Lisa Jackson's Bentz And Montoya Bundle Part 213

No one was watching him from inside the house.

Or standing behind a magnolia tree outside peering at him.

He let out his breath slowly.

Ignored the sense of panic that gripped him.

For the love of G.o.d, Bentz, pull yourself together!

Was he going completely around the bend?

He knew he'd seen Jennifer, not just a few weeks earlier in this very spot and at the hospital, but other times as well. Once when he was sitting in the front seat of Olivia's truck, waiting while she was taking in the dry cleaning, he'd been certain he had caught a glimpse of her. There was Jennifer, handbag clutched to her chest, hair sc.r.a.ped back in a ponytail, hurriedly crossing the street and disappearing into an alley. He'd gotten out of the truck, hobbled to the entrance of the alley, but had only spied a white cat slinking through a rotted fence while trash cans stood overflowing behind an old garage.

Another time he'd been sure he'd seen her strolling through a park, walking slowly around a fountain as sunlight caught in her hair, firing up the dark strands to a rich auburn. She had turned and looked over her shoulder and a slow, steady smile had stretched across her lips.

Her eyes had twinkled with a catch-me-if-you-can dare. He'd stopped his Jeep, double-parked and, using his cane, followed after her past the fountain only to find that she'd once again vanished.

Then there had been the incident in the woods near his house.

She'd seemed so real.

He was cracking up. That was it. Or hallucinating from the drugs he'd been prescribed. Trouble was, he'd kicked those d.a.m.ned painkillers a month ago.

Long before he'd seen Jennifer standing just off the edge of his veranda.

Or her ghost.

No way.

He didn't believe in ghosts or anything the least bit supernatural or paranormal. He'd even had trouble swallowing his wife's visions at the time a serial killer known as The Chosen One had terrorized New Orleans.

Yet he was certain that he'd seen her.

Really? Then she hadn't aged much in the last twelve years, right? What's up with that? Come on, Bentz, face it, you're losing it.

"h.e.l.l's bells," he muttered under his breath, then took a long swallow before tossing the dregs of his cup into a flowerbed filled with flowers in shades of periwinkle and deep purple.

He was tired of thinking about Jennifer, sick of wondering why his subconscious was so determined to dredge her up again. He'd tried to ignore her. Told himself that he must've just caught glimpses of a woman who resembled her, that because he'd thought he'd seen her during the day, his dreams at night had been haunted by her.

But that didn't explain catching sight of her in the woods the other day. Nor running into an alley or strolling through a park, but here, alone with him in his own backyard. The times he'd caught glimpses of her in public places might have been brushes with someone who looked similar, but the two times he'd seen her alone at the hospital and in the yard had been different-not a play of sunlight and shadow, not easily dismissed.

Was the woman who had been standing in his backyard a figment of his imagination? A product of wishful thinking? Misfiring synapses from an injured brain?

Who knew?

"Get over it."

Whistling to the dog, he walked inside, showered, shaved, and, spying the exercise equipment in the den, promised himself he'd work out in the afternoon. Today he intended to drive into the city, to plead his case with Jaskiel again, get out of the ever-shrinking rooms of this cozy little cottage.

He brought his cane.

Melinda Jaskiel had asked for six more weeks and half that time had slowly pa.s.sed. He didn't think he could wait any longer. He was on his way to try to convince his boss that he was ready to work, at least part-time, but just as he was climbing into his Jeep, ignoring the pain in his leg, his cell phone beeped.

Caller ID said it was Montoya's personal cell.

"Hey," he said into the phone.

"Back atcha. You got a minute?"

Bentz waited a beat. No doubt his once-upon-a-time partner was being a wisea.s.s. "Just one," he said dryly.

"Can you meet me in...say...an hour?" No joking now. Montoya was dead serious.

"At the station."

"No. How about the Cat's Meow?"

"I can be there in half an hour."

"Good." Montoya clicked off and Bentz was left with a gnawing in his gut. Something was up. Was there a rumor circulating that Bentz was going to be forced into retirement? "s.h.i.t," he said and switched on the ignition.

The thought of turning in his badge soured his stomach. He wasn't ready for retirement, d.a.m.n it, and he didn't see himself as a P.I. He threw his SUV into reverse, did a quick turn, and drove down the lane to the county road, where he stepped on it and headed to New Orleans and whatever bad news Montoya had to offer.

The Cat's Meow was a bar off Bourbon Street that, after the hurricane, had been restored to its original lack of splendor. The brick walls, even newly scrubbed, looked as if they might crumble. Wood floors, though refinished, had the patina that comes with overuse and age. Surrealistic pictures of jazz singers hanging over the bar had been retouched to appear as if they'd collected decades' worth of smoke. The end one, of Ella Fitzgerald, was still hung crookedly, as if the owner of the bar prided himself in all things in the world being imperfect.

