Obsession (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

A wave of dizziness had Tess clutching the kitchen counter. The mixing spoon she’d been holding clattered to the floor. The cabinets shifted and swayed and she closed her eyes, her stomach heaving.

Nearly a week had passed since the accident and still she felt dizzy and nauseated. She hadn’t told Alex but she had told her doctor when she went for her follow-up checkup the day before. He hadn’t seemed too concerned but drew some blood, just in case, and told her to expect the results sometime today. Her bruises were slowly fading, the pain was all but gone and she had quickly returned to a full workload. Alex’s return to work hadn’t been as traumatic as she had feared. In fact, she liked that they were falling into a routine. They ate dinner together every night, something they had rarely done in the past. In the evenings they just hung out and, in those moments, reconnected.

It was the life she had always hoped for and even Alex seemed to enjoy it.

She opened her eyes slowly and retrieved the spoon from Othello’s jaws. She threw it in the sink and grabbed a clean one. Today was St. Patrick’s Day and while it wasn’t as busy a holiday as Christmas and Valentine’s Day, she still had orders to complete. She’d just renewed a very lucrative contract with her best customer and was about to sign another. More and more she’d been thinking of hiring someone to help her out, especially now that she and Alex were back together and she didn’t want
her
career interfering.

The phone rang and she put her mixing spoon down to answer it.

“Mrs. Juran? This is Nancy from Dr. Gold’s office calling with the results from your tests yesterday.”

Tess leaned against the counter, her heart picking up speed.
Please, please, please don’t let anything be wrong.
“Yes?”

“Everything came back normal except one thing we believe is the reason you’ve been experiencing those dizzy spells.”

She gripped the phone tighter. “Yes?

“This isn’t normally how we find such things out, but Dr. Gold ordered this test along with the others.”

Just get on with it!
She couldn’t figure out why the nurse was babbling when she was dying inside. Positive she’d injured something during the crash. “And?”

“Congratulations, Mrs. Juran, you’re pregnant.”

A long silence followed in which Tess opened her mouth several times to say something. Her knees felt weak and she sank to the floor. Othello came over and lay next to her, pressing the length of his body against her leg. “Are you sure?” She didn’t want to get her hopes up. Almost didn’t want to believe.

The nurse laughed. “We’re sure. You’ll want to make an appointment with an obstetrician. Is this your first?”

For a moment Tess was too stunned to answer. “What? Oh, no. Not my first.”

“Then you know the drill. Make that appointment, Mrs. Juran, and congratulations.”

“Yes. Um. Thank you.” She turned the phone off and sat on the kitchen floor, staring at a cabinet door, absently patting Othello.

A baby. Something stirred inside her. Hope. Joy. Fear. No. She wouldn’t let the fear consume her. This one would be healthy. Full term and healthy. A baby.

Her head fell back and tears traveled down her cheeks.

A baby.

Hours later, still dazed at the completely unexpected news, she popped a roast into the oven. She’d tell Alex the news over his favorite meal. Would he be happy? Or scared as hell? Maybe both, just like she was.

The phone rang again and she picked it up to hear the wail of a newborn.

“Tess?” Shannon sobbed.

“Shannon? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Roger. I can’t find him.” The girls shrieked on the other end, drowning out the baby’s cries.

“What do you mean you can’t find Roger?”

“I sent him out to buy diapers and some things at the grocery store. He hasn’t returned.”

Tess’s shoulder slumped and irritation replaced the worry. “Shannon, I’m sure he got sidetracked or something. Do you need the diapers that badly? I’ll get them myself.”

“No, you don’t understand. That was this morning. He’s been gone over four hours. I keep calling his cell phone, but he won’t answer. I’m really worried. He’s been acting so strange. At first I thought it was the new baby, but now I just don’t know.” Shannon’s voice trailed off into sniffles.

“I’ll tell you what, Shannon. I’ll run to the store and get the diapers, then help you out for a few hours. How’s that?”

“Th-thanks, Tess. I just don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

“Stay put. I’ll be right there.”

Tess hung up and grabbed her car keys. Damn Roger Sheffield. Preoccupied with her thoughts, she opened the front door and ran smack into Roger.

***

“Juran—” Tony sighed. “This is getting old.”

