Maggie Lee (Book 11): The Hitwoman Hires a Manny (23 page)

“Don’t move,” he ordered. “You could be injured. Safest course of action is to just stay still.”

“But Templeton?” I asked weakly, the darkness threatening again.

“Still kicking,” the older man wheezed from beside me.

I fought against the darkness knowing that there was something else I had to remember. Something else I had to do.

“God!” I yelled, trying to sit up.

Angel pinned me to my seat. “What did I say about not moving?” His tone was unyielding.

“But I put him in the glove compartment.”

“And as soon as the EMTs have gotten you out of the car, I’ll look for him,” Angel promised as though it was perfectly normal for someone to have stuffed their pet lizard into a glove box.

“God?” I called. “God, can you hear me?”

He didn’t answer.

And my heart broke all over again. Just like it had when Theresa died.

I didn’t fight the darkness anymore. I let it swallow me whole.

Chapter Seventeen

When I woke up again, I was in a hospital.

Susan sat beside me just like she had after the last car accident. She looked tired as she stared, entranced by whatever monitor I was hooked up to.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to get her attention.

She smiled when she saw I was watching her. “You’re up.”

“I’m sorry you’ve had to hold this vigil at my bedside twice,” I said.

She shook her head, but didn’t speak as two fat tears rolled down her cheeks.  After a moment, she brushed them away and sai
d with forced cheerfulness, “Templeton’s going to be just fine too.”

I nodded.

I didn’t ask her about God.

I already knew.

He would have answered me if he could have. His silence told me everything I needed to know.

“Leslie’s in with Loretta,” Susan continued. “Marlene and Doc stayed with Katie. I’m so glad our Marlene found such a nice boy. It’s funny how life can work out, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “And Angel?”

“I’m here,” he answered immediately.

When he spoke I realized he’d positioned himself in the doorway. Now he moved into my line of sight. Tension hunched his shoulders.

Knowing that it was because he had to deliver bad news to me, I tried to lighten his load. “He didn’t make it.”

“Who?” Susan demanded, alarmed. “Who didn’t make it?”

“Godzilla.”

Angel shook his head. “Actually, your plan worked perfectly. There’s not a bruise on the little guy.” With that he grabbed the plastic bedpan at the foot of the bed and tilted it so that I could see its contents.

God waved hello with his tail.

“Hey you,” I said affectionately.

He squeaked.

I blinked rapidly, unable to process what had just happened. An uncomfortable pressure began to build in my chest. “What?”

He squeaked some more.

He sounded like…a lizard.

Balling my hands into fists, I closed my eyes, trying to wish it away, hoping this was a bad dream. My chest ached.

“What’s wrong, dear?” Susan asked worriedly.

I didn’t answer her.

I couldn’t tell her.

The pain throbbed.

I’d just lost the ability to communicate with my best friend.

Chapter Eighteen

The third time I woke up, I was in the basement of the B&B. This time it was DeeDee who was watching me intently.

Given a clean bill of health, a prescription for painkillers, and orders to take it easy for a couple of days, I’d been sent home.

It was there I learned that Rivgali had been, as hoped, killed by some of the muscle working security at the poker game when he’d drawn his weapon, intent on finishing off Templeton.

Of course, Templeton and I didn’t discuss that had been the plan all along. When asked, we both told the most natural lie: we figured that Angel would have called the police and that the cops would have gone to our last known location. Considering that was exactly what Angel and the cops had done, it was a thoroughly believable story.

Though, when I risked a glance in Marshal Griswald’s direction, I might have seen doubt in his expression.

We all ate the leftover party food and then, exhausted by the day’s events, went to bed with Leslie offering to spend Katie’s first night home with her.

I’d only slept two hours, per doctor’s orders in case I had a concussion, when I woke up and found DeeDee watching me.

I couldn’t hear her either. Or Piss.

I couldn’t hear any of my animal companions.

I was “normal” again. I’d explained it to them, but because they couldn’t respond I wasn’t sure they understood.

I hoped that the fact DeeDee had licked my hand afterward had meant they did, but it was disconcerting not to know for sure.

“What’s one plus seven?” a voice asked.

I looked over to where Angel was laid out on a makeshift bed on the floor. “I hired you to take care of Katie, not me.”

“Because you
manage
that so well?” he teased.