The air conditioner wheezed loudly, ceiling fans slowly rotated, and smoke drifted upward from tables where groups of patrons huddled over their drinks.

Montoya was waiting for him in a booth with a cup of coffee sitting neglected in front of him. He gave Bentz the once-over as he tried not to wince while sliding in opposite the younger cop.

"What's up?" Bentz asked without preamble, then ordered a sweet tea.

"Got some mail for you."

"You did?" Bentz asked.

"Well, the department did."

Montoya waited for the server to deposit Bentz's drink before reaching into his jacket pocket and withdrawing a manila envelope: Eight-by-ten with Bentz's name written on it in block letters, the address listed as the Homicide Department of the New Orleans Police Department. Across each side was a stamp that p.r.o.nounced the contents: PERSONAL PERSONAL.

The packet hadn't been opened.

"This came today?"

"Mmm." Montoya took a sip of his coffee.

"Scanned?" Meaning for explosives or foreign substances such as anthrax.

"Yeah."

Bentz's eyes narrowed. "By you?"

"That's right. I spotted it in the mailroom, figured it was no one's business but yours, so..." He raised a shoulder.

"You lifted it."

Montoya wiggled a hand beside his head. Maybe yes. Maybe no. "It's postmarked to you. Thought it would be best if you got it before Brinkman or some other j.e.r.k.-.o.f.f. caught a glimpse." He slid a glance at the envelope. "Probably nothin'."

"If you thought that, you wouldn't have bothered."

Again a shrug of one leather-clad shoulder. "You gonna open it?"

"Now?"

"Yeah." Another swallow of coffee.

"So that's it, you're curious."

"Hey, I'm just covering your back."

"Fine." Bentz studied the postmark. It was smudged and the lighting in the bar was too dark to see much. But he had a penlight on his key chain, and as he shined its small beam over the postmark his gut tightened.

The name of the town was unreadable, but he recognized the zip code as the one in which he and Jennifer had lived before her death.

Using a house key, he slit the envelope open and gently tugged the contents within. A single piece of paper and three photographs.

He sucked in his breath.

His heart stilled.

The pictures, complete with dates, were of his first wife, Jennifer.

Dear G.o.d, what was this?

He heard his pulse pounding in his brain. First the "sightings" and now this?

"Is that-?"

"Yeah." The photographs were clear and crisp. In color. Jennifer walking across a busy street. Jennifer sliding into a light-colored car, make and model undetermined. Jennifer sitting at a tall cafe table in a coffee shop. The last picture was taken from the street, her image captured through the window of the shop. In front of the window was a sidewalk with pedestrians pa.s.sing by and portions of two newspaper boxes in the foreground. He recognized one as USA Today USA Today, and the other the L.A. Times L.A. Times.

Narrowing his eyes, Bentz looked for a reflection of the photographer in the large window, but saw none.

This was nuts.

"Old pictures?" Montoya asked.

"Not if the dates from the camera are right."

"Those can be changed."

"I know."

"And with Photoshopping and image altering and airbrushing, pictures can be made to look like anything someone wants them to. Other people's heads on someone else's body."

Bentz looked up from the disturbing photos. "But why?"

"Someone just f.u.c.kin' with ya."

"Maybe." He turned his attention to the doc.u.ment and his jaw grew hard as granite. The single page was a copy of Jennifer's death certificate. Scrawled across the neatly typed doc.u.ment was a bright red question mark.

"What the h.e.l.l is this?" Montoya asked.

Bentz stared at the mutilated certificate. "A sick way of telling me that my first wife might not be dead."

Montoya waited a beat, watching the expression on his partner's face. "You're kidding. Right?"

"Does this look like a joke to you?" Bentz asked, pointing at the death certificate and scattered pictures."

"You think this is Jennifer? Nah!" Then eyeing his ex-partner, "You're messing with me, right?"

Bentz filled Montoya in. Until this point only his kid, who had been in his hospital room at the time he'd awoken from his coma, had any idea that Bentz had seen his first wife. Kristi had dismissed his vision of Jennifer as the result of his coma and too much medication. After that first sighting, he'd kept his mouth shut and his daughter, caught up in preparing for her wedding, hadn't brought up the subject again.

"Wait a second," Montoya said when Bentz paused to take a drink. "You're saying you believe she might actually be alive?"

"I don't know what to believe."

"Otherwise you're chasing a ghost."

Bentz scowled. Felt the heat of Montoya's stare. "I'm not chasing a ghost."

"Then?"

"And I'm not going out of my mind."

"Which leaves...what? You believe that someone's dressing up to look like your ex and then gaslighting you? Is that what you're thinking, that you're caught up in some kind of weird scenario straight out of a Hitchc.o.c.k movie?"

"As I said, I don't know what to believe."

"You tell this to Olivia?"

"No." He looked away. "Not yet."

"Afraid she might have you committed?" One of Montoya's dark eyebrows raised as he finished his coffee.

"Nah, just that she wouldn't understand."