Bad Habit

by JD Faver

  A small desk by the tall casement window held a school photo of Angel in a navy blazer with a crisp white shirt and burgundy tie. The thick dark hair and large brown eyes were the same. Angel’s sons would look like this.

  Teri shook herself and threw back the covers. In the real world, her life was a mess. She was in danger and she had endangered people she cared about. Teri put her bare feet on the cool oak floor. She tied the belt to her terrycloth robe and peeked out into the hallway. The smell of coffee and bacon wafted up the stairway. She made a quick dash to brush her teeth and wash her face but hadn’t finished before someone was banging on the bathroom door. She stuck her toothbrush in the pocket of her robe and ventured out into the hall.

  Angel’s brother Mikey leaned against the door frame. “Oh! I didn’t know it was you.”

  “Sorry if I took too long,” she said.

  “No. Take your time.” Mikey flushed and dropped his razor. He held it up to show her. “I can’t leave it in the bathroom or one of the girls will use it on their legs.”

  Teri laughed and padded back to Angel’s room. When she dressed and went down stairs she found Angel at the table reading the newspaper. His great-grandmother had finished eating and was sipping hot tea from a dainty porcelain cup.

  Isabel flashed a smile and pointed to the food on the sideboard. “Help yourself.”

  “First, let me return these.” Teri held out her hand and placed the sapphire earrings in Isabel’s palm. “Thank you so much for allowing me to wear them. Knowing that they belonged to your mother made the experience even more special.” Teri folded the black lace shawl over Isabel’s arm and gave her a hug.

  Isabel gazed briefly at the gems in her hand and glanced at Angel, raising her brows in an unspoken question.

  “Come sit down, Teri.” Angel poured coffee into a cup at the place next to him.

  Wordlessly, Isabel closed her fingers around the earrings and slid them into the pocket of her apron.

  Teri slipped into the chair and smiled at Angel. “Good morning.” She gazed into his eyes, acknowledging the pleasure she found there.

  “Right back at you. Did you sleep well?”

  “I was asleep before my head touched the pillow...Your pillow.”

  “I kept thinking about you there. I felt so far away from you.”

  “Me too.” She dropped her gaze. “You were an adorable little boy. I didn’t realize you were a Metallica fan.”

  He rolled his eyes and grinned. “And I ate, slept and breathed baseball.”

  “I could tell.”

  Elena and Rosario came down the stairs followed by Mikey.

  “Where’s Esme?” Angel asked.

  “Dead to the world. She’s not used to staying up so late,” Rosario said. “Last night she fell asleep in the car and Pop had to carry her inside like she was five years old.”

  Teri pushed away from the table and helped herself to scrambled eggs and bacon. As she returned to her seat Isabel placed a stack of fresh flour tortillas on the table. Angel took one and loaded it with bacon and eggs and spooned a healthy dose of salsa down the center before rolling it up. Teri followed his lead, giving him a questioning look as she pointed to the salsa.

  “It’s a little spicy,” he said.

  “It’s pica,” Rosario said.

  Teri spooned some of the salsa on her eggs before biting into the filled tortilla. It had enough heat to make her eyes water.

  “Too hot?” Rosario asked.

  Teri nodded, chewing as rapidly as she could.

  Isabel brought her a glass of milk and Angel took her plate and filled a new one.

  “Why don’t you start over?” he said.

  She couldn’t taste the next few bites but they served to quell the fire raging in her mouth as well as fill her stomach. The fact that she was unable to speak went unnoticed because everyone else was talking.

  The Garcia family seemed to be able to communicate without anyone completing a sentence and each member was capable of conducting more than one conversation simultaneously.

  By the time Teri bit into a doughnut her taste buds were beginning to regain their function.

  Isabel waved her off when she attempted to help clear the table.

  “Remind me,” she said to Angel as they walked away from the dining room, “never to put anything in my mouth that could remotely be described as ‘pica’.”

  #

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Teri accepted Angel’s outstretched hand, allowing him to lead her upstairs and out onto the screened balcony that opened off the central hallway.

  Three wicker chairs were arranged in a companionable circle across from a wooden glider placed close to the outer banister. Each seat was equipped with a worn quilt or crocheted throw. An orange and white kitten was curled up on top of one of the quilts. A romance novel with a page turned down had been left on top of an old wooden trunk being used as a table. Teri thought this porch must serve the family well as a place for communicating secrets and maybe for keeping some as well.

  “I need to tell you something.” Angel gestured to the glider and, when she was seated, dropped down beside her. “Remember the Private Investigator who was watching your apartment? He was killed last night or early this morning.”

  Teri drew in a sharp breath. “Where?”

  “They found him about fifty feet from the stairs to your former place of residence.”

  Her stomach roiled as the realization set in. The killers had followed her and they had killed again. “What happened to him?”

  “It was dark and I couldn’t tell if he was shot or stabbed but there was a lot of blood.”

  Teri winced, her gag reflex working overtime. “He’d be alive if I had stayed in New York.”

  Angel frowned at her. “Don’t think that way. Maybe you’d be dead if you’d stayed in the City. Did you ever consider that?”

