Mercy

  Because of her considerable bulk, it would have taken at least eight strong pallbearers to carry her coffin, which the funeral director delicately explained would have to be specially built. With a rather embarrassed and certainly pained expression, he told the widower in so many words that it simply wouldn’t be possible to squeeze all of the deceased into one of their ready-made, polished mahogany, satin-lined coffins. He suggested that it would be more prudent to cremate the body, and the husband readily agreed.

  The service was a private affair attended by a handful of John’s relatives and a few close friends. Cameron came, but Preston and Dallas begged off. Catherine’s housekeeper was there, and John could hear Rosa’s wailing as he left the church. He saw her in the vestibule, clutching her rosary beads and glaring at him with her damn-you-to-hell-for-your-sins stare. John dismissed the nearly hysterical woman without a backward glance.

  Two mourners from Catherine’s side of the family also came, but they walked behind the others as the pitifully small group marched in procession toward the mausoleum. John kept glancing over his shoulder at the man and woman. He had the distinct feeling they were staring at him, but when he realized how nervous they were making him, he turned his back on them and bowed his head.

  The heavens wept for Catherine and sang her eulogy. While the minister prayed over her, lightning cracked and snapped, and thunder bellowed. The torrential downpour didn’t let up until the ash-filled urn was locked inside the vault.

  Catherine was finally at peace, and her husband’s torment was over. His friends expected him to grieve but at the same time feel relief that his wife wasn’t suffering any longer. He had loved the woman with all his heart, hadn’t he?

  Despite others urging him to take some time off, the widower went back to work the day after the funeral. He insisted he needed to keep busy in order to take his mind off his anguish.

  It was a bright, blue, cloudless day as he drove down St. Charles toward his office. The sun warmed his shoulders. The scent of honeysuckle hung heavily in the humid air. His favorite Mellencamp CD, Hurts So Good, blared through the speakers.

  He pulled into his usual spot in the parking garage and took the elevator up to his suite of offices. When he opened the door bearing his name, his secretary hurried forward to offer her heartfelt condolences. He remarked to her that his wife would have loved such a glorious summer day, and she later told the others in the office that there had been tears in his eyes when he’d said Catherine’s name.

  As the days passed, he appeared to be battling his depression. During most of his hours at work he seemed withdrawn and distant, going through his routine as if in a daze. Other times, he seemed shockingly cheerful. His erratic behavior was a concern to his staff, but they dismissed it as the understandable remnants of his grief. The best thing they could give him now was space. John was not one to discuss his feelings, and they all knew what a private person he was.

  What they didn’t know was that John was also quite the busy boy.

  Within a couple of weeks after “the event,” he had thrown out every painful reminder of his wife, including the Italian Renaissance furniture she had so loved. He dismissed her loyal servants and hired a housekeeper who hadn’t known Catherine. He had the two-story house painted from top to bottom in bright, bold colors, and he had the garden re-landscaped. He added the fountain he’d wanted, the one with the cherub spouting water out of its mouth. He’d wanted the fountain for months, but when he’d shown Catherine a picture of it in a catalog, she had decreed it too gaudy.

  Everything was finished to his satisfaction. He’d chosen contemporary furniture because of the sleek, uncluttered lines. When it was delivered from the warehouse where he’d been storing it, the placement of each piece was personally overseen by the interior designer.

  Then, when the last delivery truck had pulled away from the driveway, he and the oh-so-clever, beautiful young designer christened the new bed. They screwed the night away in the black-lacquered four-poster — just like he’d been promising her for over a year now.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Theo Buchanan couldn’t seem to shake the virus. He knew he was running a fever because every bone in his body ached and he had chills. He refused to acknowledge that he was ill, though; he was just a little off-kilter, that was all. He could tough it out. Besides, he was sure he was over the worst of it. The godawful stitch in his side had subsided into a dull throbbing, and he was positive that meant he was on the mend. If it was the same bug that had infected most of the staff back in his Boston office, then it was one of those twenty-four-hour things, and he should be feeling as good as new by tomorrow morning. Except, the throbbing in his side had been going on for a couple of days now.

  He decided to blame his brother Dylan for that ache. He’d really nailed him when they’d played football at a family gathering in the front yard at Nathan’s Bay. Yeah, the pulled muscle was Dylan’s fault, but Theo figured that if he continued to ignore it, the pain would eventually go away.

  Damn, he was feeling like an old man these days, and he wasn’t even thirty-three yet.

  He didn’t think he was contagious, and he had too much to do to go to bed and sweat the fever out of his body. He’d flown from Boston to New Orleans to speak at a law symposium on organized crime and to receive recognition he didn’t believe he deserved for simply doing his job.

  He slipped his gun into its holster. The thing was a nuisance, but he was required to wear it for the time being, or at least until the death threats he’d received while trying the mob case died down. He put on the jacket to his tuxedo, went into the bathroom of his hotel room, and leaned close to the framed vanity mirror to adjust his tie. He caught a glimpse of himself. He looked half-dead. His face was covered with sweat.

