Chapter 28: Mark Comes Clean

Assuming Mark was babbling, Grace just took off his shoes, then threw covers over him. “Guess I’ll sleep on the floor.”
A knock startled her. “Who now.”
A rumpled Zach leaned on her doorway. “Dolores called. Said there was trouble.”
“You some knight in shining armor? I’m fine.”   
She bristled at the idea of someone coming to save her. She’d been saving her own neck for a long time.
“Is this your friend?” Zach indicated the inert form on her bed.
“Yes. At least I know where he is.”
“Thought he was in California?” He shifted to lean his shoulder on her door frame. She debated asking him in, but with her bed open she felt vulnerable to him.
“So did I.”
“Some friend. He lies, He worries you and now he’s had the police here.”
“He’s just going through something.”
“Mm.” His hand snaked out to run a finger along her jaw line.
Colors and objects exploded in her vision. She grabbed the door to keep herself steady. A warmth spread through her, but left when he stopped touching her.
“You okay?”
She shook off the vision. “Fine. Tomorrow I go to your boss.”
Zach stiffened. “Why?”
“Because I have to do everything I can to prevent this murder.”
“Grace, you can’t save the world.”
“I’m just trying to save Dolores.”
“Maybe she’s beyond saving.”
His gaze bore into her as if he were searching for her soul. She pulled the robe tigher around her. She didn’t want him to see her. But if he could see into her soul, maybe he’d believe her. And then maybe he’d run screaming from her like so many men. “That’s not nice to say.”
“I don’t mean to sound that way, but I’m tired of Dolores and her messes.”
“Especially the baby?”
His jaw line softened. “No, that may be a good thing.”
“Even if it isn’t yours?”
“It is, Grace.”
He stepped away from the door. An impulse had words streaming out of her mouth. “Zach, tomorrow at ten a thunderstorm will roll through here.”
“You the weather man now? The forecast called for sunny skies. A little humidity.”
“There’ll be a storm. If it comes through will you help me?”
“I’ll try, Grace, I’ll try.”
***
Zach stood by the window across the room from his desk. His watch read, “10:03.” Sure enough a storm was now tap dancing through Glen Hills. “Damn.”
When he’d told Grace he’d help her he never expected to make good on that promise. Now he owed her an apology.
Ignoring his case load and the blinking answering machine, he grabbed his suit jacket and went down the street to the hospital as soon as the storm left town. Grace and her partner had just come in from a call and she looked a little ragged.
“Tough one?”
She nodded, her eyes hollow.
He walked her to the cafeteria for coffee. She moved through the hallway as if in a daze. “Yeah. We should have saved her. We did last time.”
“Last time?”
Grace put a hand over her mouth as if she’d said something she shouldn’t. Shaking her head she said, “Never mind.”Silence for a few steps. Then her gaze traveled back to his. “The storm. You’re going to help me.”
He frowned, but didn’t respond until they had settled at a table with coffee. “I guess I have to.”
Her finger traced a line around the outside of the cup. “Not if you don’t want to.”
Her tired voice struck him and he wanted to hold her for a moment. Not an affectionate person by nature, his reaction to her puzzled him.
“It’s going to happen tonight. I feel it. I took a half day. I’ll leave when we get the truck back in order.”
“And then what will you do?”
“Stay with Dolores.”
“She’ll be at work.”
This small woman couldn’t possibly protect Dolores. Besides, his ex-wife wouldn’t want to be protected. She was just that way. He knew that well enough. She turned on and off the fragility like a faucet.
“I’ll be there when she gets home.”
“You are not making any sense.”
“I realize that. You just have to believe me. Can you have a patrol car go by a few times this afternoon?”
“I can pull some strings, call in a favor or tow, but not for no reason.”
“Unofficially?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.”
She shifted sideways in the booth her eyes closing. Her hair, pulled back in a pony tail, was trying to escape the band. She finished her coffee in a gulp. “I better get back.”
***
Dolores’ car was in her driveway when Grace arrived home. Not a good sign. During the ride home, Grace wondered why Dolores hadn’t lost the baby this time. Why were things going in a different order?
Something niggled at the edge of her brain, but she couldn’t catch it. If she could see it, she knew she’d have the answer.
She knocked on the back door, not even bothering to go up to her apartment first.
“Oh, Grace, hello.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m just feeling under the weather. I’d invite you in, but I’m about to go down for a nap.”
Grace flashed to her vision of Dolores bleeding on the bathroom floor. “Are you bleeding?”
“Why would you ask that?”
She shook her head. “Just curious. You look pale.”
“Just fatigue. Too much gardening. How about I come over when I wake up,” Dolores said.
Grace nodded and backed down the steps, her instincts screaming for her to stay. The sun had gone behind a large dark cloud and she expected it would rain again. She couldn’t sit out in the yard. She needed to be in Dolores’ house.
Her mind reeling from the complications, Grace went up to her apartment. Mark sat at her kitchen table, devouring a burger.
“How’d you get in?”
She dropped her keys on the counter, then plopped her tired body into the chair opposite him.
“Your landlady let me in.”
“Why are you here?”
“I was hoping you’d know that.”
She snorted. “I don’t know anything this time.”
“This time? Why is it different?”