Some rules couldn't be changed, however. First, no one must see or hear anything that happens to the bad person. Second, when the bad person is hurt, the police must believe it was an accident or that another bad person is to blame. And third, above all, the good person must be protected from both bad people and the police.
After Selena heard the terrible, hurtful things Detective Kidder had said to Teri, she went straight home to Juliette. It wasn't until the next morning, though, that they finally agreed on a safe enough plan.
The bad policeman was very eager to get some kind of proof that Teri and Drew were guilty of Rico's murder, and Selena had promised to contact Kidder if she thought of any little bit of information. All she had to do was offer a string that he couldn't resist pulling. By the time he realized what was on the other end of the string, it would be too late.
Throughout the day on Friday, Selena placed calls to the police station, asking for Detective Kidder in a variety of voices. Since she was aware that all incoming calls were recorded, she never left any messages, nor did she intend to talk to him if he was in, but she knew of no other way to track him down. The station would not give out his home number or address, and he wasn't listed in the phonebook. That meant the first part of the plan was going to depend on a little logic and a little luck.
Selena figured that if he wasn't at the station, he was either at home or out doing whatever detectives did. And in this one's case, that seemed to involve a lot of time bothering Teri. If Selena guessed right, she would have to act on the spot, which meant she had to be prepared.
Before leaving her apartment and heading for White Plains, she transferred one of the special packages from her freezer to a slightly larger bag with ice, then chose a purse big enough to conceal that and all the other items she might need, depending on how things moved along.
Juliette was definitely not happy with all the "ifs" in this plan, but they didn't seem to have much choice.
The sun was low in the sky as Selena drove out of Manhattan, but it was still light enough for her to wear her large dark sunglasses. She had pinned her hair up and covered it with a floppy, man's fishing-style hat. The red wig would no longer be necessary. Because of the unusually mild weather that June evening, her long, tan trench coat would not seem too out of place if anyone happened to see her. But all anyone would actually see was a tall, genderless person carrying an oversized denim shoulder bag.
The little luck she needed was waiting for her when she reached Teri's street and slowly passed the house. Everything was perfect.
The detective was sitting in a car across from the house and hadn't noticed her drive by. Selena wondered if Teri knew he was there, hoping to catch Teri in some naughty behavior, or simply hoping to push her into a confession by his constant annoying presence. It didn't matter. Soon none of his foolish suspicions would matter.
The second piece of luck was in Teri's driveway. Selena remembered Rico's car was still in the impound lot and Teri's car now sat outside in the drive. That car, and the lights in the house, which were on, assured Selena that Teri was at home and, more than likely, some neighbor would recall that if asked. Selena hoped a neighbor might also recall seeing the other car parked in the driveway.
She knew Drew Marshall had gone out of town on a big assignment. Apparently he was back and didn't want to wait to develop his film. There was just a splinter of light visible at the edge of the window, but it was enough to let her know he was hard at work. If her luck held, he would be at it for hours, and he and Teri would be able to provide alibis for each other's whereabouts that night, with the neighbors as witnesses. It was absolutely perfect.
She found a parking place around the corner and quickly walked back to Kidder's car. As he was watching the house, he didn't see her approach on the passenger side of his car. Hunched down, she rapped on the closed window.
Kidder jerked around, his hand flying to the holster inside his jacket.
Selena briefly lowered her glasses to help him identify her. "It's me," she said in as loud a voice as she dared, and when he lowered the window an inch, she added, "Selena. Let me in. Quickly!"
He pressed the button to unlock the doors, but instead of getting in front as he expected, she dived into the back seat and lay down. The shocked expression on his face was worth the banging her knee had received for her graceless action.
"Hurry," she ordered breathlessly. "Get away before they see me!"
