The Payback Man (20 page)

“Yes’m.”

“Somewhere we’ve got a horse muzzle, but I have no idea where. We really need a better control system.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Steve said cheerfully. “So far I haven’t found any entries for ‘muzzle, horse, teeth, avoidance of.’”

He was a different person. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have thought he was actually happy.

“Then it’s up to Big and me. Steve, will you and Abel get ready to open the back doors of the trailer and let down the butt chain when we tell you we’re ready to back him out?”

“At your service.”

“Stand way back,” Abel said. “He’s got some kind of range on those hind hooves.”

Big and Eleanor opened both front doors of the trailer at the same time so that they’d have easy access to get out if things went awry. This time the youngster stared from one to the other. His coat was slick with sweat, and white foam covered his shoulders. He rolled his eyes, but he didn’t snap at them.

“He’s broken the tie line to the front. That’s why he nearly got me the first time. I didn’t realize his head was completely free. Big, I don’t suppose you could hold on to his halter long enough for me to shoot him with the
tranquilizer, could you? You’d have to hold him fairly still, otherwise I won’t be able to hit the vein.”

“Yes’m. Now, you big ol’ boy, just you calm on down now. Ain’t nobody gonna hurt you. Doc here’s gonna fix you right up, ain’t you, Doc?” He extended one of his huge arms, wrapped his hand around the side piece of the stallion’s halter, and climbed in.

It took a second for the horse to realize that somebody had him. By that time it was too late to do much about it. Big talked to him and stroked his nose. Eleanor could see the horse straining against the tension with his whole body weight, but Big held on tight.

She found the vein, popped in the needle, followed it with the syringe, then backed out.

“Okay, Big. See if you can get out of there without getting yourself hurt.”

“No’m. I believe I’ll just stand here a while till he’s quiet. Would that be okay?”

Eventually the horse settled, was unloaded and limped into a stall with no further problems. Big went with him every step of the way.

“Hey, you want to come work for me?” Abel asked after they’d closed the stall door on the stallion.

“Can’t, sir.”

“Not for at least six months,” Eleanor said. “And we’re not about to let him leave the clinic without a fight.”

“Man who knows horses like that—can’t find ’em much anymore.”

As he drove away, Big turned to Eleanor. “I don’t know much about horses. How come he thinks I do?”

“Because of the way you handled that colt,” Steve said.

“Oh. That wadn’t nothin’. Can I get on back to the kennel? Nancy’s got me working with them pit bulls.”

“How’s the little brindle female?”

Big’s face broke into smiles. “She’s real sweet and gentle. She does just about anything I ask her.”

“In or out of her cage?”

Big looked confused. “Out.”

Eleanor sighed. “I should have guessed. Go on. And thank you.” She turned to Steve. “And thank
you.
”

Together they walked down the hall to her office.

“Wadn’t nothing, as Big says. You’re pretty feisty for a girl.”

“Hey, I’m no girl. I’m a woman.”

“I’ve noticed.” He stopped on the threshold of her office as though unwilling to invade her space further. “You have no idea how I’ve noticed.”

She faced him. Their eyes held.

S
TEVE KNEW
he should go back to his computer. It was his only safe course of action.

A moment earlier they had been bantering like casual friends.

In an instant the tension became unbearable. All he could think about was that kiss—that time his lips had tasted hers, the sweetness that had so quickly flared into passion.

He had to touch her again, hold her, feel her lips against his once more, the warmth of her body as it fitted against his.

In three years he had almost forgotten the soft warmth of a woman’s touch. He had been locked in an angular, unyielding universe where even his heart went armed.

The look in her eyes stripped him and left him soul-naked.

He stepped across the threshold and kicked the door shut behind him, then came to her with outstretched hands.

Her gaze still held his, but he wasn’t certain what he read. Was she still afraid of him?

He took her hands and drew her forward. She sighed, closed her eyes and raised her face to his. He kissed her temple, her eyelids, and then her lips, trying this time to keep a firm grip on his passion.

Not easy. Not easy at all, as she opened to him, tasted
him as he tasted her, setting off hot flares along his nerve endings, which seemed to explode faster than he could control them.

In seconds, her kiss became demanding, fierce. Her fingers bit into the muscles of his shoulders, her hips moved against his and she whispered his name against his lips.

At the very verge of the abyss he broke the kiss, but still held her close. “Do you know the danger you’re in right now?”

“I’m not afraid.”

