“Isn’t she muzzled?” Joe said in her ear, startling Ellie. With his chin resting on his folded arms and his face only inches from her head, he knelt in a booth behind her. Ellie hadn’t seen him arrive. “She’s good with other dogs.” He smiled at her.
“She’s good with Zipper,” Ellie said, looking up at him. She shouldn’t be so glad to see him, if that was the right way to describe what she felt just having him so close.
“Join us,” Marc said. “Shift closer to William, Ellie. There’s plenty of room.”
Enough room without her squishing around. Ellie moved a few inches, anyway. “Did you tell Joe we would be here?” she asked Marc. She couldn’t get mad when he gave a sunny nod.
Joe sat beside her and touched her arm. “Marc’s tryin’ to help me out. I asked him to do this.”
“Really?” Heat flooded Ellie’s face. She wondered how she could get out of the place without making a scene.
“If we hadn’t wanted to be here with you we wouldn’t have asked you,” Reb said. “So relax, soften up and quit seeing conspiracies against you wherever you look. Joe needs our help to make you listen. And we need to do it for ourselves. You’d be the first in line to do what you could for someone else.”
Hunched forward, his elbows propped on the table, Joe looked at Ellie over his shoulder. “For a tired woman, you look wonderful.”
She opened her mouth but not a single comment came to mind.
“We’re friends, all of us,” Joe said. “It’s possible this whole thing is being blown out of proportion, but if we keep an eye on you we can make you invulnerable.”
“Is that why you’re sleeping on the floor over your office? What is that helping? You wouldn’t know any more about what’s happening to me from there than you would from yours and Jilly’s place.”
“Ellie!”
Joe interrupted Reb, “It’s okay. This is a hard time for Ellie.”
She was afraid, dammit. “Thanks for defending me.” Every time she opened her mouth she embarrassed herself afresh. “I’m sorry, Joe. I’m horrible. Speaking of tired—” she looked more closely into his face “—how about you? You’ve got…oh, no, please tell me you aren’t sitting up at night watching my place.”
“I’m not sitting up at night watching your place,” he said promptly.
“Yes, he is,” Reb said. “Ruining his health.”
“How else am I supposed to try to keep her safe?” Joe said to Reb.
Marc set his disguised poodle on the seat beside him. “Cyrus is here.” He raised a hand in the direction of the entrance, where Cyrus edged past an eight-foot stuffed and lacquered alligator on a plinth festooned with artificial flowers. “And Madge,” Ellie said. “And Spike and Paul Nelson bringing up the rear?” Nelson, a writer who lived at Rosebank, the hotel owned by Spike Devol’s wife, Vivian, and her mother, Charlotte, wrote guidebooks. He and Jilly spent a lot of time together. “How many more people are coming?”
“That’s everyone,” Marc said with no sign of shame. “Jilly wanted to come, and Vivian and a few others, but we didn’t want to turn things into a carnival.”
“No,” Ellie said. “I’m not real fond of carnivals anymore, either.”
Joe rubbed her shoulders and she liked it too much to tell him to stop. “Trust all of us, okay?” he said, low enough that she was probably the only one who heard. Ellie looked into his deep blue eyes, then glanced away from him, at Cyrus, Spike and all the others making slow progress toward the table. Whether Marc thought he had things under control or not, that carnival would soon be an entertainment for anyone who wanted to make an effort to watch and listen.
“Excuse me,” she said to Joe. “I need to take Daisy out.”
Without missing a beat Joe responded, “Let me do that for you. Just take it easy.”
“No, but thank you, anyway.” She adjusted Daisy’s chain. “She only likes me to take her. But she’s the best watchdog around, so if anyone gets fresh they’ll be looking for their fingers and toes.”
With his nostrils flared and annoyance written all over him, Joe stood up to let her get out of the booth. She saw him working hard to keep his mouth shut. Ellie smiled at him when she passed, but he barely twitched the corners of his mouth.
6
Hopping into her van and taking off seemed like a great idea. Ellie turned and walked a few backward steps, away from the dance hall, making certain she hadn’t been followed.
