The Heart of Mary: A Thorn Novel

by Brandy Golden

  Thorn watched him closely. "Doc, you don't happen to have something in mind about Maria not waking up, do you?"

  Doc looked at the three men and finally heaved a heavy sigh. "I have thought of it, yes. I have thought of putting Maria out of her misery, if she can't be right and wake up normally. So far, I haven't been able to bring her out of it without her being in excruciating pain, let alone determine her state of mind. I was going to try again this morning."

  Sheriff Hamden frowned. "You know, Doc, she's not an animal to be put down, she's a person."

  "I know that, Sheriff," he replied impatiently. "I've known Maria all my life. I followed her and Mary here from Tucson, and I was there when she birthed Mary. I set up shop here to keep an eye on her."

  "It sounds like you're in love with her," said Thorn, looking very thoughtful.

  "You could say that," responded Doc. "I've always loved Maria, just not in the way you're thinking. I really can't say anymore than that, I don't want to put her in danger."

  Chapter Nine

  "I hate to deliver bad news, but Maria and Mary are both in danger," replied Thorn, his eyes narrowing. "And I don't think the worst of it's from Frank Ventermin."

  "What do you mean?" asked Doc with a frown.

  "You say you followed Maria here from Tucson? Did that happen to be around the time the mission burned just south of the city and several people were killed, including a Father Tobias Benedict?"

  "Maybe," Doc replied mysteriously. "I won't verify or deny that. I've already said too much."

  "Did she ever give you anything to hold for her?" asked Boxcar.

  Doc shook his head. "No, nothing."

  "And you don't know why anyone would break into your office?" asked Thorn, gritting his teeth. This was getting them nowhere.

  "No, that was the strangest thing, though; they never took any of the medicines I have in my office."

  "So what did they take?" Boxcar asked impatiently.

  "I can't be sure," Doc replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm sorry to be so little help, but if they did take some paperwork, then I won't know what it was until I need it, if that makes sense."

  "Makes sense," agreed Cole. Thorn shot him a dark look, and he shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

  "I want to look around your office when we leave here," grunted Thorn. "But first, see if you can wake up Maria."

  "I can try, but even if she's awake, she won't be in any condition to be questioned," Doc cautioned.

  The all stood around the bed in Maria's room, and Doc Martin tried to speak with Maria. He put some smelling salts under her nose, and she groaned and twisted her head to the side.

  "She's moving a little better this morning," he observed.

  Frank spoke up eagerly, "I've been putting ice compresses on her face and neck, just like you told me. On for a while and then off for a while."

  "Very good, Frank," responded Doc dryly. "Her ribs should be starting to heal; I wrapped them the first day. I haven't seen any sign of blood in her urine, either, for the last few days, but she's going to have to try to eat something today, if she wakes up. Do you have some soup or broth that she can drink, Frank?"

  Doc held the smelling salts under her nose again. "Maria, can you hear me? It's me, Doc." He frowned as he listened to her breathing. "I haven't seen any blood, but I don't like her breathing. It could just be her damaged throat, or she has a punctured lung, it's hard to tell."

  Thorn stared at the woman on the bed, his insides churning. How could a man do this to a woman? Her face was a mass of bruising, ugly yellow and purple coloring. On her neck was a deep purple bruise across her windpipe. There wasn't any skin he could see on her face and throat that was a normal color. She didn't even resemble the picture in the locket, she was so badly swollen. Her dark hair splayed out on the pillow behind her streaked with silver here and there. It looked dull and lifeless, nothing like the texture healthy hair should be. Her lip was split open on the bottom, and he watched as the doctor gently applied some sort of oil to it to soften and heal it. If this was how she looked after three days in bed, what did she look like before? No wonder Doc didn't think she was going to make it.

  "Maria? Open your eyes, Maria. Can you open your eyes a little bit?" he coaxed, wafting the salts under her nose once again. "I haven't given her any laudanum yet today so we'll see how she does."

  The woman groaned again and lifted a trembling hand to push feebly at the salts, trying to turn her head away. "Go away," she moaned.

