“Are you okay?” I asked, and he nodded.
His eyes flitted wildly around the hall. He looked like a junkie in withdrawal.
“Man, can I give you a ride?” Cougar asked, loosening his death grip on me. Grady shook his head violently. His whole body was shaking.
“You can’t drive like this,” Cougar said. “At least let me call you a cab.”
Grady patted his pocket and cursed when he didn’t find a phone. “Okay,” he said, “but let’s get out of this friggin’ basement.”
We took the elevator to the first floor, and Cougar walked outside to make the call. Grady and I sat side by side in the padded waiting room chairs.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done …” he said softly, and rubbed his hand across his mouth.
“I know.”
He took my hand and squeezed my fingers. “It’s going to be all right. We’re going to find her.”
“We have to,” I agreed.
Cougar walked back in. I saw him glance at us, then purposely look away. I let go of Grady’s hand and walked over to join him.
“Cab’s on its way,” he told Grady, then led me outside.
“We’re parked a million miles away,” he said. “Do you want me to go get the car?”
“No. I want to walk.” Somehow the warm sun on my face lifted my spirits. I slipped my fingers in Cougar’s and he squeezed them.
“Cougar … about this morning … I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I’m so crazy right now—”
He sighed. “It’s okay. You were up-front with me about what it was. It wasn’t your fault that I wanted to make something more out of it.”
He stopped and we faced each other in the middle of the parking lot. He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and gave me a crooked grin that made my heart stumble. “Now’s not the time or the place. First, we find Abby. Then we talk.”
“Cougar …”
He held up his hand. “No, no. It’s okay. I was thinking about your reaction. It wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped for, but I can see why you laughed at me. I know I haven’t been exactly settled in the past, but that was before I realized what I wanted. What I needed. It’s you, Necie. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long.”
“How long?” I asked, surprised.
He grimaced. “Long enough. Probably ever since we started working undercover assignments together.
Working with you made me a little nuts—Angel used to torment me about you—but I tried to leave you alone. You were married, Abby was small… I figured that eventually I’d get you out of my head. Then all this happened with Angel, and Grady … All that stuff got stirred up inside me again. But, anyway, like I said … Abby is our only priority now, but once we get her home … I’d really like to sit down and talk with you.”
“Okay,” I said, my head spinning. I squeezed his hand and brushed a soft kiss on his mouth.
On the way home, my shock from the morgue experience dissolved into a gnawing anxiety. I told Cougar about Barnes’s death. I wondered if Maria knew yet. Was Abby in even greater danger? I weighed the options and decided I had to take a chance.
“Cougar,” I said. “If I asked you to trust me with something, without asking questions, would you do it? There are a lot of things I need to tell you, things I should’ve told you a long time ago, but I was scared, and I didn’t know how—”
“Necie, relax,” he said, offering me a puzzled smile that made me feel ashamed. “I trust you. Whatever it is, I trust you.”
“I need to go see Maria Barnes.”
He stared at me for a long moment, then focused his attention back on the road. “Okay. Are you going to try to arrange a meeting at the station—”
“I want to go to her house.”
Cougar wiped his hand over his mouth. “Honey… are you sure that’s such a good idea? Her father just died. She’s not the most stable person under any circumstances—”
“I think she might have Abby.”
He blinked at me. “Why would she have Abby?”
“She has a … vendetta against me. She had an affair with Grady. She …” I paused, unsure of how much I should say.
He frowned, and shook his head. “Maria Barnes had an affair with Grady?”
“Yes, but… You just have to trust me. She’s out to get me. Out to ruin my life.”
“Over Grady? But you’re divorcing him. I think you’re exhausted, and I’m not sure you’re thinking too clearly—”
“There’s more—a lot more—but don’t make me go into it now. I know it’s a lot to ask, but please trust me. Now might be the best time to see her. She’s angry. She wouldn’t be able to hide it if she’s guilty.”
“Then let’s call the police—”
“We don’t have time to go through the proper channels. I have no proof. I don’t have anything. But if she did it, she’ll boast about it. At least then I’ll know.”
“Okay,” he said again.
We pulled up to the gates of the Barnes estate fifteen minutes later. A burly blonde approached the car.
“I’m here to see Maria,” I said, with as much authority as I could muster.
“She’s not here.”
“Please tell her Necie wants to talk to her.”
“I would, if she were here, but I already told you she isn’t.”
“Can we go in and wait for her?”
He laughed. “Not without a search warrant, Officer.”
So he knew who I was. I don’t know why that surprised me, but it did.
“Will you tell her I stopped by?”
He smirked. “I’m sure she’ll be in touch.”
I rolled the window up and chewed my thumbnail. “I have to get in there. I have to see her.”
Cougar snapped his gum and shrugged. “So, we’ll get in there.”
He pulled out, drove about a quarter of a mile, then wheeled the car into the driveway of a home with a realtor’s sign staked in the yard. He pulled the car all the way behind the house, hiding it from the road.
“We’re hoofing it from here,” he said, and killed the motor.
