“Clerk’s dead,” Tony continued.
“Damn.” Dallas itched to ask what type of gun was used, but chances were Tony didn’t have that info yet and if Dallas showed any interest, his brother would guess Dallas’s reason and blow a gasket.
“What’s happening to our town? I’ve never had this many homicides in one night before.” He glanced back at Nikki. “Looks like I’ll have to chat with Nikki later.” He started off then turned back. “Her car’s going to be held for a while. If Annie Oakley leaves, can you make sure Nikki has a way home?”
Shit. That didn’t follow Dallas’s tread-carefully plan.
“Or…,” Tony continued. “I could call one of the other ‘interested’ guys to do it.”
There was a teasing quality in his brother’s voice that pissed Dallas off even more. “I’ll do it,” he growled.
Nikki sat with Nana and the Ol’ Timers and Ellen’s mother, taking a whole corner of the surgery waiting room. Nikki had only met Mrs. Wise once at an open house at the gallery. She had immediately liked the woman if for no other reason than, like Ellen, she was a warm and exuberant individual. Though none of that exuberance shined now.
Nikki couldn’t help but wonder if Mrs. Wise held Nikki responsible for her daughter’s attack. If not for Nikki, Ellen would probably have been home with her own young daughter and not holding the fort down at a dying art gallery.
Again, the questions started firing in Nikki’s brain. Why was this happening? Who killed Jack? Was it just some freak coincidence that Ellen was also attacked? Nikki had asked the detective right before she’d been released if it appeared the motive had been robbery. He said that according to his men, the money was still in the register and Ellen’s purse was still under the counter. So robbery didn’t appear to be the motive. But what the hell was? It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.
The mood in the waiting room could best be described as tensely optimistic—especially after a nurse had popped in and said they were still operating and it was touch and go.
Mrs. Wise passed around a picture of Britney, Ellen’s six-year-old daughter, who was with her grandfather, probably asking for her mother.
Ellen had never said much about Britney’s father, except to call him her biggest mistake. Nikki had to swallow several times to keep from crying when she looked at the little girl’s picture. The thought that Britney might have to grow up without her mother ripped at Nikki’s heart. And not just because her mother was Nikki’s best friend. Nikki knew what it felt like to be that age and lose your parents. Not that Nikki’s had died; they simply hadn’t wanted her anymore.
Occasionally, someone waiting for another patient would ask about the vintage wear of Nana and the Ol’ Timers. There had been some conversations about the Annie Oakley play, but then it got quiet again and the tension crept back into the room like a heavy fog.
Dallas and his brother, Detective O’Connor, were in and out of the waiting room taking phone calls. Nikki didn’t know if they were about her but, because during those phone calls one or the other would glance over at her, she suspected they were. The detective’s gaze was bothersome in that she could feel him measuring her for a pair of handcuffs. That would lead Nikki to thinking about Jack, and the vision of him dead in her trunk would flash in her head.
Dallas’s gaze was equally disturbing. Not that he looked at her as if she was guilty. Nope, he looked at her with concern, as if she was his personal project and he had to make sure she was okay.
It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate his help, but it reminded Nikki of how she’d felt for Jack in the beginning. She’d had her work for sale on commission at a small café, and when the business went bankrupt, her six paintings had somehow gotten caught up in the deal. When she’d gone to the law firm handling the case to explain, Jack had been all too eager to come to her rescue. He’d been a knight in shining armor. And Nikki had fallen right into the role of damsel in distress.
Almost as if her thoughts triggered his attention, Dallas looked over, concern etched deeper into his expression. He said something to his brother and then Detective O’Connor walked out of the room. Then, in all his knighthood, Dallas came over and dropped into the chair beside her.
“You’re looking a little ragged around the edges,” he whispered.
She gazed into his dark blue eyes. “I wouldn’t recommend that as a pickup line,” she whispered back, hoping to make light of his concern and determined not to act like a damsel.
“Don’t worry.” A smile appeared in the corners of his eyes. “I only use that one on women who puke on me.”
