In her bed Steers continued to stare at the ceiling.
CHAPTER
72
THEY WENT TO A DRIVE-THROUGHfor breakfast and then got back on the road. The news was now full of the slaughter at Steers’s estate, and speculation was rampant about the missing owner.
Had she killed everyone? the news media wondered. Or was it enemies of Victoria Steers, a woman who was allegedly involved in criminal activity?
There was, as yet, no word about the identities of the victims, so the fate of Masuyo was unknown. There was also a side story about another woman presumably missing from the household based on a search of the premises.
This must be Hiroko, thought Nash. Steers had ordered her room to remain intact. The search apparently was on for her, too. And Nash wondered if the search for her would end at her grave in the woods.
Where Steers and I buried her.
The miles flew by. They spent one more night at a motel off the interstate, where they awkwardly had to share a bed.
They each had turned in opposite directions, but the bed was small and Nash was closer to her than he wanted to be. He could smell the shampoo she had used during her shower. He was starting to feel things that were making him sick. He finally put his hand over his nose to cut off the scent.
For her part Steers kept her eyes shut tightly and her body rigid, careful not to move in case she ended up touching him.
The following day they arrived in New Orleans. Steers’s house was in the Garden District behind a high wall. She gave Nash the code to input at the gate and they drove through and into the front courtyard.
Nash parked the car in one of the garage bays after Steers keyed in the code. Steers used a biometric reader to open the door leading from the garage into the house. The alarm started to beep and she quickly disengaged it at the pad just inside the door.
As they walked through the home Nash saw that the rooms were spacious and luxurious, and everything was clean and well tended to.
“I have people who come in each week,” she explained. “But they will not come while we are here.”
“Have they seen you on previous trips?” Nash asked.
“No. That would defeat the purpose of a safe house of last resort. I used a shell company on the deed.”
Nash made some coffee for himself and tea for her. She drank hers in her room while Nash sat in the kitchen nook. He had emailed Morris and had just received back an astonishing reply.
We have taken over the investigation from the police. A man named Thura survived. He is badly wounded and they’re not sure he will pull through. But he managed to tell the cops that he called you and told you what happened, so you and Steers are in the clear, for now, at least on these killings. Masuyo is not among the dead. I know what happened to Hiroko, since you told me about it, so we won’t be pursuing that.
Nash emailed him back, telling Morris it seemed likely that with the sale of her business to Lord complete they had decided to kill her. He ended by asking Morris to thank Thura for warning him and that he hoped to hell his friend pulled through.
Nash sat back and sipped his coffee, his eyes and his nerves tired and frayed, respectively. His mind was going so fast it was hard to concentrate on any one thing. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice Steers standing in the kitchen doorway until she spoke.
“Do you have news from your ‘friends’?” She eyed the phone in front of him.
He glanced over to see that she was wearing a white nightgown, her hair was pinned up, and she was barefoot. Her face was flushed and he thought that she might have been crying.
“Thura survived but he’s in bad shape. He was able to tell them what had happened, so the FBI doesn’t think we’re involved. Your mother was not among the dead.”
She sat in a chair opposite him. “I am glad Thura is alive.”
“For now,” Nash said. “Maybe if I’d been there things would have turned out differently.”
“Only in that you and I would be dead,” said Steers.
“You’re probably right, but. . .I should have been there.”
“I ordered you elsewhere. Do not waste time feeling guilty.”
“I choose towastetime feeling human,” he countered heatedly.