Under Suspicion. Mallory Kane

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       Chapter Two

      Her manner was no longer hostile, but it was decidedly chilly. Then she turned toward Sandy and within less than a heartbeat, her entire demeanor changed. A tenderness melted the ice in her eyes and her stiff shoulders relaxed. Zach shivered as the chill she’d aimed at him dissolved in the afternoon sun.

      “You should lie down for at least a half hour while I put out the food and get ready for people to come by. Mrs. Pennebaker told me just now that she’d taken three more pies over and two buckets of chicken.” She took Sandy’s elbow and began to guide her away from Zach and Duff.

      Sandy groaned. “How much do they think I can eat?” she said.

      Zach was sure he’d heard a spark of amusement lighten her subdued tone for a second. Maybe she actually was all right. Or at least better than she looked, because she looked exhausted, crushed and on the verge of fainting, if he could tell anything by the paleness of her face.

      “They know you’re going to need lots of food, not only for yourself and the baby. Don’t forget all the people who are going to be stopping by,” the woman said.

      “I know that. And I don’t need to lie down. I’m fine.” As the woman led her away, Sandy turned back, reaching out to Zach. He took her hand.

      “Come by, please? We— I haven’t seen you for such a long time. You’re not leaving right away, are you? And bring your bags. You’re staying with me.”

      Out of the corner of his eye, Zach saw the woman frown. That stopped the polite protest on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he nodded. “Thanks, Sandy. I’d be happy to.” He shot the woman a sidelong glance.

      “Oh, Zach, this is Madeleine Tierney,” Sandy said, then turned to the woman. “I’m so sorry, Maddy. I forgot all about introducing you.”

      Madeleine Tierney nodded at him without offering her hand.

      “This is Zachary Winter. He’s Tristan’s oldest and dearest friend, practically since they were born.”

      Zach nodded back at her. “I’ll see you at the house, Sandy,” he said.

      As the two women walked away, he took a few seconds to study Madeleine Tierney. She had on a dark jacket and skirt that was a little loose. Her shoes were plain and black with a medium heel. Her clothes seemed designed to keep people from noticing her.

      While she waited for Sandy to get into the passenger side of a rental car, she swept the dwindling crowd one more time. She spotted the two men she’d been watching earlier. Zach checked them out again, too. They were walking down Cemetery Road toward town. When they passed the last parked car, Zach narrowed his gaze.

      “See those two guys, Duff?” he asked. “Oh, sorry, Father Michael.”

      Duff waved his hand. “Don’t worry so much about what to call me. I’m fine with Duff, except in church,” he said. “What two guys?”

      Zach nodded toward the men walking toward town.

      Duff squinted at them for a few seconds. “Oh. Right. That’s Murray Cho and his son. Pat, I think is his name. Why?”

      “Were they at the church service earlier?”

      “I’m sure they were. I don’t remember seeing them, though.” He frowned at Zach. “What’s bothering you?”

      “Just wondering how they knew Tristan.”

      “From what I recall, when they first moved here, Tristan let them use his dock. They’re small-time fishermen.”

      “Commercial?” Zach asked.

      Duff nodded. “They bought the seafood-processing warehouse from Frank Beltaine. I’m not sure if they’ve gotten their commercial license yet, but they’re working on getting freezers installed. I understand they’re going to start selling to the locals soon.”

      So the two men were part of the community. If they just got started, they probably didn’t have much money. Maybe they were walking because they didn’t own a car.

      Zach thought about Madeleine Tierney, who had fed his suspicion of the two men. “So, who is this Madeleine Tierney? And why is she yanking Sandy around as if she was an untrained pup?”

      “She’s not yanking Sandy around. She’s been renting a room at Sandy and Tristan’s for the past few weeks.” Duff used air quotes around the word renting. “Since Sandy’s been pregnant, Tristan was working more and more hours on the rig. He was spending two, three weeks offshore and sometimes only a week at home.”

      “Aren’t there regulations that control how much they can work?”

      Duff nodded. “Usually, sure. But I’ve heard the rig is shorthanded right now because of some virus going around, and the crews can work overtime if needed. Tristan was trying to save money so he could quit offshore and go to work as a veterinary assistant. Madeleine and Sandy struck up a friendship and Tristan thought it was a great idea for Madeleine to stay with her because he didn’t like her being there alone.”

      “So who is she and where’s she from?” Zach asked.

      Duff shook his head. “I understand that she’s an oil rig inspector who’s been—”

      “A what?” Zach was stunned.

      “An oil rig inspector. Her dad was an inspector until he retired. Seems like I kind of remember a kid going on inspections with her dad. But I never paid much attention to the oil rigs before the British Petroleum spill.”

      Zach nodded. He understood. Bonne Chance was like many of the towns and villages along the Louisiana Gulf Coast between Mississippi and Texas. The townspeople were a mix of fishermen and oil rig workers, and the two sides had a kind of love/hate relationship with each other. The oil rigs attracted big fish, including sharks, but they were a strain on the delicate ecosystem of the sea. Plus, everyone was supersensitive since the BP oil spill, which nearly wiped out the entire fishing industry along the Gulf Coast.

      Zach hated the rigs. His dad had worked the rigs until the day he apparently got sick of work and marriage and took off when Zach was around eight years old, leaving his mother and him behind. Now a rig had taken the life of his best friend. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t seen Tristan in thirteen years. The hole left in Zach’s heart hurt just as much as if they’d never been apart.

      “Zach?” Duff said, drawing his attention back to the present. “I’ll be at Sandy’s in about twenty minutes, after I change clothes.”

      Zach nodded. Duff headed toward a new Mini Cooper. Zach turned his attention back to Madeleine Tierney, who was still hovering solicitously beside Sandy. She was looking up the road after the two men. As she watched them, she fiddled with the cross-body strap of the leather purse she carried. Something familiar in the subtle gesture, combined with the way she checked the clasp on the purse, stopped him cold.

      He’d seen that exact set of gestures before. His weapons-training class with the NSA had included two women with whom he’d worked every day for twelve weeks. He’d watched them tuck their weapon into a specially made handbag and СКАЧАТЬ