“Is this Detective Jonathan Stone?”
“Yes.” He didn’t immediately recognize the voice or the name she supplied, though both sounded familiar. “What can I do for you?”
“I need to talk to you about Tommy.”
Now he knew to whom both the name and the voice belonged—the woman he’d met at Moretti’s. The only time he’d seen her he’d come to peg her as a shrewd woman. He couldn’t imagine what she hoped to gain by talking to him now. “Go ahead.”
“Not over the phone. Can you meet me?”
He looked over at Dana, who looked back at him expectantly.
“Please, Detective Stone. I promise you it’s important.”
It was the urgency in her voice that won him over.
“Where?”
When he got off the phone, he turned to Dana. “I’ve got to go.”
She sighed. “I figured as much. Does it have to do with Moretti?”
“Maybe.”
She walked with him out to his car. Leaning his butt against the hood, he pulled her closer to stand between his parted legs. “I don’t know how long I’ll be. Maybe you should get Ray or one of my brothers to drop you home when you’re ready.”
“Will I see you later?”
He winked at her. “That you can count on.” He pulled her closer for a brief kiss.
She stepped to the side while he got in the car and started the engine. “Be careful,” she said as he put the car in gear.
Considering that he really had no idea what he was walking into, he intended to be.
After Jonathan pulled off, Dana went back to the house. She was tired and her throat hurt. Without Jonathan there, she had no real reason to stay. She’d find Joanna, tell her she was leaving, and see if Ray could drop her home.
She found Joanna in Ray’s study, nursing the baby. “There you are. You have everyone wondering where you disappeared to.”
“I wanted a moment’s peace and quiet. Between everyone stopping by to see the baby and now our usual Fourth party, I haven’t had much time to myself.”
Dana scanned her friend’s face. She saw more there than new mother fatigue or the need for solitude. She saw unhappiness and wondered if, for the first time, Joanna might not be suffering from postpartum depression.
“Actually I’m glad to have you here alone. ” Joanna fixed her clothing and settled the baby on her shoulder for a burp. “I wanted to talk to you.”
Dana sighed, knowing exactly the subject on Joanna’s mind. The last thing she needed was for Joanna to weigh in on her relationship with Jonathan. “If you want to harangue me some more about your brother, you are wasting your breath.”
“I know. At first I thought it was only some sex thing Jonathan would tire of. But I’ve seen the way he looks at you. And a couple of times today, I actually heard him laugh. I don’t know what you did to him, but make no mistake, kiddo, he’s in love with you.”
Dana looked down at her hands. Even more than she didn’t want Joanna warning her off Jonathan, she didn’t want Joanna questioning her feelings either. “I know.”
“And you don’t feel the same way?”
She glanced up at Joanna, who watched her expectantly. It occurred to her to tell Joanna it was none of her business what she felt. But they’d been friends too long and Joanna was too determined to let that response slide. “I didn’t say that.”
Joanna laughed. “Then what are you saying?”
Dana threw up her hands. “I don’t know.” Even though she’d made the decision to tell Jonathan how she felt, she still dreaded the conversation they would have when he returned. She wasn’t sure why. That’s why she allowed him to put it off so easily. From his behavior today, she doubted he held her silence against her. It didn’t make any sense to her. Maybe she should share what she was feeling with her friend. Maybe Joanna could provide the insight she lacked herself.
“He told me he loved me last night and I just stood there not saying anything. It’s not that I don’t love him, Joanna, because I do. I couldn’t get my mouth to work. Even today, when I told myself I was going to tell him, I didn’t. I don’t know why not.”
Joanna smiled at her as if the answer were the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re scared, maybe?”
“Bock, bock,” she said, flapping her arms imitating a chicken.
