A Cold Day in Hell

by Stella Cameron

  “She’s been avoiding me for two days,” Angel said. He didn’t add that he’d moved on from feeling lousy, to feeling mad and lousy about Eileen shutting him out. “I usually stop by at closing time, but she’s making sure she isn’t there. Before I came up here today, I went to the shop to see her. She bolted into the stockroom and wouldn’t come out. I had two choices—make a fool of both of us in front of her customers or leave.”

  “She did that?” Finn cleared his throat. He had the kind of sharp, hazel eyes that snapped when he was amused and he was amused now.

  “Don’t you damn-well laugh,” Angel said, smiling himself. “She won’t come up here, either, not once she figures out I’m around.”

  “She won’t figure it out until she’s here,” Finn said. “But Matt’s going to arrive first. She’d be too embarrassed to make a fuss in front of him.”

  Angel inclined his head. “Seems sneaky. She’s going to pick up on that.”

  Before Finn could respond, the elevator bumped to a stop and the doors slid open to reveal Matt, in uniform and looking much too official. Or should that be, officious? He also looked like a man who hadn’t slept recently.

  “Afternoon,” Finn said. “Thanks for coming.”

  Matt had taken off his hat and the impression of the band flattened a circle in his dark, curly hair. He walked between Angel and Finn and carried on through the foyer toward Finn’s office.

  Finn and Angel looked at each other briefly before following. As far as Angel knew there was no reason for Matt to arrive with a burr under his saddle.

  Angel noted how Matt looked over the tangerine walls and animal prints on furnishings. Everyone did. Emma was responsible for the bold decor.

  “Coffee?” Finn asked.

  “Yeah,” Matt said. “And I didn’t get lunch so if there’s any food around, I’ll eat it.”

  Coffee was always ready in Finn’s office. The same went for Angel’s. He had his own quarters here although he rarely used them, preferring to work from home or be out in the field.

  “I’ll get the coffee,” Angel said. “For you, too, Finn?”

  He got a grunt in return and filled three comfortingly stained mugs. Finn started hauling plates out of a refrigerator behind a paneled door that made the appliance look like part of the wall.

  “Half a corned beef sandwich,” Finn said. “That place down by Poke Around does good stuff. They bring up a selection. Ham and Swiss. A slightly stale muffuletta. There’s some gumbo I can heat in the microwave. And a couple of different sausages. Then there’s apples and an orange—”

  “Ham and Swiss,” Matt said, curling his lip at the mention of fruit. “Don’t heat it. I’ll eat it like it is.” He sat behind Finn’s desk and hunched over the vast sandwich. He ate big bites between swallows of coffee. He emptied his mug and Angel got him a refill

  “It didn’t sink in until after you took off last night,” Matt said when Angel put another steaming mug in front of him. “What the hell made you agree to hire Chuck Moggeridge?”

  “We’re shorthanded.”

  “Don’t give me that,” Matt said. “You do know who he is?”

  “Sure. Eileen’s ex-husband.”

  “So you hate his guts, right?” Matt said.

  Angel didn’t want to consider Matt’s attitude toward Moggeridge when it obviously sprang from feelings for Eileen. “Okay. If you’re going to push the issue. I want the man where I can watch him, or have him watched for me. I want to be sure he doesn’t get anywhere near Eileen.”

  Matt grunted. He swallowed his coffee and turned his attention to Finn. “I’m not in the mood for any crap,” he said. “So go easy, if you don’t mind. I’m not responsible for what other people say. And I can’t help it if we’ve got malignant gossips in this town.”

  Angel wanted Finn to lure Eileen up here before they got into any discussion, but Matt’s rapid-fire announcements were delaying the plan. What was he talking about now?

  From the distracted way Finn replaced rejected food in the refrigerator, he was as stymied as Angel.

  “We didn’t find anything,” Matt said around a mouthful of his sandwich. “We searched. Shit, I’ve had everyone I could spare going through that parking lot and there’s not a thing there that doesn’t belong. It doesn’t help that the purse and notebook were found inside Ona’s. But that doesn’t mean I approve of big mouths suggesting Emma’s having some sort of breakdown because she’s pregnant.” He pointed at Finn. “I’m doin’ my best, so stay off my case.”

