Amanda Stevens - The Dollmaker

“You ever change your mind, give me a call.”

He moved on then, and Dave looked around to find that Titus had also disappeared. He was left standing alone with Angelette. She wore a short black skirt and turquoise blouse that clung to her curves, and her black hair was pinned up, highlighting her long, smooth neck. When she caught his eyes, she gave him a slow smile.

Dave wanted to look around and see where Claire was, but he thought that might be a little too obvious.

“What’s the matter, Dave? You look a little nervous.”

“It’s been a helluva night.”

“Hasn’t it, though? And I guess congratulations are in order. Took you seven years, but you finally nailed Renee Savaria’s killer.”

“Not without your help. If you hadn’t been able to persuade Elliot to come out here tonight, I might have had to take matters into my own hands.”

“Nah, you wouldn’t do that. You might have roughed him up a little more, but you wouldn’t have inflicted any serious damage.”

“What makes you think that?”

Her smile gently mocked him. “You may be fucked up in the head, but you’re still basically a good guy.”

“And just when did you come to that conclusion?”

“Oh, I always knew it. You just used to piss me off so bad I never wanted to admit it.” She twirled a strand of dark hair around her fingertip. No one but Angelette could make such a simple gesture seem so suggestive.

Dave cleared his throat. “Let me ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth. Whose idea was it to get me involved in all this? Yours or Elliot’s?”

Angelette leaned back against one of the cars and folded her arms. “What difference does it make? You got what you wanted. We all did. Why not just enjoy the moment?”

“I don’t like being played, that’s all.”

“Poor baby. Lee’s right, you know. Now that the herd at NOPD is about to be thinned, you could get your old job back if you wanted it. Be like old times.”

“I meant what I said, Angie. I burned my bridges in New Orleans. I’m not coming back.”

She looked on the verge of saying something, then changed her mind. “In that case, I guess all you’ve got left to do is figure out what to do about her.”

Dave turned his head in the direction of Angelette’s nod. He saw Claire then. She was standing in front of one of the squad cars, talking to Lee Elliot. In the harsh glare of the headlights, she looked pale and shocked, like the victim of a bad car crash. Dave’s chest tightened as he watched her, and for a moment, he had the strangest sensation of having just awakened from a dream.

“You’re never going to get over her, are you?” Angelette said softly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Dave said. “What we had is in the past.”

“I guess we are, too.” She reached up and brushed the back of her hand against his cheek. “So long, Dave.”

He waited until she was gone, and then he turned, his gaze meeting Claire’s. She quickly glanced away.

Another moment went by and then he went over to her. Even when he came up beside her, she didn’t turn, wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“I was just offering Claire a ride back to town,” Elliot said. “In fact, I insist. Charlotte would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t see her sister safely home.”

Dave stared down at Claire. “Is that what you want?”

“It’s fine. There’s no sense in you having to make a special trip back to New Orleans.”

“I don’t mind the drive.”

“There’s really no point.”

“Okay, if that’s what you want. I’ll call you tomorrow about Savannah Sweete.” He turned and started walking toward his truck.

A moment later, Claire caught up with him.

“Dave?”

He turned.

She put a hand to her mouth, as if she wasn’t quite certain what had possessed her to follow him. “I just have to know one thing.”

He braced himself. “What is it?”

The wind lifted her hair, and for a moment it was all Dave could do not to reach out and smooth the soft strands with his hand.

“Did you really know who Nettle was going to name when you brought me out here?”

“I suspected. I didn’t know.”

Her eyes searched his face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have believed me?”

“I don’t know.” She looked off toward the cabin, as if still having a difficult time accepting what had happened. “Is it possible he made it all up? Maybe he just said what he knew you wanted to hear.”

“I don’t think so, Claire. Titus followed Nettle to a bar on Airline Drive yesterday. A little while later, Alex showed up, and they were together for a long time. It seemed as if they had a lot to discuss.”

She shuddered, and then without warning, she reached up, lightly touched the cut on his forehead. Her fingers were cool and soft, but the feel of them against his skin was like an electric jolt. Dave didn’t move, could barely even breathe. After a brief moment, she took her hand away.

“Did Nettle do that to you?”

“He had a little help from a creep named Bobby Ray Taubin.”

“What about Alex? Did he have anything to do with it?”

“I don’t know. A third man was there that night, but I never got a look at his face.”

Claire bit her lip. “Is that why you set all this up?”

“I set this up because I wanted justice served,” Dave said. “It’s not revenge, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that it was. It’s just…I hardly know what to think anymore. All those years that Alex and I were married…all the times we were together…I had no idea what he’d done. I thought he was a good man, someone I could love and respect.”

Dave looked down at his hand. His knuckles were swollen and one had split open against Nettle’s jaw. But the pain was nothing compared to the ache inside his chest. “None of this is on you, Claire. He was your husband. You wanted to believe the best about him. No one can fault you for that.”

She drew a long breath and released it. “Do you ever wonder why things happen the way they do?”

“All the time,” he said. “But it doesn’t do any good.”

“It’s like someone opened a door to our past and now all this pain just keeps rushing out.”

“I don’t think there’s any grand design here, Claire. If I hadn’t been drinking for all those years, this mess would have been settled a long time ago. The clues were there, I just wasn’t in any shape to know what they meant.”

She brushed a shaky hand across her face. “What’s going to happen to Alex now?”

“If all this sticks, he’s facing some pretty serious charges. Accessory to murder, conspiracy. I guess it all depends on how good his lawyer is. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. If he used Ruby’s kidnapping to cover up that girl’s murder, then I don’t care what happens to him.”

Dave could see her lips trembling, and when she bowed her head, moonlight glinted in her hair, turning the gold highlights to silver.

As he watched her struggle with her emotions, he felt something tear loose inside him. He had only just started learning to live with the past, and now it was the future that scared him. Because the road ahead had no glimmers of light to guide him, no fleeting images of happiness such as he saw when he looked behind him.

No matter what happened from this night forward, Claire would fade back into his past, a moment, a memory, an elusive ghost that would always be there to haunt him.

Alex Girard swore at the persistent ring of the doorbell as he came out of the bedroom. Pulling on his shirt, he walked over and checked the peephole. Then he drew open the door in surprise.