by M. E. Logan
“Oh, he wouldn’t.” Diana paused. “Just what did you do to cross him anyway?”
“You mean besides bust him for drugs? For possession? For distribution?” She stopped and thought about it, putting her head back to examine the ceiling. “Waldo and I seem to have been fated. A number of years ago when I was just a rookie, my partner and I pulled him over for a traffic violation. No taillights as I recall. Car was loaded with cocaine.” She abruptly looked at Diana. “About nine months before I met you. Would that be purely a coincidence, Diana?”
“Maybe fate, but I had nothing to do with any of Waldo’s drug dealings, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Can I believe that? Jessie mused as she tried to read Diana’s mind. It had the feeling of truth. Maybe she was grasping at straws. “Anyway, he did a short term, first offense, although he wasn’t unknown to us. Then after he got out, I happened to be the one to arrest him for distributing. This last one I didn’t have anything to do with so I don’t know why he’s pissed at me.”
“I can answer that for you. During that stretch, he developed a real case of claustrophobia. Blames you for that. Sending him back to prison, locking him up, is all your fault.”
“I lose sleep at night over people like him,” Jessie said with some sarcasm. “Come on. I answered your questions. Now you answer mine.” Diana was still reluctant. “What? Rape me? Torture me? Kill me? No, you said he wasn’t going to do that. What’s the deal? He didn’t manage to do any of it.”
Diana gave in. “Since you insist on knowing,” she started. “This is only second maybe thirdhand because no one would say this to my face. He wasn’t going to kill you because he wanted you to suffer, and you couldn’t suffer if you were dead. Rape? Most likely. Torture? Yeah, he’s always had a sadistic streak. But the kicker was he was going to rape, torture, and kill Julie, make you watch. That way you could remember for the rest of your life that you couldn’t do a thing to stop him or save your lover.”
Jessie stopped breathing and when she opened her mouth to say something, her mouth was so dry she couldn’t get her tongue to work. Her stomach lurched and she gripped the table so she didn’t pitch forward. Diana watched her without moving. Abruptly Jessie pushed off from the table and bolted down the hall to the half bath tucked under the stairs.
When she finished losing her breakfast she buried her face in the icy washcloth, then sat on the commode trying to pull herself together. Delayed panic set in. All those years of worrying about Julie and now that she was out of the house, out of Jessie’s life, she was still at risk. Images came all too easily to mind, images about herself she could shut out. But not Julie.
She pulled herself together, washed her face. She was still shaken and angry as she stalked back to the library.
Adrenaline-fueled, she headed straight for Diana, grabbed her by her shirt front and pulled her out of the chair. “That son of a bitch. And how did he know anything about Julie?”
“Don’t be an ass, Jessie,” Diana retorted, not even struggling against her. “You think things like that aren’t noticed? You think the police are the only ones who do surveillance?” She caught Jessie’s wrists but she didn’t try to pull them away.
“And you’re letting that bastard get away?”
“If that was what I had to do to make sure you were out of his hands, yes.”
Jessie was shaking so badly that when Diana pulled Jessie’s hands free, Jessie let her. Diana turned her around, set her down in the chair. Then, even as Jessie tried to get a grip on her emotions, Diana disappeared. She returned almost immediately, this time with a glass of dark liquid.
“You haven’t gone off the deep end and had to join AA or anything like that, have you?”
“No,” Jessie said shortly as she reached for the glass.
“Just checking. Seems to be a frequently traveled road.”
Jessie knocked off the glass, handed it back. She felt Diana’s hand on her shoulder to steady her.
“It didn’t happen,” Diana said firmly. “It might have been, but it didn’t happen. You’re safe; Julie’s safe. You got slightly hurt. She got terrorized. In the scheme of things, nothing happened. And it’s not going to happen.”
Jessie shuddered. All the things they had threatened, she had thought they were just saying all that to scare her.
“Stop it!” Diana’s voice was sharp.
Jessie looked up at her. Diana was looking down at her, and she looked concerned instead of the bland mask.