  Angel withdrew a distance with his coffee. He’d been told Leland Garolfo made some comment about Emma at the Boardroom a couple of nights earlier, right before Matt and Angel had arrived. “Lets move on,” he said, hoping for a lucky break.

  He didn’t get one. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?” Finn said. “Who told you that? When?”

  “I can’t divulge my sources,” Matt said. “You want to take numbers and kick ass? Make your own list—without me.” He hadn’t encountered a razor in too many hours and the dark stubble on his jaw gave him a dangerous look.

  Finn walked to stand over Matt. “If someone’s suggesting Emma made something up, I want a name, or names.”

  “Hey, hey,” Angel said. “It’s not worth it. These people don’t have enough to do with their time, so they gab.”

  “Emma’s all scratched up and bruised. Mitch Halpern wants her to take things easy. And some light-brain calls her names, says stuff about her? Oh, no, no, I don’t think so.”

  Matt pushed back from the desk, his mug cradled in both hands. “I want you to forget about this, okay, Finn? I don’t have any evidence that Emma was attacked. Nothing other than what she says.” He glanced into Finn’s eyes and held up a hand. “I believe her, of course. I won’t stop askin’ questions and keeping my ears open.”

  He set down the mug, leaned to put his elbows on the desk and scrubbed at his hair. “I know you’ve got this Bucky Smith on your minds, too. Someone has to have seen him in three days but we can’t find a trace of him.”

  Finn and Angel shared another look. This was their business, but not what they’d had in mind when they called Matt. “I know he’s not back,” Angel said. “When he does show up we’ll just fire his ass, so why spend time on him?”

  Matt looked up, his face deadly serious. “That place where he lives. All of his stuff is there. Not his wallet or credit cards. But his car and the keys are there. He got a ride to Ona’s.”

  “Did he?” Angel got a nasty sensation deep in his belly. Again no real and sinister evidence yet. But he had something he wanted to share with Matt about bullets through a skylight. There was evidence of that.

  “Think,” Matt said. “Who does Bucky Smith hang out with?”

  Angel thought about it. “I can’t tell you because I don’t know.”

  Matt looked at Finn, who also shook his head.

  “If I didn’t have to cope with all the interference in this town, I could move things along faster,” Matt said. “What I’ve got here is a big, fat nothing being made into something by Lobelia Forestier and gang. They’re getting in my way. Lobelia’s got everyone asking if Bucky could have done the number on Emma, then ducked out of town.”

  “Well, could he?” Angel asked promptly.

  Matt didn’t look pleased. “If we could find him I could pursue that line of investigation, couldn’t I?”

  “Could I have a little silence?” Finn asked. He pressed a button on his phone, switched to Speaker, and after two rings Angel heard Eileen pick up. “Sis?” Finn said. “Could you do me a favor?”

  A pause. “Depends on the favor.”

  “You got any help down there so you could leave for a few?”

  Another pause. “Yes. What do you need?”

  Angel looked at the other men’s faces. Matt appeared entertained. “Er, Emma’s going to come up later this afternoon. I want her to rest up here where I can see her.”

  Matt looked irritated at be
ing held up. He turned his palms up and made small “come on, come on” signals with his fingers.

  “This place doesn’t look one bit like Christmas,” Finn continued. “Emma loves Christmas. This year she’s not up to doing what she likes to do, so I’m going to have to fill in for her. Do you have something I could put up here to cheer her up? One of those arrangements with all the berries and junk? The ones you women think smell nice. Or an angel with the little lights in the wings? How about…I saw something…” He looked engaged with his subject. “A big snow globe. Doesn’t matter what’s inside. The kind you switch on to keep the snow moving and the music playing at the same time.”

  A suspicious little croak came from the speaker. Then Eileen said, “Leave it to me. Give me half an hour to get something together.” She hung up.

