Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [148]
“I don’t know. I’m waiting for my grandpa.”
“It’ll only take a few minutes, and I think you’ll enjoy seeing it. It looks like something out of The X-Files.”
“Really?” Timmy remembered watching Special Agent Scully doing autopsies. He wondered if dead people really did look all stiff and gray. “You sure it’s okay if I come along? Won’t the hospital people get mad?”
“Nah, there’s never anyone down there.”
Father Keller stood up and grabbed the duffel bag. He waited while Timmy shoved the rest of the Reese’s into his mouth, accidentally dropping the wrapper. When he knelt to pick it up, Timmy noticed Father Keller’s Nikes, crisp and white, as usual. Only today there was…there was a knot in one of the shoestrings. A knot holding it together. The knot in Timmy’s stomach tightened.
He stood up slowly, a bit dizzy. A sugar rush—that was all it was. He glanced up at Father Keller’s smiling face, the priest’s hand outstretched to him, waiting. One last quick glance at the shoe. Why did Father Keller have a knot in his shoestring?
CHAPTER 99
“How did you find out I was in the hospital?” Maggie asked when she and Greg were alone. She spread out the suits she had carefully packed days ago, pleased with their appearance despite two trips halfway across the country.
“Actually, I didn’t know until I arrived at the sheriff’s department earlier this morning. Some bimbo in a leather skirt told me about it.”
“She’s not a bimbo.” Maggie couldn’t believe she was defending Lucy Burton.
“This just reiterates my point, Maggie.”
“Your point?”
“That this job is much too dangerous.”
She dug through the overnight case he’d brought her, keeping her back to him and vowing to ignore the mounting anger. She concentrated on how good it felt to have her own things back. Perhaps it was ridiculous, but fingering her own underwear gave her an odd sense of control and security.
“Why won’t you just admit it?” Greg insisted.
“Admit what?”
“That this job is too dangerous.”
“For who, Greg? You? Because I don’t have a problem with it. I’ve always known there would be risks.”
She stayed calm, glanced over her shoulder at him. He was pacing, hands on his hips as if waiting for a verdict. “When I asked you to pick up my bags from the airport, I didn’t mean for you to deliver them.” She tried a smile, but he looked determined not to let her off so easily.
“Next year I’ll make partner. We’re on our way, Maggie.”
“On our way to what?” She pulled out a matching bra and panties.
“You shouldn’t have to do all this dangerous fieldwork. For God’s sake, Maggie, you’ve got eight stinking years with the Bureau. You finally have the clout to be…I don’t know, a supervisor, an instructor…something, anything else.”
“I enjoy what I do, Greg.” She started to pull off the hideous gown, hesitated, then glanced over her shoulder. Greg threw his hands in the air and rolled his eyes.
“What? You want me to leave?” His voice was filled with sarcasm, a hint of anger. “Yes, maybe I should leave so you can invite your cowboy back.”
“He’s not my cowboy.” Maggie felt the anger color her cheeks.
“Is that why you haven’t returned my calls? Is there something going on with you and Sheriff Hardbody?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Greg.” She yanked off the gown and struggled into the panties. It hurt to bend, to lift her arms. She was grateful a bandage covered the unsightly stitches.
“Oh my God, Maggie.”
She spun around to find him staring at her wounded shoulder, a grimace contorting his handsome features. She couldn’t help wondering whether it was disgust or concern. His eyes examined the rest of her body, finally resting on the scar below her breasts. Suddenly, she felt exposed and embarrassed, neither of which made sense. He was her husband, after all. Yet, she grabbed the gown and pressed it to her breasts.
“Not all of those are from last night,” he said, the anger more prevalent than the concern. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why didn’t you notice?”
“So this is my fault?” Again, the hands in the air. It was a gesture she recognized from when he practiced his summations.