Only One Man Will Do (16 page)

“You always liked seeing me in that one, honey,” she said softly as she patted the side of his face gently. “So take it with you. I made sure it smells like me and my perfume, since you liked that too. I’m gonna miss you, sweetie…”

Her shoulders suddenly shook as she was wracked with sobs. Dmitri moved up to hold her around the waist and he leaned his head forward to murmur into her ear as he guided her to the side where pictures were mounted on posters to illustrate Tom’s happier moments. He kept his arm around her waist as he pointed to pictures as if she could actually see them through her tears, buying her time to get her emotions under control before she had to face anyone else.

Emma was suddenly at her other side and she rubbed Alexandra’s arm and shoulder, providing a second barrier to prying eyes. They stood quietly for a while as the conversations picked back up again. Many of the people talked louder than usual so that she would hear the disapproval in their voices aimed at her for her behavior.

“Don’t listen to them, honey,” Emma said quietly. “You did what Tom would have appreciated the most. You honored the times you shared with him with a personal gesture that was sweet and touching. He’ll be happy to take that scarf with him.”

Alexandra blew her nose once again and smiled at Emma. “I know. I just didn’t expect it to hit me so hard. But I’ve never had to bury someone I had sex with before. Grandparents, yes. Older aunts and uncles, certainly. But someone who was younger than me? Someone who enjoyed life so much? It’s so unfair.”

“Yes it is,” Dmitri agreed. “But take it from a Russian, life is unfair. It’s filled with misery and pain, and the only escape is to die.”

Alexandra turned to him with a quizzical look on her face.

“Really? That’s how you really think?”

He shrugged. “It’s how I was raised to think. On occasion I have been pleasantly surprised at how delightful life can be.”

She punched his upper arm. “You’d better say something like that, mister!”

Emma pulled at her arm. “There’s Tom’s Mom. You should go talk to her and his brother before the family gloms onto them again to keep them away from us. They’ve been acting like we’re crashing the wake…like we don’t belong here.”

Alexandra took a deep breath and straightened up, moving her shoulders back so that her considerable décolletage was even more pronounced.

“Then let’s give them something to talk about after we’re gone.”

She put some extra swing into her hips as she strode over to pay her respects to Tom’s immediate family.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Taylor,” she said as she approached the sad-eyed older woman.

No one was more surprised than Alexandra when Tom’s mother held out her arms and enfolded her in a hug.

“I know how much Tom enjoyed being with you and the other riders,” she said loudly, as if ensuring the eavesdroppers would hear as well. “He used to talk about how happy he was when you would go on long trips together, or even just up to your family’s place. He thought a lot of you, Alexandra. I’m glad he had such good friends in his life.”

Alexandra felt the huge lump in her throat again, but spoke around it. “I’ll never forget him, Mrs. Taylor. He had a way of smiling that made you really believe that wherever we were, was the best place to be. And when the sun played with his sandy hair, it looked like corn silk. He was great fun to be around. He’ll be missed.”

Tom’s mother let her go and her eyes had the same unshed tears that Alexandra’s were holding. They nodded at each other and Alexandra turned to embrace Tom’s brother as well. Their hug was quick and casual.

“You don’t ride, do you?” she asked him. He shook his head.

“That’s what Tom said. You never wanted to do the things he did because he was your older brother. But he was really proud of your grades in college. You keep on getting A’s and graduate, and he’ll be right next to you, cheering you on when you get your degree.”

His eyebrows rose. “He talked about me to you guys?”

“Of course he did. He said we were like his second family, but he praised his hard-working Mom who had raised you both after your dad died and he was always bragging about how smart his baby brother was. He was so proud of you.”

“Thanks,” he said. He turned away from her suddenly. She gave him the split second of privacy he needed to pull himself together.

She felt her arm being touched by Dmitri and she reached down to hold his hand as they walked back to where the other bikers stood in a knot off to one side in the back of the room. She looked around, nodding to acknowledge everyone.

“You all heard about Jim, right?” she asked.

There were nods from everyone except Dmitri, who looked puzzled.

“Drive-by shooting Saturday while he was making a delivery in one of the crappy neighborhoods they sent him into,” she explained. “That’s why he’s not here.”

“Neither is Rich,” Steve pointed out.

“He’s not here yet?” Alexandra asked looking around. “He must have gotten stuck working late or in traffic.”

“There he is,” Bob inclined his head towards the main door. Rich walked in and made his way to the coffin. He kneeled in front of it, bowed his head and crossed himself. He got up and looked around and seeing them at the back, strode past all of the people he didn’t know to get to them.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he approached them. “Bad traffic.”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you made it,” Alexandra said. She turned to answer a question from Katie.

Dmitri wasn’t sure but he swore he saw a look of disapproval on the newcomer’s face as he noticed Dmitri still held Alexandra’s hand. Dmitri stared at him and when Rich looked up, the antipathy in his eyes was obvious…but only until Alexandra turned back and it disappeared suddenly.

“Isn’t that the detective investigating Tom’s accident?” Alexandra asked as she looked over Rich’s shoulder. “I wonder what he’s doing here.”

Dmitri let go of her hand. “I’m going downstairs to the bathroom, then maybe outside for a smoke.”

“Okay,” she said as Rich moved to stand closer to her now Dmitri had gone from her side.

“What’s up with him? Spooked by the cop?” he asked conversationally.

Alexandra shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he just has to pee.”

The bikers continued to talk amongst themselves about the two recent losses their gang had experienced. After about a half-hour of chatting idly, they decided they had been there long enough to pay their respects to their comrade. They had already decided they would all ride their Harleys to the funeral in the morning, so they could make a fierce noise as they rode together in the procession.