“I didn’t say you were a chicken,” Joanna chided. “But think about it. The last time you and I had a conversation about men, I accused you of acting like you didn’t need anybody, of being incapable of letting any man in. That was what? Two weeks ago at the most? Then all of a sudden here comes my brother and within that short space of time you and he go from virtual strangers to falling in love? Frankly, Jonathan’s behavior doesn’t surprise me all that much. You know how men are. As long as you feed them and make their gonads happy that’s all they require. Besides that, all my brothers tend to be a bit intense. Once they decide on someone or something, that’s it. But you?”
“What can I tell you? Everything between us has happened so fast. One minute I was busy hating his guts, the next I was inviting him to share my bed . . .” She trailed off seeing the surprised look on Joanna’s face.
“You initiated sex?”
The way Joanna spoke, Dana felt heat rise in her cheeks. “Yes. Why does that surprise you so much?”
Joanna shrugged. “Never mind. What were you going to say?”
She inhaled deeply, trying to find the words to say what she meant. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Well then, let me say this. Don’t let him or your own feelings rush you into doing anything you aren’t ready for. If you ask me, what you need is more time, more normal time when no one is trying to shoot you or run you over. Go out, have dinner, date. Pretend you’re normal people for a while.”
Dana had to laugh at Joanna’s assessment, but she knew she was right. Jonathan had saved her life, but they’d never so much as gone to a movie together. There was still so much about each other that they didn’t know. She doubted learning more about him would change her feelings for him, though, except to deepen them.
“Understand something else,” Joanna said. “Although neither of you will probably admit it, you’d each put off even trying to find someone else. I can’t say what my brother’s problem is, but I know you’ve always been afraid to let anyone else in. Both of you finally let your guard down and neither one of you knows how to act. He responds by trying to push forward, you respond by backing away. Why don’t you both do yourselves a favor and make sure you’ve made the right decision before you take things any farther?”
Something about the way Joanna said that made Dana wonder if she was still talking about her and Jonathan. “Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?”
Joanna shook her head. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Ray.”
Dana went rigid. Don’t tell her that she’d finally accepted that Ray was one of the good guys only to find out that he was mistreating her friend. “What about him?”
Joanna sighed. “Ever since the baby was born, he’s been . . . different. More moody, more withdrawn. He took time off from work to spend with me, but he spends half his time holed up in here doing God only knows what.” Joanna shook her head.
Dana looked around. The room was tastefully furnished with a desk in the corner, on which a laptop sat, the chair and sofa she and Joanna sat on, a TV, a stereo system, and that was about it. Dana couldn’t imagine what kind of trouble Ray could be getting himself into in this room, other than tossing back a couple of beers from the mini-fridge in the corner and trolling for nudie pictures on the Internet. For once, Dana figured her friend’s fears were for nothing. “He’s probably got a bad case of it’s-too-soon-for-my-wife-to-have-sex-with-me-itis. I hear it’s the masculine equivalent of postpartum depression.”
Joanna laughed, disturbing the baby sleeping on her shoulder. She settled the baby in her arms and quieted her. “Do you think that’s all there is to it?”
/> Dana shrugged. “Either that or he’s catnapping and doesn’t want you to know it.”
Sighing, Joanna rocked the baby. “I hope you’re right. I know I’ve made some foolish choices where men were concerned, but I’m not about to put up with any man’s nonsense anymore.” Joanna glanced up at her. “I really don’t want to end up raising my baby alone, again.”
Dana swallowed, saying nothing. Things must really have deteriorated between Joanna and Ray for Joanna to be talking this way. Whatever the real story was, Dana knew she hadn’t heard the whole of it, only what Joanna felt comfortable telling her.
“I tell you what,” Dana said finally. “I’ll come over tomorrow afternoon, when there aren’t so many people in the house and see if I notice anything.”
“Okay.” Joanna nodded. “For now, I’d better put the baby in bed and see if the guests need anything.”
“This guest needs to go home. Jonathan had to leave and I’m beat.”
“No problem. I’ll have Ray drive you home. Wait here and I’ll go get him. I don’t want to have to search through this crush to find you.”