  Thorn leaned down closer to the bed. "Maria, if you can hear me, I have news of Mary. I work for the governor, Maria. I'd like to talk to you about Mary if you can hear me."

  Maria lifted her trembling hand towards the sound of Thorns voice."Mary? Is—Mary—safe?" she gritted each word out slowly. He could see the effort she was making to open her eyes.

  Suddenly, the bedroom door slammed open, and a wild-eyed Mary stood there, her breasts heaving with anguish. "Mama!" She ran to the bed and knelt beside her mother, tears running down her face. "Mama, I'm here, Mama," she cried, ignoring the others, especially Thorn who was glowering at her from across the bed.

  Maria slowly turned her head to see her daughter through narrow eye slits. She tried a grimace of a smile then gasped hoarsely in pain when her split lip opened again. But she raised her other hand feebly towards her daughter. "My Mary," she breathed in a raspy heavy voice. Then she pulled both Thorn's and Mary's hands toward her, and they leaned down close to hear what she was trying to say. "Go—to—Anna," she said. Then a peaceful look stole over her face, and a rattly breath came from her throat. There was complete silence in the room as they all realized at once that Maria was not breathing in. Her labored, painful breathing had finally stopped. A small dribble of blood appeared in the corner of her mouth, bright red against all the colorful bruising.

  Doc shook his head, tears in his eyes as he cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Mary. She's gone. I guess she must have been holding on for news of you."

  Mary collapsed in a sobbing heap on her mother's breast as Thorn slowly stood up. He couldn't be angry with the girl for leaving the safety of the hotel, although she had disobeyed him. A movement near the door caught his eye, and he turned to see Fife exiting the room, her boa dragging along the floor after her. She must have escorted Mary in.

  Frank sat with his head in his hands, harsh choking sobs rattling in his throat, coarse in comparison to the heartbroken weeping of the girl at the bedside of her mother.

  Thorn looked over at Doc Martin. "We need to talk," he said gruffly.

  Doc nodded sadly. "I know, I'll meet you at my office in a couple of hours. I need to see to Maria's body and get her to the undertaker."

  Thorn took Boxcar and Cole aside. "We're going to have to make sure Mary is never alone," he cautioned.

  "What are we going to do about him?" Boxcar's eyes flashed as he pointed to Ventermin.

  Cole shoved his hat back and looked from one to the other. "The real question is what are we going to do about Mary? She's alone now, with no mother, and no one legally responsible for her."

  "He killed Maria," ground out Boxcar. "He needs to go to jail and hang."

  "I can arrest him," sighed Cole heavily. "But I doubt a judge will hang him. It was a crime of passion, as they say, he didn't mean to kill her."

  "What about what he did to Mary?" bit out Thorn.

  "I can arrest him for that, if Mary is willing to testify against him. But I'm guessing she won't want to have anything to do with him, after this. People always want revenge, but few want to go through the court process to get it. And again, with Mary being eighteen, she's not really a child, and it would be her word against his. I doubt a judge would condemn him too harshly since she lives in a brothel."

  "Get away from me!"

  They turned at the sound of Mary's distressing screech to see Frank on his knees trying to wrap his long arms around her. "Please, Mary, I'm so sorry, please forgive me and stay with me. I need y
ou, Mary."

  In two strides, Boxcar hauled the man up by the scruff of his neck and threw him aside, where he slammed into the wall beside Maria's bed and slowly slid to the floor. "Don't ever touch her again," he snarled at the hapless man who stared back at him, his open mouth, working to say something he couldn't get out because the breath had been knocked out of him.

  Boxcar turned and pulled the distraught Mary into his arms and held her protectively. "Don't you worry, Mary, he won't ever get the chance to hurt you again. He's going to jail." He looked at Cole. "Arrest him, Sheriff. Put him in jail, and I'll testify on Mary's behalf, if she won't go through with it. Me and Thorn's word ought to carry a little weight after this investigation is over." He glanced at Thorn, and he nodded briefly.

  Cole held up in hands in defeat. "All right, I'll arrest him and haul his ass to jail. And you're right, it's the least this pathetic excuse for a human being deserves."

