That Old Devil Moon

by Anne Logan

  Her words sent a rush of heat spiraling through him. Sliding his hands downward, he drew her firmly against him in an effort to assuage his growing desire. Maddie moaned, and reaching up, she placed her hands on either side of his face and pulled his head down until her lips found his. With her mouth and tongue, she tried to show him what she wanted as she thrust her hips toward him and rubbed sensuously against him.

  Alex broke off the kiss. “Ah, Maddie,” he gasped. “If this is a dream, then I don’t want to wake up.”

  Maddie rubbed her nose against his. “Me neither,” she whispered.

  When he swept her into his arms and headed toward the bedroom, Maddie felt the same fear she’d experienced the other time, but now her panic was for a different reason. Whether she would please him or not paled in comparison to what could happen afterward. Was this just a one-night stand for him or did it mean more? And if it turned out to be a one-night stand, would her heart survive the pain?

  Once in the bedroom, Maddie didn’t have time to think. Like a magician, Alex’s hands and mouth worked their magic and all her fears seemed to evaporate.

  In between body-tingling caresses, they slowly undressed each other, and when Alex finally came to her, naked and fully aroused, Maddie could think of nothing but the cravings raging inside her, and the need to give as well as take.

  WHEN MADDIE AWAKENED the following morning, rays of warm sunshine peeked through the blinds. Still half-asleep, she reached out, but the bed beside her was empty and cold. Shoving her hair back from her face, she sat up and searched the room.

  Alex’s clothes were gone. She tilted her head and listened, hoping that he was still somewhere in the apartment. When all she heard was silence and an occasional noise from outside, a growing feeling of dread spread throughout her body.

  “Alex?” she called. But there was no response, and after several moments, she finally accepted the heartbreaking truth.

  He was gone.

  Without a word, he’d taken what he’d wanted then disappeared.

  Maddie stared into space. Making love with Alex had been an experience she knew she would never forget as long as she lived. Time after time he had brought her to what she had thought was the pinnacle of satisfaction, only to find out that he could take her higher. He’d been a thoughtful lover, patient and experienced in the ways to please a woman. And oh, yes, she thought, she had definitely been pleased. But he’d also been a demanding lover, as her sore body could attest. Yet the soreness was not unpleasant. In fact, just the opposite.

  Maddie swung her legs around, then pushed herself off the bed. Her eyes suddenly filled, and an ache grew in the back of her throat to match the hollow feeling near her heart. Would she ever see or hear from him again? she wondered. Telling herself that he wasn’t worth her tears, she grabbed a robe and rushed to the bathroom with every intention of soaking away the smell and feel of Alex Batiste. She would get through this, she thought as she turned on the faucets. She just needed a little time to forget.

  Even though soaking in the tub helped ease the sore muscles and the soap washed away the scent of their lovemaking, Maddie knew nothing, not even time, would erase the memory of him. What she couldn’t understand was how she could have been so wrong about him. Was it possible for a man to make such thorough, spine-tingling love to a woman, seeming to give himself body and soul, and then simply leave without a word?

  Wrapped in the robe, she opened the bathroom door. The moment she stepped out of the steamy room, the aroma of coffee brewing and bacon frying caressed her nostrils. When she heard the clanging of pots and pans and the unmistakable sound of Alex cursing, her heart skipped a beat. He had left, but he’d come back.

  Feeling suddenly light-headed with anticipation, she raced to the kitchen, and smiled at the sight that met her. Alex was hunched down, trying to restack the skillets that had fallen out of a bottom cabinet onto the floor. Just as he shoved the last pan in, he turned and saw her standing in the doorway.

  “Guess all the noise woke you up, huh? Sorry, I tried to be quiet,” he said, his eyes giving her a thorough and approving once-over. He stood and motioned toward the bacon sizzling in the pan on top of the stove. “Hope you don’t mind, but I couldn’t find any eggs or bacon, so I ran down to that store on the corner and bought some.”

