A Marked Man

by Stella Cameron

  “You’ve got trouble,” Max said.

  “You don’t say much, do you?” Spike said.

  Max pulled in the corners of his mouth, then gulped at his tea. “Want me to talk to Homer?” No, he hadn’t just said that.

  “You?”

  Max was so grateful to hear amazement in Spike’s voice. “I didn’t mean to be presumptuous. Forget—”

  “Damn good idea,” Spike said. “Homer has a lot of respect for the medical profession. I’d truly appreciate any help you could give us.” He slapped Max on the back. “Thank you.”

  Max breathed deeply through his nose and before he could get himself into more trouble, Reb and Marc emerged from the side of the house.

  “Fan my brow,” Spike murmured. “This is hard on everyone, but look at these two.” He glanced at Max. They both nodded and went to greet the newcomers.

  Reb and Marc looked haggard. They had Reb’s old apricot poodle, Gaston, with them. The poodle looked suddenly puppyish when he saw the other two dogs and took off into the fray.

  “You didn’t bring the children,” Madge said, but stopped talking with her lips still parted.

  “They’re better with Amy,” Reb said. Amy was Marc’s sister who also lived at beautiful, rambling Cloud’s End.

  “Of course they are,” Madge said, turning pink. “That was a dumb thing to say.”

  Reb smiled at her. “No, they love coming here because you spoil them. They know you dote on them.”

  “This wouldn’t be a good time, though,” Madge said. She offered tea to Marc and Reb. “Sit down and rest.”

  “Thanks,” Reb said, accepting her glass. “I think I’d rather cover the things you’re wondering about first.” She leaned on Marc and he slipped a hand around her waist.

  She shaded her eyes as Max and Spike joined them. “How much did you tell everyone?” she asked Max.

  “I was waiting for you,” he told her.

  “Okay,” Reb said. “There’s not much to say anyway. Lee was, as I suspected, a very healthy woman. We think she may have died of an embolism in her brain. There will have to be further tests that can’t be done here so unfortunately this will drag on longer.”

  Max wasn’t surprised she didn’t mention the evidence they’d found of foul play. Reb made the briefest eye contact with him but it was enough to let him know she’d decided against any too-detailed public announcements.

  “You mean a blood clot,” Annie said. “She hadn’t hit her head or anything, had she?”

  “No,” Reb said shortly.

  Spike crossed his arms and looked ready to interrogate her.

  Guy took Annie and Max by the elbows and moved them to a bench beside a stubby palm with a bulbous trunk. “Looks like a good time to break things up a bit,” he said. “Take a seat. I’ve got a couple of pieces of news. One isn’t big, or it doesn’t look that way. The other is interesting—especially if we’re still looking at Michele Riley having taken off under her own steam. You’ll probably want to share some of this with Spike.”

  Max hoped for good news but feared the worst.

  “Bobby Colbert was kicked out of some military school back east and came home to work for his father,” Guy said. “Apparently his folks sent him to the school because he was hard to handle.”

  Annie looked at Guy’s belt buckle. Just how much had he found out about Bobby?

  “Haven’t we decided he’s mostly a nuisance with a crush on Annie?” Max asked.

  Annie held her breath.

  “Mostly,” Guy said. “But he’s hangin’ around and it looks like he tries to hook up with women who have money.”

  Annie laughed. “Why would he want me, then?”

  “Because he sees you’re successful. Apparently he’s talked about you driving a fancy new Porsche, living in a big apartment and making a lot of money at Pappy’s.”

  Max remembered the bagel shop in St. Martinville. “You drove the Boxster in St. Martinville,” he said. “That’s when you ran into Bobby again. And you have a nice apartment. And I doubt Pappy’s stupid enough to underpay you.”

  “It’s not my Porsche. Joe and Ellie don’t charge me enough for the apartment and it hardly has any furniture in it—not that Bobby’s seen it—and Pappy’s doing me a favor by givin’ me a chance. He pays me decently, but it’s not a fortune.” This made her angry and she flipped a hand. “Who cares about Bobby, anyway. Not me.”

