Shadows of Doubt (23 page)

Her eyes grew wide with his words “But wha...”

“I cannot tell you.” He cut her off. “I wish that I could, but I can’t. Just please give me time. I know everything is going to work out.” They stood there just like that for several moments, just looking into each other’s souls.

“Will you do it?” She asked him after a few moments of considering his words.

“Will I do what?”

“If I decide to turn, will you be the one? Or at least be there?” The look in her eyes was more than he could bear.

“If you decide to turn.” He sighed, certain he would regret making such a promise. “I will be there.”

She hugged him and he wasn’t quite sure how to hug her back. Before he figured it out, she stepped back.

“Okay, lets go do this oath thing. But whatever it is you are up to, you better be all over it and make it snappy.” She disappeared into the bungalow before he could utter a word.

For a moment, just a brief moment, he wondered if this was how it started for Max.

The day looked like something Michelangelo would have painted.
Though a bit on the cold side, the robin’s egg blue sky with its tufts of snow white clouds drifting by in dollops made it bearable even with Lou’s serious lack of sleep. January was done and the first days of February teased with the hope and promise of the coming spring. Lou and her parents had enjoyed a delicious brunch in the solarium of the country club with the picturesque morning as a backdrop. The previous night’s excitement had drifted off into memory as Lou and her parents ate and laughed, listening to Joe recount his adventures during his trip to Bangalore. As she laughed some more, it struck Lou funny how their Sunday tradition had come to be and how grateful she was for it. She had lost a bet to her mother some time ago which forced her to take golf lessons with her. Lou had never thought much of the sport but after a few of those lessons, she was hooked and looked forward to Sundays together very much. Today was especially so given her and Vinny’s run in with the grease monkeys the night before. Lou had decided not to mention anything about it to her mother so as not to spoil the day.

Monkey number one had lawyered up and wasn’t talking. There was really nothing to be done on Lou and Vinny’s part past the paperwork until they were cleared by the department shrink. Departmental procedure demanded it whenever an officer involved shooting took place. The psychiatrist was a good guy that both Lou and Vinny knew and liked. He had spent all of ten minutes with each of them knowing full well they were fine, but stated he wouldn’t be able to get the reports in until Monday morning. Apparently the poor guy had been called in while he was moving from his bachelor pad to his single family dwelling with his new bride. He was literally pulling his mattress off the truck when his cell rang for the incident and dropped everything to get them squared away. He ordered them to take the day to decompress and promised they would be back at it bright and early Monday morning. Since the rookie that had taken custody of the jackass in the parking lot was frothing at the bit to do anything on the case, they decided to let him do the grunt work while they followed the doc’s orders and proceed with Sunday as usual. Lou with her golf and Vinny with nursery painting. Ok, so maybe not quite so usual after all.

Finishing the last of their coffee, Lou and her mother left the solarium to meet Joe out by the pro shop. He had gone ahead to collect their clubs, get the carts ready and check on their tee time. Shevaun paused in the pro shop as was tradition. She perused the latest selection of golf apparel with Lou giving the nod if something suited her. While her mother admired a cute spring green ensemble, Lou observed the coming and going golfers through the windows. A cart passed by with a couple of familiar faces and a foursome walked up the path nearly doubled over with laughter. It made Lou smile. When another cart came around the bend, Lou’s knees nearly gave out. The golf director that Lou knew well was pulling up with Yummy Morgue Guy in the passenger seat.

“Holy crap!” It flew out of Lou’s mouth without her realizing.

Lou’s mother jolted at the use of language in the pro shop. Lou’s random bouts of cursing on the golf course had been a bone of contention between the women for some time. “Tallulah! Mind your mouth!” She scolded as she approached Lou. “What?”

“Momma...” Lou stammered and whispered at the same time. “It’s him! That’s him!”

“Who’s him? What are you talking about?” Shevaun looked to see who had gotten her daughter all flustered when she saw Max getting out of a cart. “Oh there’s Max!” She instantly disregarded Lou’s outburst and focused her attention on the man. “I am so glad he could join us!”

Lou looked at her mother as though the woman had a horn growing out of her forehead. “What? You know him?”

