Closet Confidential (26 page)

I slipped into the room and blinked at the flowers. Someone could have opened a florist’s kiosk just from the blooms Pepper had received. I found myself smiling at the thought of how many people cared about her. Making the news would get the word out, too. My smile faded when I got a look at Pepper. She lay there, pale as old milk, her head bandaged. The entire area around her eyes was as dark as if she were wearing a cheap Halloween mask. Her nose was twice its normal size, and one eye was almost swollen shut. If her original injuries hadn’t been bad enough, now she had a nasty cut near her mouth, the dark stitches shocking against her dead white skin. I gasped before I caught myself.

The eyes popped open.

“Did I hear you gasp?” she whispered.

“No.” Sometimes denial is the best policy.

“Did.”

“Just a sniff. I have allergies.” I sat down in the visitor’s chair. “Must be all the flowers. You opening a shop, Pepper?”

“Funny. You don’t have allergies. Liar.”

“Okay. You’re bruised and it took me by surprise. I think bruises get a bit more colorful day by day. It’s to be expected after what happened to you.”

“What did happen to me?”

“I was hoping you remembered.”

“My colleagues are, too. Freakin’ relentless bunch. Remind me to be more sympathetic when I grill someone in future.”

I grinned. “What did you tell them?”

Her voice got a bit stronger with every word. “I told them I don’t
know
. Are you not listening to me?”

“Now you know how the rest of the world lives.”

“The rest of the world doesn’t have a face like this. I need you to be straight with me, Charlotte. How bad is it?”

I would have had to be out of my mind to tell Pepper the truth. I thought fast seeking reassuring but not obviously false descriptions. “Sure, I’ll be straight,” I lied.

“And?”

“Sorry?”

“Knock it off. What do I look like?”

“Well. Like you walked into a door or something. But it’s getting better. I’m sure by next—”

“Give it a rest. How bad?”

“Hard to describe. There’s a lot of bruising, as I said, but it will subside soon and you’ll be yourself again. If you don’t mind me saying, I think your head injury should be your main concern.”

She closed her eyes. “Worse than I thought.”

“You don’t look that bad.” I spoke with feigned confidence, glad that there was no mirror within sight.

“Bullshit,” she said.

I decided to change my tactic. Pepper was tougher than any nail. “Fine. You’re pretty beat up. You were hit with something in the face, and then apparently you fell and injured yourself again. You cut yourself a bit more this time. You’re a cop. You’ve seen people after accidents or beatings. You must be aware of what that would look like.”

“Oh crap,” she said.

“Forget about it. It’s purely temporary. You’re alive at least. What have they told you about your head injury? The rest is merely . . . window dressing.”

Despite the swollen eye, she shot a poisonous glance in my direction. “As you’re such a vain little creature, Charlotte, how would you feel if this was your face?”

If there was an upside to this conversation it was that Pepper seemed to have regained not only her power of speech but also her natural sense of authority.

Even so, I felt stung. “What do you mean ‘vain’?”

“You know perfectly well what I mean. And speaking of vain, where the hell is Nick? Why hasn’t he been in to see me?”

“I don’t know.” Less true. I did know why. Nick was on the lam. I didn’t know where. Distraction was called for. “Little Nick’s fine.”

The one good eye opened wide. “Oh my God. I left Little Nick with Jack. How long ago was that? What is the matter with me?” Pepper tried to sit up.

I grabbed her hand. “He’s still with Jack. He spent the night in my apartment. They’re having a great time. I believe Jack is using him to lure unsuspecting customers into CYCotics. Little Nick wears down their resistance, and Jack sells them a nine-thousand-dollar bike. You should get Jack to give you a cut of the profits.”

“He’s safe?”

“Of course.”

“Then where’s his useless father?”

How could I tell her the truth? While I was grasping for the right weasel words, Pepper uttered a strangled gasp.

I jumped up from the chair. “What is it?”

She said, “Oh my God. What if Nick is dead?”

I glanced at the door, expecting to see a cop with a chocolate-covered face shoot into the room. “I don’t think Nick is dead.”

“But he might be?”

I considered my answer. How would I want to be treated if I were lying there? Would I want people humoring me? Lying to me? Treating me as incompetent? I said, “I hope not.”

“You hope not?” She gripped my hand so tightly it hurt.

“Did you see Nick at the beach, Pepper?”

“I don’t remember. I think I saw his squad car.” She loosened her grip on my hand.

“Are you able to recall what happened to you? Who attacked you?”

She said softly, “I can’t tell what I remember and what I’ve been dreaming. Everything is mixed up. I think Nick is dead. I hope that’s a dream.”

The door opened. I whipped around to see Connor Tierney giving me the kind of look that you never want to see on the face of a man you’re planning to date. Judging by the expression, the dating thing was now a no-go.

“Hi, Connor,” I said brightly. “I thought I’d pop in and see how Pepper was doing today.”

I felt icicles form on my nose. My imagination, perhaps. Those glacial blue eyes can give that impression.

I prattled on. “Yes. All her friends are worried.”

“We, that’s we the police, are worried, too. That’s why we have a police guard at the door.”

“Of course.” I smiled brightly, glad I’d reapplied my lipstick before arriving at the hospital. “Officer, um, knows me.”

