Dangerous Habits

by Susan Hunter

  I picked up a fat folder, but it slipped out of my hand, scattering its contents on the rug. The clip Sister Mattea had given me was on top. It had landed with the grinning picture of Alex, Max and Ellie face up. They all looked so happy. I gazed at it for a long time. Then I put it down and got out my laptop.

  An hour later the itch had been scratched, the actor recalled, the song lyric identified, but I didn’t feel any better. I felt much, much worse.

  Forty-Three

  I was still struggling with what to do when the doorbell rang.

  “Max! What are you doing here?”

  “Hey, aren’t you glad to see me, kid? I brought you something.” He held up a bottle of Jameson and one of ginger ale.

  “What’s the occasion?”

  “A celebration. Because you’re coming back to the Times Monday morning, I hope.”

  “Let me get a couple of glasses.”

  “I’ll do it. I know where they are. You go take a load off. You’ve still got a coupla days special treatment coming.”

  A minute later he came into the living room carrying two drinks and handed me one before sitting on the couch opposite me. I took a sip even though I prefer my Jameson straight. Between the fizziness of the ginger ale and the strength of the drink, I started to cough.

  “This is pretty stiff. How much whiskey did you put in here?”

  “Just enough. You can handle it. Besides, I know you’re not driving. I saw Carol and Paul leaving town for the Brewers game in your car.”

  I took another sip. It went down smoother this time.

  “It’ll be good having you on the job again, Leah. I talked to Callie today, now she wants to stay off the job until September. So, if you’re willing? And for the record, I want to say again that Ellie and I, we both feel bad we gave you such a hard time….”

  I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t sit there and pretend I didn’t know what I knew. Not to Max, not to one of my oldest friends.

  “Max, there’s something I need to ask you. I talked to Scott Riordan tonight. Then I did some research online and made a few phone calls.”

  The color drained from his ruddy cheeks. He leaned forward and rubbed the cold glass in his hand across his forehead for a second before he said anything.

  “Ah Christ, Leah. You know, don’t you?”

  I nodded.

  “I was worried the other day, when you said you were going to talk to Riordan again. I was afraid you might turn up something. How did you figure it out?”

  “I’ve had most of the pieces all along, but I didn’t realize it until tonight. How could you think no one would find out?”

  “No one did. For almost 10 years.”

  “But then Sister Mattea saw that picture of the three of you.”

  He nodded. “She recognized Ellie. Only she knew her as Elise. She knew her baby had died. And she knew a baby Alex’s age had been taken outside a neighborhood bar in LA the same time that Ellie left town.”

  “Did you always know about Alex?”

  His big, heavy featured face crumpled.

  “No. Not ’til a couple months ago. I came home for lunch one day and caught Ellie packing. She broke down, told me everything. How her baby died after Ian was killed. How she went numb. For days, she couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t get rid of the baby’s stuff. Couldn’t do anything but drive and drive and drive all over Los Angeles. Didn’t matter where, she just had to be driving.

  “One afternoon she stops for gas in this little neighborhood. Sees a woman pull up and park across the street. Ellie goes into the convenience store to buy some water, and when she comes out she hears a baby crying. The sound is coming from the woman’s car. Nobody else is on the street. She walks over to check.

  “The rear window is open, but it’s so hot that day the door almost burns her hand when she touches it. This little guy is wet and dirty and crying his lungs out. She reaches in and picks him up, and he just grabs on her finger and looks right at her and stops crying. She can’t let go. She takes him. Goes back to her apartment, packs everything up and leaves that night.”

  “But how did she explain having the baby when hers had died?”

  “She didn’t tell her aunt when her baby died. She couldn’t bring herself to talk about it. Then when she gets Alex she calls and says she’s on her way, that her baby had a few problems but he was ready to travel. She got to Ohio, and Alex was her baby. He still is. He’s our son, our Alex. You get that, don’t you, Leah? Nobody could love that boy like we do. That woman Ellie rescued him from, she didn’t deserve to have a baby. You see, you understand, don’t you?”

  The anxious plea in his voice cut me to the heart.

  “But, Max, Ellie stole another mother’s baby.”

  “That woman left him in a hot car in the middle of the summer while she went into a bar. He could have died if Ellie hadn’t saved him.”

  “What happened when Sister Mattea contacted Ellie?”

  “She said she knew that she was really Elise, that Alex wasn’t her son. Ellie panicked, but then she asked to meet with Sister Mattea to explain and talk things through. Sister Mattea agreed, but Ellie wasn’t going to meet with her. She was just going to run.

  “That’s when I walked in on her packing to leave. I convinced her to stay. I told her that she and Alex were the world to me, and I’d walk away from everything else in a heartbeat. If we had to. But I thought I could explain things to Sister Mattea, so she’d understand. I convinced Ellie to wait. That day Sister Mattea came into the paper to see you, I set up a meeting with her early at the Point where no one would see us.”

  I knew what was coming next.

