Now You See Her

Morley kept eye contact as he patted me on the knee.

“It could be anything, Jeanine. Has Peter been acting strangely at all lately?”

I squinted at him. He seemed to be pressing me a little. Frantically wondering how to respond, I was relieved when an attractive Asian woman in green doctor’s scrubs came through the doorway a moment later.

“I’m Dr. Pyeng,” she said. “Your husband is out of surgery and in stable condition. Please come with me, Mrs. Fournier.

“We were able to retrieve the bullet intact,” Dr. Pyeng said as I quickly followed her out into the hall. “The gunshot tore up a lot of deep muscle tissue in his shoulder, but thankfully it missed bone. Also no major blood vessels or nerves were cut, so I’m confident there won’t be any permanent damage.”

Instead of heading into the elevator as I expected, we made a right through some automatic swinging doors. Dr. Pyeng stopped at the first room beyond an empty nurses’ station and opened a door.

The room inside was narrow and dim. Beside the bulky hospital bed, a glowing white heart monitor beeped softly next to a half-full IV drip. Peter was lying on the wheeled bed with his eyes closed. There was a thin, pink- tinged tube under his nose. There was also a huge bandage on his left shoulder and an IV inserted into his uninjured right forearm.

“His blood pressure is looking good, so I think we’re out of the woods in terms of shock,” Dr. Pyeng whispered as she led me inside and closed the door.

Peter’s eyes were glazed. I glanced at the IV bag.

DIAZEPAM SOLUTION, it said in bold red letters, and in smaller type, I spotted the word VALIUM.

He squeezed my hand. Then he stared at me, sighing as he broke into a wide, serene grin. “Mermaid,” he whispered.

There he was again, my big teddy bear, my drinking buddy. Even lying there in a hospital bed, he was handsome. He gave me his boyish Brett Favre winning-in-overtime smile.

I held my breath as I stared down into his groggy blue eyes. They were his best feature, as pale and soft as faded denim.

His eyes closed after a few seconds, and he started snoring.

“It’s the painkiller,” Dr. Pyeng whispered in my ear. “He should probably get some rest now. He’ll be more lucid tomorrow when you come back.”

Chapter 27

“YOU KNEW ELENA as well, didn’t you?” Chief Morley said as we pulled out of the medical center’s parking lot in his department Bronco.

Morley had been standing in the hallway directly outside of Peter’s room when I came out. He’d insisted on driving me home. Not being able to come up with a valid excuse, I’d finally reluctantly agreed.

“We worked together catering,” I said. “I can’t believe she’s gone.”

“None of us can,” Morley said as we turned south on the Overseas Bridge back to Key West. Then he nodded with a frown. “Don’t worry. We have an APB stretching from the Lower Keys all the way up to Miami. Catching these pieces of garbage is only a question of time.”

Morley cocked an ear as something garbled squawked over the dash-mounted police radio. He lifted the handset to say something but then seemed to reconsider and placed it down again. He gave me a weary smile. “How did you and Peter meet, if you don’t mind me asking? You seem, well, a little young.”

“I was down here on spring break two years ago,” I said. “I met Peter, and I never left.”

“Ah, love at first sight. That’s awesome. Was he off duty?” Morley said with a grin. “Or did you fall for the uniform?”

“It was all about the uniform,” I said with a weak smile. “I ran a stop sign with my rental scooter, he pulled me over, and the rest is history.”

It was the lie Peter and I had agreed on.

“Romance at the scene of the crime, huh?” Morley said with a nod. “That’s how it happens with cops. Occupational hazard. You slap the cuffs on somebody one night at the beach, and the next thing you know you’re letting them go and giving them a diamond ring.”

I shot a look over at the police chief. For the second time, I got the impression that he was prying, trying to rattle me in some strange way. But his eyes were on the road. There was no trace of irony or accusation.

Still, I held my breath as the words slap the cuffs on somebody one night at the beach kept looping through my mind. Was the phrasing just coincidental, or did he actually know my secret?

The inside of the police SUV suddenly seemed hot, airless. Drops of sweat started to bead on my neck and underarms, along my lower back. I tried to zip down the electric window. Nothing happened. Morley must have had the child lock on.

Who was Morley really, anyway? I wondered dizzily. Who was he to Peter? Just a boss? Or was he a friend? An enemy like Elena? An accomplice?

We suddenly slowed and stopped. I looked out the window. We were in front of my house now.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said, getting out.

“Any time, Jeanine,” Morley said. “Sorry we had to meet under such bad circumstances. Remember, anything at all you can think of that might help us understand why Peter and Elena were shot, don’t hesitate to call. Day or night.”

“Will do,” I said.

The cool trade breezes that make Key West bearable felt ice-cold as I resisted running to my front door. Once inside, I locked the door behind me and went to the living room window.

Morley was still sitting there, idling in the street in front of my driveway. After a gut-churning three or four minutes, he slowly pulled out. I’d never been so relieved in my life.

I continued to stand there for the next few minutes, scanning out the window up and down the street. I looked out across our sandy little lane at the palm fronds waving in the wind for another five minutes before I turned to go.

I stopped as something inched into my peripheral vision. Outside the window down on the corner of the block, Morley’s PD Bronco slowed and stopped.

My face began to tingle, pins and needles in my cheeks, my lips.

What the hell was this?! Morley was watching the house now? Watching me?

I backed away from the window in disbelief, fighting for breath. My back hit a chair, and I collapsed onto the Mexican tile.

Chapter 28

IT WAS SUNSET when the sound of seagulls woke me from the living room couch. Two of them were fighting over something along the backyard seawall. I watched them with horrific fascination as they cawed and hacked at each other with their beaks.

I gulped down a glass of water at the sink. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. I was opening the fridge when I heard a car and the crunch of wheels in our crushed-shell driveway.

I ran to the living room window in a full-blown panic. Morley’s black-and-white Bronco was gone, but instead, there was a police cruiser pulling into the driveway.

The cruiser’s passenger door opened, and I almost passed out.