Lethal Dose of Love Read online

  “It’s looking beautiful,” Payton agreed. “I’m surprised your monkshood is doing so well in this spot. Traditionally they like it shady and wet.”

  “Well, it’s definitely not shady, but I have an underground watering system that keeps it pretty moist. Would you care for a glass of lemonade?”

  “No thank you.”

  “How’s your kitten?”

  “A hellion,” Payton answered. “She’s decided she wants to be outdoors. She’s too little to let out on her own, so I have to drop what I’m doing to go out with her.”

  “I’ll have to come see her sometime. I haven’t seen Sylvie’s cats in years.”

  Payton lowered her voice. “I’m in no hurry to see them again either. How do they handle it when she hosts the Wanderlust meetings?”

  “Felicia ordered Sylvie to clean the cat boxes or we wouldn’t come.”

  “I’d have a hard time telling someone something like that. It’s sort of like telling someone they have bad breath.”

  “You trying to tell me something?” Claire asked, mischievously wrinkling her nose.

  Payton laughed and pointed at one of the other plants Claire had purchased at her shop. “You really have a green thumb.”

  “What have you been up to? I haven’t seen you in a few days.”

  “I worked on my memoir for a while this morning. Miles Arenheim came to see how the gallery was shaping up. Then I thought I’d come see how you were.”

  “That explains why Mamie didn’t show up this morning. Sundays we most always spend the day together.”

  “She picked him up at the airport early. About an hour ago she took him back.”

  “What did you think of him?”

  “Suave, sophisticated. Way out of my league,” Payton said.

  “Boloney! He’s exactly your type.”

  Eeuw. “Is that how I come off?”

  Claire plucked out a single weed and dropped it on the pile. “There’s nothing wrong with sophistication and class.”

  “I guess not, but in my mind that usually means snob too.” Seeing Claire’s averted eyes, Payton exclaimed, “No, not that!”

  Claire gave a nervous laugh.

  “People think I’m a snob?”

  “In the beginning they did.” Claire went to the back steps and sat on the top one. “When you didn’t try to make friends…I think it was natural for them to think that.”

  “I hope they don’t any more.”

  “They have other things to gossip about lately.”

  Payton brought up the reason for her visit. “Tell me about Edna and Rodney.”

  “He was short and squat, stoop-shouldered and bowlegged. Very sweet. He doted on Edna, and then Sean when he came along. They did all those father-son things together, fishing, boating, baseball.” Claire gave a reminiscent laugh. “He bought Sean a little tiny baseball glove as a coming-home-from-the-hospital gift.” Then she added, “Rod and Mamie’s husband, Donald, were in the same graduating class.”

  “Were they friends?”

  “Yes. Well, during high school anyway. After Donald married Mamie and Rod married Edna, they sort of drifted apart. You know how it is, people get involved in their lives. Besides, Don changed. He got hired by that laboratory and turned really weird, talking about experiments and discoveries all the time. I don’t know how Mamie stood it.”

  “So Rod and Sean got along well,” Payton said.

  “Yes. Best friends, I guess you’d say.”

  “How did Edna get along with him?”

  Claire laughed, a deep rolling one that began in the pit of her stomach. “She was so jealous of the relationship between her boys!”

  “Must have been hard on them both when he started getting in trouble.”

  “God, yes, Edna was a wreck, Rod blamed himself. It wasn’t their fault. They were so good to him.” Her hands fluttered in her lap. “Maybe they were too good.”

  Payton took a breath. “It must have been hard on you.”

  Without hesitation, Claire asked, “How long have you known?”

  An uneasy laugh squeezed between Payton’s lips. “A few days.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “It’s a long story. It all began with Sean’s social security card but ended with a visit to his aunt Elaine.”

  “So, she’s still alive.”

  “And well, and living in Amarillo.”

  “Did he know, do you think?”

  “I suspect he only knew he was adopted. They didn’t tell him, though.”

  “They planned to. That was part of our agreement. When they—we—thought he was old enough. You’ve heard about his behavior. He wasn’t ready.”