  “I don’t mind,” was all she could think of to say as she stood there, unable to stop grinning.

  It was after breakfast, over steaming cups of coffee that Alex broached one of the subjects that hadn’t been far from her mind since she’d returned to New Orleans.

  “Now that you’re settled here, have you thought about what you want to do with your brother’s stuff? With everything just sitting there, and no one living in the apartment, it’s a thief’s dream.”

  Maddie shrugged and lowered her gaze to the steaming cup in front of her. “I suppose I can’t put it off forever,” she mumbled. Then she raised her head and cleared her throat. “I do need to go through it and clean the place out. There are a few things—personal stuff—that I want to keep.”

  Alex frowned. “What about all the furniture? I don’t know much about antiques, but some of those pieces look valuable.”

  Maddie shrugged again. “I guess I could get Bernie Keller to give me an appraisal. If there are some valuable pieces, we can always sell them at Crescent Antiques.” Maddie wasn’t at all sure that Bernie Keller would agree to anything she asked after she had turned down his last offer, and he was the last man on earth that she wanted to talk to. But business was business, and no matter how much she disliked the man, sooner or later she’d have to get past her feelings, since she would be working with him. “Like I said, what I want is mostly the personal stuff.”

  Alex reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “It’s pretty obvious that the thought of going back to the apartment by yourself scares you, so why don’t I meet you there and stick around while you decide what you want or don’t want to keep.”

  Unable to hide her relief, Maddie sighed. “Thanks,” she whispered.

  He leaned across the table and kissed her. “You’re welcome,” he breathed against her mouth. When Maddie made a move to prolong the kiss, Alex pulled away. “It’s not that I don’t want to stay,” he said, giving her shoulders a reassuring squeeze. “There’s nothing that I would like better, but I need to be home when Carla comes in.”

  Instant contrition washed through her. Not once during the night had she thought of Carla. “Of course you do,” she agreed quickly.

  “What about meeting me at your brother’s place around five this evening?” he asked. “Afterward, we’ll grab a bite to eat somewhere.”

  Maddie nodded. “That’s perfect. I intended to visit Crescent Antiques today, anyway. I need to start learning the ropes now that I own half the place.”

  With a frown, Alex shoved his chair back and stood, and Maddie followed suit. He wished there was some way he could keep her from going into the Quarter alone, at least until he could catch the intruder and get to the bottom of what the man was after and why he had threatened her.

  There hadn’t been any sign of anyone stalking Maddie since they had been back, but he still worried. Then there was the unprovoked attack on him by Arnie Turner.

  Jack.

  What reason did he have for talking the judge into letting Arnie go free?

  “It just seems odd to me that Jack’s name keeps popping up.” Maddie’s words, along with what Casey had told him made Alex uneasy. It was odd how Jack’s name kept popping up.

  Coincidence, Alex thought, trying to convince himself. Pure coincidence. Jack was a good, honest cop. No matter what Maddie had insinuated or what Casey had said, to think of his friend in any other context made Alex feel like the worst kind of traitor.

  Alex turned his attention back to Maddie. Telling her to stay out of the Quarter or telling her that she couldn’t investigate her brother’s death on her own was tantamount to waving a red flag. “Just be carefu
l down in the Quarter,” he finally said instead.

  AT EXACTLY FIVE O’CLOCK, Maddie parked her car on the street in front of her brother’s apartment. There’d been so much more to do to make the apartment livable that she never made it in to Crescent Antiques. She glanced around, but Alex was nowhere in sight. Since she had no intention of going in alone, she made up her mind to wait a few more minutes.

  Five minutes passed, then ten, and still, there was no sign of Alex.

  Sighing with disappointment, Maddie had just decided that he wasn’t coming when he pulled in behind her.

  “Son-of-a-bitch!” the man who’d been walking toward Maddie muttered when he saw the cop get out of a car that had just pulled up behind the woman. The man’s foul language drew disapproving looks from a group of tourists passing him on the sidewalk, but he ignored them and quickly did an about-face, then ducked into an alley.