Dana watched Joanna leave. She wasn’t fooled by her friend’s easy agreement to fetch her husband. She figured Joanna hoped she’d ferret some information out of Ray that would explain his change in behavior. Fat chance of that considering that until recently, she and Ray weren’t exactly speaking to each other.
Feeling restless, she got up from the sofa and walked to the bookcase along one wall. Most of the shelves were taken up with copies of medical journals, texts or books written about the medical field. Only one shelf housed a variety of hard cover and paperback novels. She scanned the titles—all mystery or gory horror, the type of stuff that usually bored her. She saw enough real horror every day to not be fazed by made up stuff.
The edge of what she thought was a square piece of paper jutted out from among the books. Without thinking, she pulled it out and immediately realized what it was—a photograph. Given Joanna’s concerns, she wouldn’t have been surprised to find a woman’s picture there. But the photograph was an old one that depicted three boys, teenagers with wild hair and leather jackets and a look of mischief in their eyes. Someone had scrawled “Us 1979” as a caption on the back.
She recognized the boy on the left as Ray. Next to him stood a shorter boy who looked Hispanic, complete with a mustache that hadn’t quite grown in. There was something familiar about that boy’s face. Maybe the grown up version of this kid was one of the guests outside. She focused on the third boy, taller than the other two. His face bore a cocky expression she’d seen before, more times than she’d wanted to. She knew those eyes and that mouth twisted into a cruel smile. Her head swam, her brain trying not to comprehend what this picture might mean for all of them, since she knew without a doubt she was looking down at the teenage face of Thomas Moretti.
Twenty-three
“Joanna says you’re ready to go home.”
Hearing Ray’s voice behind her, Dana jumped. She still held the damning photograph in her trembling fingers. She didn’t know what Ray would do if he knew she’d seen it, but she didn’t want to find out. Casually, she tucked the photograph into her pocket as if she were straightening her skirt. She turned to face him. “I don’t want to drag you away from your guests. Maybe Zack can take me.”
“Nonsense. It’s no bother. If you want to know the truth, this party is more Joanna’s gig than mine.”
He smiled at her benignly, his face showing no trace of malice or the knowledge that she’d discovered his secret. Besides, he was a doctor. If he wanted to get rid of her, he could have slipped something into her food or drink, either here or when she’d visited Joanna in the hospital. He’d have to be a fool to try to harm her now when Joanna would know the two of them were together. But she couldn’t take that chance.
“Really, Ray, I was just in a mood because Jonathan had to leave. I think I’ll stick around until he gets back.”
Ray shrugged. “Have it your way. If you change your mind again, let me know.”
She walked toward him, her nerves screaming, wondering if he’d try to hold her back or let her pass. When she got to the doorway where he stood, he stepped aside, saying nothing. But she didn’t let her breath out until she’d made it inside the small bathroom by the stairs and shut the door behind her. With trembling hands she splashed some water on her face and patted it dry with a towel. She had to get out of there. If Ray hadn’t noticed she’d taken the picture before, he must surely know by now. She didn’t intend to wait on anyone else to take her. She made her way to the front of the house, slipped out the front door and walked the block and a half to an all-night diner. She called a cab from there.
Sitting in the back seat, she finally relaxed. As soon as she got home, she’d call Jonathan, as she hadn’t bothered to bring her cell phone with her. He’d know how to handle this. She paid the driver, got out and hurried toward her house.
Once inside with the door closed, she leaned against the wooden surface, and exhaled her pent-up breath. She was safe. All she needed to do now was to call Jonathan and make sure he got back here as quickly as possible.
She started to push off the door, when the bell rang, startling her. She turned and opened the door, only to gasp, finding Ray standing on the other side. In the short time since she’d seen him last, he looked changed—weary, with lines of stress evident around his eyes and mouth. Or maybe that was a trick of the stark porch light. Something about him frightened her, beyond what she thought she knew about him. But she refused to let him see that she was afraid. In a stern voice, she demanded, “What are you doing here, Ray?”
He extended his hand toward her. “For starters, I’d like to have my picture back.”
