It was tempting. Although I wasn’t keen on seeing Carter, I didn’t feel like driving downtown to Cityscapes to pick up Norman’s computer. The first rumble of thunder drummed through the open window at my side.
“I’ll meet you at Sazz’s for dinner, all right?” One of my favorite restaurants, Sazz’s was famous for their ribs and located only a mile from my house.
“I’d like that. Does six work for you?”
“Fine, I’ll see you then.” I realized too late I shouldn’t have suggested that restaurant because Carter and I had been there together many times when we were married. I didn’t want to set a sentimental background, but along with my sleeping patterns, my food intake had been sporadic lately, and my mouth watered at the thought of a barbecued rib sandwich. And I would have no qualms about eating the messy, calorie-laden delight in front of him. How to fend him off after dinner would be the problem, but I would worry about that later. Right now I only wanted to avoid spending the entire day and evening in this house while a thunderstorm rumbled around me.
Carter didn’t mention he had arrived by cab until after we had finished eating and were enjoying an after-dinner drink. Until then I had relaxed, enjoyed the delicious food, a glass of wine, and even the attractive man across the table from me. He could be a charming companion, and with his silver hair, sparkly blue eyes, and heavenly, eucalyptus-scented cologne, I lapsed back into the bewitched state he used to instill in me.
Any renewed feelings that had been awakened were dashed into scraps by his attempt to maneuver me into driving him home. “What about Norman’s computer?” I asked. “I thought that was the purpose of this get-together.”
“Gemma, I’ve been having a problem with my rental car. I would have been late if I had taken the time to get another one when I brought it in, so I took a cab here. I didn’t think you would mind dropping me off at my hotel. I have the computer with me. I checked it at the desk with the hostess so we wouldn’t have to have it here at the table. I can take a cab back to my hotel; it’s no problem. Honestly, I wasn’t planning on trying to lure you up to my room.”
Although he sounded sincere, I wasn’t sure he hadn’t planned this. I didn’t want to let myself be swayed into a decision I would regret, but it was only a car ride and I would be the one driving.
“It’s all right, I’ll drop you off.”
“Maybe I should go home with you and call a cab from there. I don’t like you going home alone in the dark after everything that’s happened.”
I shouldn’t have spilled my guts while we drank our wine, waiting for the food to arrive. It had apparently given Carter a false sense of my comfort in his company. But I only had Lisa to talk to about everything and she had to listen. The only thing I held back from Carter was the sleep paralysis. I’d had episodes occasionally when we were married, but they had never included a night visitor and hadn’t been scary.
About to give an emphatic “no” to his offer to come home with me, my reply was stifled by a blast of thunder loud enough to be heard above the conversation of the diners, the music, and the rattle of dishes. It made me realize I didn’t want to go back to my dark house alone and I acquiesced to his suggestion.
The gutters were filling with water as I drove us home, making me grateful my lot was on a slope; I wouldn’t have to worry about flooding. When we arrived at my house, Carter carried the computer in for me and set it on my desk.
“When did you get a bird?” He stepped over to Clyde’s cage and peered in at Clyde who became engrossed in looking him over with his head bobbing, watching him the way birds do. “Does he talk?”
As Carter looked to me for an answer, Clyde squawked, “Want coffee?”
I couldn’t help laughing at Clyde’s new phrase. I hadn’t taught it to him, but the words did fit with having a visitor in the house. He had overheard the coffee offer many times. Carter turned back to the bird. “Yes, thank you. I take mine black.”
Even Clyde seemed to be plotting against me by amusing Carter and making him feel at home. I put the coffee on while Carter took a chair close to the parrot, trying to teach him to say “Carter.” While the coffee brewed, I explained how I came to own Clyde.
A feeling of comfort filled me. With the rain’s constant onslaught at the windows, the sky dark as coal between brilliant flashes of lightning, I wouldn’t have felt secure coming in by myself. The installation of my security system had been put off another week due to an illness of one of their installers. I had to admit I was glad for Carter’s company.
Over coffee, I told him more about what had been happening in the area.
“Gemma, I don’t like the idea of you living here alone right now. Why don’t you move into a hotel? At least until you get your alarm system in.”
“Two reasons: First, there is Clyde, and second, I do most of my work here. It wouldn’t be practical to take all my equipment with me.”
“Many hotels allow pets these days, and you could always shoot over here during the day to work for a few hours.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I’ll make some calls tomorrow and see if I can find one that suits us.”
“Let me stay here tonight. I’ll sleep on the couch,” he added quickly. “Then tomorrow you can find somewhere to stay.”
Of course it had come down to this, Carter spending the night. I shouldn’t have been surprised. As if even the weather cooperated with the man, a massive lightning strike glimmered outside. Its branches streaked through the sky, followed by a clash of thunder that shook the house on its foundation. Within seconds, an electricity outage knocked out the lights. We sat in darkness while Clyde squawked, “Hail Mary! Hail Mary!”
Carter laughed. “That settles it. I’m staying. If you want me to leave, you’ll have to wrestle me out the door.”
