Sparkle (33 page)

Joe scrambled to his knees, rolled him over, and listened to his chest. Eddie was breathing, shallow but regular, and his face had collapsed back into the calm, peaceful expression Joe knew so well.

Except that he was bleeding and pale, and a huge knot was forming on his forehead.

Joe could barely catch his breath. He shook his brother lightly. “Eddie! Eddie!”

Eddie didn’t move.

Joe found his cell phone and dialed 911. Before he could hit send, he recognized Detective Louis’s Crown Victoria coming down the street.

Louis had come to the job site looking for the brothers because he was worried. Extremely worried. But he wanted to play his cards slowly and carefully.

Louis was nursing an ugly suspicion that Eddie might somehow be involved in the shooting of Jolie Walker. He’d just heard some news that would not stop looping through his brain: The Walker girl worked as a guide and keeper at the zoo.

Louis knew all about Eddie’s weekly trip to see the animals. Joe had mentioned it to him on more than one occasion, usually in response to Louis ribbing him about taking proper care of Eddie. Louis didn’t know how well—or even if—Eddie knew Jolie Walker. But the information that she was a zoo employee, coupled with what Joe had spilled about Eddie disappearing and coming home bloody on the night of the murder, was extremely worrisome.

It was almost impossible for Louis to imagine. But there was so much about Eddie that was simply impenetrable. Even worse, if Eddie was involved, Joe was going to get dragged into it too—although he did seem to be genuinely in the dark and irritated by his brother’s strange behavior.

If Eddie was the shooter, Louis was going to be hugely disappointed. He really cared about the brothers, and he’d shown it in the best way he knew how: by putting himself on the line, over and over, to keep their business going.

The last thing he expected to see as he drove up was a house full of broken windows. Furniture littered the lawn, and Eddie and Joe were in a heap, beaten to hell, Joe waving weakly and Eddie unconscious.

Louis jumped out of his car. “What happened?”

“No idea,” Joe drawled. He was sitting next to Eddie, eyes unfocused. Shock. “Could you call us an ambulance, please? Can I bum a smoke?”

Louis got on his knees and put his fingers gently on Eddie’s neck to feel for a pulse. He leaned his ear to Eddie’s mouth. He seemed to be breathing almost normally, but he was definitely out cold. That was never a good sign.

Louis dug out his smokes and threw the pack to Joe. He sprinted back to his car and made the call, then hurried back to lean over Joe, who was struggling to light a smoke. “Just sit still, Joe.” He held out his lighter.

“So,” Joe said, “what are you doing here?”

Best to keep him talking. “I wanted to ask Eddie a few questions. I guess that’s going to have to wait, though. What happened?”

“I got here to pick him up and he had just gone nuts. He ran…away. I only wanted to c-c-catch him. The place is totally trashed. He…broke… everything.” Joe put his face in his hands and started to cry. That, at least, was a good sign.

Louis took a deep breath. “You know whose house this is, son?”

“No, I don’t know whose damn…house this is,” Joe coughed, laughing and crying at the same time. Was Louis really going to rib him now?

“Do you know Jolie Walker?” Louis said.

“Jolie Walker…from the zoo?”

“I’m afraid so, Joe.”

“Oh, no.”

“This is her house, Joe. She’s the one who got shot.”

Joe dropped his smoke. “I’m so stupid.” He buried his face in his hands and sobbed.

Louis reached out and put his hand on Joe’s arm. “Listen, Joe. Listen to me. The Walker girl—Jolie Walker—she’s not dead.”

Joe raised his head. “What?”

“She’s not dead, Joe. She’s in a coma. I mean…her condition isn’t great, but there’s a chance she might make it.”

Joe put his head down and started to cry again.

Louis put his arms around Joe and held on until the ambulance arrived.

Chapter 49

The staff at the zoo was in a state of shock. Easygoing, pretty, likable Jolie had been shot. Right after her birthday. It was awful. It had been Mark’s job to act as point man and break the news to everyone who hadn’t seen it in the paper or on TV.

Everyone could tell how upset Mark was. He had stayed in his tiny office all day Wednesday, and it appeared that he was going to do it again today. His eyes were glazed and badly bloodshot, and he seemed far away, crabby, and distracted.

