Woke Up Dead Page 26

  A short time later, when Sam brought the last tape to her, she said, “I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with my life now, you know, work-wise and all.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I want to be your partner.”

  He lifted his eyebrows, a trace of amusement on his features. Well, that was worth getting up the nerve to say it in itself.

  “My partner in what, exactly?”

  “For starters…” She paused for innuendo, then finished, “in this business. We could be like Bruce and Cybil in Moonlighting. Going with you that one day was so much fun. I could feel the excitement you felt. I can become as jaded as you in no time at all. We could tail people better, working in tandem. If you had to go to the bathroom, you wouldn’t have to use a jar.” He didn’t seem convinced. “All I’m asking is that you think about it. I could still do this part of it”—she gestured toward the desk—”at least until we get successful enough to hire someone for both of us.” The excitement was growing inside her at the prospect.

  “Maxine, you can’t be a detective because you up and decide to be one,” he said. She felt her hopes rise even more. He hadn’t shot it down right away. “There’s a lot more to it than that.”

  “No problem. I know a lot from you already. When we were married, and from recently,” she added at his skeptical look. “Think about it.”

  “All right, I’ll think about it. That’s all I’m promising.”

  “That’s all I’m asking.”

  An hour later, Sam rinsed out the coffee pot, and she made sure everything was in order before turning out the lights. He closed the door with a click that sounded too permanent to her.

  He still wouldn’t take the stairs, so she followed him down the hall to the elevator. Inside, she wanted to slam on the stop button and hold him captive. What could she do to knock some sense into him? Patience, she told herself as the doors slid open. He held back so that she could walk out first.

  Outside in the chilly air, he turned to her. “Thanks for coming in today. I appreciate the help.”

  “Wish I could have helped more,” she said honestly.

  He only nodded. “Well, take care of yourself.”

  So many thoughts crowded into her mind: Hold him! Tell him you’re Jennie. Tell him you love him. Don’t let him walk away. She pushed them away, byproducts of panic all of them. Panic wasn’t going to win Sam’s heart. Persistence was.

  “You, too, Sam. I mean that. Call me in a couple of weeks, okay? Just to let me know how you’re doing?”

  He slipped his hands in his pockets and nodded.

  She knew Sam was as good as his word, or his nod as the case was. “Okay.” Quickly, before she thought better of it, she leaned forward and hugged him.

  He slipped his arms around her and held her briefly before letting go. Without another word, he walked away toward his car. Her body was tense with the thoughts still bombarding her, but she forced herself to walk to her car. Why did she have this gnawing feeling something wasn’t right?

  CHAPTER 13

  GABBY AND RICK were out doing that virtual reality dancing thing. They’d invited Maxine, but she didn’t feel up to pretending to have fun or even managing a smile. She was as miserable as she predicted she’d be that morning. What was Sam doing right now? Was he thinking about her? Or worse, was he packing his bags and heading off for a vacation in the Bahamas? Sometimes she teased herself with the thought that he was heading over to her right now.

  That’s why her heart leaped up into her throat when the phone rang. Chances were slim that it was for her, being that no one but Sam knew she was living with Gabby, but Maxine still jumped up out of her chair and grabbed the phone by the second ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Maxine.”

  “Sam.” Her heart did a funny dance, and her voice came out all breathy. She chewed her lower lip, afraid to let herself smile.

  “I just got a call from Sally. She wanted to talk to you, but I told her you weren’t in. She sounded pretty…I don’t know, tense. You should probably give her a call.”

  Disappointment weighed her down. “Yeah, I suppose I should. Is that…all you wanted, Sam?”

  “How are you doing?”

  “Do you want me to tell you I’m doing fine and dandy, or do you want to know how I’m really doing?”

  Sam paused. “Maxine…”

  “I’m sorry, Sam. I’m just…in a mood right now. Okay, I’ll call Sally. Thanks for calling.”

  “No problem. Listen, call me back when you’re done talking to her to let me know what’s going on.”

