Murder at the Villa Maria-Sedona Retirement Home

“Dallas.”

  Dimly, she heard her name. She struggled against consciousness, not wanting to leave this dark, peaceful place where memories and emotions didn’t exist. Feeling carefree and contented, she floated along, drifting, drifting, drift….

  Something hard hit her cheek.

  Her eyes sprung open, a cry on her lips. She stared into Noah’s steel gray eyes.

  “Oh thank God,” he said and roughly gathered her in his arms and lifted her upper body to his chest. He hugged her so tight she could barely breathe.

  She forced him back and scooched to a sitting position, noticing she lay on her sofa. “How did I get here?” She eyed him. “Why are you here?”

  “Allison dragged you in from the back yard, then called me when you didn’t waken.” He held up two fingers in front of her face. “How many?”

  “Twelve. I’m fine, Noah.”

  “You have a nasty bump on the back of your head. We should get you to the hospital for an x-ray.”

  She waved off his concern. “I’ll be fine.”

  For the first time since she came to, she noticed Allison hovering nearby. “Thanks for bringing me inside. You didn’t happen to see who bushwhacked me, did you?”

  Allison shook her head. “But….”

  Dallas was in no mood for theatrics. Her head ached, and her eyeballs seemed to jiggle with every movement, causing additional pain to her already sore head. “Just tell me,” she said, closing her eyes.

  “I told Noah everything.”

  “You what!” Dallas opened her eyes with a jerk and immediately regretted she did when her head throbbed.

  “I’m sorry,” Allison said, wringing her hands. “I thought you were dead; I thought he killed you, like he killed Katie. You may not be so lucky the next time. Katie wouldn’t — ”

  “Enough.” Dallas held a hand in the air, wondering how Allison could have given them up so easily. How could she? Things get a little hairy, and she folds at the first indication of adversity? Didn’t she know this was all in the process of catching Katie’s killer? She should. Dallas had coached her and told her often enough since they’d devised the plan and how it might play out. Hell. Everything she’d done, everything she’d lost, what she put Noah through, his hurt, his embarrassment and the pain he suffered had been for nothing. Damn. She looked at Allison who had the good sense not to say anything when Dallas moaned her disappointment with her.

  She’d wanted to use herself as bait, better her than an unsuspecting defenseless woman like her sister.

  “I forced her to tell me,” Noah said. “Don’t blame Allison. You know how persuasive I can be.”

  With much chagrin, she said, “If it was Katie’s killer who attacked me and if he hung around, he knows this,” she swept her hand around the living room, “was all an act to get him out in the open.”

  Noah took her hand. “We’ll find a way to put what happened to good use, Dallas. I promise.”

  She nodded, feeling hopeful. Noah never made a promise he couldn’t keep.

  “We’ll do it together.” He squeezed her hand. “Together.”

  “Together,” she said, realizing how utterly naïve she had been to think she could do this without help, without Noah’s help. She remembered the reason why she did what she did and chilled. Noah would not have let her set herself up as bait. There were no two ways around it.

  Noah turned to Allison. “Where do you live?”

  “Downtown.”

  “How’d you get here?”

  “By bus.”

  “I’ll take you home.” He kissed Dallas tenderly on the lips. “I’ll be right back, then we’ll talk.” He raised his brows to punctuate his intent.

  With nothing left to do but acquiesce, Dallas nodded again.

  “Lock up after me. The back door is already bolted.”

  After Noah and Allison left, Dallas stood with painstaking care and gingerly walked to the door and did as Noah instructed.

  With quietude keeping her company, Dallas’s thoughts, a jumble of them, all came back to the same conclusion ― Katie’s killer would never be brought to justice.

  Not now.

  The killer was smart, and what happened tonight would make him wiser, more clever and devious. He would probably go underground, maybe surfacing years from now when Katie’s murder was all but forgotten by those who knew her and wanting justice was no longer crucial.

  She stared blankly into space as tears streamed down her face.

  Her sacrifices and Noah’s suffering had been for nothing.

  All for nothing. All for nothing. For nothing …For nothing…

  Dallas heard Noah’s truck pull into the drive. She looked out the window and watched him stretch from the vehicle. Everything about him had changed since he’d earlier stood on her doorstep.

  Hope had broadened his shoulders.

  Relief had straightened his spine.

  Love had put a swagger in his gait.

  She smiled.

  Noah obviously assumed they would pick up where they’d left off before the divorce, before Katie’s death.

  He was right.

  Just as he reached the front step, he veered to his left and cut a path around the side of the house.

  What the hell?

  Ignoring the pain the movement caused her head, she sprinted to the back door and looked out.

  Noah had his gun drawn.