“We’re finally alone, with nobody and nothing to interfere, to stop us.”

“I don’t want to stop.”

He kissed her again, only this time the kiss was gentle, the brushing of lips that deepened slowly as their lips parted, their tongues intertwined.

As his palm swept over her breast, she sighed and whispered his name. Her voice sent shivers of desire through him. His hands slid down to her waist. He longed to touch her, stroke her until she lay warm beneath him, as hungry for him as he was for her.

His lips slid down to the open throat of her shirt, then lower.

Suddenly he clenched his fists and forced himself to turn away from her.

“Steve?” The way she whispered his name sent daggers of desire through him.

“I know what I’m doing,” he said, “and I know it’s dangerous for both of us. Do you?”

“Lock the door.” Her voice was so low he could barely hear her.

He caught his breath and did as she asked.

She came to him, pressed her body against his. “Yes. Yes, I know.”

He picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. He laid her on the desk. He’d wanted moonlight and magnolias when he made love
to her, but suddenly all that mattered was to be joined, to feel her warm beneath him, surrounding him, moving with and for him. His fingers sought the zipper of her jeans as hers sought his belt buckle.

“Please, please,” she repeated. He could feel her palms on his naked hips, her fingernails digging into his skin.

“Wait. One danger I can save you from.” Prisoners were issued condoms as a matter of course. He’d never used his, but now he was grateful for it.

When he was ready, he caressed her until he knew she was ready for him, and entered her in one great thrust.

He watched her, eyes half-open, lips parted. He felt her hips meet him thrust for thrust as though to drive him to the very center of her being. The world existed only where they were joined in a swirl of color and sensation.

He was afraid that after such a long time, he would be too fast, but Eleanor arched her back and sobbed out his name before his own climax.

When at last he lay spent on her body, waves of tenderness swept him where only a moment before waves of passion had crested.

My God! What had he done?

He looked down at her drowsy lovely face and felt waves of guilt.

How could he have allowed this to happen? The whole thing was his responsibility, and he was a man who might well be on the path to destruction.

She said she knew what she was doing.

There was no way she could know. If he were still the man he’d been three years ago, they might have had a chance, but not now. She couldn’t fathom the degradation, the bitterness, the grief that had turned him into the man he was now.

What in God’s name could he say to her?

They had made love. And now they were supposed to go about their business as though nothing had happened?

She touched his hand. He clasped her fingers but without
looking at her. She laughed shakily. “A good thing Sarah believes in keeping a tidy desk. At least we didn’t break anything.”

He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“Oh, that makes me feel grand.”

She was trying to keep her tone light, to give him a way out.

He couldn’t take it. “I wanted to come to you with champagne and roses. I wanted to come to you
free.
”

“We can’t always have what we want. Sometimes we have to settle for what we can get.”

He kissed her hair. “I wanted moonlight and satin sheets and all the time in the world to explore you, taste you, touch you.”

“Maybe we’ll have that someday.” She caressed his cheek. “In the meantime, wild spontaneous passion on top of a desk in a veterinary clinic isn’t all that bad, now is it?”

He kissed her fingertips. “Not all that bad at all.”

The telephone that had miraculously clung to its place on the far side of Sarah’s desk rang. Eleanor closed her eyes and answered it. “Dr. Grayson. Oh, yes, Mac. Whenever you’re ready. We’ll have to get Big and Kenny to help get that stallion into preop.” She listened. “Give me ten minutes. We still need X rays. Fine.” She hung up and turned to Steve. “How do I look?”

“Relaxed.”

She smacked him lightly on the shoulder. “Braggart. If you’ll pick up everything and put it back on Sarah’s desk, I’m going to use her bathroom to try to conceal what we’ve been doing.” She sighed. “One good thing, my hand should be steady on that scalpel. I suspect my blood pressure’s down considerably from what it was.”

He began to rearrange Sarah’s desk in what he hoped was a reasonable facsimile of what it had been before they’d trashed it.

Eleanor was an amazing woman. He knew she didn’t take this lightly, but she’d chosen to let him think that what they’d done was no big deal if that’s what he wanted. She’d been as passionate, as hungry, as demanding as he.

“Well?” Eleanor came out of the bathroom with her hair drawn tightly back, her face freshly washed, and wearing surgical greens that were baggy on her lithe body. She carried green booties, a surgical cap and a mask. “Does my skin have that extra glow?”