  She nodded, her throat constricted. “Many times.”

  “Whoever killed him cleaned out his pockets and took his ID. My card was probably in his pocket.”

  “Why would they do that?” She fought down the taste of bile rising from the pit of her stomach.

  “Probably looking for this.” He flipped out the memory card from Marcel’s camera. “We need to see what’s on it.”

  Angel drove Teri to view Marcel’s memory card. The nearest place with the capacity to print photos was a large discount store. Angel used the equipment and Teri looked on as he flipped through each shot. There were quite a few photos of various nuns, some taken from the back of the chapel.

  Teri recognized herself in several shots walking with Clem and Connie and going up the stairs of the apartment. She saw herself leaving with the paper bag of cash when she had taken it to the bank. She drew in her breath but Angel didn’t seem to notice.

  “Marcel seems to have done a good job of keeping you under surveillance but I don’t think he knew who he was looking for.”

  “Why not?”

  “He has as many pictures of Clem, Miriam and Connie as he does of you. He was taking photos of every female who entered or left the convent and school. He followed the four of you when you went to the apartment but he was shooting wild.”

  “I hope so.”

  “What I don’t know is if he sent any of these photos to the man who hired him.”

  All the blood rushed from her head as she stared at the photos. “There!” Teri stopped Angel’s progress through the file. “That’s one of them!”

  Angel stared at the photo under Teri’s finger and clicked to enlarge it.

  “It’s him! It’s him!” Teri jumped up and down and then glanced around at the people who looked her way. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “It’s the man who killed Colin.”

  Angel printed out the picture. The man in the photograph loitered by the entrance to the convent, leaning against the low stone retaining wall surrounding the grounds. Above the local limestone, wrought iron was woven ornately into a semblance of
privacy and shelter. The man peered through the wrought iron so intently he hadn’t noticed Marcel.

  “Marcel must have shot this from his car,” Angel said.

  Colin’s killer was stocky with his graying hair cropped short. Reflective sunglasses hid his eyes. High, flat cheekbones and a ruddy complexion offset his mouth, more like a gash cut into a stone face.

  “Do you need anything while we’re here?” Angel pocketed the memory card and took her hand.

  “Like what?”

  “Do you need something else to wear? Shoes? Underwear?”

  “Yes.” A grin spread across her face. “Yes, I do.”

  He handed her a credit card.

  Teri was astonished. Other than her grandfather, no one had ever done such a thing. Teri Slaughter had always paid her own way. She looked up into Angel’s eyes and realized he was once more taking care of her. “Thanks.” Her voice came out husky as her fingers closed around the card.

  He accompanied her as she went to the department with female clothing. She selected a sundress, another pair of jeans, a pair of shorts and a couple of knit tops. She proceeded to the shoe department and added a pair of sandals to the pile. Finally she grabbed a couple of lacy bras and panties that were not cotton. She took a short pink satin night gown and tossed it over her arm.

  Angel watched her with a wide grin on his face.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You’re such a girl.”

  She fought down the warm rush that filled her chest. “You sound like that’s a bad thing.”

  He shook his head. “It’s definitely a very good thing.”

  “There’s something else I need.” She went to the fragrance counter and spritzed several samples. “Which one do you like?” She offered her wrist for Angel to smell.

  Angel grasped her wrist and held it to his lips sending a tingling sensation to her inner core. He pulled her to him and pressed his lips against the side of her neck.

  “This one,” he said. “Whatever is right here.”

  His tongue traced a line on her throat, causing her pulse to throb.

  She almost dropped the tester bottle. “I can’t believe you can make me feel this way in the middle of a store with a million people walking around.”

  “What way?” He held her against him.

  “You know,” she said.

  Angel gave her the smile he seemed to save for her.

  They went through the checkout line and Teri asked Angel to get her a bottle of water from a vending machine. When he stepped out of line she handed the cashier money from her pocket. Angel met her with the water as she waited for him by the exit.

  She handed him back the credit card and he tucked it in his pocket. “Thank you for everything,” she said.

  “My pleasure.”

  Teri thought about the large cash balance in her New York bank account and the many assets she had accrued over the years. She thought about her spacious well-furnished condo filled with expensive investment art objects. She thought about the stacks of hundred dollar bills stashed in a safety deposit box here in San Antonio. And yet, this cop thought he should buy her whatever she needed. She couldn’t stop smiling.

  “Where are we going now?” she asked.

  “To the library.”

  “You want to read?”

  “I want to use their anonymous computer. I didn’t want to use the ones at my parent’s house.”

  The central library was a large granite edifice. Angel parked in underground parking and they walked two blocks to the cool building that smelled like libraries everywhere. They perched on stools while Angel logged on and sent the photo of the unknown man who had killed Colin. Teri smiled as he used two fingers to peck out a brief note to his boss. He wrote that he was following up on several leads and that this man had been identified as one of two involved with the death of Colin Dowd. He requested any information on the man as well as known associates.

  “Now what?” Teri looked around at the other users. Most were students using the computers to look up subjects for term papers and printing out copious amounts of research material.