Jonathan met Andrea Weathers at the bar around the corner from her house, ironically the same bar in which Freddie Jackson had almost met his eternal reward. The name of the place was the Hazard Inn. Jonathan figured that was as good a name as any for this place.
Ms. Weathers was already seated in one of the booths when he walked in. He slid in across from her, noticing from the redness in her eyes and the puffiness of her face that she’d been crying. Why she, why any woman would waste her tears on a piece of trash like Moretti, he couldn’t fathom. He didn’t have any sympathy for her and didn’t try to pretend he had any either. He only hoped she hadn’t gotten him down here on some wild goose chase or to try to convince him that Moretti wasn’t so bad. “What do you have for me, Ms. Weathers?”
She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “First I wanted to say how sorry I am that Tommy hurt so many people. I knew he wasn’t a saint, but I didn’t know he had that in him.”
He didn’t know what to say to that, so he said nothing. He wasn’t about to debate the merits of Moretti’s character with her.
She licked her lips. “But the one person I know he didn’t hurt was Amanda Pierce.”
For a moment he stared at her nonplussed. He hadn’t expected that, nor did he believe it. Still he asked, “How can you know that?”
“My mother had a stroke the night before that Pierce woman got killed. Tommy was with me at Mercy Hospital. You can check with the doctors there. He didn’t want to leave, but my mother was better and I didn’t want to get him in trouble at work. But he didn’t leave until nine-thirty, at least a half hour after that woman was picked up.”
Adrenaline whooshed up through Jonathan’s system, putting his nerve endings on alert. If Moretti hadn’t picked up Amanda Pierce, then someone else had, someone Moretti had covered for to the point of taking his own life. One of his old running buddies, no doubt, or maybe both of them. If they’d really killed Father Malone, none of them would want that getting out. But as far as he knew, no one had found out who those other two men were or if they were still alive or in the area. He wasn’t even sure anyone was still looking.
“Who was he covering for?”
“I don’t know. He got a few calls that he left the room to
take. I didn’t hear him use any names. I thought it was another woman.”
Damn. He was no better off now than he had been when he walked in the door, except that if another person was involved, Dana was still in danger. He pulled out his phone and called his sister’s house. Joanna came on the phone to tell him that Dana had just left with Ray.
“Do me a favor, Sis? Call Ray and ask him to wait with Dana until I get there.” He didn’t want to call Dana and risk upsetting her when he wasn’t there. He would have preferred it if one of his brothers had seen her home, but Ray would have to do in a pinch.
“Is everything okay?”
He didn’t want to upset his sister, either. “Yeah. Just do what I ask, okay?”
“Sure. Call me later?”
“Will do.” He clicked off the phone and clipped it to his belt. He looked at the woman sitting across from him. “I have to go.”
She nodded.
He slid from the booth and walked out. He could probably make it back to Dana’s in less than ten minutes. Even though Ray was with her, he wouldn’t breathe easily until he saw Dana again for himself.
Dana reached into her pocket and pulled out the picture. She handed it to Ray. “If that’s all you want, please go. I’m tired and I want to go to bed.”
Ray looked down at the picture before slipping it into his shirt pocket. He looked up at her, his face bearing the bleakest expression she’d ever seen. “Don’t worry, Dana. I’m not here to hurt you.”
She’d believe that when he got his behind off her porch and left. “Go home, Ray. Joanna needs you.”
He shook his head. “I won’t be going home. Maybe not for a long time. When will Jonathan be back?”
She lacked the presence of mind to lie. “I don’t know.”
“Do you mind if I wait for him?”
“Here?” she asked, meaning the porch.
He nodded. “Can I have something to drink first?”
She scanned his face again. His expression seemed more desolate than dangerous. She didn’t know what to make of that. She still didn’t trust him, but to some extent she felt sorry for him. Whatever his role in all this, his life as he knew it was over. She’d see to that, even if no one else did. “I have some iced tea,” she ventured.
Body Of Truth Page 30