  He cursed again. Just his luck the policeman had to show up, too, he thought, clenching his fist. The guy was becoming a real pain in the rear and a major problem.

  He peered around the corner and watched the woman and the cop enter the building. The moment they disappeared inside, the man stepped out of the alley. Glancing around, he spotted a suitable place where he could sit and watch and wait without being too conspicuous. If he waited long enough, maybe the woman’s friend would finally leave.

  WHILE MADDIE selected the prints and pictures that she wanted to keep and stacked them in a corner, Alex bagged Michael’s clothes to take to the nearest homeless shelter. It was as if he’d sensed that going through and touching her brother’s clothes might be too painful for her, and she was grateful for his sensitivity.

  “Bag the clothes in the closet, too?” he called from the bedroom.

  “Yes, please,” she answered. “Everything.”

  The next thing she tackled was her brother’s personal correspondence. Always meticulous, he had kept his important papers filed neatly in a fireproof box. Most of what she found were copies of documents she’d already seen at the lawyer’s office.

  Maddie glanced up when Alex came into the room. “I stacked the bags in the middle of the floor,” he said.

  “Thanks.”

  “Anything else right now?”

  When Maddie shook her head, Alex walked to the French doors that led onto the balcony. “Think I’ll get some fresh air, then. Just yell if you need me.”

  She nodded absently, closed the file box and placed it next to the other things she intended to take with her.

  Deciding to go through the kitchen cabinets next, Maddie was walking toward the small kitchen, when a manila envelope caught her eye. Michael’s personal effects. The things he’d had on his body when he’d died, the things the police had found on him.

  Maddie recalled how she had clung to the package on the day of her brother’s funeral, as if doing so would keep Michael close for a little longer. But now, she didn’t want to touch the stuff, didn’t want to feel that kind of pain again. And for a moment, she was tempted to ask Alex to go through the envelope for her.

  Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders, picked it up and unceremoniously dumped the contents onto the table where it had been sitting.

  On the balcony Alex was standing, slightly bent forward, his legs spread apart, with his hands gripping the top of the wrought-iron railing. With his ears tuned to Maddie’s movements inside, he searched the street for signs of anything suspicious. Suddenly, the conversation he’d had with Jack earlier that day popped into his mind.

  Although Alex had detected an unusual reticence about Jack, his old friend had acted much the same as always. When Alex had broached the subject of Arnie Turner, Jack explained that Arnie was working on something for him. By the time they parted company, Alex had received Jack’s assurance that once Arnie’s job for him was finished, he’d personally put the little snitch back in a cell for attacking Alex.

  “Alex? Could you come and take a look at this?”

  As always, the sound of Maddie’s voice had the power to instantly drive everything else from his thoughts. He immediately pushed away from the railing and walked into the living room.

  Inside, Maddie was examining a small piece of rumpled paper. “Look at this,” she said. “It’s a receipt for the gramophone.”

  Alex took the paper from her. He remembered seeing the receipt in her brother’s file, and since Michael had dealt in antiques, Alex hadn’t thought twice about his having a receipt in his pocket. Of course it had also been on the list of items found at the scene of the deaths, but since no details had been given, there was no reason to think it was unusual or significant.

  “Look at the date and who the receipt is made out to.”

  Alex noted that the date was two days before Michael’s death, but it was the name on the receipt that stunned him. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said.

  “Don’t you find it kind of strange—I mean, why would Michael have sold Ross Shaw the gramophone, then made such a big deal about locking it away in a storage vault?”

  The hairs on the back of Alex’s neck stood on end and warning bells clanged in his head. The gramophone. Like his friend’s name, the gramophone kept popping up. Could he have missed something when he’d examined it?

  Maddie frowned. “Do you think it’s possible that Ross Shaw could somehow be involved in my brother’s death?”

