Never Coming Home (14 page)

Kaz nodded sharply. Her throat was too tight to speak.

‘It was found near to your former husband’s body.’ The policeman pushed it back into the folder. ‘Thank you,
Signora
Elmore, you have been most helpful. If you would now like to wait in my office
 
–’

‘No.’ Kaz put her hand up to hold him, her mouth working. ‘A moment, please.’ She swallowed. ‘I have to know what this is about. Giuliana and her little boy. Has something happened to them?’

She saw the indecision in the man’s face, swiftly resolved. He shrugged. ‘You will be able to read it in all the papers tomorrow.’ His voice took on a formal inflection as his face hardened. ‘Giuliana Sforza and her son were found in her apartment at ten-thirty this morning. They had both been stabbed to death.’

Chapter Seventeen

‘Jeff killed his girlfriend and her little boy and then took his own life,’ Kaz said hoarsely.

‘That’s the scenario the police are working with,’ Devlin confirmed.

‘Was that why he was scared this morning, when he saw me, because of what he’d done?’ They were sitting outside a bar. An untouched glass of brandy stood on the table in front of her. Devlin nudged it forward. Kaz picked it up and drained it, almost choking, her eyes filling with tears. ‘Nothing makes sense. Why would Jeff do any of this?’

‘Giuliana knew too much,’ Devlin suggested. ‘That’s what the cops think.’

‘You understand Italian? – You listened in on their conversation.’ For a second Kaz felt her face lighten into the ghost of a grin. Devlin nodded, not looking the slightest bit guilty. Then her features, and her control, crumbled. ‘That suicide note
 
… The police think my daughter is dead. They aren’t looking for Jamie, they’re looking for her body.’

The shift in Devlin’s eyes was tiny, quickly masked. It covered her skin with ice.

‘Kaz
 
–’

‘You think that, too.’

‘Kaz
 
–’ This time he leaned to take her hand, but she evaded him, curling her fingers into fists.

‘I can’t make it add up. That Jeff is a killer, that he would hurt Jamie? It
doesn’t make sense
.’ She heard the rising note in her voice and swallowed. ‘He was never violent, even when we argued. Now I have to believe that he killed Jamie, then murdered his girlfriend and her son?’

Devlin grimaced. ‘Whatever happened, Jeff regretted it to the point of taking his own life.’

Kaz sat, staring at the empty glass on the table. ‘I don’t understand any of it.’ She lifted her head. ‘But with Jeff gone, everything comes to an end. He was our link. There’s nowhere else to look. I may never find out what happened to Jamie.’ Abruptly her throat choked on a sob. ‘I’ve lost her, all over again.’ With a helpless gesture she stood up, almost overbalancing her chair. Devlin righted it, tried to pull her into his arms. When she resisted he dropped his hands. ‘Where are you going?’

‘Back to the hotel, to pack. Mum needs me – because of Phil.’ A fresh wave of pain shuddered through her. She’d had half-a-dozen text messages from her mother, each sounding more urgent than the last. She needed to get back. Her crazy daydream, that when she left Florence Jamie would be coming with her, was over. Loss twisted deeper in her chest than tears. ‘There’s nothing to stay for now. My daughter is never coming home.’

Devlin stood by the window, looking down into the square. He’d booked two seats on a late evening flight, paid off Munroe and Rossi and left contact details at police headquarters. His holdall was packed, waiting on the bed. The hire car would be left at the airport. He’d see Kaz to her house and be back at Heathrow for a plane to Chicago before morning. Extraction complete. Case closed.

Except that this one would never quite be closed.

He watched a pair of pigeons on a nearby roof, the male strutting his macho stuff, neck feathers puffed to impress, the female turning a cold shoulder.

He wasn’t kidding himself. The police thought Jamie Elmore was dead, and he couldn’t argue with their logic. What he’d seen in Kaz’s eyes, down in the square, was the end. All he’d brought her was a whole heap of agony. He’d forced her to mourn her daughter, all over again. She was going to want to bury the memory of that, and of him, in the blackest hole she could find.