I couldn’t help but smile back. Having someone to talk to eased my sense of loneliness a little, but I still wanted to be able to talk to my pets.

But that wasn’t happening soon.

“Larry left this for you.” He handed me an envelope.

“Larry?”

“Marshal Griswald.”

“You’re on a first name basis now?”

Angel shrugged his massive shoulders. “We bonded over your aunt’s leftover chicken. He made me promise that only you would see the contents of that.”

He nodded toward the envelope.

Sliding my finger beneath the flap, I broke the seal and pulled out a piece of paper. It said,
“If you still want that history lesson.”

My breath caught. Griswald was going to put me in touch with my father. I’d get a chance to get some answers about Kevin Belgard.

My excitement was tempered by the fact that the date and time he’d written meant that I’d have to wait three weeks for the meeting.

But maybe that was just as well since for the next couple of weeks, we all struggled a bit with the new routine.

My days were filled with caring for Katie and my two jobs. I ended up taking
more
shifts at The Corset since Templeton wasn’t around as much to help out Loretta, and I began to attend real estate school, since Lani required all of her employees to pass the NJ real estate exam.

Between all of us and Aunt Susan’s color-coded master calendar, we managed to get Katie to most of her doctor appointments and therapy visits, but every once in a while, there was a glitch.

That’s what I assumed had happened one Wednesday afternoon when I went to get Katie to bring her to an occupational therapy session and didn’t find her in her room.

I went to examine the calendar that hung on the fridge in the kitchen, to try to figure out who had her and where they were, and found Angel leaning against the counter, drinking a tall glass of milk.

“Seen the kid?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not for a while.” He glanced at the calendar. “She should be here.”

A shiver of apprehension skittered down my spine. “She’s not in her room.”

“Katie?” Angel bellowed loudly enough to be heard through the entire house.

She didn’t answer.

But the dog began to bark at the door leading from the basement to the kitchen. No doubt she was hungry.

“Not now, DeeDee,” I told her. Ever since I hadn’t been able to understand her, she’d been misbehaving.

“It’s not hide-and-seek time,” Angel yelled, running out of the room to search for the little girl.

I followed closely behind. “Katie? Where are you, baby girl?”

The dog kept barking in the basement.

Angel and I searched the main level of the house, but Katie was nowhere to be found. He even went out on the front porch while I went back through the kitchen to make sure she wasn’t in the backyard.

On the way, I banged on the door in an attempt to quiet the dog, who was still barking. “If you don’t stop,
” I threatened, “you’re not getting any dinner.”  That stopped her for as long as it took me to get outside, but I heard her start up again.

“Katie?” I called, not bothering to hide the panic in my tone as I imagined the worst.

What if she’d been taken like Darlene? What if she never came back?

I glanced at the fence and to the house that loomed behind it. What if Belgard had Katie?

Refusing to let my terror overwhelm me, I headed back inside, tripping over Piss, who’d somehow escaped the basement.

“Watch out,” I gasped, trying to remain upright.

She meowed at me.

“Not now. I’ve got to find Katie.”

Angel rushed in. The fear on his face scared me more than my own. “Where could she have gone?”

The dog barked and the cat hissed.

“Shut up!” I screamed. “Both of you, just shut up.”

That’s when the cat took a swipe at me. Claws extended, she cut at the slice of skin between the hem of my jeans and the top of my sock. She was vicious, drawing blood.

“Ow!” I screamed in pain and enraged. “You little…” I trailed off and looked at her sitting on the floor, staring at me with her one good eye, and suddenly I realized that even though I couldn’t hear them, the animals were trying to communicate with me.

“Where is she?” I whispered to the cat.

She leapt to the basement door and scratched at it.

When I opened the door, DeeDee didn’t barrel out like usual, instead, she grabbed my wrist with her mouth and tugged me down the stairs.

“Katie?” I called.

Halfway down the flight, I saw her, lying motionless on the floor.

“No!” I screamed, leaping over the dog to get to my niece. “Katie!”

Behind me, Angel’s footsteps thundered down the stairs. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

The dog barked. The cat meowed.

This time I paid attention.

“What happened?” I asked the animals as Angel felt for Katie’s pulse.

Both animals raced off to the other side of the room. I followed.

“Where are you going?” Angel called.