Chapter Twenty-Two
Sawyer came inside with me. Ivy’s house was silent except for the drippy faucet and the hum of the air conditioner. I stood in the kitchen, unable to move or think, while Sawyer made coffee.
“Where was the note? Outside on the door?” I pulled it from my pocket again. It was indeed my sister’s tiny printing. And something I hadn’t registered: a heart with a Z in side. Zoe’s special note to me. Please, please make this be OK. I should have insisted Ivy get a cell phone so I could keep track of her. I should have gotten one for Zoe too.
Sawyer filled two glasses with ice. “I found the note on the counter.”
I looked at him, and he shrugged. But I was very glad he had broken in to find the note. At least I had something to go on, a clue about where they might be. “Maybe they went to the City, to her office.” I hated to think of Ivy driving all that way, especially the way she had been feeling lately.
Leaning against the counter, I held my iced coffee. Sawyer stood next to me. My phone buzzed with a message, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.
I had three text messages. I hadn’t even noticed when the first two came in; perhaps the cell phone gremlins had held them back, then sent them all at once.
The first one was from the surgeon, informing me that Bruce was in the recovery room, stable, in good condition, with good circulation to his arm. A flood of relief relaxed my body, and I had to grip the counter for a second. The second message was from Agnes—how is it she has my number?—asking if I knew where Bruce was. I didn’t bring this one to Sawyer’s attention, and I felt bad that I hadn’t called her as Bruce requested.
The third was from Dominique. My hand shook as I read it. Sawyer moved closer, watching me.
Can we meet? Heard your proposition. Jack’s office 5pm
“What proposition?” Sawyer looked at me.
What would be worse for Sawyer to hear? That I had just come from the Land of the Dead and my nephew had been bitten by a ghostly dog? Or that I had let Jack Easton know I could put money into his venture with Dominique.
Partial truths work, sometimes. I opted for the venture story, but said I wasn’t serious, just trying to find out what they were really up to. Sawyer was actually vaguely impressed, interested. If Dom was planning to meet me in Quantum City at 5, it meant two possible things: Ivy and Zoe weren’t with her, might even be on their way home, or, and my heart thudded at the thought, Dom indeed had them both, and wanted to negotiate a trade.
We had two hours. I tried to convince myself that Zoe was safe, Ivy hadn’t even found Dom. Did Ivy even know where she lived? Two hours seemed like an impossible amount of time.
“Who don’t you take a shower, and try to rest?” Sawyer looked at his watch. “I can stay, if you want.”
I almost said, no, don’t bother, but I really didn’t want to be alone. Nodding, I left him, walked down the hall and straight into the bathroom, shed my clothes, stepped into the steaming water. Scrubbed off Bruce’s blood. Leaned my head against the tiles and wept.
When I came out in my robe, Sawyer was sitting at the counter, on the phone. He spoke softly, friendly, and I realized from what he said he must be talking to Agnes. He was telling her to wait, he could come pick her up and take her to see Bruce as soon as Bruce was in his hospital room.
I needed to see Bruce, too, I realized, before I went to see Dominique and Jack. I called the hospital, and found out he was about to be transferred.
As soon as Sawyer was off the phone, I told him what I wanted to do. He agreed, and we left as soon as I got dressed.
On the way to pick up Agnes, Bruce told me he had given Jeff Nash’s confession to the paper with his story; one of the full time reporters was editing it for him, and it would be out this evening in the online edition. He also had phoned the county sheriff, who reassured him that it was unlikely anyone would pursue charges against the man.
Glad I had one less thing to worry about, I concentrated on what I had to do next. We stopped by Sawyer’s little house on Fourth Street, a stucco bungalow built in the thirties. Agnes hurled out to the car; she wore a tank top and cutoffs, no apparent make-up, and her black-dyed hair was pulled back in a pony tail. Except for the more mature body, she didn’t look any older than Zoe. I could see she had been crying. At least the girl did have some feelings.
