The FBI Thrillers Collection(252)

“You saw an accident, Mr. Murdock? A man in a car struck a woman?”

“Eh? Oh that. Yes, I did see the whole thing. It happened yesterday afternoon. This real pretty women I’ve known by sight for years is standing kind of bent over in the thick oleanders. I start to call out to her, you know, I thought she must have some kind of problem, when she suddenly just steps out into the driveway. I hear a car hit her. It was weird. The whole thing was weird. That’s what my nephew said too when I called him about it. What do you want, Butchie? You got bladder needs again? All right. Go get your rope. Sorry, little lady, but that’s all I know. Either the woman ran out into the car’s path on purpose or she didn’t, and that makes it an accident, plain and simple.”

Lacey walked slowly back to her rental car. Why had her mother done such a ridiculous thing? Was it really that she wanted more attention from her husband? That was far too simple, but maybe it was a place to start. She hadn’t understood her mother for nearly all her life. Why should she begin understanding her now?



Her father came back to the hospital at seven o’clock that evening.

“She’s just the same,” Lacey said.

He said nothing, just walked to the bed and looked down at his wife.

He said, “Did that old man tell you that I didn’t try to kill your mother?”

“Yeah, he did. Look, Dad, you know I had to go talk to him, hear everything in his own words.”

“You’re my kid. I can understand that. I called a new psychiatrist to come talk to your mother tomorrow. I told her what had happened, what you thought. We’ll see. I’m glad you didn’t think I was stupid enough to try something like that.”

“Oh no.”

“I’ve found myself wondering if I could have done it. Maybe, if it had been dark and we’d been in the Andes with no possible witnesses who spoke English.”

“You’re joking.”

“Yes, I’m joking.” He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to be in court early tomorrow. I’ll see you at lunchtime, Lacey.” He paused in the doorway. “You know, it’s easy to fall into certain ways of thinking, of behaving. You know that your mother could irritate the hell out of a saint. We’ll see.”

She spent the night in her mother’s hospital room on a cot an orderly brought in for her. She lay there, listening to her mother breathing, thinking about Dillon, and wondering, always wondering where Marlin was.

She got a call from Dillon at nearly eleven o’clock, which made it two o’clock A.M. his time. She’d called him earlier and gotten his answering machine.

“I was going to leave you be, at least for tonight, but I couldn’t. How’s your mom?”

“She’ll make it. I personally interviewed a witness who told me that my mother appeared to be hiding in some bushes, then dashed out when my father was backing out of the driveway. I had a good talk with my dad. He’s bringing in a new psychiatrist to see her tomorrow. I mentioned that maybe she was trying to get his attention. Should I have opened my mouth? What do you think?”

“I still think it sounds like your mother really wants something she’s not getting from your father. You’re the daughter. Of course you should say what you think. You know, she might really be just mentally unstable.”

“As my dad said, ‘we’ll see.’”

“You hanging in there?”

“Yes, don’t worry about me. Any word on Marlin Jones?”

“No. It’s driving everybody crazy. It’s as though he’s just disappeared off the face of the earth. Oh yeah, Hannah called me about an hour ago. She wanted to come over and talk. When I said no, she told me how you’d attacked her in the women’s room this afternoon. She told me you’d accused her of blackmailing me so I wouldn’t fire her. She said you were furious that we’d slept together.”

The last thing she needed in this crazy mix was Hannah. “I don’t think so, Dillon. But that’s a thought. Let me consider it. I don’t know, she’s pretty strong. It’s possible she could take me down.”

He grunted. “Yeah, she probably could. Call me at the Bureau tomorrow with an update. Sherlock?”

“Yes?”

“I miss you really badly. I had to go to the gym by myself. It used to be just fine—in fact, I used to like going by myself—but now all I could do was one lat pulldown before I was looking around for you.”

At least she was smiling when she gently laid the phone in its cradle.



When a shaft of light from the hospital corridor flashed across her face, Lacey was awake in an instant, not moving, frozen, readying herself. It had to be a nurse, but she knew it wasn’t. She smelled Douglas’s distinctive cologne, a deep musky scent that was sexy as hell. She remembered that scent from the age of fifteen when he’d first come into their lives.