Christian’s Restaurant was on Iberville Street, in mid-city. It was an old renovated church with beautiful stained-glass windows, a cathedral ceiling with exposed beams, and lots of greenery. The hostess looked carefully at Ben’s outfit, but he slipped something into her hand, and at once she smiled and said, “This way please.”
When they were seated, Dani scoffed, “Had to bribe your way in, didn’t you?”
“Bribe?” he looked at her with a hurt expression. “No such thing! I slipped her a note and told her I was asking her out sometime soon.” He studied the menu, then tossed it on the table. The waiter came at once and he ordered, “Bring me a platter of sauteed crawfish tails, collard greens, and some of that good bread.”
Dani smiled at his order, then gave hers, “I’ll have the duck breast with wild mushrooms.”
“And the wine?”
“A margarita for me and an RC Cola for the lady.”
The waiter looked shocked. “An RC Cola? I don’t believe we have it.”
“Send out for it!” Savage snapped. “Call this place a restaurant and don’t stock RC Colas!”
Dani giggled at the expression on the waiter’s face. “Iced tea will be fine.” When he left, she said, “You fool! He probably doesn’t even know what an RC Cola is!”
“Ignorance is no excuse,” Savage proclaimed. A waiter brought two salads, and as Savage picked at his he remarked, “Well, I hope we made a bundle from this case.”
“We did very well.” Dani shrugged.
He watched her eat, then demanded, “You still have bad dreams about plugging that guy?”
She glared at him. “You have such a pleasant way of putting things!”
“Sorry. Have you had any reoccurring detrimental effects resulting from the experience involving your distressing moments with Mr. Roy Dusenburg?”
Dani glared at him, speechless with anger. “No!” she declared. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Save you a lot of money if you do,” he shrugged. “Sooner or later you’ll have to go to a shrink. He’ll charge you a hundred bucks an hour. I, on the other hand, am free help.”
“And you’re so highly qualified to advise me on this thing!”
“Better than him.” Savage looked at her. “I’ve been where you are now. I doubt that your shrink ever shot anyone.” He took a sip of the margarita, then spoke quietly. “You might not believe it, but I’ve had some bad moments about things like this: in the corps, after my first action; when I had to stop a guy in Denver, who was holding two kids captive.”
Dani looked at him and started. Savage was so hard, she had never considered that he suffered remorse from such things. “I didn’t know that, Ben.”
“Well, you know it now,” he murmured. “I had to make a separate peace, Dani. Either get out of the business or learn to live with the fact that sometimes I have to use force.” He gave her an intent look. “You’ll have to do that, too, and it may be too hard for you.”
She didn’t know how to answer, and soon they were eating their food. He said no more, but began talking about the Lanzas. When she told him about Frank’s decision, he claimed, “He can make it. Frank never had the killer instinct. What about the kids?”
Dani bit her lip, then shrugged. “It’s a bad time for them, Ben. But they’ve got a chance, especially with Rosemary to help.” Then she gave him a barbed jab. “I don’t know about Abby. I suppose you have plans to offer her therapy?”
“Ben Savage, boy psychiatrist,” he answered. “She’ll have to find her way, just like the rest of us. Hope she makes it. She’s not real happy.”
Dani nodded and steered the conversation around Abby. She ordered some of Christian’s homemade ice cream, and Savage wolfed down something awful called chocolate suicide.
When they left, it was dark. Savage offered, “Let me drive.”
“You probably can’t after that terrible dessert,” Dani said, but gave him the keys to the Marquis. She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes as he started the engine. “Just go to your apartment,” she advised. “I’ll drive myself home.”
He didn’t answer, and she kept her eyes closed. The large dinner had made Dani so drowsy that she paid no attention to his driving. She actually dozed off and came awake with a start when he stopped the car with a slight jolt. Sitting up, she stared around. “Where in the world—?” she stammered, then it came to her. Dani whirled in the seat to face him, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Thought you might like to go parking.”
Dani glared at him. They were in the exact spot where they’d been weeks ago—on Lakeshore Drive on Lake Pontchartrain. The moon was full, as it had been on that night, and the waters of the lake were rippled in silver. “If I wanted to go parking, I’d let you know!” she cried. “Now, start the car!”
Savage turned to look at her. “You know, maybe you really are an iceberg, just like Abby said,” he remarked.
That angered her, as he had known it would. Her eyes flashed, and she stated, “I am not interested in what that girl said! Now get this car started!”
He put his hand on the wheel, gave it a tug, then explained, “Well, to tell the truth, I promised Sixkiller we’d stay here for a couple of hours.”
