Curse of the Jade Lily (Mac McKenzie #9)

Curse of the Jade Lily (Mac McKenzie #9) Page 48

“Heavenly.”

She rummaged through her bag; I thought I saw the butt of a small handgun when her hand emerged with the keys dangling from her fingers. While she was doing that I pried a wad of bills from the front left pocket of my jeans and peeled off a fifty. I took the keys and set the fifty in front of her.

“I’ll leave your keys with Nina,” I said. “You can take a cab home.”

Heavenly didn’t touch the bill. Instead, she took a long sip from her coffee mug and made a face like it didn’t agree with her. The flesh around her bloodshot eyes was swollen and puffy. What was left of her makeup looked like it had been applied yesterday.

“Have you slept at all?” I asked.

“Did you need to kill him, McKenzie?”

“It was an accident.”

“An accident,” she repeated slowly.

“He fell into the street…”

“No one was supposed to get hurt. Take the Lily and off we go to Ontonagon, Michigan. No one was supposed to get killed.”

“How did Tommy know I was at Loring Park?”

“We followed you.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re not that good. I would have noticed.”

“We used a three-car team, rotating in and out. We also sprayed your rear bumper with liquid glass so we could identify your Audi at night and in heavy traffic from a distance.”

“I stand corrected,” I said.

“Once we got to Loring Park, we had Tommy sit on your Audi while the rest of us created a perimeter so we could watch you going in or coming out. We never actually entered the park, just observed from a distance.”

When did she become so damn smart? my inner voice asked.

“Did you see Noehring get hit?” I asked aloud.

“I didn’t know who he was.”

“Did you see it?”

“I saw. He was just a dark figure slipping on the ice. I didn’t pay any attention.”

“Then you can’t identify his killer.”

“No. I didn’t even know he was shot until Lieutenant Rask, until he…”

“Did you tell Rask that Tommy worked for you?”

“Tommy moved without instructions, McKenzie. I told him not to go anywhere near you unless you had the Lily. I don’t know why—”

“He wanted the money.”

“No, no, we talked about that.”

“Either the money or he was trying to impress you just like all of the rest of the men you used over the years.”

“I never used a man who didn’t want to use me.”

“Very scrupulous of you.”

“Oh, McKenzie, I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“What did you think was going to happen?”

“No one was supposed to get hurt.”

“You keep saying that.”

“I know.”

“Why did you come here, Heavenly? What do you want from me?”

“Absolution for my sins, I guess.”

I reached across the booth and slapped her hard. The sound of my hand against her cheek reverberated through the club like a clash of cymbals. Heavenly’s head jerked to the side and she made a kind of gasping sound as if she were trying to breathe in all the oxygen there was. She brought her hand up to soothe her cheek; I could see the deep red streaks my fingers had left on her flesh beneath her fingers. Her eyes filled with tears. She did not seem surprised by my action, though. Just the opposite. She looked as if she had been hit by something she saw coming from a long way off yet refused to dodge.

Many heads turned to look at us. A man sitting with his girl a few tables away stood like he wanted to make something of it, but his girl pulled him back down. I reached into my back pocket for a handkerchief and gave it to Heavenly. That gesture seemed to mollify everyone.

Heavenly swabbed her eyes and blew her nose.

“If you weren’t in Nina’s place I’d beat the hell out of you,” I told her.

“That’s why I came here.”

“It’s your fault that Tommy is dead; don’t think for a second that it isn’t. But I’m the one who killed him. I have to live with that.”

“I’m sorry. I really am, McKenzie. I am so, so sorry.”

“Being sorry doesn’t help much.”

“I know.”

We sat quietly for a few moments while Heavenly dried her tears. During the lull, Nina appeared with more coffee for Heavenly and a Summit Ale for me. Before she left she gave me a look. I understood it perfectly—don’t hit her again. Heavenly must have understood it as well.

“How can Nina be so nice to me?” she asked.

“So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths that wind and wind, while just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs,” I said.

“Ella Wheeler Wilcox.” I wasn’t surprised that Heavenly knew the quote. She was an English major after all. “As I long suspected, McKenzie, you’re a romantic.”

“Am I?”

“All those times I threw myself at you, I knew you wouldn’t catch me. That’s why I did it. Most of the men I know, even the ones I’ve dated, all they wanted was twenty minutes of my time, you know? You never behaved like that. That’s why I always tease Nina. I want what she has. If not you, then someone like you.”