“I can’t figure out how the mechanic didn’t find any evidence of tampering,” Alex said, mostly to himself. “Those brakes were good. I know they were.”

Alex sat in the driver’s seat of the police cruiser, staring at the warehouses in front of him. Tony slouched in his seat on the passenger side and folded his hands across his stomach.

Since Tess’s accident, Alex had returned to light duty, falling into a routine he loved, doing the kinds of things he enjoyed and saying no when they asked him to take on special assignments—and they’d begun asking his first day. Tess was more important and because he was making her a priority, his marriage grew stronger by the day. Except for this last thing, life had become perfect.

If only he could remember.

He stepped out of the cruiser and closed the door.
Jason here told me you’re interested in dealing.

Alex searched his mind for that voice. He knew it, recognized it, but couldn’t figure out who it belonged to.

He closed his eyes, relaxed his muscles and took his mind back to that night. The man had kept to the shadows at first, but then something made him step into the light.

And Alex had looked into the eyes of…his brother-in-law.

Roger Sheffield had killed Jason. And shot him.

His eyes snapped open.
Holy shit!
The man the department was after for dealing illegal drugs was his own
brother-in-law
and a fellow cop. Rage swept through him, but he kept it on a tight leash. Three gunshots reverberated in his mind. Jason’s dead eyes looked at him. His knee throbbed in remembrance.

He swung around and ran to the cruiser.

“It’s Sheffield.” He reached the driver’s side and threw the door open.

“
Sheffield
?” Tony straightened in his seat. “You sure?”

“Damn sure.” He threw the car in reverse and with a squeal of rubber, backed out. “I remember the whole thing.”

Alex radioed Upton to meet them at the station. They pulled in at the same time and jogged up the steps together.

Alex told them about that night. About Roger being there, his surprise at seeing Alex. He recounted the scuffle between them and the shots fired. Upton called in Lt. Watson. Within a half hour they had a team assembled.

“Call Sheffield,” the lieutenant told Alex. “Today’s his day off. See if he’s home. Ask him to stay there, come up with some reason, but don’t let on that you know.”

With shaking hands, Alex dialed Roger’s home number.

“Hello?”

“Shannon?” His hand tightened on the receiver. Roger Sheffield. He’d been under Alex’s nose the entire time, visiting Alex in the hospital, acting concerned, lending his support to Tess.

Tess.

Ah, God, what would she do when she found out? And Shannon? The poor woman had four kids including a newborn and her husband was headed to prison. This would rip her world apart.

“Alex?”

“I’m looking for Roger. He around?” He steeled himself against her voice and the whimpers of the baby in the background. He had a job to do, a murderer to apprehend. He and Tess would help Shannon afterward, but first he needed to get Roger.

Shannon sniffled. “I can’t find him, Alex. He disappeared hours ago. I called Tess. She’s on her way over.”

His heart nearly stopped and his hand slipped on the receiver. “Listen, Shannon, will you call me when Roger returns?” He recited his cell phone number then hung up. He dialed Tess’s cell phone while telling Watson, Upton and the rest of the guys what was going on.

The phone rang and rang until her voicemail picked up. Alex slammed the phone down. “Shit.” Why the hell did she even have a cell phone if she never bothered to answer it?

“Tess is on her way to Roger’s,” he said. “I have to stop her.”

“You can’t do anything right now,” Watson said. “If you go racing over there and Roger sees you, you’ll blow the whole thing.”

***

“What are you doing here, Roger?” Tess tightened her hands around her keys. Behind her, Othello growled. Roger’s bloodshot eyes glanced at the dog before coming back to her.

“Shannon sent me over.”

“Shannon? But…” She took in Roger’s dirty, disheveled hair, the dark rings under his eyes and his pasty skin. His hands shook and he shifted from one foot to the other.

“You okay, Roger?” Tess wanted to back up a step because he was making her nervous. She’d never seen him so tightly strung.

He laughed and she cringed at the brittle sound. “Hell, no, I’m not okay. Alex around?”

She shook her head. Othello barked and Roger bared his teeth at the dog. “Put the damn dog away. Little shit never did like me.”

Tess stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind her. Othello barked harder, then whined and scratched at the door.

“Where’s Alex?” Roger asked.

“At work.”