Dani stared at him. Her mouth opened, then she asked in an outraged tone, “Are you trying to tell me you agreed to a blasted stakeout?”
“Just for a couple of hours,” he corrected quickly. “I mean, he was really a good guy about the kidnapping, so when he called yesterday, I couldn’t put him off.”
She would have argued, but at that moment the headlights of a car came over the rise to the north. Savage barked, “Got your gun?”
“No! It’s in the suitcase.”
“Well, I’ve got mine. What do you say?”
Dani slammed her purse down on the seat and turned to him. “Oh, all right! But after this little stunt, I’m even with Lieutenant Luke Sixkiller!”
She moved close to him, and he slipped his arm around her. “Won’t be too bad. Luke said he’d relieve us at ten. He just didn’t have enough teams to cover the ground.”
She didn’t answer, and he held her as the car approached. It passed them without stopping, and at once Dani moved away from him. Ben chatted freely, appearing not to notice her stony silence. Several times in the next half hour cars passed, but none of them slowed. Each time Dani would slide close to him, then as soon as possible would jerk away from his embrace.
At 10:45 a car approached more slowly than normal. “Looks like he’s going to stop,” Ben commented. He pulled the magnum free, and Dani slid into his embrace. He could feel the steady beat of her heart as she leaned against him. The car passed, but he said, “Stay here a minute. Something funny about that one.”
She lay passively in his arms, her face against his neck. He was very still, and finally she called out, “Ben?”
“Yep?”
“Do you think Abby was right? Am I an iceberg?”
He put his hand on her head and turned it so that she was facing him. Though the moonlight caught the gleam of his eyes, she could not read his expression. “I’ll have to check,” he murmured. She did not resist as he bent to kiss her. For so long she had been feeling lonely and cut off, and there was strength in his arms. Dani suddenly put her hand on his cheek and added her own pressure to the kiss. For the moment she forgot the days gone by and the uncertainty of the future. She gave him that part of herself that she had kept locked away, and she knew that at heart he was gentle, not hard and demanding.
Finally she drew back and whispered, “Well? Was Abby right?”
He studied her and started to answer, but at that moment the car returned. It pulled up beside them, and the door slammed loudly in the silence. Dani tensed, until she heard someone call out, “Hey, Ben, what’s happening?”
It was Luke Sixkiller. Dani pulled away from Savage at once. She was rattled as Luke put his head down and grinned at the pair. “A little ext
ra duty, huh?”
Dani exclaimed petulantly, “Never mind that. You can take over now.”
“No need for that,” Sixkiller stated cheerfully.
Dani stared at him. “What does that mean?”
“Why, we picked up the guy this morning. The old Midnight Mangier is behind bars.” He grinned and added, “I left word for you, Ben. Didn’t you get the message?”
Savage looked directly into Dani’s eyes. “I forgot,” he said.
Sixkiller burst out laughing. He slapped the car with a hard hand. “Yeah, you always had a terrible memory. Well, good night.”
Dani sat there with clenched fists as the squad car roared off. Then she turned and screeched, “You are a beast, Benjamin Davis Savage! I hate you!”
Savage considered her carefully. “Well, I hate to hear that, because I don’t hate you, Boss.”
“I know you!” she accused bitterly. “You only think of one thing!”
“Now that’s not so,” he answered quickly. “Actually I think of two things. One, I think of you as a beautiful woman. Can I help that? Would you want me to?”
“I know all about that!” Dani exclaimed in a grating tone. “What’s the other thing?”
“Well, I think about how fine you are,” he said quietly. “Aside from being just about the best-looking woman I’ve ever known, you’re the bravest and the most honest.”
He did not move, nor did she. She knew him so well, yet she had never heard him speak so simply about her. Quietly, Dani pondered the two of them, knowing that no matter whom she met in the future, no man would ever know her as well as Ben Savage.
Finally she sighed, “Ben?”
“What?”
She sounded like a little girl anxious for approval, he thought, as she asked, “Was Abby right?”
Savage smiled and put his arm around her. “Don’t have enough evidence yet. Have to do a little more scientific experimentation.”
The moon washed over the lake, making the tiny waves glitter like silver. A great horned owl glided soundlessly over the lake. His shadow passed over the windshield of the Marquis, but the couple inside never noticed that the moon was blocked for a fleeting instant. The lonely hunter wheeled on downy wings and left the car behind, parked beside the quiet lake.
Books by Gilbert Morris
* * *
One Shining Moment
The Quality of Mercy
A Season of Dreams
Revenge at the Rodeo
Race with Death
Guilt by Association
The Final Curtain
Deadly Deception
Winds of Change
Deadly Deception Page 27