“Maybe I should go try to smooth things over,” JW said, moving toward the kitchen.
Rainey stopped him, by saying, “Don’t piss her off. I need her focused on her safety, not on killing you.”
JW smiled a half smirk, before he continued toward the kitchen, calling back, “Yeah, now wouldn’t that make headlines.”
Mackie waited until he was sure JW was gone, before he said, “Now, that is one weird duck.”
Rainey sat down on the couch beside him. She patted his enormous thigh. A silent sign, letting Mackie know she was glad he was there. She looked in the direction JW had taken.
“I remember JW as a little irreverent. It was how he dealt with stress.”
Mackie shook his head, “No, it’s more than that. His responses are all wrong.”
Rainey leaned in conspiratorially, before she whispered, “Look, from what I can tell, these two haven’t slept together in a long time. They lost an unborn child just six months ago, in an accident that nearly killed Katie.”
Mackie tried to whisper, but was not exactly successful, “I think I remember reading something about that.”
Rainey signaled for him to keep his voice down, even though she knew he could not.
She continued, “He’s worried about being the strong male for Katie and an upcoming Senate campaign he’s worked for all of his adult life. There’s no telling how much stress he’s dealing with. He could be reacting oddly, because he is so used to keeping his emotions in check.”
Rainey turned her head toward the kitchen. She thought she heard someone coming. She let Mackie know with a look and then changed the subject.
“I need my laptop. I have to email Danny.”
Mackie caught on quickly and almost spoke too loudly, “So, you’ve talked to the BAU.”
Rainey grinned at Mackie’s attempt at nonchalance.
She kept going, “They’re on the way. He wants me to send him the latest information I have. They should be up in the air by now.”
“I brought in your laptop. Locked your car up, too. Got to thinking about how mad Ernie would be if it got stolen, with the keys in it. It’s around back.” Mackie laughed and tossed her keys to her.
Rainey looked at the big man with surprise. He chuckled even louder.
“No, I didn’t squeeze my fat ass into your ride. I made JW move it. Junior and the boys are already walking the block. Nothing moves without us knowing it.” Mackie stood up, “I think I’ll go check on things myself. Your laptop is in the kitchen, on the table.”
“Mackie don’t go into the shadows alone,” Rainey said quickly.
“Now Rainey, do you seriously think some punk ass white boy is going to jump a three hundred pound black man in the dark?”
“I think you forgot a few pounds there,” Rainey said teasing him.
“Go on, wiseass; see if you can keep them two from each other’s throats. I’ll let you know when Danny gets here.” Mackie opened the front door. “Make him turn the alarm back on, after I leave,” he said and shut the door behind him.
Rainey smelled the bacon cooking, as soon as she started for the back of the house. She entered the wide open-spaced kitchen through the door, where she had last seen Katie. It was completely furnished in stainless steel appliances and marble counter tops. A large center island offered refrigerated space underneath and a small wet sink on top. Katie was standing on the other side of the island surrounded by multiple pots, pans and bowls of all sizes. She was working feverously on chopping something, blocked from Rainey’s view by a large bowl. She looked up when she heard Rainey come in. Her cheeks were once again damp with tears.
“What happened?” Rainey questioned her. “Where’s JW?”
Katie looked surprised, rubbing her chin with the back of her hand. “Nothing happened… he went to take a shower.”
Rainey took a step closer, “Then why are you crying?”
Katie looked down at the surface in front of her. Rainey took another step. She was now able to see the large mound of onion on the chopping board. Katie laughed at her and Rainey joined in. Rainey asked Katie to arm the alarm. Katie went to a pad by the French doors that led to the blue slate patio. Rainey could see the Charger parked under the covered carport.
“I thought I would make some breakfast and judging by the size of Mackie, if his boys are anything like him, we’re going to need a lot of omelets,” Katie was saying, returning to her chopping.
Rainey put her hands on the edge of the counter opposite Katie. She said, “You don’t have to do this. We can fend for ourselves. Just coffee would be fine.”
“Nonsense, I love to cook and I am glad to have someone here to eat it.”
“It smells delicious. Can I help?”
“Just my luck, a volunteer, after I finished the onions,” Katie teased. “I need to send someone to the grocery store, but I don’t guess that’s going to be you.”
Rainey saw her laptop on the kitchen table. She retrieved it, saying, “I’ll just sit over here on this stool.” She sat at a counter that served as a breakfast bar. “Let me know, if you need me.”
Rainey opened her laptop and waited for it to wake. She watched Katie hustle from the refrigerator to the island and then over to the stove.
“Who taught you how to cook?” Rainey asked.
Katie kept moving while she talked, “I taught myself mainly, something to relieve stress and living with JW, I had lots of reasons to practice.”
Rainey laughed, “Most people eat when they’re stressed.”
“Well, I like to feed them. I’ve been completely responsible for a significant total weight gain, by my school’s faculty, in the last six months.”
“You don’t look like you have any weight issues,” Rainey commented. She enjoyed their banter back and forth.
Katie popped several small ceramic pie dishes out of the oven, while she talked, “I eat healthy and exercise. I don’t eat half the stuff I cook. I just like to make it.”
