Legacy of the Highlands (27 page)

“Of course not. It’s a routine female
thing...Pap test, you know, the annual works. I made this
appointment a long time ago and would have forgotten, but they sent
a reminder. No need to worry.”

“Good. I couldn’t deal with you being sick
now.”

“I know what you mean. It’s like you can take
it and take it but if one more thing is added to the pile, bam! It
topples, right?”

“True. This is nice...I’ve missed you.” The
words were out of his mouth before he knew he was even thinking
them. He wondered if she missed him too, but he wasn’t going to
ask.

“Do you have any idea when you’ll get into
Boston?”

“My mother will try to guilt me into staying
for a while, but I should be able to leave tomorrow. I’ll let you
know my plans as soon as they’re made.”

“Great...and Diego?” Alex chewed on her
bottom lip, hesitant to admit what she’d just recognized.

“Yes?” Diego waited patiently for her to be
ready to speak. It was a long pause.

“I’m glad you’re coming back.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Me too. Sleep
well,
Preciosa
.”

“And you.”

As she left home for the doctor’s office, Alex
walked passed the grimy vagrant Diego had warned her about. He
seemed harmless enough, and she was in a good mood, so she greeted
him with a cheery, “good morning.” He acknowledged it with an
unintelligible grunt and shuffled away.

The bright sun felt so good on her face that
she decided to walk downtown instead of going underground to the T.
Every once in a while she felt uneasy, as if someone were watching
her, but when she’d turn to look over her shoulder all she could
see were the usual businesspeople, tourists and shoppers crowding
the sidewalk. She told herself she was being foolish and, just like
Will, she dismissed the warning as nothing more than paranoia.

The OB/GYN’s office was in a busy medical
building crowded with stressed people on their way to their
doctors. She smiled at the well-dressed man who politely stepped
aside to allow her to exit the packed elevator at the seventh floor
before following her off himself. He waited until she’d turned
right, then he went left.

Once Alex disappeared into her doctor’s
office, the man checked the name on the door then took the stairs
back to the lobby, pulled a phone from his pocket and made a
call.

“This may be what we’ve been waiting for. She
walked into an obstetrician’s office a minute ago. You know, a baby
doctor!” he snapped angrily. “Our Alexandra’s as slim as ever, but
it could be that she carries the Cameron lad’s child. If her belly
starts to swell, what would you have me do?”

An unemotional voice an ocean away responded
as if the conversation were about the weather. “Well now, she and
the bairn must have a wee accident I suppose, don’t you think?”

Alex’s annual check-up was uneventful. She’d known
Dr. Higgins for years and the physician greeted her with a hug.
“How are you doing? Do you feel all right?”

“How am I supposed to answer that? Yes and
no, I guess. I’m better than I was a few months ago, but it’s still
hard to accept that I’ll never see Will again.”

“If I can do anything to help, you’ll ask,
right?”

As the physician examined Alex she asked if
she was still taking birth control pills.

“I’d stopped them for a while, but then I
started again last month.” Alex decided that was all she’d say on
the subject. She was glad to be flat on her back, eyes glued to the
ceiling, so the doctor wouldn’t see the flush that rose from her
chest to her face at revealing that she was having sex so soon
after Will’s death.

“I’ll phone in a new prescription. And don’t
forget to have him wear a condom,” was the doctor’s only
comment.

Alex had no plans for the rest of the day, so she
wandered in and out of the designer shops lining Boylston and
Newbury Streets. Then, without thinking, she turned off Newbury and
headed into the narrow passageway where Will had been killed. She’d
managed to put this place out of her mind, but at that moment
something that she didn’t want to question compelled her to go
there.

She stood at the mouth of the alley where
Will had taken his last breath and studied it. In daylight, it
didn’t look at all ominous. A slanted ray of sun made its way past
the buildings that lined the space, which smelled faintly of the
overflowing garbage cans waiting for pickup. She wrapped her arms
around herself and began to slowly walk into the narrow space. She
wasn’t sure of the precise spot where it had happened, but about
halfway through she sensed a change in the air and stopped abruptly
to lean against a dirty brick wall.