“Breathe. Deep breaths.”
Jessie obeyed, things began to fall into place again, she got her focus back. “Don’t,” she started. “Don’t mention.” She tried again. “Don’t say anything about this to Julie.” She closed her eyes. Poor Julie, who couldn’t deal with violence.
“I wouldn’t have said anything to you if you hadn’t pushed.”
“I know. But I needed to know.”
Diana didn’t take her hand off Jessie’s shoulder. She gripped it painfully tight. “Now I’m going to tell you something else, so you listen up.”
“What?”
“Don’t you ever do that again, lay a hand on me like that. If you do that in front of Margaret, she’ll kill you. Or die in the attempt. You understand?”
“I wouldn’t—didn’t—”
“Doesn’t matter. Margaret’s my bodyguard. I haven’t moved in the safest circles. She’ll react and ask questions later.” Diana slowly released Jessie and stepped back. “It’s something we all have in common: we react to protect those we care about.” She leaned against the library table and watched Jessie for a few minutes. “You all right now?”
Jessie nodded. She sagged back into the chair. “Just seems so unfair now,” she said distractedly.
“How so?”
Jessie closed her eyes, forgetting here and now. This was Diana, her Diana. She had always been able to talk to Diana about Julie. She didn’t even stop to censure herself.
“Julie couldn’t deal with the violence, even the idea I might go out the door in the morning and not come back.”
“That is a hard idea to wrap your mind around,” Diana said quietly.
“We separated about a year ago. She couldn’t deal with it any more.”
“What!” Diana burst out and quickly muffled it.
Jessie barely let Diana’s exclamation register. She went on. “I thought we were working everything out, going to get back together. Then a couple of months ago she said she couldn’t. It was over permanently. We could still be friends, family even, just she couldn’t deal with it on a day-to-day basis.” She opened her eyes to see Diana looking at her strangely.
“I’m sorry it turned out that way,” Diana said in a voice that sounded hollow. Maybe it was just Jessie’s listening because of this latest shock.
“Yeah, so am I.” Jessie buried her face in her hands. Damn, this woman was everything she abhorred, and yet she was her friend. She felt like she needed to do everything in her power to arrest her, to take her in, to suspect everything she did, and at the same time, she wanted to sit down, talk to her, ask her how she had been. She wanted to cry on her shoulder, talk to her the way she used to, tell her all about her frustrations and her joys in life. Ask her about hers. Ask her if she ever got to be with the woman she loved. She raised her head to find Diana watching her, concern and understanding in her face, her eyes. “This is a hell of a situation, as my dad would say.”
Diana nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“What are we going to do?”
“What we have to.”
“I don’t know if I can deal with this.”
“Yes, you can.”
Jessie gave a mirthless chuckle. “You have more confidence in me than I do at this point.”
“You’ve had some hard shocks, one right after another. You thought you were going to die. You thought your partner was dead or dying. Julie was pulled into it. Even me showing up had to be a shock. Give yourself a break and let the dust settle. Noth
ing’s going to happen.”
“I feel like I’ve been through an earthquake and all the landscape’s different.”
Diana gave a small smile. “That’s how I felt when I found out you were a cop. Everything changed.”
“And then you left.”
“But not because you were a cop.” She gave a rueful smile as Jessie ran her hands through her hair. “Give yourself some slack, Jessie. Things that matter will fall back in place.”
“You say that with certainty.”
“I am certain.”
Jessie shook her head, not at all certain. Diana still looked so calm, sounded so confident. Then she saw Diana’s hands, gripping the table hard enough that her knuckles were white. So she wasn’t having an easy time either. She looked up to meet Diana’s gaze.
“Go soak in the hot tub,” Diana suggested. “Explore the exercise room. Go lay out on the deck, the sun’s coming out. Should be nice.”
Jessie stood up. “Do anything, just go away?” she asked ruefully.
“It would probably help us both right now.”
Jessie nodded. “I guess so.”