Maybe running away—and that’s what it would be—wasn’t such a good idea. She’d run away once before when she should have stayed. Life hadn’t been easy but it only got harder after she left. Too many horrible years had followed before she’d gotten one more chance, right here in Toussaint, and she liked it.
It was a good thing she loved this place because there really wasn’t anywhere else to go.
She would put Daisy in the van with the windows down, go back to the others, and say she could stay only a short while.
Daisy whined and pulled on her chain. Ellie walked her toward a grove of old oaks. She and Wazoo had once gone deep into them to a clearing with a fungus-sprouting picnic table. Wazoo said there was a connection to the “other side” there and dogs felt it because their senses were so highly tuned. Wazoo had told Ellie that in the presence of spirits, dogs forgot their disguises so it was easier to delve into their complexes, their fears, their deepest insecurities.
At least Wazoo had eased up on exorcisms, and the townsfolk were good-natured about paying a little for her time with the dogs just to help her out. She also did a steady trade in palm and tarot readings. Unfortunately, that paid poorly, too.
Ellie reached the oaks and Daisy wandered happily back and forth between trunks and through crackling brush. A vine of spider orchids hung from a branch. Ellie picked two blossoms, stuck one behind her own ear and the second into Daisy’s collar.
“Hurry up, girl. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, it’s getting darker.”
Daisy, who had a gender dilemma, raised her leg on the nearest tree, then set about marking one after the other.
“You’ve got to quit tanking up at fire hydrants along the way,” Ellie said. “You can’t have anymore left in you.”
Daisy faced her, ears perked and the whites of her eyes showing too much.
“If you don’t scream, I won’t hurt you,” a man whispered from Ellie’s left. He was not far away.
Ellie’s head spun and she stumbled. The great leap of her heart winded her. Looking around, she backed up, breathing through her mouth as she went. Pain stabbed at the bottom of her throat.
“Stand still. Let the dog pull you into the trees.” He coughed. “If you let it go, it won’t reach me alive.”
She couldn’t move. Then Daisy looked up at her and Ellie realized she was still muzzled. A scream swelled in her head. With shaking fingers she reached to free the dog’s mouth.
“Leave it. And keep that thing calm. Come on. Come into the trees. I only want to talk to you.”
Keeping an eye on Ellie without her seeing him wasn’t so easy to pull off. Joe stood inside the door and watched her through a small, steamed-up window not intended for sightseeing.
He could almost hear what went on in her head. Bringing so many people together for the sole purpose of insisting she allow them to guide her had made her embarrassed and angry. A lousy idea and his fault. She wanted to hightail it out of here, but so far she hadn’t convinced herself she could do it. Ellie was gentle and didn’t have all the confidence she deserved to have, but she was no coward and he might have known what she’d think about a committee formed to keep her in line.
How long did she intend to stand in the oaks, one arm wrapped tightly across her middle while the other stretched way out, as if she wanted Daisy to take her time in the trees but preferred to stay where she was herself?
He had watched her lean over Daisy as if she intended to take off the dog’s muzzle, then change her mind. He would have liked to be the one who put a flower in
Ellie’s hair. He’d like to walk and laugh with her and know she wasn’t hiding anything from him. He’d like to hold her.
Joe the romantic. That was something new.
She still hadn’t moved. Ellie would be in soon enough. He’d better at least let everyone know where she was.
“You left me to rot.”
Ellie’s jaw locked. Charles Penn, killer, didn’t have to raise his voice above a whisper for her to hear him clearly.
“Make noise and I’ll have to stop you. Your friends couldn’t get here in time to help.”
A puff of air slid across her back. She managed not to scream. No, she only imagined she felt his breath on her neck. She didn’t want to look at him—he’d be even more real then.
Daisy strained at her chain. She paced back and forth, growling low and steady in her throat, looking from Ellie to the man behind her.