He was the one who’d brought all this shit down on Kaz, so if something was biting inside him, something that he could barely identify, and didn’t have the first idea how to handle, it served him fucking well right.

Kaz was only dimly aware of Devlin as she went mechanically through the check-in procedure, the wait, the flight itself. The small part of her that wasn’t in a fog of confusion and pain was very grateful for the way he was taking care of her, and the warmth and strength of his shoulder as the plane powered into the night. She wanted to tell him, but the words wouldn’t come. She put her hand on his chest, fingers curled into his shirt.

As she faded into exhausted sleep, the last thing she remembered was Devlin’s hand covering hers.

They were waiting just outside baggage reclaim. A man and a woman. Plain clothes and blank faces. Warrant cards.

‘Mr Devlin? If you wouldn’t mind coming this way, sir?’

‘Sure as hell I mind!’ Devlin let out a long breath. ‘Not that it’s going to make a damn bit of difference.’ He looked from one to the other and then at Kaz standing, dazed, beside him. ‘Any chance of telling me what this is about?’

He thought he could read the glance that went between them. This was pain in the ass, not panic button.

It was the man who spoke. The woman was watching Kaz, with something like concern in her eyes. ‘We have a few questions. It concerns the murder of Inspector Philip Saint.’

Devlin knew his jaw had slackened. Of all the things it could be, he hadn’t expected this.

Kaz’s head came up ‘Uncle Phil?’ The bewildered look on her face spiked his gut.
You and me both, baby.

He forced a hand through his hair. ‘Does it have to be now?’ Silence. ‘I guess it does.’ With a sigh he retrieved his bag from the luggage trolley and pushed the trolley towards the woman. ‘I’ll go with him.’ He jerked his head. ‘You see Mrs Elmore gets out of here. There should be a car with a driver waiting, in my name. Get her in the car and I’ll answer anything you want.’

That look between them again. An infinitesimal nod. The woman took the trolley. Devlin hesitated, then reached down to kiss Kaz on the cheek. Her skin felt cold. He gave her a gentle push, towards the exit. Her eyes were huge and dark in a pale face. ‘It’s OK. Go on. Go find the car.’

For a moment she looked up at him, face unreadable. The female officer tapped her on the arm, pointing. Kaz turned to follow her.

Devlin stood and watched her walk away.

Chapter Eighteen

Kaz held the phone in a grip tight enough to crush it. ‘Devlin’s gone!’

‘I thought you’d know that, darling.’ Suzanne sounded distracted. ‘He got a flight back to the States, right after the police finished questioning him. Never left the airport. I can’t remember who told me – oh yes – the police liaison officer – did I tell you we had one of those? He really
 
–’

‘Do you know why the police wanted to question Devlin about Uncle Phil?’ Kaz cut in.

‘I think his name was on some papers on Phil’s desk. He had been looking into him, hadn’t he? And the police have to investigate every possible line of enquiry.’ Suzanne caught herself up. ‘I’m babbling, aren’t I? I just don’t seem to be
able to concentrate. They want to put it on that programme
on television – where they get the public to ring up with information,’ she said abruptly. ‘They have CCTV footage. They want to put pictures of a man murdering my brother, on national television.’ Her voice rose and broke. ‘I still can’t believe Phil is dead. And that poor girl and her little boy, in Italy, and Jeff and Jamie. When did the world turn into a
nightmare, Kaz? Oh!’ Her voice changed, sharpened. ‘Oh, no!’

‘What’s the matter?’ Kaz demanded, alarmed.

‘Something’s burning. That bloody toaster is jammed again.’ The ear-splitting whine of a smoke alarm came clearly over the line. ‘Oh sod! I have to go, darling.’ The phone went down with a crash.

Kaz sat on the stairs, arms wrapped around her waist, rocking. Devlin had left, without saying goodbye. Those last moments at the airport. Should she have known? She’d been in emotional meltdown, wiped out by shock and grief. And guilt. Recollection dug into her brain, like glass shards. She’d threatened, so casually, to ring Jeff’s neck
 
…

Gasping, she fought her way back from the memory of that ghastly, sickening fog that had enveloped her at the airport. To Devlin.