“Why do I think you’re not going to let me forget that?”
“A guy has to use what he can,” he countered.
Realizing they were practically flirting in the middle of a hospital waiting room while her friend’s life was on the line, she slumped back in the chair.
He leaned closer. “You should be at home resting.”
“I’ve already tried to convince her.” Nana, sitting to Nikki’s left, leaned forward and invited herself into the conversation. “Don’t let the angel face fool you. Nikki’s got a stubborn streak in her wider than the Mississippi River is long.”
“I wonder who I might have taken after,” Nikki said.
“Your step-grandfather was a handful.” Nana grinned and rested her hand on top of Nikki’s. “Seriously, you’ve had a bad day. Let me take—”
“I’m fine.” Nikki looked from Nana to Dallas. “I’m not leaving until I know Ellen’s okay.”
Dallas and her grandmother shared a look and then both leaned back in their chairs. Nikki went back to worrying—about Ellen, about who killed Jack, and about why the feel of Dallas’s leg pressing up against hers sent tingles through her body.
Finally, she shifted her leg away and looked at Dallas. “Have you or your brother learned anything?”
He rubbed his finger under his lip and looked at her. “Not really.” His right eyebrow arched.
“Are you lying to me?”
“There have been no developments that help us figure out who did this yet.” His brow didn’t arch this time. “We can talk later when we have a little more privacy.”
“Wise family,” a voice called out, and everyone sitting in the corner with Nikki rose to meet the doctor.
Holding her breath, Nikki moved over to the doctor, allowing Mrs. Wise to be in the lead. She kept telling herself the doctor’s frown didn’t mean bad news. She felt a solid body beside her and she looked over at Dallas. Then Nana came to her other side.
“How is she?” Mrs. Wise asked, tears rolling down her face. Obviously, she’d noted the doctor’s expression, as well.
“She came through the surgery. She’s weak. She’s lost a lot of blood. She’s a fighter, though. We’re keeping her in intensive care. The next few hours are critical. But if she pulls through that, I’d say there’s a good chance of recovery.” The doctor gave Mrs. Wise’s arm a squeeze and then walked away.
Mrs. Wise swung around and hugged Nikki. Nikki embraced her back. “She’s my baby, Nikki,” Mrs. Wise said. “A mother should never have to sit shiva for her baby.”
“And you won’t,” Nikki said, holding on tight and putting every ounce of emotion she had into the embrace. “She’s going to be okay,” she added and, with all her heart, she prayed she was right.
“I’ll take care of her,” Dallas told Mrs. Littlemore as they stood outside the intensive care unit’s waiting room. It was after eleven and Nikki still refused to leave. He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Nikki about the calls from Ellen to her ex-husband. Since Ellen’s mom and Nikki had hugged, the two had been inseparable. Asking Nikki if her injured best friend might have been having an affair with her ex-husband in front of the friend’s mom just didn’t seem like a good idea. He valued his life more than that.
Mrs. Littlemore looked him directly in the eye. “She probably won’t leave until she sees Ellen for herself. I tried talking to her. But t
he girl’s stubborn.” She huffed. “No, that’s not true. She’s only stubborn when it involves people she cares about.”
“She and Ellen were close, huh?” Dallas asked, hoping to get a little insight.
“Yes. Ellen’s the one who pulled Nikki out of Brokenheartville. I tried, but I think having someone her own age made a difference. Don’t know why you young people think we don’t know crap about heartbreak. I’ve lost two husbands.”
Dallas hesitated, but decided to go for it. “Were Nikki and Jack getting back together?” From what Nikki had said earlier, he hadn’t thought so. But for the last hour he’d spent time going over everything he knew, and the thing that kept poking at his mind was the question he hadn’t asked Nikki. Why was she having dinner with her ex?
“God, no.” Mrs. Littlemore hesitated. “I don’t think so. I didn’t ask why she agreed to meet him for dinner. She hasn’t seen him since the divorce, over a year ago. And she brought the flowers he sent every week over to our retirement center. Said it was better than tossing them away.”
