The Nicci Beauvoir Collection: The Complete Nicci Beauvoir Series

by Alexandrea Weis

  I frowned at him. “Laying it on a bit thick, aren’t you, Uncle Lance? But I do agree with you that this is my decision and I will not let anyone chase me away.” I turned to my father. “I have to stay and help find this killer. I’ll never have peace until I do.”

  My father’s eyes swept angrily over to Uncle Lance. “Then you’d better go and get us a hell of a lot more guns.”

  “That won’t help,” said a voice from behind.

  All three of us turned to see Dallas clinging to the doorway. He still had on the same bloodstained brown slacks he had worn home from the hospital. He had his sling on his left arm and bruises could be seen peeking out over the large bandage on his chest. His swollen face was pale and sweaty.

  I immediately went to his side. “You shouldn’t be up,” I scolded as I placed an arm about his waist.

  He put his good arm around me and I helped him to the couch. “Thank you, sweet cheeks, but I’ve had a lot worse than this.”

  He sat down and it took him a minute to catch his breath. Then he gazed up at my father. “Nicci is right. We need to flush out the killer here. The car accident proves that we are close; now all we have to do is push this person over the edge. Val’s party is this weekend, and I’m going to make sure we put on quite a show. It should be all we’ll need to provoke the killer.” He stopped and took in a painful breath. “After that I’ll take Nicci to her house in Hammond. I’m pretty sure the killer will come there after us. Either way, the idea of the two of us alone in the country will be hard to resist.”

  “When did you decide on that plan?” I asked.

  “When I was lying in the emergency room. I realized that we were getting to whoever killed David, but we needed something to force their hand.”

  “And what do you want me and Lance to do?” my father asked.

  “You and Lance will stay here. It would be too hard for me to protect all of you in Hammond. And in the city, there are a lot of places people can hide and hurt any one of us. We have a better chance of catching this person out in the open countryside.”

  “Dallas, I will not go along with this,” my father objected, raising his voice.

  I searched my father’s worried green eyes and then nodded. “Dallas is right. In Hammond we have a better chance, and there you and Uncle Lance won’t be in danger. I couldn’t stay here thinking I put the two of you at risk.”

  “But here we can help to protect you,” Uncle Lance argued. “Better odds here. Four against one.”

  Dallas grimaced as he tried to get more comfortable on the couch. “Not unless the killer decides to pick us off one at a time until Nicci is all alone.”

  “Maybe we should all go to Hammond?” my father persisted.

  I got up from the couch, went over to my father, and took his hand. “No, Dad. Dallas will take care of me.”

  “Bill, she can take care of herself,” Dallas said from behind me. “You know that.”

  I saw my father’s eyes slowly sink in resignation. “So when will you leave?” he asked, his voice shaky.

  “The day after Val’s party,” Dallas replied. “I want all eyes at the party to see that I’m hurt.” He struggled to stand up. “We need someone to quickly spread the news that I was badly injured and that Nicci and I are going to Hammond for my recovery.”

  Uncle Lance and my father turned to each other and spoke in unison, thinking as one. “Hattie!” they exclaimed.

  Dallas grinned. “Exactly.”

  “It makes sense,” Uncle Lance agreed. “But are you going to be able to protect her in Hammond?”

  Dallas looked over at me. “Yes, Lance. This person doesn’t know who they’re dealing with. They think I’m an architect.”

  “And not a precision instrument,” I added, meeting those cold blue eyes head on.

  Chapter 19

  The next morning I was on my cell phone to Aunt Hattie and Colleen, giving them a blow by blow of Dallas’s adventure in the emergency room. I delicately skipped over the part about the brake line being cut and Sammy’s little visit.

  “Oh, my dear, he is lucky he wasn’t killed!” Aunt Hattie shouted into the phone.

  “It was scary when they called,” I confessed, “but as soon as I heard Dallas on the phone I knew it would be all right.”

  “Well, we will have to come over and help nurse him back to health, won’t we, Colleen?” Aunt Hattie spoke to her daughter.