Rainey looked over at the pie dishes. “Are you making pies, too?”
“Well, I was going to make quiche, that’s why I started the pie crusts, but then I decided on omelets. Now, I have these pie crusts, so I thought I would make some summer pies. You know the creamy ones, like lemon and key lime…”
Rainey threw her hands up. “Okay, okay Julia Child. I’ll just let you cook and I’ll sit over here and write my email.”
The two women worked in silence, Rainey keenly aware of Katie’s presence, and trying to ignore it. She needed to get this email to Danny, as soon as possible. She had already let too much time elapse since their phone call. Once she focused on giving the BAU as many new facts as she could think of, her ability to concentrate returned. She told them all she knew about the stalker and how she had discovered it was the same man who attacked her. She attached copies of the notes and photos that had been sent to JW, except for the one he had given her last night. She had not had a chance to scan it in.
Katie brought over a cup of coffee and sat a pitcher of cream beside the sugar bowl, already on the counter.
“What would you like in your omelet?”
Rainey knew she had to eat, but her stomach was tied in knots from the stress. “Can I just have a piece of toast? My stomach isn’t ready for a meal, just yet.”
“When’s the last time you ate?” Katie asked, with her hands on her hips, she questioned Rainey like an adult speaking to a wayward child.
“I had a hamburger around midnight,” Rainey answered, as if a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
“Okay, I’ll make you some toast, but you’re getting some fruit, too. I don’t want you crashing on me.” Katie paused, and then added quietly, “I might need you.”
Rainey felt an unfamiliar tightening in her chest. She looked Katie directly in the eyes. She said, “I promise, I will not let anything happen to you.”
Katie leaned across the counter. She reached for Rainey’s hand and surrounded it with both of he
rs. She looked deep into Rainey’s eyes. She said softly, “Promise me you won’t let anything happen to you, either.”
Rainey swallowed hard and felt her vocal chords tighten. She had never dealt with a woman who touched her so much. In a hushed whisper, she said, “I promise.”
Katie held on to Rainey’s hand. Rainey felt her head spinning again. She felt the heat from the flush of her face. Katie smiled, still holding Rainey’s gaze with her own crystal blue eyes. Rainey thought to herself, that those eyes could make her promise anything.
Their moment was fractured by the sound of JW bounding down the stairs. Katie released Rainey’s hand and turned back to her cooking. She did not acknowledge JW entering the kitchen.
“That smells delicious,” he said, moving over to Rainey. “I’ll take an omelet with everything,” he called to Katie.
Katie did not react to his request. She kept her back turned and continued to cook, dropping slices of bread into the toaster. Rainey watched Katie, even as JW began speaking to her. Katie’s body language had completely changed since JW walked in. Whatever had happened to their marriage, Rainey could see Katie could not stand being in the same room with JW.
“Two of my favorite women in the same room before breakfast, life is good,” JW said, sitting on the stool next to Rainey.
JW was in his good ol’ boy persona, the backslapping politician, “just glad to be here folks” guy that everyone loved so much. Rainey had witnessed JW slip in and out of characters as long as she had known him. When they got in trouble, he could “ah, shucks” them out of it, most of the time. She remembered the smooth talker, the one the girls melted for, the tough guy protecting his turf, and so many more. He was a marvel. He should have been an actor. Maybe that was what Mackie picked up on, JW’s ability to hide, from the people around him, the reality of his situation. Two of his favorite women, as he put it, were in mortal danger and he was smiling, as if it was just another morning.
“Why are you dressed like that?” Rainey was referring to the designer shirt and tie he was wearing.
“I have to go into the office for a few hours. I have some things I have to deal with, this morning.”
Rainey looked at him in disbelief. “You can’t do that. The BAU guys will be here soon, and they are going to want to talk to you. Not to mention there is a maniac out there who might be trying to kill you.”
“You say it’s this Y-Man character. He doesn’t kill men, so I should be okay, don’t you think?” JW asked her, taking a sip from the coffee cup Katie had set down for Rainey earlier.
“He didn’t stalk his previous victims, either,” Rainey, countered. “He’s changed his method of operating. We don’t know what he’s planning.”
JW sounded like a lawyer giving a summation to the jury, “Well, this guy is a sexually motivated serial murderer. He has already killed six women that you know about. They don’t usually change their victim choice. I don’t think I really have any reason to worry.”
Rainey was floored by his thought process. He had completely ignored the most important thing. She could not stop herself from sounding disturbed, by his disregard for the reality of the situation. Katie slid a plate of toast and fruit in front of Rainey, and put a fresh cup of coffee down for her.
“What about your wife?”
“I know you won’t let anything happen to her. The house is surrounded and the FBI will be arriving soon. I’ll have to explain this to my father, and tell him I’ll be away from the office a few days.”
Katie interjected, “And he has to figure out how he can spin this in his favor, to the media.”
JW smiled at Katie, “Now there’s a thought.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, just let him go,” Katie snapped.
Katie turned away disgusted. Rainey had to think. She could not let herself get drawn into the tension between the two people she was trying to protect.
“Okay, but you can’t go alone. Take Mackie with you,” Rainey finally said.