  She smiled. He did care. “All right.”

  Sally answered the phone on the first ring, her “Hello” terse and anxious.

  “Sally, it’s Maxine. What’s up?”

  “They’ve got Daddy under some evaluation now, trying to figure out if he’s insane or devious.”

  “What do you think he is?” Maxine couldn’t help asking.

  “I don’t think he was going to hurt you. He…loved you too much.”

  “Then why was he trying to kill me?”

  Sally paused. “The reason I called was because some investigators are here right now, asking about Daddy: the way he was acting before the attack, that kind of thing. They’d like you to come out and talk with them, too.”

  “They want me to come out to your house?”

  “Well, they said they could go to where you are.” Sally’s voice went a little funny. “But I’d like to talk to you. I…I don’t have anyone to talk to about this, and you’re…well, you were there.”

  “What about James? You and he seem very close.”

  “He’s so busy trying to keep Daddy’s businesses afloat. He’s in the city now, working late again. Besides, I need a woman to talk to. Aida’s off for the evening, and she doesn’t count anyway.”

  Sally had never been anything but nice to her, Maxine thought with a cringing sensation. She didn’t want to leave the house and her comfortable state of moping, but someone needed her more. James wasn’t there. Even if he wasn’t the family wacko, he still wasn’t on her list of favorite people. Besides, the police were there. What could be safer?

  “All right, I’ll come out.”

  “Oh, thank you. It means so much to me. I won’t keep you long, I promise. The investigators said they only have a few questions for you, too. Just to tie up some loose ends.”

  “Okay, I’ll leave in a few minutes.”

  She pressed the off button, then dialed Sam and relayed Sally’s request.

  “They want you to go there?”

  “Yeah, I thought it was strange, too. Sally wants a friend; you know, for moral support. James and Aida aren’t there. She probably feels all alone. She wants to talk to me afterward.”

  “Oh. Well, let me know if anything unusual happens. I’ll be here all evening if you need me.”

  She caught the sigh before it escaped. “I will.” If she could only think of some way to keep him on the line longer. “It’s probably a girl talk thing.”

  “I wonder what the police are asking her.” He seemed to dismiss it. “Be careful, okay?”

  She heard real concern in his voice, and closed her eyes to the sound of it. “Thanks, Sam. You, too.”

  “Me?” he said with a half-laugh. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Are you going away? Or have you decided yet?”

  “I may take a flight down to Key West tomorrow, for a few days. I’ll let you know when I leave, okay? Bye, Maxine.”

  She heard the click, then the silence. Still she clutched the phone until the annoying pulsing tone started. Walking to her old closet, she pulled out a long red top and soft pants with a white and blue flower design on them. This should be cheerful, she thought, though it didn’t lift her spirits any once she had them on.

  Her thoughts were too wrapped up in Sam to think much about the visit ahead of her. She drove through the darkness once she left the city, trying to remember the
route to the strange white mansion. A while later, she pulled down the long drive and approached the house. It looked peaceful enough, and she felt less dread than other times she’d driven down this road. There was a car parked outside, but it didn’t look like a police car, undercover or otherwise. Unmarked then, she thought as she stepped out into the cold air and walked to the front door. She only hoped James hadn’t returned early. Maybe she’d suggest going to a cafe to talk, rather than staying at the mansion once the police were done with them.

  Sally opened the door, a look of relief across her features. “I’m so glad you came out, Maxine. You don’t know how glad I am.”

  “I don’t mind helping out someone who needs a friend,” Maxine said, stepping inside and looking around for the officers she expected to find. The room was dimly lit; even the puppet niches and displays weren’t lit up. “I know that feeling myself sometimes, but, where is everyone?”

  “They left.”

  “I thought they wanted to talk to me.”

  Sally wore a bulky sweater jacket, and her hands were tucked in the pockets as she sat down on the couch and nodded for Maxine to follow suit. “They decided they could talk to you in the morning. Don’t be mad at me; I still wanted you to come over.”

