Swept Away (20 page)

“Actually, no. I'm still not sure what you're so scared of. But if you tell me, I'll—”

“I don't think so, Alex. I think I've lost my nerve. At least right now.”

“Don't walk away like this,” he said. “You have some kind of heavy load and I only want to share it. Jennifer, it's my
job.
”

“I don't want to be your
job!
”

“That's not what I meant and you know it. It's my job to help when someone's in trouble or afraid of trouble.”

“I...ah... I need a little time to think. Okay? Just give me a little time to think this through.”

“Why? You wanted to tell me about it. You wanted my help. Let's do it. Let's talk about it now.”

“That was when I thought I'd have to explain everything. That was before I found out you already know all about me, pretending not to.” She opened the door and stepped out. She looked over her shoulder. “You should have been straight with me from the beginning.”

“I didn't want to push you. Scare you off.”

She gave a huff of laughter. “Well, in fact...” She backed away and Alice went with her. “Now you're going to have to be patient.”

She jogged across their front lawns and let herself into Louise's house. She leaned back against the closed and locked front door and said, “Dammit, Alex.”

This put a new face on things. She thought he was falling for her, falling for a waitress named Doris. It was possible he could care less; he could be undercover, watching her movements. He could be just about ready to investigate her for stealing from Nick. And if he searched her belongings he would find two diamond rings and a tennis bracelet given to her by Nick and a nice stack of hundreds that she'd come away with from the MGM Grand.

Alice, tired, wandered over to the cool tile floor near the cold hearth and flopped down. Jennifer sat on the edge of the sofa, thinking. The house grew dark around her. All these people she had borrowed from Louise's life were retreating in her mind. What she thought was Alex's genuine affection was probably him doing his job as a cop, checking her out. When she turned out not to be Doris, would everyone change their feelings toward her?

And would Alex tell someone at the police department, who would get the word to Nick?

At about 9:00 p.m. she made up her mind that she would have to leave Boulder City. The only light she turned on in the house was in the master bath. In the shadows she packed her backpack. She took as much as she could by way of clothing, but much would have to be left behind. She draped over the sofa the clothes that Rose had loaned her for the Cinco de Mayo party. She filled Alice's dish, knowing she wouldn't touch it until morning. And poor Hedda—but what good would she be to Hedda if Nick
“took care of her.”

She struggled with a note. It was in her heart to explain, but in the end all she could write was,
I'm sorry if I let anyone down.

She put the backpack by the front door and lay down on the floor by Alice, her head on Alice's back. She hummed a few lullabies and wiped impatiently at tears that slid down her cheeks. When the hour was sufficiently late and the sky reliably black, she kissed her old friend on the head. “I love you, old girl. I'll call Rose in the morning—she'll take good care of you.”

She tucked the key under the front mat and began walking. She headed toward the dam where she hoped to hitch a ride to the Arizona side. If she could get to Flagstaff or Laughlin, she could get a bus ride to Ohio. Maybe if she could go back in time, back to where she had some childhood memories that didn't hurt, maybe she could rebuild her life. For sure there wouldn't be any posters with her face on them.

She passed the park—she would so miss the park. She wouldn't get to see the lambs. There would be no more celebrations at the Garcia homestead.

And Alex...the brush with romance that wasn't would fade from her memory fast.

“I can't believe you would leave Alice,” he said.

He was sitting on top of a picnic table in the park, partially hidden in the shadows. His feet were on the bench and he leaned his elbows on his knees. She was frozen.

“I didn't want to. I had to.”

“You didn't
have
to,” he said, anger edging his words. “You could have just told me the truth, let me help.”

“You could have told the truth, too.”

He stood up abruptly and came toward her, causing her to back away a little. “Hey, enough of this crap. I didn't betray you. I haven't sold you out. All I know is that you're scared of someone—and I think I know who, but I don't know why. All I'm guilty of is keeping my mouth shut while you learned to trust me!”

“You don't under
stand!
”

“You're right—I don't! And you're not making it any easier!”

“Alex, he killed his wife! I saw him!”

Well, that did it—shut him right up. In fact, if she wasn't mistaken, it kind of knocked the wind out of him.

“Well, holy shit, Doris.”

“See? You just don't know the half of this mess. And I don't feel like being your
project.
It's enough that I'm Buzz's and Rose's project. But—”

Something about that seemed to rile him up, because he took three long strides toward her, pulled her into his arms, kissed her so hard it nearly knocked her out of her shoes and, when he was finally done, said, “Jennifer, if you can't tell my feelings for you are real, I am way rustier at this than I thought. Now, dammit, let me help you with this mess so we can get on with our lives.”