  Alex shook his head. “Something like that, even the implication of such a thing, would be political suicide.” He shook his head again. “Like I told you, Shaw is about as squeaky-clean as they come.”

  Maddie looked skeptical. “Maybe, maybe not, but I suppose you would know better than me.” She carefully folded the receipt and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans. “As much as I hate to, I guess I’ll have to give Ross Shaw the gramophone since it’s legally his.” Then she voiced the same question that Alex was asking himself. “Why would Michael store something that he’d sold to someone?”

  Alex shrugged and raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know,” he answered, “but the more I find out about your brother’s death, the more I’m inclined to believe there was something fishy going on. I’ve been trying to check on some things, but haven’t hit anything solid yet.”

  Maddie’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me you had reopened his case?”

  “Because I haven’t,” he answered. “I’ve just been checking up on some things that bothered me. And I didn’t want to raise your hopes in case nothing came of it.”

  “Does this mean that you will petition to reopen my brother’s case?”

  He shook his head. “Not likely.”

  “Why not? It’s obvious that you think there’s enough evidence to warrant it.”

  Again he shook his head. “No, there’s not, Maddie. All I’ve got right now are a lot of questions, a gut feeling and no answers.”

  For long seconds, Maddie stared at him, suddenly feeling betrayed. Her stomach churned and her heartbeat quickened, sending waves of anger pulsing through her veins.

  Then another, more frightening thought occurred to her. Was it possible Alex had been afraid all along that her amateur investigation might divulge something that would prove her brother’s innocence and therefore prove how incompetent his friend Jack had been? Maddie’s insides quaked. What if the whole police department, including Alex, was covering up for Jack? Could Alex have been afraid that she might stumble onto the cover-up? Cops stuck together, didn’t they? Had he feigned interest just to keep an eye on her?

  She leveled a narrow-eyed gaze at Alex. “Do you consider yourself a good cop?”

  Alex tilted his head. “What are you getting at?”

  “You claim to be a dedicated police officer. If you have questions, isn’t it your duty to petition to have the case reopened?” She clenched her hands to keep them from trembling. “If you don’t, you’re not doing your job. Not only will your silence have ruined the name and reputation of an innocent man, but…”

>   She stopped to catch her breath, then added, “You’ll be responsible for the real murderer getting off scot-free.”

  Alex said nothing as he stalked past her. When he reached the front door, he jerked it open and walked out, slamming it behind him.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  TO HELL WITH HER, Alex thought as he stormed down the steps and out of the building. After all he’d done for her, after sticking his neck out, this was the thanks he got—a swift kick in the butt.

  Each word she’d spoken had struck him like a sledgehammer. He’d always prided himself on the fact that he was good at his job. He’d failed at a lot of things—marriage, fatherhood—but never at his job. And suddenly, this woman—the woman he thought he loved—had stripped him of that comfort.

  He was on her side, dammit, so why couldn’t she see it? He’d tried every way he knew to show her, but this was the last straw.

  No more, he vowed as he wrenched open the door to his car, climbed in and slammed it. He’d thought she was different, but in her own way, Maddie was just as self-serving as Joan had been. If they didn’t get what they wanted when they wanted it, they always had a new ploy to pull out of their bag of tricks.

  Even as the thought popped into his head, Alex knew that it wasn’t true. Maddie was nothing like Joan. She was only self-serving when it came to defending those she loved, and unlike Joan, Maddie was loyal to a fault. So, why couldn’t she understand that he had his loyalties, too? There was no way he could just up and petition to reopen her brother’s case, not without stomping on Jack’s professional reputation to do it.

  “No, dammit,” he muttered. There was no way he was going to stab his friend in the back like that, not after all that Jack had done for him.

  Besides, he thought, there were other ways of handling the matter, ways that someone like Maddie couldn’t begin to comprehend. People like her were all emotion, filling their lives with dreams, then living in the dreamworld they’d created. Hell, he was probably better off without her, anyway.