  Maxine sank down on the leather couch she had spent a night on. “I’m not mad. Just…confused, I guess.”

  Sally laughed. “Confused. Boy, I know that feeling.”

  “I can imagine this has been tough on you.”

  Again Sally laughed in a sputtering way. “You don’t know the half of it.” She moved closer to Maxine. “Daddy didn’t mean to hurt you or anything.”

  Maxine could still see that glaze in his eyes as he tried to get her to leave with him. “No, I don’t suppose he did. He thought he was saving me from Sam.”

  “Sometimes people do things they don’t want to do. They just…think they have to do it, you know?”

  “I guess. I mean, I suppose Armand thought he had to kidnap me, for my own good.”

  “Exactly.” Sally smiled. “I’m so glad you understand that.”

  Ah, so this was Sally’s way of trying to make amends with her father, by winning Maxine back into the fold. “I do. In the same way that I couldn’t stay with your father anymore. I realized I didn’t love him the way I needed to.”

  “Yes, you had to leave, and Daddy had to try to get you back.”

  “I still don’t understand why he tried to kill me.” Maxine asked, knowing the girl probably couldn’t.

  “Daddy didn’t try to kill you.”

  “Well, I know he didn’t mean to, but what drove him to think killing me would solve anything?”

  “Daddy loved you too much to try to hurt you like that.”

  “That’s what I thought, until this last incident that tied it all together.” Or did it? That question always nagged at her. Maybe James was behind it after all. But he wasn’t being threatened by her marriage to Armand, so even he shouldn’t be a danger anymore.

  Sally looked down for a moment at the fingers kneading in the pockets of her sweater. “I’m afraid that was my fault. I got Daddy too riled up about you and Sam.”

  “I know, but you didn’t mean to. Who would have thought he’d react like that?”

  Sally met her eyes. “I did.” The vulnerability of earlier was gone, replaced by something as dark and cold as the night air outside.

  “What?”

  “I knew Daddy was in a delicate state, so I goaded him into going berserk. I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d do, but he wasn’t acting right since you’d left. He wasn’t doing his job, and he wouldn’t let James take over. Daddy needed something to push him over that edge so James could save the company.”

  An unpleasant chill fingered its way up Maxine’s spine, but she tried to maintain a calm exterior. “That wasn’t very nice.” Understatement of the year. “Maybe we were all on the edge before this happened, what with the flower box incident and everything else.” She glanced around at the quietness of the house. Several pairs of glass and painted eyes watched her back. “Did you say Aida was off tonight?”

  “Yes, visiting her sister in Ohio this week. I haven’t even called to tell her about all this. I mean, why bother her, right?”

  Maxine nodded, hoping she didn’t look as stiff as she felt. “Sure, that’s the nice thing to do.” The cushions seemed to swallow her more than they had when she’d first sat down. She pushed herself to her feet, and Sally quickly joined her.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Just standing,” Maxine said, smoothing down the fabric of her pants. Her palms were sticky. “I thought we’d go to a coffee shop or someplace like that.” Maxine glanced around again at all the dark corners and shadows that made even the white carpet and furniture look dim. “Don’t take it personally, but I’d like to…get out of here. This place brings back too many memories.”

  “Yes, I thought we’d go somewhere, too. James might be home soon.”

  So, Sally understood her trepidation where he was concerned. Maybe she was reading the girl wrong. Sally moved closer, breaking into Maxine’s personal zone. She took a step back, but Sally followed, looking right at her.

  “Are you still afraid of James?” Sally asked.

  “Not afraid, exactly. But we’re not friends, and seeing him doesn’t make for a pleasant experience. So, where shall we go? You know this area better than I do.”

  “James is a good man.”

  Maxine stepped back again, feeling the glass of one of the dummy displays press up behind her. “I’m sure he is, deep down inside. I’ll bet there’s a coffee shop back through that one area with the Italian restaurant…Ciao’s I think it was.”