They began to drift out in pairs, stopping to tell Tom’s family good-bye before they left. Alexandra waited for Dmitri to come back, but eventually the only ones left were Rich and her.

“I think I’ll go out and look for him,” she announced to Rich.

“Maybe he’s gone home already,” he suggested.

“I don’t think so. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Fine.”

She turned and walked up to tell Tom’s mother and brother their plans.

“We’ll ride as a gang in the procession. But none of us will be staying for the luncheon. I’ll have to get back to work. And besides, we don’t want to intrude. The wake and funeral are more public. The luncheon is for family.”

“If you reconsider, you are welcome to come,” Tom’s mother insisted as she hugged Alexandra.

“I’ll keep that in mind. See you in the morning.”

Alexandra decided to check the rooms downstairs to see if Dmitri was there. He wasn’t in the room that held the industrial-sized coffee urn.

Might as well pee before I hit the road.

After she was done, she walked towards the stairs leading up to the chapel. Suddenly Detective Jones was at her side.

“Have you been waiting for me?” she demanded. “It’s like you’re spying on me or something. You don’t suspect me of anything, do you?”

“No. But we had a tip today I thought you should know about.”

She sighed. “Look, I’m really tired. I haven’t had any dinner and I’ll be working late tomorrow to make up for attending the funeral. Can’t this wait?”

“It’ll only take a few minutes. We had an anonymous call come in to the station after you left this afternoon. Some guy said he had seen someone push a dark car into a lake south by Hastings. We sent a guy out there and sure enough there was a car submerged there. No one would have seen it through the weeds, unless they knew to look for it. We had it pulled up and traced it to a rental car place here in St. Paul.”

“Was it the car that hit Tom?”

“It might be. It had some damage that might indicate it was involved in an accident.”

“Did you find out who rented it?”

“We talked to the owner of the place it was rented from. He said a guy rented it from him early on Friday morning. He said the guy insisted on paying cash and used the name Mike Smith on the information forms. He said he didn’t have a license because he had lost it. When the owner balked, he offered to pay an extra c-note so he could still get the car.”

“That all sounds really suspicious to me,” she said. “And I’m not a cop. I’ve just seen things like that on TV and movies. Does he tape his customers?”

“No, that’s just the problem. And the guy had on a leather jacket, a hat, dark sunglasses, and what looked like a fake beard. But there was one thing the rental guy remembered.”

“What?”

“The guy had some kind of an accent. He thought it was Slavic…maybe Russian.”

Alexandra felt all of the color drain out of her face.

“Is there something wrong, Miss Blackstone? Do you know someone with a Russian accent?”

“Yes,” she answered in a whisper. “He…” She cleared her throat and began again, “He joined our gang about four months ago.”

“What can you tell me about him?”

Besides the fact that I’m in love with him? Besides the fact that he’s told me he won’t be happy until he has me to himself? Besides the fact that he’s jealous of all of the men in my gang?

She could feel herself hyper-ventilating while the detective stood and watched her intently. She forced herself to make words come out of her mouth.

“Um, his name is Dmitri.”

“Dmitri what, Miss Blackstone? We need a bit more to go on than a first name.”

Her mind had gone blank.

“I don’t know his last name. Are you going to pick him up?”

“We’d like to talk to him…that’s all. We need to ask him a few questions. Do you know where we can reach him?”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t know where he lives. He used to work as a weeknight bouncer for one of the places we drink at on weekend nights, but he quit that job about two weeks ago.”

“Do you have a phone number we can try?”

Numbly, she nodded and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She scrolled through the numbers and read them in a monotone to the detective as he scribbled them down on a crumpled note pad.

“Thanks, Miss Blackstone.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

“Then good-night.”

“I’ll walk you upstairs. I need to talk to the family of Tom Taylor before I leave.”

As they neared the door to the chapel, Alexandra said, “Bye, Detective Jones.”

“Goodbye. We’ll be in touch. And don’t leave town.”

Alexandra tried not to rush but could feel her heart pounding as she finally reached the door and pushed it open to feel the hot summer air on her face. She was sweating despite the air-conditioning, yet also shivering from the cold.

She looked around and saw that all the bikes were gone. She walked quickly over to her SUV and hit the clicker to open the door. As her hand touched the handle and pulled up, she sensed a presence behind her.

“Are you alright, Alexandra?”

She felt herself trembling.

“I’m fine, Dmitri. Where’d you go? Did you smoke a whole pack out here?”

“No. If you’ll remember, I’m in the process of getting myself a legal identity. But I’m not sure if it would hold up to official scrutiny yet, so I couldn’t take any chances. I didn’t want to answer any questions that detective might have had.”

No! No! No! Not you! No!

She felt rooted to the spot, yet her heart was racing in panic. She was trapped in a nightmare where she needed to move, yet was unable to do so.

“Are you alright,
Sashka
?” He had leaned closer to her and was inhaling the scent of her hair.

“I’m…uh…I’m really tired. I need to be up early tomorrow for the funeral, then I’ll have to change and head to the office and work really late to make up for the missing time. I don’t think you should come back with me tonight. And I think I’ll be too wiped out tomorrow night too.”

He reached a hand forward to caress her neck and with one finger under her chin, he raised her face up to look into her eyes. She tried very hard to project a neutral face, but knew from the look on his face she was failing entirely.

“Alright, my love. You’re under a lot of stress right now. I’ll see you on Wednesday night, then.”