Carla Neggers - Night’s Landing

Fontaine rubbed the elbow that Ethan had jerked. “Why are you picking on me? I’ve done nothing. Are you upset over the feds who were crawling through the Dunnemore house today? I was going to stop by and talk Sarah into sharing her prune cake, but when I saw them, I thought better of it.” He made a face. “I’m not proud of myself, I have to say. A better friend would have made sure she was all right.”

Ethan had made himself scarce when the feds were at the house, but only after he’d figured out what was wrong-Sarah had received a threatening note. He could picture it, the letter with the New York postmark. He’d pulled it out of the mailbox himself and set it on the table.

He should have opened it.

Sarah hadn’t come to him for help-why should she? He was the mild-mannered, songwriting good ol’ boy.

The feds hadn’t talked to him. They hadn’t talked to Fontaine.

Not yet, anyway.

Ethan glanced at Janssen’s handsome face. “Does Sarah Dunnemore know this guy?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to find out, but it’s-” He paused, choosing his words. “It’s a sensitive subject. He and her mother…” He drifted off.

“You think they’re having an affair? You really are scum.”

“He’s a lonely man. Janssen lives in Switzerland surrounded by bodyguards-he’s afraid federal agents will drop out of nowhere and kidnap him back to the U.S. to stand trial. His mother died over the winter. He couldn’t come back for her funeral.” Fontaine stretched out his legs, folded his hands on his stomach as if he had nothing to fear. “I don’t believe Mr. Janssen thinks things through, do you? He’d fit in around here.”

“You’ve been sniffing around Janssen and the Dunnemores for this book of yours?”

“I made a whirlwind trip to Europe in April. A tax-deductible research trip. Rob Dunnemore was in Amsterdam visiting his parents. He snubbed me. Sarah hadn’t arrived yet.” Fontaine spoke matter-of-factly, as if this sort of thing was par for the course in his line of work. “I decided to try my luck again here in Night’s Landing. I was here briefly last fall, trying to decide whether or not I even wanted to take on this project. Now, Mr. Brooker, I believe I’ve answered all the questions I’m going to. Whatever angles I’m pursuing are my business. I’m a legitimate journalist.”

“Bullshit. What are you, a political hack looking for dirt on the president?” Ethan didn’t wait for an answer. “A bounty hunter? Is there a reward for reeling in Nicholas Janssen?”

Fontaine glanced up at him. “What’s your interest in Mr. Janssen?”

“None. I read the papers.”

“I’ve told you what I know. You have no reason to behave this way, barge in here, threaten me-”

“I haven’t threatened you. I’ve just scared the hell out of you.” Ethan gave him a cold grin. “There’s a difference, you know.”

“Please, leave, Mr. Brooker. Don’t make me call the police.”

Ethan was tempted to toss the place, but he doubted he’d find anything that would lead him anywhere but down more blind alleys and to more dead ends. Whether Conroy Fontaine was a legitimate journalist, a bottom-feeding journalist or something else entirely, he had his own agenda in Night’s Landing. He wanted Ethan to find the picture. Fontaine expected one of them to confront him at some point. Sarah Dunnemore. Nate Winter. He was prepared. Stir the pot a little by having Fontaine’s pictures at the ready. See how people reacted. It was a tactic Ethan understood.

Fontaine fingered one of the cigarette burns on the tablecloth. “I won’t call the police this time. I understand you’re protective of our fair-haired Dr. Dunnemore. Who wouldn’t be? I’ve been trying to soften her up so she’ll talk to me, but I have to say, I’ve come under her spell myself.” His affection for Sarah seemed genuine. “She’s a lovely woman, inside and out.”

“She’s got a marshal with her. I’d mind my p’s and q’s if I were you.”

Ethan took the picture of Janssen with him and almost ripped the damn door off its hinges on his way out.

Sometimes he wasn’t direct. This time, he was.

Fat lot of good it did him.

On his way out of the camp, he threw his pack of cigarettes to a wiry old guy with a lit cigarette hanging off his lower lip. “Quitting?” The old man coughed. “Good luck to you, fella. I’ve quit every New Year’s for the past thirty years.”

Ethan kept walking, getting himself back under control, one muscle-one cell-at a time.

Charlene…

Conroy Fontaine could be a reporter unraveling the same story Ethan was, finding the pieces and shreds that kept eluding him. He just had to be patient, to think things through. As evidenced by his behavior tonight, he thought, neither was his style.

He could almost see his wife smile in agreement.

Dinner was a chicken-and-vegetable casserole Sarah dug out of the freezer and prune cake, which reminded Nate of Gus’s applesauce spice cake, for dessert. But Sarah didn’t eat a bite, just stared at her plate, then bolted from the table and ran down the hall and out the front door.

Post-trauma stress. The past few days had just gut-punched her.

Nate knew the feeling. His mind would drift off, and he’d see Rob jerk up with the impact of the bullet. He’d feel a pain in his arm and his heart would race. His training helped, his experience and knowledge of the mind and body’s normal reactions to a trauma.

He gave Sarah a minute, then followed her down to the dock.

The evening air was cool and the breeze smelled, tasted, of the river. Sarah was sitting at the end of the dock, her shoes at her side, her feet dangling in the water.

The last red rays of the dying sunset hit her hair, making it look golden, almost fiery.

Nate walked onto the old wood dock. She splashed water with her feet. “Not worried about snakes biting your toes?” he asked.

She shook her head, not looking around at him.

He’d never done WITSEC work. He didn’t think he could stand the emotions of witnesses who had to take on new identities because of what they knew. Some of the witnesses were unsavory characters themselves. But they were human beings. Their families, who also had to give up the lives they knew, were human beings. It was what Nate always tried to remember as a professional law enforcement officer-that regardless of what they’d done, what punishment they were due for their actions, the people he dealt with were human beings. He’d had that conversation with Sister Maria a dozen times. He’d have had it again yesterday about Hector Sanchez if Sarah hadn’t followed him. Sister Maria would have served him strong coffee and had him sit for a while, talk to him about the young man who was now dead, whom she believed with all her heart and soul-which was saying something-hadn’t shot anyone in Central Park.

Not that Sanchez wasn’t incapable of being used, bribed, set up and discarded. Just that he hadn’t shot anyone.

Nate sighed. He shouldn’t have kissed Sarah earlier. He should have resisted. They both had too much on their minds.

“Sarah…”

“I held up on the plane to New York.” Her voice was quiet, steady, her accent hardly detectable. “I held up in the hospital. I held up more or less in Central Park when I recognized the man from the Rijksmuseum. Even when I got that note-I didn’t go completely to pieces.”

“It’s okay to go to pieces.”

“You don’t.”

“I almost did last fall when my sisters got themselves into messes. It’s different when it’s people you care about who are hurting, when it’s not just the job.”

She kicked her feet up out of the water and stared at her toes, painted a pretty lavender. “Is being here just ‘the job’ for you?”