  “Why do we have to do anything?” Colleen moaned in the background. “Nicci’s the nurse.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt you to go over and pay your respects to your future cousin-in-law, would it?” Aunt Hattie bristled.

  Colleen laughed. “When he shows up, let me know.”

  “But I’m sure he will be after this!” Aunt Hattie giggled. “Men love it when women dote on them. Your cousin will have this man down the aisle before the end of the year. You wait and see. Calamity always brings couples closer.”

  Colleen snickered. “Yeah, did wonders for Eddie and me.”

  “Nicci dear,” Aunt Hattie went on, ignoring her daughter, “we will have to bring by some of my famous crab bisque to help build up his strength.”

  “I was thinking after Val’s party,” I began, wanting to work in the reason for my call, “of taking him to my house in Hammond.” I paused and waited to make sure Aunt Hattie had heard me.

  “Hammond?” she yelled. “Why on earth would you bring him to such a backwater place?”

  “He can rest and recover in the peace of the country,” I calmly reasoned with her. “Besides, the hospitals there are not as overwhelmed as the hospitals here in the city have been since the storm.”

  “Perhaps you’re right, dear,” Aunt Hattie agreed. “I have heard such horror stories about ten-hour waits to see doctors. Half the hospitals are closed and the rest are just overrun with sick people.” There was silence for a moment then I heard Hattie yelling something in the background to Uncle Ned.

  “Great,” Colleen was now on the phone. “She wants to go shopping for crabs.”

  But Aunt Hattie was back on the line again. “We’ll be there this afternoon, dear. Tell that man of yours not to worry about a thing. We’ll make sure he is better in no time.” She hung up before I could say another word.

  I nodded to myself as I hung up my cell phone, feeling confident that the rumor mill had been set into motion.

  I went upstairs to give Dallas the news. But when I walked into my room, instead of finding him in bed, he was sitting up in my leather chair by the window staring out into the gardens.

  “Aunt Hattie and Colleen know. They’ll be coming by this afternoon.”

  I went over to his side and examined his battered body. His left eye was swollen, as was his bruised left cheek. He had only managed to pull on some jeans, and I could see the ugly black and blue discoloration brimming out over the bandage around his chest. I reached out and tenderly ran my hand along his bruised ribs.

  “You know what is about to happen, don’t you?” His voice was eerily calm.

  “We are soon going to come face-to-face with the person who killed David, I presume. Any idea who it is?”

  “Sammy, Michael, and Eddie all had pretty strong motives for wanting David out of the way.”

  “I know Michael and Eddie were jealous of David.” I moved around in front of the chair, but his eyes continued staring out of the window. “But what about Sammy?

  “Sammy was jealous too,” he stated. “Her showing up at the emergency room when she did was highly suspicious. Probably wanted to see how badly hurt I was.” He took a labored breath. “And how could she know that was your car? I was with Sammy the whole time at her house and I know she didn’t slip out and cut the brake line, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t have someone else do it. We know she has a history of hiring people to do her dirty work; look at David. What else do you know about her past?”

  “No one knows anything for certain about Sammy’s life prior to her marriage to Gerald Fa
llon. And she has been an absolute fanatic about keeping that part of her life off limits to everyone around her.” I paused and thought of what I had heard about Sammy. “There was a private investigator snooping around into her past several years back, but the guy got run out of town by the NOPD, supposedly at Sammy’s behest.”

  “Then she is still a prime suspect. What about Eddie? Anything else you can tell me about him?”

  “He doesn’t have any secret past as an auto mechanic, if that’s what you’re asking.” I laughed. “In fact, Eddie is quite well known for being a bit of a simpleton with cars. He’s wrecked four of them in ten years. Once, he forgot to put the car into park and the Mercedes rolled into an open canal.”

  “He didn’t have to be a surgeon to know how to cut a brake line. The Internet makes us all experts these days.”

  I took a seat on the arm of his chair. “Well, I know that Michael wouldn’t be caught dead under a car.”

  “Like Sammy, he could have hired someone.”