But Tierney wasn’t finished. “Officer DeJong. That would be the police guard you deceived to get in here. At least get his name right.”

“I know his name. But deceived? I wouldn’t go that far.”

Pepper said, “Cut it out, Tierney. You, too, Charlotte. I want to know what’s happened to Nick, and I don’t want any more bullshit. From either of you.”

We both inhaled and exchanged glances. What would that information do to Pepper?

Finally, Tierney said, “We are looking for him.”

“You haven’t found him?” Pepper demanded. I could tell what she meant.

Tierney said, “No.”

Pepper exhaled. Perhaps she’d thought Tierney was bringing her the worst news she could ever receive.

“He could be at work. He’s on days this week.”

“No.”

Pepper didn’t appear to have heard. “It’s one of the things he’s good at. Going to work, I mean. He loves the uniform.”

Tierney lifted an eyebrow. That was the kind of gesture that I took to mean he hoped if he ever had a wife that she’d be able to find more to praise.

Pepper said, “Charlotte, did he call anyone we know?”

“Sorry, Pepper. He didn’t call me or Sally or Margaret.”

“What about Jack?”

I shook my head.

“So he didn’t even check with Jack to see if Little Nick was all right?”

“Jack’s a bit careless about picking up messages.”

“Find out. Maybe Nick did call. We might be being unfair to him.”

“Did Nick know the baby was with Jack?”

“I don’t remember if I told him.”

“Is that why you followed him to—”

Oops. I caught another one of those icicle glances from Tierney. Those suckers can sting.

Tierney said, “We don’t know where he is. He hasn’t been seen since you were found on Bakker Beach.”

Pepper said faintly, “I think he was there when I drove down the road. I saw the squad car with the door open. Unless that was a dream.”

Tierney turned to me. “I think you’d better wait outside, Charlotte. I need to speak to Sergeant Monahan in private.”

Pepper said, “No way, José.”

“What?” Tierney’s jaw dropped.

“I’m sure you heard me. Charlotte is my best friend, and in the absence of my family, she’s going to stay with me while you question me.”

“I’m not questioning you, Pepper,” Tierney said. “I’m trying to share information and get a bit back in return.”

Even I, not even remotely a cop, recognized the first-name ploy that is commonly used in interrogations. “I am not going anywhere,” I said, folding my arms across my chest to accentuate my position.

“Ask your questions,” Pepper said. “Maybe if I find out what’s going on, I can give you some useful answers.”

“All right.”

I said, “Are you sure she’s up for this kind of police treatment? She’s badly injured and she has a head wound and—”

Tierney glared at me. “Just so you know, I spoke to the doctor in charge and she says that Sergeant Monahan is well enough to be interviewed.”

“Interviewed, sure,” I said. “Grilled, I don’t know.”

“I am not planning to grill her. I do have ask some questions. No choice. I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

I managed not to snort. Pepper didn’t.

Tierney said, “We don’t know where Officer Monahan went after he left the area.”

Pepper said, “Have you put an all-points bulletin on his vehicle? Maybe someone carjacked it. That would explain it.”

Tierney seemed to have trouble meeting her eyes. “No APB on the car, Pepper. We have that.”

I was chewing my lip through all of this. How was Pepper going to react? I reached out and took her hand. I gave it a good squeeze. A “Misfits rule!” kind of squeeze.

Tierney said, “The squad car was still there when we found you. Actually, Charlotte found you and called it in.”

Her eyes widened. “Bakker Beach is in the middle of nowhere. Where could he have gone without the squad car?”

“Someone hijacked my car,” I said. “I couldn’t see who it was.”

Tierney glared at me. “We found Charlotte’s car abandoned in town. There was trace evidence that indicated Nick had been in it.”

Pepper said, “I’m surprised that Nick would even get out of his car at Bakker Beach. It’s surrounded by miles of brush land and marshes, too.”

“That’s why it was such a good make-out spot,” I said.

Pepper uttered a strangled laugh. “Exactly.”

Tierney said, “This is going to be painful, Pepper, and I’m sorry. But it was as you say a make-out spot. Nick didn’t know that you were going to follow him. Is it possible he was . . .” He paused and cleared his throat. “Meeting someone?”

“You mean a woman?”

Connor Tierney wisely made no reference to Nick’s hobby of chasing women. “Yes.”

“I don’t know. Old habits die hard.”

I felt Pepper squeeze my hand. A signal not to screw things up. I decided to keep quiet.

Tierney said, “Did you think it was Charlotte?” “What the hell?” I yelped.

“You want to stay here. You have to hear the uncomfortable questions.”

“I knew it wasn’t Charlotte.”

“Okay. Did you have any clue to who it could have been?”

“No. Is that all, Detective? I feel like I’ve been struck by a train.”

“It’s not all. Someone at that site hit you very hard. The two prevailing theories are that you stumbled across an assignation and either Nick’s lover hit you or Nick did.”

“Not Nick.”

“Then—?”

“I don’t remember! Do you think I wouldn’t tell you who hit me if I knew?”

I decided to change the topic. “Why did you go to Bakker Beach, Pepper? Were you following him? Or . . . ?”

She shook her head and flinched.“I have no idea.”