  “Good,” Max said, planning to keep an eye open for an opportunity to have another chat with Bobby Colbert.

  “He got let off on a charge of theft by his father,” Guy said. “A friend of mine got this from a friend of his. The father contacted the cops in a rage and said Bobby was stealin’ from the safe. Had him taken in for questioning. Then Dad showed up, apologizing all over, and saying he found the money he thought had been stolen. End of case. Baby boy went home but he hates it there. Dad insists he work and Bobby isn’t interested. He’s lookin’ for a way out. I don’t think he’s a problem.”

  Annie didn’t want to think about the man at all. Spike came toward them again and she waved at him, grateful for any diversion.

  “Movin’ right along,” Guy said and paused until Spike arrived. “I found out Michele Riley was breaking off her engagement to Tom Walen. She told him a few days before she came down here. Apparently he was devastated.”

  Max felt tension ratchet up between them. “She didn’t mention it.”

  “He must have set off to meet up with her when she got here,” Spike said. “What do you bet he thought they’d have a better chance of workin’ things out in neutral territory?”

  “Maybe,” Max said. He felt agitated, excited. Even though Tom hadn’t endeared himself, there was still no reason to wish the man harm. But given what Max and Reb were theorizing about in relation to Lee’s death, Tom could become very important. Not that Max could think of any connection between Lee and Tom. He thought about it, but his mind kept wandering to Roche. He didn’t know where to start looking.

  “Come back to us, Max,” Annie said, tapping his arm. “Are you okay?”

  He shrugged his shoulders up and down. “Lot on my mind,” he said. “We can’t toss unproven theories around, but Reb and I think whoever killed Lee had some medical knowledge.”

  “Killed her?” Spike said.

  Max bowed his head. “I shouldn’t have said that. We’d better get Reb over here.”

  CHAPTER 36

  “Will you be glad to come home day after tomorrow, Lil?” Ozaire Dupre asked. “You’ve been in this hospital long enough, I reckon.”

  Lil fussed with the edge of her sheet. “I want to be home,” she said. “You need lookin’ after. Then there’s the rectory. Goodness knows how Father Cyrus is getting by.”

  A nurse paused outside the room, she smiled but she also tapped her watch. It was long past time for Ozaire to leave and let Lil sleep.

  Lil didn’t want Ozaire to go. He hadn’t arrived until late and she could tell he didn’t want to leave. Thinking about the dear man and how worried he’d been about her warmed a body. When you’d been married a long time, well, the bloom could seem to be a bit off. She’d been wrong about that. Her husband still loved her and more than a little bit.

  “I’ll hold on a few more minutes,” he said. “They don’t mind. Bein’ in a proper room’s a whole lot nicer than the emergency.”

  “That cubicle felt like a cage in the zoo,” Lil said. “Look at this. My own room, a TV and a phone, and folks comin’ to see me all day. And there isn’t a nurse who comes in and doesn’t say I’ve got more flowers than anyone she’s ever seen.”

  “That’s because you’ve got so many friends,” Ozaire said. “And we could have lost you if things had gone worse than they did. I can’t figure why they don’t have the car yet, though.”

  Lil could. She had to talk to a few people and set some things straight. She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to do that and every hour she delayed made it worse. She’d tried t
o tell Ozaire but couldn’t make herself do it.

  “It’s too bad you have to all but die to find out how many people care about you,” she said.

  “You should have known, Lil. You just never thought about it. Folks look up to you.”

  Lil couldn’t remember crying, not for years, but tears prickled in her eyes. “I’ve got to tell you somethin’,” she said. “I should have talked about it before now.”

  “Lil,” Ozaire said, looking at his work-roughened hands. She didn’t think he’d heard what she said. “I’ve been tryin’ to give you some news ever since I arrived. It’s why I was late. They needed an extra hand to drive the ambulance and I’m the first on the list.”

