Lion & Lamb, page 23
“Archie and I met at the Museum of Art. I was performing on the Fourth of July, and he was one of the parade guests. We met backstage. He told me he’d been in love with me since he was a kid. I figured I ought to say goodbye to him in the same place I’d said hello.”
Cooper couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Francine, you do realize you’re admitting to killing your husband, right?”
“No, she’s not,” Maya said. “Also, at best, you have evidence of us leaving the scene of a crime. And I don’t think you even have that. You two like to bluff.”
“The murder weapon was buried right here! In the flower bed in back of your house!” Cooper said.
Francine shot Cooper and Maya cold, hard looks. “Keep your voices down. Please.”
“Could have been a home invasion gone wrong,” Maya continued. “Archie resists and is killed. The killers force us to drive with them to the art museum to dump his body. And then they get frightened and let us go.”
Cooper shook his head. “So these alleged home invaders forgot to bring a gun and had to borrow yours, Vanessa? The very one you received from Mickey Bernstein? Who, by the way, should be a thousand miles away from this murder investigation.”
“Stop it, I’m begging you!” Francine shout-whispered.
“The details don’t matter,” Veena said. “We just want the truth. That’s all we’ve wanted since the beginning of this thing.”
Francine lowered her head and shook it gently as if to the beat of the saddest, slowest ballad she knew. She was beyond weary. This entire conversation seemed to drain the life from her body. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” she said.
“Easy,” Veena replied. “Just tell me which one of you shot and killed Archie.”
Chapter 120
“BAAAAA, SAID the little lamb.”
The noise was so out of place, it startled all four adults in the parlor. Cooper was the first to realize who it was and responded to the comment.
“Baaaaa, little one,” he said. “Come on out from your hiding place.”
Five-year-old Maddie crawled out from behind a sofa, and a moment later her older brother stepped into the room with a solemn look on his face. Cooper expected him to say something along the lines of Sorry, Mom, I accidentally threw a football into the windshield of the Bentley.
For the first time since Cooper had met Maya, she appeared horrified. “I told both of you to stay in your rooms,” she said with a coldness in her voice that was as far away from Mary Poppins as you could get.
Francine, trembling with uncontrollable anger or fear or maybe both, said, “Both of you. Upstairs. Now.”
“No, Mom,” said Archie Jr. “I have something to say.” He looked at his sister. “Maddie, go upstairs. I have to talk to these people about something important.”
Maddie saw the seriousness in her brother’s eyes. Her lower lip trembled. She didn’t understand what was going on. Maddie looked over at Cooper for reassurance. Cooper felt himself slip into dad mode. He smiled, nodded. “It’s okay, sweetie,” he said softly. “Your mom will be up in just a moment.”
Maddie wanted to do a lot of things in that moment. She wanted to baaaaa at the man with the funny name (and the cute dog). She wanted to run to her mother and jump into her arms. She wanted to understand why everyone was so angry and sad all the time.
But in the end she turned around and went up to her room. She had a stuffed lamb on her bed, a gift from Nanny Maya just a week ago—though the timing meant little to Maddie. She just loved the stuffed animal and hugged it tight.
Chapter 121
“I KILLED Dad,” Archie Jr. said, his voice barely a whisper.
“Archie…” His mother began to protest, but she trailed off when she realized that all hope had evaporated. There was no way for him to take back what he’d said. No way to rewind any of this, although she would have given almost anything to do so.
“It’s okay, Archie,” Veena said. “You’re in a safe place right now, and we’re all here to help you. You don’t have to be afraid.”
The kid unconsciously balled his hands into fists as he worked up the nerve to continue. “My mom and Maya didn’t want you two to know that, but I didn’t want to lie and get them in any more trouble.”
“We understand, buddy,” Cooper said. “And by the way, what you’re doing right now is incredibly brave.”
“I don’t feel brave.”
“I know that’s not how you feel,” Veena said, “but your mother couldn’t be prouder of you. Isn’t that right, Mom?”
Archie Jr. looked over at his mother. Francine could only beam love at her child as she slowly nodded. “You can tell them the truth.”
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
“It’s okay, baby,” Francine said. “And they’re right. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Veena asked.
Archie Jr. relaxed his hands as if he’d just realized he’d been clenching them. “I shot Dad,” he said. “I knew it was wrong, but…I had to do something. When Mom found out, she asked where I’d gotten a gun, and I’d found it in Ms. Maya’s bag but I didn’t want to get her in trouble, so I lied and said I found it near school.”
“And then you buried it in the garden,” Cooper said.
“Yeah. But the police found it anyway. Or Mr. Mauricio did, and he told the police. I swear I didn’t mean to get Ms. Maya in trouble.”
“You didn’t, Archie,” Maya said, forcing a smile as if that would hold back her tears. It failed.
“Why did you do that, honey?” Veena asked. “Why did you shoot your dad?”
Archie Jr. swallowed. “I had to.”
Cooper nodded. “Tell us what your dad said.”
“It’s not what he said. It’s what he did.”
“What did he do?”