When we found Bruce in his room, he was asleep, the head of his bed up, his left arm positioned on pillows, a massive thick dressing with a drain covering his shoulder. Agnes went a little gray at the sight of the drain, and I got her to sit down in the chair beside the bed. Sawyer waited just outside, and I leaned over and called Bruce’s name.
“Aunt Annie.” His voice was soft as he opened his eyes, tried to focus. “This hurts like hell.”
“Are you getting good drugs at least?” This from Agnes, who leaned forward, touched his knee.
“Hi, Libra. Good to see you.” Bruce looked at me again. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? I need to apologize to you. I should never have taken us there, and I got lost coming back—it was my fault.”
“I’m sorry. Did Pepper—?”
I shook my head, kept back the tears as the entire horrible scene scrolled through my head. I cut it off. “Bruce. You’re safe here. They’re keeping you here all night. But something else has happened.”
As gently as I could, despite the fact that Libra was listening and probably knew the whole crazy thing anyway, except maybe how evil her mother really was, I told him what I was worried about.
Bruce managed to stay awake, but I could see that his thought processes were molasses. After a minute, he shook his head. “There’s no way. Mom doesn’t know where it is. She might suspect, but she can’t get at it.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, lowered my voice. I was glad he said it instead of Bijou. “You see how important this is. The people involved—” I forced myself not to glance at Agnes “—will do anything to get it. Anything, Bruce. They’ve already threatened Zoe. I must have something to bargain with that Ivy doesn’t have. You have to tell me where it is.”
Agnes’s voice got louder. “No, you don’t have to tell her. She’s making this sound worse than it really is.”
I knew I was on edge and I had to keep the next words that leaped into my mind buried deep. With great effort, I kept my gaze on my nephew. Behind me, I heard Sawyer step into the room. “Bruce, you know how bad this really is.”
Agnes got off her chair, folded her arms. “You can’t stop it, you know. We are going through with it. You don’t even know where it’s going to be.”
It dawned on me that Agnes thought we were talking about Mae’s Wake. It was tonight, at midnight. Bruce’s eyes were closed. Agnes might be acting stubborn, but she wasn’t acting out. Besides, Bruce knew that when news of who really killed Baby Justin came out, the party might not be as fun.
Behind us Sawyer said, “Bruce isn’t going anyway, Aggie. He’s staying right here.”
Bruce’s eyes were closed. I worried he had gone to sleep, when he looked at me with Ivy’s clear blue eyes. “You know, Aunt Annie, I left that thing, you know that thing we were talking about that I wanted to show you? It’s in my locker.”
I swallowed. Goddam kids still thought they could hide things in lockers? Hollis’s Bijou Xtra in a fucking school locker? But I tried to keep a kind look on my face as I wrote the combination on the outside of a gauze packet and stuck it in my pocket.
Agnes leaned closer. Her eyes widened. “What thing? Bruce, you can’t give her anything.”
“Agnes.” Sawyer’s voice was warning. Glancing at him, she sighed heavily, but obeyed.
“It’s OK, Libra. It’s just this story I wrote. She wanted to read it. That’s all.”
I could see Agnes would not be happy about Bruce giving me the lint off his jacket, but she said nothing. Bruce had inherited more from his mother than his gorgeous eyes. He could lie really, really well.
Motioning Sawyer out into the hall, I walked a few feet from the open door of Bruce’s room. “It’s almost time to meet.”
He put his hand on my arm. “Annie, whatever this is, I want to help. I can go back to your place, wait for Zoe and Ivy to come home.”
My relief was profound, and without thinking, I leaned in and kissed him. On the lips. For several seconds.
When I pulled back, his eyes were wide. I didn’t give myself, or him, a chance to wreck anything. I went back into the room, said good-by to Bruce, promised I would call with any news. Sawyer left Agnes with Bruce, after making a few calls to parents of friends and found one who would pick her up in an hour and bring her to him at Ivy’s.
In the car we said nothing. I didn’t know what to say anyway. Ease of talk had fled, and my mind was wrapped up at the thought of having to be in a room with Dominique Delphine for any length of time.