We crossed the road and reentered the woods, walking until we encountered the imposing fence.
“Probably wired,” he said. “We get too close, set off an alarm.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“Keep walking.”
We’d traveled another hundred yards, and he touched my shoulder. “Aha.”
He pointed at a sprawling oak ahead. Looking at its long, overhanging limbs, I knew immediately what he had in mind.
I sighed. “Let’s go, Tarzan.”
He scaled the tree first, then stretched down a hand to help me up. We moved up a few more feet.
“Me first,” he said, and edged out onto the limb.
It creaked and dipped under his weight, but he managed to clear the fence. Then, he locked his hands, lowered his body, and swung for a moment before dropping to the ground.
Closing my eyes, I tried to mimic his actions, but somehow I didn’t manage to land as gracefully.
“You okay?” he asked, and I could tell he was trying not to smile.
“Fine,” I muttered, dusting off my behind.
The huge pines nearly blocked the sun. Cougar didn’t seem to have any problem navigating the woods, but I kept sliding in the snow.
“What’s the matter, city girl?” he asked. “Can’t walk if it’s not on asphalt or concrete?”
“Ha, ha … Very—” I gasped when a man shot out from behind a tree in front of us.
We went for our guns.
“Denise!” the man cried. “Don’t shoot!” My arm faltered when I recognized his voice. Frank Barnes took another step toward us, holding up his hands.
“I’m here to help.”
CHAPTER
16
Dumbfounded, I stared at him, but Cougar harbored no such indecision. He pointed his gun at Barnes’s head.
“What … how …” I stammered.<
br />
“You were right,” Barnes said. “After I talked with Maria, I knew you were right. This is the only way I knew to help.”
“What’s going on here?” Cougar demanded.
Barnes ignored him. “If you walk in there, she’ll kill you. I failed her, like I failed you.”
“Necie, what’s he talking about?” Cougar asked.
I took a deep breath. “Don’t shoot him, Cougar. He’s my father.”
“What?” Cougar laughed, but his eyes were hard. “You’re joking, right?”
“I wanted to tell you. I tried—”
“When?” he snapped. “All these years we’ve been working together, and …” He paused, and his face went stony. “You’re the mole! All this time, you’ve been saving his ass.”
“That’s not true! I wanted to put him away more than anyone.”
“And what about Angel? Even after your father shot him, you tried to help him destroy evidence.”
“I love Angel. I would never do anything to hurt him.”
“All that time at the hospital … it was guilt, wasn’t it? You didn’t expect it to go down like that.”
“How can you say that?” I said. “You know me better than that.”
“I don’t know you at all.” Cougar cast a baleful look at Barnes, then spun and stalked back the way we’d come.
“Cougar, wait!”
“Stay away from me!” he yelled.
“Wait here!” I commanded Barnes, and chased after him.
He strode purposefully, his long legs widening the distance between us until he was little more than a shadow up ahead.
Suddenly, a group of men jumped out from behind the trees and wrestled him to the ground. I pulled my gun, but I couldn’t discern his shadow from theirs.
My heart raced. I had to do something.
Someone clamped a hand over my mouth. I struggled and bucked against him.
“Denise, stop it,” Barnes hissed. “If you run out there, you’ll both die.”
“Check around!” one of the men yelled. “There was a girl with him earlier.”
“Come!” Barnes said urgently. The hand that clamped my wrist was surprisingly strong.
I struggled again while he dragged me into the forest. “Where are we going? I have to help Cougar.”
“They’ll take him to the house.”
“You don’t know that. They could just shoot him and leave him there, like you did Angel.”
“Maria will want information. She’ll want to talk to him. I know a way in. Please, Denise, trust me.”
Trust him? I’d spent my whole life not trusting him. But with Abby and Cougar’s lives at stake, I had no choice.
I wasn’t sure how long we walked, but it seemed like forever. I was cold, tired, and terrified of what might be happening to Cougar while we tromped around the woods.
“Here,” Barnes said. “This is how we get in.”
I stared down at the drainage ditch poking out of the hillside.
He pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and said, “I’ll go first.”
On his hands and knees, he entered the small tube, leaving me little choice except to follow. The smell of rotting leaves and stagnant water gagged me.
“It gets better in a minute,” he said.
A few seconds later, he added, “Watch your step, there’s a drop-off.”
The little tube spilled out into a cavernous room.
“What is this?” I asked, following the beam of his flashlight as it played on the stone walls.
“The house was built by bootleggers in the twenties. This is an escape route. The house itself has a few tricks, as well.”
He led me into a larger tunnel. We wandered around for nearly an hour, so long that I’d half-convinced myself Barnes was stalling, when he said, “There’s the ladder.”
The flashlight beam jerked crazily, flying from the ladder to the wall to his feet.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m … fine,” he gasped. “Just a little … winded.”
“Maybe you should rest a minute.”
In response, he began to climb.
“Where does it come out?”
“Basement.”
We climbed a few more feet, and he snapped off the light. I heard a long, scraping sound as he pushed away the section of flooring.