“Our lives?”

“Yeah, ours. Jesus, you are so pigheaded you make me tired.”

“How do you know you're still going to want to know me after you know everything about me?”

“For God's sake—I've been a cop for twelve years. Do you honestly think you can come up with something I haven't seen before?”

“Seeing it on the street and having it right in your...” She stopped.

He sensed she was having trouble, so he gave her a little squeeze and tried to finish for her. “In your arms? So—look at your options. You can run and never know, or you can stay and see if this thing between us works. Either way, if you don't get this trouble behind you, you're going to have to deal with it forever.”

That was true. Also true was, that of the entire police force, Alex might be the only one she was willing to take a chance on. “I wasn't going to abandon Alice. I was going to call Rose in the morning. If she didn't answer, I had your cell phone number. And the key is under the mat.”

“I know. I watched all that.”

“You were spying on me?”

“I was afraid you might bolt. You were pretty pissed that I knew your name.”

“How long have you known?”

“Since the flyers were put out. About the time you moved in next door. Now, come on, let's go home. Tell Alice everything is going to be all right. Then you can give me the whole story and we'll get you taken care of.”

“Okay, then,” she said. As they began to walk back toward the house she slipped her arm around his waist. “I really hated leaving before the lambs.”

“There are lambs every year, sweetheart,” he said.

She began to cry. She leaned on him and cried into his shirt. “It isn't just the lambs. It's Rose and Hedda and Buzz. It's the Garcias. It's
you.
Alex, I don't want to go.”

“Good,” he said, comforting her, stroking her back. “We don't want to lose you.”

eleven

When Jennifer unlocked the door and flipped on the light, Alice didn't come to her. She raised herself on her front legs, but her back legs stayed grounded. There was a dark stain not very far from the dog. “What in the—?”

Jennifer looked at the stain; an accident clearly tinged with blood. She knelt in front of Alice, who whimpered in either pain or confusion. “Come on, girl... Tell me what's wrong.”

Alex tried to hoist Alice's hindquarters up, but she had no control of her legs and couldn't hold her own weight. She was paralyzed at least from the hips down. “Jennifer, we've got to get her to the vet.”

“Louise wrote the name down for me,” she said, rising. “There's an after-hours emergency vet....”

“I know where we're going. Just grab a towel for the car.” He hefted all seventy-five pounds of Alice into his arms and headed for his car. “Get in the back with her,” he told Jennifer.

As they drove, Alex dialed his cell phone. “Sam,” he said. “I know, I know—but it's Alice. She can't move her hind legs and she left a mess on the floor not far from herself—like maybe she dragged herself away from it. No, no, she'd only been alone a half hour or so.” To Jennifer he asked, “Any other symptoms earlier in the day? Has she been eating, drinking, et cetera?”

“Perfectly normal. A little slow and achy—but that's to be expected.”

Jennifer cradled Alice's head on her lap in the backseat, gently stroking her. All thoughts of her own predicament were suddenly gone. She lay her head atop the dog's and prayed that they could have a little more time together. She couldn't believe she'd almost left her! She might've died...
alone.

They didn't drive very far before Alex stopped the car in front of a yellow house converted into an animal hospital. He turned around and spoke over the seat. “I know about the emergency vet in Henderson—but Sam and Alice go way back, so I took a chance and called him. He's coming over to meet us.”

But she wondered if what was happening to Alice was beyond the skill of even the best vet.

It was only a couple of minutes before Sam Gunterson pulled his Jeep into the parking space in front of the office. He'd been in the diner a few times, but Jennifer had never been happier to see him. While he unlocked the door, Alex carried the patient. “There are very few women I'd get up in the middle of the night for, my dear,” he said to the dog, giving her a fond pat. “Hey, Doris, how you doing?”

“Not so great at the moment,” she said quietly.

“Try not to worry too much, Doris. Alex, I'm going to have you put her in the surgery for me. Then I won't have to move her to do an exam, take blood, X-ray or any other procedures. And you two can wait out front.”

Jennifer stood in the small, deserted waiting room until Alex returned. The expression of worry on his face made her realize that he felt at least as attached to Alice as she did. “If I'd been successful in running away, we wouldn't have found Alice. At least not tonight.”

He just put his hands in his pockets, watched her face and waited.

