Chapter 47
Moments later, after reapplying her lipstick, Danielle sashayed out of her office, her report in hand. Raymond had done a really good job. She was so glad she had found somebody to do her crummy work for her.
I don't have time to waste on these stupid patient files
, she thought with a smile.
“Hi,” she said, stepping into Nurse Smart's office. “I just wanted to give my last report before leaving.”
Nurse Smart smiled and took it. She glanced at it and nodded. “Your work has really improved lately,” she complimented. “This is excellent.”
“Yes, I really took to heart what you said,” Danielle said. “You're so brilliant and I'm just thankful you pulled me aside to help me.”
Nurse Smart beamed. “You're most welcome.”
“Well, I guess I should be going,” Danielle said. She turned, then paused. “I bet you get a lot of compliments on your eyes. They are absolutely beautiful.”
Nurse Smart blinked in surprise and sat up a bit straighter in her chair. “Oh. Well, not really,” she said and let out a small giggle. “I've always thought my eyes were my best feature.”
Danielle seemed to have a sudden thought. She dropped her purse on Nurse Smart's desk and rummaged through it, pulling out a makeup case. She quickly walked around the desk and closed the gap between them. “They are beautiful,” she said. “You really should play up your mouth, too. You have great lips.”
She held up a lipstick. “You mind?”
Nurse Smart shook her head, startled, then puckered her lips.
Danielle smoothed the lipstick on slowly, taking her time. She could feel Nurse Smart's breath on her hand. The other woman was quiet, and Danielle held back a smile as she could feel the woman's breathing quicken. Danielle touched the woman's hair and then pulled out a mirror. “See, look at yourself!”
Nurse Smart did a double take. “Oh, thank you!” she said. “I can't believe that's me staring back in this mirror.”
Danielle grinned. “See, you are a knockout, and didn't even know it.” She put her makeup case back into her purse. “You've got to loosen up. You're always so uptight. But you're beautiful. Well, thanks again for looking at my work with such a favorable eye.”
“Oh, anything you need, you let me know,” Nurse Smart said, her voice a bit husky. She cleared her throat.
“I'm really trying to get a good review so I can get that raise,” Danielle said.
“Oh, don't you worry about that,” Nurse Smart said. “You'll get a good review.”
“You think so?” Danielle said, letting a tiny line cross her forehead. “I've been so worried. What, with that bad report I received the other day and all.”
“Oh, don't be concerned about that,” Nurse Smart said, waving. “I'll go back into my records and correct that. We'll just say I had time to, uh, review the situation. And I see your work is exemplary.” She held up the latest report. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, thank you!” Danielle said and hugged the other woman. Then she stepped back. “Oh, I'm so sorry. I hope you don't mind. I just got so excited.”
“It's okay,” Nurse Smart gushed. “I didn't mind. I'm glad to see you so happy.”
“Okay, well, I guess I should be going now,” Danielle said, gathering her purse.
“Danielle, wait up,” Nurse Smart said, springing from her chair. She cleared her throat again. “Do you . . . would you like to have dinner tonight?”
Danielle quickly sidestepped the question, with a smile. “Tonight, I can't, but I'd love to get together sometime. Well, I've got to run. See you tomorrow!”
Danielle quickly walked out of Nurse Smart's office, with a self-satisfied grin.
Yep, I am going to get my raise
, she thought. But her visage quickly darkened as her mind went back to the half dozen phone calls she had made to Troy all day. She hadn't been able to catch him at all.
She hopped into her gold Lexus and sped to Troy's apartment, bouncing off the curb in her haste to turn into his complex. “See, I knew he was there!” she yelled the words to the emptiness of her vehicle. His Navigator was parked in its usual spot. She jumped out of her car and rushed to the stairs, then paused. She decided she was going to see what he was up to first.
Instead of climbing the stairs and knocking on the door, Danielle slipped around to the back. She climbed over prickly hedges, trying to balance on one foot. She gathered her skirt around her thighs and twisted until she was next to the wall, then tiptoed around the building until she got to just beneath Troy's second floor apartment.
She stepped onto the patio of the bottom apartment, looking for a foothold to hoist herself up.
Rrrrring! Rrrring!
She quickly looked down at her cell phone. She didn't recognize the number, but picked up anyway. This had better be Troy's sorry behind, she groused. “Hello?”
“You have a collect call from . . .”
“Collect call?” Danielle hung up. A moment later, the phone rang again. She thought to ignore it, but answered. “Who is this?” she said in a hushed tone.
The recording started again, announcing she had a collect call. “ . . . call from Nikki. Will you accept?”
“Yes, I'll accept,” Danielle said, curiosity in her tone.
A moment later, Nikki's voice came over the line. “Danielle, I hate to bug you but I am in jail.”
“In jail?” Danielle's pitch rose and she tried to lower her voice as she stood on the patio of someone's apartment. “What are you doing in jail?”
“They arrested me behind that credit card mess,” Nikki informed her.
“You didn't say anything about me, did you?” Danielle's voice was laced with worry.
“No, no,” Nikki said quickly.
“Oh, okay, cool,” Danielle said, now more relaxed.
“But I need you to bail me out,” Nikki said.
Danielle heard movement from above. Troy was on his deck. She quickly stepped back, inching as close to the wall as she could. She could hear him talking; it sounded like he was on his cell phone.
“Nikki, I'm going to have to call you back,” Danielle whispered.
“You can't call me,” Nikki said, but Danielle had already hung up.