“Your eyes do. Eleanor—”

“Not now.” She unlocked and opened the door. No one was in the hall beyond that Steve could see. Good. She started out, then stopped suddenly. “Oh, my heaven, Steve! I forgot to tell you. There was…an incident at the barn today. I had to put Sweet Daddy on probation with the team.”

“What? Why?”

“Gil says I shouldn’t have, but I didn’t have a choice. For God’s sake, Steve, be careful. Don’t let him hurt you.” She walked away quickly.

“Hurt
me? Me?
” He sank onto the corner of Sarah’s desk. That did it. The closer she got to him, the more danger he put her in. He had to do the job he’d planned to do and get out of her life before he destroyed both of them.

E
LEANOR DECIDED
not to tell Steve about her upcoming meeting with Leslie Vickers. No sense in getting his hopes up, especially not now. But she did call Mary Beth Chadwick to tell her that she could make arrangements to see Steve the next time he came to the clinic and to invite her to her appointment with Leslie Vickers.

Mary Beth was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing her brother and seemed eager to go along to Vickers’s office, as well.

The following morning, dressed in a decent pair of slacks and a blazer, as arranged, Eleanor went by the Chadwick house to pick up Mary Beth in plenty of time to find a place to park downtown close to Vickers’s office.

The house was not ostentatious, but it was substantial. The yard was immaculate but boringly symmetrical, almost like the Queen of Hearts’ garden in
Alice in Wonderland
.

She was about to press the doorbell when the heavy front door opened and Mary Beth pulled her inside. She wore a chic navy-blue suit over a pale blue silk blouse and looked much more sophisticated than Eleanor felt. “I just have to get my handbag.”

“Sure.”

As Mary Beth reached for a smart, boxy lizard handbag, Eleanor heard footsteps coming down the stairs into the entryway. Mary Beth froze.

“Mary Beth, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“Eleanor, this is my father, Colonel Sylvan Chadwick, retired. Daddy, this is Dr. Eleanor Grayson.”

“How do you do, Colonel? I’d like to stay and talk, but I’m afraid Mary Beth and I are going to be late for a meeting.”

He turned to his daughter. “The symphony again?”

Mary Beth nodded, but avoided her father’s eyes and started toward the front door.

“Symphony, my foot. I forbid you to see that lawyer.”

“Daddy—”

“I heard you make the arrangements on the telephone. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” He turned to Eleanor. “What right have you, young woman, to interfere in the business of this family?”

“It’s Steve’s business. And I have every right to intervene when I think there’s been a miscarriage of justice.”

“So you’ve convinced my daughter that justice was not served? You plan to rake up all the old scandal? Surely you’re aware that she isn’t in a position to—”

Eleanor’s patience snapped. “Mary Beth and I are not going to be late for our appointment with Mr. Vickers, Colonel. She’s a grown woman. You apparently think
both
your children belong in prison, even if you have to act as jailer.”

“Mary Beth, go to your room.”

“Daddy, please listen. You’ve got to stop looking for somebody to blame when anything goes wrong with your life.”

Both Eleanor and the Colonel stared at Mary Beth. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but her voice was strong.

“When Mother died, you blamed the doctors. You didn’t know how to grieve for her, so you cursed and yelled and threatened to sue them. And you blamed Steve and me because we were alive while she was dead. Then you went off on temporary duty for thirteen months and left us with Aunt Marge. You acted as though we’d ceased to exist. Then when I…when I was hurt, you blamed Steve
for not coming to get me at that party. I’ve told you time and time again he did come, but I didn’t wait for him. I drove off before Steve had a chance to get there. But it’s not really about me, is it? Or even about Chelsea. You’ve never forgiven him for turning down the appointment to West Point.”

“Young woman—”

“That’s right, Daddy, I’m a woman and your daughter, and the accident didn’t leave me as brain-damaged as you think. You think you didn’t make brigadier because you came up from the ranks and didn’t go to West Point. Steve was supposed to do it for you.”

“He failed this family.”

“He failed
you,
not the family. Maybe it’s time you faced facts, Daddy. You didn’t make brigadier because you have an awful temper, and because the promotions board realized you had a daughter you couldn’t control who did drugs and drank like a fish. Steve turned that appointment down because of
me,
Daddy, to look out for me.”

“He almost let you die in that accident.”

Eleanor stepped between them. “That’s unfair.”

The Colonel made a nasty sound.