  I shook my head. “Michael’s also extremely paranoid. He’d be too afraid of someone talking.”

  Dallas nodded slightly as he thought. “Then we’ll need to really provoke these people at Val’s party.” He looked away and stared once more out the window. “We need to lure this person to Hammond, in order to end this. And I will end this, Nicci. I won’t rest until I put a bullet into this bastard. You need to know that and you need to be ready.”

  I felt a chill run through me as I stood and gazed down at him. I wondered if I would ever be able to completely break through his bulletproof bravado. To eventually find the real Dallas August hidden deep within the secretive man before me.

  Aunt Hattie and Colleen arrived later that afternoon, carrying armfuls of crab bisque and crackers.

  “It’s the best thing in the world for bumps and bruises,” Aunt Hattie insisted.

  I could smell the onions and ample amounts of garlic coming from inside of the pot in Aunt Hattie’s hands. It was at times like these I wished we had a dog.

  “So where is the patient?” Aunt Hattie asked as she breezed past me dressed in a tight green pantsuit.

  “Back den, with Dad and Uncle Lance,” I replied.

  She instantly shoved the pot of soup into my arms and took off down the hallway.

  Colleen came up beside me carrying two boxes of saltine crackers.

  “She’s called everyone under the sun to tell them about the accident,” Colleen remarked, rolling her eyes. “Been on the phone half the day.”

  I noticed Colleen was dressed rather demurely—for Colleen, anyway. She had on tight blue jeans and a pink angora sweater with matching pink heels.

  “The rest of the time she was cooking that poison.” Colleen nodded to the pot of soup. “Let’s go hide this stuff in the kitchen before she tries to force-feed your poor boyfriend.”

  Once inside the kitchen, I placed the crab bisque in the fridge, pushing it to the back of the shelf. When I turned around, I saw Colleen standing behind me, watching me.

  “You all right, Nic?”

  I casually shrugged. “Fine.”

  She cautiously eyed me up and down. “You just don’t seem like yourself.”

  I shook my head and waved away her concern. “This whole accident thing has me flustered.”

  “Flustered, you? Nicci the rock?” Colleen raised her bleached eyebrows at me. “You’ve never let anything get to you. Even when your artist died, you were still so cool. You were never flustered then. What would make you flustered now?” She paused and observed me for a few seconds. “You know, you and that architect are a lot alike in a way. He has the same coldness that you do. Don’t get me wrong, Nicci, you’re my cousin and I love you and all, but you’ve always been so hard to figure out.” Colleen rolled her sad brown eyes. “Mom thinks you’re going to marry him and, well, that’s Mom. But you don’t trust him, not like you trusted the artist.”

  “David loved me, Colleen. This guy?” I held my hands up and shrugged.

  She shook her head. “He’s just afraid.”

  “Afraid?” I laughed. “Dallas isn’t afraid of anything.”

  “Everybody’s afraid of something, Nicci. You’re afraid of trusting and your friend’s afraid of love.”

  I smiled at her. “When did you get so smart?”

  Colleen snorted. “Me, smart? I don’t know about that.” She let out a long sigh and then shrugged. “I guess after everything that happened with Eddie I realized I had to stand up for myself, believe in myself. To do that you have to start seeing the world around you as it really is.”

  I suddenly realized the insecure girl I had known all my life was gone. A woman, capable and strong, now stood before me.

  “You’ve grown up, Colleen.”

  “Yeah,” she snorted again, “well, don’t tell Mom. The shock might just give her another nervous breakdown.” She looked around the kitchen. “Maybe we should go and rescue that man of yours.” Colleen took a step toward the kitchen door. “Mom can take the term ‘killing you with kindness’ quite literally,” she added before she headed out the door.

  When Colleen and I entered the den, there was Aunt Hattie hovering over Dallas. He was sitting on the sofa in front of the big screen television set as Aunt Hattie stood over him cooing about his swollen left eye and the sling on his arm. My father and Uncle Lance were standing behind her, stifling their giggles.