  Matt shook his head slowly. “Thoughtful of you, Finn,” he said. “Are we finished here then? You understand I’m doing my best with the parking-lot thing and your missing guy. I’ll get back to you.”

  “No,” Angel said. “Yes, about the parking lot and Bucky. But if Emma says she was attacked, she was attacked and you’d better get whoever did it.”

  A long, blunt fingered leveled at Angel. “You don’t get to tell me my duty. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Matt got up.

  “Matt, Angel means that’s not why we asked you to come here,” Finn said quickly. “We’re not trying to be offensive—even though we’re making a good job of it. We’ve got a lot on our hands here.”

  “Really?” Matt dropped back in his seat. “Oh, good. Just tell me if you really think we’ve got nothing more sinister than a crazy running around town cooking up rumors just when we’re expecting folks to come from all around for the fair. If that’s the case, I’d like to know it because you’d be saving me a lot of headaches and I could turn the thing over to Clemens or Sampson to practice on. But I’ll still have to figure out if and what happened to Emma and if it had anything to do with Bucky going missing. It was the same night, for God’s sake. And as far as we know, Bucky was last seen at Ona’s.”

  “I don’t see how those two things could be tied together,” Finn said.

  Angel agreed. He wanted to spin this out so Eileen could be there and hear what was said about the shooting at his place the other night. If she witnessed the conversation, she wouldn’t second-guess the message.

  “Angel and I have been talking,” Finn said. “We decided we needed to fill you in on something.”

  There was no way to warn Finn to slow down the telling, but Angel sure wanted to.

  Matt turned to him. “You and Finn? What’s the big mystery?”

  “Just let me think my way through it,” Angel said, avoiding Finn’s eyes.

  “Maybe you could have thought your way through it and stopped by the station?” Matt did look tired.

  “Angel’s been having problems with Eileen, and—” Finn closed his mouth.

  Matt checked his fingernails.

  Angel said, “What Finn means to say is we’d like Eileen to be here while I talk about this and it’s easier, and less stressful for her, if we meet here. We haven’t told her you’re here. That way, she can’t get uptight ahead of time.”

  “Really?” Matt’s tongue slid around inside one of his cheeks.

  “There was a shooting at Angel’s place,” Finn said, his face growing tight as it tended to do when he was losing his temper. “You aren’t here to referee some lovers’ tiff—this is serious.”

  Angel couldn’t believe what his friend had just said.

  “A shooting,” Matt repeated. He turned his face up to Angel. “At your place?”

  “Yes,” Angel said. “Three nights ago.”

  “And you’re just getting around to reporting it? At least you could have told me last night.”

  “Y’know, Matt. It’s probably not the right way to be, but when you’ve been doing your own dirty work for a long time you can get in the habit of taking care of things.”

  “Only this time you didn’t manage to do that?” Matt said, his tone innocent.

  “Okay,” Angel said. “Lay it on me. Let me have it if it makes you feel better.” He wouldn’t mention that since he was protecting Sonny, he still had his own official capacity, even if it didn’t exactly fit this situation. “Here.” He dropped a small plastic bag containing two slugs on the desk.

  Matt bent over them, looked from Angel to Finn. “These are in bad shape,” he said of the bullets. “They won’t do us much good, but the casings surely could. Either of the bullets do real damage?”

  “Just to my bathroom,” Angel said.

  “Someone shot through his skylight,” Finn added.

  “I went after him but I was too late,” Angel told Matt. “I did find the one casing in a gutter after it got light.”

  “The other one probably rolled off the roof,” Matt said. “The yard needs to be searched.”

  “Already has been,” Angel said. “It could be there, but he might have taken it with him, too.”

  “Someone climbed on your roof and shot through a skylight? Probably some fool kid.”

  “The fool kid was aiming at me.”

  “Angel was in the bathtub,” Finn said.

  At least he was the only one who knew Eileen had also been in that bathtub—underneath him—Angel thought.

  “Sick bastard,” Matt said. He pushed to his feet and went to a window where he could look over the Oakdale Mansion Center. “Do either of you have any ideas about either Emma’s encounter, or this shooting?”

