Death Angel (37 page)

And then Bobbie came to visit.
 

He’d never liked his cousin. A
first-class whiner. He never wanted to do anything but read or watch
television. He stayed the weekend. During the day, Mother fawned over him.

During the night, Bobbie belonged to
him.

Bobbie was terrified of the turtle. He
begged him not to let the turtle loose in the night. In return he gave up all
the spending money he’d brought with him. The second night Bobbie had nothing
to barter.

Watching his cousin’s growing fear gave
him an erection. He turned the lights out, and waited until Bobbie’s sniveling
eased into sleep, then put Tortuga under the edge of the covers on his cousin’s
bed.

Bobbie’s first scream brought his
parents running.

His father took one look at him and knew
he’d set Tortuga on the bed deliberately. His father beat him until he bled,
but he never uttered a cry. He ground his teeth together and pictured his
father being attacked by snapping turtles. For years it was one of his favorite
fantasies. His father, naked, writhing amid a swarm of turtles. Turtles hung
from his lips, his nostrils, and his eyelids. Turtles clung to his nipples and
his penis.
 

Tortuga died two weeks after Bobbie
left. He’d reached in to feed it dinner and got too close to the snapping jaw.
It caught the tip of his little finger, and when he couldn’t shake it loose, he
tore the turtle’s head off.

He hadn’t thought about the turtle in a
long time. So many memories were coming back to him. Stirred up by the
questions. He hated the memories.

If SHE kept asking questions, he’d have
to stop her. SHE was afraid. He could always sense it, and the smell of it
excited him. The power of the bracelet was fading. Each day the angel face grew
darker; the wings had become limp and lifeless. Eventually the bracelet would
be useless.

Then it would be time to collect the
other angel.

Kate lay on the chaise longue too
enervated to move. Since Saturday she had been sleeping fitfully, jumping at
every creak and groan in the house. In the daytime she was able to put away her
fears, but as darkness fell she was conscious of her own vulnerability. It
didn’t help that Mike called frequently to check on her. He tried to reassure
her that she had nothing to worry about, however each call served to remind her
of the possibility of danger.

“Yoo-hoo, Kate.” Marian’s voice floated
over from next door. “Are you receiving visitors?”

“Sure. I’m on the deck.”

The honeysuckle bushes parted, and
Marian eased through the narrow opening. As she walked across the grass, she
brushed down her lime green linen dress, and picked a leaf out of her frosted
hair.

“Those bushes are long overdue for a
trim. A few more bridge luncheons, and I’ll never get through that space.” She
kissed Kate’s cheek and brushed off a wrought iron chair before she sat down.
“How are you, my dear?”

“Hot like the rest of the world. I
haven’t seen you at the fitness center all week. Everything all right?”

“Yes. Delightfully so. Leah was in town
for a couple days, and we spent most of our time in Chicago. Talking, eating,
and shopping. My kind of mother-daughter bonding. I’ve spent an absolute
fortune on clothes, and everything I’ve eaten was either bad for my weight, my
digestion, or my heart. Now it’s back to reality. I just took her to the
airport.”

“Oh, I wish I’d known she was coming.
I’d love to have seen her.”

“She was sorry to have missed you, too.
It was a sudden business trip. We stopped by the last couple mornings, but you
were already gone. I thought you were taking some time off from the temp
agency.”

“I was. I mean, I am.” Kate was flustered.
She hadn’t told Marian anything about her investigations. She sensed that her
friend would be convinced she’d lost her mind. “I had a lot of errands to run
this week.”

Marian looked over at her, her eyes
searching. “Are you feeling well? You look flushed.”

“I’m fine. I’ve been working in the
garden, and now I’m waiting for enough energy to go in and take a shower.
Mike’s taking me to the Patio for ribs tonight. Would you like something to
drink?”

“Nothing for me. I just dropped by to
say hello. I’m glad to see you’re getting out. Mike will keep you well
entertained.” The older woman chuckled. “I heard he took you to the Fine Arts
dinner last Saturday as his date.”

“His date! Good God, Marian! Wait a
minute.” Kate’s eyes flickered over her friend’s perfectly coiffed head.
“Let me guess. You were at the beauty shop today.”

“Stopped on the way back from the
airport. You were the hot topic of the blue-haired set.”

“That’s sick. Do they really think that
there’s something going on with Mike?”

“Probably not. One of the downsides to
living in a small town is that everyone knows everyone else’s business.”
Marian’s eyes were filled with compassion. “They don’t mean to be cruel.”

“Do you think I should cancel?”

“Uh-uh.” Marian shook her head. “You
can’t live your life according to what the neighbors will think. I probably
never told you, but right after George died your Richard was coming over to cut
the lawn and do little things around the house. One of the women in my Tai Chi
class wanted to know what it was like to be having an affair with a younger
man.”

“Dear God in Heaven,” Kate gasped
out.
 

“I told her that the Tai Chi kept me so
limber that I was able to handle some of the more acrobatic lovemaking
positions.”

“You didn’t!” One look at the raised
eyebrow and smug expression on her friend’s face and Kate burst into laughter.
“You did. I just know you did.”

“Well I couldn’t let her get away with
asking such a rude question.”
 

“So that’s why you hired that lawn
service. Richard always thought it was because he refused to edge around the
sidewalk.” Kate grinned across at her friend. “That woman probably thought you
wanted more variety.”

Now it was Marian’s turn to laugh. “So
my point is, dear, don’t pay any attention to the gossips. What time is he coming?”

“Around seven. You know Mike. He’ll stop
by the hospital to see one of his little old ladies and forget all about the
time.”

