Part 43 (1/2)
She didn't want to damage him as she seemed to have hurt so many others in the recent past.
Meredith hoped that Rick Fuller's death was the end of the nightmare that had started only days earlier. It seemed liked eons. But she didn't fool herself. There might still be something else at play. She might still be a Jonah.
Her brain kept telling her that during the drive. How would Fuller have known about Mrs. Starnes? He might have tapped the phone but how would he have known the woman's importance to her? Or had he just wanted her to find a body?
Would someone really kill just to terrify?
When she reached Memphis, she headed toward Germantown, the community where her aunt and uncle once lived.
She had used the Internet to locate the exact neighborhood, and she'd found a hotel just blocks away. She would unpack, then start interviewing the neighbors and hope she could find one that had lived there thirty years earlier. In this mobile society, she doubted it. But she was quickly running out of options.
After locating the neighborhood and the hotel, she took a room under a different name. It was the kind of hotel that didn't ask for identification as long as you had cash.
Something to eat, then she would start canva.s.sing her great-aunt's old neighborhood.
'NEW ORLEANS'.
Gage hadn't been able to sleep after leaving Meredith and took the canoe down to his cabin. He'd grabbed a few hours sleep, then enjoyed a quiet dawn before heading back. Watching the rising sun change the colors of the sky had made him wish he'd brought Meredith. But then he'd needed this time to consider the last forty-eight hours.
He was not Meredith's keeper. She had made it clear she wanted no attachments. G.o.d knew, neither was he in a position to want them. He'd never been good at relations.h.i.+ps, and now he had his brother to consider.
She could still be in danger. Rick Fuller may have been used. On the other hand, he might have acted on his own when he attacked his wife and made his wild threats. Either way, Gage didn't believe for a minute that Fuller had been at the bottom of all the attacks.
He trusted Mack, though, to keep her safe.
On the way back, his thoughts kept turning to the photo of Mrs. Starnes, Marguerite Rawson and the young man. The dark hair. The defiant yet proud tilt of his head. A sense of familiarity nagged at him.
Still restless when he arrived home, he changed clothes and went downtown to his office. Suspended or not, he wanted to know if there was any more news about the death of Charles Rawson.
Wagner approached him. ”Are you all right?”
”Yeah. I feel naked, though, without my badge and gun.”
”I'm told you'll be out for at least a week. You should just take it easy. Get some sleep. Enjoy life.”
Gage gave him a disgusted look. ”It's their idea. Not mine.”
”We have a suspect in the homeless murder. An informant said another derelict was talking about it.”
”Good. I'm more concerned about the floater. Someone went to a lot of trouble to hide his ident.i.ty.”
”We've gone through every missing person report for the last three months. Nothing fits.”
”An out-of-towner?”
”Could be, but then why all the effort?”
”Do we have anything from the medical examiner on age or race?”
”No, but he sent a DNA sample to the feds. Maybe they have something.” Wagner grinned. ”Be glad to have you back next week. Cases are piling up. In the meantime, take it easy.”
”I might do a little snooping on the Starnes case on my own.”
”Keep me posted.”
”I will. If you get anything on the floater, call me. Any time.”
”Will do.”
Gage hesitated at his desk, oddly reluctant to leave. He had relived the shooting over and over in his head in the last twenty-four hours. He couldn't get the images from his head. Nor could he dismiss the notion that something was very wrong.
He was about to leave when Dom called him on the cell phone.
”I saw your brother. I think I can find him something.”
”He'll need it for the parole hearing.”
”I know. Working on it. He wants to know when you'll be up there.”
”I'll try next Sunday.”
”He said the hearing is two weeks from today.”
”Will you be there?”
”I plan to.”
”Thanks.” Gage hesitated, then asked, ”Dom, did you know Marguerite Rawson?”
A pause on the other side of the receiver. ”I've met her, yes. I think everyone involved in charities has.”
”Did you know she's just died?”
Another silence. Then, ”I'm sorry to hear that.”
Gage noted a catch in his voice. ”Can we have a drink together some time?”
”With you, always,” Dom replied. ”By the way, I was sorry to hear about the shooting. But I've heard bad things about Fuller.”
”I would like to hear more about that.”
”When we get together,” Dom said. ”Speaking of the Rawsons, I see that Meredith Rawson was involved in the shooting.” It sounded more like a question than a statement. ”How is she?”
How much did he have the right to say? ”There's been some other incidents. I think they might trace back to her mother. Something that happened years ago.” He waited for a reaction.
There was a long silence.
”Dom?”
”Call me when you're available,” Dom said.