She wandered out of the room, listening, waiting for Diana to stop her, for some reaction. She paused at the door, shook her head, straightened her back. She would have to deal with this, one way or another, although for the life of her, right now, she didn’t have the faintest idea how.
***
“Margaret doesn’t like you,” Julie said that night as they were preparing for bed.
How’d she find out so fast? Did Diana tell her? was Jessie’s first thought. “What makes you say that?” she asked instead. “Did she say something?”
“No, it was more like what she didn’t say.”
Jessie came out of the bathroom. It hurt to brush her teeth. “How so?”
“She never says your name, just ‘the other one’ or ‘your friend.’ Haven’t you noticed? She watches you but never when you’re looking at her. Are they lovers? Is she jealous?” Julie sat cross-legged on the bed.
“No, not lovers, at least Diana denied that.” She walked around the room. “Nice jammies.”
“Silk.” Julie slid her hand across the material. “Margaret picked them out for me. That was another thing: she kept picking out clothes for me, concerned about style, color, like she was dressing me for some show and she was the fashion consultant. You picked your own, she didn’t care, couldn’t be bothered.”
“Maybe she knows how I hate shopping. I wondered what took you so long. Maybe she’s attracted to you.”
Julie shook her head. “No, didn’t get those vibes. It was sorta fun, you always hated shopping. And I figured the longer I kept her up there, the longer you had to search the house or talk to Diana or do whatever cops do to investigate.”
Jessie sat down in the chair. “Am I that transparent?”
“You’re a cop, twenty-four-seven.” Julie shrugged. “Find out anything?”
“Diana’s room is next door. Margaret’s down the hall. I get the feeling there’s security, maybe closed circuit, but I couldn’t find any wires, any cameras. But this house isn’t a rustic cabin. If there is anything, it’s probably so built-in that it’s not apparent.”
“Were you able to have any type of conversation with Diana?”
“Of a sorts,” Jessie admitted. She shook her head. “It’s really strange, like one minute I know her and the next minute, who is this woman?”
“I can imagine.”
No you can’t. Jessie sat there. “But I didn’t find out anything. It would probably help a good deal if I could find out who Papa is.”
“I think I can do that.” Then she laughed at Jessie’s expression. “Well, I’m not a ninny, Jessie. I was supposed to have treated her papa. I’ll just ask. I imagine there’s a whole lot she’d like to ask me.”
Jessie nodded thoughtfully. “Probably so.” She got to her feet and came over to the bed to crawl in. “And for the record, I do not now nor did I ever think you’re a ninny.” She ran her fingers over the silken material of the pearl-pink pajamas. “So what other kinds of clothes did you get out of Margaret?”
Chapter Eighteen
Diana glanced at the kitchen clock. Nine a.m. Another six maybe seven hours and Waldo would be taken care of. That would be one thing out of the way, one item crossed off her list. She glanced at Jessie eating her eggs, Julie asking Margaret something about the coffee cake she had made. She watched as Jessie casually glanced at the clock then back into the living room. She was watching the clock also.
Diana pushed her plate away. She hated waiting, hated that she couldn’t be there supervising. She had good people, she didn’t worry about that. She just hated most that she hadn’t been able to talk to Helen in person. There was something there she just couldn’t put her finger on. She had been pissed at Waldo when she called Helen, knew Helen would jump at the chance to take that flight. Now she was second-guessing herself. Helen was a more than capable pilot. She had gone through that bad time after Jillian died when she was so depressed Diana didn’t dare put her in the cockpit. She had come through that, the depression was gone, turned into grief at the loss of a partner. She kept saying she wanted back in the loop, wanted to get back to work, needed to get back to normal.
“Are you all right?” Margaret asked as Diana got up.
“Yes,” Diana said shortly. The cabin was too confining, she needed to be outside.
She went out on the deck, paced from one end to the other. By now, Helen should be getting ready. Damn, she hated being stuck here. She took a deep breath. She had made all the plans, everyone knew what they were supposed to do. She just needed to let it go, but her gut instinct just wouldn’t.