  "I want to go through Maria's things before anyone else has a chance to," Thorn said bluntly. "I don't want to disrespect the dead, but the way this has been going so far, there are more bodies than I like floating around."Someone tried to break into Clary's place last night, and if it wasn't for Nelson and Charlie, he might have gotten away with it."

  Cole was curious. "All right, you can look around if you want. It's Mary's home, too, so she can take whatever she wants. I doubt Maria had a will, but you never know. Why would anyone break into Clary's home?" he finally asked.

  "Same reason someone busted up Fanny's place," retorted Thorn, his body tense. "They were looking for Mary. I can't figure how they knew she was there, though."

  "Someone's watching us," replied Boxcar, looking around uneasily. "We must have fooled them, though, when we sneaked her out of town...at least for a little while."

  Cole frowned again. "And let me guess—you can't tell me why someone is after Mary?"

  "When this is over, I'll tell you all about it," replied Thorn. "Right now, the less you know, the safer you are."

  Cole's eyes narrowed. "Don't give me that shit! If me or anyone else is in any kind of danger, I damn well want to know about it and why. This is my town, Thorn, in case you've forgotten."

  Boxcar nodded to Thorn. "With Maria gone, I guess there's no reason not to tell him. We need to double Mary's protection until this is resolved." He turned to Doc. "Why don't we take Mary down to her room so she can get a few things. We'll be taking her with us when we leave here."

  Doc nodded and followed Boxcar and Mary out of the room.

  Thorn glanced over at Ventermin. He was on the floor by Maria's beside, begging her to forgive him. He shook his head at the incongruity of it all.

  "I'll keep it brief, Cole," he said, turning so his back was to the wall where he could watch the door. "Have you ever heard of the Heart of Mary?"

  "Sure, who hasn't, in these parts?" Cole mimicked Thorn's movements as they both watched the door the other three had gone through.

  "We have reason to believe that Maria Vargis is the one who took it and that she knew where it was hidden. Someone else obviously believes it, too, and they came after Mary when Maria was almost killed. They must think Mary knows, too. Now that Maria is gone, they may increase their efforts to get their hands on Mary."

  "But that thing has been missing for years. Why now?" sputtered Cole. "I heard that's been investigated inside out, and no one has a clue where it went."

  "Well, apparently, someone has found a lead on it, because bodies are dropping like flies. Look, I don't have time to fill in all the details, but we'll catch up. In the meantime, just be extremely careful and hire some extra deputies for a few days."

  Cole rubbed his jaw. "So that's why there's a new investigator for the Santa Fe Diocese in town passing out fliers. I never thought much about it, because the ruby has been missing for so long."

  Thorns eyes narrowed. Nelson had been passing out fliers. "Does this investigator have a name?"

  "It was a weird sort of name—Albert, I think it was. Yeah, that's it, Albert Harrison. He rented a room in the hotel. Haven't seen him for a few days, though. I was wondering if he had moved on without telling me."

  Thorn recalled the telegram from Nelson in his pocket. He had told them an investigator who had been on the case for a long time was supposed to be in El Paso, and they should look him up. The Diocese had sent him out over a week ago. He might be able to fill in some blanks.

  The other telegram had been from Holden, telling him that Nelson now knew the situation. He had realized something was up when Clary's place was broken into and had demanded answers as to what was going on. Greatly relieved that the name Cole gave him wasn't Nelson, he returned to the problem at hand. The cold knot of worry stayed in his gut, though. He reassured himself that Nelson seemed smart and capable, and Holden would realize the importance of protecting Clary. Once more, he tried to set aside his worry and concentrate. "Help me look around Maria's place to see if she might have left any clues or paperwork around. It's going to be really hard on Mary to have to go through her mother's things, as it is. I don't want her finding any nasty surprises."

  The undertaker finally came and took Maria's body, and they all spent a couple of hours searching the place and came up with nothing, regarding the ruby. They had turned up a will from Frank, though, naming Maria and Mary as his heirs. They left it in his desk. Doc had already been called out on another call, and he had agreed to meet Thorn and the others for supper, where he would tell his side of his relationship with Maria.