“Are you here Will? Can you hear me?” she
whispered as she slowly lowered herself to the ground. Maybe if she
focused hard enough, he would come to her. She squeezed her eyes
shut and slowed her breathing. Ridiculous, her logical self argued,
but there were moments when she was absolutely sure he was hovering
nearby. Fuck logic — she needed to believe in possibilities.

Alex didn’t expect to feel more connected to
Will in this smelly alley than at home among all his things, yet
she did. Maybe his spirit is still hanging around here, maybe his
soul can’t rest yet, she thought, flashing on movies featuring
violent death and spirits lingering between this world and the
next...so she started talking to him, between sobs, as if he were
there.

“I miss you, oh God, how I miss you. I don’t
know how to live without you...I’m not any good at being alone.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat, but the real or imagined
connection to him was so strong that she forced the words out. She
might not have another chance to tell him. “Diego — and yes, he
told me he’s your brother — is helping me figure out how to live
again.”

A gentle breeze that carried Will’s scent
wrapped her in its embrace. Was he trying to tell her that he was
all right with whatever this thing was between her and Diego? Or
maybe it was simply a ghostly slap in the face.

“You okay, lady? You was talkin’ to yourself.
You okay?”

Alex was repulsed by the overpowering stench
of body odor and blast of whiskey fumes emanating from the rag-clad
figure asking about her well-being. Had she fallen asleep and
conjured Will’s spirit or had he really been there? She wanted to
drift back to wherever she’d been.

“Go away! Leave me alone! I’m fine,” she
shouted, but he didn’t move. She thought that it would be bizarre
to be attacked in the same place where Will had died, yet somehow
she was more annoyed than afraid. “What do you want?” she asked
irritably.

The only sign that he’d heard her was a grunt
as he retreated a few inches, allowing her to draw clean air into
her lungs. When she looked up, she realized that the man resembled
the vagrant she’d seen near her house that morning.

“Jeez, lady, I seen ya around an’ ya looked
sick. Dat’s all. I don’t want nothin’ from ya.” He continued to
mumble as he staggered away.

“Wait!” she shouted and scrambled to her feet
to catch up with him.

“I’ve seen you near my house. Do you sleep in
this alley? Do you know anyone who does? Have you ever seen someone
attacked here?” She dug in her purse and extended a twenty toward
him, hoping against hope that Will had sent this creature to her
for a reason. The police had questioned their own sources among the
city’s street people, but maybe not this particular one.

“Tanks,” he said, pocketing the twenty as he
walked away.

“Stop, goddamn it! That money is to buy
information. Stand still and talk to me. Please.” He paused, but
kept his face lowered and gazed blankly at the filthy toes that
peeked out from his torn sneakers.

“I don’t know nothin’ lady. I ain’t seen
nothin’. I don’t know no one. Dat’s all your money bought ya. I
gotta go.”

She grabbed his arm, which was surprisingly
solid under the layers of clothing that camouflaged his body.
“You’re not going anywhere! My husband was murdered! You have to
tell me if you know anything about a man being killed here.” She
could hear the growing hysteria in her voice.

He didn’t answer, but instead laid a dirty
hand on her belly and raised his eyes to hers. She was stunned and
it took a moment for her to back away.

“Did your man plant something in there before
dying, I wonder?” His slurred, ungrammatical speech was suddenly
clear and precise, with an unmistakable Scottish burr.

“Get your filthy hands off me! Who the hell
are you?” Alex balled her fists, consumed by rage. At that moment
she was convinced that she could take this man down or die trying.
He knew something, was connected somehow. Why else would he have
said what he did? He had to be one of them and for some reason he
thought she was pregnant with Will’s baby. Would they try to kill
her now too?

“Wait! Please!” Her shaking hands were no
match for the man’s strength and he easily twisted out of her grasp
and ran. The masquerade was over and she could only watch the
obviously sober man, who’d been unable to walk a straight line a
minute earlier, sprint out of the alley.

Alex’s legs felt like rubber as she jogged
toward the street and flagged down a cab to take her to Francie’s
apartment. She wasn’t able to convince herself that his taunt about
a possible pregnancy was the rant of a madman.