“He went back to work?”

Tess stared at him in surprise. Roger knew Alex had gone back to work. “Yes.”

Dirt-caked fingernails ran through his hair. He’d always been meticulous about his appearance to the point of being vain, now he looked like a street bum.

“I can’t take this anymore,” he mumbled.

“Can’t take what? The baby?” Having four kids had to be hard and Tess knew Roger never really wanted the last one.

He snorted. “Shit. No.”

“What can’t you take anymore?”

He stared at her, his eyes a harsh blue, rimmed with red. He shook his head and looked away.

“Are you having an affair, Roger?”

He laughed. “Is that what you think? Is that what Shannon told you?”

“Shannon told me you’ve been acting strange, keeping strange hours.”

He laughed harder. Othello started barking again and behind her the door shuddered, as if the dog had thrown himself at it. Tess backed up a step. She was hemmed in with the house behind her and Roger in front of her. How stupid of her to have stepped out on the porch.

His laughter subsided into chuckles. “If only it were as simple as that.” He wiped the tears from his eyes. He wasn’t having an affair. He looked like he’d been on a binge…or drugs.

Her cell phone chimed in her purse.

“Ignore it,” Roger said, his voice tight.

Tess nodded. “Sure.” Fear cramped her stomach and she thought of the baby nestled safely inside.

He rolled his eyes. “Nothing but a waste of humanity, that kid. He would’ve ended up on the pavement one way or the other.”

Her heart climbed into her throat and she edged away from him. The home phone started to ring and she just knew it was Alex trying to get a hold of her.

Roger grabbed her upper arm in a bruising hold. “You understand now, don’t you?”

“It was you,” she said through a tight throat.
Oh, my God
. Roger was the one who killed Jason and shot Alex. All this time they were looking for the guy and he’d been right here.

“Where’s Alex?” he asked harshly.

“I told you, at work.”

He shook her arm. “You don’t understand what the past few months have been like, wondering when he’d remember. I kept hoping he wouldn’t, then you said bits and pieces had come back. Time was running out, I could feel it. The walls were closing in and it’s…it’s like I can’t breathe anymore.” He took deep breaths, as if to punctuate his point.

“Why?” she whispered. “Why’d you do it?”

“Do what? Shoot Alex or sell drugs?” His hold loosened on her arm, but he didn’t let go. “Do you know what it’s like living with your sister? ‘Roger, I need money for this. Caitlyn would like to take dance lessons and Elizabeth is so very good at soccer.’” His voice mimicked Shannon’s whine perfectly. “Of course none of the kids can go to public schools, it has to be private. Do you know how much private schools cost? I’m just a cop, living on a cop’s salary.”

“You could have told her no, said there wasn’t enough money.”

He looked at her as if he’d never even considered the option. “I couldn’t do that. I’d promised to give her the life she wanted.”

For a moment Tess didn’t know what to say. She could tell that Roger still loved Shannon but Shannon’s excessiveness and whining had pushed him over the edge. Still, murder and drugs weren’t the answer. “Even if it meant another person’s life? Alex’s career?”

“The money was good and I knew the ins and outs, how to avoid the cops. It was so
easy
and the money just came pouring in, loads and loads of it, enough to put Caitlyn in every dance outfit she ever wanted. Enough to hire a personal soccer coach for Elizabeth if she wanted one.”

A car turned onto the street. Tess turned to look at the same time Roger did. When he saw it was a cruiser he grabbed her around the throat and pulled her in front of him. Just like her attacker had that day in Alex’s apartment. Had it been
Roger
in that apartment?

The cruiser stopped in front of the neighbor’s house and Alex climbed out, his gaze trained on Roger, his hands out to his side, away from his weapon.

Roger dragged Tess to the middle of the yard. She sucked in cold air through the tight hold on her neck, trying not to let her panic overtake her good sense.

“You remembered,” Roger said.

“I remember.” Alex’s gaze flicked to Tess, then back to Roger.

“Let her go, man.” Tony stepped up next to Alex.

Roger shook his head. “I can’t.”

Roger looked like hell and that scared the shit out of Alex. Cornered men were unpredictable. It wasn’t uncommon for people in Roger’s predicament to force a cop to shoot him in the hopes he’d die. Suicide by cop it was called.