Chapter 48
Nikki didn't know what to do. She was fresh out of options. Danielle had hung up and William wasn't answering his cell. What if they had taken him in, too? Nikki would never forgive herself if William went to jail over this. Fear gripped her gut as she faced a night behind bars. And what about her child? Who would care for Psalm? She couldn't call Keedra because she was out of her allowed phone calls.
Nikki was ushered back to her cell, where she sat on a cracker-thin mattress, staring at gray walls. All around her, she heard conversation, some raised, some muffled. No one seemed to pay attention to her, and she had no cell mate at the moment. Her palms became sweaty as a thought hit her: What if she had to stay here overnight? They had processed her as if she would be there for a whileâthey had taken her fingerprints and mug shot and even confiscated her clothing and personal items.
She didn't have an attorney or anyone else to call for that matter. She thought to pray but shook her head at the idea.
God doesn't want to hear from me
, she thought.
Nikki was alone.
Chapter 49
Danielle crouched in the shadow right beneath Troy's apartment, straining to hear his conversation. After a moment, he went back inside. She waited for a beat to be sure he wasn't coming back out.
She took her shoes off and stuck them into her purse, which she looped over her shoulder, then carefully stepped onto the thick, wooden rail, balancing on one foot as she hooked her other foot in a rung. She managed to shimmy up the splintered column. Then her foot slipped and she flailed her arms wildly, knocking over a plant that clattered to the ground. As she fell, she stuck her hands out to brace herself. The fall didn't hurt, since it was only a couple or so feet, but a splinter got lodged into her thumb. She squeezed it out, sucking the spot where it had broken her skin, before climbing more carefully again.
This time, she managed to flip her leg over the bar and get a good grip and pull herself up the column. Her skirt hitched about her thighs and her bare feet anchored her.
At last, she stood on Troy's deck. She paused to catch her breath, and wiped sweat off her forehead.
I'm going to make him pay for my clothes. They are ruined
, she lamented, taking in the sweat stains and torn hemline. She tried the glass doors. They were unlocked, as she knew they would be. Troy never locked those doors.
She quietly slid them open and stepped into the cool kitchen. The place was silent and dark. She paused. She could hear a sound, but couldn't make it out. She inched closer to it, holding her breath.
Oh, it was the shower. She breathed, relieved she hadn't walked in him doing anything that would upset her. She saw no telltale signs of another woman being there. Maybe he wasn't cheating. But he still needed to answer the phone when she called
.
An idea occurred to her. If Troy hadn't been cheating, then she needed to get out of thereâlike now. She didn't want Troy to think she was crazy. She backed into the living room and heard the shower stop. She froze. A whisper of, “Oh, shoot!” escaped her lips. What should she do? Where could she hide?
Danielle knew if she ran, she could hop out the doors and disappear. But as she debated the unpleasant thought of shimmying back down that splintery wood, she heard muffled voices coming from the direction of the shower. Her eyes narrowed. She inched closer to the bathroom door and pushed it open.
Water cascaded off Troy's long, lean, naked body as his arms enclosed an equally naked woman, pinning her against the shower's wall as he pressed his body to hers.
Danielle stared at the two, unable to move.
Chapter 50
William's attorney called to let him know a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
“What do we do?” William inquired.
“Well, it's going to be a lot of drama either way,” Jonathan said on the other end of the phone. “Media folks are going to be hot on your trail. I'm working to handle things from the legal end, but there is no way around this warrant. I've tried, but there are some folks who have a vested interest in seeing you go down. And this is too good for them to pass up.”
“Yeah, I know, the mayor is doing all he can to influence this process,” William said.
“Yeah, he has been pressuring the DA,” Jonathan said, “and unfortunately, the evidence is pretty incriminating. They have the hospital's video showing you standing there at the counter and in another frame, it shows your wife signing the paperwork.”
William recalled the day at the hospital as they registered Psalm for the surgery. He now understood why Nikki had sent him on an errand to get some water. “Yeah, I'm sure it looks bad,” he said. “Well, let's get this over with. I'll surrender. So the sooner I get in, the sooner I can get out.”
“Okay,” Jonathan said.
They talked a bit more and then Olivia drove William to the parish jail, where he met Jonathan to surrender. He bonded out shortly thereafter.
Cameras flashed as he walked out of the parish lock-up next to his attorney, but he stared straight ahead, as if they were not there. He climbed into Olivia's waiting pearl-toned Cadillac.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He only glanced at her. She started the ignition. “Sorry.”
As they pulled off, William leaned his head back onto the headrest. “I'm going to have to drop out of the race.”
Olivia didn't say anything for a moment. “I wish there was some way to salvage this.”
“Me too,” he said. “But let's face it. It was a long shot from the beginning, and now, with this bad press and all these things, I can't win.”
Olivia turned to look at him as they stopped at a light. “William, if anyone can pull this off, it's you.”
He smiled at her. She was so loyal and sweet. “I appreciate you, but it's hopeless.”
“Well, let's not give up just yet. Don't pull out,” she continued, “I get so mad though, when I think of all the hard work we've put into this. First, someone robs my daddy of his life and of his campaign, and now it's happening all over again. I don't know Nikki all that well, but I really wonder if she realizes just how much she has hurt youâhurt any of your chances of ever winning a race. She seems rather shortsighted.”
“She . . . .” William's voice trailed off as he didn't know what to say. He wanted to defend his wife, but anger wouldn't let him. They had spent so many years having each other's back, rooting for each other, pushing each other, and just when he had the prize within reach, she had snatched it away.
Maybe she wasn't the wife he had always thought her to be.