  “When we met, I tried every way I could think of to get her to back off. I told her if there is a God, he gave Alex and Ellie to each other. They saved each other. I told her how happy he was, what a great job Ellie had done as his mother, how much better his life was. But she said it didn’t matter. It wasn’t right for Ellie to take Alex away from his real mother. And nothing good could come from it.”

  He stopped and took a drink from his glass, then looked at me steadily. “She was wrong, Leah. Everything good in my life came from that.”

  I thought about the other mother, the one who had come out to her car and found her baby gone. But I didn’t say anything, just let Max keep talking.

  “I told her it would kill Ellie to lose him. It would be even worse than when her baby died. She said she was sorry. That she’d help us any way she could. Help? She was the one destroying our lives.

  “We were out at the edge of the bluff. No one else was around. I put my hand on her arm just to make a point. She stumbled and lost her balance. It was muddy there, and she slid. She grabbed onto a bush at the edge. I reached for her, but she slipped again and I missed. She was hanging over the side, kicking with her legs. I stretched out to take her hand. But then I stopped. I didn’t push her. But I watched her fall.”

  The words were devastating to hear. I imagined Sister Mattea, begging for help, struggling, terrified, then falling, falling, falling.

  I said in a flat tone, “I thought it was Ellie. That night on the bluff, I smelled her cologne. Like grass and spring. But Alex made it for both of you. It was you, Max. You pushed me that night after the race, didn’t you?”

  “I asked you not to make me do something I didn’t want to do. I warned you over and over, but you just kept pushing with Lacey and what did Sister Mattea want to tell you. I knew you wouldn’t ever let go. You were getting too close. I couldn’t let you find out.”

  “Does Ellie know what you did?”

  He shook his head. “I told her that Sister Mattea agreed not to tell. That she must have fallen after I left. She doesn’t know about your accident either. No one has to know, Leah. It’s done.”

  I took a long drink. Maybe it was the Jameson, or maybe it was the surreal quality of the conversation, but my head was starting to feel fuzzy.

  “I knew, but I didn’t know, Max.
There were all these shiny little pieces, like a kaleidoscope. You lied about your tire. You said you were late that morning Sister Mattea died because you were changing a flat. But you couldn’t have changed it because you didn’t have a spare. Cole told me it was at Jorgenson’s for months.”

  I paused. I knew the words I wanted to say, but I was having trouble getting them out.

  “Leah?” he prodded, his voice coming from a distance.

  “Ian had O negative blood. Mom said she and Ellie were at the blood drive, because they were both O negative. Alex’s blood is B positive. Two O negative parents can’t have a B positive child. In Alex’s book. The picture of Ian. He has red hair and blue eyes. Ellie has red hair and blue eyes. Alex has brown hair and brown eyes.”

  “But how did you connect that to Sister Mattea?”

  “When I talked to Scott, he said a friend of his sister’s had a baby that died. Her name was Elise. She was a nurse from LA. Ellie is a nurse from LA. Ellie’s husband died in Iraq. Elise’s husband was killed in Iraq. Ellie’s son is 10 years old. Elise’s baby died 10 years ago. Elise went to Ohio. You met Ellie in Ohio.

  “Then I went online. Read the stories about a baby who disappeared from a parked car while his mother was inside at the bar. He was never found. I turned up an old online picture of Elise McAllister in a Regent Hospital newsletter. Different hair, younger, but it was Ellie.”

  “You’ve always been a damn good reporter. Too damn good,” he sighed. “What are you going to do?”

  “What am I going to do? Max! Ellie stole a baby. You let Sister Mattea die. You tried to kill me! What do you think I’m going to do?”

  “Who else knows? Coop, Miguel?”

  “Nobody. Max, how could you do that to me? I thought you cared about me?” My words were angry but I felt oddly as though I were floating above the scene.

  His eyes were bleak. “I have to protect Ellie and Alex. I don’t want to do this.”

  “Do what Max?” but I knew. Knew why I was feeling so detached and lethargic. Why Max had mixed Jameson with the sweet tasting ginger ale. To mask the Ambien or Vicodin or whatever he’d put in my drink to slow my reactions.

  He wanted to find out if I was ready to let things rest, just assume Palmer, Hegl and Sister Julianna were behind Sister Mattea’s death and the attempt on my life. If I was, I’d just have an extra-long sleep that night. If I wasn’t, then—my mind couldn’t hold onto the thought.

  “Max, don’t. Please. It won’t work. Please.” I tried to get up.

  “I’m sorry, Leah. I’m sorry.” Tears welled in his eyes as he leaned over me with a pillow.

  I thrashed around as it pressed down on my face. I couldn’t breathe. I twisted my head and tried to kick out my legs, but I was going down. No bright white light this time.

  And then the pressure stopped and there was a thud. I pushed and the pillow lifted easily from my face. I struggled to a sitting position. Max was lying on the floor, gripping his left arm, his face twisted in a grimace of pain.

  “Max? Max?” I forced myself to focus. I picked my phone up from the table and called 911.

  “Heart attack. My friend is having a heart attack. 607 Fletcher Street.” The operator was talking, but I dropped the phone. I knelt beside him. His breathing was shallow and tight.

  “Leah.”

  I leaned in. I could barely hear him. I put my ear next to his lips.

