As a man what? she asked herself irritably. He thought she was a fraud.
Well, weren’t there times when she thought so herself?
She needed him out of her house. She was weary. She felt a strange weakness, and she didn’t like it. She needed the logical portion of her mind to come leaping forward, and she felt just too tired to manage it.
She cleared her throat. “I really need to get some sleep.”
“Sure.” He seemed to recover a bit himself. He had been staring at her, just as she had been staring at him. How long? Something seemed to pass across his eyes. A flicker. As if he had seen something inside her that he actually liked.
“Of course.”
He set his glass on the counter, and avoided touching her as he walked by.
“Thanks for the drink.” The words were polite. Distant. And she didn’t follow him as he walked away down the hall.
When she heard her front door close, she walked slowly to the front of the house and locked it.
To her surprise, the expected pleasure in being by herself in the apartment, with time to relax and sleep, didn’t come. Instead…
She felt uneasy.
And ridiculously, she wished that he were still with her. Her apartment usually seemed so welcoming.
Now…
It just seemed empty.
And she felt alone, as she hadn’t in years.
Jezebel let out a meow. Kendall picked up the cat and rubbed her chin against the Persian’s soft fur. She loved all animals, but with her work schedule, a cat was definitely the best choice for a pet.
“Why am I suddenly wishing you were a dog?” she asked. “Like a huge mastiff, or a pit bull?”
Jezebel just meowed again.
“You’re a big help,” Kendall told her sarcastically.
But it wasn’t the cat’s fault. Even holding Jezebel, Kendall still felt that same sensation of being alone.
And afraid.
5
Death.
It could be violent or peaceful, on a battlefield or in the streets, at home or in a hospital. It could leave a person looking as calm as if they were asleep, or torn to shreds, ravished, decayed.
In the modern world, it was quickly sanitized whenever possible. Disasters, though, meant field hospitals, temporary morgues, sometimes even mass graves and burning.
But the storm was behind them. New Orleans was getting back up to speed.
Katrina had wreaked havoc all over the city, including at the morgue. A lot here was new. Visitors entered a quietly tasteful reception area that could have belonged to any business or doctor’s office. There was music softly playing, and a young woman with a gentle voice was on duty to offer assistance.
Every effort had been made to hide the presence of death there, where so often the bereaved came for a last glimpse of those they loved. Not only that, this often ended up being the place where the police talked to the living as they tried to solve the mystery of the dead, and a calm husband did a better job of recalling what his wife had done before her death, for example.
Aidan was familiar with the morgue, having been here several times before when he was in New Orleans on a case. And like all morgues, despite every attempt to mask it, there…was still something that seemed to permeate the very walls. No music system could really drown out the tears of a mother who had lost her child. And no amount of bleach could ever fully wipe out the smell of death.
But the girl at the front was pleasant, perhaps genuinely compassionate, perhaps just a good actress after days of greeting cops, parents, siblings and friends, those who came in fear of finding out a loved one was dead, and those who were relieved that the days of caring for a loved one were over.
“Hello, Mr. Flynn,” she said.
Apparently he had met her before. Great P.I. he was, not to remember her. Good thing her name tag identified her as Ruby Beaudreaux, so he could fake it.
“Hi, Ruby.” He smiled. “I’m hoping to see Dr. Abel. Is he in?”
“I’ll see.”
She smiled and put through a call, then began to frown at the response she received from the other end. Aidan could hear Jon Abel yelling.
Ruby hung up and looked at him apologetically. “He’s really busy. Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I can wait.”
Ruby was young. She blushed easily, and she did so then. “Um, I don’t think that will help.”
“I have all day,” Aidan said pleasantly, and sat. “Just tell him that. I’ll be here—whenever he comes out.” The place was bound to have a back door, and Abel would no doubt use it. He just wanted the man to know he didn’t intend to let go.
“You want me to…call him again?” Ruby said. She looked as if he had just asked her to walk into the lion’s cage.
“Sure, if you don’t mind.”
She hesitated, then came out from around her desk. “Mr. Flynn, you have to understand. We were overwhelmed for…months after Katrina. You can’t believe how bad it was. Dr. Abel isn’t a bad guy. He’s just been through a lot, just like everyone here.”