  Fear for his life overcame her. Noah could look after himself, as he’d proved time and again, but so could she and look what had happened to her tonight. Cops backed up each other.

  Without further thought, she opened the door and dashed to where he stood just as he bopped into the shrubbery. She held her breath, thinking that Noah had captured Katie’s killer. Her sister could finally rest in peace. Amen.

  Could it be so easy?

  Like exhaust, clouds of dust burst into the still air from the bushes. The sound of branches snapping and twigs cracking and Noah cursing resounded in the silence of the night.

  Seconds later, he sprang from the bushes holding a tortoise Holland Lop rabbit by its drooping ears. “I almost shot the hell out of some kid’s pet,” he said, looking at the animal with disgust.

  Dallas covered her mouth with her hand and doubled over in laughter.

  Noah took her by the waist and hauled her against him. “You shouldn’t be out here. How’s the noggin?”

  Now that she thought about the knob on the back of her head, the pain intensified. “Tolerable.”

  “Let’s get you in the house.”

  On the sofa, Noah held her against his chest.

  He always knew what she needed.

  They sat in silence.

  He always knew when she wanted to talk.

  As much as she enjoyed being back in Noah’s arms again, there was something needed saying. Holding onto him like he would try to escape her embrace, she said, “I’m sorry.” For all what she put him through these past several months, the words seemed inadequate.

  “I know.” He held on to her tighter.

  “Can you ever forgive me?” She looked into his eyes.

  He stood and pulled her to her feet.

  Unsure what to expect, she lifted her face to his and prepared herself for the worst, but hoped for the only answer that would help her through the rest of her life.

  “What do you think?”

  His voice sounded husky, she noticed.

  He bent and kissed her cheeks, her eyes and nose.

  She held her breath and cupped his face in her hands and searched his eyes for any sign of regret, anger or hurt. Love, pure and untempered, looked back at her. A cry of relief came on her released breath.

  “I don’t deserve you, Noah.” Tears welled, then spilled over onto her cheeks.

  He answered her with a kiss.

  At his urgent demand, she parted her lips and responded.

  He tightened his hold and deepened the kiss. Every nerve in her body responded.

  Noa
h was right. Action spoke. So attuned to her, he didn’t need to hear her apology to know how sorry she was. When you love someone — really love someone, the kind of love that comes once in a lifetime, the kind of love they had for one another— apologies weren’t needed.

  Lips against lips, hipbones to hipbones, and in perfect synchrony with him, Dallas led Noah across the living room, parting only when they reached the stairs.

  In the darkness of her bedroom, she stripped away her clothes, then moved to him. Her nimble fingers undid the buttons on his shirt. Her lips blazed a path of kisses down the center of his chest, conveying her feelings and intentions.

  Each caress said ‘I love you’.

  Each kiss expressed how very, very sorry she was for hurting him.

  With each embrace, she promised to love him for the rest of her life.

  He lamented her name. Nothing ever affected her so deeply. The emotional pain that stabbed her heart was as crippling and painful as a knife. She opened her eyes and studied him as though searching for his lost soul. Oh, Noah. What did I do to you? How could I have hurt you so?

  For the first time since she put her plan to catch her sister’s killer into motion, she realized the depth of his pain and the extent of his suffering. Nothing could have prepared her for how that made her feel. Up until that moment, she believed she was undoing a terrible wrong.

  I’ll make it up to you, Noah. All of it. I solemnly promise.

  On the bed atop the covers, she held him, fondled him and kissed him until he flipped her onto her back. She held her breath as he pushed aside strands of her hair sticking to her face and looked into her eyes.

  He didn’t need to tell her how much he loved her for her to know. She read it in his eyes and felt it in his touch.

  This must be what Heaven was like, she thought.

  He sank himself into her.

  She learned the true meaning of bliss.

  If she never did anything right for the rest of her life, Dallas did everything right when she fell in love and married Noah.

  God had shone down on her at both those times.

  She bid Him a thank-you.

  Emotionally and sexually sated, Dallas nestled deeper into Noah’s muscled arms. “Wow,” she said.

  “You can say that again.”

  “The sex was always fantastic but that was….” She dismissed one adjective after the other as they popped into her mind. No one word she thought of could accurately describe what they just shared.

  “Unbelievable?”

  “Yes!” She cleared her throat and turned serious. “Are we friends again, Noah?”

  “That had never changed for me.”

  “Even when.…”

  “Even when.” He brushed his fingertips up and down her arm.

  Dallas considered herself an incredibly fortunate woman. “Will you marry me?”

  He rested his chin on her head and tightened his hold on her. “If that’s what you want, but we’re still married.”