  “Don’t tell. About Alex. Don’t. Please.”

  When the EMTs arrived, I moved to the kitchen chair while they worked. Coop had heard the scanner call and got there as they were loading Max into the ambulance. He offered to take me to the hospital to wait for news, but I said no. I told him that Max and I had been drinking a Jameson, and I’d forgotten I’d taken a sleeping pill earlier. That I was having a hard time functioning. That I wouldn’t be any good until it wore off. He stayed with me until my mother got home.

  Forty-Four

  Max’s funeral was three days later.

  At the wake, I was sitting in a corner by myself when Courtnee came up to me. Her pretty face was streaked with tears.

  “I’m gonna miss him, too, Leah. I can’t believe he was, like, in the office Friday and now, I’ll never see him again.”

  “Yeah, it’s hard to take in.”

  “You know, Leah, I’m not saying this is for real. And I’m not blaming you or anything, but a lot of bad stuff sure happened after you didn’t help Sister Mattea. Maybe it’s not so good not to help a nun when she asks.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You know, how she left that note asking you to help her write that history for the nuns, and you didn’t do it. So, like, if someone, you know, holy wants your help, maybe you should just do it?”

  “Courtnee, could you put the brakes on the stupid train just for today?” I snapped. “Sister Mattea didn’t ask me to write a history of the nuns. That’s not what her note was about.”

  “Well, she told me that she wanted you to help her write a history or something for the nuns’ anniversary, and she left you a note. Don’t you remember how you yelled at me because you lost the envelope?”

  “She wanted to talk to me about my sister Lacey. That’s why she put that page from the Times in the book she lent me.”

  “I know you’re probably being so snotty because you’re sad about Max, but you don’t have to be such a biatch. Anyway, Sister Mattea didn’t put that newspaper page in the book. I did.”

  “What?”

  “After she left, I saw she dropped the copy of the Times page I made for her when she was in the week before. I put it in the book inside the envelope so you could give it to her.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  “I tried, but you wouldn’t let me finish. Remember? I told you I was trying to give you context, but you were so grouchy that day. Just like now.”

  I stared at her. Then I started to laugh.

  “Leah, are you OK? Are you hysterical? Should I slap you?”

  “I’m all right. It’s just…I thought Sister Mattea was giving me a message about Lacey. It’s why everything started. And now you’re telling me it was all completely random.”

  “Oh. Sorry. I guess.”

  Ellie and Alex left town a week after the service. I saw her once before they went. She was angry. She said that I’d let Max down. That if I hadn’t been drinking, I could have saved him. Maybe she was right.

  I didn’t tell her I knew about Alex. I didn’t tell her what Max had done for her. I didn’t tell anyone. I did find out that Alex’s birth mother had died of a drug overdose eight years earlier. Sister Mattea was trying to reunite Alex with a ghost.

  So, it was all good, right? Ellie had saved Alex from a sad and dangerous life. He had a mother who loved him and the memory of a great dad in Max. If I told the truth now, Ellie would go to prison and Alex would go into foster care.

  Ellie’s decision to take Alex had set off a series of events that resulted in the death of Sister Mattea, Max, and indirectly Palmer. Would my decision not to tell the truth set off another chain of unintended consequences?

  I didn’t know. But I couldn’t do it. Finding the truth isn’t always the same as finding the answers. I didn’t understand what Father Lindstrom meant when he had said that to me weeks ago. But I was beginning to.

  My mother thought I was mourning the loss of Max and should talk to a grief counselor. Coop thought I had PTSD and wanted me to see a doctor. Miguel thought I was depressed and should go for a makeover and a new wardrobe. They were all a little bit right. But I knew there was only one place I might find what I needed.

  One night late I walked up the steps of a small brown house with an arched front door. The porch light was on as if I was expected. When I rang the bell, the door swung inward and a little man with fluffy white hair stood on the threshold. He was holding an X Files mug from which rose a little wisp of steam.

  “Come in, Leah. I’ve been waiting for you.” Father Lin
dstrom smiled, and I stepped inside.

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  Leah Nash Mysteries, Vol. 2-3

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  DANGEROUS MISTAKES

  Small-town reporter Leah Nash has a plan. She’s rebooting her career with a true-crime book based on a major story she broke. Until it’s published, she’s trying to keep her head down under the icy glare of her new boss at the Himmel Times Weekly. But then a local surgeon dies, his daughter begs Leah for help, and all bets are off.

  Soon Leah is involved in a cat and mouse game with a clever killer who seems to know her next move before she does. But the game ends when someone she loves is next on the list. Can Leah find the answers before it’s too late?

  DANGEROUS PLACES

  When teenager Heather Young disappeared from the small town of Himmel, Wisconsin everyone believed her boyfriend had killed her—though her body was never found. Twenty years later, his little sister Sammy asks Leah Nash to prove her brother isn’t a murderer.

  When Sammy is killed in a suspicious car accident, the independent, irreverent, unstoppable Leah takes up her cause. But the truth she finds has an unexpected and shattering impact on her own life.

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  Also By Susan Hunter