  “Was there anyone else who might have known?”

  “No.” She thought a moment, then repeated, “No.”

  “What about Mamie?”

  “No. I’ve been so careful. It’s awful to say this, but Sean’s death has been a relief in some ways. To not have to watch everything I say. Not to have to worry what he’s going to do next.” Tears flowed down Claire’s cheeks.

  “It must have been awful for you, to watch him lie, cheat and steal from your friends.”

  Claire’s shoulders heaved with her sobs. Payton put an arm around her. The move brought on a new round of tears. It was time Claire got it all out. After a long while, she looked up at her, squinting into the sun and between racking sobs, said very softly, “I pl-planned to d-do something about it.”

  Payton gulped and dropped her hand from around Claire when Mamie’s car turned into the driveway. Mamie got out, all smiles. While she opened the hatchback and took out a basket, Claire sniffled and swiped her sleeve across her face.

  “Well, I got Miles onto his plane. What it must be like to own your own plane I can’t—” Mamie put the basket on the ground and went to her friend. “What’s wrong, Claire?”

  “Nothing. We were just talking about Sean,” Payton answered for Claire. Payton stood. “I’ll be on my way.”

  “We’re going on a picnic,” Mamie said. “Would you like to come? There’s plenty of food.”

  “I’d love to, but I think I’ll take a rain check. I’m behind in my bookkeeping. Take care, Claire, I’ll see you soon.”

  Claire sniffled again and waved.

  Payton walked to the battlefield. It was late afternoon. Few tourists were around. She walked to the spot where MaryAnn had run aground. Unlike the last time she’d been here, visions of the accident didn’t storm her mind. So, Claire was going to do something about Sean. What did that mean? Tell folks the truth? Commit murder?

  Could a mother actually bring herself to murder her son to stop the evil things he perpetrated on his townspeople? Could Claire feel that guilty for letting the Adamses adopt him, for subjecting them to those years of torment at his hands?

  Claire said she was planning to do something about Sean. That meant she hadn’t actually done anything. But two things Claire said recently came resoundingly back. Both that, at the time, seemed like nothing more than the ramblings of a person suffering severe sorrow. The first was when Payton mentioned about Aden being a suspect and that the police couldn’t arrest him because he couldn’t be located. Claire had said, “That’s good then, isn’t it?” The second time had been in Mamie’s shop when Claire broke down, mumbling that it was all her fault. If Claire hadn’t killed him, then what did the comments mean?

  Claire’s behavior had been odd, to say the least. First was the jogging. Then, the announcement that she was quitting the job she’d loved more than life itself to reopen The Taste of Gay Paree. Payton sat, pulling her knees up close and hugging her arms around them. She lowered her forehead on her knees. The news about the murders Sean committed had to come out. Payton couldn’t delay telling authorities. What would this do to Claire? Probably send her completely over the edge.

  During the walk home, Payton decided to drive to the detention center and see if they’d let her visit Aden. Right this moment she didn’
t care whether he’d killed Sean or not. She just needed to see his face. She ran upstairs to change into something more appropriate for visiting a jail but realized she didn’t have a clue what that should be, so she left on the same blouse and shorts.

  At state police headquarters, they wouldn’t let her see him. Payton asked to see Sergeant Espinoza, but he wasn’t there. She stopped at the same A&W she and Vaughn had gone to and ordered a hamburger. Dripping grease, just like she remembered from her childhood. That very moment, she desperately wanted to be in Virginia, in her family home, surrounded by family. For one fleeting moment, she pictured herself squealing the tires out of the A&W parking lot and onto the Interstate ramp headed south.

  At home, she shut off the car and laid her head on the steering wheel as the garage door slid shut behind her. She didn’t know how long she sat there, still considering packing a bag and heading back to the hills of Virginia. Family. People who loved her. She hadn’t been back in a very long time. Hadn’t even gone home after Cameron died.