“I came to Las Vegas with a guy named Nick Noble,” she said. “I've been his...his mistress for just under two years. We'd been in town for three days when I came back to our room and found he was in a brutal argument with his wife, Barbara. She was throwing things and they were both yelling. One of his guys saw me peek into the room and then quietly duck out. I went to a bar in the casino for a couple of hours, and when I came back it looked like a bomb had gone off in the suite. Barbara was facedown on the bed and I heard Nick tell his guys to get rid of her. And, he said, ‘Find that bimbo I brought with me—we're going to have to do something about her, too.'”

“And you left,” Alex supplied.

“I just went to another hotel for a few days and watched the news and newspapers. I don't know what I expected—but I sure wasn't prepared to see a picture of me as missing, along with the accusation that I had stolen from him.”

“You have jewelry and money?” he asked.

“Two rings that were given to me quite a while ago and a tennis bracelet I got on this trip. Then there was the cash. Nick was in the habit of giving me shopping money to keep me occupied while he played poker. When I saw the picture of me that was published, all that long blond hair that Nick loved so much—well, you know what I did.”

“Your life must have been very complicated.”

“No, Alex. It's complicated now. My life was very simple before—mainly because I operated in an emotional vacuum. All I had to do was be pleasant and beautiful and low maintenance. Nick took care of everything. It was pretty easy to primp and dress well and be available for dates.”

“Dates with this married guy you didn't even love?” he asked, but he didn't ask it in an incredulous manner, as though she must be crazy.

“Exactly, Alex. This married guy was on his third wife—and I had no intention of ever being the fourth. The most I could do for him was make it look like he had attracted a hot young chick.”

“How'd you get together?”

“I worked for a property management company. I was a secretary-slash-agent. I managed a few office buildings—rented space, wrote leases, collected rent and occasionally called a plumber or electrician if something was broken. The buildings were an investment of Nick's. He came in to the management company to meet with my boss and he asked me out.” She took a breath. “I didn't go out with him right away.”

“Why didn't you go to the police immediately?”

“I don't know. I've been thinking about that a lot. How would this be different if I'd gone to the front desk and said, ‘There's a dead woman in Nick Noble's room.' But I wasn't sure the hotel wouldn't cover it up. You have no idea what lengths they went to to keep him happy and coming back. They sent their private jet for him four times a year and put him up in the most luxurious suite imaginable. Even if they wouldn't have broken the law for him, I thought they might worry more about his safety than mine. After all, I was just his bimbo.

“Then there was something about the way I found her—and him. When his guys left the room, I heard the shower running. I tiptoed into the suite, poked my head into the bedroom, saw Barbara's lifeless body and heard him singing in the shower. Singing. All of a sudden everything I knew about him, but had denied to myself, came rushing into my mind. He's cold. Dangerous. Powerful. Unremorseful. I ran. Alex, I had no one to run to. No family, no friends, no one who would've helped me. I just got away from there. I covered my tracks by going to the airport and buying a ticket in all my long-legged blondness and then, covering my head with a scarf, took a cab to a neighborhood hotel off the Strip.

“By the time I thought maybe I had made a mistake and would have been better off telling someone, Nick and his thugs had had time to get rid of her and clean up the evidence.” She shrugged. “Then I saw he reported
me
missing. I thought I was cooked.”

“You don't watch much crime drama on TV, do you?” Alex asked. “We can still go into that suite and find evidence.”

“Am I going to be in trouble for leaving?” she asked him.

“Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I don't know that we can even be sure about what you saw.”

“Her body, Alex. I saw her body. The hair on the back of her head was matted and wet with blood.”

“A lot of red, was there?”

“Not a lot, really. Splatters around the suite.”

“Okay, I'm going to look into it. And you're going to be Doris for a while longer while I do. But this time, you don't run again.”

No, she thought. No more. She shook her head. She wasn't going to run from any of it anymore. “I'm a little scared,” she said.

“I don't blame you. I'll do everything I can to keep you safe.”

Suddenly it wasn't Nick she was most afraid of. It was Alex. What if, after she revealed the whole truth about herself, her gentlemen friends over the years and how she'd lived on their generosity, Alex lost all respect for her? But all she said was “I appreciate that. Thank you.”

* * *

Alice had a tumor that was pressing against her spine, causing temporary paralysis. Sam Gunterson operated on her first thing the next morning. There was a higher than usual risk, given Alice's age, but she had a strong spirit and pulled through. She had to stay in the veterinary hospital for a couple of days, so that was where Jennifer would spend the afternoons until Alice could come home.