Kidder shifted his bulk in the seat behind the steering wheel, but he couldn't quite get around to see more than a tangle of long legs. Her head was too low behind his seat for him to see her, but he had no trouble recognizing her voice, even with the edge of panic in it. As he angled the rearview mirror, trying to get a look at her, he questioned, "Hurry where, before who sees you?"
"Them! They'll kill me if they know I'm talking to you."
His nose told him this could be a trap. The dingbat could be helping her friends lure him away from the house for some reason. "I'm not going anywhere, Selena... you are. I'll give you to the count of five to tell me what you're up to, or you can get out of my car."
"Oh, no-o-o!" she whined. "Not you, too. After the way you talked at the funeral, I thought you'd help me."
Her sob was pitiful and Kidder relented. "Okay, kid. I'll listen, but no promises."
She sniffed several times before choking out her plea. "Not here, please. Can't we go somewhere else to talk?"
"We could go down to the station—"
"No! Not there. I'm scared to death of police stations, and someone might see me, and then they'd find out, and then I'd be the next one dead." Her sobbing began in earnest.
"Okay, okay. Tell me two things and maybe I'll take you somewhere. Who are 'they' and why should I care what they do to you?"
Between sniffs and hiccoughs, she told him, "Teri Gambini and... and Drew... Marshall. They... killed Rico and... and I'm pretty sure they know that I know."
Years on the force, as well as years of marriage, had made him too skeptical to accept a woman's tears as proof of sincerity. "Hmmm. The other day, you didn't know anything that could help me in my investigation. You even convinced me that you didn't know about any close relationship between the two of them. Since you've gone this far out on the limb, why not tell me why I should listen to you now?"
"I was too scared. I thought I'd be safer if I kept quiet about what I knew." She sat up so that he could see her face in the rearview mirror. Slowly she removed the sunglasses and revealed her tear-streaked face. Then she took off the hat. "I'm the blonde you've been looking for. I was there. I saw them."
"Bingo!" he shouted with a bang of his fist on the steering wheel. When he looked in the mirror again, she was gone from view. "Selena?"
"I'm down here," she answered from behind his seat. "Now can we please get away from this house?"
He started the engine and drove several blocks before he saw a suitable place to park—the empty parking lot of the elementary school. "Okay. There's no one around here at this time of night. Come up front and talk to me."
Kidder watched her sit up and look around before deciding it was safe to do as he suggested. He felt a little sorry for the dingbat. She really did look scared to death. "Come on, I don't bite." That seemed to reassure her enough to get her to move. Even after she settled herself in the front seat he had to urge her to speak again. "I was right, wasn't I? They were having an affair, and the husband didn't want the divorce, so they knocked him off and set it up to look like a mob hit. Right so far?" She hesitated, but nodded her confirmation. "Were you having an affair with Rico Gambini?" This time she lowered her head before nodding again. "Did they know?"
"I think so, but Teri didn't really care, you know? I think maybe she thought if he had somebody else, he'd go for the divorce, but he wanted the money more than me." Her lip quivered, but she held back the new flood of tears that threatened.
"If you were there, how is it they let you live?"
"
I was there, but they didn't see me. Until you told Teri about the blonde hair, they didn't know I'd been with him only minutes before they went into the apartment. Oh, Lord," she moaned, and hid her face in her hands. "If Rico hadn't sent me out of the apartment just then, I would have been there, probably still together, like... oh, dear Lord, what am I going to do? I'm too scared to figure it all out!"
"Let me help with a few questions so that I can get this straight in my own head." He wanted this to be the truth so badly, he hated to have to ask anything that might refute what she was saying, but if he didn't ask, Captain Hart would do the honors when he brought her in. "How is it you were in the apartment in the first place?"
She lowered her hands and steadily met his gaze. "I thought it was so romantic, him being a mailman and all. When I got the key and the typed note signed 'R' in the mail, I never thought it could have been from anyone else."
"What did the note say?"