“Handle that animal,” the man said. “Yank the chain. I don’t like dogs. One less is always a good thing. I don’t want the attention, but I’ll shoot it if I have to. Shorten the leash and go forward, around the big trunk to your left.”
“It wasn’t my fault—”
“Move.”
She did as she was told, cranked on the chain until Daisy came to heel, and all but hauled the dog forward and behind the old tree he referred to.
“Stand still.”
He had cut her off from Pappy’s now. “Someone will come looking for me,” she told him. “It’s getting dark.” Keep quiet, fool. Her long, loose dress stuck to her back. She couldn’t control her shaking legs.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me, you. See the three little trees close together there?”
She wiped sweat from her eyes. “Yes.” But only barely because gloom crept in, and mist.
“Tie the dog to those. Don’t try anything. I’ve got nothing to lose, remember.”
“Why are you doing this?” Her voice sounded steadier than it should. She wanted to scream. She wanted to run.
“Tie that up! You’re in no danger if you do what I say.”
Slowly, praying she’d hear the others calling her name, she went to the clump of slender trees, crouched and looped Daisy’s chain around them. Snarling, leaping against confinement, the dog crushed links into Ellie’s hands. “Down,” she told Daisy, who dropped to the ground, quivering.
“I’m watchin’ you. Tie it. Over and under. Over and under.”
She did it, willing her clumsy effort to work free.
“Good. Go on, now. Straight on. I’m takin’ you with me for a little chat.”
Blood thundered in Ellie’s head. He intended to murder her, too, just like the others.
“Go on.”
He killed with an ice pick.
Ellie took a step, and another, and she stiffened her neck, expecting the thrust of steel. Then she took off, she couldn’t help it. She ran, threw out her arms for balance and went as fast as sandals in tangled undergrowth would allow.
He ran, too. She heard him.
Branches slapped into Ellie’s face, scratched her neck, snagged her dress. Sound thundered. Her breath hissed in and out, turned her throat raw.
I have nothing to lose now, either. She screamed, sobbed, screamed again, and slammed her left foot into a mesh of woody vines.
The vines brought her down.
She couldn’t see past tears and sweat and stumbled to her feet again, blind.
He was almost on her. Ellie blinked and her vision cleared a little. She cast about, zigzagged, tried to rush in the direction of the parking lot and Pappy’s.
“Help!”
Down she went again and a hand closed on her ankle. “Shut up,” he hissed at her, dragged her deeper into the trees. She couldn’t stop her skirt from rolling up to her hips. Pin-sharp twigs, thorns and rough ground clawed at her bare legs.
Ellie grabbed a root and held on long enough to twist onto her back, yelling again and again.
The man had already dropped her foot. She made out his shape, running away, crashing downhill through the trees.
Joe couldn’t see enough through the window now. He went outside and stood, running his fingers through his hair and frowning into the darkness. The old building didn’t muffle raucous voices, and laughter seemed as loud out here as it was inside.
Where was Ellie?
He’d only been away a few minutes, just long enough to explain how she was taking her time walking Daisy.
Night had come on fast.
Her van stood exactly where it had when he got there and he ran to check it out. Locked doors, empty, and no sign of a scuffle.
His gut jumped and clenched but he stood quiet to listen, or listen as well as he could over the din from Pappy’s. He’d like to go back for the rest of them, but if something had happened to Ellie every second counted.
A car drove into the parking lot, spraying gravel. Joe reached the trees but took an instant to watch the vehicle. A giggling couple tipped out and made for Pappy’s.
This was the spot where he’d last seen Ellie. He scanned to his left and his right, hoping to see her walking toward him.
Nothing.
She had stepped forward a few paces so Daisy could explore. Joe walked between the first oaks. A big one loomed ahead and he approached that. A low growl sounded, and the tight clank of a chain at full extension. Daisy, leaping against her leash, foamed at the mouth and growled. The whites of her eyes glared in the darkness.
He heard crashing among bushes and undergrowth, somewhere downhill from where he stood, and went after it. He couldn’t do a damn thing about the noise he made. Unleashing Daisy could be a good thing, but he didn’t know all her commands and she might complicate rather than help.