“Even the father of the prodigal son never yelled at his kid for disgracing his family when he came home,” Eleanor went on. “He killed the fatted calf and welcomed his boy with open arms, whatever he’d done. You’re a soldier, Colonel. You ought to thank God you have a
live
son to love. So many fathers don’t. Come on, Mary Beth.” She grabbed Mary Beth’s wrist to drag her to the truck if necessary.

Mary Beth picked up her purse again. “I’m going to see the lawyer, Daddy. Maybe we can get Steve a new trial. Then this Saturday I’m going to the prison to visit him, and I think you should come with me.”

The Colonel no longer looked angry. He looked merely stunned.

Eleanor didn’t relax until they’d driven well away from
the house, then she glanced at Mary Beth. “Are you all right?”

Mary Beth nodded and rubbed her fingers along her cheekbones under her eyes. “He’ll probably have the locks changed while I’m gone,” she said, then laughed through her tears.

“You can sleep at my house if he does.”

“Thanks, but he and I need to talk. I have to make him listen to me. He’s been in so much pain ever since Mother died, and everything that’s happened since he sees as a blow from God aimed directly at him.”

“Heck of a selfish viewpoint.”

“He’s incredibly self-centered, and he always thinks he’s right. I think the military makes officers that way so they’ll be able to send men out to die. Until Mother died, he lived a charmed life, and then suddenly everything seemed to go bad for him. What happens when one of your animals gets really badly hurt? Do they understand you want to help them?”

Eleanor laughed. “They generally try to chew your arm off, and the worse off they are, the meaner they get.”

“See? Just like the Colonel.”

“Mary Beth, if you’ve known all this, why haven’t you done anything about it before now?”

“Oh, I’m not smart enough to figure all that out. Before Steve…went away, he asked me to get some professional help. I’ve got money of my own Mother left me, so I could pay for my sessions without running them through Daddy’s insurance. That way he wouldn’t know about them. I’ve been working up the nerve to confront my father, but as long as I thought Steve was guilty, there didn’t seem to be any point. Now, I’ve got something to fight for—my family. I guess Dr. Mitchum would call this a breakthrough.”

“Dr. Mitchum’s the psychologist you’ve been seeing?”

“Since about a year after Steve left. When they turned
down his appeal. I had to do something or really go crazy.”

“What happened to you, Mary Beth? I’m not certain I understand it all.”

“It was the summer Steve graduated from high school. He’s four years older, so he was eighteen and I was only fourteen. And pretending to be twenty-one. I could do it, too. I mean, I’m tall and I know how to dress. I thought I just wanted to have a good time, but Dr. Mitchum says I wanted to get my father’s attention by being bad, since he wouldn’t pay attention to anybody but Steve. But Steve was the
best
brother. He tried to help, tried to explain to the Colonel what I needed and why I acted the way I did, but the Colonel wouldn’t listen. One night I went to a frat party at the college. There was a lot of drinking, and some pot and stuff. Some of them were doing Ecstasy and coke, and things started getting really scary. I called Steve and asked him to come get me, take me home.”

“He didn’t?”

“Of course he did, but the party was in midtown and we live in Germantown. Before he had time to get there, a guy I knew slightly with a new red Mustang told me he’d drive me home right then. He didn’t seem drunk or stoned or anything, and there were a couple of guys hitting on me pretty hard, so I said okay. Steve pulled up just after we drove off. Steve followed us, tried to flag us down. I tried to get the guy to stop, but he wouldn’t. He said he could outrun anything on the road. Thank God I had my seat belt on. He didn’t. He missed a turn on Raleigh LaGrange and went off an embankment. He was thrown clear. I got smacked with the air bag. That saved me in front, but the car rolled, and my head got hurt.”

“What happened to the boy?”

“He…he never came to. I was in the hospital for six months with a broken leg, a broken arm and head injuries. I have a steel plate. Not a big one, but it’s there. And I have problems with language and stuff sometimes. The
Colonel keeps telling me I’m brain-damaged. I guess I am. That’s why I don’t move out. I probably couldn’t hold a job, and he pays the bills. He wouldn’t support me anywhere else. He doesn’t trust me, although I have been lily-white ever since. I guess you could say I got scared straight. That’s why Steve turned down the appointment to West Point. Oh, look, there’s a parking place.”

L
ESLIE
V
ICKERS WAS SMALLER
than Eleanor would have expected, given that big baritone voice. He wore a slightly rumpled dark-blue suit, but his gray hair was thick and lustrous. He was charming, jovial, solicitous to Mary Beth and suspicious of Eleanor.