Every once in awhile someone would knock on his door, which was normally never closed, and peek inside. “How’s Jolie?” they’d ask, or, “Any word on Jolie?”

The word Mark had was that she was in a coma, in intensive care at Harborview Hospital, and her chances of making it were something like fifty-fifty.

It was extremely upsetting news.

When he had left Jolie’s house, he was sure she was dead. He’d accidentally shot her in the head, for God’s sake.

But she was alive. If she survived, and if she came out of her coma, he’d be in unimaginable trouble. Why hadn’t he just called the cops and reported the accident.

Instead, he’d tried to cover things up. Why had he done that? He’d been so shocked and drunk that he’d automatically gotten up and walked out the door. But not too drunk to carefully wipe away his fingerprints.

Now who knew what the charges would be? First-degree murder? Second? There was no way he would be able to convince anyone it had been an accident.

It was all Eddie’s fault. If it weren’t for that dangerous, unstable idiot and Jolie’s foolish faith in him, Mark never would have had to offer her a gun. She’d have been fine if she’d only been willing to listen to reason.

It was a terrible situation in so many ways. He’d only been bluffing about suicide, but it was starting to look like an option.

A businesslike knock sounded on his door.

“Yes,” Mark snapped. “Come in.”

A tall, middle-aged redhead in a frumpy dark suit stuck her head in the door. She looked serious—almost to the point of sadness. “Mark Bender?”

Mark frowned. “Yes?”

“I’m Detective Bjorgeson from the Seattle Police Department.”

Mark’s heart stopped. Nobody knew about him and Jolie. He took a deep quiet breath. Be cool.

“Hi, Detective. What can I do for you?”

“You’re Jolie Walker’s supervisor, is that right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I was wondering if you’d mind my asking you a few questions.”

“What would you like to know? Would you like to sit down?”

“I don’t plan to get too comfortable,” Pinky said flatly.

Mark’s heart thumped so hard he was afraid the Detective might hear. “Oh, right.”

“I know this has probably been tough on you…on all of you here.” Her words were softer now, but her tone and face were as hard as ever.

“Yeah, everybody here really liked Jolie. We had a birthday…” He paused, apparently choked up. “We had…it was her birthday on Monday.”

“Sorry to hear that. Look, I know this is difficult for you, and I appreciate your time. What I want to know is if you noticed anything unusual with Ms. Walker lately, anything out of the ordinary.”

“Well, no. I can’t really think of anything in particular.”

“This wasn’t a robbery. It doesn’t look like anything was taken from her residence. She wasn’t sexually assaulted. We do think somebody broke into her house. Did she have a boyfriend or anything like that?”

“I, uh, didn’t know too much about her personal life. I don’t know of any boyfriend or anything.”

Pinky hesitated. She knew what to ask next, but she wanted to put the question just right. Louis had filled her in on the zoo connection to Eddie and she’d nearly fallen down. But while Louis was upset about it, Bjorgeson was practically obsessed. Louis had sent Pinky because he didn’t have the stomach to ask anything that might implicate Eddie. Pinky felt differently. When it came to murder—or in this case attempted murder—he was willing to do whatever it took to nail someone for it. And despite her fondness for Eddie over the years, he looked like just the guy. Disabled or not, it was starting to come extremely clear that Eddie could be dangerous. And if he was any kind of threat at all, Bjorgeson would deal with him without batting an eye, regardless of how Louis might feel about it. But she didn’t have to ask the question. Mark saved him the trouble.

“You know, there is one thing. It’s maybe kind of dumb. But there was this guy I was a little worried about. But he wasn’t a boyfriend or anything like that. He wasn’t really even a friend of Jolie’s.”

“Yeah? Who?” Pinky said, making her face a mask.

“Well, he was this guy, this developmentally disabled guy Jolie was being paid by the State to take around the zoo once a week. I was concerned because the guy was really strange. I accidentally touched him one time, and I honestly thought he was going to attack me. I was trying to help Jolie work with the State to find someone else to take him around, actually. I thought it would be safer if he went with a male guide. And I think Jolie was really starting to get a little scared of the guy. I have nothing against people with disabilities, but he just seemed to me like…” Mark trailed off.

“Like what?”

“Well, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I felt like he had the potential for violence. I never felt comfortable when Jolie was alone with him, frankly.”

“Do you remember his name?”