“I’ll get a flashlight.” I felt my way to a drawer and pulled one out, clicking it on to fill the room with softly lit shadows. I stepped into the garage and retrieved a pair of battery-powered lanterns.
The thunder continued, filling my small house with tremors. I looked out and in the nearly constant flashes of lightning saw huge streams of water rushing along the street in the direction of the river parkway. There were going to be a lot of flooded basements.
We shared a bottle of wine and played gin rummy in front of one of the lanterns until Carter said, “It’s been a long day. If you don’t mind, I’ll take up my post on your couch.”
“That’s not necessary. The guest room is right around the corner; you’re welcome to use it.” I left him with one of the lanterns, picked up the other, then Clyde. I went up to my room, wondering if I should arm myself with a golf club in case Carter wandered my way with ideas.
I bolted the door behind us.
Chapter 36
TJ picked up JR from her sister’s house and headed for home, the fact that she had found out nothing helpful about the case eating at her like heartburn. When she arrived home and ran through the rain from the garage with JR bouncing in her arms, he giggled and opened his mouth to the raindrops.
If she weren’t a mother, she would be working the case even in this storm, but thinking about it filled her with a twinge of guilt. Richard told her she had the best of both worlds, but at times it felt like she had forsaken her previous one. Sometimes she felt sorry for JR; her son didn’t have the best world when his mother preferred murder and mayhem to spending time with her child. Bad thought. Not really true, but sometimes she felt torn.
They ate supper, and TJ sat with JR on the living room floor and entertained him with a variety of his toys, then gave him a bath and read to him. By eight o’clock, he was asleep.
TJ returned to the whiteboards and added “Had sex with the intruders” under Sondra Jackson’s heading. Was the woman on drugs? What else could explain her joining in the fun with the intruders in Fink’s hous
e?
As TJ was about to leave the room, her phone rang. It was Larry, Roland’s friend, the longtime hairdresser who Rollie thought might know about swingers in the area.
“Hi, TJ. Rollie told me to call you. He mentioned you wanted information about swingers?”
“Yeah, it’s for this case I’m working. There might be some kinda connection to swingers in this area.”
“I suppose you can’t tell me anything about it, right?”
“Nah, can’t. Sorry.” Not being a cop, she could have told him whatever she wanted, but wouldn’t unless it became necessary.
“No problem, just curious. Not sure I can tell you very much, TJ. Swinging was pretty much a seventies and eighties thing, you know?”
“Well, it ain’t dead, I can tell you that much.”
“I suppose it isn’t. There was a pretty active group around here, maybe fifteen, twenty years ago. I had a client whose husband wanted her to try it, that’s how I heard about it. You wouldn’t believe what women tell me.”
“Did they get into it?”
“No, not that I know of. That was right before the big scandal. And anyway, after all that hit the fan I never heard any more about swinging going on around here.”
“What scandal?” she asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. It sounded like just the kind of thing she wanted and he had glossed right over it.
The storm raged while she waited for his answer, and after the next clap of thunder, the lights flickered before the power went totally out. “Hey, Larry, my power just went out. I’ll call you back, okay?”
Irritated that she hadn’t found out about the “scandal,” she left the room to find a flashlight. After locating it, she went back upstairs and lit some jar candles. Her phone rang and she hurried to grab it. It was probably Richard.
“TJ, this is Jon. Is Richard with you?”
“No, he’s working cause of the storm and all.”
“I thought he might be. Uh, listen—I have some bad news. I’m at the hospital in West Bend—St. Joseph’s. Bill Denison had a heart attack. It’s serious. They’re doing tests, but he’ll probably need surgery.”
“Damn. I’d go over there, but I’m here alone with JR tonight.”
Bill and Donna Denison’s son, Jeff, already dead when TJ first learned she was pregnant, had been their only child. She had included them in their grandson’s life from day one and couldn’t have asked for better grandparents for JR. JR was their only tie to their son. “I know it’ll be inconvenient to come,” Jon added, “but Donna needs you.”
The freaking storm sounded like it would bring the house down any second now. Torn, TJ said, “I hate wakin’ JR up and takin’ him out in this shit.”
“Do you want me to drive in and pick you up?”
She was about to say she didn’t need his help, then reconsidered as she thought about making the round trip from West Bend in the driving rain in addition to dropping off JR at Janeen’s. “Sure. Come on over. I’ll call Janeen.”
Later, when she arrived at the hospital with Jon, Donna got up and came over to TJ. Wearing a damp jogging suit with a pair of too-white trainers, her eyes were puffy from crying; she clung to TJ like she was her long-lost daughter.
Chapter 37
I awaken, startled, the book I’ve been reading lying heavily on my chest. When I try to remove it, I realize I’m in sleep paralysis mode. Amazingly, I remember to make an effort to overcome my fear. I do this by forcing my thoughts in another direction: on Clyde, asleep in his new cage near my bed, on Carter sleeping in the guest room, on the rain still doing its relentless Morse code against the roof above my room. This works until I become aware that, once again, I’m no longer in my room. I lie on the kitchen floor against the cupboards, looking out into the middle of the room. It’s difficult, but I manage not to panic. Until I notice them. Three dark figures are moving into the room through the patio doors. Nothing about them is clear, but their presence in the house I thought I had locked is terrifying. I burst awake, gasping for breath.