  “Oh, you poor dear,” Aunt Hattie said as she patted his hand. “I’ve made you the most wonderful crab soup.”

  Dallas tried to wriggle free of her attentions. “Aunt Hattie, please.”

  “I find it is the best medicine in the world.” Aunt Hattie ignored his retreat. “Like what people say about chicken soup, but after all, this is Louisiana and seafood is in our blood, and I am world famous for my soup—not as famous as I am for my stuffed crabs, mind you. But I think my soup runs a close second.” She fluffed the pillow behind his back then turned to Colleen. “Go warm up a bowl for him.”

  Colleen winked at me. “Nicci just told me Dallas can’t have any of your soup. He’s allergic to shellfish.”

  “Nonsense!” Aunt Hattie waved off Colleen’s suggestion. “There’s no shells in it. It’s soup.”

  Aunt Hattie stood back from the couch and huffed. She then walked past Colleen and disappeared into the kitchen.

  Dallas was staring terrified at the kitchen door Hattie had just walked through. Then his eyes turned to me. “I’m not eating any of your aunt’s soup,” he stated emphatically.

  “Don’t worry,” Colleen assured him and then fixed her gaze on Uncle Lance. “You got a bottle of vodka behind the bar?”

  Uncle Lance raised his dark eyebrows inquisitively. “Yeah?”

  “Why don’t you and I go in the kitchen and have some tea with my mom.” She grinned. “Trust me, after a glass of tea-spiked vodka, she’ll forget all about the damned soup.”

  Uncle Lance went over to the bar and grabbed the vodka bottle. He strolled up to Colleen and then the two of them headed off into the kitchen to sideline Aunt Hattie.

  My father moved over to the couch where Dallas was sitting. “Sure you don’t want to stay?”

  “No thanks, Bill. I think I might actually enjoy the peace of this country retreat after an afternoon with your sister-in-law.”

  My father’s face grew instantly grim. “And you still think this is for the best?”

  Dallas repositioned himself carefully back against the couch. “I know your objections, but none of this will ever be over until we catch the person who killed David.”

  “No,” my father sighed, “it will only begin when you catch them. There will be attorneys to deal with, a trial, and possibly plea deals. New Orleans is a city crawling back to life, so is the judicial system down here. Criminals are being released back onto the streets because there are no courts to try them in and no jail cells to hold them.”

  “Then the only way to really end this is to make sure whoever did it ca
n never do it again.” Dallas paused as he watched my father’s face. “I know what to do.”

  “Then you end this for good,” my father said in a firm voice. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder wondering when or if the bastard is coming to finish the job he started.”

  “I assure you, Bill, that’s exactly what I have planned.” Dallas turned his head and his eyes found mine. “I want Nicci safe. I won’t walk away from here until I know that’s true.”

  “Then you take care of my daughter in Hammond.” My father came up to me and kissed me tenderly on the forehead. “She is everything to me.”

  My father looked from me to Dallas and then he turned and made his way out of the den. I listened as his footsteps traveled down the hall to his library and then he shut the library door behind him.

  I moved over to the couch and sat next to Dallas. “Why didn’t you tell him about Sammy coming to the emergency room to see you?”

  He sank into the couch and made himself comfortable before he spoke. “Because he is your father and I knew what he would do if I told him what happened.” He peered down at my hand next to his on the couch and reached for it. “He would have taken that gun of his and marched over to Sammy’s and shot her right between the eyes.”

  He squeezed my hand and I felt a ripple of excitement flow through my body.

  “He will kill for you, Nicci.” Dallas let go of my hand. “And so will I.”

  Chapter 20

  I spent the next three days nursing Dallas back to health. I was amazed at how quickly his physical strength returned. He was soon able to get about the house with little difficulty. I noticed, however, that he did stop and catch his breath when the pain from his ribs caught him off guard.

  One morning I found him sitting up in the chair by my bed trying to secure the bandage around his chest. “You’re doing too much,” I said, frowning at him.

  “I have to make sure I’m ready when we leave for Hammond day after tomorrow.”