Seeing the Light (A Marie Jenner Mystery Book 1) (30 page)

“What about this?” he said. “You go to Lavall’s place, and I’ll follow the cop around. If I get anything, I’ll figure out a way to get back to you, and then you’ll know what she knows.”

I was going to say, “You don’t have to do this for me, Farley,” but I couldn’t. If he had eyes on the police, then all I would have to worry about was Carruthers. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“Sounds good,” I whispered. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “Now, maybe you should get dressed.”

I nodded. “That sounds good, too.”

All right, none of it was good. I just couldn’t think of anything else to do. So, Farley left, and I pulled on what was left of my clothes. Then I walked out of my room, and up to Sergeant Worth.

“I’m all ready,” I said, trying to smile bravely. Then my head started to whirl, and I staggered a half-step to the right and ran into the wall. One of the nurses grabbed me, and helped me stay upright.

“Sit down, Dearie, and we’ll get you out to the parking lot,” the nurse said, gently leading me to a nearby wheelchair.

I sank into it gratefully, my head still whirling. “I thought I felt all right,” I whispered.

“James is making breakfast,” Sergeant Worth said. She grabbed my wheelchair and pushed me toward the elevator doors. “You’ll feel better when you have something to eat.”

“Do you want your flowers?” The nurse who had helped her to the chair held up the half-dead bouquet of daisies from my room. “You forgot them.”

“Oh,” I said. Those stupid flowers. “Throw them away.”

“You didn’t even open the card,” the ever-so-helpful nurse said. She pulled the envelope from the bouquet. “Do you want me to—?”

“No,” I said. I grabbed it, and attempted to stuff it in my sweater pocket. The good sergeant didn’t need to see who was sending me flowers.

“You should open it,” Sergeant Worth said. “Getting flowers is always nice.”

“I’ll do it later,” I said.

“No,” Sergeant Worth said. “I think you should open it now.”

Well, there was another not-so-veiled threat. I reluctantly pulled the small card free.

I was only going to glance at the signature and then ram it back into the envelope before she had a chance to read it over my shoulder. And after that, I was going to lie my head off about who the bouquet was from. I was fairly certain it wasn’t from Carruthers, but even if it was, she didn’t need to know. I hated the way cops dug into my life—even when I didn’t want them to.

Then I read the inscription and I could do nothing more than stare at it, as my head swirled and I felt like I was going to puke.

It said: “I’ll be seeing you soon.” No name, but then, he never did write his name. He knew I’d know who the card was from. Who the card was always from.

My ex-boyfriend, Arnie Stillwell, had found me. Somehow.

“Who were they from?” Sargent Worth asked, and I could tell by the tone of her voice, I was going to have to tell her something. For once, I was okay with telling the truth.

“They’re from my ex-boyfriend,” I said.

Sergeant Worth said nothing. Farley opened his mouth to speak, but I shut him down. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Then I looked right at Sergeant Worth. “Can we please go?”

“Absolutely,” Sergeant Worth replied, pushing the wheelchair to the elevator. “Do you want to buy a change of clothes or something? I know a good place—”

“No, it’s okay.” My eyesight momentarily greyed, and I leaned forward, holding my head in my hands. “I need to lie down.”

“All right. I’ll get you in the car, and we’re outta here.” The elevator doors opened, and the cop pushed me inside facing the back. She punched the button and impatiently waited for the doors to shut.

“Don’t worry, Marie,” Farley whispered. “I’ll take care of you.”

“That’s a comfort,” I mumbled, staring at the back of the elevator, without really seeing it.

Arnie had found me again. He was probably watching me, right now. I closed my eyes, and hoped that the Sergeant was driving a cop car, with the lights on the top and the whole bit. If Arnie saw me get into it, maybe he’d leave me alone.

Even as I made the wish, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I just hoped he wasn’t going to do even more, this time.

“What’s a comfort?” Worth asked. I grimaced.

“Just being able to get out of this place,” I hastily improvised. “I don’t like hospitals much, know what I mean?”

“Yeah.” The cop leaned against the back wall beside me, and stared straight ahead. A look—could’ve been sadness, it was hard to read her face past the impatience and the exhaustion and the ever present suspicion, but it could have been sadness—touched her face. “Yeah. I know what you mean.”

I was so bound up in my own misery, I didn’t even notice hers.

Farley:
So Marie Has an Ex. Who Knew?

The look on Marie’s face when she opened that card reminded me of the look on my ex’s face whenever I dropped in uninvited, just to see how Rosie was doing. And that was not good. Not good at all.

Whoever this guy was, she didn’t want flowers from him. Or anything else, was my guess.

Huh.

Marie:
Casa del James

“Well, we’re here,” Sergeant Worth said as we finally pulled to a stop in front of a fairly upscale apartment complex.

“Isn’t that good,” I muttered.

Those were the first words spoken in the silent forty minute ride from the hospital. Even Farley kept his mouth shut, which was a bit surprising.

James, who had been waiting by the front door, burst out into the bright sunlight, squinting as he energetically waved at us both.

“Looks like he got rested up.” Worth spoke sourly, as though she was jealous of James’ capacity for recuperation.

“He always looks like that.” I could hear the same sourness curdling my voice and couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Worse than that, I couldn’t get a smile to form until James puppy bounced over to my side of the car and threw open the door.

“Welcome to Casa del James!” he cried. I tried to laugh at his weak attempt at a joke, I really did, but it didn’t sound like much, so I stopped, and simply held my hand out so he could help me from the vehicle. When he held my hand a second longer than he needed to, Farley moaned, loud and long. I ignored him.