  She got up on an elbow and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “It seems Abbott is one amazingly incompetent lawyer. He forgot to file the divorce papers.”

  From what Noah had told her about Abbott, she considered him efficient and competent at his job. She pondered that a moment, thinking how impressions could cloud judgment. It wasn’t until Noah cocked a brow that she caught on. “At the behest of his client, I assume.”

  “You assume correctly.” He stuck his tongue in his cheek.

  She poked him in the ribs. Relief washed over her. The day she married Noah had been the happiest day of her life. Divorce, short lived or not, a hoax or not, would have cast a shadow on that and remarrying him would be tantamount to saying they would do it right this time.

  “How is Abbott, by the way?” she asked.

  “Fine. I saw him this afternoon at the station, as a matter of fact.”

  Since Abbott didn’t practice criminal law and would have no business reason to enter a police station, it could only mean one thing. “His mother got herself in trouble again.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What did she do this time? Pinch someone’s butt?”

  “Something a little more serious. She bought drugs from an undercover.”

  Dallas lifted her head and stared at him. He had to be kidding.

  He pursed his lips. “It’s true.” He related the strange story. “According to Calliope, this Frederick Q. Thornhill the Third is one,” he made air quotes, “cantankerous bastard, who makes his wife’s life a living hell. The two women are, quote, BFFs. Calliope wanted something to mellow him and figured it was worth the five dollars she paid for the barbiturates.”

  “Five dollars?” she asked, squinting.

  “Yep, but she paid ten dollars for a strand of pearls which she thought were fake but weren’t and which turned out to be stolen goods.”

  “How did Abbott talk her out of those charges? He did, right?”

  “She wasn’t formally charged.”

  “Because of your learned experience with her?” She loved ribbing him about the incident.

  He jabbed her leg. “No, because she was willing to identify the individual who sold her the stolen goods, which later led to the take-down of a burglary ring.”

  “Did you speak to her?” When he didn’t answer, she knew what happened. “You hid from her, but she found you out.” She chuckled. Noah was one of those people horrific at subterfuge and given his line of work, the failing had proved a detriment.

  “Did she have anything interesting to say?” She felt him tense and knew he would, like a good politician, talk around his answer.

  “Not much that made sense.”

  Calliope was anything but senile, though, she put on a good act. She suspected Calliope had said something about Dallas and her sexuality, which was the reason Noah wouldn’t say. “I had lunch with Abbott’s wife today. She’s really a nice person. Why didn’t we ever hang out? You’re friends with Abbott. I just wondered.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. He gave me the cold shoulder after I asked him about his name being Katie’s dying words.”

  She drew circles on his chest with her index finger. “Why was that?”

  “It doesn’t necessarily mean he’s guilty of anything, if that’s what you’re going for.”

  “I know, but it draws suspicion.”

  “He could have been insulted I asked.”

  “True.” Still, though, she wouldn’t dismiss Abbott’s possible culpability in her sister’s murder.

  “Tell me about your lunch with Lily.”

  That Noah referred to Abbott’s wife by her name didn’t surprise Dallas. Noah made it a point to remember names and to address a person by their name. Recollecting Juliette, Dallas smiled and told him about The Striped Zebra. “It’s on Averdeen and run by this eccentric woman, one part gypsy, one part wizard of French Irish descent.”

  “After she seated us, she handed us menus and said she’d be back to take our orders. When she returned, she snatched the menus from our hands and pronounced she would have our lunches to us in ten point five minutes, which she did.” Dallas frowned.

  As though Noah could see her expression, he asked, “Why do you find it odd?”

  “We didn’t give her our orders.”

  “How did she know what you wanted?”

  “I did say she was part gypsy and part wizard.”

  “Oh. She can read minds.”

  “No.” She chuckled. “Not at all.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “She thinks she can. Apparently, she never lets a customer place an order and as far as Lily knows, she’s never gotten one right.”

  “People go back to this restaurant?”

  Dallas laughed. “Like a sporting event, apparently.” She related every detail of their lunch, from what Lily and she spoke about to the electrified atmosphere in the restaurant. Her thoughts drifted to her sister. “Katie would have loved
Juliette and The Striped Zebra.”

  “We’ll find who killed her,” he said.

  She nodded and determined from the set of his words they would.

  “Why did you want to become friends with Lily?”

  “I was wrangling an invite to dinner.” She lifted her head and looked at him. “Not that I don’t trust your interrogation skills, but I wanted to see Abbott’s reaction for myself when I asked him why Katie said his name on her dying breath. Maybe Lily doesn’t know about it. Her reaction would be interesting, as well.”

  He raised his chin in the air and stared off to a corner of the bedroom. “You may be on to something.”