“Well of course I do sweet pea, that’s Max, Joe’s long time business buddy from back east. Our soon to be new neighbor?” Shevaun couldn’t understand her daughter’s surprise. “We had dinner with him Friday night and invited him to join us. I’m sure I told you! He’s a lovely man. You’re going to like him very much.” Shevaun dismissed her daughter and went to the counter with the spring green ensemble to have it wrapped up.

Lou stood for a long moment trying to process what was happening. “I’ll be right back Momma. Meet you outside in a sec.” Lou told her mother then made a mad dash for the locker room and hit the speed dial on her cell to call Caroline. She figured her friend would be asleep still so she wasn’t surprised when the call went directly to voice mail. “Caroline, shit! I’m at the club and you will absolutely freak out when you hear who my parents have as a fourth for our game! My freaking parents know him! Yummy Morgue Guy is a friend of Joe’s!” Lou finally sucked in a breath. “Do you understand what I am saying? I am about to play golf with Yummy Morgue Guy! Wake up dammit! Call me as soon as you get this message!”

It took Lou quite a few minutes to compose herself before she dared leave the locker room. After considerable stares from women coming and going, Lou decided she had a grip and needed to face this man and get it over with. It was ridiculous since he had absolutely no clue who she was, let alone that he had been on her mind nearly twenty-four hours a day since she passed him in the hall at the morgue. She thanked God she had opted for the new fucshia and gray argyle sweater she had gotten for Christmas rather then her favorite Tattoo Golf sweater. With little skulls and golf clubs as crossbones embroidered all over it didn’t exactly exude femininity. The gray golf pants with the pretty matching sweater was a much better choice in retrospect. After a final once over, she decided she was looking as good as it was going to get and she headed out. She only prayed she didn’t make an ass out of herself.

When Max got out of the golf cart and said his farewell to the golf director, he was relieved that it was only Joe there to greet him. Max had spent half the night getting in the proper frame of mind to deal with this first face-to-face with his detective. Unfortunately the closer and closer he got to it actually happening, the more nervous he became. It was utterly ridiculous for a man of his stature and considerable age to be flustered like this. He used that anger with himself to take the edge off his panic.

“My Dom.” Joe held out a hand to Max and smiled warmly. “I hope everything went well after I left yesterday?”

Max scanned the area looking for Lou and her mother. He could only spot Shevaun inside the pro shop, waving to him as she apparently finished with a purchase. “Richelieu seemed to handle things well. Frank said that Caroline took the Oath but things are tenuous pending how things go with Lou. She is adamant about not lying to her best friend. He’s sticking to her like glue to keep her in check for the time being.”

Joe nodded, knowing this would be a deal breaker. “Well, I have a good feeling about all of this. It’s going to work out, I just know it.” Joe shut up as soon as he saw his wife exiting the shop.

“Max!” Shevaun gushed, something she never did. “I am so glad you could make it!”

He took Shevaun’s hands and kissed her cheek. “So am I. Fortunately things are going according to plan so I was able to steal away for a while.”

Just then Lou emerged from the pro shop and came towards them. Shevaun was not a stupid woman and she knew her daughter inside and out. Something was definitely up. She noticed Lou had actually primped while she was gone, with fresh lip gloss, her hair fluffed and not a strand amiss. Her daughter never ever primped, for anyone.

“Tallulah, come and meet Max.” Shevaun watched her daughter’s reaction to him very carefully. “Max Julian, this is our daughter, Lou.”

Max held his breath as his detective came closer, he simply couldn’t help it. Reaching out his hand, he smiled at her with a smile he had only once before been able to give. “I’ve heard so much about you, I feel like I already know you.” It wasn’t a lie at all.

Lou extended her hand to take his while she repeated to herself in her head ‘He’s just another guy. He’s just another guy’. But when that smile spread across those perfect lips of his, she felt like she would melt into a puddle on the spot. “Er...um...” She blushed. “... I wish I could say the same. I only learned of you joining us a few minutes ago. Forgive my surprise.” Christ she was a blathering idiot. Now he was going to think she was annoyed he was joining them.