When she came around the corner of the house, Jessie stood on the corner of the deck, leaning back, her elbows resting on the railing. She watched as Diana walk toward her after an initial hesitation.
“Waiting’s hard, isn’t it?” she said conversationally. “You make all these plans and then pray everything got covered and goes the way it’s supposed to.” Diana didn’t answer. “I guess it’s the same no matter what you’re planning.” She turned around and leaned on the railing. “Would you be there except for us?”
“Yes.”
“You could take me along,” Jessie suggested slyly.
Diana laughed, just as much from tension as she did at Jessie’s suggestion. “In your dreams.” She leaned on the railing.
“Well, I thought I’d try.”
“Good try, not a chance.”
They stood there in silence for a while, a comfortable silence, Diana realized. Then something changed and Diana knew Jessie was a cop again. “You do things like this often?”
“Like what?”
“Getting people out of the country.”
Diana didn’t turn to look at her. “I’m not going to answer that.”
Jessie ducked her head. “You know it’s all going to come out sooner or later.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Since you’re holding us here, you could still be an accessory to kidnapping.”
“Better than murder,” Diana commented. She straightened up. “If this is the way the conversation is going to go, Jessie, I’m not in the mood. If we were on your turf, you would only be asking if you thought a crime was being committed.”
“I heard you make those plans,” Jessie said carefully without turning to look at Diana.
“Then you wouldn’t be talking to me. You’d be talking to my lawyer.”
Jessie pressed on. “You know, if what you said was true about what Waldo planned, I’m sure a very favorable deal could be cut.”
“Crap. I don’t need this today.” Diana turned and took several steps away before she turned back. “Jessie, you’re a good cop. We’ve got quite a history. Don’t press your luck.” Then she left, jerking open the door to the living room, stepping aside to let Julie go by her to go out on the deck herself.
She needed to work off
this nervous energy. If she couldn’t go outside, then a good run on the treadmill might work. She went through the kitchen, where Margaret stopped her.
“Did you get a chance to speak with Helen? Was she all right with this?”
Diana paused. “Spoke to her. She seemed okay.” She glanced back to see Jessie and Julie talking on the desk. “She says she got a good bill of health. She apologized for blowing up when she learned I agreed to transport Waldo. She said it was unprofessional of her.”
Margaret chuckled. “Unprofessional. Is that what you call a screaming rampage?”
Diana was able to smile about that. “That pilot’s license is important to her. She likes our little jet. She was asking me if there was a chance I could get another.”
“Why? She wants to fly two?” Margaret shook her head. “I never thought she’d come back after Jillian was killed. She blamed Waldo for a long time, botching that deal. You know that, don’t you?” Diana nodded. “You think he won’t reach back here for your friend?”
Diana raised her eyebrow at Margaret’s designation of Jessie. “Not if he knows what’s good for him.”
“I don’t know,” Margaret said as Julie came back inside and the subject was dropped.
Diana went on down to the exercise room and set up the treadmill. A good run, mindless, draining. That was what she needed.
Diana didn’t come up until lunchtime, fresh from a shower, the towel still draped over her neck. Margaret wasn’t saying anything more but then she wouldn’t say anything in front of Jessie or Julie. Julie looked a little scared again, moving carefully around the kitchen as she helped Margaret. Jessie stood at the door, her hands in her hip pockets, watching as if she expected Kentucky State Police to swoop in and rescue them.
“Let’s eat,” Diana said abruptly although that was about the last thing she wanted to do. Salad, a clear soup. Diana recognized Margaret’s coaxing to eat, to relax, to calm down. She took a deep breath. It would soon be over. By now, they should be half way there.
She was just reaching for the salt when the alarm went off, a loud blaring sound that sounded like a fire siren. Diana and Margaret both leaped to their feet, throwing back their chairs while Julie and Jessie both freaked out, came to their feet, searched for the source of the noise.