Kate Collins - Sleeping with Anemone

“Tara’s in there now. I’d like to wait to see how she does.”

“No problem.”

I leaned back against the wall. “I tried to find out if Hudge had confessed, but Detective Maroni didn’t want to share that information with me.”

“Did you really expect him to?”

“Abby. Hi!” Jillian cried, sailing toward me. She was bundled into a stylishly short white faux fur coat and warm Ugg boots, with a jaunty new beret on her head. “You’ll never guess why I’m here.”

“For a lineup,” I said as Jillian eyed the bench, trying to decide if it was clean enough for her posterior.

“For a lineup,” she said one second behind me. “Wait. How did you know? Is that why you’re here? Not you, Marco. I know why you’re here. I heard about your-wink, wink-bodyguard duties.”

Marco had his arms folded across his chest and was staring up the hallway in the opposite direction, pretending not to be there.

Jillian wedged herself in between us, causing Marco to sidle to the far end of the bench. Then she nudged my boot with the toe of her Ugg. “Kind of a sneaky way to move in together, isn’t it, Abs? I mean, why not just get married and be done with it? That’s what Claymore and I did. You have to step off the cliff one of these days. Right, Marco?”

I grabbed her boot at the ankle and tried to wrestle it off her foot, while she held on to the bench to keep from sliding onto the floor. “Jillian, if you say one more word about us getting married-”

“Let go of my Ugg!”

“-I’ll tell Claymore you’ve decided you’re ready to have babies. Lots of them.”

It was merely a guess that Claymore had broached that subject, but it had the effect I wanted. My cousin sucked in her breath in horror. “You wouldn’t!”

I released her boot. “Try me.”

She glared at me as she tugged the boot in place, but when I merely glared back, she finally said grudgingly to Marco, who was now standing a few feet away trying to be invisible, “I’m sorry. I take it all back.”

Marco gave her a nod, and went back to not being there.

Jillian decided to remedy that. “Seriously, Marco, if you and Abby want to live together, it’s cool with me. I won’t say another word about it.” She winked at me.

“That’s it,” I said, pulling out my phone.

The door opened and the detective ushered Tara and Kathy out. “You did an excellent job,” the detective said to Tara. He saw Jillian and wiggled his finger at her. “You’re next.”

As though she’d been called to the stage to accept an award, Jillian smoothed back her hair, moistened her lips, and followed the detective into the room.

As soon as the door closed behind them, I hopped up from the bench and went over to Tara. “How did it go?”

“She was very brave,” Kathy said, stroking Tara’s hair. “Weren’t you, honey?”

“I identified the kidnapper,” Tara told me, her voice a bit shaky from the ordeal. “The scuzzball was number five in the line.”

“Are you sure it was him?” Marco asked.

Tara nodded. “I didn’t recognize him until the detective asked him to put up his hood and turn to the side. Then I was pretty sure it was him, because I could see his profile whenever he was talking to Blondie. But just to be sure, I asked the detective to have him say what I heard him tell Blondie right before I got away. Then I knew it was him.”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“ ‘You’re a dead woman.’ He kind of screamed it at her.”

“Did you hear any more of their argument?” Marco asked.

Tara nodded again. “The scuzzball called Blondie a doublecrosser and accused her sister of turning Blondie against him. Then Blondie called him crazy and stupid, and then he yelled back that she was a dead woman. But the detective said that was too much to have him repeat, so instead he asked him to say only the last part-about her being a dead woman.”

Tara turned to me. “Did you know Blondie died? Mom said they found her body outside one of those garage doors at Uniworld, and that maybe a semitruck crushed her, but I’ll bet the scuzzball ran her down.” At a buzzing noise, she pulled a cell phone from her pocket. “Is it okay if I text now?” she asked her mom.

“I guess so,” Kathy said.

While Tara sat on the bench, tapping out her message, I said to my sister-in-law, “Did the detective mention anything about the evidence they found?”

“Only that they were analyzing it. Detective Maroni said he’d let me know when he had any updates.”

“Would you let me know if he calls you?” I asked.

“Sure.”

Tara put away her phone. “Can we go home now? My stomach feels funny.”

I glanced at the door where Jillian would emerge shortly and said, “Mine, too. We’ll walk out with you.”

As we headed back to Bloomers, I mulled over Tara’s revelations, trying to fit them into the puzzle. “Marco, what do you think Dwayne Hudge might have meant when he accused Blondie-I mean Charlotte Bebe-of double-crossing him?”

“That Hudge was afraid Charlotte’s sister had convinced her to cut him out of whatever their deal was.”

“Do you remember Tara saying that they were arguing about where to take her? Charlotte wanted to go somewhere they couldn’t be heard, remember?”

“Sure. That’s why we thought their intent was to kill Tara-you.”

“But if Charlotte was planning to double-cross Hudge, maybe her true intent was to kill him . And if Hudge suspected that’s what Charlotte’s intentions were, that would give him a motive for running her down.”

“True.”

Terrific. We were on the same page again. “I wish we could sit in on Hudge’s interview. I really want to know about those two pieces of evidence that tie Raand to Hudge and Charlotte.”

“What two pieces of evidence?”

“I forgot to tell you I called Greg Morgan today. So much is going on, I can’t remember who I told what.”

“Morgan talked to you about the evidence?”

“Sort of. Anyway, he said the cops had recovered two pieces of evidence that linked Raand to the kidnappers-a note and flowers. I got it out of him that the note was from Raand, but he wouldn’t say who the recipient was or how flowers fit into the picture, so maybe Reilly can help there.”

“We can’t keep asking Reilly to divulge information from the police files, Abby. He’s taken too many chances for us.”

“Not on this case.”

Marco gave me a frown. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Go there. Leave Reilly alone.”

Our page numbers were not lining up now. “Then what do you suggest we do to get more information?”

“Why do we have to do anything?”

“For my peace of mind.”

Marco glanced at me. “You’re going to work this like a dog with a bone, aren’t you?”

“Can you blame me?”

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Okay, here’s an idea. I’d be highly surprised if Hudge had enough money to hire private counsel, so he’ll ask for a public defender. And who is the county’s public defender for major crimes? Your old boss, Dave Hammond.”

“And of course Dave will need to hire an investigator, and that will be you.”

“Now you’re getting the picture.”

“Then you’ll need an assistant, and that will be me. So let’s get moving on this. I should have some free time this afternoon to…”

Marco frowned.

“What now?” I asked in exasperation, as we pulled up in front of Bloomers.

“Let’s not jump the gun. Hudge has to have his initial hearing first. Then if he qualifies for a public defender, we can get moving on it.”

“Are you kidding me? We’re talking a week, at least, and I’m really tired of checking the roof for snipers.”