Night’s Landing

Eighteen

Juliet carried a monstrous spider plant to her kitchen sink and wondered when and where this weird, irritating conversation with Joe Collins would end. She turned on the spray faucet, aware of the senior FBI special agent watching her from the table. The doorman, none too happy, had called ten minutes ago to announce her unexpected “guest.” Collins had requested a bit of her time to ask her a few questions, and when she’d said okay-what other choice was there?-he’d parked himself at her table and told her to continue with what she was doing.

Watering plants. Lots of plants.

The life of a real, live deputy U.S. marshal.

Since Collins was from New York, he had to know that even a small apartment on the Upper West Side was still an expensive undertaking, well beyond what she could afford. It wasn’t so great by suburban standards. The bathroom had a view of a brick wall. The living-room windows were constantly blackened by soot. There was no garbage disposal. But the building had a fantastic location, it had an elevator, it had a doorman-what was not to like?

And, for her, it was damn near free thanks to a generous friend who was in L.A. on some theater project for at least six months.

Then Juliet, her plants and her fish would have to find a new home.

She’d explained the friend in L.A. before Collins even asked, which she regretted. It made her sound defensive, as if he had reason to think she was on the take or something.

He fiddled with an unlit cigarette. “All these plants are yours?”

“All mine.”

“You like New York?”

“I like the work I’m doing here.”

“You were here first, before Deputy Dunnemore.”

She wanted to ask Collins what the hell her relationship with Rob had to do with who freaking shot him in Central Park, but decided that wasn’t the way to go. Stay cool. Answer the agent’s questions. She squirted more water down into the spider plant’s roots. “I’ve been in New York eighteen months. Rob got here in February. It was hard to pretend I’m not as driven as I am when we were working out of the same district.” Using her fingers, she wiped dust off the dampened variegated spikes. “We called it quits in March.”

“Not that I asked,” Collins said.

She glanced around at him. “You were going to.”

“How did you two meet?”

“Rob came up here from Baltimore to collect a prisoner.”

“It’d be tough, I think, being married to someone doing the same job as me. My wife’s a high-school guidance counselor.”

Juliet sighed. There’d never been talk of marriage with her and Rob. “Good for her.”

“Hardest job in the world. These kids-you just hurt for some of them. Shit lives, shit choices.” Collins rolled his cigarette between his fingers. “Dunnemore. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”

“Silver plate, not pure silver. The Dunnemores aren’t rich. They’re not poor, either, but the father doesn’t come from money. He was assistant secretary of state once, but, hell, I don’t think he made much more than we do.”

That drew a half smile from Collins. “You ever make it to the family home in Tennessee? Night’s Landing. Sounds like a nice place, doesn’t it?”

“No.” She gave the spider plant a final, hard spray. “Never made it.”

“Sore subject?”

Rob had invited her down for a weekend in March, a month before his vacation in Amsterdam. Said they could get a jump on spring. She’d worked instead. She could have gotten off-they both knew it.

End of romance.

“Not at all,” she told Collins. “Just didn’t work out.”

“Nate Winter’s down there with the sister. You get a feel for her when she was up here?”

“Nice. Smart. Pretty. Impulsive. Agent Collins-”

“She got an anonymous letter in the mail.”

Juliet grabbed another plant, an orchid she was surprised wasn’t dead yet. As much as she loved plants, they had to be hardy to survive her lifestyle and the tough conditions of her borrowed New York apartment.

Collins carefully returned his cigarette to his pack, but she noticed it was bent, bits of tobacco spilling out onto the table. She’d let him smoke. She didn’t care. But it broke house rules. For all she knew, her friend had little cigarette smoke alarms all through the place.

She set the orchid in the sink. She forgot what kind it was, but it wasn’t that pretty when it was blooming and was truly ugly when it wasn’t. She gave an audible sigh. “Okay, is this where I’m supposed to ask ‘what anonymous letter’?” But she immediately regretted her irritable remark. “Sorry. I guess I’m as nerved up about this whole business as anyone.”

“Feel like you’re next?”

“No, goddammit. What a thing to say.”

He shrugged, then told her about the letter. Sarah’s call. Nate’s flight to Tennessee. How she said she’d torn apart the phones looking for taps. Juliet smiled at that one-she had a feeling that, never mind the delicate gold rings and blond good looks, Sarah Dunnemore would do just about anything.

“You think this letter’s for real?” Juliet asked.

“Lab guys are checking it out. It was postmarked New York.”

“What, you think one of us sent it? Rob, Nate, me? The chief deputy?”

Collins didn’t answer.

Juliet groaned. Her and her mouth. “Any more questions?”

“Nah.” He got heavily to his feet. “Thanks for your time, Deputy.”

After he left, she banged her head on the door a couple of times just to see if she could knock some sense into herself. Jesus. How not to handle an FBI interrogation.

That was what it was, too. Collins had asked her if he could talk to her. She’d said yes.

It wasn’t a courtesy visit. He was an FBI agent in charge of a high-profile investigation. The man was just doing his job.

And he’d been very deliberate about it. No slipups. He’d told her only what he’d wanted her to know-what he wanted to see her reaction to.

He’d played her beautifully.

But who cared? She had nothing to hide. He had to work all the angles of the investigation at once. Crazy ones, even. Like maybe Rob or Nate had screwed up and done something that’d gotten them shot. Like maybe she had a vendetta against Rob and had hired someone to take him out.

Except he hadn’t died, and neither had Nate.

Maybe dead wasn’t the point. Maybe dead or wounded was the point.

Why?

The letter Sarah had received…what was that all about?

“Not your problem.”

Juliet flipped all the locks on the door and picked up an ivy plant with crispy leaves. She must have missed that one her last go-round with the spray faucet. But it still showed signs of life. Her brothers would tell her she was losing her touch-she’d always had a green thumb.

She noticed a little goldfish belly-up in one of the tanks. Damn. She set the ivy on the sink and found a slotted spoon, scooped out the dead fish and flushed it down the toilet, then flipped the lid and sat down.

“Oh, shit.”

But she couldn’t stop the tears. For the first time since she’d heard the news about the shooting, she sat and cried. She’d loved Rob. Totally. And it hadn’t worked out, just like all her other relationships. Then he’d almost died. He was still in rotten shape. Miserable, in pain. He had to be scared out of his mind for his sister.

Would he turn to her for help?

Hell, no.

She looked out the window at the brick wall and listened to the gurgle of her aquariums. This was it. She was going to spend the rest of her life with a bunch of plants and fish for company.

And her work. God knows she’d have her work.