  Tonight was the first of three black-tie affairs. Dinner was going to be prepared by five of the top chefs in the city, but the gourmet food was going to be wasted on him. The thought of swallowing anything, even water, made his stomach lurch. He hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday afternoon.

  He sure as certain wasn’t up to pointless chitchat tonight. He tucked the room key into his pocket and was reaching for the doorknob when the phone rang.

  It was his brother Nick calling to check in.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’m walking out the door,” Theo answered. “Where are you calling from? Boston or Holy Oaks?”

  “Boston,” Nick answered. “I helped Laurant close the lake house, and then we drove back home together.”

  “Is she staying with you until the wedding?”

  “Are you kidding? Tommy would send me straight to hell.”

  Theo laughed. “I guess having a priest for a future brother-in-law does put a crimp in your sex life.”

  “A couple of months and I’m gonna be a married man. Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

  “It’s hard to believe any woman would have you.”

  “Laurant’s nearsighted. I told her I was good-looking and she believed me. She’s staying with Mom and Dad until we all head back to Iowa for the wedding. What are you doing tonight?”

  “I’ve got a fund-raiser I have to go to,” he answered. “So what do you want?”

  “I just thought I’d call and say hello.”

  “No, you didn’t. You want something. What is it? Come on, Nick. I’m gonna be late.”

  “Theo, you’ve got to learn to slow down. You can’t keep running for the rest of your life. I know what you’re doing. You think that if you bury yourself in work, you won’t think about Rebecca. It’s been four years since she died, but you — ”

  Theo cut him off. “I like my life, and I’m not in the mood to talk about Rebecca.”

  “You’re a workaholic.”

  “Did you call to lecture me?”

  “No, I called to see how you were doing.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “You’re in a beautiful city with beautiful women, incredible food —”

&nb
sp; “So what do you want?”

  Nick gave up. “Tommy and I want to take your sailboat out tomorrow.”

  “Father Tom’s there?”

  “Yeah. He drove back with Laurant and me,” he explained.

  “Let me get this straight. You and Tommy want to take my sailboat out, and neither of you knows how to sail?”

  “What’s your point?”

  “What about my fishing boat? Why don’t you take the Mary Beth out instead? She’s sturdier.”

  “We don’t want to fish. We want to sail.”

  Theo sighed. “Try not to sink her, okay? And don’t let Laurant go with you guys. The family likes her. We don’t want her to drown. I’ve got to hang up now.”

  “Wait. There’s something else.”

  “What?”

  “Laurant’s been bugging me to call you.”

  “Is she there? Let me talk to her,” he said. He sat down on the side of the bed and realized he was feeling better. Nick’s fiancée had that effect on all the Buchanan brothers. She made everyone feel good.

  “She isn’t here. She went out with Jordan, and you know our sister. God only knows what time they’ll get home. Anyway, I promised Laurant that I’d track you down and ask . . .”

  “What?”

  “She wanted me to ask you, but I figure I didn’t need to,” he said. “It’s understood.”

  Theo held his patience. “What’s understood?”

  “You’re gonna be my best man in the wedding.”

  “What about Noah?”

  “He’s in the wedding, of course, but I’m expecting you to be best man. I figured you already knew that, but Laurant thought I should ask you anyway.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, what?”

  Theo smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

  His brother was a man of few words. “Okay, good. Have you given your speech yet?”

  “No, that’s not until tomorrow night.”

  “When do you get your trophy?”

  “It’s a plaque, and I get it right before I give my speech.”

  “So if you blow it and put all those armed officers to sleep, they can’t take the trophy back, can they?”

  “I’m hanging up.”

  “Hey, Theo? For once, stop thinking about work. See the sights. Get laid. You know, have a good time. Hey, I know . . . why don’t you give Noah a call? He’s on assignment in Biloxi for a few months. He could drive over to New Orleans, and the two of you could have some fun.”

  If anyone knew how to have fun, it was Noah Clayborne. The FBI agent had become a close friend of the family after working on several assignments with Nick and then later assisting Theo with his investigations as a federal attorney for the Justice Department. Noah was a good man, but he had a wicked sense of fun, and Theo wasn’t sure he could survive a night out with Noah just now.

  “Okay, maybe,” he answered.

  Theo hung up the phone, stood, and quickly doubled over from the pain that radiated through his right side. It had started in his belly, but it had moved down, and, damn, but it stung. The muscle he’d pulled felt like it was on fire.

  A stupid football injury wasn’t going to keep him down. Muttering to himself, he grabbed his cell phone from the charger, put it into his breast pocket with his reading glasses, and left the room. By the time he reached the lobby, the pain had receded and he was feeling almost human again. That, of course, only reinforced his own personal golden rule. Ignore the pain and it would go away. Besides, a Buchanan could tough out anything.

  CHAPTER THREE

  It was a night to remember.

  Michelle had never attended such an extravagant affair before, and as she stood on the steps overlooking the hotel ballroom, she felt like Alice about to fall through the looking glass into Wonderland.

