Micah (11 page)

“
I’ve a great many things
to prepare if my love is homeless. I don’t remember if you told me
where she is residing.” Nessie poured the water over the strainers
filled with their own special blend of tea. That, too, was about to
be gone, as neither of them had a clue where their mother had
purchased it. “I’ve pictures to finish, and I will not be rushed on
those.”

“
She was at the hospital,
but she’s been released. I understand from the paper that she was
shot by the man who had set the place ablaze. It’s nothing more
than a scratch, I was told.” Nessie’s hand trembled so much that he
had to set his cup down. He picked it up again, this time able to
hold it with more stability. “He’s dead, by the way. Some cop
killed him. They think that was his plan, to be shot by the
police.”

“
I should hope so. I’m not
sure what I would have…you say that she was shot like it was
nothing more than a scratch. She is my love.” His brother looked
apologetic but said nothing as he poured spirits into his cup of
hot tea. “I’m sorry, brother dear. I forgot that you’ve lost your
own love today as well. Forgive me.”

“
There is nothing to
forgive. I should have realized how much you loved this other
woman, and that I should have started with her being all right
first. Forgive me. The nurse at the hospital said that she’d been
taken to surgery and that there was a bullet in her arm. She
assured me, as well as several members of the press, that it was
nothing more than a little thing.” Nessie nodded and picked up his
tea. “She is no longer at the hospital, as I’ve said. This I know
for sure. When I went to inquire after her for you, they said that
she’d been dismissed. I know not where she would be now, but I did
check with the nursing home where you said her relative is. He has
been dismissed as well.”

“
I doubt they would have
pushed him to the side of the road and left him there, tempting as
it would be. I cannot for the life of me think why she is hanging
around with him. He is…well, he’s not what she needs in her life.”
She needed him. Nessie would make sure she saw the error in being
around someone like the young man. Even if he was her brother, he
was not right in the head and his body was completely without any
redeeming parts. Nessie shivered as he picked up his cup and
sipped. “I have made inquiries as to where he could be stored.
Perhaps later we will dispose of him as well. There is no reason
for money to be put out for something like that.”

As they sat there talking about
nothing really, Nessie let his mind drift a little to the issues
he’d had last night. The person had not been what he’d needed. He
should have taken care of her the moment she’d laughed at his
diaper and sucker. He’d been very clear about what he’d wanted.
There was no reason for her to have come unprepared.

“
You want Mamma to spank
you?” He had and nodded to her. But the moment she’d ripped his
diaper off and smacked his bottom, Nessie had known it was all
wrong. The second time her hand came down across his buttocks,
Nessie tried to get away from her, but she had jerked him back with
such force that he’d fallen hard against the chair. “You are a bad
boy. A bad, bad boy.”

His mind had exploded in pain, not
from anything that the woman had done to him, but from memories.
His mother had said that to him, many times over the years that
they’d lived together. And his rage at the woman, his mother he
supposed, had been quick. His fists had lashed out in jabs so hard
that when he fell back, exhausted from the ordeal, there was little
left to show that she’d been human, much less a woman.

“
Nessie?” His gaze turned
to the voice, but he couldn’t see anyone. He struck again, this
time hard enough to knock the person away from him, and then he
stood up. As the hand hit him across the face, Nessie fell to his
knees and curled into a ball, more memories flooding his
mind.

“
It’s me, brother. It’s
me.” He was being held by the only person in the world that had
ever held him this way, and he curled into Keith’s arms and sobbed
his pain away. “You’re all right. She’s not here to hurt us again.
You’re just fine.”

He sat there for a long time after,
crying. Keith held him from behind as they leaned against the wall.
It was another set of memories for him. Good ones this
time.

“
I have missed you.” Keith
nodded, still stroking his arm as he held him. “I think about her
often, don’t you? How she made us into the men we are
today.”

“
She tried her very best,
I think.” Lately, Nessie wasn’t so sure. “She did the best she
could with what she had to work with. And we were not the best of
children. Mother told us that often enough.”

“
Yes, she did.” There were
a lot of things she’d told them. Little of it was kind and less of
that had been said in a loving way. “I should like to rise now,
brother dear. My pain in the back is hurting.”

Nessie scrambled away from Keith and
watched him stand. He was hurt, he could see that now. Asking him
about it would do no good, so Nessie stood up and raised Keith’s
shirt to see what had happened.

“
Who did this to you?” He
pulled away, but Nessie pulled him back. “Tell me right now, Keith.
I’d very much like to have a talk with this person.”

“
She did it.” He staggered
back, thinking that their mother had come and done this awful thing
to Keith. “Not her. The problem I had. She…I was not as careful
with her as I should have been. She got me with the
axe.”

The gash was long and looked deep.
Nessie had Keith sit down, and he went for the kit. It was old and
most of the things in it had been gotten under the table. Their
mother had taught them that having a doctor look at you for any
reason was giving yourself up to germs and diseases. It was one of
the reasons that he was terrified of hospitals and doctors. Keith
had gotten over it somewhat to become a doctor, but he still had
fears because of their mom.

The medicine that he gave his brother
dulled the pain, but not entirely. Nessie sewed him up, using the
finest sewing that he knew how to do so that nothing would get into
the wound. He worried some over the swelling, but Keith assured him
he was going to be fine now. After leaving his brother to sleep on
his bed, Nessie went back to his photos.

He’d not been out in several days.
Preparing the last few things for the house was taking more time
than he’d liked. He might have been there when his true love’s home
had been burned down had he not been so focused on the way things
looked for her here. Also, there was the cell in the
basement.