  “I’m sure my boss will be calling me once he has the photograph. Usually these thugs hang out with the same crowd during their entire career. They also end up making friends with other thugs they’ve served time with. We’ll see if this guy is in the system.”

  “So what do we do while waiting?”

  “We try to stay cool,” he said. “What do you want to do?” He smiled encouragingly and reached for her hand.

  Suddenly, she knew exactly what she needed. “I want to call my sister. I feel so far away from her.”

  “Let’s go.” They retraced their steps back to the car and Angel turned the air conditioner on full blast.

  Angel opened his door and stepped out of the vehicle.

  “Wait,” she said. “You don’t have to go.”

  “I’m sure you need some privacy. A lot has happened since the two of you last talked. I’ll be right outside.” He closed her inside the car and leaned against the fender.

  Angel Garcia continually amazed Teri with a world of large and miniscule considerations. He was caring and sensitive while thoroughly masculine and protective. Not a bad combination.

  Teri punched the number of the convent in Maine into her new cell phone. She asked if she might speak to Sister Bernadette, hinting that it might be an emergency so they would pull her out of class.

  When Bernie picked up the line she sounded slightly breathless.

  “I’m sorry if you had to run,” Teri said. “There’s no emergency. I just needed to hear your voice.”

  “That sounds like an emergency to me.” Bernie could convey a picture of happiness using only her voice. “Have you been painting? How are your classes going? Do you like teaching?”

  “Slow down,” Teri laughed. “I loved teaching and the classes went well. The girls and the nuns were absolutely wonderful. I could almost forget about all the terrible things that happened.”

  There was a long silence. “That sounds as though you’re not teaching now. What happened?”

  “A New York police detective came after me. He saw right through me. I fooled everybody else but not this guy. He’s pretty amazing.”

  “This sounds like it’s going to be interesting,” Bernie said with a laugh. “Let me sit down and you can tell me all about him.”

  “He’s from San Antonio and his family lives here. He took me to his parent’s house and I met all of his family. They’re all so loving and kind. I understand why he’s the way he is.”

  “And how is that?” Bernie asked.

  Teri heard the grin in her sister’s voice and remembered the times in college when she would come in from a date to talk to her big sister. “He’s smart and handsome and affectionate and caring...”

  “Hold on,” Bernie said. “I’ll get the Vatican on the other line and nominate him for sainthood.”

  “No, he’s way too sexy to be a saint.”

  “So while I’ve been up here worrying about you, you’ve been socializing with this sexy paragon of virtue?”

  “I’m sorry if you’ve been worried about me. There has been some trouble here. A man was killed.”

  She heard Bernie’s sharp intake of breath. “Please be careful.”

  “Angel is doing a great job of taking care of me.”

  “Angel?”

  “That’s his name. Detective Angel Garcia.”

  “If anyone ever needed an angel, it’s you.”

  “And Bernie,” she added. “I was painting. I did one of the farm and I painted you swinging in the apple tree.”

  “I wish I could see it.” Bernie’s voice sounded soft, as though she was on the verge of tears. “I wish we could paint together again like we used to.”

  Teri felt the rush of tears gathering, and fought them off by pressing her nails into her palm and taking a deep breath. “We’ve had some really great times, haven’t we?”


  “I was just thinking of when you fell out of the tree and broke your arm. I felt so guilty for letting you get hurt.”

  “Silly Bernie,” Teri said. “I was a clumsy little monster trying to do everything you did. I shouldn’t have tried to climb that high. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “You’ll never convince me of that.”

  “I better let you get back to class,” Teri said reluctantly. “Don’t be a bystander.”

  Bernie laughed. “Maybe I should advise you to start being a bystander. It would be safer.”

  Teri swallowed hard. “Yeah, but we’re not bystanders, are we?”

  “We were raised to be participants,” Bernie said. “I wish you were here. My students are working with clay. It’s so much fun. You’d love to get your hands into it.”

  Teri felt a pang of regret. “I wish I’d completed my degree in Art and gotten a teaching certificate like you did. The teaching really was fun, but I wasn’t completely armed for the task.”

  “Most women would rather be you than me,” Bernie said. “You’ve done some amazing things and I’m sure you’ll do many more amazing things. Just stay safe. Stick with this Angel and I’ll send another one to watch over both of you.”

  “Thanks Bernie.” Teri hung up with a huge lump in her throat. She knocked on the windshield and Angel joined her in the air conditioned car.

  He took inventory of her appearance and offered a tissue from the console. “Are you okay?”

  She blew her nose “Sure, I’m fine.” She looked up to find Angel gazing at her with a concerned expression. “Really, I’m okay.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I’m saying so.” She fastened her seatbelt as Angel’s cell phone rang.

  He glanced at the caller ID before answering it. “Yes, Lieutenant.”

  Teri sat quietly as he listened to the caller.

  Angel’s responses were cryptic before he flicked the phone closed. “It was my boss. They’ve got a name for the man you identified as one of the killers. My boss is sending me information on his known associates so I guess we’re going back to the library.”

  Teri nodded.

  Angel shifted the car into gear and drove out of the parking garage. “By the way,” he said, glancing at her. “Your boss is driving my boss crazy. He said Kelso is demanding results.”