Fully awake, I laid the book on the nightstand and got out of my bed. My body trembled from the vision I had seen while I was in paralysis. I double-checked the lock I had engaged on my bedroom door, wary even with my ex-husband sleeping downstairs. It was secure. I put my ear to the door and heard nothing.
The electricity was still off, and the bedroom bathed in radiant flashes from the lightning beyond the window, my small bungalow threatened by the storm’s intensity.
Something crashed downstairs. It didn’t sound like thunder. Maybe Carter had gotten up and bumped into something unfamiliar, or was that simply wishful thinking? It couldn’t be happening again, someone breaking in again so soon after the other time. I told myself that what I had seen while in paralysis wasn’t real. There were no intruders here tonight.
My heart raced while my mind pictured horrible things. It was probably just that vision messing with my imagination, but I picked up my gun and walked to the door. With my ear pressed against its cool surface, I heard footsteps downstairs, definitely more than one set of them.
Was what I had seen actually happening? Could Carter be resisting an intruder while trying to keep me safe or was my imagination pulling me along in a current of bogeymen? Either way, I had to go down there. I couldn’t decide if I should call 9-1-1. I didn’t want to turn into the woman who cried intruder at the least little noise, but what if Carter needed help?
I quietly opened the door and edged out onto the landing above the stairs. I heard sounds that left no question about what was happening. I moved back where I couldn’t be heard, dialed 9-1-1, and identified myself. “Please,” I begged, “someone’s broken into my house again. Tell the police to hurry.” I spouted the address, knowing that with the conditions outside there would be many emergencies tonight and help might be slow getting here. It was up to me to do something immediately to help Carter. Holding the gun out in front of me with both hands, I descended the stairs, desperately trying to control the tremors of fear shooting through my body.
I entered a scene from a nightmare. Carter lay sprawled on the sofa in only his underwear. His white T-shirt was soaked in blood and his upper body rested against the floral cushions. His hips were balanced on the edge on the cushions and his bare feet touched the floor. The soft light from the lantern gave the room an eerie glow and just enough light to make the words scrawled on the wall stand out. Or were they even words? Horrifically, they appeared to be written in blood, and the downward flow from the letters made them nearly illegible. It looked like the writer had been interrupted. I didn’t have time to think about them. I had to help my ex-husband.
I needed to find the source of the blood and staunch the flow until the EMTs arrived, but I hated to put my gun down. Still gripping it, I hit redial for 9-1-1 and told the operator to send an ambulance. Then I looked around the room to be sure the intruders were gone.
One of the French doors to the patio was open, and rain swept into the room. They must have left that way. I felt the coldness of the wood floor on my bare feet and moved carefully through the water so I wouldn’t fall. I slammed the door shut and locked it, then hurried back to Carter and felt for a pulse. It was there. Weak, but steady. I lifted his T-shirt and saw a jagged wound above his abdomen. He must have been stabbed. I grabbed a throw from the back of the sofa and pressed it to his chest, applying as much pressure as I was capable of in my panicked state.
I never knew what hit me. A shadow passing across the wall became the last thing I saw out of the corner of my eye. I felt a shattering blow to my head and everything went black.
When I regained consciousness, I looked up and expected to see the paramedics, but instead, Detective Haymaker’s face cleared in my vision. I tried to ask him about Carter, but found I couldn’t speak. I realized I must be in shock, so overwhelmed by what had happened that my throat
constricted. I was lying on the floor next to the sofa where I must have fallen after receiving the blow to my head. Haymaker knelt beside me, applying pressure to Carter’s chest. With his other hand, he covered me with a blanket and placed a pillow from the sofa beneath my head. For once I welcomed his presence.
I found of my voice. “Is he. . . Will he be all right?”
The detective held his position over Carter. “I don’t know. He’s still alive, though. You’re lucky you weren’t stabbed too.”
Using the coffee table for leverage, I pulled up to a sitting position. I wasn’t feeling lucky. “I have to check on Clyde,” I squeaked out.
“You’re worried about the bird?” he asked. “This guy is hanging by a thread, you probably have a concussion, and you want to look in on the freaking bird?”
There was nothing I could do for Carter right now, or for myself. These animals that had broken in tonight had messed with Clyde the last time they invaded my house. My head pounded with pain and I reeled with dizziness, but I shuffled slowly to the bottom of the stairs where I clung to the railing for support. From upstairs, I heard, “Amen! Amen! Amen!” until the litany became drowned out by another burst of thunder. Clyde, ken to something amiss in his world, had retreated to repetition. I couldn’t even pull myself up the stairs to comfort him; he would have to wait. The dizziness overcame me, and I sank heavily to the bottom step.
Chapter 38
An hour passed with no word from the doctors about Bill Denison’s surgery. TJ, her nerves on edge, held Donna while they waited. When Donna’s sister arrived, TJ left for the cafeteria.
Luckily, she reached Richard before he got to her house and discovered that she and JR were gone. He was pulling an all-nighter but thanked her for letting him know what was happening. He would pick JR up for her in the morning.
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