  “Who was it for?” All jumpy inside, Lil looked into Ozaire’s face. “Who? It’s someone close to us, isn’t it?”

  “It was Lee O’Brien,” Ozaire said. “They found her dead at the paper offices.”

  Lil’s jaw felt slack. “Lee?” She felt sick, frightened and confused. “How could she be dead?”

  “I haven’t heard how it happened yet, but I knew you’d want to know.”

  He was wrong there. Lil wished she’d already gone to sleep. She wished she could turn the clock back and change everything. “Poor girl. She was sassy, but that’s because she had a job to do and reporters have to be a bit pushy. Oh, I hate hearing this.”

  “Mr. Dupre?” the nurse said from the hall. “I don’t like to sound like a school matron but Mrs. Dupre needs her beauty sleep.” She stepped into the room and straightened Lil’s pillows and sheets.

  “That’s okay,” Ozaire said. “I’ll be back sometime tomorrow so you can throw me out again.” He grinned at the nurse. Lil looked at both of them and hoped she wasn’t going to be sick.

  Not Lee. How could Lee be dead and why?

  Ozaire pecked her forehead and left, popping back one time to give an extra wave.

  “He’s a nice man,” the nurse said. “Now you get to sleep. It’ll only be a few hours before you’ll be gotten up for breakfast.”

  With the lights out Lil did her best to settle. The bed was comfortable. What people meant when they complained about hospital beds, she’d never know. But it didn’t matter tonight because she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. She’d made terrible mistakes. One of those mistakes could have had something to do with Lee’s death. Oh, she couldn’t be sure, but it was possible. Lil closed her eyes. She would have to tell all of it now—not hold anything back.

  The building had that night silence about it. Kind of heavy and a bit lonely. A nurse or doctor going along the corridor outside her room would be the only movement until the place started waking up.

  Lil had a lot on her mind. It all kept coming back, much as she tried to shut it out. For a moment she’d convinced herself it was better Ozaire interrupted her before she could tell the truth about her accident. Sometimes you kept your own counsel and it turned out better. Not this time. And sooner or later they would find the car and the questions would start.

  If she’d told the truth in the first place they would already have picked it up. But she’d been embarrassed to admit what she’d been doing when she crashed. She had explained some of it, about the man running at the car, but the rest would make her look a fool. Why had she set off for Rosebank to apologize to Charlotte for being rude about not getting the job in the kitchens there? It could have waited and the way things turned out, she hadn’t seen Charlotte anyway.

  At least Madge’s dog was okay, although Lil still wasn’t sure how she’d gotten home.

  For all she knew they already had found her car but they were waiting until she was stronger to get really mad.

  She would try to shut everything out and think about it tomorrow. Could be she should tell Father Cyrus and ask his advice. He always knew what was best.

  It could wait for tomorrow.

  Lil closed her eyes, but they opened again immediately. There was a murderer out there. First Michele Riley, now Lee O’Brien. She, Lil, had a small connection to Lee. Could it be enough to make the killer come after her? Had he already come after her, before he got Lee? She knew he had. She was supposed to have died in the ditch on the night of her “accident,” and there was no reason to think the threat wasn’t still there.

  CHAPTER 37

  “You’re staring at me,” Max said.

  Annie deliberately looked away. “I didn’t mean to. I think I’m waiting for someone to tell me what to do.” She opened the refrigerator in her kitchen and studied the contents. Irene joined her, purring and apparently surveying possible treats.

  “You’re hungry?” Max said.

  “We had coffee early this morning and I haven’t eaten since. How about you?”

  “Same.”

  “Then you’re hungry, too. We’ll have red beans and rice—and jambalaya, sausage jambalaya.”

  Max leaned into the kitchen. Longer than usual, his black hair curled forward just above his collar and his intensely blue eyes showed he was tired. “I thought those things took all day to cook.”