“How are you feeling?” James gingerly helped me to the sidewalk.

“Not great.”

“Of course not,” he said hastily, as though he’d asked something truly stupid, which, I guess it was. “Let’s get you inside, I’ve made breakfast, I hope you like bacon and eggs. Sergeant, the coffee’s on.”

“That sounds great, James.” Sergeant Worth put on her happy face, which wasn’t too terribly happy, and got out of the car. She pulled out a plastic bag with my last name written across the front, and a sheaf of papers that the nurse had handed her as we’d made good our escape from the hospital, and followed us as we inched our way to the front door and into the cool shadows of the entryway. The few steps felt like miles.

As James pulled out his key, the Sergeant’s cell phone beeped and she snapped it open. “What?”

She stared down at her feet as someone on the other end talked for a long time. I felt like falling over, but got a nasty rush of adrenaline when she glanced up at me once, with an incredulous look on her face. Then her eyes went back to her highly polished boots. When the one-sided conversation was finally over, she snapped the cell phone shut and handed everything in her hands to James.

“This is her stuff,” Worth said, acting like I wasn’t even there. “There’s a prescription for pain meds in there, somewhere. You should get that filled. She looks like she’s going to need them.”

Then, she turned on her heel, back toward her car.

“Aren’t you going to stay?” James seemed disappointed, but the news made me feel considerably better. I didn’t want her around anymore.

“Sorry, duty calls.” She threw a small smile over her shoulder as she got in the car.

“I’ll find out what that phone call was about,” Farley said. “Plus whatever else I can.” He waved and followed her back into the car. My knight in shining armour.

I turned to Sergeant Worth. “Thanks for the ride,” I said, trying to sound grateful. “It was very kind of you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I might drop by later. See how you’re doing, you know, stuff like that.”

The look on her face let me know that she wasn’t just going to make sure we were all right. In fact, I didn’t think the visit would be nice at all, and tried to keep my teeth from grinding. “That’s great. However, I don’t know how long I’ll be staying here—”

“Oh, come back any time,” James said, with a big grin and aw shucks look that put my teeth back on edge. Worth smiled back, and it seemed genuine.

“I’ll do my best.” Then she and Farley were gone, a small spurt of dust from her rear tires as she headed back out to battle evil. Plus all the appropriate paperwork, of course.

“Let’s get you inside,” James said, and tightened his grip on my arm.

“Yeah, I think so,” I whispered. Getting out of the car had taken what little strength I had left, and I needed to lie down, desperately.

Without another word, James scooped me up and carried me through the various hallways to his apartment. He impressed me when he only fumbled a little while getting out his key and opening the door, all without letting my feet touch the ground.

He placed me gently on the couch, and touched my hair, such a light touch it could have been accidental, before he walked into the kitchenette.

“Want something to eat?”

I leaned against the brightly coloured pillows that graced the end of the armless, nondescript couch and sighed. It sounded and felt like it was coming from the lowest place in my soul.

“Can I sit here for a minute? I need to rest.”

“Of course.” He poured a cup of coffee into a mug. “How about a cup of—”

“No, nothing. I need to rest.” As I spoke I closed my eyes, partly so that I could block out the sun, which was making my head pound, but mostly so I didn’t have to see the disappointment on his face. I listened to him pour the coffee into the sink and set the cup down on the counter.

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Thanks.”

I was nearly asleep when Farley came back fifteen minutes later. He oozed through the door, looking furious, and I struggled to sit up.

“I got ten frigging blocks. Ten blocks!” He threw his arms up, and ecto goo flew everywhere. “Then BAM! I was back in front of this apartment building.” He threw himself down beside me on the couch. “What the hell is going on?”

I felt sick. The only reason he would bounce back here that I could think of was, he’d attached to me.

Was it because I’d asked him to help me? Probably. I wanted to cry. I couldn’t even get help without screwing things up.

“We need to talk,” Farley said. “Get him out of here.”

Now, I couldn’t exactly ask James to leave his own apartment, but I could go hide somewhere.

“Did you call my Mom?” I asked James.

He nodded. “I told her you were okay.”

“Did she believe you?”

“I don’t know,” he said, and shrugged. “She’s a lot like you.”

“Oh.”

I didn’t quite know how to take that.

“Maybe I should give her a call,” I said.

He pointed at the telephone sitting on the counter, but I shook my head.

“A little privacy.” I struggled to pull myself out of the couch which felt like it had half-eaten me.

“Oh,” he said. “Sure. You can use the phone in my bedroom.”

“That would be good.” I struggled against gravity for a moment more, then fell back into the couch. “A little help?”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” James scurried over and gently helped me to my feet, then hovered around as I inched my way to the hallway. Even with the pain killers the nurses had been pumping into me, I’ve never hurt so much in my whole life.

“It’s on the right. Bathroom’s on the left and there’s a closet, but—” His voice faded as I shot him a withering glance. It was taking all my energy to get to the hallway. I didn’t need him jabbering at me. “It’s on the right.”

He went back to his safe spot behind the counter, and I could feel him watching me as I walked into the hallway, using the wall for support.

It took me forever to walk those few steps. Farley followed me; I could hear him huffing and puffing his impatience behind me. I didn’t care, though, and kept going, until he decided to go through me so he could get into the room first.

The anger in that man almost flattened me. Tendrils of anger wrapped around every part of his being. It was horrible, and I tried to get away from him, and nearly pitched myself face forward on the really beautiful hardwood floor, which would have hurt like anything.