Archie Jr. didn’t reply, but the way he looked at his mother confirmed it for Cooper. The boy had known exactly what was going on. Archie Jr. hadn’t cared if his father hit him. But his father hitting his mother was too much. What kind of young man could let his mother be beat up, even if it was his own father doing the hitting?
“Dad always said blood is thicker than water,” Archie Jr. continued. “Nothing was more important than Mom and me and Maddie. I think he forgot that. I was just trying to remind him.”
“How?” Veena asked.
“I didn’t mean it. I just wanted him to stop and listen to me. So I pointed Maya’s gun at him so he would stop. I didn’t want to…”
“It’s okay,” Cooper said. “It’s not your fault.”
“But it is my fault!” Archie Jr. yelled. “I should have known Dad wouldn’t stop! He tried to take the gun, and I just wanted to pull it away from him, and I must have pulled too hard and…” The boy trailed off and stared off into space as if it were happening all over again.
Cooper fought hard to control the tightening in his chest. It felt like the onset of a heart attack, but he knew he was just trying to avoid crying in front of everyone. He glanced around the room and realized he didn’t need to bother. All of them were sobbing.
Chapter 122
THE SUN had set by the time Cooper and Veena got on I-76 and headed back to Philly. It was rush hour but everyone was leaving the city, so they hit very little traffic. It seemed like someone had turned down the volume of the world. Philadelphia was cold and quiet.
“You going to tell that prick DA about this?”
“No,” Veena said. “Not about little Archie, anyway. You telling Francine’s lawyer?”
“Pretty sure she knows. Starting to think she hired me for window dressing. ‘We got the best, Your Honor,’ and so on.”
“So we finally know the truth.”
“Yeah, we do.”
“We should be happy about this.”
“We should.”
“So why does the truth feel so horrible?”
Cooper drove in silence, mostly because he knew the answer to that question. A lot of people thought that life was a struggle between virtue and temptation, angels and devils, good and bad. But that wasn’t the case. The truth was, life was often a choice between bad and worse. Neither of those options felt good, but human beings were compelled to choose, hoping everything would turn out okay despite all evidence to the contrary.
Chapter 123
9:09 p.m.
“ARE WE doing the right thing?”
“That’s a loaded question,” Cooper said. “So the only answer is to get loaded.”
They were back at the bar in the Rittenhouse Hotel. Same low-key bartender, same flirtatious server. But they felt like they were sipping martinis in an alternative universe. Nothing about this world felt right, so they took comfort in each other’s company. Which in itself felt strange. Could Cooper Lamb have imagined doing this with Veena, his former nemesis, two weeks ago?
“Seriously,” she said. “There’s no way Francine would ever be convicted. No jury in the world would punish a woman for protecting her own child.”
“I don’t think there would be a trial,” Cooper said. “I imagine that even a hard-ass like Mostel would cut a deal to keep this family out of the courtroom.”
“Even if I believed that, it’s nothing but a waking nightmare for Francine and those kids.”
“And the monster who beat them gets off the easiest. Death is too good for him.”
“The greatest of all time.”
“And, somehow, the worst.”
They finished their initial round and considered ordering food but opted for another round instead. By the end of the third round, they were ready to hide away from this twisted world. For a little while, anyway.
“How about we go to your place this time?” Cooper asked with what he hoped was a knowing gleam in his eye.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“We’re already here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I currently live here,” Veena said. “At the Rittenhouse Hotel.”
“What, is your apartment being remodeled or something?”
“No. I’ve decided to sell the place and forgo apartments altogether. Hang on, hear me out. I crunched the numbers and realized I was wasting a ton of money on a physical space I almost never occupy. Factor in the upkeep of that space, even if I hired help—which I would never do—and it’s even more wasted time and money. So my plan is to hop from hotel to hotel. I’ll stay until a place bores me, then move on. If I like a place enough, I’ll go back to it.”
Cooper looked as if he’d taken another punch from tight end Jimmy Tua. “Wow. So all this time, we could have been enjoying our drinks in the comfort of your room, which is just a short elevator ride away?”
Veena shook her head. “Nope, not in my sanctuary. Nobody goes inside except me. Oh, and housekeeping. That’s another thing I decided.”
“That is the most Veena Lion thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Besides, I prefer your place.”
“You mean you prefer Lupe.”
“Mayyyybe…”
“And the kick-ass breakfast I make when I’m a little hungover or have escaped the clutches of death.”
“Also very possible. So shall we head to your place?”
“Wait. Exactly when did you make this decision about your apartment? And did it have anything to do with hit men being after us?”
“Cooper, I don’t have to go back to your place.”
“Let me take care of the check.”
Chapter 124
LUPE WAS over the moon when he saw—and smelled—Veena. He was not so pleased when Cooper and Veena slowly undressed each other on the way to his bedroom, stopping for frequent make-out breaks, or when Cooper nudged the door almost completely shut, which was his way of telling the pup, No climbing into bed with us. For now.
Something woke Cooper later that night, although he didn’t know exactly how late it was—he’d muted his phone and turned it facedown on the nightstand right before they fell into his bed together so there would be no interruptions.
