Paul is just as alive as you and I.
2
In spite of everything, Nicole was determined to teach her two afternoon classes. “The police said they have nothing else to ask me now, and I’ve already had a week off,” she explained to Carmen when she objected. “I went back yesterday. Now I can’t call in and ask for another day off. I can’t risk this job, Carmen, not with everything so unsettled between Roger and me, and his barely helping out monetarily!”
“Okay, settle down,” Carmen soothed. “Get everything you and Shelley will need for the next couple of days and let’s get the hell away from this house. We’ll go to your mother’s.”
“Oh, great,” Nicole moaned. “I hate having to face her before I go to school. I’ll be too rattled to teach.”
“Then my place.”
“No,” Nicole said quickly. “It’s too far away. I’ll ask Mr. Wingate if I can change at his house. Tonight I’ll stay at Mom’s.”
“Who’s Mr. Wingate?”
“The elderly man who’s standing around. He’s my only real fr
iend on the street. I don’t think he’ll mind.”
She was right. Newton Wingate seemed thrilled to be of service. He led Nicole and Carmen to his neat little house, tactfully kept the questions to a minimum, then insisted on fixing coffee and chicken-salad sandwiches before Nicole got dressed for school.
Later, as Nicole took her second shower of the day, she tried to think of what lessons she would present to her classes, but her mind had gone blank. A composition class and a creative writing class lay ahead of her. Writing assignments, she thought suddenly. When all else failed, an English teacher could always rely on a writing assignment, even if it wasn’t planned.
When she stepped out of the shower and dried off, she spotted a set of scales. She stepped on to see that she’d lost five pounds in the last nine days. Looking in the mirror, she saw cheeks slightly sunken beneath the bones and dull eyes. How much longer could she go on at this rate? She would have to force herself to eat more, maybe even see a doctor and get a prescription for tranquilizers, because she couldn’t get sick now. She’d meant what she said to Carmen about her job. Losing it would be a disaster.
For today she’d chosen a lightweight pearl-gray turtleneck sweater to hide the bruises around her neck, bruises left by a strange creature named Izzy Dooley who thought he was a vampire and ended up dead in her backyard. She slipped on the rest of her maroon suit, noticing that the waistband was loose, and brushed her hair, pushing it behind her ears, not bothering with styling.
“Why, you look like a new woman!” Mr. Wingate beamed when she returned to the living room.
“I look like a slightly improved woman. I’m afraid my students can’t expect a very dynamic teacher.”
“As I remember, I was always glad when occasionally the teacher wasn’t gung ho,” he said.
Nicole smiled. “I’m just glad I only have to get through two more days before the weekend.”
But at the moment, those two days seemed like two weeks.
3
Nicole’s in-class writing assignments elicited groans from her students. She tried to explain how they tied in with the work they’d been doing in class, but she had a feeling some of the students knew she was creating busy work.
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