Eleanor said without preamble, “You let Steve go to prison for a crime I don’t think he committed. You didn’t even put on a case. Why?”

“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?” He chuckled. “Because I was sure I’d get him off. The police had no real evidence.”

“You relied on that intruder theory of Steve’s, which didn’t make a bit of sense. Didn’t it occur to you that somebody close to the family killed Chelsea?”

Vickers narrowed his eyes. “Who do you think did it, then?”

“Neil Waters, of course. Why did you let him get away with that nasty stuff about Steve without suggesting he could be the killer himself? That alibi from his wife is worse than useless.”

“I know juries. In this case I thought I had them completely pegged. The last thing I needed to do at the last minute was to confuse them with a completely different theory of the murder, one that had not even been suggested up to that point. And frankly, until I heard Neil’s testimony, the possibility that he might be guilty hadn’t occurred to me. Certainly it didn’t to Steve.”

“Then why didn’t you appeal?”

“I did. Most laymen don’t know this, but appeals are
judged solely on whether or not there were errors in legal procedure, not on new evidence. The judges look at transcripts. They do not hear new evidentiary witnesses nor consider the guilt or innocence of the party in question. So if there’s an error, then there’s a new trial. If not, the verdict stands. Appeals courts do not second-guess juries. That isn’t their function. I even argued that I did not represent Steve properly because I did not put on a case. You have no idea how that hurt me, but I did it, because by then I believed he was truly innocent.”

“Didn’t you at first?” Mary Beth asked.

“I thought he was guilty as sin,” Vickers said cheerfully. “I didn’t give a damn. I thought I could get him off.”

“Why didn’t you try for a new trial?” Eleanor asked.

“That’s an entirely different process and requires convincing evidence that a miscarriage of justice occurred. What new evidence did I have? My gut feeling that Neil Waters was guilty? I tried to take the appeals process higher and was turned down. They refused to hear the case—they can do that, you know.”

“So Steve rots in prison and this Waters character gets away with murder?”

“It would seem so.”

“No,” Mary Beth said. “If money will help you get Steve a new trial, then tell me how much you need and I’ll write you a check this minute.”

Vickers held up his hands. “Miss Chadwick, please. If I thought I could get Steve a new trial, I would have done it and worried about the money later.”

“So there’s nothing we can do?” Eleanor asked.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Yes, you did!” Mary Beth snapped.

“Then I misled you. Money may not get a new trial, but it can pay to uncover evidence that may have been overlooked previously. There are a couple of possibilities that the police never properly followed up. I didn’t con
sider them at the time. However, a private detective might uncover something even now.”

“What? Tell me.” Mary Beth was becoming excited.

“I’d prefer to speak to Steve first. In any old case, the detective starts from scratch. I now employ an ex-homicide detective who happened to work on the Chadwick case at the time. He’s an old-time detective, as dogged as a bloodhound.”

“But he thinks Steve is guilty,” Mary Beth said.

“Perhaps I can convince him otherwise.”

“Do it,” Eleanor said. “Oh, how much does he cost?” There went her savings toward buying a partnership. And on a thousand-to-one shot, as Jack Renfro would say.

“That’s not important,” Mary Beth said. “I’ll pay for everything.”

“Mary Beth—”

“Steve’s my brother.” She sounded stubborn. “He’s looked after me. It’s time I looked after him.”

“Will Steve see me?” Vickers asked.

“I’ll persuade him,” Eleanor said. “Would you be willing to come to Creature Comfort Veterinary Clinic? Steve’s working there two days a week on work release. It would be much more private than the prison.”

“Shoot, Dr. Grayson, I interview clients in worse places than a veterinary clinic every day of the week. If my defense got Steve convicted, then it’s up to me to get him exonerated.” He paused. “Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I have other clients to see. My assistant, Harris, will set up the details. When is Steve next at your clinic?”

“Friday.”

“Good. I’ll bring my files and my detective. You prepare Steve for my visit. If anything changes, call my assistant.” He hit an intercom. “Virginia, would you send in Harris?” He smiled and walked out without shaking either woman’s hand.

“Well, I never,” Mary Beth said.

E
LEANOR DROPPED
Mary Beth at home and watched her until she unlocked the front door. The Colonel hadn’t changed the locks, then. She’d offered to face the Colonel with Mary Beth, but Mary Beth had been adamant that she’d face him down alone and convince him that not only was Steve innocent, but that it was time the family rallied to his defense.