Someone sobbed, or dragged in one painful breath after another. Joe sidestepped, peering ahead, cursing birds arguing in the treetops. It had to be Ellie and she had to be coming uphill. If he was real lucky, she didn’t have a maniac in tow.
Then he saw movement swaying in the saplings, and finally a shape he knew was Ellie. He rushed to her, and the moment he said “Ellie. Cher.”
She said his name and a second later fell into his arms.
“Charles Penn,” she said, and even in the questionable light he saw how her eyes stretched wide open. “He was here. He wanted me to go with him.”
“Oh, my God.” Joe pulled her into a bear hug. He caught her neck in the crook of one elbow and rocked her, pushed her damp hair away from her face, rubbed her shoulders and kissed her brow. “Did he hurt you?”
“Just hold me for a little while,” she said. “I’m strong. I’m really strong, but he was going to take me away and kill me. I thought he’d kill me here. He’s got to be caught before he murders again.”
He’s also got to be caught before he can get his hands on you again.
Her body grew heavy. “Sit down,” he told her. “Here. On my sweater.” He worked it off and spread it on the ground. She sat on it immediately and reached for his hand.
He mustn’t read anything into her reactions. Shock made people behave out of character.
But he sat beside her, surrounded by shrubs and dry underbrush, and drifts of mist curling in beards of Spanish moss that trailed from the trees. Now he dared to take a wafer-thin flashlight the size of a credit card from his pocket and shine it on her. She covered her face with crossed wrists.
“Your arms are bleeding,” he told her. “Really bleeding. Let me, please.” He eased her arms down and more scrapes and scratches confronted him. Welts with raised specks of blood crisscrossed her neck. “You need to be seen. Reb will take care of this.”
“Not yet, Joe,” she said very quietly. “I’ve got to get Daisy.”
“I will,” he said. “Don’t move.”
“I’d better do it.”
“Please don’t move. If I need you, I’ll ask.”
The dog’s strength didn’t flag. She threw herself into the air and twisted her body and her black coat shone with moisture. “Daisy
,” Joe said, moving in slowly. “Down, girl. Let me help you.”
Daisy heard his voice. She panted and strained, but gradually subsided until Joe could release the knot in her chain and stop her from rushing away. When she reached Ellie, Daisy behaved like a lapdog, crawling against her boss, rubbing her head on her face. Ellie unbuckled the muzzle, ordering silence at the same time.
Using his light again, Joe stood over them. Ribbons of fabric hung from Ellie’s dress and the skirt was hiked above bloody knees. He crouched down to examine her leg. “How did all this happen?”
Her voice shook. “He grabbed my ankle and tried to drag me away with him. It hurts.” She showed him her thigh and the sight of red streamers and places where gravel and stones had taken the skin off destroyed any shred of control he’d clung to. The contusions were filled with ground-in dirt. He’d kill the bastard.
He had to seem calm for Ellie. “Let me help you up.”
“Just a minute or two more, please. I can’t bear a fuss, Joe. And I’ve got to think a bit.” Seeing the plea in her eyes he sat beside her again. Daisy decided to share her affections and licked him from chin to forehead.
“Spike will do things by the book this time,” Ellie said. “He’ll be kind, but this is too serious for him to play around. I wouldn’t want him to. There will be some sort of arrangement for cooperation with NOPD. Detective Gautreaux will walk the straight and narrow and even if he doesn’t want to hurt me, he will if that’s what it takes to get his job done. They’ll do more digging this time. I can’t face that. Not yet.”
She didn’t sound as if dealings with the law were new to her. They’ll do more digging this time. What the hell did that mean? He hugged the woman and the dog. The dog was sweet, but he would have liked to give all his attention to Ellie. She still trembled, but her body was soft and pressed against his without resistance. This was absolutely the most unsuitable time to react to this woman sexually, but this was absolutely the time his body and mind had chosen. He had to control the urge to pass his hands over her, to raise her chin and kiss her.
Now You See Him Page 4