  The kitten met her at the kitchen door. Payton cuddled her, tears flowing. Maggie didn’t seem to notice, just purred and cuddled and loved. Exactly what Payton needed. They sat on the love seat in the dark. It wasn’t two minutes before she pulled herself erect and turned on the light.

  She suddenly knew without a doubt who had killed Sean. Someone who’d been there from the start, known Sean since he was a baby, knew Edna and Rodney. Chances were good—very good—this person also knew Sean’s other secrets.

  Payton picked off a cat hair that tickled her nose and looked out the window. Aden’s car was in his driveway, same as before, but now his porch light was on. This time she wouldn’t wait for him to visit. She put the kitten on the floor and raced upstairs to wash her face and repair her makeup.

  The blow came without warning.

  FORTY-FOUR

  Payton landed on hands and knees beside the bed, pain ricocheting from ear to ear. The second blow glanced off the nape of her neck. She rolled. The third blow jammed her right wrist; her shoulder exploded out of the socket and she collapsed. Stay down, part of her said. The other part that controlled the lust for self-preservation said, get up and fight.

  The air was heavy with his presence. In the shadows near the closet.

  Her mind scanned the surroundings and fabricated only one possible weapon, the adored imported crystal lamp on the table, four feet to the right. She lunged, toes digging for traction, fingers groping. She missed the lamp, lost her footing and fell, fingers hooking the lace doily and jerking it from the table. She landed on her dislocated arm. Payton never knew a human could feel such pain and still live.

  He came at her again. She saw him, not as a shape, but a darker spot in the dense shadows. Where was the lamp? She’d heard it fall when the doily pulled away. Her fingers groped along the floor.

  He took another step and became outlined in the meager moonlight from the French door; he was shorter than Payton, but beefy and thick, probably outweighing her by seventy-five pounds. When he bypassed the opportunity to escape out the door, Payton knew with unqualified certainty that his objective wasn’t burglary. It was murder.

  “Who are you?” She backed two steps, her right arm dangling uselessly at her side, pain screeching into her fingers. “What do you want?”

  No reply.

  Another step back.

  “If you go away now, I promise I won’t call Vaughn.”

  Still nothing.

  The hallway was an endless five feet away. As if reading her thoughts, he lunged, one arm high overhead. Something glinted in his hand.

  Payton spun and ran. She tripped and fell against the wall. She didn’t lose consciousness but wished she had. Through the wall of agony a silhouette loomed above. The panther statuette—given to her by Cameron—was about to smash down on her head.

  How dare he use her own possession as a murder weapon? Payton drove her left shoulder into his midsection, embracing his thick hips with her good arm. She dug her toes in the carpet and thrust all her weight forward. His muscles clenched as he fought to maintain balance. She pushed again, toes digging in. He staggered; should fall.

  The cat statue—a precious third anniversary gift—drove into the middle of Payton’s spine. Rather than debilitate, the pain spawned rage. Adrenaline bred strength. She squeezed her arm around him, used the rug as a launching pad and thrust forward. The heavy body tumbled against the dresser amid a torrent of obscenities. Payton fell atop him but quickly regained her feet.

  So did he. Fury etched his silhouette.

  Something cold lay against her right foot. Mercury couldn’t have flowed smoother than Payton as she bent, picked up the lamp and wrenched the cord from the wall.

  And aimed for his head.

  He ducked. The lamp struck his right arm. Bones broke. The sound was like nothing she’d ever heard. He gave a low, agonized howl.

  This time the statue caught Payton on the side of the head. Her vision swam. Became four assailants. Then ten.

  She slashed the lamp in a wide, sweeping arc. He came at her anyway, statue held like a gun. A spark of moonlight illuminated its ruby eyes. This must be how it had been for Cameron, at the mercy of those wretched men who’d pummeled him with her kitchen utensils.

  Payton stabbed the lamp at a spot that should be groin. The ensuing wail said she struck home. She crashed the lamp down. Once, twice. The bulb burst and they were showered with glass. She swung again. Each time she made contact with flesh and bone, yet still he remained upright.