  Sally took another step closer. “Daddy never let James do anything. He never saw how smart James is. Neither did Mommy. James was a slow learner, and they were embarrassed by him. But he caught up to everyone else, like the teachers said he would. He tried really, really hard, but Mommy and Daddy never did see that. They had it in their head that he was dumb. It took him a long time to get over that. A long, long time. I still think he feels that way, but he won’t even admit it to me.”

  “You’re…very close to your brother, aren’t you?” Maxine managed through a dry throat.

  Sally’s eyes were distant and wide, her thick dark lashes looking at odd contrast. “I love James, more than anyone in this family ever did. I am his family, his only real family. I believed in him, and I helped him to get where he is today. It’s what we were talking about before, doing what you have to do.”

  Maxine couldn’t help the words that came out. “What exactly did you do for him?”

  Sally clutched at the fine fabric of Maxine’s sleeves. “I had to help him. Don’t you see? That’s all I knew, that I had to help him. Nobody else would have done that for him.”

  Maxine nodded. Fear clawed up from her stomach to her throat and mouth. Her lips trembled as she tried to form words, to play the game. “I understand. It’s okay, really.”

  Sally had that same relief on her expression that she’d had when Maxine had come over. “Oh, good. You have to know, it was nothing personal. I liked you, I really did.”

  Maxine tried to force a smile. “I…I appreciate that.” Liked?

  Sally’s face became troubled again. “But James was so upset. He’d been trying to convince Daddy for months that he was capable of becoming an overseer of all the clubs. He deserves that position. Then Daddy started talking about you.” She laughed. “That’s all he ever talked about. He ignored James’s requests, and then one day he told James he was going to hire you for the position.”

  “Me?”

  “He said he was going to make you a partner. That everything he had, he was going to share with you. James was, of course, very upset. I hate to see him cry. Do you know how terrible it is for a man to cry out loud? I’m talking about that heartrending sobbing children do. Men just don’t do that unless they’re really, really upset. T
hat’s when I knew I had to do something. I’d do anything for James. Anything.”

  “So you dropped the flower box on me,” Maxine said in a deadpan voice.

  Sally didn’t look remorseful in the least when she nodded agreement. “Yes. I didn’t think it would hurt too awfully much. Kabooey, and it would be over. But you went and lived. You’re smarter than I thought, too, finding the drops of cola I missed. Good thing I saw you in my bedroom window. Then my plan really backfired. The accident made Daddy want to move everything up because you were acting so weird. That made James even more upset, more angry.”

  Maxine felt chilled through, as if she’d been standing in a rainstorm in December. This was it. She’d been stupid enough not to look further than the obvious and now she was facing a murderer. Maxine-the-first’s murderer. But she still had hope.

  “Sally, I can…understand why you did what you did. You must love James very much, and I understand loving someone enough to do anything to make them happy, but I’m not in the picture anymore. I’m not marrying Armand. You’ve even succeeded in having him put away, at least for a while. Now James can prove that he’s capable of running the company. See, everything’s worked out fine.” She cleared her throat as her voice had gone higher. “We can leave this as it is, no harm done.” At least until she could get out of there.

  Sally was, unfortunately, shaking her head and making a tsking sound. “It’s not all right. You and your P.I. kept snooping around. Finding the guy I hired to run you down for instance. He was a chicken anyway, and that made me afraid of him going to the cops. Especially when I found out he’d said something to Sam about being hired. So I told him I wanted to finish the job myself, but since he wasted my time, he owed me a gun.”

  She pulled out the gun. “This one. Then I offed him. See, another one of those things I had to do. Don’t think for even a minute that I enjoy this. Uh-uh.” The gun wavered as she shook her head. “Our lawyer said something about using DNA testing to prove Daddy didn’t kill Floyd. Technology sure does make it hard to get things done, doesn’t it? Once Daddy’s cleared, they’ll be snooping in my backyard again. The police and your buddy. Sorry, Maxine, but I’ve got to get rid of you.”