But there were, of course.
Tiny metallic sounds that Cooper wasn’t meant to hear but heard anyway. Like…scraping. Was it some kind of animal? he wondered, still half asleep. He rolled over and saw that Veena was awake too.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. I think it’s an animal in the backyard. Probably a squirrel.”
“I think the sound is coming from your front door. Also, I thought we settled this. That is not a backyard, it’s a glorified al—”
“Shhh.” Cooper realized the clicking sound was indeed coming from the vicinity of his foyer. There was also a low growl—Lupe had sensed something too.
“What is it?” Veena asked.
“I’m beginning to think you were right about moving to a hotel.” Watch your backs, everyone had said. You don’t know who you’re messing with.
Without warning, the entire bedroom lit up. Cooper had a sudden realization and lunged for his phone on the nightstand.
Chapter 125
TEXT MESSAGE FROM VICTOR SUAREZ
TO COOPER LAMB
They’re coming for you. Two of them!
Chapter 126
COOPER SHOUTED, “Get down!” and he and Veena hurled themselves from the bed in opposite directions. Both were very naked. Neither of them cared at that moment.
Cooper landed awkwardly and hard but was able to grab the shotgun under his bed. Veena landed lightly on her hands and feet, almost like a cat. Cooper racked the shotgun, partly to pump two shells into the chamber but also warn anyone who was thinking about entering this room.
Veena felt along the ground for her bag, only to realize that she’d dropped it somewhere in the hall. Damn it!
Cooper aimed his shotgun at the windows behind his bed just as the glass shattered. Lupe started barking like crazy. Cooper crouched down farther and tried to make sense of the shadowy form that was stepping through the broken glass.
Lupe’s barking intensified as he ran down the hall—Veena could hear his claws scrabbling on the hardwood floor. The pup was headed to the front door to deal with the intruder. No, Lupe! Veena screamed in her mind and took off after him.
“Don’t move!” Cooper shouted.
Veena cleared the doorway just as gunfire filled the room, blasting apart Cooper’s computer monitor and dresser mirror and, based on the sound of it, every other glass object he owned.
Screw this, Veena thought.
Cooper stood up and pulled the trigger of his shotgun. Whatever glass had remained in the window frame was obliterated, and it took the shadowy form along with it, the force blasting him back into the alley. The shooter collapsed on top of a folding chair with a loud, messy clatter.
Meanwhile, out in the hall, Veena did two incredibly complex things without really thinking about them. She managed to tackle Lupe midstride, sliding with him along the floor a few inches, which ripped some of the skin from her knees. She also located and scooped up her bag in the darkness.
The front door was nearly ripped from its hinges as a heavy boot forced it open. This was a second attacker; he must have heard the gunfire and decided the time for subtlety had passed.
That man rushed in with a revolver and looked down at Veena’s naked body as she cradled a growling Lupe under one arm and clutched her bag with her other hand.
“What the…Veena Lion? What are you doing here?”
The second attacker was Mickey Bernstein.
Veena didn’t reply. She dropped her arms, giving him a free show. Bernstein couldn’t help himself—he gawked. Lupe took off like a supersonic jet, eyes focused on the intruder. Bernstein yelled and pointed his revolver down at the running dog. Veena lifted the derringer out of her bag and didn’t even think twice about emptying it.
Bang-bang-bang-bang. Four shots, expertly grouped around the chest.
Bernstein tap-danced backward and collapsed in the doorway. Lupe screeched to a halt, knowing that his services were no longer required.
Farther inside the apartment, Cooper heard the shots, but he was too stunned by what he was looking at to react to them. He stood naked in the empty frame of his bedroom window, shotgun in hand, staring down at the wounded figure of…
Vanessa Harlowe.
Maya Rain.
Whoever she was claiming to be on any given day.
Her eyes found Cooper’s, and despite bleeding to death, she worked up a smile that melted his heart a little. Blood streaked across her lips and perfect white teeth, and as he watched, her eyes started to dim.
But now he realized her true name, one he’d only heard spoken a few days ago:
The Quiet One.
Cooper Lamb knew he could never prove it in court or produce any evidence linking Maya Rain to that name and her many crimes. But locking eyes with her now, he could see that all of her masks had slipped away. He just knew.
Which begged the question: Why would the Hughes family have a professional killer caring for their children?
Maybe Archie’s creditors wanted someone to keep an ultra-close eye on Archie. And maybe Archie and Francine knew and had no choice. But if Maya, aka the Quiet One, was that good at her job, she would have had little trouble infiltrating the household.
“I still like you, Cooper,” she said now.
Cooper wanted to reply but hesitated. He knew the Quiet One was dying; when serving overseas, he’d seen the face of imminent death way too many times. Some people never looked more alive than they did right before dying.
Cooper didn’t want the last words Maya ever heard to be something cheap or sarcastic. He wanted to tell her that somehow, impossibly, he still liked her too.
But by the time he’d formulated that thought, she was gone.
Super Bowl Sunday,
February 6