“Well, I won’t keep you.”

Marian got to her feet. Her forehead
puckered as she stared down at Kate. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?
You look edgy. I can’t put my finger on it, but I have the feeling something’s
going on. You’d tell me if something was wrong wouldn’t you?”
 

At Kate’s quick nod, she tossed her
head.

“I’ll bet,” she said.

Kate stared after her departing figure.
She hated keeping secrets from her friend. It was obvious that Marian was
picking up something of her emotional turmoil.
 

Marian’s gossip about Mike unnerved her.
How could they conceive of the fact that she was dating? Her daughter had been
killed only two months ago and now her husband was gone.
 

Should she have a talk with Mike?
 

She’d never felt anything but friendship
for him. He was probably feeling some responsibility for her now that Richard
was gone. She didn’t think he harbored any secret feelings for her. At least
she hoped not. She’d have to stop leaning on him. Not easy, especially now that
she had involved him with her investigations. Eventually she’d have to talk to
him.
 

The Patio was a casual place she’d been to
several times. The ribs were always good and the booths were cozy enough to
encourage talking. Mike didn’t appear to be in any hurry to bring up the
discussion of Garvey and Kate was content to wait until the meal was over.
 

It was after the table had been cleared and
Mike was wiping the last of the barbecue sauce off his fingers that his cell
phone went off.
 

“Not to worry,” he said, squinting at
the number on his pager display. “It’s the call I’ve been waiting for. Order me
some coffee while I take this outside.”

Kate had just taken her first sip of tea
when Mike rejoined her.

“Everything okay?” she asked, noticing
his distracted air.

“Yes. No.”
 

 
He took a sip of coffee as if delaying until
he could arrange his thoughts. Setting his cup down, he leaned forward and
lowered his voice.

“It was a friend of mine on Hilton Head.
Joanne Burgess. I’ve been trying to get hold of her for the last few days. She
went to Harvard Law School the same time as Joseph Garvey.”

“Was that her on the phone?”

“Yes. She was pretty tight with Garvey
in the first year of school. They were in the same study group and hung with
the same crowd. When she got engaged, they didn’t see as much of each other,
but she still was able to give a pretty thorough report on him.”

Kate sighed. “I can practically hear the
conversation. Joseph Garvey was an outstanding and dedicated student, a great
drinking companion, and a law-abiding citizen. You’re probably convinced now
that he should be in line for sainthood.”

“Don’t be in too big a hurry to hand him
a halo.” His voice held a note of caution that piqued Kate’s interest. “Some of
that’s true, but not quite as glowing. Garvey was only an average student,
showed some potential as a litigator, and got along fine on the social scene.
As far as Joanne knew he’d never been in any trouble. Except for one incident
at the beginning of his last year.”

“Incident?”

“That was the word she used.”

“What happened?” Kate asked.

“According to Joanne, Garvey was accused
of molesting a thirteen-year-old girl.”

Twenty-five

“
Garvey molested a thirteen-year-old
?”
Kate was so shocked she could barely get the words out.

“He was accused of it. Eventually the
charges were dropped.”

Mike looked around the restaurant. No
one was sitting at the table across from them, and the high backs of the booth
seats gave them a semblance of privacy. Despite that, when he continued, his
voice was pitched just above a whisper.

“According to Joanne, the mother of this
girl went to the police and told them that someone had attacked her daughter
when she cut through the park on her way home from the movies. She had been
molested and beaten. The attacker apparently warned the girl to keep her mouth
shut because, as he put it, ‘the police couldn’t touch anyone at Harvard’ and
she’d only end up in worse trouble.”
 

“Poor baby,” Kate said, closing her eyes
against the pain of her own memories.
 

Mike hurried on. “The mother wasn’t
about to let the guy get away unscathed. She took the girl to the police, and
she told them she’d talked to the man several times in the park and knew his
name. She identified Joseph Garvey as her attacker.”

Kate leaned forward, her hands tightly
clasped. “Why were the charges dropped?”

“He had an airtight alibi. A young lady
came forward and swore he’d spent the entire day with her in a motel room in
Boston.”

“For a moment I thought we really had
something.”
 

“Just wait. I haven’t gotten to the
interesting part yet.”
 

At Mike’s words, Kate gave him a hard
stare.
    
 

“The young lady who gave Garvey the
alibi was a waitress he’d taken out a couple times. She was eight years older
than Garvey and had to quit school when she was sixteen to go to work. By
class, money, and education, she and Garvey were worlds apart. Her name was
Elizabeth Bowers. Her friends called her Lisa.”

“Lisa,” Kate whispered. “Lisa Garvey?”

“Exactly.” He waited while she digested
this latest news. “He married her a month later, and she had a bouncing baby
boy during spring break. In those days it was said to be premature. According
to Joanne, gossip had it that the child might not have been his. At any rate
once out of Harvard, Garvey moved to Atlanta with Lisa and the baby. Lisa must
have been an ambitious little thing. In five short years she managed to get
enough education and polish to appear as if she were born to the purple. With
determination like that a gal might do anything to achieve her goal.”

“Would he marry her just for an alibi?”
Kate asked.
 

“If convicted he’d be bounced out of
Harvard, do jail time, and bring disgrace to the family. Marriage would be
cheap compared to that.”

“I can’t believe that Lisa would lie to
protect a man who’d committed such a horrible crime.”

“If she were pregnant and she wanted a
better life badly enough, she might. On the other hand, maybe he convinced her
of his innocence. Told her he was being railroaded. Who knows?”