  “No,” Finn said promptly. “Except they’re not connected.”

  The silence that followed went on so long, Finn said, “They can’t be, can they?”

  “This isn’t a big town,” Matt said. “There doesn’t seem to be anything to tie the two things together, except time frame. Or maybe it was just the full moon.”

  The intercom buzzed and Eileen’s voice answered Finn. He got up to go meet her at the elevator.

  Left with Matt, Angel met the other man’s dark eyes squarely. They both knew they were thinking about their relationships with the same woman. Matt was the first to look away. An admission that he knew he’d been the loser.

  Voices and the sound of wheels approached and Finn pushed a handcart into the office. A small but fully decorated Christmas tree, its stand wedged into a box and weighted with bricks, stood on the bed of the cart. Eileen steadied the tree trunk with one hand but stared at Angel as if he were one of her so-called shapeshifters. That look carried accusation as well as shock. She was too bright not to know he’d at least helped set her up to run into him.

  “Will you look at this?” Finn said. “My sister doesn’t do things by half. I asked for a snow globe and I got an entire decorated Christmas tree. Emma’s going to love it. Will it be too tall on that table by the chaise?”

  Eileen didn’t answer. She continued to stare at Angel with an expression suggesting betrayal in her dark eyes.

  “Eileen,” Finn said. “On the—”

  “Yes,” she said quickly, turning her back on Angel. “There’s an outlet for the lights over there, too. It’ll be a good idea for you to have Emma come up here with you. Maybe she’ll stay in one place a bit more then.”

  “What d’you mean?” Finn straightened. “She’s been at home.”

  A cornered look crossed Eileen’s features. “Yes, yes. I just meant that if she’s here with you she can really rest.”

  Clearly Emma hadn’t been staying at home, but Finn was too oblivious to concentrate on the clue. He hauled the tree from the box and Eileen hurried to drape some thick white cotton on top of the table. She covered the stand with the same material. Finn plugged in the tree and was the only one to look delighted with it. “It’s great, sis,” he said. “Emma’s going to love it.”

  “Good. Well, I don’t want to interfere with your progress here, so I’ll be off.”

  “Don’t I even get a hi, Eileen?” Matt said.

  She said, “
Hi,” and gave him an abbreviated hug. Angel got a jerky little wave and a nod. Darn it, he would get her alone and they’d hammer this nonsense out. He hadn’t spent months coming to care about her, to want her, and finally get her—more or less—only to have her steal herself away from him again. He relived holding her in that tub—frequently.

  “If Sonny feels like it, he’s welcome for dinner tonight,” she said, with not the smallest smile.

  If Sonny feels like it. She wasn’t inviting Angel, but he wouldn’t have expected that anyway. It would be good if Eileen relented toward Sonny who was a much better kid than he got credit for.

  “’Bye.” She walked determinedly toward the foyer and Angel felt his temper rise with the level of his disappointment.

  “We need you here,” Finn said. “Angel’s been worrying about the shooting at his place. He was trying to deal with it himself—big idiot—but I called Matt in. We’ve been talking about it, but since you were there at the time, he’ll have questions for you, too.”

  Geez, Angel thought, he was an idiot. He had been going to let her walk right out of here.

  Finn fussed with the tree, moved ornaments from branch to branch, checked to make sure the trunk was straight in the stand.

  And Angel discovered the true meaning of being hung out to dry. Eileen, her eyes sharp, shot nonverbal accusations in his direction. Why did she think any of this was his fault?

  “There’s a lot of weird stuff going on in this town,” she said. “Other people must have mentioned that to you, Matt.”

  He looked blank. “Weird? You mean in addition to someone accosting Emma? And someone firing through the skylight into Angel’s bathroom? That had to be a shock.”

  She turned so red, Angel made fists to stop himself from going to hold her. Not that she was likely to let him get that close.

  “It had been a stressful day,” she said. “With the boys going missing like that and us finding them in the swamp with Chuzah.”

  She must think I’ve already told Matt about it. Angel settled and resettled his elbows, all but flapping them in an attempt at sending a semaphore. Please don’t say anymore.