“Oh?” He felt his heart crack a little at her disappointed tone. “I’m sorry if I am intruding, would you pref...”

“No!” She blurted, then realized she was not only still holding his hand, but was squeezing the life out of it. Quickly she released her hold and stuffed her hands in her pockets in an attempt to look casual. “I mean, no. Its perfectly fine. Lovely in fact.” Lovely? She thought to herself. What the hell is that? Was she going to ask him for a spot of tea next? “Uh...” She had to recover quickly. “We can play girls against the boys.”

Shevaun tried hard not to bounce up and down as she clearly saw her daughter flustering over Max. There was something absolutely there, finally! She had almost given up hope of her daughter showing an interest in anyone again. “Oh! That’s an excellent idea!” She stepped in quickly to cover up her daughter’s tripping over her own tongue. “You boys can ride together.”

Once it was agreed and everything was settled, Shevaun and her daughter pulled away in their cart while Joe and Max followed to the first tee. Joe couldn’t be certain but standing on the patio he thought he sensed something from Max towards Lou. He decided he needed to pay very close attention throughout the day. Shevaun, on the other hand, saw it all plain as day. Her daughter’s out of character fluster. The twinkle in Max’s eye. She knew within the first five minutes that it was going to be a wonderful day.

The day was turning out to be a disaster, or so Max felt. By the time they reached the fourth tee he had two bogies, a par and a double bogie. It was his worst round of golf so far in about twenty years. To make matters worse, he had barely spoken to Lou and when he had, he was about as smooth and charming as a fork stuck in a garbage disposal. He was furious with himself.

“A little off you’re game today ?” Joe asked after Max had driven the ball into the left rough.

“A little?” Max wanted desperately to hurl his driver into the lake, but walked to the cart and stuffed it forcefully into his bag instead, avoiding eye contact with Lou at all costs.

Lou hurried to the tee to make her drive while Max wasn’t looking and to her horror it landed five inches behind his ball. Shevaun simply couldn’t stand it and started laughing.

“Real nice, Momma.” Lou scowled at her mother. “The damn wind is pulling everything to the left.” Lou swore under her breath and headed for her cart.

Shevaun was eventually able to stop laughing when her husband approached. “What is so damn funny?” He asked her quietly.

“Oh Joe, can’t you see?” She was grinning from ear to ear.

“See what?” Joe had felt something was amiss but honestly he was so rapt with worry about the situation with Caroline, the rogue and the big plan that he wasn’t paying as close attention to the golf game as he would have liked.

Shevaun leaned in close to her husband, laying a hand on his chest. “Those two are absolutely smitten with each other! I would bet the farm that Lou has crossed paths with Max before. She is so flustered, and so is he! It’s just hilarious to watch!”

Joe looked over at Max and then Lou and watched with his new perspective, courtesy of his wife. “I’ll be damned!” He shouted and Shevaun promptly shushed him. He suddenly noticed that both Lou and Max were doing everything possible to avoid looking at each other and had been for the entire morning. His wife was absolutely right.

“Don’t make a fuss! Let’s just have a little fun with it, shall we?” She patted him on the chest and winked.

Joe looked at his beautiful Shevaun and grinned from ear to ear. “You are such a wicked woman. Have I mentioned how much I love that about you?” He kissed her quickly then scooted her off to the tee. “Go on darlin’, show them how it’s done.” He cheered her on.

Lou turned in time to see her mother drive her ball long and straight, smack into the middle of the fairway. It made her furious, even if she was on her team. When her father followed suit, she could hear Max grumbling behind her and she wondered if he was feeling the same. That was when she decided things were becoming utterly ridiculous. Almost in an act of defiance, Lou turned and finally looked at him. God he was handsome as hell. His hair had loosened from its previously immaculate style and was falling gently into his face. She wanted to run her fingers through it, combing back the rich, glossy, sable strands. He turned suddenly toward her and caught her gaze. She jerked to avoid eye contact and nearly knocked herself out with her own three iron. Rubbing her forehead to dull the sting, she climbed into the cart and yelled for her mother to hurry up.