“So he wanted to reconcile?” Dallas asked.
“Of course he did. He was a lowlife, cheating weasel, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what he’d lost. Nikki’s a prize. Girl’s got heart, and when she loves someone, they know it. Gives her all, that girl. But Nikki isn’t stupid, either. She knew if he’d cheated once he’d do it again. She learned that from her own mother, I’m afraid.”
Dallas wanted to ask her to clarify what she meant about Nikki’s mom but didn’t chance it. “Did you know Ellen well?” he asked instead.
“Well enough to know she’s good people. I fill in at the gallery when Nikki needs someone. Why?”
He avoided her question, but asked another of his own since the woman seemed willing to answer his first. “Did Ellen know Jack?”
She looked at him with a touch of suspicion. “Don’t think so. Nikki didn’t hire Ellen until after she filed for divorce. Ellen was the replacement for the little slut Nikki found Jack doing the goat’s jig with on the antique sofa.”
Goat’s jig? Dallas had to bite back his smile.
“Why all the questions, Buster Brown?” A slight tease filled her voice, but he didn’t miss the seriousness in her aged brown eyes.
He considered telling her what he knew, but decided it was best to talk to Nikki first. “Asking questions is my job.”
“I thought proving her innocent was your job.”
“It is, but I don’t know where to start until I have some answers. That means asking questions.”
She nodded but never looked away from his eyes. “Fine. Just you remember that Nikki’s got me watching out for her. I may look like a crazy ol’ bitty, but I can be a mean ol’ bitty if I have to.” She added a little smile to soften the threat.
“I’ll remember that.” He smiled back.
She continued to study him. “For the record, I think I like you. Don’t go proving me wrong, because that would piss me off to no end.”
“I’ll try not to piss you off,” he said.
“And you’ll see to it that she gets home.”
“I’ll see to it.” And for some crazy reason, he wasn’t even dreading it anymore.
He watched the older woman walk away, trying to figure out how he could broach the subject of Ellen with Nikki without pissing Nikki off. Not that making her mad would stop him from doing his job. If he had to piss her off to prove her innocent, he would. And who knew? There might even be a legitimate reason Ellen had phoned Jack that didn’t involve her screwing him.
He started back to the waiting room but his phone rang. It was Austin, calling from the crime scene at the convenience store.
“Learn anything?” he asked, hoping Austin had something to help clear Eddie Nance.
“I learned your brother’s a bastard.”
Dallas raked a hand through his hair. “I seem to be hearing that a lot lately.”
“Maybe you should start believing it,” Austin said.
“He’s a good cop.” Dallas defended Tony. It was the job that brought out the worst in him. A job Tony put on the line numerous times to come to Dallas’s defense.
“Yeah, but the moment his good-cop ass spotted me at the crime scene, he had two of his minions chase me off.”
Dallas knew Tony would figure out he’d been the one to send Austin there. He also knew Tony would give him hell for it later. Dallas felt the crease in his forehead pull. He dreaded that conversation, but not enough that he regretted his actions. He wasn’t above upsetting his brother to clear Nance. And while Tony would get angry, he knew if the shoe was on the other foot, his brother would do the same.
“So you didn’t get anything?” Dallas asked, his optimism waning.
“Not anything concrete, but it looks suspicious. They aren’t releasing what type of gun was used yet. But when Detective Shane, the cop who arrested Nance, showed up, he and your brother had words. Whatever Tony said to Shane got him ticked. I thought the two were going to go to blows.”
“It must be the same MO,” Dallas said. “I’ll bet Tony pointed that out to Shane and he got hot under the collar.”
“That’s what I suspected, too. But damn it, if we knew for sure, we might be able to use that right now and get the DA to drop the charges against Nance.”
“If it’s really the same MO, Tony will speak up,” Dallas said.
“To who? Shane? What good is that going to do? You think he’ll admit at this point he arrested the wrong suspect?”