"It was so-o-o cute. And sort of mysterious. But he liked to play pretend when we were together, so I thought it would be fun. It said I should go to such-and-such apartment on that day, take all my clothes off, and wait for a special piece of mail to be delivered to the door. So I did. When there was a knock on the door and I heard Rico say it was the mailman, and that I had to sign for a letter, I cracked up. I guess I don't have to tell you what happened when I opened the door. I thought he acted awfully surprised, but I figured that was part of the game."
"So you were sent there to receive a letter—naked—and he had a letter to deliver. And neither one of you questioned the other?"
She looked at him as if he was out of his mind. "Questions and Answers was not one of the games we played. Really, Detective, if I invited you into an apartment while posing in nothing but my birthday suit, would you be asking questions? Well, he didn't, and I didn't, until I saw Teri and Drew sneaking into that same apartment with another key."
"When was that?"
"Well, we had just finished, you know, and Rico was really thirsty for something cold, but the refrigerator was empty—I mean really empty—so I got dressed, grabbed my purse, and went downstairs to the soda machine. I was on my way back up when I saw them going in. I didn't know what to do. I waited a while, then I left."
"Do you still have the note and key?" he asked hopefully.
She shook her head. "I threw them away. I got scared when Teri told me he was missing and started asking funny questions about getting things in the mail. I mean, it wasn't too hard to figure out they had wanted me to be with Rico when they did him in so they could get me too. Maybe they had planned to make it look like a lover's quarrel. I don't know. Anyway, I just acted dumb, but I think she was suspicious. I know she figured it out when you told her about the hair, but she's been waiting for Drew to get back from his trip before doing anything about it. Now he's back, and I don't know what to do. I'm scared to death to go back to my apartment. Where can I hide that they won't find me?" She finished with a desperate cry.
Kidder couldn't believe his luck. The dingbat had just handed him his case wrapped in silver paper. She was his passport to freedom from exile. Somewhere in her long explanation he had heard something that didn't seem to jibe but he marked that up to her being a dingbat. With the right guidance, she'd get the story cleaned up so all the holes were filled in. All he had to do was treat her like a princess until he could convince her to tell her story to Captain Hart. Considering how scared she was of everyone and everything, including police stations, and taking into account how great the possibility was that she could change her mind if left to her own devices, he knew what he had to do.
"Tell you what, kid—I'll take you to my place tonight. You'll be safe enough there. Then tomorrow, after you've had a good night's sleep and a chance to calm down, we'll work something out."
Nibbling her lower lip, Selena gave that some thought before asking, "Won't your wife mind?"
His teeth clenched automatically. "I live alone."
Selena's worried expression altered into a shy smile. "All right. I think I'd feel much better tonight sleeping under the same roof as you."
* * *
Selena tiptoed to the closed bedroom door and pressed her ear against it. She could hear nothing to guarantee Kidder was asleep, but neither was there any indication that he was awake. She would simply have to take a chance and hope the one beer he had before retiring had helped him enter dreamland.
She couldn't wait to tell Juliette that their first plan had worked and none of the others had been necessary. But then, as Juliette had told her in the past, being the Protector gave her a certain amount of luck that always turned up when she most needed it. The just-in-case plans were hardly ever necessary, but Juliette always insisted they have them ready anyway.
In the hours since she had jumped into Kidder's car, she had devoted a great deal of concentration to her movements. She left her hair in pins to prevent any strands from falling out. She had used a hanky when opening his car door and made sure his was the only hand that touched doorknobs after that. Once in his house, she sat down on his sofa with her hands clasped on her lap, and stayed there, declining his offer of the guest bedroom, food, drink, or even the bathroom. The less she moved, the less she had to remember to cover up. Before she got up from the couch, she had put on the pair of surgical gloves she had in her bag.
Quietly, she turned the knob on Kidder's bedroom door, prepared to cry loneliness or offer herself to him if he was still awake. But neither excuse was necessary—he was sleeping soundly on his stomach, with his head turned toward her.
