“And one for Kyle Lombard wherever the hell he is.”
“His wife called me from an 845 area code,” Sophie said. “But if you can’t find Kyle through his wife’s number, maybe you can find him through Clint’s phone records.”
Vito nodded hard. “Good, Sophie. Very good.”
“No, Vito.” Nick shook his head. “Bad. Very bad. If Lombard traces to Sophie and Lombard traces to Berretti of the missing medieval torture artifacts, and if Lombard isn’t out cattin’ around on his wife but maybe lying in a gulley somewhere?”
Vito’s blood ran cold. “Shit.”
Sophie sat down hard. “Oh, no. If Kyle’s involved and he’s really missing…”
“This killer could know about you,” Vito said grimly.
“We’ll have to get you protection, Sophie,” Jen said.
Liz nodded. “I’ll take care of it.” She squeezed Katherine’s arm. “Breathe, Kat.”
Katherine lowered herself into the chair next to Sophie. “I should never have-”
“Katherine,” Sophie gritted through her teeth. “Stop.”
“I can’t. This has nothing to do with you being five or fifty-five. This is you being in the sights of the monster who did this.” She grabbed the photo of Sanders as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Who tortured and murdered nine other bodies in my morgue.”
Sophie’s expression changed in an instant and she put her arms around Katherine as the ME’s shoulders shook. Vito and Nick looked at each other, stunned. They’d never seen Katherine shed a tear in the past, no matter how bad the bodies got.
But this wasn’t a body. This was her little girl and Vito understood her terror.
Sophie patted Katherine’s back. “I’ll be fine. Vito will watch out for me. And I have Lotte and Birgit.” She looked up at Vito. “On second thought, I think you’re it.”
Katherine shoved her away, furious. “This is not funny, Sophie Johannsen.”
Sophie wiped at Katherine’s tears. “No, it’s not. Nor is it your fault.”
Katherine grabbed Vito’s shirt and yanked him down with a strength that surprised him. “You’d better not let anything happen to her, too, or so help me God…”
Vito stared at the woman he thought he’d known so well. Katherine stared back, serious and very angry. Too. She knew about Andrea, what he’d done. He pried her fingers from his shirt and straightened. “Understood.”
Katherine took a deep shuddering breath. “Just so we’re clear.”
“Crystal,” Vito bit out.
Sophie was staring at them both. “Did you just threaten him, Katherine?”
“Yeah,” Vito said. “She did.”
Chapter Seventeen
Wednesday, January 17, 8:30
P.M.
Sophie got out of her car in the nursing home’s lot and waited for Vito to park. He’d been silent, brooding, and angry as they’d left the precinct. When he’d followed her to the nursing home, he’d kept so close to her rear bumper that he’d have plowed into her if she’d had to stop suddenly. She’d gone over Vito’s and Katherine’s confrontation in her mind all the way over, which was a hell of a lot less unnerving than thinking that a killer might be watching her. Something had happened to someone Vito was supposed to have protected. Sophie remembered the roses. Her gut told her they were related.
Vito slammed his truck door and came around to take her arm.
“You are going to tell me what that was all about,” she said.
“Yeah. But not now. Please, Sophie, not now.”
She studied his face in the soft glow of the streetlights. There was pain in his eyes, in the set of his jaw. And guilt. She understood about guilt. She also knew Katherine would never have allowed her to leave with Vito had she not been convinced he could indeed take care of her. “All right. But calm down. You’re going to frighten Anna, and she doesn’t need that right now.” She threaded her fingers through his. “Neither do I.”
He drew several deep breaths and had schooled his features to calm by the time they got to the desk. Sophie signed them in. “Miss Marco. How’s Gran been today?”
Nurse Marco frowned. “Same as always. Mean and ornery.”
Sophie frowned back. “Thanks so much. It’s this way, Vito.” She led him back through the sterile halls, aware of the curious stares of the nurses. Curious nothing. They were leering. Drooling, even. “Don’t make eye contact,” Sophie murmured, “or they’ll be on you like white on rice. They don’t get eye candy like you every day.”
He chuckled, breaking the tension. “Thanks, but not a picture I wanted in my mind.”
“Don’t mention it.” She stopped outside Anna’s room. “Vito, she doesn’t look anything like she did before. You need to know that.”
“I understand.” He squeezed her hand. “Let’s go.”
Anna was dozing. Sophie sat next to her and touched her hand. “Gran, I’m here.”
Anna’s eyes fluttered open and one side of her mouth trembled in a smile. “Sophie.” Her eyes looked up, and up again until she saw Vito’s face. “Who is this?”
“This is Vito Ciccotelli. My… friend. Vito loves the opera, Gran.”
Anna’s eyes changed, softened. “Ahh. Sit, please,” she slurred.
“She wants you to sit.”
“I can understand her.” Vito sat and took Anna’s hand in his. “I heard you in Orfeo at the Academy downtown when I was a kid. Your Che faro made my grandfather weep.”
Anna regarded him steadily. “And you? Did you weep?”
Vito smiled at her. “Yes. But let’s keep that our secret, okay?”
Anna smiled back, slowly. “Your secret is safe with me. Talk to me, Vito.”
Sophie’s throat thickened as Vito talked about the opera and brought a light to Anna’s eyes that hadn’t been there in a long time. Way too soon, Nurse Marco intruded.
“She needs her evening medication, Dr. Johannsen. You should go.”
Anna breathed out a petulant breath. “That woman.”
Vito still held Anna’s hand. “She’s just doing her job. It was so nice to meet you, Miss Shubert. I’d love to come again.”
“You can, but only if you call me Anna.” Her good eye narrowed slyly. “Or Gran.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Gran.”
But Vito just laughed. “My grandfather would have been so jealous of me tonight, sitting with the great Anna Shubert. I’ll come again, as soon as I can.”
Sophie leaned over and kissed Anna’s cheek. “Be nice to Nurse Marco, Gran. Vito’s right, she’s only trying to do her job.”
Anna’s lips thinned. “She’s mean, Sophie.”
Sophie shot a worried glance at Vito and saw he’d tilted his head pensively.
“How so, Anna?” he asked.
“She’s mean and hateful. And cruel.” It was all Sophie had ever gotten her to say.
Sophie controlled the sudden tremble of her hand. That Vito hadn’t laughed it off bothered her a great deal. “Sleep, Gran. I’ll see what I can do about Nurse Marco.”
“You’re a good girl, Sophie.” Anna’s mood shifted again and she smiled her half smile. “Come soon, Sophie, and bring your man here.”
“I will. I love you, Gran.” She kissed Anna’s other cheek and hurried out, not stopping until she got to her car, Vito never more than a step behind her.
“You didn’t talk to the nurse,” he said quietly.
“What am going to say? Are you abusing my grandmother?” Sophie heard the hysteria creep into her voice and sighed, forcing herself to calm. “She’d just say no.”
“Have you found evidence of abuse?”
“No. Gran’s always clean and seems to get her medicine when she needs it. She’s kept on a cardiac monitor and a few of the nurses have ICU experience. This is a good nursing home, Vito. I researched it so carefully, but… She’s my grandmother.”