“Eddie something. In fact, I think he worked with the police. He cleaned up after crimes and stuff. Maybe you even know him. I’m sure we have a file with his contact information. I could pull it for you.”

Bjorgeson nodded her head and suppressed a tight grin. Louis wouldn’t be happy with this development. Tough shit. Pinky was starting to see Eddie in a whole new light. She’d have no problem at all bringing him down. “Why don’t you fax it over to my office,” she said, drily. “We’ll follow up on it. Thanks for your time.”

Bjorgeson dropped a card on Mark’s desk. She didn’t offer Mark her hand, just turned and walked out.

Mark was careful not to smile until the Detective had left his office and the door had closed behind her.

Eddie had broken into Jolie’s house. Of course! And the detective had as much as told him that the cops had associated the break-in with Jolie’s shooting. Surely Eddie had left some evidence. It was almost too good to be true. Justice did exist in the world, after all.

Only one problem. A huge one.

Jolie might still wake up.

Another knock on his door. “Sorry to bug you, Mark, but there’s some good news. We just called the hospital, and Jolie’s been upgraded to serious condition. They might even move her out of intensive care in a day or two.”

“Oh, wow,” Mark said. “That’s great. Is she…she isn’t conscious, is she?”

“No, she’s still in a coma. They said there’s really no way to tell when she might come out of it. She might never come out of it, I guess.”

“Oh, man.” Mark shook his head. That’s bad. This whole thing is a nightmare.”

“I know, it’s horrible. But she’s probably going to survive, at least. Maybe…maybe she’ll get better.”

“I’m not usually religious,” Mark said, “but I’m praying.”

His head was pounding. He had to pray if he was going to escape the consequences. But not for Jolie’s recovery. If she came out of the coma, she could tell her version of the story.

If there was any chance that could happen, Mark realized, his only hope was to make sure he was Jolie’s first—and last—visitor.

It was a horrible thought. But horrible things had already happened.

Chapter 50

When the EMTs finally decided it was time to take Eddie to Harborview, Joe insisted that he was okay too, even though he still felt shaky. Louis had explained to him that Jolie was still alive, and that her prognosis, while fairly grim, was improving.

“I’ve gotta go, Joe. I’m sorry. You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah,” Joe lied.

“I wish I could come with you to the hospital.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll check up on you guys in the morning.” Louis put his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “I want to help you, Joe.”

Joe couldn’t answer.

After Louis was gone, Joe got up and walked to the curb. He was dizzy and tired. His arms hurt, and his headache was monumental. Police cars were parked on either side of the van, boxing it in completely.

An officer was standing at the curb with a clipboard and tape recorder, taking a statement from the agitated landlord, who was looking ten times more distraught than he had in the morning. They both wanted to talk to Joe.

Joe walked past them and into the house. Surprisingly, no one tried to stop him. He loaded up the cleaning equipment, which hadn’t been used at all. Then he picked up Eddie’s precious Mariners bag, which was sitting in the middle of the floor, and walked back outside. He went to the van, opened it, and tossed Eddie’s bag on the passenger seat. He noticed that the flowers he’d bought for LaVonne were still there, squashed on the floor, brown and hideously shrunken.

Joe went back and told the officer everything, as quickly as possible. He’d already told Louis, but he told it all again and didn’t hold anything back. He took full responsibility. If he’d thought he could get away with lying, he would have happily claimed that he’d trashed the place himself— but it was hopeless.

While Joe was talking, the EMTs wheeled Eddie to the ambulance and took off for the hospital. All Joe wanted to do was to go after him and see if he was going to be okay.

After what seemed like forever, the officer scribbled some final notes and turned off his recorder. “I’ve got your statements,” he said. “We’re not going to make an arrest today because of Mr. Jones’ condition. But if you want to file charges, you’ll have plenty of time to do so.” He looked at the landlord. “As far as financial damages, that’s a civil matter. Your insurance companies will have to work that out.”

“Fine,” Joe said. “That’s great.” His insurance would surely be cancelled after this payout. It was one more incentive to get out of the business. Yeah, right. There was no way out. This escapade was going to cost them, big time. They’d be working for Jolie’s landlord for years. Even worse, Eddie could go to jail. Joe wouldn’t be able to handle Eddie in a place like that. “Can I go?” he said. ”I need to be with my brother.”