  Cole had taken Frank down to the jail and put a deputy on guard. He could care less if someone was after Frank, but he did have his duty to perform. Thorn was sure that, in spite of Frank's distraught performance at the brothel this afternoon, he still might know something that he wasn't telling. And even if he didn't, those two who were killed in Potluck had been in the brothel, which meant Frank might be a loose end to the real killer.

  "Thorn, I'm going to take Mary back to the hotel so she can get some rest. She's worn out." Boxcar had his arm around the young girl, who was pale and listless, her pretty face stained with dried tear streaks.

  Thorn nodded. "Cole, would you mind going with them? I'm going to visit Harrison at the hotel and see if I can get some background information."

  "What about you? Do you need a deputy to go with you?"

  "No one is after me, it's Mary they want," replied Thorn tersely.

  Fifteen minutes later, and Thorn was in the hotel room at the Dewdrop Inn where Albert Harrison's dead body lay on the bed. He had been bundled up under blankets and such to hide the odor, but the man had been there for at least three days or more. When Mr. Harrison hadn't answered his knock, the innkeeper realized they hadn't actually seen him coming and going for a few days, and he hadn't asked for any services. Since they prided themselves on their privacy to their clients, they hadn't thought anything about it until Thorn had come looking for him. Keeping his handkerchief over his nose, Thorn looked around the room but didn't find any notes or papers regarding the Heart of Mary investigation. Leaving the body search until the end, Thorn did a quick investigation through watery eyes but found nothing. A totally clean kill—looked like a knife wound to the heart. He left the man to the innkeeper and the undertaker, he'd take care of the telegram to Nelson and Holden. Nelson could inform the Diocese their man was dead.

  Thoroughly disgruntled and gulping in big breaths of clean air, Thorn made his way to the Doc's office and let himself in with the key he had given him.

  * * *

  Fife opened the door to her bedroom and then smiled as she saw the big man on the bed. He was one of her favorite customers. He paid well, and he gave her other little jobs to do that paid extremely well. And when he was well pleased with her, he gave her what she craved. She turned and locked the door behind her and dropped the boa across the back of a chair. His only price—total secrecy. She was to tell no one about him, and he would come and go without anyone knowing. She had been more than happy
to agree after their first tryst.

  "Hello, darlin'," she whispered huskily. "I've been expecting you." She leaned down to give him a mouth-swallowing kiss and one of the feathers from her boa tickled his nose.

  "Sweetheart, you've got to get rid of that damned boa," he growled. "It sheds on everything." He plucked the offending feather from the end of his nose and dropped it off the side of the bed. He sat up and brought her down onto his broad lap. "Have you been my good girl today?" He nibbled her delicate ear lobe and slid his big hand up the hem her dress, hiking it up as he went.

  She giggled like a little girl. "Oh yes, sir, I've been very good. I have some news for you."

  He kissed the side of her neck and slid the strap of her gown off her shoulder. "What news is that, darlin'?"

  "She died today—Maria Vargis. And Mary was here, too."

  He already knew that, but he let her talk. Sometimes, the random things people talked about could give out a tiny clue without them even knowing it. "What else?"

  "They arrested Frank, too. Sheriff Hamden took him to jail."

  Her breathing quickened as he slid his big hands beneath her breasts and squeezed, almost making them pop out of the tight cups in her gown. She liked it rough, though—and he liked to give it rough.

  "Tell me something I don't know," he warned suddenly, his indulgent demeanor changing like quick silver. "I pay you to find out things I don't know, remember? And if you don't..." He let the rest of the sentence trail off, but he knew the threat of the unknown only got her more excited.

  "Like what, sir?" she panted as he peeled the black dress off her delicious body, stripping her to her chemise and pantaloons. A flick of his wrist and the dress was tossed carelessly aside.

  "Let's just see how observant you are," he drawled, quickly flipping her over and face down across his solid knees. She squealed as if in fear but he knew otherwise—she loved this game. "Was the sheriff here today?"

  "Yes, sir"

  He landed a sharp spank to the bottom of her thin pantaloons and saw the imprint of his hand almost immediately. Then he slipped his hand inside the opening and soothed the burn. "Good girl," he murmured. "You're right. The sheriff was here." And who were the two men with him?"