His revolver was on the nightstand next to him.
She had never fired a gun before, but she had read enough books and seen enough movies to know that the cylinder had to be loaded with bullets and the trigger had to be pulled very hard if it wasn't cocked first and, without a silencer, it made a lot of noise. The windows of the house were closed, but she wasn't certain that would be enough if someone nearby was still awake at that hour. She spotted a small, thick throw pillow on a chair and decided, better safe than sorry.
With the pillow in her left hand, she picked up the gun with her right and tested its weight. She could easily manage it with one hand. Pressing the barrel of the revolver into the center of the pillow, she lowered them both to Kidder's temple.
And fired.
The resulting mess was much worse than she had imagined, but it was the noise that paralyzed her with fear. For several seconds she held her breath, expecting to hear the sounds of an abruptly awakened neighborhood, but nothing happened. She could go ahead with the plan.
She took the special package from her big purse and carried it to the kitchen sink. The ice had not entirely melted, and when she removed the inner plastic bag, she found her prop was still frozen. For a moment she thought she would have to forget about leaving the clue, then her gaze fell on the solution. After opening the storage bag, she placed it inside the microwave to thaw it out.
Thirty seconds later, Rico's right hand was almost as warm as it was the moment she'd taken it from him.
Chapter 15
Raking his hands through his graying hair, Drew smiled at the lined face in his bathroom mirror. You're not as far over the ridge as you thought you were, cowboy.
He hadn't stopped smiling since last night. It wouldn't be gentlemanly to brag, even to his own reflection. However, he couldn't help but note that in four hours with Teri he had more than made up for his long abstinence. The face looking back at him might be forty-one, but this morning his body felt more like that of a twenty-year-old. Just remembering what Teri did to get back at him for teasing her with the camera had him as ready as a storm cloud about to burst. He couldn't wait to rain all over that sweet little body of hers again and again.
She had him thinking about all the things he'd once wanted but come to believe he'd never have. And more than hungry, mind-bending sex, she made him think of holding hands in a movie, talking about the weather over breakfast, planning a v
egetable garden, and balancing a household budget. All the ordinary doings he'd thought a marriage was supposed to consist of when he'd married Brenda were now within his reach.
He laughed at himself for being such a romantic fool. The shrink would probably have him recommitted if he heard his patient had fallen in love with the first woman who'd cried in his arms after his sentence was up. On the surface, it was exactly the kind of relationship he'd been warned to avoid. But Drew knew what lay beneath the surface, and it ran hot and deep.
Last night he had broken his own promise to wait until they were both less vulnerable. He had no regrets this morning, though, only a sense of extreme gratitude to the nosy detective who had indirectly pushed him into breaking it.
It was almost prophetic that Detective Kidder had left his post by the time Drew and Teri said goodnight, as if he had given up his crazy notions and was going to let the couple get on with their lives in peace.
There was no way Drew could give consideration to Kidder's accusations. To consider them at all would be opening the door to where those accusations could lead. Back to imprisonment. Simply thinking of such a possibility could throw Drew into a cowering panic—a state of mind he was intimately familiar with and had only recently learned to block by sheer force of will. As he had told Teri, he had to live one day at a time and hope for the best. What he hadn't told her was that his recovery was taking place on the very edge of that attitude, and he knew the slightest nudge could push him over once again.
It was much more pleasant to contemplate his next rendezvous with Teri.
Unfortunately for Drew and his rejuvenated body, he had two models meeting him in the studio first thing this morning. It would have to be business before pleasure.
When he arrived at Teri's and noted the absence of the detective's car, he breathed a sigh of relief, in spite of how many times he had told himself that he wasn't worried about the man. The young women were already in the studio, and he gave them the workout clothing they needed to put on for the shoot while he went to speak to Teri. As he hurried down the stairs, the sound of her voice led him to the back yard, where she was filling bird-feeders and visiting with the cat he had seen before.
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