Once inside, we paused, listening. Then we split up to search.
The house was eerily quiet. Damn it, she was gone again.
I went through room after room, thinking of the day we’d found Angel in the snow.
Then I opened a door and entered a bedroom with pale blue carpet and walls. A pile of clothing lay on the floor at the foot of the bed.
I edged forward, my heart pounding in my ears.
A low, soft groan came from the other side of the bed. I ran around the corner, and what I saw knocked the breath out of me.
Cougar lay facedown on the carpet, naked and bleeding. Blood smeared the powder blue carpet around him, streaked his skin like war paint. He groaned again, and I realized he was regaining consciousness.
I scrambled over, falling on my hands and knees beside him.
“No!” he yelled—a low, guttural cry filled with fear and pain.
I realized he couldn’t see me through his swollen left eye. “Cougar, it’s me, Necie,” I said, and touched his shoulder. He jerked violently at my touch.
“No!” he yelled. “No!”
“Cougar, it’s me. It’s only me. Necie.”
“Necie?” he whispered.
“Yeah, baby. It’s me. What did they do? Where are you hurt?”
“I’m okay,” he said, shaking his head and struggling to sit up.
“You’re not okay. I have to call an ambulance.”
“No! Just… get my clothes.”
“But—”
“Get my clothes!”
While I helped him dress, he asked, “Where’s Barnes?”
“Looking for Maria.”
Cougar leaned back, resting his head against the wall. A thin line of blood and spittle trickled down his chin. “So I didn’t dream it?” he asked softly.
“No,” I said. “But it’s not what you think.”
I talked to him while I finished buttoning his shirt and helped him to his feet, but I wasn’t sure whether he heard me or not.
“Does Grady’s mother smoke?” he asked abruptly.
“No. Why?”
He picked a cigarette butt off the floor, examined it, and shoved it in his pocket. “Let’s go.”
“Wait!” I grabbed him and he flinched. “Where are we going?”
“Your mother-in-law’s. She knows where Abby is.”
“How—”
“We’ll talk on the way,” he said. “I want to get out of this fucking house.”
We collected Barnes and left out the front door. No one manned the gate this time. Cougar maintained an angry silence until we reached the highway.
“The cigarettes,” he said. “When we went to Grady’s mother’s house, you remember how he put his out before going inside? When we went into her parlor, it smelled like smoke in there, too, only different. She sprayed air freshener and coughed. On the end table was one of those little rock and marble displays. There were a couple of cigarette butts in it. She noticed, and it pissed her off. She used a tissue to pick them out, and I noticed they had lipstick stains. They’re the same brand Maria smokes, and they’re some fancy kind—”
“From France,” Barnes said.
“—not the kind you buy at the 7-Eleven.”
“So she and Grady …” I said numbly.
Cougar shook his head. “I don’t think so. You saw him at the morgue. He wasn’t faking. That leaves—”
“Elizabeth,” I finished.
At first, I simply felt relief. If Elizabeth had Abby, she was safe. But the more I thought about it, the angrier I grew. “How could she do this, to Abby or Grady?”
Her accusations rang in my ear
s. Did she really think I was such a horrible mother she had to steal my child? And who better to help her than the woman bent on destroying me?
I don’t remember what else—if anything—was said on the rest of the trip to Elizabeth’s. All I could think was, “Find Elizabeth, find Abby.”
By the time we pulled up at her house, my nerves were singing. I slammed the car in park and was running up the lawn before Cougar could even open his door. The front door was locked, so I pounded on it with both fists.
“Hang on!” Grady yelled.
He threw open the door, and I saw the fear in his eyes. “Necie, what is it?”
“Where’s Elizabeth?” I demanded, pushing past him. I screamed her name up the stairs.
“She’s not here,” Grady said. “She drove to Lansdale. There’s a private detective there who’s supposed to be really good.”
“Have you got the address?”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Cougar walked in. Grady blinked at his bloody, battered face, but Cougar didn’t acknowledge him at all. He stalked past him to Elizabeth’s parlor.
“Hey,” Grady yelled. “Hey!”
Cougar dumped the wastebasket and picked a cigarette butt off the floor. With his free hand, he retrieved the one from his pocket and held them out to me. The butts were identical.
“Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” Grady asked.
I spun to face him. “Your mother paid Maria Barnes to take Abby.”
“Is this some kind of joke?”
“Why else would Maria’s cigarette butts be in the trash can? Has she been here, with you?”
Grady stared at the butts. “No! I told you—” He looked at me, and I’m sure my eyes mirrored the desperation I saw in his. He ran from the room and returned, clutching a piece of paper. “I’m going with you.” We ran for the car. Grady jumped in the backseat and yelped, “Who the hell is this?”
I’d almost forgotten Barnes was with us. “Grady—” “Grady! The man who hit my daughter?” “Your father!” Grady shouted. “The drug dealer?” Ignoring them, I peeled tires pulling away from the curb.
“What coward hits a woman?” Barnes asked. “You killed people, and you’re judging me?” “Should’ve had you killed.”
Paint It Black Page 25