  He lunged. She swung. Lamp and cat collided. The lamp shattered in her hand. He took a step forward. She took two backward. Each bore an arm dangling at their side. Each breathed hard, though his was raspy and liquid. In an absurd dance they edged toward the door.

  He prepared to strike again. Payton prepared to defend. There was a sudden, ragged intake of breath, and he collapsed at her feet. Not dead, she knew, because he was breathing in thick, mucousy gurgles.

  She leaped over him. And started to run.

  Fingers clutched her ankle and yanked. She kicked out, making contact with something rough. Her attacker grunted. The hand let go and she darted for the door.

  He’d gotten upright again.

  What did it take to bring this monster down?

  This time he didn’t charge. Didn’t swing the statue. He raced from the room, taking the stairs two at a time. Payton sprinted after him, doing likewise. At the bottom, he suffered a moment’s hesitation then raced to the back of the house dodging furniture and statuary.

  He wrenched open the sliding door and slithered outside. Moments ago, she’d been willing to let him leave without impediment. Now, feeling all-encompassing outrage borne of invasion, betrayal and attempted murder, she dove at him. This time he dropped like a stone. The scent of rosemary surged around them as they tumbled into the herb bed, Payton on top. She thrashed him in the face, nose and ears. Over and over she pounded, feeling a rush as his blood gushed over her.

  He planted his good hand on her left breast and shoved. She went airborne; her head thumped back onto the brick patio. Now he was atop her chest, his weight forcing her shoulders into the bricks, expelling a new battery of pain. Five fingers went around Payton’s throat.

  This time she would not heed Death’s call.

  She folded her legs, arched her back and hammered her knees into his spine. Unable to brace himself, he fell forward. Their faces touched. Breaths mingled. A scent. No, not a scent, because she couldn’t breathe; it was more a perception, a familiarity. She arched her back and kicked again, but added a twist to the side that dislodged the hands and broke the bond of recognition.

  Payton flew to her knees, gasping, sucking in lungfuls of precious air, helpless and impotent. She put out a hand in a gesture of supplication: like a child’s time out. It wouldn’t stop him, but it was all she had left. Breathe. In. Out.

  Movement behind her attacker—a shadow, an apparition, or maybe an angel—Payton
didn’t know, or care. It moved with the speed of electricity, wrapping an arm around the attacker’s neck and slamming him to the ground. There was a sound of intense thrashing and grunting. Payton lifted her head; maybe Aden needed help. But it was over, Aden was on his feet, brushing dirt off his hands.

  She inhaled. That cool fresh air was the best thing she’d ever felt. Better even than any sex. Payton fell back on her haunches, breathing, just breathing.

  “Are you all right?”

  That’s when she realized she was crying; if her squeaks and rasps could be called crying. Gentle fingers touched her elbow, helped her up. Strong arms wrapped her safely in their embrace and lifted. Her shoulder jostled against his and she screamed. It was a croak but there was no mistaking its meaning.

  Aden guided her down into the lounge chair. He knelt, peering anxiously into her face. “I’m going to get the phone and some towels. Will you be okay for a minute?”

  She stretched to peer over his shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about him right now.”

  Aden was only gone a moment. He returned with a phone against one ear and a bundle of kitchen towels in his free hand. “…lot of blood,” he was saying. “Hurry.” He gave Payton’s address then flipped the phone shut and dropped it in his shirt pocket. He knelt again, shaking the folds from a yellow plaid towel. “There’s blood all over you. Where are you hurt?”

  “Everywhere.”

  He gave a grim smile, lifted her right hand and turned it. Her palm was covered in blood. A fresh flow ran from the middle of her lifeline. He swabbed it, but a fresh bubble burst up. He grunted and wound the towel tight around her hand. Behind him a black hulk grew out of the shadows.

  “Aden! Look out!”

  Seemingly in the same motion Aden leaped up and spun around. The hulk approached, entered the circle of light from the sliding doors. Vaughn’s face appeared, came closer.