  There were flowers everywhere, beautiful spring flowers in sculptured urns on the marble floors and in crystal vases on all the white linen tablecloths. In the very center of the ballroom, beneath a magnificent crystal chandelier, was a cluster of giant hothouse magnolia trees in full bloom. Their heavenly fragrance filled the air.

  Waiters glided smoothly through the crowd carrying silver trays with fluted champagne glasses while others rushed from table to table lighting long, white, tapered candles.

  Mary Ann Winters, a friend since childhood days, stood by Michelle’s side taking it all in.

  “I’m out of my element here,” Michelle whispered. “I feel like an awkward teenager.”

  “You don’t look like one,” Mary Ann said. “I might as well be invisible. I swear every man is staring at you.”

  “No, they’re staring at my obscenely tight dress. How could anything look so plain and ordinary on a hanger and so —”

  “So devastatingly sexy on you? It clings in all the right places. Face it, you’ve got a great figure.”

  “I should never have spent so much money on a dress.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Michelle, it’s an Armani. You got it for a song, I might add.”

  Michelle self-consciously brushed her hand down the side of the soft fabric. She thought about how much she’d paid for the dress and decided she would have to wear it at least twenty times to make it cost-effective. She wondered if other women did that — rationalized a frivolous expense to assuage the guilt. There were so many more important things she could have used the money for, and when, in heaven’s name, was she ever going to have another opportunity to wear this beautiful dress again? Not in Bowen, she thought. Not in a million years.

  “What was I thinking? I never should have let you talk me into buying this dress.”

  Mary Ann impatiently brushed a strand of white blond hair back over her shoulder. “Don’t you dare start in complaining about the cost again. You never spend any money on yourself. I’ll bet it’s the first really gorgeous dress you’ve ever owned, isn’t it? You’re absolutely beautiful tonight. Promise me you’ll stop worrying and enjoy yourself.”

  Michelle nodded. “You’re right. I’ll stop worrying.”

  “Good. Now let’s go mingle. There’s hors d’oeuvres and champagne out in the courtyard, and we’ve got to eat at least a thousand dollars’ worth each. That’s what I heard the tickets cost. I’ll meet you there.”

  Her friend had just gone down the stairs when Dr. Cooper spotted Michelle and motioned for her to join him. He was the chief of surgery at Brethren Hospital, where she had been moonlighting the past month. Cooper was usually reserved, but the champagne had rid him of his inhibitions, and he was quite affectionate. And effervescent. He kept telling her how happy he was that she was using the tickets he’d given her and how pretty she looked all dressed up. Michelle thought that if Dr. Cooper got any happier, he was going to pass out in the soup.

  While Dr. Cooper expostulated on the attributes of the crawfish, spraying spit every time he said the word “fish,” she backed away to get out of the firing range. A few minutes later, Cooper’s wife joined them with another older couple in tow. Michelle used the opportunity to sneak away.

  She didn’t want to get trapped sitting next to the Coopers during dinner. The only thing worse than a happy drunk was a flirtatious one, and Cooper was definitely headed in that direction. Since he and his wife were standing near the entrance to the courtyard and would see her if she went past, she walked around into the adjacent hallway with the bank of elevators, hoping there was a way to get to the courtyard from the opposite side.

  And that’s when she noticed him. He was leaning against a pillar, hunched over, tilted protectively to one side. The man was tall, broad-shouldered, well-built, like an athlete, she thought. But there was a sickly gray pallor to his complexion, and as she walked toward him, she saw him grimace and grab his stomach.

  He was obviously in trouble. She touched his arm to get his attention just as the elevator doors opened. He staggered upright and looked down at her. His gray eyes were glazed with pain.

  “Do you need help?”

  He answered
her by throwing up all over her.

  She couldn’t get out of the way because he’d grabbed hold of her arm. His knees buckled then, and she knew he was going to go down. She wrapped her arms around his waist and tried to ease him to the floor, but he lurched forward at the same time, taking her with him.

  Theo’s head was spinning. He landed on top of the woman. He heard her groan and desperately tried to find the strength to get up. He thought he might be dying, and he didn’t think that would be such a bad thing if death would make the pain go away. It was unbearable now. His stomach rolled again, and another wave of intense agony cut through him. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be stabbed over and over again. He passed out then, and when he next opened his eyes, he was flat on his back and she was leaning over him.

  He tried to bring her face into focus. She had pretty blue eyes, more violet than blue, he thought, and freckles on the bridge of her nose. Then, as suddenly as it had stopped, the fire started burning in his side again, so much worse than before.

  A spasm wrenched his stomach, and he jerked. “Son of a bitch.”

  The woman was talking to him, but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. And what the hell was she doing to him? Was she robbing him? Her hands were everywhere, tugging at his jacket, his tie, his shirt. She was trying to straighten out his legs. She was hurting him, damn it, and every time he tried to push her hands away, they came back to poke and prod some more.

  Theo kept slipping in and out of consciousness. He felt a rocking motion and heard a siren blaring close to his head. Blue Eyes was still there too, pestering him. She was asking him questions again. Something about allergies. Did she want him to be allergic to something?

  “Yeah, sure.”