“Are you kidding me? He’d scare the daylights out of everybody,” JW said.
“That’s the point,” Rainey said.
“I’d rather him be here to protect Katie, she’s the one in danger, and you for that matter. Shouldn’t he be here watching your back?”
“I think my back is pretty well covered, and as you say the FBI will be here soon,” Rainey said.
JW had lost the argument and he could see no way around it. He finally conceded, after Rainey watched his brain trying to figure a way out of her proposition.
“Okay, I’ll take Mackie.”
Rainey pulled out her cell phone, “I’ll call him and get him in here. Then we can go over a plan for this morning. I want to know where you are at all times. We make a plan and you don’t deviate from it, got it.”
“Why don’t you put one of those chips in my phone, like you were talking about for Katie?”
Katie arrived with JW’s omelet. “What chip?” she asked.
“She has a chip for your phone, so she can track your every movement,” JW said, just before taking in a mouthful of egg, dripping with cheese.
“You didn’t put a tracker on me, did you?” Katie asked.
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t get the chance,” Rainey said.
“Well, don’t give him any device to track me. I don’t want him spying on my every move,” Katie said, emphatically,
“Why, do have you have something to hide?” JW said, still chewing.
“I don’t want you to know which divorce lawyer I’m going to contact, when this little campaign is finally over,” Katie quipped, going back to her pans on the stove.
JW swallowed. His mood darkened. His voice was much less congenial when he said, “Katie, that’s a private matter. I would appreciate it, if you would leave it that way.”
Katie turned quickly and charged at him, “Don’t you get it? There isn’t going to be any more privacy. These people are going to come in here and tear our lives apart. They’ll question everything. There won’t be any skeletons left, in the closet.”
JW glowered at Katie. He gripped the fork in his hand tightly, frozen between the plate and his mouth. Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the front door. Everyone jumped. Rainey could hear Mackie’s voice, on the other side of the door, calling her name. She realized at that moment, that she was still holding her opened phone in her hand. She had dialed Mackie’s number, but when the fighting escalated between Katie and JW, she had forgotten to say anything. He must have thought something was wrong. She jumped up quickly.
“JW, disarm the alarm. I’ll get the door,” she said, sprinting toward the front of the house.
She threw open the door to find Mackie, breathless, and scared.
“I’m so sorry,” she offered.
“Goddamnit, Rainey. I thought he was in the house,” he shouted at her.
“I’m sorry, those two started going at it again and I got distracted,” Rainey explained.
Pushing passed her, Mackie said, “That distraction is going to get you killed.”
Rainey did not argue. There was no point. He was right. The Wilsons were a huge distraction, especially Katie. Rainey needed to distance herself from the two of them. She was too close and being drawn steadily deeper, into their dysfunctional personal drama.
She tried to smooth things over. She tried the one thing she thought would brighten his mood, “Katie’s got food for you, in the kitchen.”
She followed the big man, as they made their way back to the kitchen. Katie was at the stove again, silently cooking. JW had finished eating and was standing by the French doors, drinking coffee. The tension in the air was palatable. Katie turned, as they came in.
“Hello, Mackie. What would you like in your omelet?”
“Anything you can throw in it, will work for me,” Mackie said, a big smile on his face.
“Just sit down at the table and I’ll bring you some coffee,” Katie said, going to work on the omelet.
“I�
��ll get the coffee,” Rainey said, retrieving her cup from earlier and grabbing one for Mackie, from the cup tree on the counter.
Rainey poured the coffee, taking it to the table, where Mackie was standing behind a chair. He was looking down at the spindly legs of the colonial reproduction and, Rainey assumed, trying to gauge if the chair would hold his massive frame.
“Go ahead, I don’t think it’s an antique,” Rainey teased.
“Just for that, you’re paying for it, if it breaks,” he said.
The wooden chair creaked, as he lowered himself onto the seat. JW joined them and they discussed the plan for Mackie to go with him, to his office for a few hours. Mackie raised his brow, questioning Rainey with his eyes, but remained silent on the subject, of how odd it was that JW was leaving the house. He listened intently as JW outlined his morning and agreed to ride along. Katie came to the table with Mackie’s plate, piled high with glistening fluffy eggs folded over, cheese oozing from the ends. She also brought Rainey’s untouched plate from before, raising one eyebrow at Rainey, which said, “Eat your food.”
Rainey did as she was told, eating everything on her plate. The room grew silent, except for the appreciative moans from Mackie, after he took every bite. Katie smiled and patted his huge shoulder.
“Send the rest of the boys in, before you leave. I’m sure they are hungry by now,” Katie said.
Mackie nodded, but did not stop eating. When his fork finally clinked on to his plate, he thanked Katie and complimented her ability to fluff the eggs just right. It was high praise from a food aficionado, such as Mackie. He and JW left together and the boys trailed in, two at a time, to be fed and fussed over by Katie. Rainey stayed busy, checking doors and window locks a second and third time. She got a feel for the layout of the house, admiring the antiques and decorative choices Katie had made. It was a showcase of good taste, done well enough for a display in a design magazine.
RAINEY DAYS Page 11