Nessie cut the picture down to where
he had to work out the finer details. It was a lovely picture of
her. Her face had looked at him, as if she understood that he was
there for her. There was a slight sadness in her eyes too, one that
made him want to find her now and simply hold her. Picking up his
smaller scissors, the ones that had been sold as manicure ones, he
began the process of cutting out the unwanted things surrounding
her. He let his mind roll around, but only a little. The slightest
mistake would mean that he’d have to start anew.

His list was near his hands and all he
had to do was glance at it as he worked. There had been over two
dozen things on the list and now, just today, he’d cut it in half.
Some of the items, about five of them, were for her and could not
be purchased until the day he’d go for her and bring her home so
that they might begin their lives together.

The other things—clothing and female
items—would arrive today. He’d ordered them with a credit card he’d
taken from an issue he’d had to deal with. Nessie hated to use such
means, but until his true love was living here and things were
ready for her, he could not find a job to take him from the
necessities that the house still needed. The knock at the door
startled him enough that he nearly cut through her finger while
she’d been pushing her hair from her face.

The man at the door looked official.
Nessie might have thought cop, but there was no badge that he could
see, nor was there a gun. Not that he could see if he wore it under
his jacket, but he did pause. When he knocked again, the sound of
it echoing around the room and disturbing Keith, he hurried to open
it.

“
Mr. Curtis?” Damn it,
where were they finding his name? “I’ve been talking to your
neighbors and they are saying that a few weeks ago Mr. Daniel
Danbury was here.”

“
I’m sorry, I don’t know a
Mr. Danbury.” He started to close the door, but the man put his
hand up. “I would ask that you leave me alone. I’m caring for my
ill brother.”

“
Be that as it may, Mr.
Danbury is your landlord. He was here to collect on the back rent
you owe. They heard him pounding on the door and telling you to
open up.” Nessie stared at him blankly, his mind a whirl of
activity. “His car was parked out front until just after midnight,
and one of your neighbors said that they saw someone, not Mr.
Danbury, get into it and drive away. Four days ago the car, or what
is left of it, showed up across town.”

Nessie wanted to ask him who it was,
to find out which of his neighbors had been snooping in his
business, but that would be telling and he kept his mouth shut.
Instead he invited the man into his home. Nessie hated to take care
of an issue right now, but it was important that there be no one to
make him run any more behind.

“
My partner and I will
talk to you out here, not within the house.” Partner? Nessie looked
over the man’s shoulder at the man leaning against the car. He
looked like he would be hard to move should it come to that. When
the man waved at him, a simple wiggling of his fingers, Nessie felt
as if he’d been slapped. “We can do this here or you can come down
to the station with us. It’s up to you.”

“
I’m sure this is a simple
misunderstanding.” Nessie moved out onto the porch and they both
waited for the big man to come join them, and the closer he got,
the scarier he looked. When he crowded him, moved within his circle
of comfort, Nessie had a feeling that the man knew precisely what
he was doing.

“
We’d like to ask you
about Daniel Danbury.” Nessie nodded, but could not speak. There
was something about this man that frightened him. “What can you
tell me about the night he was here?”

“
He was never here.” The
man said he lied. “I do not lie. He was not here. If he came here,
for any reason, I did not speak to him.”

The big man practically shoved a photo
into his chest, and Nessie had had no choice but to take it. The
picture, when he turned it to where he could see it, was of him and
this Danbury. He couldn’t tell who had shot the picture, as it
looked as if the person was standing right on the porch with
them.

“
Now, let’s try this
again, shall we? What happened the night that he came here
demanding rent from you? He was invited in, and that was the last
anyone saw of him.” The man leaned against the railing of the porch
and watched him. Nessie had a feeling that the man was looking
inside of him, which was stupid. No one could do that. The small
voice that said to him
“you’d be
wrong”
had him turning to see who was
behind him. There was no one there, of course, but the man in front
of him laughed. “Well?”

“
I have no idea where this
picture came from. So far as I know, you could have manufactured it
with a computer program. I know that it can be done.” He shut his
mouth, knowing that saying more than was necessary could get him
arrested again. “Now, if you do not have a warrant or any other
form of papers to continue this harassment, I would suggest that
you leave here at once.

As soon as he entered his home, Nessie
locked the door. Leaning against it, trying to regain control over
his fast beating heart, he thought about the man and the landlord.
Someone knew more than they should. It was another issue to be
cared for. Nessie went back to his pictures, but he was much too
upset to work on them at the moment. Instead, he pulled out his
list and began making arrangements to bring his true love here.
Time was running short, he thought, and he had to move.

~~~

Reggie sat at the big table and tried
to wrap her mind about where she was. This was not a home. This was
a frigging mansion. And there were servants and stuff here, too,
that she’d seen on some of the high-end programs on the television.
The cook put a plate in front of her, and Reggie looked at it like
she had no idea what it was. She looked up at Miss May, the
cook.

“
I can’t eat this.” She
nodded and handed her a glass. Before she could think not to do so,
she drank it when Miss May told her too. “I’m going to have to get
you a list of the cereal I eat. And that’s all I eat.”

Nodding, the woman turned back to the
sink. She had no idea what she was wiping off the counters over
there because, like the rest of the house, it was spotless, but she
wiped all the same. Picking up her fork, Reggie took a small taste
of the fluffy eggs and moaned. The woman paused in her cleaning and
smiled at her.

“
You need to eat more than
just cereal. You’ll be burning more calories than you did before
once you and Mr. Micah are united.” Back to the scrubbing again.
“He’s a good man with a healthy appetite.”