Francie had a deep belief in all things spiritual
and the occult had always fascinated her. In college, the Ouija
board and tarot cards accurately predicted too many events for her
to discount their legitimacy. Alex accepted her friend’s beliefs
even if she didn’t buy most of it herself.

“You and Will had a very strong connection.
What makes you think something like that ends because the body
ceases to exist?” Francie asked after Alex told her what had
happened in the alley and she’d assured herself that her friend,
though thoroughly rattled, was all right. Alex shrugged, but said
nothing.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Will’s
spirit hangs around until he’s sure you’re okay,” Francie
continued. She had no doubt that the gentle breeze that had carried
Will’s scent across Alex’s face in the alley was his ghost paying a
visit.

“You really believe that?”

“You know I do,” Francie assured her as Alex
leaned forward to clutch her friend’s small hand.

“I wish I could be sure he was there,” Alex
whispered as she tucked a woolen throw tightly around her legs.
“Oh, God! I just thought of something. Do you think Will was
watching when Diego and I…we…oh, sweet Jesus, that would be
awful.”

Francie hooted with laughter. “Did you see
objects fly around the room or did something try to smother
Diego?”

“Stop making fun of me. This is serious.”

“I am being serious,” Francie nodded and
twirled a curl around one finger as she considered all
possibilities. “If Will were there — and I think he would be enough
of a gentleman that he’d have split and not stayed to watch unless
he was kinkier than you’ve ever told me — he must have been okay
with it,” she concluded. “Do you want to ask him? I can drag out
the Ouija board.”

Alex knew Francie was only being half
facetious. “No, of course not. You’ll push the damn piece around
the board until it says it’s okay for me to have more sex with
Diego. I know you, Francie.”

She feigned innocence. “
Moi?
”

“Yes, you! You’re a romantic. You see Diego
as a knight in shining armor who’s going to carry me off into the
sunset on his white charger to live happily ever after. But that’s
the stuff of fairy tales. First of all, it’s way too soon. Second,
I found Prince Charming once and I’m pretty sure the limit is one
per customer. If you think Diego will ever be more to me than a
friend, maybe even a friend with benefits, you’re going to be very
disappointed, Francesca.”

“Okay, be that way. Falling for another man
doesn’t take anything away from what you had with Will — just the
opposite, in fact. You two were so terrific together that it makes
total sense for you to want to have that again. And if it happens
quickly, so what? You’d be an idiot to walk away from happiness
based on some arbitrary timetable for grieving and you, Alexandra,
are not now, nor have you ever been, a fool. Look at me,” she
ordered. “If you had a miserable marriage, of course you’d never
want that again. But you and Will had a great marriage.”

Francie dropped her hands and walked away in
disgust as she watched Alex shake her head from side to side. “Do
that again, Alexandra MacBain Cameron, and I’m going to wring your
neck! You are the most exasperating, stubborn woman! How we stay
best friends is a mystery…but I love you even when I think you’re
being an ass. And you are being an ass!”

“I love you too,” Alex said as she hugged her
friend. “I’ve gotta run. Diego gets into Logan soon and I want to
pick up something for dinner and finish packing. I’ll call you from
Scotland.”

“You better,” she said, and then her tone
became serious. “Those people are dangerous. I know you think this
Serge person can protect the two of you, but Diego’s impulsive and
likes to do things his own way. This is real life with real bullets
and real blood. It’s not a movie. Please be careful.”

Serge was edgy. He threw himself into a chair in his
hotel room, kicked off his shoes, flipped through a sports
magazine, tossed it aside and finally grabbed the remote, but found
nothing to watch on TV. He needed action and there could be none
until he heard from Diego.

He popped open a beer and examined the uptick
in his anxiety level. He recognized the feeling and knew it would
be with him until Will Cameron’s killer was identified and the
mission completed. Heightened senses were required to stay alive in
his line of work along with a degree of confidence bordering on
arrogance. Detachment figured in there too. He’d known it was time
to leave Mossad when his conscience began to interfere with the
indifference needed to shield himself from actions he’d witnessed
or carried out as an agent. Two years after his retirement, he’d
been hired by Ricardo Navarro to ensure Diego’s safety and, if
necessary, protect him with his own life.