Dear Louise,

I'll start off by saying that everything is going to be all right. Alice gave me quite a scare last night—she couldn't get up. Alex and I rushed her to the vet—Sam came in just for her. It turned out she had a tumor on her spine, which he successfully removed. She's going to be a little weak and wimpy for a while, but Sam is convinced she will make a full recovery. I swear, she took ten years off my life.

Love,

Doris

My dear Doris,

Thank God you were there! I can't even bear to think of how frightened poor Alice must have been—and how much she must have appreciated you taking such good care of her! Thank Alex for me, too.

Bless you!

Louise

* * *

Jennifer was wiping off a couple of the tabletops just prior to retiring her apron, anxious to get over to Sam's to see how Alice was doing, when Hedda came into the diner to relieve her. The girl seemed to be in a nasty little mood, a very unusual circumstance. Even with all she had to put up with daily, she never failed to have a cordial smile and greeting. Today she didn't say hello, didn't look up as she entered and seemed to stow her purse under the counter with a pretty rough thrust.

“Nice to see you, too,” Jennifer teased.

“Sorry,” she said. “I have a lot on my mind.”

“I'm sure. With prom getting so close.”

“Yeah.”

“Have you been shopping for your dress yet?” Jennifer asked, ducking a little to get under Hedda's downcast eyes.

“No. Not yet.”

“What's up, kid? Something wrong?”

“Finals. It's almost time for finals.”

Jennifer grabbed her wrist and dragged her past the grill toward the back door and bathroom. “Hey,” Hedda protested.

“Hey, nothing. I have to get going—Alice is under the weather. But I can't leave my precious little diner in the hands of such a crab apple. What's your deal?”

“Nothing, I said. Just got a lot on my—”

“Last week you couldn't shut up about the dress you were going to get for the prom. Now you have finals on your mind?”

Tears gathered in the girl's eyes. “I'm not going.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Now, let's drop it.” She pushed Jennifer aside and stepped inside the bathroom, locking the door.

Memories flooded back to her. Jennifer had never gone to a prom or homecoming. Hell, she'd never gone to
anything!
She'd never been around a school long enough to be asked. And if she had been asked, chances were she'd never be able to float the whole dress issue. But she'd known her fair share of guys in high school, and she knew what they were capable of. In fact, all the heartache surrounding these events was way more crystal clear to Jennifer than any of the glitter and fun of it.

“Come on, Hedda,” she said to the door. She leaned her ear against it. Just barely, muffled in there, was sniffling.

Jennifer went to the cash register and got the key to the bathroom. She unlocked the door and let herself in. “Hey!” Hedda protested from behind the fluffy white toilet tissue that soaked up her tears.

“Look, Hedda, I spent my entire high school career crying by myself in bathrooms. I'm not going to let you start doing it. It's a terrible habit to get into. Now, what happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Did Max change his mind about taking you?”

“No. I just can't go is all.”

“Since when?”

She sighed heavily and impatiently, but the tears rolled down her cheeks despite her attempt to appear annoyed. “Since my mom needed the money for the car insurance and we had to make some choices. Okay?” And she blew her nose heartily.

This was also something with which Jennifer had a great deal of experience. Single mom, a kid or two, no money... The specifics didn't matter—they just didn't have much. They lived paycheck to paycheck with very little left over. And Sylvia had to have
her
evenings out now and then....

“Oh, is that all?” Jennifer heard herself ask.

That brought a stunned look from behind the tissue. “Is that
all?
”

“So we're just talking about a dress?”

“
Just
a dress,” Hedda said with sarcasm. “My mom talked about looking around for a used one. My luck, it would probably end up being one of the mean girls' hand-me-downs. Wouldn't that be cool.”

Jennifer reached out to her, using her thumb to wipe away a tear. “That might be easier to work around than you think. I might be able to come up with something.”

“
You?
You're even less prom-appropriate than I am! I mean, no offense.”

She pursed her lips together and huffed. “While this is true, I also have a fairy godmother right next door. And a couple of saved-up bucks.”

“Swell, but I doubt I could ever repay you.”

“That's the beauty of it—you wouldn't necessarily have to. We could come up with a plan—you could help me out with taking care of Alice or something. The details aren't important—you know?” She broke into a wide grin. “Friends are there for each other.”

“I don't know,” Hedda said, blowing her nose a final time. “It seems like you're always there for me, but there isn't much I can do for you.”