  “Not when you do the sort of things I do. I’ll have to make the rice, but the rest is cooked and frozen already. I love to cook but it’s hard to get it done just for myself so when I do get in here I make enough for several meals.”

  He wasn’t listening. Annie saw his focus wander and he turned away. Moments later she heard him leave a message on someone’s phone, a cryptic message: “Max. Call me.” He didn’t return and he got through to someone else on his phone. “Anything?” Max had walked farther from the kitchen. “No, for God’s sake, of course I don’t think he did. I do think he could be beating himself up over whatever went on at the clinic.” Annie could hardly hear him now. “Sorry. I know. We both are.” He talked longer, or so she presumed, but he had gone into the rooms at the back of the apartment.

  An image, fast, there and then gone, turned her stomach. Lee, half on and half off that air mattress, her eyes open.

  Annie found Irene a piece of chicken and closed the refrigerator door.

  The sound of Max’s footfalls, purposeful, hurrying, unnerved her. She walked out of the kitchen—and met Max. He pulled her against him and held on so tight the pressure hurt.

  She stayed quiet.

  “Annie, do you know how much you mean to me?” he said

  “Max—”

  “Just answer me.” His voice rose and he shook her once. “I love you. If anything…I want you with me. Not just now and again but all the time.” He spread a hand over the back of her head and pressed her face to his shoulder.

  She didn’t want to cry, darn it. But it was too late not to and her throat clogged. Even if she knew what to say, she couldn’t get a word out.

  Annie caught at the sides of his shirt and hung on.

  Max loosened his grip enough for her to look at him.

  He wiped the tears from her face.

  “If I thought I wouldn’t see you again I couldn’t bear it,” she told him in a rush. The tension she felt in him scared her. A kind of desperation showed in the way he looked at her.

  “I would never hurt you,” he said.

  Annie put her hands on his shoulders. “Do you think I don’t know that? I feel safer with you than I’ve ever felt.”

  “You’ve been through too much. I wouldn’t blame you if you were afraid of men.”

  “I’m not afraid of you.” She smiled, sniffed—and laughed. “I don’t know how I got lucky enough to have you want me, though.”

  He put his face close to hers. “I’m going to teach you to stop saying, or even thinking things like that. I’ve hit gold and you’re it.”

  But he wasn’t either a happy or a satisfied man. From childhood she’d been taught not to press for personal information. The thought felt strange but she would have to ask him questions until he told her everything that was on his mind.

  He loves me. He said he does.

  “If I made the arrangements, would you consider going away for a while?” he
said.

  Annie stared at him.

  “Just until everything settles down here?” he said.

  “No,” she said. “I can’t believe you’d ask me.”

  “I’m asking because I want you somewhere safe. There’s too much—”

  “No.” She interrupted him. “We belong together. You said so. You think I would run and hide while you’re here on your own? I’m not a kid. I know there’s big trouble ahead. I shouldn’t ask but I’m going to. What did you and Reb find out about Lee’s death—the stuff that made you say someone with medical knowledge killed her?”

  “My mouth got out of line. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “But you did. And then you and Reb went off with Spike and Guy. You were telling them what you’d discovered.” She couldn’t stop a fine tremor in her limbs. “And now you want me to go away. Tell me why?”

  “It’s like a war,” he told her. “But I don’t know anything about the enemy except he knows me and he’s close. It can’t be any other way.”

  And he didn’t want to tell her all the details, Max thought. He didn’t want to frighten her more than she already was.

  “That means you really need me now, and I need you,” Annie said. “I’ve got to know you’re okay.”

  “I’m not afraid for myself,” he said. “It’s others. Already—” Hell, he hadn’t intended to say that.

  “I intend to stay safe,” Annie said. “I won’t go anywhere without you.”

  She still wore blue, but she’d kicked off her sneakers and her feet were bare. Everything about her pleased him—and turned him on. And this wasn’t the time for that.