He’d kissed her cheek. His lips had been so warm on her skin. And then she’d walked away and left him alone. Had he walked out of her life, or had she walked out of his?

Sometime soon she was going to have to deal with this. And with Jamie.

The police thought Jamie was dead.

But Jeff had said she was safe?

A scared man and a killer?

Nothing safer than death. Nothing to hurt her now.

How do you tell a woman you killed her child?

I don’t have her any more – because no one does?

Kaz set her jaw. However hollow and empty she felt, however high the brick wall that was facing her, she couldn’t give up. Jeff was gone, but there had to be
something
more she could do. Whatever it took, she
was
going to find out what had really happened to her daughter. And bring her back home. At this particular moment, though, she had to concentrate on her mother.

Before the whole of Notting Hill went up in flames.

This time, the telephone at the top of the house was answered before it reached the second ring. ‘For Christ’s sake – I didn’t order a bloodbath!’

The laughter at the other end of the line was low and mocking. ‘You have the result you wanted. How I arrange it is my business. I was rather pleased with the effect. The woman and her son were an unexpected entertainment. An inspiration of the moment. I throw them in, no extra charge.’

‘You’ve already collected your fee.’

‘So I have.’

There was a pause.

‘You’re sure everything is secure?’

‘Nothing leads back to you
 
… but there is one small, loose end.’ The voice faded. Waiting.

The question came at last, low and wary. ‘What is it?’

‘The police are looking for the child’s body.’

An indrawn breath. ‘And?’

‘I think it’s time we gave it to them.’

‘Ground control to Devlin. C’mon, dude, are you in there?’

‘Uh!’ Devlin focused back on the office and on his partner, lounging in the chair in front of him.

‘Shit man – I’ve been briefing you for the last twenty minutes on the O’Hara job – a contract bigger than any we’ve handled so far. Which
I
did the deal on, while you were making your number with half the police forces in Europe – not that I’m bragging, you understand. And you haven’t listened to a fucking word I’ve said.’

‘O’Hara, big new film festival, back to the guy’s roots, West Coast, stars, directors, producers and all that crap. Security and protection,’ Devlin mumbled.

Bobby nodded grudgingly. ‘So – you can look stupid and listen at the same time. Good trick.’ He leaned back, dangerously, in his chair. ‘If the thought of cosying up to Cameron and Catherine Zeta isn’t bringing you out in a sweat, then you might try to show some interest in the money we’ll be making,’ Bobby suggested.

He took a good look at Devlin. ‘This isn’t working, is it?’ He got up and walked round to prop himself against the end of his partner’s desk. ‘Half your head is still in Europe. Is it the job or the woman?’ He saw the small movement in Devlin’s eyes. ‘
Both
? Oh, Jeez!’ He kicked Devlin’s chair. ‘Want to share?’

‘Who made you my shrink?’

‘No one. I’m dumb enough to volunteer. Which, considering you tried to shoot the last one, is pretty big of me. C’mon, Dev, spill it.’ Bobby gestured impatiently. ‘I got the basics. Kaz Elmore is hot and the job was a major fuck up. Do I need to beat the rest out of you?’

‘Wanna try?’ Devlin growled.

Bobby stared at him. ‘If it will help.’

Devlin was the first to look away. Bobby waited.

‘None of this has anything to do with Kaz Elmore.’

Denial.

Bobby straightened up, regarding his friend with a mixture of pity and sympathy. Well-hidden, because if Devlin spotted it, he was toast. The flicker was there again, in his partner’s eyes. Devlin had either done Kaz Elmore and was desperate to do her again, or he hadn’t, and was in the painful position of a man trying to kick his own ass. Bobby stifled a grin. He might offer that one out. There’d be people taking numbers. He’d really like to meet this Elmore babe. She had to be hot and more to get the Iceman this shook up. The prospect of Devlin thinking with his cock, like every other poor slob on the planet was
 
… awesome.