“If I ask Tony, he might give me something.” Dallas knew he was grasping at straws. Tony was a by-the-book cop. “Do me a favor. Find Nance, see if he has an alibi for tonight.”
“I already have,” Austin said. “He’s been home. The only person there has been his grandmother, asleep.”
“Damn,” Dallas said.
Tony stared at the body of the young store clerk as the coroners loaded it on the stretcher. For a homicide detective, death was a constant. But one or two a month he could deal with. Two a night, and two more victims possibly to follow, well… it would get to anyone. The ugliness of it filled his chest and he had to look away.
Wanting to wash the image from his head, he envisioned LeAnn… imagined how her soft hair shifted back and forth on her shoulders, the way she tilted her head slightly to the side when she listened to someone. She’d always been a good listener. Probably because she cared more than the average person.
Did she still care about him?
He’d noted that touch of interest in her eyes when she looked at him. Interest that, given the right conditions, he could turn to passion. However, he hadn’t missed the pain in her soft green eyes. LeAnn was still hurting. That didn’t surprise him. If he wasn’t careful, he could go back there himself, to that emotional place where pain and guilt made it hard to breathe. A place where he almost felt losing LeAnn was his cross to bear. But he didn’t want to go back there. He wanted to live life and, damn it to hell and back, but he wanted to live it with LeAnn. He wasn’t giving up on them.
But could he convince LeAnn not to give up on them?
“Hey.” Rick Clark, his friend and partner, joined Tony. “What the hell is it with tonight?”
“Tell me and we’ll both know.” Tony forced himself to look back at the body being moved out of the store.
“Shit,” Clark said as the body passed by them. “How old was that kid?”
“Twenty-one,” Tony muttered. “Just getting started.”
“Did I hear there was another vic?”
“Yeah, an older woman. Shot in the chest. Ambulance left with her about thirty minutes ago.”
“Damn. How’s she holding up?”
“Not good,” Tony said. “They don’t think she’s going to make it. She came to buy milk for her grandkids and it’s probably going to cost her her life.”
Clark looked around. “Cameras?”
Tony shook his head. “Have we ever gotten that fucking lucky?”
; “Not working, huh?” Clark guessed correctly. Silence filled the room and then a woman screamed out front. No doubt it was a family member of the vic. They both gazed through the glass to the woman sobbing on a cop’s shoulder. “You ever think about quitting this gig?” Clark asked.
“Every time I’m called to a case,” Tony said. But when he solved a case, he changed his mind. He loved that he caught the bad guys.
“I saw Detective Shane outside,” Clark said, following Tony to the counter.
“And he can stay out there,” Tony snapped.
“I heard you two nearly came to blows. What happened?”
Tony ran a hand through his hair. “A robbery took place several months back. Similar MO, black kid of average height and build and, according to the eyewitness, the same type of gun was used, only no one was shot. Dallas’s PI firm is handling the case. He really believes the kid Shane fingered for it is innocent.”
“Is the kid still locked up?”
“No,” Tony said. “He’s out on bail, but the moment I brought up the MO being similar, Shane accused me of trying to help Dallas.”
Clark cut Tony an accusing look. “Are you?”
“Hell, no!” Tony snapped. “But neither do I want to see an innocent kid go to jail.”
“I agree, but no cop wants a damn PI nosing around his case. Hell, I’d be pissed, too.”
“I know.” Tony glanced at the empty cash register and the baseball bat. “Looks like the kid tried to overtake the perp.”
“And got himself killed.” Clark leaned over the counter, looking at the blood pooled behind it. “From the blood splatter I’d say he was close to the counter when he took the bullet.”
Tony walked around the counter and knelt down. “There’s blood on the end of the bat and it wasn’t near the blood pool that appears to be our vic’s. The kid might have gotten in a hit before he got himself shot. Which means this really could be the same perp as the other robbery, and he only shot this time because he was provoked. Make sure CSU takes in the bat.”
Clark nodded. They moved around a few minutes, figuring out how the crime went down. After taking notes, Clark asked, “Any news on the Ellen Wise chick?”
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